Cozumel is a well know destination for most travellers and tourist from all over the world. Every week dozens of cruise ships arrive and passengers go out and about downtown San Miguel de Cozumel and take a chance to snorkel around by the calm sea of the west side of the island. But little people know about the treasures that can be found in the rest of the island which is why during a recent trip with Cancun and Riviera Maya experts we got the chance to do a little road trip and gather this Top 3 Off the Beaten Path Places for you to go in Cozumel.

View from the car ferry pier in Cozumel

  1. Driving through “The Other Side”.

Knowing that we would go further than where the average tours go, we decided to travel in style and went for a Jeep 4×4 Island Expedition for our road trip across Cozumel. This was a great way to get to places where in a regular car would have been a little bit more difficult and a less fun. After having a delicious breakfast we were off to the east side of the island. What you will find there is just rugged beauty. Punta Maroma, Punta Morena and Playa Paraiso are among the beaches and beach clubs that you will find along the coastal road where each and everyone of them has unique features and activities for their guests. In Punta Maroma they have “Nude Beach” spot for example and its a well known place for turtles to come by and lay their eggs. At Punta Morena you can take surf lessons or just enjoy a cold beverage and Playa Mirador has these stone arches that add an extra appeal to the beach and even if their are less grand than those landmark arches in Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta they sure have nothing to envy them.

4×4 are great for road tripping in Cozumel

  1. Punta Sur Eco-Beach Park.

Punta Sur is the larger ecological reserve in the island. Located in the southern end its a magical place where you can find up to 6 different ecosystems with their own features. Driving the jeep here was a lot of fun since the roads and paths are very rustic, by the road we found a couple of remaining constructions from the mayan era called “El Caracol” and just accross them the Scenic Tower and Observation Deck of the Colombia Lagoon are located. We made a spot here because we wanted to look around for birds and crocodiles. A little known fact about the crocodiles that live in this reserve is that they belong to a crocodile species from South American and no one knows how the got there, helping evolution do their work because these crocs are smaller than their southamerican brothers. Further south we got to Celarain Lighthouse and the Navigation Museum; please you have to climb up the top of the lighthouse and just enjoy the views which are simply AMAZING. Driving a little more we got to Chakanhaab beach and could cath the sunset, that was just gorgeous. In this reserve there are different educational ativities and tours such as kayaking, boat trip on the lagoon to find crocodiles, turtle releases and more.

Cozumel´s Punta Sur Park sightings

  1. Cozumel Pearl Farm.

At the north end of the island and only reachable by boat, this a “new” place in the island. Run by a super nice family, brother and sister Pancho and Isabel will make your day. This family originally moved from Mexico City in the late 90s and started a research project of cultured pearls in oysters that are native of the island. With a lot of hardwork and inconveniences they made it through and now Cozumel Pearl Farm is open to the public. After a 30 minute boat trip we got to their facilities: a super relaxed palapa, hammocks, a huge table and their laboratories. Isabel kindly guided us around and told us about the history of the project and then took us to the oyster “fields” underwater. Some quick snorkel around and then headed back to the wetbar (a huge umbrella placed in the middle of a sand bank) where we enjoyed cold beers and chatted about what we had just seen while snorkeling. Later in the afternoon we went back to the palapa and had a delicious lunch and could relax some more and before sunset we were back in San Miguel de Cozumel.

Cozumel Pearl Farm sightings

What we just loved about our weekend besides hanging out with our friends and colleagues was to be able to go on a road trip to Cozumel and explore it from one end to the other, discovering new places and attractions that are very underrated and pretty much exclusive in a way, since little people know about it. We hope that us sharing our adventure in Cozumel will make more people get off the cruiseships and explore this amazing place; trust us, you will never regret it!

 

 

Marhuanta Barreto