Punta Sur was by far my favorite place to visit in all of Cozumel. There was so much to do there including observing wildlife in the lagoon, climbing the lighthouse tower for epic coastal views, and snorkeling not one but two epic locations!
That’s right. In this post, I share two amazing snorkel experiences inside Punta Sur Eco Beach Park. One requires some swimming endurance and the other requires a short hike. Both are worth the extra effort to get there and you’ll save so much money not having to pay for a tour boat trip.
On top of it, you’ll get to indulge in the other amenities and experiences the park has to offer. If you have a scooter and your own snorkel gear and snacks, you’ll only spend about $20 and you can make a full day of it.
Getting To Punta Sur
Punta Sur Eco Beach park is on the South side of Cozumel about 30 minutes drive from San Miguel. In the morning of New Years Eve, we traveled by scooter (~$17 daily) only stopping for breakfast along the way.
The entrance to Punta Sur (or “South Point”) takes a fee to let in each car. It was an $18 tourist fee the day before the new year but $19 the day after—up $1 for 2024. Locals don’t have to pay as much if they can prove residency or have a local ID.
From the entrance, we had another 20-minute drive or so until we made it to the beach but the views along the way were absolutely stunning! We drove along a bumpy dirt road right on the edge of the coastline.
The turquoise water was blowing in toward the sandy, rocky shore touched by bright green vegetation. The bright sun glistened off the waves and the blue sky was sprinkled with puffy white clouds. I could have driven this happily for hours!
Columbia Lagoon Viewpoint
We were about to discover all that Punta Sur has to explore beyond just a beach and snorkeling. Punta Sur is a protected area made up of 247 acres of land and sea ecosystems. This includes a giant mangrove lagoon and plenty of Mayan ruins!
El Caracol (the Snail) is an archaeological site featuring a late Post-Classic building that was possibly a shrine, used as a traffic control point for traders, or something else. Archaeologists are unsure!
These ruins are across the street from the entrance to the Lagoon. The Lagoon has a boardwalk over the water leading out to a watchtower. This area reminded me a lot of the Florida Everglades.
The only difference from the Everglades was this lagoon did not have alligators—it had crocodiles!
Do you know the telltale differences between the two? Alligators have U-shaped snouts and don’t show their bottom teeth when their mouths are shut. Crocodiles have V-shaped snouts and typically reveal at least one big snaggly bottom tooth when their mouths are shut!
We could see a lot from up in the tower. The views were awesome, including beautiful pink flamingos in the distance!
I’d highly recommending stopping to check out this spot before continuing on. Or, if you want an even more intimate experience, there are lagoon boat tour rides that can be caught near the beach clubs.
Before we would get to the beach, however, there was still one more stop to make. We could see it calling to us in the distance from the lagoon tower.
Celarain Lighthouse Viewpoint
The lighthouse at Punta Sur was built in 1900. You can take a tour here or just explore the grounds and up the tower on your own.
There’s plenty of wildlife to view in the area including iguanas, raccoons, coati, birds, and more!
There’s also Mayan ruins strewn around the lighthouse grounds. This made for some beautiful ocean shots of the ruins. I loved how they looked against the blue water backdrop!
The lighthouse museum includes information about shipwrecks, navigation tools, the lighthouse keepers, and much more about Cozumel’s nautical navigation and maritime history.
Very narrow, twisting stairs lead up to the top of the 30-meter tall lighthouse. To get out onto the platform, you have to crawl through a little door! Creg demonstrated beautifully! :)
The views were amazing and there was even a little New Years message to see written in to the sand below.
Watch your step! The way back down was very dizzying and steep!
Punta Sur Beach
After the lighthouse, another 10-minute scooter ride took us to the end of the road where there are two main beach clubs: Anemona de Mar Beach Club and Del Cielo Beach Club. Creg and I went to the farthest one, Del Cielo.
This club had many lounge chairs, a couple of bars, cabanas with tables you could sit under, restrooms and changing facilities with outdoor showers, snorkel gear for rent, jet skis for rent and more. We were able to rent a snorkel, mask and fins for Creg for about $10 USD.
We discovered the lounge chairs are free to use if ordering food or drink. That wasn’t a problem! After our snorkel, we were very thirsty—a drink was definitely in order! We shared a frozen strawberry margarita.
Deep Reef Snorkel
I researched in advance to see where the reef would be best and safest to view. Everything I read explained that we would need to swim straight out from the beach to get to the reef. It would be passed the sandy part and then we’d need to keep going until we see it. There was no other explanation!
Straight out from the beach at Del Cielo Beach Club is the open Caribbean sea. The current was pushing from the South along the coastline. This meant we needed to swim out at an angle from the beach so we didn’t get pushed along before even reaching the reef.
Without any fins and only masks, Creg and I headed out. After the sandy part where most of the beach goers were swimming, we hit an expansive seagrass area. The visibility was good, about 50+ feet, but there was no reef in sight yet!
The reef came into view after about 15 minutes of swimming. The below photo that Creg took shows me swimming between it and the seagrass. You haven’t reached the reef until you see this view!
Finally at the reef, the visibility was better than ever! We could easily see 100 feet ahead. The reef was a long narrow strip, about 35 feet at its widest parts. There were tons of brightly colored hard and soft corals. The big magenta sea fans were my favorite!
The reef was teeming with fish, moray eels, lobsters, rays, and giant orange starfish. These were some of my best photos but I took many more. Unfortunately, not long after this snorkel, my camera officially died. As in, no more working camera for the rest of the trip! Ugh!
But I was glad I got these few photos uploaded to my phone before it stopped working.
We were able to easily drift along, allowing the current to take us as we watched the scenery below pass by.
We floated a long way down the coastline and were now reaching our endurance limit. So we turned in toward the shore and made our way steadily back to the sandy beach. A wind had picked up now and it was a bit chilly to walk back while wet—so we walked back while staying submerged in the water.
You can see in the map below the yellow arrows marking the exact path we took to view the reef:
El Cielo Sandbar Access
If Creg and I had kept going around the coast to the North, we would have hit a huge tourist attraction called El Cielo Sandbar (the Sky Sandbar). Tours run from the San Miguel ports or other resorts for a minimum of $65 (plus tip) for a half day. This usually includes snorkel gear, lunch, water, and the boat ride there and back. Other tours cost much more.
People love this sandbar experience because of the rays and starfish you’ll see against bright, white, rippling sand and crystal clear turquoise-colored water. The photos you can get are amazing!
From the ports at San Miguel, you can ask to join a tour directly and negotiate a cost with the locals. I was able to get them down to about $35 but I decided not to take it. Instead, I decided to return to Punta Sur on my own and try to get to the spot independently.
I paid the fee to get into Punta Sur again—worth it to me even if I didn’t find access to El Cielo. I went back to Del Cielo Beach Club and began my hike to get to El Cielo Sandbar.
I was walking the beach right along where Creg and I snorkeled on New Years Eve. This time, I’d walk about 20 minutes all the way out and then around the tip to the other side.
I was able to walk in my sandals most of the way. At the corner, the tide was coming in right up onto the beach. Walking in the water was necessary there. Right after that, the beach became covered in dead sea weed that was crunchy and not the most comfortable under bare feet. Again, I was glad to have shoes and would definitely recommend water shoes for this whole hike!
I eventually walked up to an area where water was dumping from the lagoon into the ocean. Oh boy! Would I meet any crocodiles here? I imagine there may be some interesting lagoon animals coming out of the mouth of this river but I was lucky not to encounter any this time!
Instead, all I bumped into was a nice pelican keeping watch.
After only about a 30-minute hike in total, I found a sandy spot near where lots of boats were parked out from the shore. I put my stuff down and left my outer layer with my stuff. There was nobody here to take anything, just two other other travelers doing the same thing as me.
People were standing on what seemed to be the sandbar out just a few feet from the beach. I would need to navigate some sea grass to get out there.
I found a part in the seagrass and walked my way right out to where all the sailboat tours were lined up. At this time, I didn’t have a working underwater camera, but I was able to snorkel around a bit on my own and enjoy the crystal clear water and bright white beneath my feet.
I did have a waterproof cover for my phone, however, so I got a few sneaky photos with it!
At one point, a spotted eagle ray came right by me as I stood on the sandbar. It glided through, slow and majestic just like Mr. Ray in Finding Nemo. I don’t have photos to prove it but you’ll just have to take my word for it—it was pretty awesome!
I had a great self-guided, solo experience at El Cielo sandbar. Was it as luxurious as taking a tour boat there? Maybe not. But it was definitely fun seeing if I could access the spot on my own and for only the cost of the Punta Sur entrance fee!
In Conclusion
Overall, Punta Sur did not disappoint. Getting two self-guided snorkel experiences plus so many more activities and views out of this park was worth every penny of the entrance fee. Both are totally accessible on your own with just a little bit of navigation and endurance.
