World-class diving on the Mayan Riviera

The reefs off Xcalak village in the far south of the Riviera Maya are far less-visited than in the busy north, which means better coral and fewer boats. Alejandro’s is an easy horseshoe-shaped reef with great coral and abundant morays – which are hard to see in the north.

Good for snorkelling or diving (without specialist cave-diving certification), Angelita has an eerie gas cloud in its depths – looking like mist in the water, with a web of submerged trees and stalactites jutting-out, and the occasional crocodile.

This is one of the few cenotes with stalactite-filled caverns you can scuba dive without specialist certification; and it’s easy to reach, just 20-minutes south of Playa del Carmen. There’s plenty of light, spots to surface to air and two huge submerged rooms.

These twin cenotes are spectacular: marking the entrance to one of the longest underground rivers in the world – filled with water as clear as ocean air, passing through submerged caverns covered with spectacular cave formations and teeming with strange cave fish, crustaceans and bats. The cenotes are a premium cave-diving location and were used as locations for The Cave movie and the BBC’s Planet Earth documentary.

You don’t need to be a cave diver to visit. Some of the most beautiful caverns are accessible to snorkellers. PADI open water divers can go further and designated cave divers can explore the deeper caverns. Any diving requires advanced booking.

Usually dived in conjunction with the adjacent Punta Sur, the Colombia Deep is an intermediate to advanced coral wall dropping to over 30 metres. It’s great for pictures. The coral is some of the Riviera Maya’s healthiest, with black coral, beautiful deepwater fans and huge barrel sponges. Turtles are common, sharks occasional.

Like great whites and tiger sharks, bull sharks have a fearsome reputation. Getting within metres of these apex predators on a carefully controlled dive is astonishing: and in the clear, calm waters off Playa del Carmen, it’s as safe as any such encounter can be.

While bull sharks are present along the Riviera Maya all year round, dives are possible only October through March, when the more placid females enter shallower waters right off the mainland.

To dive you will need an Advanced Open Water Certification. Choose a responsible dive shop, who don’t use bait – which can be dangerous, and who follow strict distance regulations.

Plunging coral walls dropping into inky deep, reefs cut with caves and swim-throughs, coral gardens encrusted with huge barrel sponges – Cozumel Islands Palancar reefs have been a top dive site since Cousteau came here in the 1960s. Most dives are drift dives in strong currents, with average depths at 7m dropping to a maximum 38m.

With huge caverns, long tunnel swim-throughs, and a good chance of seeing turtles and eagle rays, Punta Sur is one of Cozumel’s most vaunted dive sites. But strong currents and depths over 30 metres means it’s for advanced divers only.

Between May and September, the world’s largest fish visits Riviera Maya waters to feed on the large upswells of plankton from the Gulf of Mexico. Snorkelling with them is an astonishing experience, and takes place in open sea. These giant filter feeders, which can reach over 12 metres are astonishingly well-camouflaged – almost invisible in the inky blue until they are almost next to you, then gently swaying past and back into the depths.

Numerous tour operators in Cancun and Playa del Carmen offer snorkelling and diving trips which usually include reef snorkels and lunch.

With plenty of sites for beginners and intermediates, Tormentos is one of Cozumel’s most popular sites. It’s a drift dive, in a strong current, past a spectacular reef wall. Nurse sharks, groupers, turtles, and barracudas are common plus big schools of snappers.

The Mayan Riviera is one of the few places in the world where you can get close to a giant American crocodile and live to tell the tale. And as croc encounters take place in glass-clear water you’ll get some great pictures to prove it.

These are generally three day, two-night trips, leaving from the tiny southern Riviera town of Xcalak and travelling out to the remote Banco Chinchorro atoll biosphere reserve. The atoll’s eel grass-filled lagoon is home to the largest numbers of American Crocodiles on the planet. Overnight stays are in primitive fisherman’s stilt huts over the water with the crocs swimming around below.

As well as crocodiles, Banco Chinchorro offers a high chance of encounters with manatees, prolific fish life (including big tarpon) and astonishing stars. There are plenty of opportunities to snorkel over pristine reefs en-route, and you’ll catch invasive lionfish, which are used to feed the crocs. Some trips include optional scuba diving.

Swims with the reptiles are in clear water around a metre deep and a safety diver accompanies at all times armed with a big stick. According to local tour operators at least, the reptiles have too much food to bother with anything larger than a fish.