The appeal of staying put
The hardest thing about Casa Chanty is leaving the villa. The beach is right there. The pool is right there. The kitchen is right there. The temptation to never put on shoes is real, and I have given in to it more than once.
But the Riviera Maya is a region stacked with world-class experiences, and Casa Chanty sits almost exactly in the middle of it. Anything you want to do — climb a Mayan pyramid, swim in a cenote, snorkel with turtles, eat tacos by the water — is between twenty minutes and two and a half hours away. The villa makes a perfect base for a week of day trips, with a quiet home to return to each evening.
Here are the seven that I think are worth the drive, in no particular order. Plan for at least one rest day in the middle of the week — your legs and your liver will thank you.
1. Tulum ruins — 90 minutes south
The Tulum archaeological site is the most photogenic in the Riviera Maya, and arguably in all of Mexico. A compact walled Mayan city perched on a cliff forty feet above a sugar-white beach, with the Caribbean stretching out turquoise and endless beyond. The fifteenth-century temples — most famously El Castillo — are small by Chichén Itzá standards, but the setting is unbeatable.
Arrive at 8am when the gates open. By 10am the tour buses have arrived and the place turns into a zoo. Two hours is plenty of time. Bring water, a hat, reef-safe sunscreen, and good shoes — the paths are uneven and there’s no shade.
Afterward, drive ten minutes into Tulum Pueblo for a long, slow lunch. The restaurant scene here is, in my opinion, overhyped and overpriced, but Hartwood and Taqueria Honorio are the genuine articles. Avoid the beach-club restaurants unless you’ve budgeted $100+ per person and don’t mind the scene.
2. Cobá — 2 hours southwest
Cobá is what Tulum was twenty years ago, before Instagram. A vast, jungle-swallowed ruin complex with the steepest climbable pyramid in the Yucatán — Nohoch Mul, at 42 metres, the view from the top is genuinely dizzying, and you’ll feel every metre in your thighs on the way down.
The site is spread out, so rent a bike at the entrance (about $5 USD) or hire a bicycle taxi to get between the main groups of structures. The main ball court and the Iglesia group are worth a stop. The lake in the middle of the complex is beautiful and quiet, and the resident coatis (small Mexican raccoons) will probably try to steal your snacks.
Combine Cobá with a cenote visit on the way back. Cenote Tamcach-Ha and Choo-Ha are both within ten minutes of the site entrance — the first is open-air and good for swimming, the second is cave-ceiling and more atmospheric. Take a towel. You’ll be grateful.
3. Chichén Itzá — 2.5 hours west
The big one. New Wonder of the World. The pyramid on every brochure.
Yes, it’s touristy. Yes, the vendors are relentless. But Chichén Itzá genuinely lives up to the hype, and if you do it right, you can have a near-spiritual experience in one of the most important archaeological sites in the Americas.
Arrive at 8am. Hire a guide at the entrance (about $50 USD for a small group) — they make an enormous difference, pointing out details you’d never spot on your own: the snake-shadow that climbs the pyramid at the equinoxes, the acoustic wonders of the Great Ball Court (a single clap at one end produces nine distinct echoes), the meaning of the serpent columns at the Temple of a Thousand Warriors.
Plan for three hours on site, then drive twenty minutes to either Cenote Ik Kil (the famous open one with vines hanging down) or Cenote Suytun (the Instagram favourite with the stone platform in a beam of light). Both are stunning and both have good food and facilities. Lunch by the cenote is a perfect way to decompress from the crowds at the ruins.
4. Cozumel — 45 min drive + 45 min ferry
The island of Cozumel is one of the world’s top diving and snorkelling destinations, and for good reason. The Mesoamerican Reef runs along its western coast — Palancar Reef and the Santa Rosa Wall are bucket-list dives, with visibility that routinely hits thirty metres and marine life you’d otherwise need a plane ticket to see.
If you’re not a diver, snorkel excursions to Palancar and Colombia reefs depart from most beach clubs and leave you with a snorkel and a guide for about $80 USD. The water is calm, the coral is dramatic, and you’ll almost certainly see sea turtles.
For the non-aquatic, rent a jeep and drive the wild east side of the island. The beaches on the windward side are deserted and rough — not swimmable, but gorgeous for a long walk. Punta Sur Eco Beach Park at the southern tip has a lighthouse, a small Mayan ruin, and excellent bird-watching. Lunch in San Miguel town afterward — the waterfront has dozens of casual seafood spots, and the prices are about half what you’d pay on the mainland.
5. Isla Mujeres — 60 min drive + 30 min ferry
Isla Mujeres is a small island eight kilometres off the coast of Cancún. It’s been touristy for decades, but in a low-key, family-friendly way that has aged well. The main settlement is walkable. The beaches are better than Cancún’s. The pace is slower.
The Ultramar ferry from Puerto Juárez (on the Cancún side) runs every thirty minutes and takes about half an hour. Once on the island, rent a golf cart — the most charming transportation in Mexico — and circle the island in two or three hours. The northern tip (Punta Sur) has dramatic cliffs, a small Mayan temple, and the best view in the region. The eastern cliffs at Garrafón are the place to snorkel or just stare at the water.
End the day with a sunset drink on Playa Norte, where the water is shallow and warm enough to sit in while you nurse a margarita. It’s as close to a perfect afternoon as you’ll find, and you’ll wonder why you ever considered a pool-bar holiday when you could have had this.
6. Akumal — 25 minutes south
Akumal is famous for one thing: sea turtles. The bay is home to a resident population of green sea turtles that graze on the seagrass beds just a few metres from the shore. With a mask and snorkel, you can swim with them — respectfully, at a distance, with reef-safe sunscreen — in their natural habitat.
Get there early. By 10am the snorkel tours from the cruise ships start arriving and the bay gets busy. The water is usually calmest in the morning. Bring your own gear if you can; the rental sets at the beach are well-used and the masks rarely seal properly.
There’s a small lagoon (Yal-Ku) just north of the main bay that combines fresh and saltwater and is full of smaller fish — better for kids or first-time snorkellers. The entrance fee is nominal and includes a basic snorkel set. The resident barracuda hangs out near the entrance; he’s harmless but a little startling on the first sighting.
A note on turtle etiquette: do not touch them. Do not chase them. Do not stand on the seagrass. The bay is a protected area, and the local conservation team is strict. Keep your distance, watch them glide, and you’ll have a memory that lasts.
7. Puerto Morelos — 6 minutes north
The closest day trip to Casa Chanty, and often the most underrated. Puerto Morelos is what Playa del Carmen was before the cruise ships arrived: a small fishing town with a low-key plaza, a leaning lighthouse, and a reef that starts about a hundred metres from the beach.
Snorkelling right off the town beach is excellent — the reef is closer to shore here than anywhere else on the coast, and the marine life is dense. Several local guides offer paid tours (about $40 USD) that include gear and a half-day on the water. For independent snorkellers, head to the south end of the beach, where the reef runs closest, and bring your own mask.
When you’re done, walk two blocks inland to the main square for a long lunch under the trees. There’s a weekly farmers’ market on Mondays and Fridays with local honey, hot sauce, and embroidered textiles. And the Jardín Botánico Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marín, a sixty-five-hectare botanical garden run by a university research team, is a ten-minute drive inland and well worth a slow morning if you’re into plants, birds, or quiet.
Bonus: the cenote circuit
The Yucatán peninsula is a slab of porous limestone, and the result is a Swiss-cheese network of underground rivers and collapsed caves known locally as cenotes. There are thousands of them, and at least a dozen within an hour of Casa Chanty. Each one is different — some are wide open and jungle-surrounded (great for first-timers), some are deep caverns with stalactites (more atmospheric, more dramatic), some are open-water sinkholes perfect for a long swim.
I’ve written a more detailed cenote guide separately, but the short version: pick one a day, go in the morning before the tour buses arrive, and bring a towel and a sense of wonder. Most of the famous ones (Ik Kil, Suytun, Dos Ojos, Samulá) have basic facilities, food, and gear rental on site. The less-famous ones are usually free and have nobody else there. The best of the off-the-beaten-path ones, in my opinion, is Cenote Calavera — a small, deep sinkhole just outside Tulum, with a wooden ladder down to a platform and nothing but you, the water, and the sunbeams.
One rest day, minimum
The temptation, with all this on the doorstep, is to pack the schedule. Don’t. Spend at least one full day at the villa, doing nothing. Read a book under the palapa. Watch the fishermen pole their boats across the lagoon in the early morning. Cook a long lunch with produce from the local market. Take a nap in the hammock. The day trips will be more enjoyable for it, and you’ll come back from your holiday actually rested, which is, after all, the whole point.