7 Days in the Riviera Maya: A North to South Route

Seven days is enough to do the Riviera Maya as a route rather than a base with day trips. This itinerary is a north to south sweep with one hotel change: three nights in Playa del Carmen for the reef and the one long inland day, then four nights in Tulum for the cenotes, the jungle ruins and the wild south. It is not the five day plan with two days bolted on. It is built around what a shorter trip cannot reach: Cozumel, Cobá, Sian Ka’an and, on the last day, the lagoon at Bacalar.

This is an independent, tour based itinerary, not a resort week. For where to stay in each town see the where to stay guide, and for dates see the best time to visit guide.

How the week is shaped

The logic is the same as our other itineraries: start easy while your body adjusts, put the hardest day in the middle, and end on something that asks nothing of an early alarm. Days one and two stay near Playa del Carmen. Day three is the single long inland day, done while you are still fresh. Day four moves you south to Tulum with a stop on the way, so the transfer is not a wasted day. Days five and six work out of Tulum. Day seven is the long optional push to Bacalar, or a slow morning if you would rather not spend it in the car. If you only want one base for the whole week, Playa del Carmen works for all seven days with longer drives on the Tulum end; the split simply shortens days five and six.

Day 1: Land, settle in Playa del Carmen

Most people fly into Cancún and transfer about 50 minutes south to Playa del Carmen. Keep the day open: check in, unpack properly rather than living out of a bag for a week, and let the afternoon be a nap, a first swim, or a slow walk down Fifth Avenue to find where you want to eat. If your flight lands early and you have energy, the beach in front of the Centro or a sunset drink is plenty. Nothing is booked today on purpose, because day three needs you rested and day one is where you bank that.

Book a private transfer or the ADO bus in advance rather than negotiating a taxi on arrival. A private car runs 75 to 110 dollars for the group; the ADO bus is about 12 to 15 dollars each and leaves every 30 to 60 minutes from just outside arrivals.

Day 2: Cozumel, reef day

The passenger ferry from Playa del Carmen reaches Cozumel in about 45 minutes, and the island holds the best reef snorkelling and diving on this coast, part of the second largest barrier reef system in the world. A snorkel tour visits shallow gardens like Palancar and El Cielo, a starfish flat named for the sea stars scattered across white sand in waist deep water, with turtles and rays common. Certified divers can do a two tank morning on the drift walls for around 110 dollars and still be back for an afternoon.

This day is here because the five day itinerary never leaves the mainland, and Cozumel is the clearest water and the healthiest reef within reach. Take an early ferry, do the water in the cooler morning, and leave time for lunch in San Miguel or a beach club on the way back. Back in Playa del Carmen by evening.

Day 3: Chichén Itzá, a cenote and Valladolid

The one long inland day, and it belongs in the middle of the week. Pickup from Playa del Carmen usually runs before seven to cover the roughly two hour drive and reach Chichén Itzá near its eight o’clock opening, ahead of the heat and the buses. It is eleven to twelve hours door to door once you add a swim at a nearby cenote to survive the afternoon and a walk through colonial Valladolid, built in 1545 on the Maya town of Zací, on the way back.

This is the trip’s single most demanding day, which is why two lighter days come first and three gentler ones follow. Our complete guide to Chichén Itzá covers the equinox shadow on the Kukulcán staircase, the ball court acoustics and the Sacred Cenote in the detail a full day tour cannot. If a pre dawn alarm is a dealbreaker, most operators run a later departure that reaches the site mid morning for more heat and more crowds; the rest of the week is unaffected.

Day 4: South to Tulum, with a cenote stop

Check out of Playa del Carmen and move to Tulum, about an hour south, but do not let it be a lost day. The road between them is lined with cenotes, so break the drive: an underground river float, or the open pools of the Ruta de los Cenotes near Puerto Morelos, or a guided trip through the caverns and rivers of a private reserve. Arrive in Tulum by early afternoon, settle into the new base, and spend the evening in the pueblo or on the beach road.

Rio Secreto style cavern reserves are the more structured option, with wetsuits, helmets and a guide; our guide to Rio Secreto explains what the walk and swim through a semi flooded cave actually feels like. The open roadside cenotes are cheaper and self guided but busier.

Day 5: Tulum ruins early, then Cobá

From a Tulum base, day five is two Maya sites without a long drive. Start at the Tulum ruins at opening, before the heat and the tour buses; the clifftop walk takes under two hours and the site is small. Then head inland about 45 minutes to Cobá, a Late Classic city still half swallowed by jungle, where you move between structures by rented bike over dirt paths. The centrepiece is Nohoch Mul, at 42 meters the tallest climbable pyramid in the Yucatán, and most tours fold in a cenote and Punta Laguna, a reserve known for spider monkeys.

Cobá is the day the five day itinerary has no room for, and it is a genuinely different kind of ruin from the polished plazas of Chichén Itzá. Our full guide to Cobá covers the sacbeob, the raised stone causeways that ran for dozens of kilometers through the jungle.

Day 6: Sian Ka’an biosphere

Sian Ka’an starts just south of Tulum, so there is no long highway drive to begin the day. The reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the best preserved ecosystems in the Americas: mangrove channels, lagoons, the Maya port of Muyil half reclaimed by jungle, and the ancestral canal the Maya cut to move goods along the coast. The signature moment is the float through the Chunyaxché canals, where a gentle current carries you between walls of mangrove with almost no sound but birds and water.

Sightings of flamingos, manatees and crocodiles are never guaranteed on any single visit, but the reserve is left alone enough that wildlife here behaves like it belongs. After the effort of days three and five, this is the recovery day that still counts as a real excursion. Our piece on Sian Ka’an has more on Muyil and what the mangrove float is like.

Day 7: Bacalar, or a slow morning

The honest version: Bacalar, the Lagoon of Seven Colors, is roughly two and a half to three hours each way from Tulum, so a day trip is five to six hours in the car for a few hours on the water. On a private boat tour you run the Canal de los Piratas, swim at cenotes along the lagoon, and pass the stromatolites, rock like structures that have been growing here for more than 3,500 years. It is one of the most beautiful stretches of water in Mexico, and it is a lot of driving.

If that trade sounds wrong for your last day, swap it: take a slow morning in Tulum, a final cenote or beach, a late checkout, and save Bacalar as the reason to come back or to add an eighth and ninth night. Our guide to Bacalar covers the lagoon in full. Either way, day seven ends at the airport or a last night near Cancún.

Practical tips for this 7-day itinerary

The best window is November through April, and it matters most for day three: Chichén Itzá sits inland with little shade and the dry season keeps it bearable. Sargassum can affect the beach time on days one, four and seven from roughly May to August but does not touch Cozumel’s west coast, the cenotes or the inland sites. Our best time to visit guide has the month by month detail.

• Book Chichén Itzá and the Cozumel tour before you land; both fill in high season. Cobá, Sian Ka’an and the cenote stop are usually fine to arrange a day or two ahead.
• Two swimsuits so one is always dry, reef safe sunscreen since several stops require it, water shoes that grip wet stone, a dry bag for the cenotes and boats, and a hat for Chichén Itzá.
• The Playa del Carmen to Tulum hotel change on day four is the only move; do not add more. Each hotel switch costs half a day.
• If you would rather not change hotels at all, base the whole week in Playa del Carmen and accept longer drives on days five and six.
• Travel insurance that covers weather disruption is worth it for any trip between August and October.

For the shorter version of this trip see the five day itinerary, for planning basics the first time guide, and for choosing your two bases the where to stay guide. Compare the tours in this plan on the tours page.