Punta Laguna is a small paradise hidden from the powerful jaws of mass tourism in the Riviera Maya. A Mayan community has been preserving this place for years where the spider monkey is the icing on the adventure that awaits you.
Punta Laguna it's from my favorite places close to Riviera Maya, of those authentic places that are always appreciated on the way. The Punta Laguna Nature Reserve is run for about 10 years by a cooperative formed by different Mayan families who have taken care of the preservation of the beautiful place. Their good work has led them to offer as a great attraction the observation of spider monkeys y saraguatos monkeys in a natural state.
Observation of monkeys in Punta Laguna:
Quintana Roo is the natural habitat of these two species of monkeys, the spider and the saraguato. In Punta Laguna Its observation is simple: monkeys live here that are accustomed to humans because they know they are protected, both themselves and their habitat. The Spider monkey it's easy to observe, to see the saraguato You must have a bit of luck in your visit. Saraguatos there are less and they are more timid. Tips: visit Punta Laguna evening for observe the monkeys. In the morning they go out in search of food and sometimes they do not stay in the area, traveling a radius of 5 kilometers. In the afternoons they return home.
Non-intrusive opportunities to see animals in their natural habitat they are precious experiences to my way of understanding.
Other activities in Punta Laguna:
The whole package of activities offered in Punta Laguna includes: Mayan ceremony, observation of monkeys, canoe, zip line and cenote. You will enjoy a fantastic jungle travel where you will learn stories of their culture from your Mayan guide. In Punta Laguna they speak in maya yucateco, so you will not understand anything when they laugh at your skills 😉
- MAYAN CEREMONY: perform a ceremony where you will participate in a tourist tasting of the authentic rituals that the Mayan town to celebrate events such as plantings, unions, trips ...
- CANOE: You will cross in a canoe the lagoon putting your rowing skills to the test. An experience crossing these waters inhabited by crocodiles (lizards).
- TIROLINA / TIROLESA: flying over the lagoon is adrenalin, a lot of fun awaits you
- CENOTE: The adventure of descending to this cenote is only for the daring ones. The reward is worth it. Among its crystal clear waters are 127 human skulls, you are a few meters from the authentic Mayan history 😉 The Mayans have a very special relationship with the cenotes.
Punta Laguna in Yucatec Maya is known as Otoch Ma'ax Yetel Kooh (house of the monkey and the cougar). For me this place is special, a natural and authentic place that I enjoy much more than the theme parks that tourists usually choose in Riviera Maya.
Site Museum in Punta Laguna
At the entrance of Otoch Ma'ax Yetel Kooh you find a museum with information about the animals of the area, instruments and Mayan way of life. They also sell handicrafts, another way to contribute to the places you visit on your alternative path.
There are not many agencies from Riviera Maya that take you to Punta Laguna, the best option is to go by private car or private excursion. If you are one of those who looks for authentic places without a doubt Punta Laguna It is standing in your way.
SCHEDULE AND SERVICES: Open from 8 to 17 daily hours. They sell drinks and food at the entrance. There are basic and ecological services.
PRICE ENTRY: 350 mxn person the package all the activities. Monkey watching activity: 70 mxn per person and 300 mxn for the guide.
TIPS: visit Punta laguna evening, the best time to see spider monkeys is between 3 y 4 pm.
HOW TO GET IN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION? From Coba leaves combi towards Punta Laguna. From Riviera Maya you can go, but the trip is very long since you have to combine up to three combis to get there. From Tulum, only two, it is not a very popular route.
WHAT TO BRING? Light and light clothing, swimsuit and towel. Better wear comfortable closed shoes, to protect yourself especially from insects.
THE LAW OF THE GOOD CENOTERO: To avoid contaminating the delicate water of the cenotes, do not use body creams, or protectors, or repellents before entering them. Do not hang from the roots of the trees or touch the stalactites or do any other idiocy that damages the place. It is a good option to take diving mask to see the skulls.
Good way,
- Offers on flights international and national ..
- Find the accommodation with the best offers from Booking.com.
- Stay with airbnb and get 25 € discount.
- Contract activities, tours and excursions organized.
- Rent a car with the indispensable and necessary best discounts.
- Secure your transfers of arrival or departure to the airport.
- Travel safely with IATI and take advantage of 5% off.
If you prefer, you tell us your idea of the trip and together we organize it.
Hi Sandra, I'm planning to go to the Riviera Maya in the coming months and your blog has helped me a lot! you have very useful data. I wanted to ask you, regarding the 350 package mxn that includes all the activities, how long does this take? Is it a full day or half day?
Greetings from Chile!!
Hello Natalia, it's good that the blog is useful to you, thank you for commenting, it's good to know.
The trip in Punta laguna calculates between an hour and a half to two hours. Perfect to fit at the end of the day, at the time of the monkeys.
Greetings to Chile, I hope you enjoy the trip a lot!
Hello Sandra! Thanks for your post. It has helped us to decide. Excellent recommendations!
I wanted to ask you ... is it better if we rent a car and go on our own up there? I have seen that the tourist packages that include displacement go up a lot of price ... We will pay attention to your recommendation and we will go in the afternoon!
Thank you again for sharing your experience.
Greetings from Barcelona, Spain!
Hello Erika, I'm glad that I serve you. I think it is an excellent idea to rent a car, you can combine it with a visit to Coba and a cenote. The road and the signs are simple. Enjoy the place, greetings!
Hi Sandra, I love the idea of doing this tour, we would also like to know about the ceremonies and make union (wedding) how you could contact. This would be 14 to 16 November approximately this year. Thank you. Yesenia Covarrubias de La Paz, BCS.
Hi Yesenia, you can contact the administrators of Punta laguna by Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/puntalagunayucatan/
There are other places where you could do Mayan wedding, today I contacted a community to see if they are still doing unions, they make them in a very pretty cave. If you are interested write me to my email sandra@elcaminomascorto.es and I pass you contacts by that means.
Have a great time here, and congratulations 🙂
Hello! Thanks a lot for the info.
Can the tour be booked once? No need to book it from Spain right?
Thx!
Hello Laura, the tour from here you hire without problems. An excellent place Punta lagoon.
Good trip! 🙂
For a ceremony in couples alone, what is the price?
Hello Gaby, the times we have gone we have done the tour only our group, whether of 2, 3 or more people. The ceremony is part of the tour, so in theory you are alone. Likewise, the ceremony is included in the price of the general tour.
I hope it works for you, good way?
Excellent your blog helped us to plan the whole week of holidays, thanks for the information and congratulations.
Thank you very much Adriana for your comment, always encourage us to keep blogging 🙂
Hello,
Do you know if it is possible to stay to sleep? what time do you recommend us to arrive? how is the food?
Excellent blog, in favor of a sustainable and friendly tourism 🙂
Thanks in advance.
Hello Marina, the closest place to sleep near Punta Laguna is Coba, where there are several lodges and restaurant services (I would eat here too, sometimes in Punta Laguna they do not offer food, only small shops where you can buy junk food). Coba: https://www.elcaminomascorto.es/coba-alternativo-a-riviera-maya/ Arrive over the 15 to Punta Laguna, to see the monkeys. «Tips: visit Punta Laguna in the afternoon to observe the monkeys. In the mornings they go out in search of food and sometimes they do not stay in the area, traveling a radius of 5 kilometers. In the afternoon they return to their house: Punta Laguna. »
I hope you serve and enjoy the place 🙂
Greetings travelers,
Hello Sandra,
The price of 350 mxn person includes zip line, caona, Cenote, ceremony and guide to see the monkey?
Thank you,
This is Sandra, it's good that you go to Punta Laguna 🙂
A hug,
Hello Sandra!
We are organizing our trip by free to the Yucatan peninsula and I can not find information about public transport.
We had planned to leave Tulum (I know there is an ADO bus to the 10, I do not know if they leave a bus or another type of transport) to Cobá, visit the archaeological zone, and then depending on the time, two options:
- Cenotes + Punta Laguna (to arrive on the 3-4 that as you say is the best time)
-Only Punta Laguna.
How often do the combis leave from Coba to Punta Laguna? Will there be a problem to return to Coba?
Then we would like to go back to Cobá to sleep there and leave the next day for Valladolid, but here is the main problem because it is being impossible for me to find transport from here to Valladolid. Do you know if it exists?
Thank you very much in advance. And thanks for the blog, it's really saving me from many hours of diving online looking for information!
Very good Miguel,
I'm glad I'm serving you, it's good to know, thank you.
Well that area is half complicated in public transport, has its particularities. Between Tulum and Coba there big bus (as you say the ADO and Mayab, second category buses) and collective vans. The trouble is that in the collective vans, there are few, they do not like to go abroad, so they have an agreement with the taxi drivers and transporters in the area. That's why we have to move by taxi, where you can share the taxi with other travelers. I suggest that once you get to Playa del Carmen, in the terminal of the ADO, confirm bus schedules between Tulum and Coba.
I was looking at taxi prices from Coba to Punta laguna: they are 300 pesos one way (you can remember to wait and come back with him). Collective transport there is little from Cobá to Punta laguna, in fact the locals also move a lot by taxi, filling up with the 5 people the car.
Yes there is transportation from Cobá to Valladolid, buses from the Mayab pass, I do not know if ADO passes.
I send you two photos with the schedules posters that I took in Cobá so you can have all the information to organize yourself.
Any other questions that may arise, try to get a cable. The next trip you have to encourage to make the whole trip around the Peninsula, and so you come to Calakmul 🙂
Very good way guys,
Sandra Thank you very much for your blog! It is helping me a lot to organize my trip to the peninsula of Yucatan. A question? I'm going to sleep in Valladolid, so my intention is to go to HolBox, there I have to arrive at 3.00 pm, do you think I have enough time to go to Punta Laguna? How long is the lagoon tip?
Beforehand thank you very much! For your valuable yuada
How nice Marco, I'm glad the blog is useful for you.
I understand you're driving, right? If so, it gives you time, leaving early. The whole circuit in Punta laguna is about 3 hours, the only thing to keep in mind is that spider monkeys are not safe to see them in the mornings, sometimes they go out to look for food. From Valladolid take the road to Cobá, it is a road that is good. From Punta Laguna you should go to Kantunilkin, towards Holbox. Calculate the ferry time to cross to Holbox, about 20 minutes.
If you need a taxi driver from Valladolid to do the tour, good professional and good prices, tell me and I pass the contact.
Best regards and good trip,
Thank you very much, it is correct I am going to rent a car in Merida. In Holbox I already have a Tour to Isla Pájaros & Yalahau, those of the Tour are waiting for me in Chiquila at 3.00 pm. And after the Tour they leave me at my Hotel Holbox, that's why it was my question and to be more precise at what time do you recommend me to leave Valladolid to go to Punta Laguna and from there go to Holbox. I tell you that I already know Coba and that is why I did not take it into account.
Again, thank you so much.!
Excellent plan Marco 🙂
It would come out on the 7: 30 of Valladolid, to be at the 9: 30 at Punta laguna. Keep in mind that Punta Laguna and Holbox are in Quintana Roo, and it is one more hour at this time. Leaving Punta Laguna at 13 hours you arrive at Chiquilá on time.
I send you a hug, enjoy very much.
Thank you very much today I go to Tierras Mayas I will enjoy it !! and again a thousand thanks!
Hi Sandra, do you know if it is possible to camp in Punta Laguna and if so, what is the price?
Hi Cesar,
What a pity because I do not know if you can camp, it is very likely that you will. Anyway, if not, in the town of Tres Reyes, very close to Punta Laguna, there is a place to camp. One option is at Laura and Juan's house, and another at 7 Flechas (in the easy town they tell you where they live). Both have common kitchen services and camping place. If I go there before I ask you, otherwise you will tell me to help the next on the road.
Good trip,
Hello! I wanted to ask about the food? There is where to eat?
Hello Belém,
Yes there is where to eat, sometimes it is closed if you do not have many people, but you will surely find a nearby alternative if it is closed.
Best regards,
if I only want to pay the $ 70 entrance per person and not hire the guide is it possible? What difference is there in hiring the guide or not?
I look forward to your comments, thank you very much
Hello Daniel, it is mandatory to go with the guide, for this reason it is almost on account to pay the general admission with all the activities and not only to see the monkeys. I hope you enjoy the place, kind regards.
Hello Sandra! I loved everything you told about Punta Laguna and the truth of reading it makes me really want to meet you, only that I have been investigating how to get from Valladolid by carless transport, and I have not found.
You comment that there are combis from Coba to Punta Laguna.
I will stay in Valladolid and I was thinking of going to Coba and Coba to look for the combi to come and go from Punta Laguna.
Could you tell me more about that form of transportation.
Thank you
Hi Nidia, how are you? I can think of two things you can do, because transportation is complicated. One as you say is to go to Cobá and from there a taxi to Punta laguna (reference price a trip from Tulum to Cobá they do it in 520 pesos the unit and route). When you return from Punta Laguna you must agree on the price with the same taxi driver or wait for a transport to pass, and there are few. The other, if you leave Valladolid, I give you the phone number of a professional taxi driver-guide, to whom you can ask for a price. I send it by mail your contact, of total confidence. I hope you can solve and visit the place.
Best regards, any questions here we are.