Cozumel Snorkeling Tour: Palancar, Columbia, El Cielo

Embark on a thrilling glass-bottom boat tour in Cozumel, exploring the vibrant marine life and snorkeling at El Cielo Beach. Relax, enjoy refreshments, and soak in the beauty of the Caribbean Sea.

Duration: 4 hours, 15 minutes
Cancellation: 24 hours
Highlights
  • Playa El Cielo - Sandbar surrounded by starfish with a shallow area with stingrays
  • Palancar Reef - Deep palancar reef is part of this fun cozumel snorkeling tour
  • Columbia Reef - Snorkel one the most vibrant reefs in cozumel
  • Chankanaab Reef - Brightful colors and corals and lots of fish on this fun snorkeling tour
What's Included
  • Insured shaded units
  • Experienced Snorkel guides
  • Drinks included: Beers, Water, Sodas and a snack
  • 3 reef snorkeling stops
  • Complete Snorkeling gear
What's Not Included
  • Marine fee $6usd pp (cash only)
Additional Information

Set off for adventure to the Caribbean on a glass-bottom boat, admire the spectacular marine life, feel the ocean breeze, and enjoy the most incredible Cozumel snorkeling trip.
Our experienced crew will guide you all the way, pointing out the best spots for marine life at three different snorkeling sites.
For those who decide to stay on board, just relax…

Location
Maybe Tours Cozumel Quintana Roo México
Avenida Rafael E. Melgar
Meeting time is 15 minutes before your tour time at the Marina Fonatur Cozumel, at the MAYBE TOURS office.
Cancellation Policy

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

Customer Ratings
3.6
(62 Ratings)
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Sunshine-guru
Feb 18, 2023
Awesome snorkelling experience! - We had a great experience on this tour! Very well organized from start to finish with the multiple types of transportation we required from our resort in Puerto Morelos. Our tour guide Alejandro and the crew were kind and hospitable, Miguel took some amazing underwater photos and the price to purchase them all was a reasonable $30USD. Definitely worth it for the clarity alone! The food was tasty and more than enough. Shoutout to a different tour guide, Rodrigo, who we ended up sitting beside on the ferry ride home, he shared a lot about the history of the island and photos. We appreciated it! Of note: it was a very, very long day. Our travel agent at the resort gave the impression it was 6-7hrs total, but was approx. 11hrs roundtrip. We didn't realize the lengthy travel time involved between the shuttle, ferry and speedboat ride itself to snorkel –which was early afternoon before we got into the water. Bring a change of clothes for the wait time/shopping after the snorkel tour itself, until the next ferry arrives. If you’re not one for crowds, this experience is not for you as we were part of a large group leading up to and from the actual snorkelling tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Chrisrf5834rm
Jul 20, 2022
David and Cucurumbe are the BEST - This was the best! I am so glad we chose to take this excursion. David was our favorite tour guide that we have had in 4 chock full trips to Mexico. We also suspect he might be a literal merman given the way he jets down to the ocean floor to share the wildlife with you. The crew was gracious and went out of their way to make certain our whole family had a blast. Fatima (the paparazzi fish) took the best pics of our family and sold them to us for a steal. We had an epic day with this group. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Adriana
Jun 19, 2022
Breathtaking! - We were picked up at our resort in Playacar and driven till the ferry harbour to cross to Cozumel island. Our tour guide was Claudio, a very gregarious, helpful and knowleagable host. After aprox a 90 min voyage we got to an amazing, beautiful reef on the Island: Colombia Bajo, Palancar. Mowi was our lead diver who was always keeping an eye on the group. Then we continued on the boat so as to snorkel into the crystal-clear waters of the Mexican Caribbean and reached "El Cielo", famous for the starfish Sanctuary and for being a world-class destination. A spot with shallow waters and white fine sand which together makes the most breathtaking turquoise blue tones. After that we headed till El Cielito where we enjoyed a delicious lunch on the boat and a tasty treat of fresh fruit in the shallow waters. Thanks to all of you! Breathtaking and worth doing!!!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Zoe
Jan 19, 2022
Brilliant - We recently went on a trip with Claudio and it was fantastic. We thought Claudio was a great host and lots of fun as well as being very informative. We thought the whole tour was really well organised, from pick up to drop off. Lunch was great. The boat crew were great. Miguel Alfonso took some great pictures. The snorkel spots we were taken to were brilliant and there was enough time to snorkel in each spot. Lots of beers on board. Would do again. Thanks guys.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Kiersten_h
May 20, 2023
Good although not what we signed up for - Great guides, however not glass bottom boat and only two not three snorkel options. Disappointed not what we paid for. Also, need to charge dock fee with reservation USD 20 went in a guys breast pocket...
Review provided by Viator
Carolinen571
Feb 15, 2023
Gorgeous views, lots of travel time from Playa Carmen - We booked a tour through our Playacar hotel for snorkeling in Cozumel. Probably not their fault but this tour is much more sitting and waiting to get to the snorkel sites than really snorkeling. Tour guide Danny was very good and we got some really cool photos. We did see a sting ray, fish, starfish, sea turtle. Just wish there was more time to snorkel at different sites. If your focus is to get in a lot of snorkeling, try another approach. If you want to ride in a boat, see beautiful Caribbean views, visit retail stores, and snorkel and swim a little, this is a great tour. (Btw charge was $30 to get copies of the cool photos. It was nice having a tour photographer).
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Tori318
Dec 17, 2021
More highlights than lowlights, bonus points for authentic tacos - thanks Reyes! - Highlights: Starfish Sanctuary, stingrays swimming around you while you drink a beer and eat fruit with Tahín, and we saw a barracuda on our trip. Our camera guy got some incredible photos of our group, we were happy to pay for them! And Reyes, our leader, even took us to some authentic tacos while we had time in Cozumel. Lowlights: The boat was a tight fit, the reef was surprisingly quiet (we had a better reef in Cancun), and it was an incredibly long day because we were staying in Cancun and had to take the ferry.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
926mikea
Jul 28, 2022
Poorly Organised - We attended the "Cozumel El Cielo Snorkel Tour". The trip itself was ok, but the snorkel guide didn't really guide or try and find interesting things to see. We merely were put in the water at different spots. I also hadn't appreciate that despite a 9:20 start we didn't get in the water till 13:00. However, that's potentially my oversight. My main complaint is that when we returned to Playa del Carmen, we were left waiting up to an hour for our transfer back. If we were told there would be a long wait we could have looked round the shops, but none of this was communicated. We were subsequently standing by the road for 45 minutes to an hour. Some people actually abandoned the tour transfer and got taxis back because of the wait and lack of organisation. This was obviously very unpleasant and considering the cost of the tour I would have expected better. I found the tour to be terrible value and badly organised.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sara
Jun 8, 2022
Chaotic, then left us stranded - The snorkeling part was great, I took my 6 year old and she had a fab time. Unfortunately the organisation was chaotic. Our driver was later in the morning - which was OK as we are told this is expected and accepted. We were left milling around a shop for 30 minutes before we were taken to the ferry terminal in the morning. After our trip we had nearly 2 hours in cozumel Town with not a lot to do - all fine. We got back tonplaya del Carmen and ny child needed to use the restroom. Cucurumbe staff said to use the facilities in the shop at the meeting point, so we did. Then our transfer left without us "because we were late". We were in the toilet and I was a woman travelling with a 6 year old. No help from staff who walked away. We had to find a bank, get cash and a taxi and were back to our hotel very late with a frightened child. I could never trust this company again. Its fine for their driver to be late, to hang around for hours but not to allow a child to use the bathroom at the end of the trip. Really upsetting for her and ruined our day. Avoid. I would have given 1 star but the guys on the boat were great
Review provided by Tripadvisor
521marcel
Oct 31, 2021
Small boat for 29 people - We bought a snorkel tour with this company but we totally regreted. The boat is way too small to fit for the 29 people that day in there. Social distancing is supposed to be enforced but there was none of that there After wakig up early and going through that hassle this really was not worth it. Social distancing is supposed to be enforced but there was none of that here. We ended up leaving the tour as it was way too crowded.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
From $69
up to 15 guests
1 Adult
Cancellation: Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start of your experience (local time).