Swimming with turtles in Akumal, stupendous snorkeling action in Riviera Maya, Mexico

Akumal is a small village located in Riviera Maya, Mexico between Playa del Carmen and Tulum. It has an incredible, stunning beach with turquoise water which is full of natural, fantastic flora & fauna. There are many turtles that live nearby the coast inside the water and probability to encounter them is very high. Moreover you can find small coral reefs as well as other sea animals such as manta rays and plenty of different type of fish. The sea used to be calm and apparently there is no big waves in general nearby the coast. They start further on behind the range of the coral reef. You can observe the white foam around 300 meters from the coast easily. Keep in mind: it is not recommended to cross this line.. and snorkel in the open ocean. Overconfidence can be pernicious. Even if u r a wild shark better keep calm and snorkel close by the coast!

Tips:

The beach is public and has a free access.
People around will probably tell you that it is prohibited to snorkel without the safety vest (obviously it is better to always have one even if you are an excellent swimmer). Therefore they will try to charge you for renting it. Don’t let them fool you – if you don’t want to there is no necessity to buy it.
You can also be told that you cannot pass the buoys (that are already few or dozen meters away from the coast) in case you want to swim to the coral reef yourself. You can just walk by the beach a while to the right side from the main entrance, where there is no more boats. Probably they won’t chase you there to tell you cannot swim further.
There is a paid parking lot before the entrance to the beach as well as spots where allegedly you could park your vehicle without paying. Be careful – first time I came I was lucky – I have parked parallely to the main street on the right side, ahead of the coconut vendors. After 2/3 hours when I returned everything was alright and I happily went back home (Playa del Carmen) without taking into account the huge drops of rain that were shooting on me while homecoming. The next time I arrived and parked my motorcycle in the same place. During few hours of snorkeling and chilling on the beach someone let the air out from my rear tire. It was flat – damn!
Conclusion: It is possible to arrive and enjoy the coral reef by yourself for free if you are clever good planer, however keep in mind that they will endeavor to charge for: safety vests, parking lot and the snorkel tour (by not letting you swim to the coral reef yourself). It is doable to hang out with turtles and admire a coral reef for free, but you need to posses a bit of street skills, hehe. But sometimes it is better to pay a little to avoid problems (my case with parking lot, that was supposedly free).