A cenote is a sinkhole where a cave roof has collapsed over the water table, and the Yucatán has thousands of them because it has almost no rivers. Three days out of Mérida are built entirely around swimming in them, and all three include every entrance fee — which, given each pool charges its own in cash, is most of the reason to book one.
Three Homún pools with every entrance fee inside the fare, plus lunch, a mask and a life jacket. An hour out rather than two, and the only cenote day where you never take your wallet out.
From $87 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Suytún's stone platform, Oxman's rope swing and Real Dzonot, with an hour and a half in colonial Valladolid between them. Twelve hours, lunch and every cenote ticket included. Lockers cost extra.
From $99 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Cycle between four pools instead of being driven to them, with a Maya pyramid at Acanceh on the way out. Site fee, bicycle, life jacket and food included; there is a van for anyone who would rather not pedal.
From $110 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Three pools, every entrance fee and lunch, from a nine-hour day an hour out of the city.
See Top ToursA short drive and a long swim. Homún is an hour south-east, Valladolid two hours east, Santa Bárbara an hour. Each day visits three or four pools with lunch somewhere in the middle, and you are in and out of the water from mid-morning onwards.
The pools are not interchangeable. An open cenote is a bright round pool with vines dropping to the water; a semi-open one has a hole in the roof and a shaft of light; a cavern cenote is reached down a stair and lit artificially. A good day visits more than one kind, which is the argument for a day trip over a single famous pool.
Everything here is easy physically — timber stairs, short walks, no hiking — and wet from the first stop.
Cenotes around Homún are run by families and ejidos and each charges its own cash fee at its own gate. All three of these days cover them.
The water is underground and sits in the low twenties whatever the surface is doing. In May, when the daily maximum averages 37.3 °C, this is the best day you can have in the Yucatán.
Which makes these days work for people who do not swim well, and that is worth knowing before ruling them out.
There is no public transport between the Homún pools, and choosing three good ones out of thirty takes local knowledge.
Around Valladolid you can do it yourself with a bus and taxis. Around Homún it is considerably harder.
| A guided cenote day | Driving yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Entrance fees | Included on all three days | Cash at each gate, 100-200 pesos each |
| Which pools | Three or four, chosen for variety | Whichever you can find |
| Equipment | Life jacket and mask provided | Bring or hire your own |
| Lunch | Included on all three days | Yours to find |
| Transport between pools | In the fare | Your car, or a bicycle on one day |
| Flexibility | Fixed times | Complete |
| Cost | From From $87 all in | Car, fuel and every fee |
Check availability on the Homún day
The car wins if you are four people who want to linger. The organised day wins on cost for two, on variety, and on not carrying six hundred pesos in small notes. The cenote guide names ten of them with their types and drive times.
In every fare: return transport, a certified guide, every cenote entrance fee, a life jacket, and lunch.
In some: a snorkel mask (two of three), a bicycle between the pools (one of three), an hour and a half in a colonial town (one of three).
In none: drinks beyond what is served with lunch, gratuities, and lockers on the Valladolid day.
Price band: about $87 to $110 a head, with every fee inside it.
Length: eight to twelve hours. The nine-hour Homún day is the shortest because the drive is one hour rather than two.
Booking window: two to three days outside the peak season. These sell less far ahead than the ruins days.
Best time of day: first thing. Suytún's shaft of light is a mid-morning phenomenon and the queue builds behind it; the Homún pools can be empty at ten and busy by noon.
If you want a town as well as a swim, the Valladolid day is the one of these three that gives you one, and a Chichen Itza day puts a ruin and the yellow town of Izamal either side of Cenote Ik Kil.
If you have back problems or find stairs difficult, two of these days say so in their own notes. The descents are timber stairs and ladders, and Suytún has the easiest access of the pools listed here.
If you will not get in the water, do not book one. The swimming is the day; the drive is flat scrub. Take the food walks or the historic centre instead.
If it is your only day out of the city and you have never seen a Maya site, take the ruins. The cenotes will still be there next time, and Chichén Itzá is the thing you will be asked about.
Every one of these refunds in full up to 24 hours ahead, so the date is reversible right to the day before. From From $87 per person.
See Top ToursIf none of these is quite right, Merida Mexico Tours lists every day out of the city side by side, and the map and distances page shows how far each one goes. The visiting page covers what a day here costs before you add a tour to it.