Park
Last updated
A thousand hectares on Cozumel's southern tip that you drive through rather than walk, ending at a lighthouse and a crocodile lagoon.
Photo: Sharon Hahn DarlinCC BY 2.0
Punta Sur takes up the whole southern tip of Cozumel, roughly a thousand hectares of dune, mangrove, lagoon and low coastal forest, and it is the only part of the island where you can see what the place looked like before anyone built anything on it. It is a paid park with a gate on the coast road, and the single most important thing to understand before you arrive is that it is a drive-in park. Past the gate there is something like five miles of narrow internal road running down to the lighthouse and the beaches, and there is nowhere to leave a car at the entrance and walk in instead.
That geography shapes the visit. You pay at the gate, you drive south with scrub on both sides and the occasional iguana crossing, and you stop at a handful of things strung along the way: the Laguna Colombia boardwalk and observation tower, where American crocodiles live and where nobody swims; the beach at the tip, which is wide, wild and almost always empty; and the Faro Celarain lighthouse with the small navigation museum in the old keeper's house at its base. The Colombia Shallows reef runs close enough inshore at the park beach that the snorkelling from the sand is genuinely good — a rare thing on an island where almost everything worth seeing needs a boat.
What Punta Sur is not is a beach club. There is a modest beach operation with loungers and a bar at the tip, and that is the extent of the infrastructure. No large restaurant, no shops, no reliable shade away from the palapas, no mobile signal in patches. Bring water and sunscreen in rather than expecting to buy them.
The wildlife is the reason to go slowly. Crocodiles in the lagoon system, which extends north behind the dunes. Roseate spoonbills, herons and migrating warblers in the mangrove. Sea turtles nesting on the southern beaches through the summer, which is why parts of the shoreline are restricted in season. Iguanas everywhere, unbothered.
Most cruise passengers never come here, and it is the strongest argument on the island for renting a jeep.
Drive south out of San Miguel on the coast road, past the cruise piers, Chankanaab and the beach clubs, and keep going after the last of them. The gate is on the left as the road approaches the island's southern corner, and it is signed. From San Miguel allow forty-five minutes to an hour without stops; from the Puerta Maya and International piers, a little less.
Past the gate there is roughly five miles of narrow internal road down to the lighthouse and the beaches. You must drive it — there is no parking at the entrance and walking in is not viable in the heat.
Rental jeep is the standard approach and the best one; book the day before, because the desks near the piers empty early on a cruise morning. Organised tours include the gate fee and the driving, and are the sensible choice on a tight schedule. A taxi works only if you negotiate a round trip with waiting time before you leave, since you cannot call one from the tip. Coming back, most people continue round to the east coast rather than retracing the west.
The entrance sits on the coast road at the southern end of the island, after the road turns the corner past the last of the beach clubs. You pay per person at the gate and then drive.
The internal road is single-track in places, unpaved in stretches and runs roughly five miles from the gate to the lighthouse. Walking it is not a realistic plan in that heat, and there is no shuttle service you can rely on. Practically, that gives you three ways in:
Do not attempt the internal road on a scooter after heavy rain, and do not leave anything visible in an open jeep at the beach car park. If you arrive late in the afternoon, check the gate's last-entry arrangement before paying — they stop admitting well before the park empties.
The lagoon system behind the dunes is the ecological heart of the park and the reason it is protected at all. Laguna Colombia is the largest of the three connected bodies of brackish water, fringed with red mangrove and home to a resident population of American crocodiles.
There is a boardwalk through the mangrove and a wooden observation tower over the water, and the crocodiles are genuinely visible from both — usually as a long dark shape holding still near the far bank, occasionally much closer to the boardwalk than people expect. Early morning and late afternoon are better than midday.
This is also serious birding. Roseate spoonbills, great and snowy egrets, tricoloured herons, ospreys working the water, and in winter a run of migrant warblers through the mangrove edge. Bring binoculars if you have them; the tower is the only elevated viewpoint on this side of the island apart from the lighthouse itself.
The obvious rule: nobody swims, wades or launches anything into the lagoons. The crocodiles are wild, unfed and not habituated, and keeping them that way is why the boardwalk exists. Stay on it, do not feed anything, and do not walk the lagoon edge looking for a better photograph.
The park beach at the tip is the best free-feeling stretch of sand on Cozumel that is not an east-coast bar. It is wide, backed by dune rather than palapas, and even on a busy day the people are spread thin because most of them are up at the lighthouse.
The water here is the southern end of the leeward shelf, so it is calm by east-coast standards but livelier than the beach clubs further north — there is more swell wrapping round the tip and the current is noticeable. Judge it on the day rather than assuming.
The snorkelling is the surprise. Colombia Shallows runs close enough inshore that you can swim out from the sand and be over coral heads and fish without a boat, which is unusual on this island. It is not the same as the boat stop of the same name, and it is weather-dependent, but on a flat morning it is one of the few genuinely good shore snorkels on Cozumel outside the Dzul-Ha stretch.
There is a small beach operation with loungers, a bar and basic food, and restrooms near the main complex. Bring your own mask if you care about fit; on-site rental is limited. Nesting season restricts access to parts of the shoreline through the summer, and those closures are marked and enforced.
How long. Two hours is the minimum that makes the gate fee worthwhile: the drive in, the lighthouse, a look at the lagoon, and out. Four hours is the honest figure if you want to swim and snorkel as well. A full day is easy if you combine it with El Cedral or the east coast on the way back, which is the standard island loop.
Overnight visitors should do this on a morning with light wind, in a rental, starting early. The light is better, the crocodiles are more active, the beach is emptier, and you have the afternoon for the east coast on the way home. This is the part of Cozumel that repays having your own vehicle more than anything else.
Cruise passengers face a harder calculation. Punta Sur is at the far end of the island: allow forty-five minutes to an hour each way from the piers before you have done anything. A self-drive visit is achievable on an eight-hour call if you have the jeep booked in advance and leave immediately, but it leaves little slack. On a shorter call, take an organised excursion that includes the gate fee and the transport, and let somebody else watch the clock. Work backwards from all-aboard in ship's time — the island stays on UTC-5 all year, so from March to November it is an hour behind US Eastern.
Rain changes the park more than it changes the beach clubs; the internal road and boardwalks get slick and the lagoon wildlife goes quiet.
Operators run these trips past Punta Sur, or stop there as part of a longer route. We list what the booking data supports — not everything that mentions the name.
These go through Viator and earn us a commission. You pay the same as booking direct, and the commission did not choose the list.
Agent Favorite
Your Cozumel adventure begins with a hassle-free pickup followed by a comfortable A/C transfer to our exhilarating ATV ride through the…
3 hours
Prices checked
Low Last Minute Supplier Cancellation Rate
Ride your own single or double ATV in the company of your guide to go off-roading through astonishing trails in the jungle and Mayan…
3–4 hours
Prices checked
Low Last Minute Supplier Cancellation Rate
We're known for operating the best all-inclusive snorkel experiences on the island of Cozumel, including the famous 'El Cielo' and 'The…
4 hours
Prices checked
Curated Catalog
Set sail on the stunning catamarans La Chula or Poseidon for an unforgettable 4-hour snorkeling adventure to El Cielo. This tour takes you…
4 hours
Prices checked
Private and Luxury
Unlock the mysteries of the Mayans with this tour to Chichén Itzá, a magical cenote & Valladolid. Start this experience by visiting the…
Full day
Prices checked
Curated Catalog
We have 27 years providing unique sightseeing tours in Cozumel. The El Cielo snorkeling tour is an excursion that has everything at the…
3 hours
Prices checked
Low Last Minute Supplier Cancellation Rate
Indulge in the exclusivity of a Private Boat tour to Cozumel’s most breathtaking destinations: El Cielo and the world-famous coral reefs…
4 hours
Prices checked
Short term availability
Already married? We have just what you need. Just friends? You can join along too. Come and enjoy. This pass includes the All Inclusive…
1 hour
Prices checked
Straight-line distances, so allow more on the road — the island is long and has one main parkway.
Landmark
A working lighthouse on Cozumel's southern point, about 133 narrow steps up, with reef on one side and a crocodile lagoon on the other.
1–1.5 hoursNo separate charge for the lighthouse or the museum, but you must pay Punta Sur park admission per person at the gate to reach it.0.6 mi away
Wildlife
A mangrove lagoon behind the dunes at Cozumel's southern tip, with wild American crocodiles in it and a small boat that goes looking.
1–2 hoursPark admission is charged at the Punta Sur gate, and the lagoon boat trip is normally an additional charge paid at the lagoon itself.0.8 mi away
Viewpoint
A wave-cut arch of fossil reef beside the coast road, free to climb, sharp underfoot, and about five minutes long.
10–30 minutesFree, with no gate, no ticket and no parking charge — which on Cozumel is unusual enough to be worth saying.4.3 mi away
Wildlife
A waist-deep sand flat off the island's southwest tip where sea stars sit on open sand in water clear enough to read through.
3–5 hoursNot free in practice: boat access only, and everyone entering the national park by boat pays the per-person daily park fee on top of the trip.1.1 mi away
Where this place fits into a day, and the pages that plan one.
Guide hub
Cozumel is a flat slab of limestone about 29 miles long and 9 miles wide, sitting roughly 12 miles off the Yucatán coast, and the reason anybody…
Guide hub
Cozumel's attractions do not sort neatly into a list because the best of them are forty feet under water and require a boat, a regulator and a park…
Who it suits
Cozumel works well with children for a reason that has nothing to do with kids' clubs: the west coast is a sheltered, shallow, bath-warm lee with…
Who it suits
Cozumel is one of the busiest cruise calls in the world, and on a good winter Tuesday four to six ships are alongside at once. That puts something…
Things to do
Cozumel is thirty miles long and roughly ten wide, and almost everything built on it sits on the western, leeward third. One paved loop takes in the…
Guide
Half of Cozumel has no hotels, no dive shops, no piers and almost no people. It also has the strongest undertow on the island. Both of those are the same fact.
11 min readSofía Ruelas
Guide
Cozumel is an easy island for families on one side and a genuinely dangerous one on the other. The age bands below are really about which water a child is ready for.
11 min readSofía Ruelas
Guide
The open-top jeep is the island signature and the island nuisance. Two things decide whether the day goes well: the insurance you agreed to, and where you last filled up.
11 min readSofía Ruelas
It is charged per person at the gate, with a reduced rate for children and infants usually free. The price is set in pesos and has been revised more than once, so dollar figures online go stale quickly — budget somewhere around twenty-five US dollars per adult and confirm on arrival. The ticket covers the lighthouse, the navigation museum, the lagoon boardwalk and the beach. Loungers and food are extra.
Effectively yes. Past the gate there is roughly five miles of narrow internal road down to the lighthouse and beaches, there is no parking at the entrance, and walking it in that heat is not realistic. A rental jeep is the standard answer. An organised tour that includes the gate fee and the driving works well on a tight schedule. A taxi only works if you negotiate a round trip with waiting time first.
Yes. American crocodiles live in the Laguna Colombia system behind the dunes, and they are regularly visible from the mangrove boardwalk and the wooden observation tower, most often early or late in the day. They are wild and unfed, which is why nobody swims, wades or launches anything in the lagoons. Stay on the boardwalk, do not feed anything, and do not walk the lagoon edge for a closer photograph.
Yes, and it is one of the better shore snorkels on Cozumel. Colombia Shallows runs close enough inshore at the park beach that you can swim out from the sand to coral heads and fish without a boat. It is weather-dependent and the current around the island's tip is noticeable, so judge conditions on the day. Bring your own mask if fit matters; on-site rental is limited.
On an eight-hour call, yes, if you have transport sorted in advance. It is forty-five minutes to an hour each way from the piers before you have done anything, and two hours inside the park is the minimum that justifies the gate fee. Self-driving works only with a jeep booked the day before. On a shorter call, take an organised excursion that bundles the gate fee and let somebody else watch the clock.