YAL-KU CENOTE Y Laguna Yalku

Our group had such a good time! Especially love how fun the zip line helpers are! The gentleman who took us through the caves was very funny. The whole experience was great! Definitely visit if you vacation nearby! Also, I love that they are an animal sanctuary!

A must visit lagoon to snorkel and see a lot of fish and maybe even turtles (if you are lucky).
The place is beautiful and the price to get in is good if you go directly there without buying a tour.
You will find several people, as they take groups from tours, but you can happily swim around a d see the amazing fish
Perfect to take Instagram pictures and short reels.
Bring snorkel equipment and water camera.

First recommendation is go there early. It gets very busy after 11 am. Tours start bringing people in and it is not big enough to accommodate everyone. There was traffic jam in it towards the end. All you need 1-1.5 hours in total to see some fishes and do snorkeling. After that it becomes repetitive in my opinion. There are no turtles but fishes. You can take your own life vest, fins, GoPro, snorkel set etc. or rent it from them. It costs $17 USD per person.

In the morning when we got there, it was beautiful and we saw hundreds of fish. It's a beautiful lagoon with hammocks to rest in the shade along the trails, a quaint restaurant to stop in, showerz, locker to rent, beautifully maintained vegetation and jungles.

Great snorkeling spot! Lots of colorful fish with very clear visibility. Like another reviewer said, you can observe the halocline effect which is where fresh water and salt water become mixed and cause a distortion, very neat! It was 300 pesos to enter and 100 pesos for gear rentals. There are showers, bathrooms, and lockers available.

Lovely little spot with some great snorkelling if you go when the tour groups aren't there and haven't stirred the water up a bit. There are two owners/entrances to the lagoon the original one and the xcaret one. They both lead to the same swimming area but the main differences are that the original one is slightly cheaper (300 pesos) and life jackets are not mandatory whilst the xcaret one is a bit more built up i.e loungers food and drink etc. they both have showers and toilets.

I have included a map to the original one in my photos as I believe this is the better of the two personally just because of the life jacket situation (the water is more than salty enough for floating!)

The water is very clear though gets a bit blurry when stirred up by many swimmers as the lagoon is a mixture of fresh and salt in water. The current is relatively strong so would not recommend it for weak swimmers particularly if you swim further up towards the sea (as the current is against you trying to swim back to the entrances into the water).

The landscape is quite rocky out of the water (and sharp) so definitely need either water shoes or flip flops if you're having a bit of an explore off the path. The rocks inside the water are covered in seaweed/algae and are not sharp.

The original entrance does not have much shade which isn't under the dense trees (so comes with mosquitos!) So if you want to spend a whole day here (which is definitely possible) bring an umbrella if you want some shade along with food and drink (not alcohol though). There are around 10 spaces to park there so may need to get there early to grab a spot (we hired a taxi for the day which was cheaper or similar to the tour prices which di not stay at the lagoon long).

We had a lot of fun here. We used a tour guide service, and this is where they took us.
We saw some fish and got to swim around. My only disappointment was that it rained the day before. And the water was not as clear as normal. I would suggest you make sure to give yourself a couple days after it rains for a better experience.
However, there were many fish..
I would love to go back.

Amazing snorkel session. The Laguna have both fresh water and sea water with a big variety of fish.

Beautiful place which is like an outdoor aquarium.
Lots of different species to see up close.
Definitely a place to visit.

Great spot for snorkeling! Very clear water. Lots of sea life to see. Very shallow and enclosed in a bay so easy going for non swimmers. If your interested in snorkeling then this is the place to go!

Francisco was amazing! He was a great guide and told us all about the area and what we should expect to see. There are plenty of fish and very clear water. The depth is perfect for free diving as well. 10/10 recommend

Very special experience and highly recommendable! We had best conditions and clear water to see loads of fishes. For 2 people including mask and snorkle it was 1000 pesos but it was completely worth it.

Beautiful lagoon. Saw many different, colorful fish. Lizards on the rocks surrounding the lagoon. Shorebirds, too.Friendly staff. Limited parking. We arrived at 10 am on a Sunday and got the last parking spot. Pay parking lots available along the long road before you get to Yal-ku. Not sure of details.

Beautiful place for snorkeling. So many colorful fish to see. Bring your own snorkel gear or you can rent some at the entrance. They have bathrooms and showers at the entrance. The lagoon connects with the ocean. I would suggest fins as there is a slight current towards the ocean.

Amazing place to snorkel. We went with our kids (10 and 13). They did not have much experience snorkeling. This was a perfect place for them to learn in relatively calm waters with TONS of fish to see. As my wife said...it was like swimming in an aquarium!

Clean, safe and very cool spot for snorkeling in Tulum! You will see a ton of fish and even a turtle or two.

This was a nice first stop on a day long cenote tour. Worth the visit

Very good snorkeling. Lots of fish including big ines. We came with our own gear, cannot say anything about their equipment. We came to the entrance labeled as "main entrance", but it looks like there are at least two of different companies run snorkeling access.

So amazing! Beautiful wildlife!!
300 pesos for entrance
100 pesos for locker
100 pesos for fins

Great place beautiful waters and snorkeling. Wonderful people friendly English speaking. Great prices for a lot to do and see. The park has art pieces . Utilities at hand. Bathrooms and showers very clean. Security on premises at all the times . This is the 4 year going there.Thank you laguna.

Great way to spend the day. it’s very easy and very calm!