Visited Punta Sur Eco Park

WHO WE ARE: We are two adults in our mid-40s (male and female), with a 7-year-old boy. We arrived at Cozumel on 11/8/17 by cruise ship (Norweigan Escape). We typically do our own excursions, instead of booking tours through the ship.

WHY PUNTA SUR ECO PARK? This was our second time in Cozumel. In 2013. we went to Dolphin Discovery, which was fun, but we wanted something different this time. Unfortunately, Cozumel is small and doesn't have many other activities. We wanted to do more than just go to the beach, and day resorts don't appeal to us. After a lot of searching, I came upon Punta Sur Eco Park, which seemed to have enough to do and see, while not being too crowded or touristy.

RENTING A CAR: You will need a car if you want to visit Punta Sur Eco Park. It is possible to taxi there, but you will need the driver to wait with you while you do your various activities, as they are not close to one another, so there is driving required within the park. This would get very expensive. Instead, I chose to rent a car from AVIS. It's actually quite inexpensive. The car they call the "Compact" should work just fine, and actually isn't all that compact. While I despise those rental car supplemental insurance plans, and absolutely never take them, this is the one exception. If you don't take their $45 insurance plan, you will be forced to sign a paper authorizing them to pre-auth your credit card for $1700 and charge you for any damage, so it's better just to do the pricey insurance here. You should still get away paying under $80 total for the car.

BEWARE OF RENTING FROM THE WRONG LOCATION! I was led to believe that our ship would dock at Punta Langosta, so I made the reservation for over there. Instead, we docked at Puerta Maya, which was about 3 miles away! Whoops! Make sure you find out from your cruise company for SURE which dock they will be using. If docking at Puerta Maya, you should use the AVIS located inside Hotel Park Royal. If docking at Punta Langosta, you should use the "Punta Langosta Pier-Rafael E Melgar Blvd" location. It was a pain in the butt, but I got my reservation changed and was able to rent at the Hotel Park Royal location. Both should be walking distance from their respective piers, but choose the right one!

DRIVE TO THE PARK: Driving in Cozumel is very easy. It's pretty much like driving in the US. Roads are good, and you're on the right side of the road. It is easy to get to Punta Sur Eco Park. Just drive south on the main highway on the coast, and you will reach the park when you're at the southern tip of the island. If the road turns and starts heading northeast, you've gone too far. It takes about 30 minutes to get there.

ENTRANCE FEES: It is $14 for adults and $8 for kids. You pay in US Dollars. If you have pesos, you can pay using those, and it's actually a bit cheaper. More on that later.

ROAD WITHIN THE PARK: There is one main road within the park, which stretches a few miles. It is a dirt road, and it's full of potholes. An average car can still navigate it, but drive slowly and always keep your eyes on the road. It will probably take about 20 minutes to go from one end of the park to the other. It dead ends at the beach.

ELEMENTS OF THE PARK: There are four main areas of the park. Some will require a longer visit than others. You will first encounter the Mayan Ruins & Lagoon Observation Deck/Tower. Then you will encounter the Lighthouse Area. Then you will finally reach the end, which has the Lagoon Boat Tour on one side, and the beach on the other. I will go over each of these below.

MAYAN RUINS & LAGOON OBSERVATION DECK/TOWER: There are some very small Mayan ruins on the side of the road. It's worth stopping and looking at, but will only take a few minutes.. Directly across from it is the lagoon observation deck and tower. We were short on time so we did not go here, but it's basically a walkway and a tower you can climb to look down on the lagoon, and sometimes see crocodiles and/or exotic birds.

LIGHTHOUSE AREA: Definitely a must-see. You can climb this lighthouse, and you will have a great view of the island of Cozumel from the deck at the top. This is included with admission. The climb involves navigating some narrow steps at times, and it's a bit of a squeeze to get through the small and low opening to the observation deck, but most average adults should be able to do it, as should children 5 and up (but make sure to watch them). Also in the lighthouse area is another small Mayan ruin, which is a very short walk away. There are also some shops there, but you should avoid them. They are a ripoff, and there are a lot of complaints about them on review sites.

LAGOON BOAT TOUR: Also included with your admission is a free lagoon boat tour. They will take you around the lagoon and show you crocodiles. We saw two on our tour, including one which got a bit angry and snarled at us (but we were never in danger). The boat tour is in both English and Spanish, but this is actually a bit annoying, because the tour guide jumps between English and Spanish constantly, to where it's hard to follow even if you speak both languages. We still learned some interesting things about the lagoon and the area. I will say that we didn't actually see very much after the two crocodiles, as we seemed to just boat around the lagoon without anything of interest to look at. I did see an interesting, long-wingspan bird near the beginning of the boat tour, but the guide didn't see it, so I never got to find out what it was. This tour only tends to go 3 times per day, at 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm. It is worth doing, but it's not a tragedy if you miss it.

BEACH: Finally, I want to say a few things about the beach. If you want to go to the beach in Cozumel, this is a great choice, because it is VERY EMPTY. The park admission fee and private management of the area keeps the obnoxious trinket sellers out, and the distance from port (and need for a rental car) keeps most tourists away. You will feel like you have the beach to yourself for the most part. I also found the beach itself to be nice, with warm, calm, clear water. There are lounge chairs with umbrellas which you are allowed to use for FREE, and you are not required to buy anything. They do sell food and drink there, and the prices are okay (not cheap, not expensive). However, again, if you have pesos, use those, because the "exchange rate" they give isn't very fair. You can rent a locker for your stuff. They tried to hustle me with the exchange rate, claiming it was "50 pesos or 4 dollars", which I knew wasn't true. I told them that it's actually between 2 and 3 dollars, and they came down to 3, but that was it. "We don't do exchange rate here," they said to me. Kind of obnoxious, but whatever. You can buy a cocunut and drink from one if you want (it's $5), which we did mainly so we could say we did it. They serve alcohol, too. There is a bathroom and a weird shower outside which is operated by pulling a rope and you wait for the water to spill down. Snorkeling is nonexistent on the beach itself, but if you start swimming off to the right, you will eventually reach some typical tropical fish and some larger ones. For example, I saw a stingray and a large fish which looked like a large barracuda. I would suggest a life vest and fins (only if snorkeling), as the current picks up a bit when you get away from the main beach. Overall, I was very happy with this beach, because it was a nice, semi-private experience, and very different from the usual crowded Caribbean beach experience. There were some complaints on review sites about the beach smelling bad, but I didn't find this to be the case at all. It was really nice.

PARK HOURS: The park is listed as being open from "9am to 4pm", but that's not quite true. While they do open at 9, there are 3 separate closure times. The lagoon tour sends out its last boat at 2pm. The beach stays open until 4:20pm. The rest of the park stays open until 5:30pm. We left at about 5:15pm. If you plan to do all of the above, I would suggest allowing yourself about 5 hours total.

MOSQUITOS: We were there in early November. There was not a big mosquito problem, but I did get two bites. I was told by park staff that mosquitos are nonexistent in November, but that wasn't true. You should spray some repellant before you go.

CUSTOMER SERVICE: The employees at Punta Sur Eco Park aren't very friendly, and in fact some seem frustrated when you ask them questions. None were outright rude, but they just seem kind of annoyed by tourists. I was especially bothered by their attempt to scam me out of an extra dollar for that locker at the beach. Also, I collect foreign currency at each place we go for our son, and I tried to exchange a dollar for some pesos. I didn't even care about the exchange rate. They aboslutely refused to do it, for reasons they couldn't explain. "We just can't," they told me. Very odd.

OVERALL: While Punta Sur Eco Park isn't perfect, I was very happy with my choice to go there. There's a little of everything there, it's not crowded, the beach is nice, it's not touristy, and you have a nice day for the $14 per person you pay to get in. Just beware of the potholed road, don't buy anything from the "shops" there (except food), and time everything properly. It's definitely a great (and relatively easy) "off the beaten path" choice for Cozumel.

Fabulous write-up Thank you so much for taking the time to write this and to post it.

Keith