The Ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen (and back again!)

Normally if you come to Cozumel with one of our group trips, you’re here to dive. You dive, eat, dive, eat, sleep, repeat or something like that… Hey, the diving here is fantastic, totally worth it! But, what else does Cozumel or Mexico have to offer you? Good question. If you are standing at the west ocean line you can see shoreline off in the distance. That is Playa del Carmen and it’s about 14 miles away. How do you get there? I’m so glad you asked.

Since they haven’t perfected the Scuba car yet, you’ll have to use the ferry. The ferry terminal is located right in downtown Cozumel, at the extension of Av. Lic. Benito Juarez, across from Palmeras Restaurant. It’s easily within walking distance from most places in downtown, or else tell your cab driver. They know exactly where it is and the cab fair is reasonable!

There are two ferry companies that travel back and forth from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen. One is Ultramar and the other is Mexico Water Jets. Some days they are both running while on the down times they take turns.

Tip from our cab driver: Only buy a one-way ferry ticket.  There are two ferry companies, and they don’t accept each other’s tickets.  Doing only one-way leaves you flexibility to ride one ferry on the way there and the other on the way back.

From the schedule online, the ferry runs every hour on the hour and it takes about 45 minutes to cross the distance between the two ferry stations. Not bad, right?

When we bought our ticket, we really figured we’d be outside, in the heat, traveling between the two ferry stations. I think you have the option of going outside to see the views, but there is also the indoor view. The ferry has an air conditioned section with comfy seats and everything. Nice, right? I was extremely impressed, not going to lie.

And then bam, you’re in Playa del Carmen.

Goodness, there was a lot to see and do in Playa del Carmen, but we didn’t stay. Nope, this was just our pick up point to head on to our final destination on the mainland… Chichén Itzá

Once we got back from Chichén Itzá we found a ticket station and bought our ticket to head back. Now, we knew the price it cost us to come over. They tried to sell us a more expensive ticket going back. I’m not really sure but when we heard the price we questioned it and got it for the price we paid coming over. Just keep in mind that in mind. I’m not really sure what happened, I think it was just a mistake… but just keep that in mind. We actually wound up coming home on the same ferry company as we went over on, but it was nice to know that if we had to, we could have bought from the other company.

Wow, the view from the Playa del Carmen shoreline was beautiful.

Then 45 minutes later (plus what we waited to board) we were back in Cozumel! Simple as that. If you’re looking for something fun to do on the “no dive” day… definitely think about going to Playa del Carmen. I’d really like to go back and see what all is there.

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