A few hours drive south of Cancun on an excellent highway are the ruins of Tulum a Mayan site that has been very well restored.
After our visit to Tulum we drove north a few miles to Akumal and had a sunset dinner at La Buena Vida. We had the best ceviche in memory sitting at a table right on the sand on beautiful Half Moon Bay. Life truly is good!
My recommendation, if you are staying on the Mayan Riviera and have one day for tourism skip the snorkel parks. Go to Tulum and hire a guide for the history stuff and then head to the beach at Akumal for free swimming and snorkeling. Finally eat at La Buena Vida.
You can tell when I’m making blog posts with my iPad because I haven’t figured out how to center the photos yet.
If you have the time, the ruins at Coba are even more spectacular- it’s about an hour inland from Tulum.