Punta Bete

• Reef close to shore, good snorkelling
• Rocky entry in places, water shoes help
• Reached by a track off Highway 307
• Little developed, rarely crowded
• Jungle right up to the sand
• A few rustic beach restaurants only
• Cabanas, camping and boutique resorts side by side

Overview

Punta Bete is a rocky point fringed by reef at the northern end of Playa Xcalacoco, a beach several kilometres long north of Playa del Carmen. It sits about four kilometres north of the town, reached by an unpaved road that runs about 2.5 kilometres east from Highway 307, around Km 298, which any car can drive; access to the beach is free, although some private parking lots charge 30 to 50 pesos, and it remains one of the least developed accessible stretches on this part of the coast.

The character of the place is unusual for the Riviera Maya, in that two very different kinds of accommodation share the same sand. Small rustic operations renting cabanas, and in places allowing camping, sit alongside boutique resorts at the top of the market, with thatch-roofed restaurants between them and dense jungle immediately behind. There is no promenade, no strip of shops and no beach club sound system.

The water is the main draw. A reef lies close enough to shore to snorkel from the beach, which is uncommon this far north, and the shallows are generally calm. The trade is the bottom: the shore here is rocky in stretches rather than uniformly sandy, some hotels lend water shoes to guests, and one resort has built a dock so swimmers can reach deeper water without wading over rock.

There is also a small archaeological site on the beach itself. Xcalacoco means twin coconuts in Maya, and the area is thought to have served as a minor Maya coastal port.

Our current condition score for this beach is .

Our photographic record

Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt

This coast faces east into the open Caribbean, and sargassum carried north by the Yucatán Current can reach it when the wind and current bring it in.

The nearshore reef here changes the local picture in both directions. It breaks the swell, which keeps the shallows calm and means arriving material tends to settle rather than be churned and pushed back out. Weed can therefore linger in the rocky sections longer than it would on an open sandy beach, held among the rock rather than washed clear.

The sargassum season

The Caribbean sargassum season runs broadly from spring into late summer, at its heaviest between April and August and easing through the autumn. What arrives at any particular beach depends on the wind and current of the days beforehand rather than on the month alone.

The practical difference at Punta Bete is that there is no municipal clearing programme and no hotel large enough to maintain the whole beach. The boutique properties rake their own frontage; the public and rustic sections are cleared by whoever operates them, or not at all. So the same week can produce a clean stretch of sand in front of one resort and an untouched waterline two hundred metres along.

The regional pattern is covered in our guide to sargassum season in the Riviera Maya.

Choosing a hotel on this stretch

The range here is wider than anywhere comparable on the coast. At one end are jungle-set boutique resorts with private plunge pools and their own dock; at the other, simple cabanas and a few places where a tent can be pitched on the sand. Both look out on the same water.

Two things are worth confirming before booking, whichever end of the range you choose: whether the property's own frontage is sandy or rocky, since this varies considerably over short distances, and how the property handles sargassum, since there is no shared clearing effort here. Jungle proximity also means insects, and the better properties provide repellent as a matter of course.

Access and getting there

The turn-off is east from Highway 307 north of Playa del Carmen, onto an unpaved road signposted for Xcalacoco. A car is the practical way to arrive; the colectivos running between Playa del Carmen and Cancún along the highway will drop passengers at the junction, leaving a walk of some distance to the sand.

There is no organised car park. Parking is informal, on the track and among the trees behind the beach, and there is no charge.

Facilities are minimal. The beach restaurants can supply food and water, but there are no public toilets or showers, and no lifeguard. Anyone planning to snorkel the reef should bring their own equipment, as rental is not reliably available.

Check live conditions before you go

The rocky sections here hold weed differently from an open sandy beach, so a recent photograph tells you more than a forecast. Our live card for Punta Bete carries the current condition score and the most recent contributor photographs with their dates.