Xcalacoco
Overview
Xcalacoco, Maya for "twin coconuts", is a quiet stretch of coast about four kilometres north of Playa del Carmen, in Solidaridad municipality, between the town and the Mayakoba resort development. It has small beach restaurants serving fresh fish, rustic cabañas, palms to the waterline and long stretches of open sand, with a small wooden pier often used for weddings. Part of the beach is used mainly by locals, while the other part is fronted by hotels, among them The Fives Azul Beach Resort.
There is a reef close offshore, which makes snorkelling from the beach practical, and a cenote a short distance inland.
The public access ends in a walkway with public toilets, showers and changing rooms, a lifeguard station and a buoyed swimming area right where it reaches the sand. Entry is free.
Our current condition score for this beach is .
Photo summary of last month
Each photograph is published unedited and in date order, and is replaced as newer submissions arrive, so what appears here is the most recent view of the beach rather than a promotional photograph.
Photographs are published unedited and in date order, so what appears below is the most recent view of the beach rather than a promotional image.
Look at the waterline as well as the sand.
Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt
Sargassum reaching this coast is carried west across the tropical Atlantic, into the Caribbean, and then north-west along the Quintana Roo shore by the Yucatán Current. Xcalacoco faces east into that flow, as the whole coast between Tulum and Cancún does.
In September and October 2026, our photographs often showed heavy sargassum along this northern stretch, from Playa 72 and Playa 88 up to Xcalacoco, on days when the centre of Playa del Carmen was in better condition.
The sargassum season
The regional season runs from roughly May to August, heaviest in June and July, with a quiet period from late autumn into spring. A summer visit here is better planned around a live check than around an average.
The wider picture for this coast, including how the belt has grown over the past decade, is set out in our Riviera Maya sargassum season guide.
Swimming conditions and safety
The swim is easy in normal conditions: shallow, calm and shelving gently, with the reef taking the swell. Snorkelling straight off the beach is the main attraction, and the reef is close enough to reach without a boat.
Footwear is worth having, since the bottom turns to rock and seagrass in places, and the public access has a lifeguard station and a buoyed swimming area. Bring water and shade, since the restaurants are few.
On sargassum: fresh weed in the water is harmless, if unpleasant to swim through. The sulphurous smell some visitors associate with it comes from material that has decomposed on hot sand for a day or more and is releasing hydrogen sulphide, so a strong smell indicates old weed rather than a fresh arrival.
Choosing a hotel on this stretch
Accommodation here is small-scale: cabañas, guesthouses and a few boutique properties, rather than resorts. The large development is at Mayakoba immediately north, which is a different proposition entirely and has its own maintained frontage.
The trade is straightforward: Xcalacoco offers quiet and a beach that has not been landscaped, at the cost of the range of services in town. Playa del Carmen is a short drive away for restaurants and shops.
Access and getting there
Xcalacoco is reached from Highway 307 about four kilometres north of Playa del Carmen. At the traffic light signposted for The Fives Azul and Coco Cabañas, turn toward the sea and follow the narrow road, Avenida Xcalacoco, for about two kilometres to the public access next to The Fives. The access is not well signposted, and parking along the road is limited, especially at weekends. Colectivos running the highway between Playa del Carmen and Cancún stop at the turn-off on request, leaving that two-kilometre walk to the sea; taxis from Playa del Carmen are what most visitors use.
Colectivos running the highway between Playa del Carmen and Cancún will stop at the turn-off on request, leaving a walk of a kilometre or so down to the sea. Taxis from Playa del Carmen are straightforward and are what most visitors use. Cancún airport is around fifty minutes by road.
Parking is informal ground near the beach restaurants, some of which expect a purchase in exchange, and those arrangements change; they are best settled on the spot rather than taken from any page.
We also publish no map for this beach. No coordinate for Xcalacoco has been published by any source we can cite, and this project does not put a pin on a map that it cannot source.
Check live conditions before you go
A reef this close inshore makes conditions here patchy rather than uniform, and the beach is not raked, so it reads differently from the managed frontages either side. On the live map we track Xcalacoco with dated photographs and a current condition score, so you can compare it against Punta Bete, Mayakoba and Playa del Carmen on the same morning.
See live conditions, photos & cams →