Sargassum report: Riviera Maya, month by month

A month-by-month record of sargassum conditions along the Riviera Maya. Each entry draws on three sources we maintain year-round: our live beach cams, the photographs our community submits, and the daily condition scores behind the live map. The page reads as a continuous history rather than a single snapshot.

It reveals, above all, how much conditions vary across short distances and how quickly a single beach can change. In the same week, one shore may be buried under seaweed while another a few kilometres away stays clear. This is precisely why conditions are worth tracking day by day, rather than trusting a seasonal average that hides the swings.

June 2026

In a line: a demanding month at the peak of the season. The exposed, east-facing mainland shores from Playa del Carmen through Tulum, and much of the Puerto Morelos area, saw heavy sargassum despite active cleaning. Meanwhile the sheltered northern corner of Cancún and Costa Mujeres held up well, and several Cancún beaches stayed genuinely clear throughout.

Playa del Carmen and Tulum: severely affected

Playa del Carmen and Tulum bore the brunt of the month. Both are open, east-facing shores that catch the incoming seaweed directly, and the volume through June outpaced what crews could clear. The offshore barrier near the Playa del Carmen ferry pier was overtopped repeatedly and did little to keep the water clear, and daily cleaning could not keep pace with how much seaweed kept washing ashore. Expect a similar pattern here whenever the influx is strong.

Puerto Morelos centro: the barrier worked, then the water turned

The barrier off Puerto Morelos centro was the local success story for much of June. For a good stretch it held the seaweed offshore and the water inside turned genuinely turquoise again, clearly visible on the live cam and a welcome sight after a difficult start to the season. Toward the end of the month, however, conditions changed: the water shifted to a murky brown and the clarity was lost. Notably, there is no large deposit piling up on the sand, so the beach itself still looks presentable; it is the beautiful clear water that has gone for now.

Around Puerto Morelos: a difficult month

The stretches surrounding the town centre, including Puerto Morelos norte, fared markedly worse and were affected for most of June. Without the shelter of the central barrier, these shores took the incoming seaweed head-on, a reminder that conditions can differ significantly within a single destination, not just between towns.

Akumal: overrun, with one clear week that proved a point

Akumal was overrun for the majority of the month. Its bay tends to hold seaweed once it arrives, and June gave it plenty. The telling moment came toward the end of the month, when our live cam captured a roughly week-long window where the water cleared and swimmers returned in numbers. That short reprieve is exactly the kind of change a seasonal forecast would miss entirely, and it is the clearest argument for why constant camera monitoring matters: the difference between a wasted beach day and a memorable one can come down to catching the right week.

Costa Mujeres, north of Cancún: a good month

Costa Mujeres, on the coast north of Cancún, had a comfortable month. Travellers reported only small amounts of sargassum along the shore, most of it cleared promptly by hotel staff, and the water stayed swimmable throughout. Its position on the northern coast gives it a degree of natural shelter that the fully east-facing beaches further south simply do not have.

Playa Tortugas and Playa Langosta, Cancún: mostly good

These two beaches sit inside the sheltered Bahía de Mujeres at the northern end of the Cancún Hotel Zone. Because they face the protected bay rather than the open Atlantic, they are naturally shielded from the worst of the sargassum and tend to be hit less than the open shores. June held to that pattern, clear for most of the month apart from a brief hit around 25 to 26 June, when ocean currents pushed sargassum onto the sand for a day or two before conditions settled again.

The winners at the end of the month: Punta Cancún, Playa Caracol, Playa Gaviota and Playa Delfines

Despite a heavy season, the beaches around the Punta Cancún corner were the standout performers of the month. Punta Cancún, Playa Caracol, Playa Gaviota (by the Forum) and even the open, ocean-facing Playa Delfines all drew consistent reports of crystal-clear water, pictured at the top of this report. Punta Cancún in particular stayed remarkably clear for a long, uninterrupted stretch. Conditions here can still change quickly, but through June this corner of the coast was the most reliable choice for clear water anywhere on the mainland.

On the same coastline, on the same day, one beach can be buried while another is crystal clear.

Conditions above are compiled from Sargazo Watch live beach cams, community photo reports and our daily condition scores. They describe general trends over the month and are not a guarantee of conditions on any given day.