Layout of Cozumel
Cozumel is an island about 48 km long and 16 km across, roughly 478 km², separated from the mainland by a channel 19 km wide and more than 400 m deep. It is Mexico's most populous island; the municipality recorded 88,626 residents in 2020. Almost all of them live in San Miguel de Cozumel, the single town, which sits on the west coast facing the mainland. Its seafront boulevard is Avenida Rafael E. Melgar, running past the main square and the passenger ferry terminal; behind it the grid is simple, with avenidas numbered inland in fives and calles numbered even to the north and odd to the south of Avenida Benito Juárez, the road that crosses the island to the east coast.
The airport (CZM) is about 3 km north-east of the square, close enough that taxis reach the ferry terminal in ten minutes. Three cruise piers serve the island: Punta Langosta at the edge of town, and the International Pier and Puerta Maya a few kilometres south, which together make Cozumel one of the busiest cruise calls in the world. Only the west coast is developed. The east side, facing the open Caribbean, has a single coastal road, no towns, strong surf and undertow, and a handful of beach restaurants; the interior is low scrub and forest with the Maya site of San Gervasio near its centre.
Distances from Cozumel
| Place | km | Time | How |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cozumel airport (CZM) | 3 | 10 min | Taxi |
| San Gervasio ruins | 16 | 20 min | Cross-island road |
| Playa del Carmen | 19 | 35 min | Passenger ferry |
| Calica vehicle ferry | 22 | 1 h 15 | Car ferry |
| Punta Sur lighthouse | 30 | 40 min | Coastal road south |
| Cancún airport (CUN) | 70 | 1 h 45 | Ferry plus Hwy 307 |
| Tulum | 75 | 2 h | Ferry plus Hwy 307 |
| Cancún | 85 | 2 h | Ferry plus Hwy 307 |
| Chichén Itzá | 200 | 3 h 30 | Ferry plus Hwy 180 |
| Mérida | 320 | 4 h 30 | Ferry plus Hwy 180 and 180D |
Reefs, beaches and the Maya island
The reefs off the south-west shore are the reason the island is on the map for divers. Palancar, Santa Rosa, Colombia, Paso del Cedral and Chankanaab sit along the drop-off where the shelf falls away into the channel, part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef that runs from the tip of the peninsula to Honduras. A steady current sets north along the wall, so most diving here is drift diving, with the boat following the group. Jacques Cousteau filmed the reefs in 1961 and the publicity that followed began the island's dive industry; the Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel was decreed in 1996 and covers the southern reefs and the shore behind them.
Beaches on the west coast are small and mostly attached to clubs, strung along the road south of town; Chankanaab, about 9 km south, is a lagoon and shore-diving spot inside the park. At the southern tip, the Punta Sur ecological reserve holds the Celarain lighthouse, the Laguna Colombia crocodile lagoon and a small Maya navigation shrine. The east coast beaches — Chen Río and Playa Bonita among them — are swimmable only in sheltered pockets. Hurricanes Emily and Wilma both crossed the island in 2005 and reshaped several reef sites and beaches, and the season runs from 1 June to 30 November with the greatest risk in September and October. Punta Molas, the north-east corner, has no paved access.
Before the Spanish, Cozumel was a sanctuary of Ixchel and one of the main pilgrimage destinations in the Maya world, with San Gervasio as its ceremonial centre. Juan de Grijalva reached the island in 1518 and Hernán Cortés stopped here in 1519; introduced disease and later depopulation emptied it, and San Miguel was refounded in 1848 by families fleeing the Caste War on the mainland. The island became a cruise call in the 1980s and the municipality of Solidaridad, which contains Playa del Carmen, was split off from it in 1993, leaving Cozumel with the island and a small mainland strip. See the archaeological sites map, the Riviera Maya map and the beaches map for the wider picture.
Questions about Cozumel
Where is Cozumel on the map of Mexico?
It is an island in the Caribbean off the coast of Quintana Roo, 19 km east of Playa del Carmen and about 85 km south of Cancún. The only town is San Miguel, on the sheltered west side.
How do you get to Cozumel?
By passenger ferry from Playa del Carmen, about 35 minutes, or by air into Cozumel International (CZM), 3 km from town. Vehicles cross on a separate ferry from Calica, south of Playa del Carmen.
Why is Cozumel known for diving?
The reefs on the sheltered south-west shore — Palancar, Santa Rosa, Colombia and Paso del Cedral — are part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, with a steady northward current that makes drift diving the norm. The national marine park was decreed in 1996.
Does sargassum reach Cozumel?
Sargassum has affected the Mexican Caribbean since 2015, mainly from May to October, and it lands on the island's exposed east coast. The west coast, where the town, the piers and the dive sites are, is sheltered and takes far less of it.