Do the turtle walk...we saw 4 turtles, and 1 laid eggs...wow what a great experience...will come back again and again!

We took the collectivo bus to Akumal beach and found the beach well organised, a guy from the centre grabbed us at the entrance and took us to the centre to show us the video on what is being done there and how the sea areas were split into different zones for boats and snorklers. We were offered a cheap rate for the hour tour however i like to do things in my own pace and had our own equipment with us. I think being made to rent a life jacket was a bit much as no one does this in the Red Sea so not sure if its a H&S thing or money making thing, however we could keep the jackets all day. We were advised by the guy at the centre that they are trying to stop any travel companies from carrying out tours there and only having a 250 people limit to the beach which seems a good idea to preserve the area however when you get to the coral its 15ft below you and hard to touch even if you can dive well. Plus if you dont mind the walk from the Gran bahia principe resort you could walk in from around the next bay in an hour, so not sure how they police the amount of people. Would love to go when they have the egg laying season.

it is interesting, well done, informative, provides welcomed shade and cool.
of course you must have some interest in turtles without beeing a turtologue yourself.
It is better to go in turtle-laying-egg season, if your job can be synchronised!

If you go to Akumal, snorkel on your own. Give a donation to the Centro, but do NOT go out with their "guide". Four of us went out. Within a few minutes we spotted a turtle, so we stopped to watch. When we looked for our guide, he was gone. Eventually we spotted him and caught up with him. That's right, we had to go after him. When I asked him why the tour was only about 40 min instead of the hour we had paid for, and why we didn't go out to the reef, he blamed us for "wandering off".
While it was very neat to see the turtles, you can do this without a guide.
A complete ripoff.