Getting down to Tulum from Cozumel fast and early

[Ms. Ann Thrope]

We're thinking we'd like to leave Cozumel for a day during our upcoming trip and go down to Tulum to maybe meet up with a biosphere trip. Now, we've been down around Tulum bunches of times, but never on a strict early deadline--we'd need to be either down in Tulum by 8 or the biosphere by 9. In an ideal world, we'd take a 5:30 am ferry from Cozumel and pick up a car from someone in Playa who's agreed to rent us something at 7 am. But...I don't know if the ferry really is going to run that early in July, or if I'll be able to find anyone who will rent to us that early. So one of the Plan B ideas is to take the earliest ferry and hop a collectivo van--but frankly, it's been so long since we've used a collectivo van, we can't remember how it works--where in Playa you find them, how soon you can get them to leave, how much it costs, etc. I know if push comes to shove, we can take a taxi down and a leisurely bus ride back, or go rent our car the evening before, enjoy dinner in Playa and come back for the car in the morning, but does anyone have any tips that might be helpful to us in this situation?

 

[DandyDon]

I think the first ferry will be at 6am. I'm pretty sure that they go on the hour, not half hour, and I doubt there'll be a 5am boat. You just never know about them tho?

It'd be nice if you could get a car rental agent to meet your boat at 6:45 with your car and paperwork all done, but I think that'd be dreaming. I've only rented from one agency tho: 15 minute walk to office, 15 minutes in paperwork, 15 minutes for the car to come around, if they don't have problems. If you have to be in Tulum by 8am tho, you need to leave around 7am, and I doubt you can find any agency to open up early enough to get you gone by 7.

I've never ridden the collective van. I certainly would not want to ferry over to rent the car, ferry back to Coz for the night, then ferry over again. I'd rent the car the afternoon before, drive down to Tulum for the night and be there. Yeah, that may mean having hotels at both locations for the night; we've done it.

 

[driftwood]

To me it seems that the nut of your problem is in PDC. I am pretty sure that you can find answers/solutions with a post on Playa del Carmen info They should be able to get you a driver at an agreed upon rate or information on the Collectivos.

 

[vlkr]

2 ideas for you to consider
1- guillermo77 on this board is the owner of cancungotravel.com you might see what he can do for you along the lines of getting a driver with van for the day.
2- if he is too expensive, you could try negotiating with the taxi drivers who will be on the dock as the ferry arrives. if they are too expensive, go south along the water and then uphill (west) to the bus station (about a 4 min walk). there are buses from there to talum. you might want to google up ado bus company to see if you can find a sched.
good luck and have fun.

 

[sharky60]

Just a crazy thought...go over the night before and sleep on the beach?

Semi-seriously, cuz I'm not sure how safe this would be, but, a friend of mine recently went to Playa from Coz for a regge festival with his family.

They tried to rent a room in Playa, but all the available rooms had been jacked up in price, so when the concert got over in the wee early hours of the morning, they just went down to the beach and slept in the beach chairs until the sun came up and the ferry began to run.

you could do it in just the opposite direction, go over the night before, rent a car, drive down to the Tulum area or just stay in Playa and crash on the beach.

I also saw on "Globe Trekker" one time, that there were small huts on the beach down in the Tulum you could rent for the night like a holstle room, VERY cheap. I saw the show several years ago, I have no idea if anything like that still exists or not.

...just tryin' to help

 

[DandyDon]

So where are you looking at going exactly? Day tour? Sounds interesting.

Hotels in Tulum start at $48 and cabins at Sian Ka'an start at $65.

 

[Ms. Ann Thrope]

Ah, Sharky, those Tulum beach cabanas. I've stayed in a few. Some of them used to be really cheap back in the early '90s--on the order of $15 on one of the prettiest beaches ever (Don Armando's--shared baths, sand floors, thin foam mattress on a concrete slab, a candle to read by). Don Armando's is now Zazil Kin, and I think the shared-bath cabanas can still be had for about $40. I was shocked 10 years ago how much the beach zone had grown, and that another place we used to like, Ana y Jose's, now is crazy expensive.

I've found an ADO schedule--it looks like their service doesn't start early enough, but the Matab second-class buses do (but probably make too many stops to make it in time). I figured out where to get the collectivo vans, and that might work out ok. My preference is still to find someone who will agree to rent us a car early so we can be a little more exploratory.

Basically we're looking at maybe taking a Sian Ka'an biosphere trip (the longer ones that take in the canals), and most of them seem to leave Tulum at about 8 am. There are some shorter ones that start later in the day, so that's a possibility too. I've also found some info indicating we could gingerly pick our way down the bad road to Punta Allen and pay a fisherman to take us around. It's all still very much up in the air so far.