Tulum is a diver’s paradise, offering some of the most unique and breathtaking cenote dives in the world. These natural sinkholes, formed over thousands of years, provide divers with crystal-clear waters, fascinating cave systems, and a glimpse into the ancient Mayan underworld. Whether you’re an experienced diver or a beginner, Tulum’s cenotes offer something truly special.
Casa Cenote
Features:
- Mangroves
- Fossils
- Halocline
- Underwater life
- Dancing light
Minimum Certification: Beginner / Open water
Casa Cenote is a perfect Cenote for divers of all levels. It’s a great place to start a week of cenote diving, refresh your skills or, if there are non-divers in the group it’s a great place to snorkel or even try discovering diving for the first time. Newbies can’t go into the Cave.
It has a big Open Water area so it offers the divers a safe place to practice your safety skills before going to discover the cavern.
This cenote is surrounded by mangroves, which are home to numerous juvenile fish, protected from predators and with all the food necessary for their growth. The unique underwater life is an unforgettable experience, enhanced by the sunlight passing through the mangroves.
Once inside the cavern certified divers can experiment and play with the Halocline that is a surprising visual effect. We will also admire the fossils of conches and giant corals, as well as some other surprises.
This is a great dive for all levels of divers, It’s full of surprises from the beginning to the end.
So Casa Cenote is the Best Cenote if you are a beginner and you’re nervous about Cenote Diving?
Car Wash
Features:
- Fossils
- Dancing light
- Rock Formations
- Stalactites and Stalagmites
Minimum Certification: Open water
Car Wash is great for seeing nature and marine life. The abundance of light makes it a particular favorite of photographers and videographers.
The larger open water area is home to fish, a turtle and sometimes we see a small crocodile. This area is a great training space, so if you want to do a Sidemount or Cavern Course, this is where we will come to start the training. The cavern is very large, from the darkness inside, we look out on a beautiful wall of light outside.
There are broken pottery, coral, fossils and rock formations to see as well.
If you want to get stunning pictures and videos, let’s go to Cenote Car Wash.
Car Wash is the Best Cenote for Photography?
Dos Ojos
Features:
- Dancing Light
- Rock Formations
- Stalactites and Stalagmites
- Fossils
Minimum Certification: Open water
It’s quite shallow with an average depth of only 5 meters. There are big caverns to swim through with lots of natural light coming in. But the best thing about Dos Ojos is the Stalactites & Stalagmites. These are crazy rock formations that look like they are flowing liquid, they are abundant in the massive cavern at Dos Ojos. Coral and conch fossils decorate the passageways.
There are two dives the Barbie line has bigger passageways and formations, whereas the Bat cave is darker but with more beautiful formations. So the dives get a little more challenging as the day progresses.
It is the classic cenote diving experience, a bucket list dive for any open water trained diver.
Dos Ojos is the Best Cenote Dive for Open Water trained divers?
Calavera
Features:
- Halocline
- Fossils
- Dancing Light
- Stalactites and Stalagmites
Minimum Certification: Open water
Calavera means skull in Spanish and this dive is more challenging than the previous dives. There is a 10ft / 3m drop into the water, don’t worry there is a ladder to climb up at the end.
Upon entering we are rewarded with a beautiful green light that marks the entrance. Calavera is the best dive to see the halocline.
As the salt and freshwater come together it creates as when we dive through it. You have to see it, to believe it. The refracting light looks like another surface to the water. On the dive we see a stunning visual effect, rock formations that look like modern art sculptures, fossils of coral and plants decorate the walls and floor, and ancient Mayan artifacts that have been found on the dive site conveniently placed for us to look at. At the end of the dive, we surface underneath hundreds of bats nesting on the Cenote ceiling.
It s an epic cenote dive for anyone who wants to see the magical halocline.
Calavera is the Best Cenote to see a Halocline?
The Pit
Features:
- Cloud of Hydrogen Sulfate
- Rock Formations
- Stalactites and Stalagmites
- Halocline
- Dancing Light
Minimum Certification: Advanced
The Pit is the fairytale dive. It’s a deep dive so you must be advanced certified to do it. The Pit is a vast chamber with many special Cenote features. We see a cloud of hydrogen sulfide gas that looks like thin wispy layers of smoke in the water. Beams of light penetrate from the surface 100ft / 30m to the bottom of the room. To see this from the back of the chamber is one of those truly special moments, but we need a clear sky for the best effect. The position of the beams changes at different times of the year. A halocline divides the space in two.
The visual effects we see here can be truly out of this world. There are stalactites on the ceiling and a few stalagmites on the floor. The CAVE entrance off to the side goes down to 200 ft/ 120m, we don’t go that far 130ft / 40m max for DEEP TRAINED divers.
The Pit is the Best Deep Cenote Dive?
Angelita
Features:
- Hydrogen Sulfate Cloud
- Rock Formations
- Stalactites and Stalagmites
- Halocline
- Unforgettable atmosphere
Minimum Certification: Advanced
Angelita is a deep dark dive into a cloud of hydrogen sulfide gas. That’s right, it’s a gas that has formed because of decomposing vegetation that has fallen into the Cenote. It’s poisonous so we don’t drink it and that’s why we call this dive the horror movie dive. It’s like an alien landscape you will feel as if you are in another world.
Unlike other Cenotes, we don’t go into a cavern. It’s cylindrical in shape and down at 100ft / 30m is the cloud. During the Cenotes formation, the falling ceiling rocks have blocked the cave entrance, so there is no flowing water and the gas builds up.
The atmosphere is like being on another planet. Fallen rocks form an island that rises out of the gas. Dead trees rest on the island and the adjacent wall. Under the cloud, it’s pitch black like a night dive. The best bit is when we rise through the cloud and halocline, which is just above it.
If you want a deep dark dive into a cloud of poisonous gas, then maybe Angelita is the dive for you.
Angelita or The Pit. You have to decide which is the most awesome Cenote Diving experience?
Are there any other cenotes to visit?
Absolutely. There are many more beautiful cenotes that we can visit. Some are beautiful but just not as beautiful as others like Nicte Ha and TakBi Ha. There are some cenotes that are a bit more challenging like Dreamgate. That would require us to see you diving in cenotes for at least one day before we go there. Then of course once you have fallen in love with cenote diving you can do your cave course and open the door to a wonderful and exhilarating new type of Scuba Diving.
- Tajma Ha
- Nicte Ha
- TakBi Ha
- Dreamgate
So that’s it our Guide to the Best Cenotes to Dive in Tulum.
As you can see the most important thing to guarantee your safety & enjoyment, is that you decide on the right Cenote for you. So long as the Cenote is suitable for the skill level of everyone in the group, we will all have a safe and awesome day out.
We love to dive in Cenotes, are passionate about the Caves, and fanatical about your safety.
Dos Ojos Cenote Diving 2021 Largest in the World
Casa Cenote Diving 2021 Discovering the Mangroves from below
Cenote Calavera: The Skull Cenote and Temple of Doom in Tulum
Car Wash Cenote 2021- Underwater Life & A Wall of Light
The Pit Cenote Mexico 2021 El Pit Tulum
