Cozumel Shore Excursion – Snorkeling at Chankanaab

Looking for a great, family-friendly excursion in Cozumel? We highly recommend a day at Chankanaab Park! One of the stops on our Western Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Magic was Cozumel. And I knew it would be a great place to do some snorkeling! No trip to the Caribbean would be complete for me without the chance to snorkel. I LOVE it SO much! That’s sometimes tough though with little ones who can’t swim well enough to spend a lot of time in the water (or are too young for some of the boat/excursion requirements). So, we knew we wanted to find a place that might have some good snorkeling on our cruise, yet have a nice beach spot or other activities for those who weren’t snorkeling. And we found that at Chankanaab Park in Cozumel! It was the PERFECT spot families because there is SO much to do! Obviously, there is fabulous snorkeling (and diving), but if that’s not your thing there is plenty of other stuff! You can hang out at the pool, do a dolphin swim/encounter, visit the “crocodile farm”, see a sea lion show, or just hang out on the beach eating some delicious food! When we arrived, there were some photo opps, including one with some gorgeous red & green macaws (for no extra cost, just an optional tip). The boys even got to hold them!!! SO fun! After exploring a bit and having fun with the photos, we found a great little beach area that’s perfect for kids and made that our home base (under a nice little tropical umbrella). The kids LOVED playing in the water here! It was shallow enough that even the littlest guy (who turned 4 that day in Cozumel – so fun!) could stand in the majority of the little cove area. Plus, the kids saw a huge iguana on the rocks and all kinds of fish in the water! So it was GREAT for little ones! While one adult stayed there with two kids, the other adult went over to the snorkeling beach area with another kid. We took turns like this the whole afternoon we were there and it worked out great! And the snorkeling…oh the snorkeling! It was FANTASTIC! We saw SO many different kinds of fish!! And so many of them were SO close! There’s some underwater statues in the water too! I’ve snorkeled in many places (like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, Hawaii, Turks & Caicos, Costa Rica, California) and this was my second favorite spot! The kids ALL went “snorkeling” too. Big Brother (9) absolutely rocked it with a mask & snorkel. He and I went out two different times for a total of at least 2 hours in the water! It was fabulous!! Then, Daddy took turns taking the littler ones (6 and 4). They’re not fans of the mask & snorkel yet. But, they wore a Puddle Jumper (for added buoyancy) and goggles. There were SO many fish that the kids had NO problem seeing all kinds of things just with holding their breath & looking with googles! It was such a cool experience for them!LOVE! We had SO much fun with this! But, we also enjoyed some lovely relaxing time too. While we lounged at the little beach cove area watching the kids play, there was a bar nearby with many waiters on hand. They just started a tab and kept running drinks & food for everyone in the area. We couldn’t resist a tropical drink or some chips & freshly made guac! We only spent $40 on chips & guac, a couple pina coladas, bottled water, and a few bottles of soda. SUPER YUM! So, our day in Cozumel was absolutely fabulous for us! We loved our time at the beach and would go back to Chankanaab in a heartbeat if we were in Cozumel again! Carnival has quite a few great Chankanaab shore excursion options (some include the Dolphin Discovery encounters) available for purchase or you can take a cab from the port terminal (only a 5-10 minute ride from the port). Such a great day!

Have YOU ever been to Chankanaab? What did you do there?

For more about our Carnival Magic Cruise trip, be sure to check out the following posts:

• Carnival Magic To-Do List
• Carnival Magic Top 10 Activities on Board
• Costa Maya, Mexico – Chacchoben Mayan Ruins Excursion
• Belize (coming soon)

For even more Carnival information, be sure to follow Carnival Cruise Lines:

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Carnival/
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Carnival main website: http://www.carnival.com/

Disclosure: We were invited to participate in the #LetsGOCarnival retreat/press trip with SJ Consulting, sponsored by Carnival. Some shore excursions were provided, though this one we paid for on our own.

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