Puerto Aventuras Travel Guide

In the 1970's Puerto Aventuras was developed as a marina and golf community. Today it is a modern, gated yachting and tourist destination. The central theme of this condominium-filled destination is water. The Caribbean Sea lies to its west, the canals cut through from all sides, and at its center is a dolphin-filled lagoon. 

Despite the water features everywhere, there's actually very little beach and sea access because there is only a small bay that is part of Puerto Aventuras. This makes lodging choice doubly important in planning a visit here, unless you'd rather hang out at the pool. If this is the case, the three hotels in town (Dreams, Catalonia, and Omni) all have great pools, and they all also have beach access. There are also many condos and villas for rent, and almost all of them also have pools, but few of them have beach access.

The most central of the hotels is Omni Puerto Aventuras Hotel Beach Resort. It is in front of the lagoon and Dolphin Discovery, a five-minute walk to Puerto Aventuras Golf & Racquet Club (a 9-hole jungle course and two tennis courts), and is surrounded by restaurants, cafes and small stores. The other two, Dreams Puerto Aventuras Resort & Spa and Catalonia Riviera Maya, are all-inclusive and a ten-to-twenty-minute walk from the town center. They do also offer shuttles between the hotels and the town.

The restaurants around the lagoon offer Mexican food, Italian cuisine, hamburgers, fish & chips, and range from pubs to fine dining. Of course, because Puerto Aventuras was planned as a luxury development, prices range from moderately high to high. A few of these pubs and restaurants offer live music at night, but don't expect to find a late-night party atmosphere here. The town closes at 11 p.m.

Besides golf and tennis, there are other various outdoor activities offered in town. These include snorkeling in the bay, diving, swimming with dolphins in the lagoon, fishing, and touring the Caribbean on yachts and catamarans at sunset.

One of the biggest lures of Puerto Aventuras is its strategic location. It is not the busy tourist location that Playa del Carmen is, but is only a fifteen-minute drive from there, and is a great base from which to visit some of the area's biggest tourist attractions. Xcaret, Xplor, Delphinus, and Rio Sectreto are twelve kilometers from Puerto Aventuras and Punta Venado (offers horseback riding on the beach) is only 10 kilometers away.

Where to Go in Puerto Aventuras