The Best Time to See Turtles in Akumal

There is no turtle season in Akumal Bay: the refuge’s protection programme describes a permanent group of turtles feeding on the seagrass in the north of the bay, so you can swim with them in any month. What decides a good day is the sea. The turtle circuits run from 9 am to 5 pm in daylight and stop when the wind is over 25 km/h; the Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November; and sargassum seaweed can foul the beach on some days. Book for a morning you can move if the wind comes up.

The year at a glance

Turtle and nesting dates from the refuge’s protection programme (DOF, 6 October 2017) and a 2020 study of loggerhead nesting on Akumal’s beaches in Scientific Reports; hurricane season from Mexico’s national weather service.

Any month for the turtles

The turtles you meet in the bay are there to eat. The protection programme calls the bay’s seagrass beds feeding and resting grounds for three sea turtles, green, loggerhead and hawksbill, and places a permanent feeding group in the north of the bay. Centro Ecológico Akumal, the bay’s conservation group, judges the green turtles in its videos to be juveniles of four or five years. Turtles are wild, so no month promises a sighting, and no tour can guarantee one.

The time of day

The circuits open at 9 am and close at 5 pm, and the swim happens only in daylight. Each group gets about 55 or 65 minutes in the water, depending on the circuit, and the daily cap is 256 people on one circuit and 300 on the other. Pick a slot that leaves room for a second try later in the day or later in the week, in case the wind closes the water.

Wind, storms and seaweed

• Wind. The refuge rules stop the turtle swim when the wind is over 25 km/h, and CONANP’s office or the authorities can suspend it too.
• Hurricane season, 1 June to 30 November. A storm can close the coast for days, so book with free cancellation if you travel then.
• Sargassum. Floating seaweed washes up on the Caribbean coast in some years and some weeks. Quintana Roo’s environment department publishes a sargassum traffic-light map; check it in the days before you go.

Nesting turtles

Swimming with turtles and watching turtles nest are two different things. Loggerheads come ashore on Akumal’s beaches to lay at night, mainly from May to July with a peak in June, according to a 2020 study of nesting in Akumal; with eggs incubating for about 57 days, the hatchlings follow through the summer. The refuge’s nesting-season rules run from 1 May to 30 November. The guided swims in the bay are a daytime activity and none of them visits a nest.

Rest periods

In August 2026 the president of one of the beach’s cooperatives announced that the turtle swim would pause for the whole of September 2026, and said the operators’ permits include two rest periods a year, in February and September. No official text confirms the rest periods, so if you travel in February or September, check with your tour before you plan the day around it.

Pick your swim

Prices, ratings and review counts from the listings (GetYourGuide checked October 2026; Viator checked October 2026). Operators price by date and season, so treat the figures as the shape of the market, not a quote.

Good to know

• The rules, from the life jacket to the sunscreen: the Akumal turtle rules.
• What to wear in the sun without sunscreen: what to bring.
• Going without a tour: Akumal without a tour.