I was just in The Mayan Riviera two weeks ago. We stayed at the Gran Principe Akumal, about 20 kms north of Tulum. We're not looking to party away the night, just hang out on the beach and do a few days of diving. For that purpose, the resort was good.
There are tons of different resorts down the coast and you can probably get good deals on them even in November. I think ours had somewhere around 1500 rooms in the whole complex and it might have been a third full.
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Originally Posted by troutman
Renting a car is the best way to see the ruins at Tulum and Chichen Itza. Visit the cenotes (caves) in the jungle. There is a nature preserve near the border with Belize.
Scuba diving at Cozumel.
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Definately agree on Chicken Itza. A few years ago we were in Cozumel and flew from there to Chichan Itza. It was awesome. First, the plane was some RUssian plane so it had cool Cyrrilic of the fasten your seat belt signs. The pilots flew us around the site so each side of the plane could take pictures. We were then met by a bus which took us to the deserted site and we had a fantastic guided tour. It was out ~20 people and maybe another dozen in the whole place. We were done by noon and as we were leaving the hordes of tour buses were just arriving from Cancun and the place was going to get busy fast. We had lunch, got back into the plane and flew to Cozumel. One of the best packaged excursions I've been on. If flying isn't an option, then self drive if you can and get started as early as possible to avoid the crowds.
One item of note, you can no longer climb the temple/pyramid at Chichen Itza. If you want to climb a temple, go to Coba.
Regarding diving, Cozumel was pretty heavily hit by the hurricanes a couple of years ago and I've heard mixed reviews since. If you are diving (or even snorkelling) and staying down in the riviera check out VIP Diving (vip-diving.net). They are a couple of French Canadian's who have a small operation. They took us to dive sites where we were the only ones out there instead of the resort dive shops who have a whole herd of people out on the boats. It was really good as we hit sites that were still in good condition.
If you're adventurous and an experienced diver they do cenote cavern dives too. Not as interesting looking at stalactites as it is looking at fish and coral, but it was an experience I can check off the life list.