The park is in a circle, so it is easy to make your way around. Your entry fee includes 11 all-inclusive restaurants the caliber of any American theme-park restaurant. There are free bottled water depots, ice-cream depots, and mixed-drink depots all around as well. The photographers who take your photos all day do a great job. Make sure to check your photos before you leave, as we bought most of ours. Here you can go rock climbing and then jump into the ocean. You can go scuba diving, ride down the lazy river/ocean in a tube, visit with the dolphins, or just relax in the hundreds of coves they have set up for you - all included in your entry fee. You get your towels, a locker, and snorkel stuff at check-in, and it is very sad when the end of the day comes and you have to leave. There are millions of large fish. We have never seen such large, colourful fish in one place. It was well worth it. We will go back to Mexico just to visit Xel-Ha again!

A few steps from dolphin's encounter you can get into the caleta that's for scuba and snorkeling, a perfect place with really nice water and a lot of reefs. If you have small children they may enjoy the bees farm, jungle train tour, floating bridge, mo's flight, courage jump stone, and the main attraction, Lazy River. They can get some loops to cross the river or may go swimming and do some snorkeling.

For adults, they have sea trek that is walking along the reef just wearing a helmet and boots, you may feed the fishes, and they'll take you a picture for just $9. It is the perfect place for family fun.

At this point we took a few minutes to really look around us. All shades of green in this jungle-beach paradise. Walkways placed to be unobtrusive and preserve the beauty of the foliage. Bright flowers, twinkling white sand, and blue, blue water. Time to jump in!

Our travel companions had never been snorkeling before and were mesmerized by the whole experience. Swimming around amazing rock formations, schools of vibrant-colored fish swimming just out of reach, searching the crevices for the shy ones, and seeing massive fish hovering in hiding places near the bottom. The Xel-Ha inlet is in a place where fresh water meets salt water. We don't know if it was because of the tide at the time we were there, but there was a layer where the salt water and fresh water were mixing, making vision cloudy. For my husband and I, who have snorkeled many times, this was not the best place we've ever been.

Unfortunately, it was time to head back to catch the ship before it left without us. We said good-bye to this tropical jungle after a quick, unmemorable lunch at one of the food stands, and drove the 30 minutes back to Playa del Carmen.