Playa Palancar or Palancar Reef

[Coolcruise02]

Has anyone been here? Can you swim to the reef or do you have to do an excursion? How was the snorkeling? How do you pronounce Palancar?

Thanks :)

[bruce-r]

I've been to Playa Palancar (pronounced Pal-an-car) It is a nice, quiet beach at the south end of the west side of the island. I don't think you can swim to the reef, but they do have on-site snorkel trips. I didn't snorkel there, so I can't say what the snorkeling was like from the beach, but snorkeling from a sandy beach is usually disappointing compared to snorkeling from a rocky shoreline. Coral just doesn't grow in the sand.

[Carey on Cozumel]

PAL-an-car. I like this beach, too. But no snorkeling unless you take the $25 boat snorkel trip that goes out to Palancar Reef. That's a good choice if you have people in your group that just want to hang on the beach while you snorkel because its a really nice beach for hanging out and Palancar reef is close enough by that you won't be away half the day or something. But, no, you can't swim out to it. Forget that.