Caleta Tankah Beach in Tulum and Cenote Tankah

Caleta Tankah in Tulum is a hidden gem with a cenote and sargassum-free waters. It’s ideal for a relaxing, family-friendly beach day.

On our latest trip to Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, we spent some quality time exploring the laid-back town of Tulum and its surroundings. One of the absolute highlight for us with kids was the Caleta Tankah Beach. We ended up spending an entire day there without even realizing it!

What makes this beach truly special is its unique little cove, or caleta, which is an old cenote. Cenotes are magical, water-filled sinkholes that the Yucatán is famous for. You will find cenotes all over in this region, and many are open for swimming.

Caleta is protected from the sargassum seaweed by its rock walls left behind by erosion.

Besides the caleta, the beach here is beautiful with powdery white sand and warm Caribbean water. And yes, they have a real cenote too; Cenote Tankah, which is perfect for a refreshing dip when the beach gets too hot.

Getting to Caleta Tankah Beach is easy, it is located just little over 6 miles (10 km) from downtown Tulum (Tulum Centro) on the road heading to Cancún. Whether you are driving a rental car, hopping into a local collectivo or grabbing a taxi, it is a short an quick ride.

Caleta Tankah Beach

Caleta Tankah Beach is actually part of Caleta Tankah Resort’s beach club. The entrance fee is 300 pesos per person and is paid at the gate when turning off the main road toward the beach. Our 7-year-old got a discounted rate.

There are couple of other cenotes along the road to Caleta Tankah, but they are not included in to the admission. They are privately owned and only accessible by booking a tour.

The entrance fee includes access to the beach, the cenote, parking and resort facilities. If you arrive early in the morning, you are likely to snag one of the lounge chairs by the beach. They are also included to the entrance fee but the amount of the chairs is limited. That said, people come and go, so chairs tend to free up throughout the day too.

Caleta Tankah Resort also rents out rooms and has a small restaurant on-site. We grabbed lunch there and then later ordered some drinks to the beach. Service there was on the slower side and the menu wasn’t particularly large, but the food was decent.

The beach itself was beautiful; clean, white sand and great vibes. Since we were there at spring, there was a pile of seaweed on the edge of the jungle that was cleaned off from the beach. But the great news is that even if the beach would get some seaweed, the caleta will still be swimmable! And they are actively cleaning the beach too.

Caleta Tankah

One of the most interesting things at Caleta Tankah Beach is the caleta itself. It is actually an old cenote that over time, and thanks to natural erosion, has become exposed right along the shoreline. It blends beautifully into the beach landscape.

Like many cenotes, Caleta Tankah is circular in shape, forming a little natural inlet in the water. Because of its shape, the waves there are much gentler than on the open beach. This makes it a perfect swimming spot, especially for kids. The rocky edges of the caleta also help keep out the springtime seaweed that tends to pile up elsewhere on the coast.

Cenotes are believed to have formed around 66 million years ago, after a massive asteroid hit the Earth. This impact created thousands of water-filled sinkholes in Mexico and especially across the Yucatán, many of which form a visible ring from the air. It is known as the Ring of Cenotes.

There are all kinds of cenotes; open ones, caves and fully enclosed sinkholes. Many of them are connected underground through vast cave systems. Similar sinkholes exist in other parts of the world too, though they are not called cenotes. We once swam in one in Utah, USA. It was called Homestead Crater, and it was a closed cenote-like hole but it had naturally warm water. It was amazing!

The caleta at Tankah might also be connected to an underground cave system because freshwater still flows into it from below. At the same time saltwater rushes in from the sea. It was fun surprise to notice that the water inside the caleta was noticeably colder than the surrounding ocean.

Cenote Tankah

In between beach time, you can also take a dip in Cenote Tankah. We headed there after lunch, then made our way back to the beach to build sand castles with the kids.

Getting to Cenote Tankah is part of the fun as you will have to walk there along a small path that winds through the jungle. The walk ins’t long at all, we made it in just over five minutes. People there seemed to be coming and going, and for a moment, we even had the whole cenote to ourselves. It was peaceful and never felt crowded.

This cenote is especially great for kids because its bottom was made up of large rock formations, and you could actually stand on the rocks. We were able to swim and rest for a bit without needing to climb out of the water. We even spotted some fish swimming around!

There are a couple of benches near the cenote too, if you would rather sit and watch while others swim. Just a head up though: the jungle does come with a few mosquitoes, so bring some repellent if you are planning to hang around without getting in the water.

In Tulum, cenotes are just about everywhere, and they are also scattered all across the Yucatán Peninsula including towns like Playa del Carmen and Valladolid. We have visited a few before, like Cenote Ik Kil and Cenote Oxman, and each of them has its own unique charm. You can even add a visit to a cenote on your trip to the famous Chichén Itzá.

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We really loved the whole Caleta Tankah experience, and we thought it was especially great for families with kids. If you are looking to swim, relax and spend a full day by the water, this is definitely one of the must-visit spots in Tulum. We are not exactly the lounging-on-the-beach type of people, but we all enjoy swimming and our kids loved playing in the sand.

To be honest, we liked this beach even more than widely recommended Akumal Beach, which we visited for snorkeling. While there much to see underwater at Caleta Tankah, the overall vibe and setting felt much nicer. Sometimes, it is not about what’s under the suface, it’s about how the place makes you feel!