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Cozumel sits in the Caribbean Sea off the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and connected to Playa del Carmen by a short ferry crossing. It is the largest inhabited island in Mexico, and for decades it has drawn visitors not for its colonial plazas or mountain scenery but for what lies beneath the water. The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second longest coral reef system in the world, runs along the island's western and southern shores, and the clarity of the water here, fed by strong currents that keep visibility exceptional, has made Cozumel one of the most celebrated dive destinations on the planet. Jacques Cousteau brought international attention to the reef in the 1960s, and the island has never quite shaken that identity, nor has it tried to.

San Miguel de Cozumel, the island's only town, occupies the western coast and is where the cruise ships dock and the ferry terminals operate. The waterfront malecón stretches along the shore, lined with shops, open-air restaurants, and the kind of easy, unhurried atmosphere that comes from a place that has long understood its relationship with the sea. The interior of the island is largely undeveloped, covered in low jungle and mangrove, with the eastern coast facing the open Caribbean and offering rougher, wilder beaches that see far fewer visitors than the calm, reef-sheltered western side.