Visit Las Coloradas: Pink Lagoons, Prices 2026 and Flamingos

Almost everyone who travels through Yucatan wants to visit Las Coloradas. The pink lagoons in the north of the peninsula are the most photographed sight in the region. Still, many guidebooks print prices that expired years ago. On top of that, one myth refuses to die, because swimming there is forbidden. So here you get the current numbers, the real reason for the colour and the best hour of the day.

Visit Las Coloradas: prices and rules in 2026

The site is an active salt works and completely fenced off. Walking up to the basins on your own is therefore impossible. Access runs exclusively through the visitor park, open daily from 8 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon. Three guided tours are on offer there.

The walking tour lasts 45 minutes and costs around 300 pesos. A 30-minute bike tour comes to roughly 320 pesos, while the longer one-hour version sits at about 390 pesos. Most expensive is finally the safari in an open all-terrain vehicle: 90 minutes for around 890 pesos. On top of that comes the fee for the biosphere reserve, namely about 125 pesos per person and day. Bring cash in pesos as well, because card payment does not work everywhere on site. All prices apply to 2026 and tend to change every year.

Why the water is pink — and what the flamingos have to do with it

Three ingredients create the colour. First, so much water evaporates in the shallow basins that the salt content climbs far above sea level. Second, only a few microorganisms survive in that brine, and those produce reddish pigments. Third, the intense sun amplifies the effect. The hotter and saltier it gets, therefore, the stronger the pink turns out.

Here a widespread mistake deserves a closer look: the flamingos do not colour the water. In fact it works the other way round. The birds eat brine shrimp and algae that contain the same pigments, and they turn pink themselves as a result. Besides, this is not untouched nature but industry. The Industria Salinera de Yucatan extracts roughly 750,000 tonnes of salt here every year and turns it into more than 50 different products. Ships carrying up to 6,000 tonnes load at the company’s own marine terminal.

Swimming is banned for several reasons. The water is hot, the salt crystals on the bottom are sharp, and the extreme salinity irritates skin and eyes. Photos of people bathing still circulate online, though they date from the time before today’s rules. Anyone planning to visit Las Coloradas should therefore leave the swimsuit in the bag.

Rio Lagartos: Mexico’s first Ramsar site

The lagoons sit in the middle of the Ria Lagartos Biosphere Reserve. The protected area covers 60,348 hectares, while the lagoon itself stretches about 80 kilometres along the coast. The zone has been protected since 26 June 1979. On 4 November 1986 an award followed that hardly anyone knows about: Ria Lagartos became the first wetland in all of Mexico to enter the Ramsar list.

In total more than 250 species of waterbird breed in the reserve. Best known is of course the Caribbean flamingo. Its numbers swing sharply through the year, namely from around 4,500 birds in January up to 26,000 in June. How large the colony has grown shows in a drone survey: in May 2025 the conservation authority recorded 14,757 flamingo nests in the Angostura zone. Forty percent of the chicks had already hatched by then. Since the protection programme started in 1999, more than 154,000 young birds have grown up there.

When to visit Las Coloradas

The timing holds a conflict that almost no guidebook mentions. The pink shows strongest between March and August, and specifically around midday with the sun high. The animals, by contrast, are most active early in the morning. Both together work in one day only if the boat trip starts in the morning and the lagoons follow afterwards.

For flamingos late spring pays off especially. In May and June the colony reaches its peak, while in January it shrinks noticeably. So if you want to visit Las Coloradas and see plenty of birds at the same time, plan the trip between May and August.

Visit Las Coloradas on your own or with a guide?

The real sticking point, however, is distance. From Cancun it is roughly 250 kilometres, from Valladolid about 100 and from Merida around 200. From Playa del Carmen one direction takes a good four hours. Anyone driving themselves therefore spends about eight hours in the car that day, on country roads that get confusing after dark.

Our day trip to Rio Lagartos and Las Coloradas takes exactly that off your plate. The day begins with pickup at the hotel and runs about twelve hours. An English-speaking guide accompanies the group, and that group stays small with twelve people at most. Included are also the boat trip through the mangroves, the visit to the pink lagoons and lunch right by the water. After a long day in the sun it is pleasant, too, simply to be driven back.

Frequently asked questions about Las Coloradas

What does a visit cost in 2026?

The walking tour comes to around 300 pesos, the bike tour to between 320 and 390 pesos and the safari to about 890 pesos. On top of that come roughly 125 pesos for the biosphere reserve.

Can you swim in the pink lagoons?

No. The site belongs to a salt works and lies inside a protected area. High salinity, sharp crystals on the bottom and the water temperature make a swim risky as well.

When are the most flamingos around?

Between May and July. The colony then reaches up to 26,000 birds, while in January there are only about 4,500. In May 2025 a survey counted 14,757 nests.

Why is the water pink?

Salt-loving microorganisms produce reddish pigments. High salinity and strong sunlight amplify the effect. The flamingos have nothing to do with it.

Conclusion: who the trip is for

To visit Las Coloradas pays off above all for people who like nature and unusual landscapes. It will not be a beach day, though, but a day with boats, birds and a colour you see nowhere else. Far more culture waits at the Mayan ruins in Yucatan. Why the peninsula is so flat and riddled with water in the first place is explained in the article on the formation of the Yucatan Peninsula. To cool down afterwards, the cenotes in Mexico fit well. When conditions feel most pleasant, you read in the piece on the best time to visit the Riviera Maya.