Visiting Las Coloradas: Mexico’s Pink Lakes

Dreaming of visiting Las Coloradas? This set of pink lakes in Mexico is a bucket list item for many, and here’s everything you need to know about them!

Back when I was a teenager, I stumbled across a set of pictures of Lake Retba, a pink lake in Senegal. I became obsessed with seeing it one day, not knowing that there were lakes just like it in my own country.

Just like most people visiting Las Coloradas nowadays, I found out about the existence of Mexico’s pink lakes via Instagram and have visited them twice since then.

It’s pretty crazy to think that Las Coloradas used to be one of the biggest hidden gems in Mexico (like, virtually nobody knew about them) until up to a few years ago.

Visiting Las Coloradas

I decided to put together a guide in which I answer every possible question you might have about visiting Las Coloradas.

From how to get there by bus, to where to stay, and yep.. whether or not visiting Las Coloradas is even worth it!

This post is LONG, but I’m convinced it’s the most complete guide to Mexico’s pink lakes out there since I made sure to include everything about the newest tour available as well as how to get there by public transport since I couldn’t find any information on either when planning my trip.

Let’s dive into what it’s like to visit Las Coloradas!

Are Las Coloradas Worth Visiting?

I’m not going to lie. The first time I visited Las Coloradas, I was very disappointed. Back then, I would have told you that visiting Las Coloradas isn’t worth it at all.

It’s so far from everything and honestly? The water didn’t even look that pink the first time I visited – it was cloudy, it had been raining all week, and well, yeah… it wasn’t worth the three-hour drive from Tulum at all.

Fast forward to July and I visited again. I was traveling with a friend and she had seen pictures of the lake and convinced me to give it another chance and MAN ALIVE!

This time around, the water looked so pink that I actually wondered for a second if I was dreaming or something.

Whether or not Las Coloradas is worth visiting totally depends on your interests.

If you want to visit for a killer picture, then it’s definitely worth it given that you choose the right time to visit (more on that below).

If you, however, just want to experience a striking lake – it might not be worth your time.

Ultimately, the pink lake of Mexico is set inside a salt factory, and the surroundings aren’t that pretty (they’re often not shown in pictures) – the main pink lake is incredible, but it does look way more romantic in photos than it does in real life.

BUT, and yes, there’s a big but, visiting  Las Coloradas is totally worth it if you opt to take one of the locally-organized tours rather than visiting just the first lagoon.

I’m not a tour type of girl. I love to do things independently but on this one occasion, I’ll admit taking a tour was the right decision.

I’ll tell you all about it further down the post, but to keep things short for now: we got to visit more lakes inside the factory – some were pink, others were yellow, and some were even orange and oh, you can even find flamingos. How cool is that?!

Can You Swim in Las Coloradas?

Swimming in the pink lake of Las Coloradas is not allowed for two reasons:

The first is for your own safety – the saline levels can sting, especially if you have any wounds and the temperature of the water can usually get over 40 degrees Celsius.

Secondly, salt is actually extracted from the lake and dead skin can fall off while you’re swimming – this salt is packaged, sold, and later consumed.

There is now added security here due to people not following the rules and being plain assholes just to get a cute shot.

Las Coloradas was never meant to be a tourist attraction – it just sort of happened.

This is a privately-owned salt factory and the owners are kind enough to let visitors take a look. I mean, they could have easily built a fence around the lakes to keep people away, but they didn’t.

Let’s be respectful visitors to ensure they don’t ever need to take these measures and that more people can come and visit this fascinating spot in Mexico.

That being said, while swimming in the main pink lake of Las Coloradas isn’t allowed, they recently opened a much smaller lake where visitors can swim.

This lake isn’t pink, it’s turquoise but for me, getting to swim here was a highlight! Due to the high salinity, you can easily float here so it’s sort of like a mini version of the Dead Sea in Jordan! I’ll write more about this lake further down the post.

Are Las Coloradas Really That Pink?

If you’ve seen pictures of Las Coloradas online, you’ve probably wondered if Mexico’s pink lake is really as pink as it looks in the photos without all the filters and Photoshop.

Here’s the thing – it depends on a ton of factors! I’ve visited Las Coloradas twice, once in January 2018 and the second time this summer – the difference in the pinkness of the water was huge.

Here’s an unedited picture of my visit in January 2018:

Yes, it did look kinda pink but also not really.

Definitely not as promising as the pictures we’d seen on blogs had suggested. My mom and I drove three hours from Tulum to visit Las Coloradas and to put things bluntly, I was very disappointed.

Here, though, is a totally different picture shot during my second visit. The difference was insane!

Disclaimer: Yep, it’s a bit brightened up but the color of the water really did look that pink!

Factors to consider before visiting Las Coloradas:

• Is it sunny? The sun plays a huge part in the water’s color.
• Secondly – RAIN. This baffled me at first but in hindsight, it makes perfect sense. If it’s been raining buckets the days before your visit, rainwater will mix with the lake and dilute the organisms that make the water look pink.
• Thirdly, windy days are your friends. The more wind, the more the organisms move, making the pink look brighter. Crazy, right? When we arrived at Las Coloradas, the lake looked pretty pink, but as we headed back and the wind hit the water, it suddenly looked even more striking.

Here are two pictures of Las Coloradas shot on the exact same day. The first was shot when we arrived – the sky was cloudy. The second was shot shortly after on the exact same spot – the sky had cleared up and the wind was at full blast!

Our Tour Through Las Coloradas

I’ll outline our tour through Las Coloradas below – in total, it takes anywhere from two to three hours depending on how long you take on each stop (one of the things I loved about the tour was how flexible our tour guide was, he was super chill whenever we wanted to stop somewhere to get a few shots).

The first stop is a picture stops at the pink lagoon that initially made Las Coloradas so famous. There’s not much to do here other than, yeah… take pictures!

Next up was a drive through the factory where we got to see so many other smaller lakes, many of which were full of flamingoes! I’ve seen flamingoes in the past, but never so up close as I did on this tour!

After a short drive, we got to our second location – a set of insane-looking orange and yellow lagoons in which we felt we were walking through Mars!

After walking through the orange lakes, we got a traditional Mayan mud bath.

Okay, this sounded way better when our guide was selling us the tour. In reality, all he did was take some clay from the ground and have us splash it all over our faces, but it was still pretty interesting, I guess?

After our “mud bath” (if you can even call it that), our guide took us to a tiny green body of water where fish supposedly come up to bite off the skin from your feet. No fish came, but hey – we got to also see a green pond, heh.

After that, they’ll take you to the strip of virgin beach next to Las Coloradas – this was incredible for us since the Mayan Riviera is currently receiving an influx of seaweed and sadly, the beaches in Quintana Roo have lost their former glory.

This beach, though, was free of seaweed – look at that water!

And last but not least, you’ll make a stop at a turquoise-colored lagoon where you can float thanks to the high concentration of salt.

Swimming in Las Coloradas isn’t allowed to protect the water, but they opened this small lagoon for visitors to swim in and while it isn’t pink, it was still so much fun to float around it! It reminded me of a smaller version of the Dead Sea in Jordan/Israel.

On the way back, we made a short stop at a viewpoint where flamingos love hanging out. There were hundreds of them – I’ve never seen so many flamingos in one spot!

Fun fact: Did you know flamingoes are not actually pink when they’re born? They get the color from a natural pink dye called canthaxanthin that they get from eating shrimps and algae.

Don’t forget to get travel insurance for your trip! As always, I recommend Safety Wing for great prices and coverage abroad. It starts at only $45 USD per month and will have you covered with everything you may need during your trip! Check them out here.

How To Book a Tour Through Las Coloradas (own transportation or if you arrive by public transportation)

Doing the tour we did in Las Coloradas is super easy – you don’t need to book anything in advance or make any special arrangements as you can book it on the spot when you arrive if you’re visiting independently.

Back before Las Coloradas became so popular, there weren’t any tours available and you sort of had to enter the factory illegally.

The pink lakes became so popular that the owners of the factory couldn’t handle things anymore, so they hired a few locals from the village to provide guided tours.

Last year, they decided to make things official and provide their own tours. For that reason, visiting Las Coloradas these days is a bit more expensive and controlled than it was a couple of years ago.

The factory owners never really planned on making it a tourist attraction. It just sort of happened and it makes total sense that they decided to make it a side business and also be able to control visitors.

Las Coloradas Tour Prices

There are several tours on offer, here is the price list as of 2023:

• Walking Tour – $300 MXN for foreigners per person
• Safari Tour – $900 per person (this is the tour I recommend booking to have access to more lakes)
• Bicycle Tour – $390 MXN per person

Las Coloradas All-Inclusive Tours

If you’d rather visit Las Coloradas in a stress-free way, there are many tours available from major cities in the Yucatan Peninsula that will take care of transportation, activities, and more.

From Cancun: This tour will take you to see the pink lagoon and also on a fun boat tour through Rio Lagartos to see crocodiles and flamingos before heading back to Cancun. Book here.

From Playa del Carmen: This tour includes a visit to the pink lagoon, a boat ride through Rio Lagartos, and lunch. Book here.

How To Get To Las Coloradas

How To Get To Las Coloradas by Car

The first time I visited Las Coloradas, all we did was drive from Tulum and that was pretty easy. If you’re doing that, I definitely recommend planning a stop in Valladolid to check out its incredible cenotes.

How To Get To Las Coloradas by Bus

The first thing you have to do is find a bus that gets you to Tizimin. From Valladolid, we caught a bus at 8:30 at the ADO bus station, and you should be able to find routes from Tizimin from other major towns in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Note that you won’t find this route online on ADO’s website because it’s not actually run by them, but Oriente Buses also leave from that terminal.

Once you get to Tizimin, you have to walk to a different bus terminal called Noreste Terminal – it’s just a block away from the ADO terminal (here’s the exact location on Google Maps).

From the Noreste Terminal, you can catch a direct bus to Las Coloradas at 10:30 am. Let the driver know you’re going to Las Coloradas and he’ll drop you off right at the entrance. It’s incredibly easy!

Getting back is pretty much the same process. The bus stops at the same spot where it will drop you off at 3 PM – This is the only bus back to Tizimin from Las Coloradas, so make sure you don’t miss it or you will have to stay in the village of Las Coloradas/nearby Rio Lagartos.

Take a tour

If you want a stress-free day at Las Coloradas, you can also just book a tour! That way, you won’t have to worry about transportation or planning. This tour picks you up in Cancun, Tulum, and various other destinations in the Riviera Maya.

Where to Stay in Las Coloradas

Las Coloradas is the official name of the village where the pink lakes are located.

While it was never really a place meant for tourism and there were no hotels there, two new hotels recently opened in order to host visitors.

• Casa Jade Eco Bungalows Las Coloradas: Rustic eco bungalows in the middle of nature with a very laid-back vibe. Check out rates here.
• Piña Coloradas Eco Lodge: A little more upscale compared to Casa Jade. This lovely boutique hotel has a pool, cozy bungalows, and a lovely pink door! Check out rates here.

Do keep in mind that there is not much to do in Las Coloradas aside from checking out the pink lagoons. There is a beautiful beach nearby, though!

With that said, if you want to be able to do more activities, then I recommend staying in the nearby town of Río Lagartos, where you’ll find tons of hotels for any budget. Try cozycozy.com and find cheap hotels or higher end accommodations, whichever you prefer.

One of the best ones to stay at is Yuum Ha Boutique Hotel or Nirvana Blue if you’re looking for a luxury stay.

At Rio Lagartos, you will be able to enjoy many more activities, including getting to see more flamingos and crocodiles.

When is the best time to visit Las Coloradas?

The best time to visit Las Coloradas for striking shades of pink is from May, June, and July (with July being the best month). This is when there is little to no rain in the area so the organisms that make the lake look pink don’t get diluted.

Ideally, you want to visit the pink lakes around midday, when the sun is shining and contrasts the water.

Is Las Coloradas a pink beach?

In reality, Las Coloradas isn’t a beach but rather a series of puddles of water that contain a very high concentration of salt and microorganisms. The lakes belong to a private salt factory and the pink color of the water is produced by the salt and other organisms.

Can you fly a drone at Las Coloradas?

Yes, you can, but you will need to get a permit from the salt factory before flying. They are pretty strict about it, so make sure to follow the rules.

Travel insurance for Mexico

If you’re still on the lookout for travel insurance for your trip, I highly recommend Safety Wing. Prices start at just $45 USD a month and will have you covered in the event of any accidents, medical care, or incidents, including canceled flights and more!

Wrapping Up: Visiting Las Coloradas

And that’s my guide to Las Coloradas! I hope you found it useful – I tried answering every possible question I had myself before going.

Is there anything else you’d like to know about visiting Las Coloradas? Please feel free to drop any questions you might have in the comment section below!