Looking to do this trip ,isle de mujeres, Tulum, Punta Allen and Mahahual etc independently. Is it easy enough to access the nice beaches? How are the buses to these places? Recommendations for off ht beaten track nice beaches etc.

A good source of local info used to be locogringo. When we were down we would take collectivos to get around

Love collectives, good to know. We have travelled extensively and even owned a house on a island in Nicaragua, avoided mexico but just got a pretty good price for Xmas so went for it.

Sorry, to clarify, collectivos are vans used by locals to travel up and down the main highway
use them to go between various locations.

YEs take them all the time in Nica and we were just in Peru and used them. Thanks love that they have them

going to pm you with some specific questions is that okay?

yup!

I can speak for Tulum and Isla Mujeres... Isla Mujeres and Tulum are both fantastic! In Isla there is one gorgeous beach called Playa Norte (North Beach). When you get off the boat, hang a left and keep walking (10 min) and you'll be there. You can rent a beach chair or just bring a beach towel and find yourself a tree to hang out under. Tulum has gorgeous beaches too. I tend to go to the beach club (its not really a club rather a restaurant with beach chairs) its called Ziggys and you have the unspoiled open ocean in front of you.
To get to Tulum, take the ADO bus. To get to Isa Mujeres, you take a cab to the Puerto Juarez ferry terminal. As for the other places, I am assuming ADO would get you there. If you want pictures let me know. I spend a bit too much time in these places. Oh and the ADO buses are amazing. Nothing like a greyhound bus. Clean, always on time, affordable, comfortable.

Thanks we had a house on an island in Nicragua so use to no tourist. Just sold it and found cheap Xmas flight to Cancun so went for it.

About how much is taxi from airport to ferry

Not sure about from the airport as we take the ADO bus from the airport to downtown Cancun for about 50 pesos each. We then take a bus from downtown Cancun to puerto juarez for 50 pesos. Puerto Juaraz uber back to the Cancun airport was about 200 pesos. Wish I had more info sorry!

Depending on where you are staying, and if you want to see all these sites, we found the trip to the ferry terminal, then the boat to isla mujeres (and then back) was a lot of travel, time and expense to just go to another beach. We did do some snorkelling and a bit of site seeing but to just spend a day/afternoon, it's a long way to see not much. The water between there is normally quite choppy as well and there were lots of motion sick people on our boat both ways. The beaches at Tulum are some of the most beautiful you will see!

We would stay a few days in each place. Just going independently so will look for guesthosues etc. Any public beach in Tulum you can recommend?

The beach right at the Tulum ruins is remarkable!

Recommend the public beach at Akumal
great locals and tourists. Fresh seafood in the restaurants

Lori is it public

yes. You pay a couple bucks to see the ruins but the beach is free

From Cancun, Playa del Carmen to Tulum - vans travel the hiway and pick people up - its cheap, and easy to get around. Rio Secreto and any of the cenotes are not to be missed.

can you take a bus to denotes and rio secreto

Yes you can. Very easy to get around.

can i pm you

I just wanted to day im so glad all of the replies are positive! i hate all the negativity against mexico right now. thank you guys

There is a bus that you can take to Mahahual, when I did it it was off season so the bus only came in and out once a week, so you'll want to check on that portion in advance, it's the most remote of the locations you mentioned. It's got a gorgeous beach and is the access point for the largest corral atoll in the Western Hemisphere. I wouldn't go just for the beach - the beach is consistently white sand and turquoise waters all along the coast, but id go for the atoll.

Thanks, what I like to hear
I will lookinto bus