“I want to swim with sea turtles. How can we make that happen?”
That’s the entire ask a client brought me a few months back. No resort in mind, no region picked out, no dates locked. Just one very specific bucket list item and a question about whether it was actually possible.
It is. But not everywhere, and not by accident.
I started researching areas known for sea turtles around her travel dates, and that’s how we landed on Akumal, Mexico. Akumal means “place of the turtles” in Yucatec Maya, and it earns the name. The bay has been a protected sea turtle habitat for decades, and green sea turtles feed on the seagrass right offshore, close enough that you don’t need a boat excursion or a lucky day. You need the right stretch of water and someone who knows it.
That’s the part clients don’t see when they’re comparing resorts online. Picking Akumal wasn’t about finding a pretty beach. It was about matching her one request to the one place that could actually deliver it, consistently, on the dates she was traveling.
What she found in the water
She didn’t just see one turtle. She swam with them multiple times, and one of them was, in her words, the biggest one she saw all trip. Turtles weren’t the only thing down there either. Squid, octopus, a stingray gliding along the bottom. Akumal Bay does that. It’s not a one-species show.
I also connected her with a local guide, someone who knows the bay, knows where the turtles are actually feeding that day, and who brought a camera into the water with her. He shot photos and video the whole time so she didn’t have to choose between experiencing the moment and capturing it.
That’s a small detail. It matters anyway. A lot of people miss the best part of a trip because they’re too busy trying to film it themselves.
The hatch on the beach
Her resort sat close enough to the turtle nesting sites that she got to watch a hatch happen right there on the sand. Dozens of hatchlings making their way to the water while she stood and watched.
She went to Akumal to swim with adult turtles. She left having also watched the next generation head out to sea for the first time.
The text I got mid-trip
She texted me while she was still there, right after coming out of the water:
“I met an amazing local tour guide who took pictures and videos so I could enjoy the experience. I was literally crying in my goggles from joy.”
I’ve been doing this since August 2022, and that’s the text I hope for every time. Not a five-star review three weeks later. A real-time, still-dripping-wet message because something actually landed the way she hoped it would.
What came after
She did leave that review, too. Her words: 10 stars, not 5. She talked about how many bucket list items she checked off, how available I was from the moment she booked until after she got home, how fast I answered questions along the way.
And she booked her next trip with me. A 40-day trip in 2027.
That’s the part I want other clients to hear. This wasn’t a one-off lucky vacation. It was a client trusting me with one specific request, getting exactly what she asked for, and coming back to hand me something a lot bigger.
If you’ve got a version of “sea turtles”
Maybe it’s not turtles for you. Maybe it’s swimming with whale sharks, or seeing the northern lights from the water, or one specific excursion you saw on someone else’s Instagram years ago and never forgot.
Tell me what it is. That’s genuinely how this starts, every time. I’ll do the research on where and when it’s actually possible, not just where it sounds nice, and we’ll build the rest of the trip around getting you there.
May adventure follow you wherever you may go.