Couldn't speak much to the road as we didn't take it, though they say it's terrible. It's supposed to take 2-3 times longer than the boat ride. The van that picks you up from your resort drops you off about 4-5 miles south of Tulum. Somewhere around here... 20.088417, -87.477064
The boat ride is right at an hour. Evidently this is the way all the lodges down there ferry their guests to Punta Allen, as we passed several pangas each way. The travel each way was 2:15-2:30. The first day we tipped our bus driver about $40, and the second he had a cooler LOADED with beer for us.
We had two boats each day. It was $610 per boat, in our case $305 per person, which included transportation to and from. They picked us up in Playa right about 5:45, had us at the north dock by 7:00 and underway by 7:15, and at the lodge dock by 8:15. They had a nice breakfast ready for us when we arrived, and we were going over tackle and flies with our guides by 8:35-8:45. By 9:00 we were all loaded in the boats and headed south across the bay. 2 fisherman, 1 guide, and 1 apprentice in each 23' panga. Doing the math I realize it was more like 7 hours of fishing, but we were back at the lodge around 4-4:30. A couple cocktails and a few fishermen's lies and we were back on the ferry boat headed north.
"Tough" maybe not be the right word... Frustrating... Yeah, frustrating is probably better. We didn't see the large numbers they do other times of the year. We saw maybe a dozen fish, and of those I had "shots" at maybe 4. All 60'+ quartering upwind. But all the fish were absolute SLABS.
Bonefish were practically everywhere. You'd be disappointed about spooking a permit that never gave you a chance, only to have the guide call bonefish, 6:00, 30 feet. The guys with us that weren't fly fishermen caught bones on the fly... multiple. Not much size to them though... biggest was 3.5-4 lbs, with most in the 1-2lb range. I caught one fish on the 8WT before switching to a 5WT. Had I brought my 3WT I would have eventually gone to it. Tarpon were mostly in the 40-60lb range, and the ones we saw were in and around the mangroves of the islands.
Managed a few bites on the tarpon, nothing on permit, countless bonefish, and a handful of other reef species.
The other boat managed a slam before lunch on the first day, though they did it on spinning gear with live coconut crab and dead shad. The permit was a tank... somewhere in the 25-30lb range, and the tarpon was about 45.
If you're going to one of the resorts with a large group of people and want to sneak away, this is definitely a good route. I wouldn't hesitate to spend the money to do it again.