Mexican Islas; Holbox & Isla Mujeres

The Yucatán peninsula in Mexico is very popular amongst tourists from all over the world. The beaches are sandy and the water turquoise! It’s stunning. The most famous island in the area is Cozumel, however there are two other Islas that are becoming popular and we had the opportunity to visit: Holbox, and Isla Mujeres, both in northeast Quintana Roo.

HOLBOX:

First of the two Mexican Islas that we visited was Holbox. This is not pronounced Hole-box, more like Hole-bosh. We stayed in Holbox for two nights.

Top activities to do in Holbox include;

Spending time at the various beaches. The beaches are superb, with turquoise waters and white sands. On one part of the beach, placed about 100 feet apart, are lines on large concrete blocks that extend out. These break the waves so the water is very calm. If you walk farther, you will find the Playa Grande, which, as the name suggests, is the largest beach spot and very popular! Here you will find innumerable beachfront hotels and restaurant!
Passenger cars are not allowed on the island, but there are many, many golf carts and UTVs. There are many places that rent them out. You can rent them for a couple of hours or for an entire week! You can have fun zooming around on the roads.
Another thing to do is walk towards Punta Mosquito. It’s about a 2-hour walk through the sandbanks and you’ll arrive at a sign that indicates the start of the nature reserve and it is prohibited to proceed. Not many people make it all the way to that sign as it is a longer hike, hence you can have the beautiful beach all to yourself. This is a wonderful walk. On both sides of you, you find salty ocean water. You find many interesting shells, birds and fish along the walk. What’s nice is the sandbanks break the waves so the water is calm. Make sure to look at the tide before you go. On the way back, the tide started coming up and the sandbanks disappeared.
A popular thing to do is watch the sunset over the ocean in one of the many bars. The one that we watched the sunset from was called La Cruz. Most are busy and some have live bands playing. One restaurant recommendation is Roots. Roots is a really good pizza place, with toppings from the different Mexican states, good ones to try are the Puebla (chicken mole), the Yucatan (cochinita pibil) and a Holbox favorite: the lobster tail pizza (be prepared to pay some extra $$$). Other restaurants that you might consider going to are El Crustaceo Kascarudo, Restaurante Viva Zapata (both seafood restaurants), and Luuma, a get-together bar.
At the end of the west/south part of Holbox, near playa Punta Coco, there is a lagoon. The water is shallow and warm. Many people like to come here, as you can lay down on sand far offshore. The walk there from the city is pleasant and you can choose to walk on the beach, or the roads. If the tide is low, you can continue your walk to Isla de la Pasion.
One last thing to do here is to see the whale sharks. Whale sharks are the largest shark and fish. The season is from June to September. When we visited Holbox, the season was not going on. We had heard that this has become really touristy, so if you are planning on going, make sure to get a good, eco-friendly guide.

One of the interesting shells we found on our hike to Punta Mosquito!

Some further tips on Holbox below;

To get to Holbox, you need to take a ferry. You have a few options, but we found that if you went more local, you get a boat all to yourself, and it was cheaper compared to the standard price of the passenger ferry (mainly due to our family needing 5 tickets!) The ride itself is around 40 min. When it’s windy, the ride becomes much bumpier.
Passenger cars are not allowed on the island. However there are many different parking lots to choose from in the town of Chiquilá. The price is standard at around 100 pesos ($5) a day (February 2021). Many offer shaded parking spots which To keep the car cool (we accidently left a pot of yogurt in our cooler, and two days later it was still fine). The people were very nice and honest. After two days and a half, they would normally charge 250 pesos but they only charged 200.
Airbnb options are limited, and it was difficult finding a good one. Most people stay at one of the many hotels. Prices vary a lot, ranging from 500 pesos/day to over two thousand pesos/day.

ISLA MUJERES:

We did not stay in Isla Mujeres, rather, we spent a whole day here. We were staying in Puerto Morelos for the week. You drive north towards Cancun and the car ferry is on the north end of Cancun, in Punta Sam. Go HERE for the Ultramar ferry website for more information. Most people visit the island by taking the pedestrian ferry and renting a car on the island, however we found that visiting Isla Mujeres was easier to visit with out car, especially as we are a family of 5 and most golf carts are for 4 people only! For us, besides the convenience of having our car with our beach gears, snacks, etc, it was cheaper to take the car ferry. One downside with the car ferry is that it is not very frequent. The first one is at 7:00 am and the last is 7:00 pm. You also can take the 11:30 am and the 2:30 one. The passenger ferry is every 30 min.

Here are some things to do in Isla Mujeres:

Walk around Punta Sur. At the very end, there is a Mayan ruin that you can pay for, but we found a nice path that ran across the coast. The start is path is kind of hidden but it goes down the whole length of the Isla.
On Isla, there are many animal experiences. You can feed baby turtles at the turtle release, swim with dolphins, and pet stray dogs at the dog rescue. The turtle release is during the season but off season there are many tanks where they raise baby turtles for them to release when they are stronger and better swimmers. You pay a small fee, and you can also purchase a bag of turtle pellets to feed the turtles. This was definitely worth a visit and very informative!
There are many beach clubs in Isla. Beach clubs are places where you spend money on drinks and food, and you get access to amazing snorkeling, kayaking, pools, and more. The one we were at was called Kin Ha Isla Mujeres. The food was great. Nice portions at a good price. The beach front activities were awesome. They had their own dock where we could snorkel (they provided snorkels but we brought our own), and they had paddleboards and kayaks.
Isla does have a brewery, the Isla brewing company. It is not sit down yet (they are planning on opening a new place) but you can try a few different types or buy the beers. Our parents tried, and they both agreed the beer was good. Some other popular places to try are the Tiny Gecko Bar, the Soggy Peso, Los Tacos de Humo, La palapa del Capitan, Cafe Mogagua, and El Borracho Burro Cantina. All of these are recommended by locals (my mom joins local Facebook groups on all the places we go to get good recommendations).

We really enjoyed the Islas in Yucutan. They were both good spots to snorkel, dive, go to the beach, and eat good Mexican food. We definitely could have stayed longer on either Isla.

In a couple of weeks we are planning to stay a week in Cozumel and I will be updating this post with further Isla information!