Isla Mujeres is a tiny hidden gem off the coast of Cancun, and like so many islands, is a total world in and of its own. The contrast coming directly from downtown Cancun couldn’t be much starker! The island is about 7 miles or 10 kilometers long, and at its widest, barely half a mile wide. It is a long bank of coral that just got gradually built up out of the water, running mostly northwest to southeast. The point at the southeast end of the island is actually known as where the sun rises first in all of Mexico, and still contains ruins of a Maya shrine built to honor the goddess Ixchel. The north end of the island widens out to form the main little town—that’s where the main port is, along with all the “action,” as much as there is!
The island is small enough that you just won’t need a car to get around. Even if your hotel is at the opposite end, it’s incredibly easy to rent a golf cart or just hail a taxi to get where you want to be. It’s very common to rent golf carts for the day or for multiple days to provide basic transportation.
There is a good variety of small hotels on the island—so far no hotel chains have found their way there, although that will undoubtedly be changing. Because it’s a coral island, the best beaches are all found along the north end and in a few locations along the west coast. North Beach is world class, although recently there have been concerns about beach erosion on the northwestern end. It’s one of my favorites in all of Quintana Roo because the water is so shallow so far out that you can wade “for days” without ever thinking of getting your hair wet! The east coast of the island is pretty much undeveloped because it looks out over the open Caribbean Sea, which can get pretty rough. The west coach beaches, when you can find them, are all quite lovely, but are pretty much put to shame by other beaches (North Beach here, and Cancun and Tulum elsewhere). They do feature some of the best sunsets anywhere you’ll ever see!
The little town at the north end of the island has a total of six streets moving from east to west, and a total of ten moving north to south, so it’s a complete no-brainer to be able to walk around. The better hotels line North Beach, and the ones in town cater mostly to the backpacker crowd. There are several really good restaurants in town, and not just located in the hotels! There is also a decent range of activities sponsored by tour operators located here.
First, keep in mind the small size of everything on the island. Your main form of transport will be your feet, supplemented by the wheels of your choice—bikes, golf carts, or the occasional taxi.
There are a few theme parks on the island, including Garrafon acuatic park, which is almost worth it, along with several beach clubs along the western beaches that cater to day-trippers over from Cancun. The private tour boats arrive from Cancun and come right up to the beach club and let people spend the day. I personally find it strange that people would come over here in a boat to a beach that’s not as nice as the one where they’re staying in Cancun, but oh well! It’s something different for a day!
Those very beach clubs also act as great wedding venues, but the majority of them are quite big for our market. Most can handle up to 200-300 people, and some even larger. Therefore they’re relatively expensive to rent out, and they don’t include hotel rooms.
There are 2-3 all-inclusive hotels now on the island–the concept is spreading from Riviera Maya, then to Cancun, and now to IM. I personally don’t really recommend this concept here, because there are so many (cheaper) options on the island, and none of the AI resorts is really big enough to support enough restaurants to offer you enough variety to not become bored after three days. (see article on all-inclusives)
Swimming with whale sharks is one of those once-in-a-lifetime unforgettable activities that can make the whole trip to QR worth it. And efforts are currently being made to limit the number of tourists who can interact with the sharks at a time, hopefully keeping us from stressing the animals too much in their migration through these waters each summer. We can still recommend doing it, while we can no longer recommend swimming with dolphins because of the animal-rights issues involved. There are quite a few tour operators offering trips with the whale sharks from Isla Holbox, but it’s a lot closer and quicker to get to where you actually swim with them if you start from Isla Mujeres. Not necessarily cheaper, but less time in the little boat they take you out in.
The underwater sculpture garden now made relatively famous lies in the ocean between Isla Mujeres and Cancun, so is an easy boat ride out from “downtown” Isla Mujeres. We definitely recommend this activity for divers, not necessarily snorkelers, because the sculptures are deep enough that you can’t get a good sense of them from the surface.
There is one Mayan fish dish that is “native” to Isla Mujeres, and has been cooked there for generations. It’s on many restaurant menus, each one saying that their version is better than all the rest. We have our own personal favorite at Playa Los Lancheros because the family recipe used is from one of the families (Megana) that has lived on the island literally for more than 200 years. The dish, tixin-xic comes from a relatively large and bony fish, and you’re served a filet that’s quite thick. It’s marinated in a special marinade with fruit juices and achiote (annato), the popular Mayan spice, and then cooked over low flame in an outdoor oven (think tandoor without the clay) for up to several hours. It’s really good!
Speaking of food, there is one restaurant owned by a European lady (Lolo Lorena) that comes highly recommended on Trip Advisor. She’s a professional chef and quite adventurous with her menus—they change almost every day. It’s an extremely small restaurant, as you might imagine, and reservations are relatively hard to come by, especially in high season. But it’s a treat you won’t want to miss for yourselves and your wedding party if you’re staying on the island.
There are two ferry companies that ply the waters to Isla Mujeres from the mainland, and the main port of Cancun called Puerto Juarez. Ultramar is the newer company—they also run (larger) ferries across to Cozumel from Playa del Carmen. They are better known and thus more popular and more expensive than the other, older company, which happens to be owned by the Megana family (noticing any trends here? It’s a big family by now!) The docks at Puerto Juarez aren’t in the same place—Ultramar’s is several yards closer to downtown Cancun on the mainland, and the schedules are such that if you miss the Ultramar ferry on the hour or half-hour, you can run up the way, literally, and catch the Megana ferry 10 minutes later. I recommend never to buy a round-trip ticket on these ferries, because you don’t want to have to wait the extra minutes when you want to come back! (same story with going to Cozumel). On the Megana boat you’ll tend to see more Mexicans, because they give better discounts to the people who live on the island (see Dirty Little Secrets article)
We heartily do NOT recommend swimming with dolphins at the two locations on Isla Mujeres, or anywhere else in QR, for that matter (see article on water activities)
One of the relatively difficult issues related to holding a destination wedding of any sort on Isla Mujeres is the relative lack of available hotel rooms. There are so few hotels large enough to be able to handle a group of up to 50 guests at a time, that competition is fierce, and the hotels that are big enough are typically hesitant to book groups because they can interfere with their regular reservation pattern. This is more of an issue in high (winter) season, so it’s important to make sure that there’s hotel availability on your wedding dates before making any other commitments on the island.
RECOMMENDATIONS
HOTELS:
RESTAURANTS
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Oceanvs Beach Club/Na Balam Hotel
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Sunset Grill
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Lolo Lorena
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Playa Los Lancheros
ACTIVITIES:
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Whale shark snorkeling tours
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Golf cart tour of island
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Garrafon Underwater Park
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Punta Sur and shrine to Ixchel
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Dive trip to Underwater Sculpture Museum
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Beach clubs