I can say without a shadow of hesitation or doubt that Isla Mujeres was hands down the highlight of our trip to Cancun, Mexico.
We spent a day exploring the island, from laying on the beach, to hooning around the island in our golf buggy, to feeding giant turtles, to enjoying a Margarita at the clifftop cafe at the eastern most tip of Mexico.
Here’s what you need to know about making a trip to the island and making the most of it.
I’ll leave actually getting to the island from Cancun for another post so we’ll pick up from when you actually get there.
Here’s a list of the main things you can do on the island so you can decide what you like and divide your time as you please. While you probably could spend more than a day there, going there on a tour and spending just the 1 day there worked really well for us and we were happy that we experienced the island in the time we did.
1. Personal golf cart hire and tour around the island.
2. Zip lining with the bright blue water below you.
3. Visiting the ruins and the cafe at the eastern tip of the island.
4. Hanging out at the local tourist drag, shops, cafes, bars.
5. Relaxing, sunbaking on the beach.
6. Visit the aquarium OR the outdoor animal enclosure where you see turtles and stingray.
7. Browsing around the township.
And we may have missed a couple.
Now here’s the things you need to know.
Golf Carts
Hiring a golf cart? Yep, it’s a MUST! There’s not an overwhelming amount to see and do at the island but what’s there is mostly spread out a decent bit. You won’t be able to walk it and see everything unless you’re a marathon runner and you are immune to heat exhaustion.
When you first get off the boat onto the island you’ll likely see people with clipboards trying to take people’s names for the Golf Cart hire and you should take advantage of it right now because (although everyone says this for everything in Mexico) there actually ARE a limited number of carts. We had a short wait to be able to get ours but we made the most of it with some time lying in the sun 
Also, we hired the cart for just 1 hour but if you can… get it for 2. If you don’t have it you just have to catch a taxi to see everything anyway so you’ll probably spend more money AND you don’t have near as much freedom to see each thing in your own time. Also at some spots further out on the island (like on the west side, out where the turtles are) you could wait a decent time for a taxi to pass by and you’ll waste your time on the island.
So in short. DO IT, it’s worth it
Isla Mujeres Highlights
If you have limited time, I’ll tell you what our favorite parts were and what you can avoid to miss if you have to.
First, the best part of the trip to Isla Mujeres was the lunch we had on the cafe at the tip of the island. You won’t miss this as there’s only one. How do I describe it…
So imagine you’re on the tip of an island. The tip of the island juts out into the middle of a sea of crystal clear bright blue water, which because you’re right at the edge AND elevated up onto a clifftop, you can see completely for about 270 degrees around you.
In front of you, you see the waves crashing into the cliffs of the island and the blue waters of the Caribbean as far as you can see into the distance. Behind you is the same. To the left you see the ancient ruins of Mujeres in the middle of a park with a winding walkway along with various modern art sculptures dotting the park grounds. To the right you see the smiling Mexicans at the bar preparing endless margheritas for the enthralled tourists in the midst of this majestic experience.
Are you seeing it?
That’s why this cafe is awesome. We sat for an hour or two just chatting away, enjoying our cocktails, and taking in the beauty around us. We went for a short walk in the adjacent park where you can walk to the very tip and see the ancient ruins by paying a few pesos at it’s entry.
If you make the trip across and you don’t see this spot, I’ll beat you over the head with something heavy. It’s THAT good.
Isla Mujeres Lowlights
It’s not REALLY a low light but in terms of things you COULD avoid if you had to, here’s my thoughts.
Turtles: There’s a marine life enclosure at the western end of the island that you can get down to by taxi or your golf cart.
For our own personal reasons, we didn’t like the fact that there were a large number of turtles being kept in a relatively tiny enclosure (I’m talking about probably 30 turtles in a circular tank of about 3m in diameter and about 2ft deep…) and if we hadn’t seen that, our trip would have been improved just a little. But that’s up to you to determine.
The thing is that the turtles and the marine enclosure (we didn’t go inside the bigger marine enclosure, figuring it would be mostly like an aquarium anywhere else) were the only thing to see at that end of the island and if you didn’t have to make the trip out to it by whatever means, you could spend more time doing the other things which were far more enjoyable.
Final Review
If you make sure you have enough time for lunch at the eastern tip cafe and the ruins, enough time to browse the local markets, and enough time to enjoy a drink at any of the beachside bars, you’ll find Isla Mujeres a tonne of fun and a very special experience.
We wholeheartedly recommend a visit to Isla Mujeres for anyone visiting Cancun.
Author: Andrew Hansen
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