All about Isla Mujeres in Mexico
Updated: October 24, 2024
Main Category: Day Trips
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Author: Tobias
Isla Mujeres is a small island 13 km north of Cancún. Since 2015 Isla Mujeres belongs to the Pueblo Mágicos. Isla Mujeres is about 330km away from Mérida. The journey by car takes about 5h 30min from the city center of Mérida and the place is most of the time bustling.
Day Trips
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Isla Mujeres
Isla Mujeres (Spanish for "Women Island") is a small island 13km north of Cancún (the center of the Riviera Maya resort area) in the state of Quintana Roo. The island is about 7km long and only 650m wide.
Since 2015 the island belongs to the Pueblo Mágicos. You can reach Isla Mujeres in about 20 minutes via a fast ferry, which starts e.g. in Puerto Juárez (which is the nearest ferry port).
If you are on an all-inclusive vacation in one of the hotels in the Zona Hotelera of Cancún, you will quickly notice that Cancún itself is not very attractive and the whole area is very commercialized and Americanized.
A day trip to Isla Mujeres will give you a chance to relax and feel some Caribbean vibe (even though the island lives mainly from tourism besides fishing).
You can also spend a relaxing day at the main beach Playa Norte or at the less frequented Playa Central and enjoy a cocktail at one of the many beach bars.
The center of Isla Mujeres is the Avenida Miguel Hidalgo. Here there are rows of souvenir stores, restaurants and bars and you will be asked every 20 meters if you want to buy something.
Main travel season
You can visit Isla Mujeres all year round, the temperatures rarely fall below 20 degrees and the water barely below 25 degrees. The main tourist season is between December and April, but this is true for the whole Yucatan Peninsula.
If you are there between June and September, you can take a boat trip to see whale sharks passing by Isla Mujeres.
The Museo Subacuático de Arte (MUSA), an underwater museum that can be visited on a guided tour, is also quite famous. Over 500 life-size figures form an artificial reef and you can dive, snorkel or book a tour on a glass-bottom boat.
Pueblos Mágicos
Isla Mujeres is one of the places designated by Mexico 2002 as "Pueblos Mágicos".
The award has been granted by SECTUR (Secretariat of Tourism in Mexico) since 2001 for unique folklore, a rich history or stunning natural beauty. On the Yucatán Peninsula, there are fourteen places that can call themselves "Pueblo Mágico".
The 14 Pueblos Magicós on the Yucatán Peninsula are (as of 2024):
Quintana Roo: Bacalar, Isla Mujeres, Tulum and Cozumel
Yucatán: Izamal, Maní, Sisal, Valladolid, Espita, Motul and Tekax
Campeche: Isla Aguada, Palizada and Candelaria
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