Quintana Roo · Mexico
Isla MujeresCaribbean island life at golf-cart pace
Yucatán & Caribbean
Highlights
- Playa NorteShallow, calm turquoise water — routinely ranked among Mexico’s best beaches.
- Whale-shark seasonRoughly June–September, the gentle giants gather in nearby open water.
- Punta Sur & Temple of IxchelClifftop sculpture park and Maya temple ruins at the island’s southern tip.
- MUSA & the reefsSnorkel reefs and the famous underwater sculpture museum offshore.
About the destination
Isla Mujeres is a sliver of limestone and sand — about seven kilometers long — floating in the Caribbean twenty minutes by ferry from Cancún, yet moving at an entirely different speed. Most visitors trade cars for golf carts, and the island’s north end delivers one of Mexico’s most celebrated beaches: Playa Norte, with shallow, glassy turquoise water and postcard sunsets.
At the opposite tip, the cliffs of Punta Sur hold a sculpture garden and the remains of a temple to Ixchel, the Maya goddess the island is named for. In the waters around it lie snorkel reefs and the MUSA underwater sculpture museum, and from roughly June to September the surrounding sea hosts one of the world’s great whale-shark aggregations.