Isla Mujeres is an island just off northeast of Zona Hotelera in Cancun. The island is visible if you’re standing on the beaches of Cancun and vice versa. It is known for its white sand and idyllic beaches. The island is only 5 miles long and a half mile wide. In other words, you can walk around it if you’ve got a sun-proof skin. Isla Mujeres, in English means, Island of Women. The Spanish called the island as such because of the presence of a number of women statues.
How to get to there. If you’re staying downtown or along Zona Hotelera, there are three major ports where you can take the UltraMar ferry. We stayed at Occidental Costa Cancun and the Embarcadero terminal is right next door to us. The other two ferry terminals are: Playa Tortugas and Playa Caracol.
By Alain – Full Story at Keep Calm and Wander
Cancun gets all the attention in Mexico. She’s the sophisticated older cousin with the glitziest hotels, name-brand malls and an over-abundance of casinos. Isla Mujeres is quieter, less mature when it comes to glitz but older and wiser when it comes to gracious hospitality. She’s more like your best girlfriend who loves spending time with you, sharing meals that stretch on for hours, strolling and Isla Mujeres, Cancun, Mexico
Isla Mujeres, Cancun, Mexico
The island is 8 miles (13 kilometers) off the northeast coast of Cancun, serviced every half hour by ferries from pre-dawn to midnight. The Spanish graced it Isla Mujeres – Island of Women –because of the many goddess images left there by the Mayans who viewed the island as the sacred home of Ixchel, goddess off childbirth and medicine. Coincidently, it’s also the shape of a mermaid.
To the east of the island lies the Caribbean sea, rough and windy and the best place to view consistently spectacular sunrises. To the west is Cancun, which can be seen clearly on good-weather days. For visitors to Cancun, it’s the perfect day trip. For those who want to escape the glitz and see and be seen atmosphere of Cancun, it offers charming hotels, delish restaurants and exquisite beaches.
The first mistake I made when I visited Isla Mujeres? I only stayed for a day. That was in 2010, during my first trip to the Yucatan peninsula, when I lived in Playa del Carmen for a month. I fell in love with the little island off the coast of Cancun immediately.
The second mistake I made? I waited nearly six years to return to Isla Mujeres, even though I was raving about it to everyone who was planning a trip to the Yucatan and asked me for advice on where to go, and despite the fact that I returned to the Yucatan in 2012. It is still beyond me why I didn’t plan in time for a little island getaway back then, but I guess after two months of living on a remote Caribbean beach I wasn’t craving more beach time.
When I planned my Yucatan road trip this year, I made sure that we would spend some time on Isla Mujeres.
There isn’t much to do on this tiny island, which is only 1.3 miles (7 kilometers) long and 2,130 feet (650 meters) wide. As I recall, there weren’t even cars on the island then, only golf carts, but this time around there were a few cars as well. However, golf carts are still definitely outnumbering cars on Isla Mujeres, and most tourists rent those for the day instead of scooters.
I visited Isla Mujeres in 2010 on a day trip while I was living in Playa del Carmen, and even though it was a (too!) short visit, I was smitten with the tiny Caribbean island immediately. Crystal clear water, powdery sand beaches, palm trees softly swaying in the wind. It was a glorious day. And yet it took me nearly six years to return to Isla Mujeres, the Isle of Women.
I decided to spend my last weekend in Mexico on the island, and I don’t think I could’ve chosen a more perfect place to end my Mexico trip with a bang, but it also made saying goodbye even more bittersweet. I know that I’ll be back in Mexico (hopefully rather sooner than later), but I was definitely not ready for this trip to end, especially after our fabulous road trip.
As the last stop for our road trip, the island was perfect! It is tiny enough to be explored in a golf kart in half a day, so we didn’t feel like we missed out on anything when we spent most of the weekend on the beach, sitting in a swing bar with a cool beer or searching for the best palm tree to spread out our beach towels under.