Isla Mujeres Mexico

Oh Isla Mujeres... you captured my heart. I will be doing a few posts on this amazing small island located just off Cancun. 😍

A few years ago, my best friend Keri and I started talking about where we would plan our 40th birthday trip. We met in 2nd grade and our birthdays are 11 days apart. At the time, we started throwing around having a girls trip in Napa.

As time went on, as wonderful as a girls trip in Napa sounded, I really couldn't imagine spending my 40th without my husband and this trip quickly turned into a couples trip with some of our closest friends. We did a lot of research and ended up selecting a tiny island in Mexico called Isla Mujeres.

Keri learned about Isla Mujeres from a show on HGTV. This 5 mile long island is known for calm turquoise waters and pure white powdery sand. We quickly realized this is exactly where we want to be. It's a quaint and safe beach town with tons of local shops and restaurants. Depending on where you stay on the island, you can walk to a lot of places, or rent a golf cart. After choosing where we would have our trip, Isla Mujeres was named one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world by Trip Advisor in 2019.

Getting to and around Isla Mujeres:
We flew into Cancun Airport direct from Fort Lauderdale. Once you get out of Customs (ours was a breeze in Terminal 4 - we had zero wait), you will need to take a taxi or car service to the Isla Mujeres Ferry. We pre-booked door to door transportation through Luxury Van Transportation Cancun. This included our ferry tickets and the taxis picked up the groups from the hotels on our different departure dates. While this was a little more expensive, it was a great peace of mind for everyone who traveled. They were extremely professional and I would suggest them in a heartbeat!

I strongly suggest renting your golf cart ahead of time. We booked ours 60+ days in advance and more than half of the companies we reached out to were already sold out. We booked 3 golf carts, all 4 seat carts. You cannot have more than 4 people on a golf cart (it's illegal and you will get ticketed). We booked through Isla Mujeres Golf Cart Rentals. Note - they will need to keep 1 drivers license on file for every cart rented. You won't need your license while on the island but it is worth noting.

Where to stay on Isla Mujeres
Although less than 5 miles long, there are many areas to stay on Isla Mujeres. We personally wanted to be able to walk out of our door onto a white sandy beach. We ended up in Playa Norte - or North Beach. Our group rented condo's at Ixchel Beach Hotel.  Keri and I shared a 2 bedroom penthouse and everyone else got individual single rooms. All rooms had a balcony overlooking beautiful clear waters. It had all of the amenities you would find in a major resort. I had multiple $30 massages overlooking the gorgeous waters. We were able to stroll down the market streets, where a ton of restaurants, bars and shops were located all within walking distance - some of which allowed us to put our tab to our room charge. This experience was exactly what we were looking for and more. I loved having a full kitchen, making our own drinks and enjoying life at island pace.

What to do on Isla Mujeres
With June birthdays, that put us on Isla Mujeres during Whale Shark Season and we were able to dive with these beautiful gentle creatures. I will do a full post on this experience that left us in awe, but if you find yourself there during season, do this! We also went snorkeling, zip-lining and had a lot of beach days. This was meant to be a chill trip, and for the most part, that is exactly what we got!