Visiting Gorgeous Holbox Island

This small, remote island hosts some beautiful beaches and amazing wildlife. Find out everything you need to know about Holbox Island!

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Holbox is a magical island in the northern part of Yucatan that hosts some beautiful beaches, and amazing wildlife. The beaches feature clear, colorful waters that can inspire any artist. Tourists are drawn to simply strolling through the streets admiring artistic murals and enjoying local cuisine, or the more adventurous can embark on bird-watching tours, visit virgin beaches, or observe bioluminescence at night. Holbox is a small town with sand roads that make you feel like you’re on a true vacation getaway.

Did I mention the opportunity to swim with whale sharks?

Do you want to fit in with the locals? Let’s start by pronouncing the name of the island correctly! The correct pronunciation is “hol-BOSH“.

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In short, Holbox is an amazing place that everyone who loves Mexican beaches should visit.

Background info on Holbox

Holbox is an island in the northern part of the Yucatan peninsula. Its name, Holbox, means “black hole” in Mayan. Although this is a very popular island to visit, it has a lot of unexplored areas making this a great spot to see flamingos, pelicans, and several other birds.

It is also known for its whale shark viewing (more on this topic later in this article), and is part of the Yum Balam Biosphere Reserve.

Holbox is a fishing town, but tourism is growing and becoming a development vector.

Visiting Holbox beaches

Without a doubt, the beaches at Holbox are top notch. Its shallow, clear waters make for an amazing, natural pool-like experience that anyone can enjoy.

I categorize the beaches as follows:

• Playa Holbox & surroundings – area where you can hang out at a beach club
• Virgin beaches, such as Punta Mosquito – yes, you read that correctly! Virgin beaches ❤️

Playa Holbox & surroundings

The beaches at Holbox are beautiful. I won’t waste time trying to describe them with words—I’ll let pictures speak for themselves.

The public beaches at Holbox have beach clubs that offer great facilities: loungers, umbrellas, tasty food, drinks and refreshments.

You can walk to most beaches. During our trip, our Airbnb was located about 3-4 blocks from the closest beach. Once we reached it, we were able to walk along the coast and pick our favorite spot.

At the particular beach club we hung out at, we had to commit to a $600 pesos (~$30USD) per person minimum consumption for everyone over 12 years of age. I highly recommend an umbrella to stay out of the sun!!

I’m not much of a beach person, but it was very enjoyable to sit by the shade and enjoy the view!

“What are the crowds like at Holbox?

Unfortunately, each year there’s more and more tourists. However, you will see less traffic than Isla Mujeres and Cancun.

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Virgin Beaches at Holbox

Here’s an opportunity to visit a virgin beach! A few things to keep in mind as you take on this adventure:

• Please be respectful of the ecosystem there! Having a virgin beach is truly a privilege, and we must enjoy it responsibly. Don’t bother the flamingos or birds!
• There are no facilities in a virgin island, so be prepared to bring your own water and food. Do not leave any trash behind!
• Be prepared to walk to these spots. There’s no ground transportation available
• Soak it all in! Not many get to experience being in a place like this

One of the popular places to visit is Punta Mosquito. You can reach this place by taking a golf-cart taxi ride to Hotel Las Nubes de Holbox and then walking 15-20 minutes through the sand banks.

There’s incredible wild life there. If you’re lucky, you may get to see flamingos! 😍

Exploring Holbox Island

Holbox is a very small town with sand streets. Its traffic is primarily comprised of pedestrians, golf-carts and motorcycles.

You can walk from your hotel or Airbnb to most spots, including the beach and the city center. This makes for a very relaxing experience, except when it rains. You need to watch out for the water puddles!

Mosquitos are also a big deal here. Make sure to bring your repellent!

Tours around Holbox Island

Although within the town of Holbox you’ll only find a few restaurants and shops, there are a few tours around Holbox that are definitely worth checking out:

• Three island tour—you get to visit Isla de los Pajaros (good for bird-watching), Isla de la Pasion (very neat sand bank, more bird-watching, and a look-out), and Yalahu Ojo de Agua (a fresh-water spring where you can swim)
• Cabo Catoche tour—this is a more isolated spot where you get to go hang out and swim/snorkel at the opposite side of the island
• Swimming with whale sharks!
• You can also kayak in some spots of the island, where you will get closer to nature

My recommendation on the tours is to take them only if you’re there for more than one day. The three island tour was good, but would only recommend taking it in the morning (more birds to watch), and/or if you’re staying longer than a day.

Three island tour at Holbox

The three island tour at Holbox takes ~2-2.5 hours, and it covers three places: Isla de los Pajaros, Isla de la Pasion, and Yalahu Ojo de Agua. This is a great option for nature lovers, as you’ll get to see some wildlife at these spots.

Isla de los Pajaros is a great spot for bird-watching. Flamingos, pelicans, and several other species are at an arm’s reach. Make sure to bring your binoculars and zoom lens!

Isla de la Pasion is another stop in the tour. It features sand banks which you can walk, explore, and relax on. You can also walk on the island and check out the watch tower to get an excellent view of the entire, small island.

There’s some outstanding wildlife there, so keep your eyes open.

There’s a lot of mosquitos there, though, so watch out!

Yalahu Ojo de Agua is the other stop in this tour. It is a fresh water spring that you can actually see flowing on the surface of the water. You can grab a life jacket and enjoy the crystal-clear water.

It takes about 30 mins to reach this spot, as it actually is located on the Yucatan peninsula itself.

There’s a restaurant and restroom in this stop. There’s also a watch tower you can climb to get an excellent view of the water hole.

The scoop with bioluminescence

One of the most mystical things we wanted to explore in Holbox was the bioluminescence. There were tours offered to see it, but after speaking with the locals we learned that we simply needed to find a dark spot along the beach (it will save you $15USD/person).

You can see it by waving your hand underwater. Since it has to be very dark to be able to see it, and the bioluminescence is not bright enough, it is very difficult to photograph it. It’s worth noting that locals said we should not expect a super bright, out-of-this-world bioluminescence show. Nevertheless, it is an experience you should try!

The scoop with whale sharks in Holbox

Swimming with whale sharks is an amazing experience that I highly recommend. Not only are they beautiful creatures, but you’ll get to learn more about the species and hopefully you’ll be encouraged to care more about this animal.

You’ll find out that there’s opportunities to go on whale shark snorkeling tours in Cancun, Holbox, and Isla Mujeres. So what’s the difference?

Holbox. There’s whale sharks nearby Holbox north of Cabo Catoche. However, the water there has the characteristics of the Gulf of Mexico: cloudier and colder.

Isla Mujeres/Cancun. About 10 years ago, the blue waters in the northeast of Isla Mujeres (north of Isla Contoy) became a more popular spot to see these amazing creatures. People leaving from Holbox take almost 3 hours one way to get there. For this reason, many people prefer to depart from Cancun and/or Isla Mujeres.

The whale sharks are protected and visitors are not allowed to touch them. Also, scuba diving is not allowed. If you decide to swim and snorkel with them, please make sure to only work with a reputable operator. You can read more about these beautiful creatures in the CH’OOJ AJAUIL AC home page. This group is devoted to ensure a healthy and sustainable future for an area of marine biodiversity in the north of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Their objective is to obtain the important recognition as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

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Logistics

You need to either drive or take a bus to the small town of Chiquilá to take the ferry. Note that this is a 2 hour drive from Cancun or Valladolid. You won’t get phone services for a few spots as you get closer to Chiquilá, but it is hard to get lost.

I highly recommend you fill up your rental car gas tank before heading out to Chiquilá as it can be difficult to find a gas station along the way.

There are several parking lots within a block of the ferry station, which offer the same price/day $100 pesos/day (~$5USD/day).

Credit cards are not much use on the island, you’ll need to use cash. There’s only a couple of ATMs in the island and the locals mentioned these are often empty. Be sure to bring cash!

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Ferries leave every 30 minutes for most of the day, and the ride itself is ~30-40 mins to get there.

Once at the island, it was wise to hire a golf-cart taxi to take us to our Airbnb, given that there are sand streets and it is not easy for roller bags (especially after it rains the streets are filled with puddles!).

There are some convenience stores and “larger” grocery stores on the island where you can get some basic food items, sunblock, and insect repellent. However, it is best to bring these items with you if possible.

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Food was actually very good in Holbox! Some of my favorites during the trip were:

• Restaurante La Playa De Ñaña: beach club by the beach with outstanding seafood tacos. Please order Gambas crujientes en tempura de cerveza artesanal, $14USD).
• Restaurante Viva Zapata: restaurant close to the beach which serves multiple dishes, including the traditional poc chuc.

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