Mexico's Hidden Island -- Holbox

Imagine a place where the water is so clear, you can see your toes even when the water is at your waist. One of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen is hidden off the coast of Cancún, Mexico called Holbox or Isla Holbox.

The best of the best

This place is a tropical paradise, but with things to see and do. I’ll highlight some of my favorites.

#1 - The beach, well duh.

It’s an amazing experience being able to roam on an island surrounded to one of the most beautiful, pristine waters. One of the cool things you can do is hop into a general store in town, grab some beers and a cooler, walk to the beach and drink all day. Something you can’t do at any beach in America…

If a bar is more of your scene — there’s a number of them on the beach. I instantly fell in love with the couple that have swings as barstools!

#2 - Small town vibe

One of my favorite things about traveling is being able to experience the culture of different cities. Holbox is an adorable little town with plenty of entertainment. You won’t find lots of traffic, since there’s barely any cars on the island. If you need a taxi, you can find them in the form of a glorified ATV. Other highlights you’ll find in the main town of Holbox: bars where the floor is actually sand, the freshest ceviche in your life, late-night food stands, and early morning markets with fresh fruit. There are plenty of restaurants too, in case you get sick of your hotel’s restaurant.

#3 - Day-trip adventures

Cenotes & Flamingos — We found a day-trip where we combined the ever-so-beautiful cenote and flamingo viewings. If you’re never heard of a cenote (I didn’t either before this trip) it’s a deep, water-hole sinkhole that creates a natural pool filled with rain water and water flowing from underground rivers. The Quintana Roo region (state of Mexico), is actually filled with cenotes — there are a few just near Playa Del Carmen if you don’t make it to Holbox. For this day-trip, We coordinated it with one of the taxi-ATV drivers that we became friends with, but you can also make these accommodations with whatever hotel you’re staying at.

On the day-trip that we went on, we took a boat out to an island for a dip into a cenote. We then travelled to a neighboring island where we got to see some flamingos. We even got to feed some wild birds (photo below), luckily no one was hurt in the process of feeding the birds.

#4 - Bioluminescence

One, if you haven’t heard of this word before…Google it, like now.

Holbox is one of the places you’re able to see this amazing natural phenomenon. We took an taxi-ATV at night when it was pitch dark to see the bioluminescence — the only illumination was under the moonlight. Your taxi will drive in the dark for a little bit until you get to the ocean. As you step foot into the water, the plankton around your feet light up. It’s an absolutely surreal experience. If you’re wondering where my photos of this are — they turned out to be trash. It’s SO dark, you really will need a professional camera to capture these in the pitch darkness.

#5 - Alma

Okay going to most bars in America isn’t worth a day-trip adventure. But we managed to find one in Holbox that was worth it. Mark down Alma — a boutique bar on the top of a hotel with a pool and cabanas overlooking the water. We rented bikes for the day and rode it down because it’s quite a long walk from the main town. Also, if you order the fresh ceviche — beware that it will take awhile. They made it fresh at the bar.

#6 - Hotels of all kinds

Holbox is paradise without the crazy expensive hotel prices. I would say an average night there is about $160. I went with a group of 9 total, and we stayed in 3 different hotels. The one I stayed in was Xaloc Resort, that had charming huts for rooms with bed canopies inside (picture below). It’s about a 10 minute walk from the main town. The best part of Xaloc was the pools — they had a big pool inside the complex (shown below) but they also had one at the front with a swim up bar. Anytime there’s a swim up bar, count me in.

If you’re looking for a little more upscale — look at Villas HM Palapas del Mar which is next door to Xaloc. Overall the rooms were more upscale and the ground floor rooms had mini pools ATTACHED to each room. Yup, I said attached. They had a massive pool in the middle with almost a massive bar to accompany it.

#7 - Don’t forget

Brush up on your Spanish. I’m not saying you need to speak it fluently. But donde esta el bano and necesito una cerveza are very nice to have. If you have food allergies like me, you must learn what those words are in Spanish.

Bring pesos. At the time, there were 2 ATMs on the island. I have Chase and they would charge me every time I went to an ATV that’s not a Chase one, so just make sure you’ve got enough to last your stay. Holbox is relatively cheap and many places take credit cards, but not every place.

Purchase whatever drugs, i.e. “Dramamine”, before you arrive in Mexico.

Extra bug spray. Even though it’s total paradise, I came home was legit 30+ mosquito bites. A friend took Vitamin B 2 weeks before the trip, and he barely had a bite on him when returning back to the US.

#8 - How to get there

Direct flights aren’t really an option unless you’re ridiculously rich. The small airport on the island is mostly used for overpriced day tours in the air. Trust me - you won’t just want to see this place in the air.

Fly into Cancún — that’s the closest airport around. From there, you’ll need to get yourself to a city called Chiquilá which is a 2-hour drive from Cancun, off the north coast of Quintana Roo. I recommend taking a taxi — the conversion from dollars to pesos only makes it only an expensive Uber ride.

The other option, is of course, to rent a car and drive it up there. This is the option that I did and I’ll tell this story so you can do it at your own risk. We went early to Mexico to explore Playa Del Carmen, old pyramids, and cenotes before going to Holbox, so it was extremely helpful to have a car. But, you’ll run the risk of being pulled over by the police. They will stop you for ANYTHING. That’s exactly what happened to us, and we may or may not have had to pay them off. So if you’re driving, I would have extra pesos on you…

From Chiquilá, you’ll take a cheap 20-minute ferry over to the island Holbox.

Finding a paradise vacation on a budget isn’t easy, but Holbox accomplishes that. It’s not halfway across an ocean and there’s more to see other than the beach.