As promised our trip report to Isla Mujeres, this report is from March 2015, its long and boring but it does give you an idea of what to expect if you do visit the Island.... So we just came back from our trip and I think it is just right to complete this thread by the feedback from our first time trip to Isla Mujheres. I should let you know that we have never been to the island before (except on Boobs Cruise). We had such a great experience staying on the Island that we have decided we will always include an extra day at the Island to every trip we do to TTR. First of all our flights got delayed and instead of getting to Cancun at 1:30 we arrived at 3:30. Customs took unusually and memorably long, we got the red light (thanks to the wife) and ended up with this young Mexican airport security girl who did not know half of the stuff that we were carrying in our luggage. I would just end this part by us hoping she does not dump all of our content on the table to fulfil her curiosity, anyways she ended up asking for her manager who was standing just a few feet away to help her recognize and Thank God he had some experience and he said this is this and that is that....and then her face just turned red and she let us go. Around 4:00 pm we took our transfer to TTR. Where we had already made arrangements with our friends to drop off our bags and they had already let the front desk know that we will be leaving our bags for them to pick up later in the day. On our arrival, Tino greeted us, we explained to him the situation and he said to go in and talk to the reception. We explained customer service about our situation and told him that we have arrangements for our luggage here...long story short they checked our reservations and said they will keep the luggage in the storage until we arrive back tomorrow. We had no problem with that and by the time we went outside Tino already had our luggage marked for tomorrow. We used the washroom to change and get rid of our bulky clothing. Around 5 we turned left from TTR and stat walking on the patch looking for the ultramar boat dock. Surprisingly it was just a good 10 to 12 min. Walk to the dock and cannot be missed; they have huge banners of the boat painted on the outside of the building. But unfortunately we missed the last boat leaving to isla and there wasn’t another one until the next morning. We were then told to take the boat from Purto Juarez which is about 15 to 20 min. Taxi ride. We took the taxi negotiated down to 10 bucks. He then rushed us to the dock, paid our fare for the ferry and waited another 20 min for the ferry to arrive. People were carrying full luggage on the boat, those who were staying at the island for their whole stay. So we could have brought our luggage as well but it would have been a hassle for one night. Around 6 we get to the island, I started to look for a place that would rent me a golf cart. And we luckily found a place that was open and we rented the cart for 24 hours. Owner of the shop then explained to us how the golf cart works, it does feel bit weird to drive but once you get a hold of it, I would say after 10 min. It is a piece of cake and so much fun. Our motel wasn’t too far away from downtown just 2 blocks. On the reception they already had big sold out sign but we made our reservation online long time ago so it was a fast check in. We went into the room to freshen up and with still some sun light left we went out to explore a bit before sunsets. We went exploring on our golf cart from one-one way street to another. It became dark so we stopped at one of the restaurants on the main stretch to eat. After eating wife wanted to walk around the market so we came back to the motel parked our cart and start checking out the crowded streets with vendors on both side of the road. I saw OXXO and went in to buy some beer but they stop selling beer around 5, bummer who does that, its Mexico! Anyways us being us I ask a nice hippie lady who wanted to buy beer as well that where can we find some and lucky for us she speak Spanish, she found this another lady who took us through dark alleys to a private corner store underneath a house who had all kinds of beer. After little bit of sightseeing and shopping wife wanted to go back to the room and I was getting tired too. We decided to check out the night life after a little bit of nap. It was already 9 pm and once we went to our room I woke up at around 12:30 with loud music just banging our room door and I went out on the balcony and the place was full with people roaming around and bars with maximum capacity. I tried to wake up my wife but she is a sound sleeper nothing can wake her once she fall asleep so I just set in the balcony with my beer and felt like a loner. Its ok I knew it’s going to be a shit show from tomorrow when we get to ttr (that’s how I console my heart for missing the party). The next morning we were up at 6 in the morning and I did not wanted to miss a single minute of our vacation time at isla mujeres. We started our golf cart and it does make a loud noise while driving, at first I was bit hesitant to drive this early in the morning as it might wake up others but I was like fk it we only have few hours and we had to make it count. So coffee in our hand we went on the road came to the main road saw few other early birds with their golf cart. Still there was a lot of traffic on the road because of all the delivery trucks and people going to their work. We kept driving and driving went thru communities and houses of resident. Ended up at a dead end with beautiful scenery and gorgeous looking houses, took few photos, did a round-about and went to the opposite direction. Ended up at Punta Sur, I must say what a beautiful place it is. We were so early that everything was closed. I told my wife I wanted to go in to the end (there is a fee of 60 pesos per person) they had just a rope around the entrance with a closed sign hanging on it. We jumped over the rope and start heading inside, security guard saw us and he came outside. We took his permission, paid him the entry fee and went on our way. If you do go to the island you do need to go see the place it is beautiful and relaxing. Our plan was to see the sun rise from there but we missed it. Although I think we enjoyed the place more because it was all to ourselves and there was no one around and no boats in the water. We spend a good 2 hours at the location and by the time we were leaving they were setting up tables at the restaurant. They also have few shops at the entrance. We left the place and started exploring more, we came across the sign that said beer so cold it will break your teeth but the place was closed, we herd they make awesome margaritas. We took some pictures there and continue our journey, then we came across Mangos cafe, I heard so many good things about it so we had to stop and try. Everything they say about the place is right. Food was very delicious and atmosphere was great, I would recommend everyone to go there at least once. After that we were just too eager to leave the place and get to ttr as soon as possible. We did check out and returned our golf cart took the ferry and arrived at ttr. I think this one day trip report is already so long that it feels kind of lame to post it...but I did not see a single trip report about isla mujeres or how to plan a trip, therefore, I think this could be used as basic guidelines for what to expect or do at the island. We might have explored maybe 40% of the Island and there were many other places that we wanted to visit but time was of essence. Our friends were waiting for us at ttr and it would have been rude for us to let them get drunk all alone, therefore, we left.
We stayed at hotel Bahia chac chi. We booked the day before traveling and everything was sold out or too expensive. Our room had a great view of the reef. AC did not work proper but they did provide us with a fan and that was enough for us. So I would say if you are booking early enough you can probably do better.
