Visiting Isla Mujeres and the Amazing Seashell House

In the fall of 2022, I joined a group of solo travel ladies on an excursion to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Located just off Mexico’s Caribbean coast, the island’s Spanish name translates to “Island of Women”. So, it seemed appropriate that my first visit was with a small group of women. The trip was planned by a travel friend of mine through a group travel program. Read on as I describe my experience and explore what it’s like, visiting Isla Mujeres.

Let’s start at the beginning…

Jenny and Join My Trip

I initially met Jenny Hart while attending my first Women in Travel Summit (WITS by Wanderful) in the spring of 2022. Jenny is a travel writer who splits her time between New York and Mexico City. As someone who specializes in Mexico travel, she wanted to host a girl’s trip with fellow travel minded ladies. She had been watching Casa Caracol for some time in hopes of finding an opening in the rental schedule. And when an opportunity opened up, she booked it! She then set up the trip in Join My Trip and sent out the invite to anyone interested. The process was clean and simple for the traveler through the platform as Join My Trip processes the payments securely.

The gist of Jenny’s Isla Mujeres itinerary? The cost included two nights in a hostel, $25 USD beach club credit, rental of Casa Caracol with snacks, drinks, and professional photographer (each girl gets a session with him and photos after the trip), travel to and from Casa Caracol, and her local expertise on the trip for $385 USD. You can see the full itinerary for the trip here.

Join My Trip is a group travel platform based in Germany, but accessible to the world. You can use the site as both a trip planner and trip seeker, depending on what you’re interested in doing. Their website features over 300 unique trips from around the world. The concept is that travelers can split the cost of the trip across the group to make an incredible experience more tangible for all. Like renting an expensive, highly sought-after vacation property for a self-esteem boosting photography session for a group of ladies 🙂

Preparing to Visit Isla Mujeres

In preparing for your trip, it’s good to know that as of October 2022, there are no special requirements outside the usual sweet of vaccines recommended for travel to visit Mexico.

When it comes to currency on Isla Mujeres, while many of the establishments will accept credit cards, it’s generally easier (and locally preferred) to have pesos on hand. When I purchased pesos in September 2022 the rate was about $20 MXN to $1 USD. To be safe, I brought along $200US (~$3800 MXN) which was more than enough for the 48 hours visiting Isla Mujeres.

As far as packing, my suitcase was full of warm weather, beachy items and a couple cute outfits for the Casa Caracol photoshoot. Special items I packed pro-actively for my trip include:

• activated charcoal pills (in the event of traveler’s diarrhea) – for the record, I didn’t have any digestion issues on this trip, and I consumed cocktails with ice. Most of the restaurants here know they are catering to tourists and use filtered water for all food and drink.
• reef safe sunscreen – the island is surrounded by beautiful reefs that we want to preserve 🙂
• all natural/DEET free bug repellant
• fanny pack for bare essentials during day trips

Where is Isla Mujeres?

Isla Mujeres is a small island, just off Mexico’s mainland, a couple miles east of the Cancun area. It is quite simply, a Caribbean Island, and is easily accessible by ferry.

How to Get to Isla Mujeres

For me, traveling to the island from eastern North Carolina is a bit of a trek, so understandably, how long it takes you to get there will vary depending on your initial location. That said, you’ll need to make your way to Cancún to be on the right track. As Isla Mujeres is an island, getting there requires a quick ferry ride from the Cancún area to the island.

The Ultramar ferry terminal is located in Juárez (Puerto Juárez), just east of Cancún proper. It’s about 30 minutes from Cancún International Airport (CUN) and there are several ways to travel between the two. For my trip, Jenny coordinated a group shuttle to Cancún in advance of our travels to transport everyone from the airport to the ferry terminal. The cost for this was $15 USD per person, paid online via credit card. For my return trip from the ferry terminal to the airport, we were able to haggle a rate of $300 MXN (~$15 USD) for two of us.

Once you arrive at the terminal, there are electronic tellers from which you can purchase your ticket. You can purchase one way or roundtrip. If you purchase roundtrip, be sure to hold onto the ticket for the duration of your stay as you’ll need it for the trip back. The cost of a round trip ticket from Puerto Juárez to Isla Mujeres in October was $462 MXN (~$24 USD). You can find updated fare information here.

The ferry schedule is quite regular with trips every half hour from about 7am to 7pm, with a few hourly trips on either end. The ride across to Isla Mujeres takes approximately 15 minutes and you’ll be entertained by live music during the crossing. And yes, they have refreshments onboard (including cervezas!) so be sure you have some pesos on your person for the trip.

Where To Stay on Isla Mujeres

For many tourists, visiting Isla Mujeres is a day trip from their Cancun resort, but the island has enough to offer to make it a mini getaway! And there are a variety of accommodation types available on for every taste and price range when visiting Isla Mujeres.

On my trip, I spent two nights on the island. We stayed at beautiful Selina Hotel. The hostel itself has a lot to offer, including morning yoga sessions, a co-working space, and various evening activities throughout the week. The room options range from 8-person dorm style rooms with shared bathrooms to private rooms. I shared a multi-bed room with the other ladies from my travel group.

Getting around Isla Mujeres

There are a couple modes of transportation available to get around when visiting Isla Mujeres, including taxi and scooters. The tourist favourite is renting a golf cart for the day, you’ll see plenty of them around. For the duration of my trip I walked around the North end of the island and hired a cab when we needed to ‘go the distance’ towards the South end/Casa Caracol. A cab ride from the North end to the South end will run you about $150 MXN (~$7 USD) each way.

Things to Do On Isla Mujeres

While I didn’t get around to exploring as much of the island as I would have liked on this trip, it certainly has a lot to offer! The small size of the island (approximately 8 km (5 miles) long and 1 km (3,000 feet) wide) makes it easy to explore in a day or two. Depending on how much time you have to spend and what motivates you, I definitely recommend the following:

Watch the Sunrise at Punta Sur

The south end of Isla Mujeres is called ‘Punta Sur’ and serves as a great spot to watch the sunrise over the Caribbean Sea. The landscape here is rocky with plenty of vantage points to enjoy the view. That said, I strongly recommend paying the $2USD to access the sculpture park and trail to the southernmost tip of the island. Here you’ll find tiered paths that allow you to get closer to the water if that’s up your alley. This part of the island is home to ancient ruins of a Mayan temple dedicated to the Moon Goddess Ixchel.

Where to Eat on Isla Mujeres (and Drink )

Isla Mujeres has lots of Mexican fare to offer at the variety of restaurants on the island. Seafood, tacos and fresh local fruit are widely available. I think I drank every passionfruit-based cocktail that crossed my path.

During this trip, I ate/drank at the following restaurants/bars, all of which I would recommend:

• Ocean’s Isla (dinner)
• Oh My Brunch (breakfast)
• Caribbean Brisas (breakfast)
• Coco Restaurant & Beach Bar (dinner)
• Stingray Grill (drinks and karaoke)
• EL Patio (drinks and live music)

On average, dinners cost about $25 USD (~$400 MXN) depending on what you eat/drink, breakfasts/lunch ~$10-15 USD (~$200-300 MXN). And beverages were relatively reasonably priced ranging from $3 USD (~$50 MXN) for beer up to $8 USD (~$150 MXN) for cocktails.

Go on a Mural Hunt

There are at least a dozen, amazing murals on Isla Mujeres, concentrated on the North end, with some scattered over the rest of the island.

Shop at Chedraui

I’m a big fan of exploring a local grocery store when traveling and learning about all of the local snack foods. We made a trip to Chedraui to pick up some bevvies and bites for our day at Casa Caracol. They have a full bakery section with lots of traditional, cultural treats. This is a great spot for some edible souvenirs if that’s what you’re after.

Discover Local Wildlife

There are a lot of amazing creatures that call this island home. If you’re getting into the water, you can expect everything from the typical reef fish of the Caribbean to whale sharks if you’re around at the right time of the year. There are iguanas on the island, as well as plenty of species of bird, including the magical frigate bird. As far as bugs go, I packed my DEET-free bug repellant for the trip and didn’t have to use it once (in early October). That said, these are all WILDLIFE. As a proponent of sustainable tourism, I encourage you to skip any of the facilities on the island that house animals for show (ie. “swim with the dolphins” etc.).

Spend an Afternoon at a Beach Club

Our first, introductory afternoon on the island was spend soaking up some sun and wading in the crystal blue waters at Gurú Beach Club. For a minimum spend of $25 USD (~$500 MXN) per person, you can hang out on their day beds, in their pool, or on the beach all afternoon. This was a beautiful and relaxing way for the travel group to get oriented as we waited for everyone to arrive.

Watch the Sunset from Playa Norte

Really you can watch the sunset from any of the beaches on the west side of the island. The western sky is visible from sandy Playa Norte, all the way down to rocky Punta Sur.

Sip and Swing at One of Many Bars

As you make your way through the streets of the ‘Centro’ area, you’ll notice the wooden swings lining the bars. Feel free to pull up a seat! These swings are popular with visitors as a unique approach to ‘hanging out a the bar’. Warning – be sure you are sober enough to navigate the swings. Most of them are suspended over pavement which would prove to be painful in the event of a fall.

Other activities to consider when visiting Isla Mujeres (which I plan to explore on my next visit) include:

• MUSA Underwater Sculpture Museum
• Swim with whale sharks (June to September)

Seashell House aka Casa Caracol

Without further ado, I give you the Seashell House, also known as Casa Caracol.

This STUNNING piece of architecture is located on the Southern third of the island. Built by architect Eduardo Ocampo in the mid-1990s, the structure was, not surprisingly, inspired by the local natural features of the island. Not only is the outside structure reflective of shells that can be found along the beaches, but they also accumulated shells to be used for lights, soap dishes, curtain hooks, mirror frames, and even the water faucets and knobs! Don’t believe me? Check out these photos.

Understandably, the house gets A LOT of attention from passersby, so the yard is in fact gated and locked. Should you happen to find yourself renting the property, you’ll see what I mean. During my trip, I had the incredible opportunity of spending time one on one with a professional photographer to help me capture moments from this trip of a lifetime. Pablo of iwantfotos was amazing!

The main house is a two-bedroom, three-bathroom house with an open concept kitchenette/living room. The property features a pool and outdoor seating. Inquiries to rent the house can be submitted via the Casa Caracol rental website.

Is Isla Mujeres Worth Visiting?

In my opinion – ABSOLUTELY!

there you Have it –

48 hours visiting Isla Mujeres! How was my experience with Jenny and JoinMyTrip overall? You can find a summed-up review for it here. And maybe sign up for one of Jenny’s upcoming trips while you are there.

Ready to book your own trip? Check out these reasonably priced accommodations on Isla Mujeres.

Looking for other amazing Caribbean destinations? Read more about St. Croix and Costa Rica.

Would you ever travel with a group of people you’ve never met?