The Best Isla Contoy & Isla Mujeres Combined Tour: Ocean Tours Mexico Review

Our honest review of Ocean Tours Mexico’s Isla Contoy & Isla Mujeres Combo Tour from Cancún.

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Are you seeking sun-soaked sands without the crowds that congregate along the coast of the Mexican Riviera? Welcome to Paradise! Isla Contoy is a natural protected area and national park just off the coast of Cancún. The island provides shelter to various seabirds and, while by day it’s home to lounging visitors, by night it hosts nesting sea turtles. In contrast, Isla Mujeres is home to a busy town and is lined with luxurious resorts. Yet, it also boasts a pristine reef that is perfect for SCUBA diving and snorkelling, as well as blissful beaches like the famous Playa Norte.

If you’re seeking a slice of paradise, there’s nothing better than joining a combined day trip to these two stunning islands in the Mexican Caribbean. We booked a tour with Ocean Tours Mexico to explore both Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres and have included everything you need to know about the trip in this honest review.

With an educational focus, Ocean Tours Mexico’s combination tour to Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres allows you to experience the best of both worlds in one day. Relax on sandy shores, snorkel on the second-largest reef in the world, shop in boutique stores, or sit back and sip a drink in a beachfront bar. Combining fun and conservation to celebrate the wonders of planet Earth, this day trip is not to be missed.

Why take a combined tour to Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres

A combined tour to Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres offers the perfect mix of nature and adventure, making it one of the best day trips from Cancún or the Riviera Maya. Some of the benefits of taking a combo tour include:

Ocean Tours Mexico Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres Tour

With a visitor capacity of only 200 people a day, not many people get to experience the beauty of Isla Contoy. While there are a variety of operators offering Isla Contoy tours, they don’t all offer the same experience.

When we began researching Isla Contoy tours we were taken aback at how huge some of the boats that run the trip are. We were thrilled to find Ocean Tours Mexico with their small group tours, which provide a more personalised experience.

Their pick-up service in the van is usually limited to 12 people, while the group size on the boat can vary – our boat was about 20 people but it was spacious and everyone spread out so it didn’t feel crowded. It was a much smaller group than some of the double-decker catamaran tours we had also come across which take 65 to 100 people out to the island.

Another bonus was that the guided tours on Isla Contoy are run separately for each language. In our English-speaking tour, there were only 5 of us and our guide.

With Ocean Tours Mexico, absolutely everything is included. You also get to enjoy the beauty of the underwater world by snorkelling with all your gear included too.

Many Isla Contoy tours simply shuttle visitors out to the beach on the island and back. But we also got to enjoy a guided tour of the island, as well as time on Isla Mujeres. While you could take the ferry over to Isla Mujeres or take another guided tour on a different day, it’s much easier, time-efficient, and cost-effective to visit both islands in one day.

The itinerary is adapted to meet the weather conditions each day but you can expect it to look like this (this is how our day went):

All their tours are all-inclusive, which means absolutely everything is taken care of for you.

Round-trip transportation is included right to and from your hotel or Airbnb, so you don’t need to fork out anything extra to get to a meeting point. This is super handy, whether you’re staying in the nearby Hotel Zone or as far away as Playa del Carmen. If you’re staying on Isla Mujeres, you can still join the tour as you’ll be taken to the pickup point and then returned to Isla Mujeres at the end of the tour.

A photography and videography service is offered for their group and private tours, which is super fun if you’re celebrating a special occasion or just want some special pics to remember your trip by.

The only additional thing to note is that a $20 USD per person port fee is collected in cash on pick up.

Our experience visiting Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres

We had an excellent day exploring Isla Contoy and Isla Mujeres. We found the guided tour of Isla Contoy so interesting and couldn’t believe how beautiful the island and its beaches are. The lunch we were provided was delicious and very filling, and snorkelling on the reef was such a fun experience. We were also so glad to be able to visit Isla Mujeres and see the contrast between the two islands while enjoying the town and its beaches.

Pick up

Your pick-up time will depend on where you’re coming from. We were staying at the top end of the Hotel Zone and had a prompt 8:30 AM pickup.

We were met by a guide, Xenia, and offered snacks, including granola bars, bananas, juice, and water.

After two more stops, it was a quick 15-minute ride to the port at Flamingos (which is about halfway between Port Juarez and Punta Sam – two of the commercial ferry terminals for Isla Mujeres).

All the guides speak English and Spanish and many speak other languages too, including German, French, Italian Dutch, Polish, and Russian. We were really impressed with her ability to carry out the briefing in both English and Spanish. And, for the two Polish guests on our tour, she had a recording of the briefing in Polish ready.

The briefing included an overview of the itinerary for the day, useful information about facilities and rules for each place we’d visit, and a bit of background into the islands. Then, it was time to sign the obligatory waiver form.

Shortly, we arrived at the port, where there were bathrooms, a coffee station, a gift shop, and a small Ocean Tours Mexico merchandise stand. There are no toilets on the boat so it’s good to take advantage of the facilities here before setting off. No sunscreen is allowed on Isla Contoy or in the water either, so you can pick up a long-sleeved top or headpiece if you’re worried about sun protection – plus, part of your purchase supports the company and the conservation of Isla Contoy.

The outbound boat journey

The boat journey to Isla Contoy takes around 50 minutes. The first part of the trip follows the coast of Cancún with beautiful coastal views, before heading out to the island.

Our boat was a medium-sized vessel with plenty of space for everyone. It’s mandatory to wear a life jacket on board so, after popping one on, we were off.

We’re not going to lie, the crossing was rather rough. If you’re unused to boat trips, you might find it a bit unpleasant. But seasickness pills were offered by the team before boarding and music was played to get into the spirit of things. If you’re unsure, it’s best to keep your eyes on the horizon and let your body go with the movements of the boat (or the music!).

We were glad to have our waterproof backpack with us as we got quite wet from the spray, but it was a bit like a rollercoaster ride and many people seemed to enjoy the trip.

We shared our boat with a few members of CONANP – Mexico’s National Commission of Protected Natural Areas – whose job it is to ensure the regulations on the island are followed, conserving its natural beauty.

Isla Contoy

As we pulled up to Isla Contoy, we were greeted with the most stunning views of a tropical paradise. Lush green forests were topped with swirling frigatebirds and the water was a sparkling azure colour.

Isla Contoy is a national park and an important protected area for a variety of wildlife. The island is home to 173 types of birds and is a sanctuary for the magnificent frigatebird, a species which is in decline in other parts of the world. You can see them circling the island, riding the thermals.

There are some rules to follow to ensure the island remains a pristine habitat. No sunscreen can be used, no plastic is allowed to be talked onto the island, and visitors are told not to touch or chase any animals.

You’re welcome to take your own camera on the tour but there are some rules to follow to ensure Isla Contoy remains a pristine protected area. Drones are forbidden. Professional photography for commercial purposes is also not allowed.

The boat dock is on the west side of the island and sandwiched between two stunning stretches of sand. This is also where the visitor’s centre and bathrooms (compost toilets) are.

Time on the island

You get about 3 hours on the island, which is plenty of time to enjoy:

You can only go further into the island with a guide. The guided tours are run in groups by language. With Ocean Tours Mexico, the Engish tour ran before lunch and the Spanish one after lunch.

You don’t need to go on the tour, you can spend the whole time lying on the beach. But, since you’ve come all the way here, we’d recommend spending the time to learn about Isla Contoy’s past, current conservation efforts, and the island’s wildlife.

The guided tour

Our English-speaking guide, Tlal, was amazing. He started the tour with some really interesting information on the island, its rules, and the dangers chemical sunscreen poses to the natural environment.

Then, we took the path into the middle of the island, which offers stunning views back to the beach. At the top of the path, you’re met with a viewpoint where you can see both sides of the island in one view! While it may be narrow, the island is long at 5.2 miles (8.5km) long. From this viewpoint, you can see the much more rugged eastern side of the island.

We then headed into the visitor’s centre, which houses a small museum. This part of the tour focused on the wildlife that inhabits Isla Contoy, its reef, and the surrounding area. We really appreciated the educational focus of the tour and the message to respect nature and wildlife, including not disturbing, touching, or feeding animals.

Finally, we ended with a quick trip to the lagoon, taking in scenic views of the mangroves which are an important habitat.

Lunch

After the tour, it was time for lunch. The food was simply incredible. The boat captain is also a talented chef and we enjoyed a traditional feast of authentic Mexican foods, including fish, chicken, salsa, guacamole, totopos, and gallo de pico. This is a popular Yucatecan dish called tikin xic, composed of achiote-marinated fish or chicken wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over hot coals.

Drinks were also included all day, with options of water, coke, and beer.

If you’re veggie, vegan, or have a dietary requirement, they can cater for you with advanced notice too.

Beach time

After lunch, we had free time to enjoy the beach. You can spread out on the sand, relax in the crystal-clear shallow water, or sit in the shade and enjoy the view.

You can’t hang anything on the foliage by the beach but handy palapas line the sandy shore, providing a convenient place to leave your belongings.

If you finish your lunch before everyone else, you can be the first one back on the beach and have the sandy shore all to yourself, which makes for great pictures!

Snorkelling

Experiencing the joys of Isla Contoy doesn’t end on land. After boarding the boat, we enjoyed a guided snorkel on the reef. Isla Contoy is the start of the second-largest coral reef in the world (after Australia’s Great Barrier Reef), the Mesoamerican Reef.

The water around Isla Contoy is very rich in nutrients, which is why it can seem a bit murky. These nutrients are plankton, an organism that makes up the diet of more than 234 species of fish that have been identified in the area, including whale sharks and manta rays.

We spotted a variety of fish including barracuda and a huge grouper, as well as starfish, corals, and the tip of a nurse shark’s tail (the shark was relaxing in a cave under the rocks).

Isla Mujeres

When it was finally time to bid paradise farewell, we took the 40-minute journey to Isla Mujeres. A large island off the coast, the town of Isla Mujeres is actually more than three times older than the popular tourist city of Cancún, which it sits opposite.

At Isla Mujeres, there’s a possibility for another snorkel stop. Unfortunately, the conditions weren’t calm enough to snorkel at Isla Mujeres, but that meant we had extra time to properly explore the island.

We docked at Playa Centro to torrential rain, but it quickly cleared up and we had about an hour and a half to explore.

We decided to make the most of our time and explore the Downtown. We walked down to the famous Isla Mujeres whale shark statue, wandered along the boulevard on the east side of the island, spotted street art and sculptures, and ended at Playa Norte.

Playa Norte is a sandy stretch of beautiful beach known for its crystal clear turquoise waters. It’s frequently voted one of the best beaches in the world, so is worth checking out. Plus, it’s only a 10-minute walk from Playa Centro where the boat is waiting to take you home.

If you enjoy a slower pace, you could easily spend your time on Isla Mujeres simply soaking up the sun, enjoying a drink in a beachside bar, or doing a little souvenir shopping.

The return boat journey

The return boat journey was a party! A bottle of tequila was cracked open, music was played, and dancing began.

Classics were played like the Macarena and Follow the Leader, and everyone was on their feet.

We really liked the parting feeling we were left with by the guides: to respect nature and have fun.

Once back on land, there was a little time to check out the gift shop, use the bathrooms, and fill in a feedback survey before hopping into the van for the return trip back to our accommodation.

About Ocean Tours Mexico

Ocean Tours Mexico tours focus on nature, culture and adventure in the Rivera Maya, providing you with a once-in-a-lifetime experience while also protecting the planet.

Most of their guides are diving instructors or dive masters with a love for the natural environment. They’re super knowledgeable and can speak multiple languages.

They prioritise sustainable practices, are education-focused, and strive to have a positive impact on the environment. The only thing we’d like to see improved is the use of single-use plastic on the tour – water and drinks were offered throughout the day in plastic bottles. We know it’s a common issue in Cancún and it’s tricky to mass-cater without relying on plastic, but it would be great to see encouragement for people to bring their own reusable water bottles with a cooler on the boat to fill up from.

In a destination so popular and rife with unsustainable practices, it’s great to know you can still experience the best of the natural world with a company that cares about conserving the environment. If you’re visiting Cancún or the surrounding area and thinking about booking a day trip to Isla Contoy or Isla Mujeres, we’d highly recommend Ocean Tours Mexico.

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