February 2023 – Short Island Visit #2 - Holbox

As I mentioned in my previous post, we did a lot of planning to finalize our destinations and align with our planned return date to the U.S. It will be a long drive back across the Yucatan and southern Mexico, and there are too many places that we want to see vs. the time we have available. So why Holbox?

Holbox map

Holbox – pronounced Holbosh – is a small island off the northeast corner of the Yucatan that we learned about from Sandy’s endocrinologist last September. He told us that it was off the beaten path, different from all of the traditional beach destinations, and growing in popularity with Mexican tourists. He was right on all points, but the secret is getting out, and we found it to be very popular with European tourists as well. Because the island is on the north side of the Yucatan and the island runs east-west, it really doesn’t get strong ocean currents or waves. The water is generally calm and the beaches stay very shallow far off the shore. Excursions and activities are available, but limited, so Holbox should be considered primarily as a beachy walk-around / lay-around destination but without the glitzy high-end beach resorts found in Cancun or Playa del Carmen.

Following our visit to Cozumel, our trip to Holbox began by taking the ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen. We made a quick stop in town for gas, food (another torta), and cash before driving about 2 hours north to the coastal town of Chiquila. Though we could have continued on to Holbox that night, we had made a hotel reservation for one night in Chiquila in case we got delayed (we didn’t want to miss the last ferry to Holbox and be stranded with no plans). We stayed in the very nice Villas Ixchel hotel, which was a bit of an oasis in Chiquila. Surrounded by rough dirt streets, our hotel had a very nice garden and pool, and our small room was adequate for a 1-night stay. The hotel didn’t have a restaurant, so it’s a good thing we picked up that torta. And while it would have been ok for a longer stay, we didn’t really see a good reason for people to stay longer – Chiquila is pretty small and is mainly just a hub for the Holbox ferries. Also, that hotel stay was 1,300 pesos ($71) and we can think of lots of better places to visit for that price.

The following morning, we had a great hotel breakfast (included), then drove a few minutes to get to the ferry terminal. Cars are not allowed on Holbox, so everyone takes a standard tourist ferry. We had pre-packed some bags and left most of our things in our car. There are a lot of parking lots near the terminal, all charging the same rate – 50 pesos for a day, 100 pesos overnight. We picked ours based on its general appearance (decent size, clean, professional) and the fact that the parking was roofed. We did have some concerns about leaving our car full of things, but didn’t have any issues over our 5-day stay on the island (total cost 550 pesos / $30).

As I noted, we reduced our items down to a few smaller bags. If we returned to Holbox, I would try to reduce even further if possible. The main reason to pack light is that there’s a bit of walking involved. While some of the walk is paved, some is cobbled, some is dirt, and the last 100 feet to our hotel was along the beach. We ended up taking one suitcase with swim suits, beach towels, and a few days worth of clothes, expecting to wear most things more than once. We also had a backpack with a laptop and electronics, a duffel bag with Gunner’s food and supplies, a bag for toiletries, and a backpack with a few bottles of wine/liquor (yeah, I know, not really necessities, but we’re still drinking up our Oaxaca mezcals and the backpack is the right size for carrying towels, water, etc. along the beach). We had researched before our trip and found that there’s really no good places to snorkel on Holbox, so we left that equipment in our car.

Getting a ferry to Holbox is very simple. There are two companies running on alternating schedules, with one boat or the other leaving every 30 minutes. All we did is walk up, look at the posted times for next departures, and pick the earliest one. For the trip across we took the Holbox Express and for the return we used 9 Hermanos. Both boats were similar – our larger bags were loaded as cargo, passengers could ride inside downstairs or outside on top, and both allow dogs for no extra charge, but only seated outside/on top. The only difference I saw was that our checked luggage was inside a room on 9 Hermanos vs. on the deck of the Holbox Express. Both companies even charged the same – 180 pesos each ($10) for a one-way ticket when showing our Temporary Resident card. Full price would have been 220 pesos, or they offered to sell me an open-ended round-trip ticket for 400 pesos.

Upon arrival on Holbox, we easily found a taxi stand at the port. Most of the taxis on Holbox are golf carts and a few are UTVs. All have a back seat and a luggage rack on the front. We were able to get a ride to our hotel (well, close to our hotel) for 100 pesos ($5). Our hotel did not have a street entrance, only an access from the beach, so we had to walk the final 100 feet along the beach from the end of the street to the hotel.

Taxi stand at the port

Typical street

Taxi stand in town

For hotels, we were fairly limited in our options, mainly because we had Gunner. We searched on Airbnb and found a few properties for our date range, but all were about 0.5 miles from the main part of town. Instead, we used Booking.com to find the Beach Club Escape – a small, boutique hotel owned by a friendly, retired Dutch couple. The hotel had a restaurant and bar, with a beachfront location on the edge of town. Our room was small but functional, the hotel served a very nice breakfast, and we loved having easy access to the ocean as well as being able to use the lounge chairs of the hotel. On the downside, the TV was small and mounted in a very odd spot, and the wifi was weak and spotty. But neither of those were a problem because the weather was nice and we weren’t ever trapped in our room. For those familiar with plumbing in Mexico, you may know that smaller/older buildings and homes weren’t built to handle toilet paper. This is true for all of Holbox, and it’s the first place we’ve stayed where this is the case. Instead of flushing, we were asked to put our paper in a trash can next to the toilet (actually, the sign said that if we had a clog, we would need to pay a plumber to come fix it). While the practice of not flushing paper sounds gross, we learned a good trick – we used some of Gunner’s dog bags to pack our paper, which kept our bathroom clean and fresh.

Our beachfront hotel

Typical breakfast

Great sunsets!

In addition to plumbing, the general infrastructure on Holbox can be challenging (it is a small island after all). On two different occasions the power went out. When I talked to the hotel owners, they said it happens from time to time, and outages can be short or long. I suppose we got lucky that our outages were both less than an hour. The internet was also spotty. It was good enough for us to get online or stream TV, but it would occasionally lag or disconnect, and would not be reliable for full time work or video conferencing. Even Facetime calls were not 100% reliable. The water in our hotel had good pressure and the hot water was also consistently good.

Most of our days on Holbox were similar, starting with a walk for Gunner along the beach. We would then eat breakfast at the hotel. We’re not sure if it’s the beach life or the European background of our hosts, but they were late risers and didn’t start making coffee or preparing breakfast until 9 or 9:30 each morning. After breakfast, we would typically spend some time on the beach or in the ocean. Around 2 or 3 PM, Sandy and I would walk north to eat lunch or to explore the small center of town. There were plenty of good restaurants to be found, with a surprising variety of options, including the expected seafood and Mexican (multiple styles), but also Italian and Japanese. Gunner would typically get a second beach walk later in the day, and he also liked to play fetch in the ocean. Holbox is relatively dog-friendly, with no restrictions along the beach, but only allowed into some of the restaurants, typically those with outdoor seating.

Walking the beach east

Calm water on the beach west

While there are a few options for excursions on Holbox, we didn’t do any. These include fishing, boat trips to isolated parts of the island or other islands, scuba or snorkeling with whale sharks, and bioluminescent tours. The latter is one that we had considered – taking a kayak tour to see areas where bioluminescent algae glow in the ocean at night. But when we talked to a local tour operator, she advised that since our visit was during the full moon, the tour really wouldn’t be very good.

As I noted earlier, Holbox is quickly growing in popularity. The beaches were busy, but not crowded, and we never had to wait to be seated at restaurants. In fact, at two of the places we went, we were the only people there. The tourists on Holbox are predominantly younger, most were probably in their 20’s or 30’s, many closer to our age, and a limited number 60+. In addition to Spanish, we overheard many people speaking German, Dutch, Russian, or languages other than English. Not many people were visiting with children. Overall, we would characterize the majority of the visitors as 20-something single Europeans, one downside of which is that many of them smoke. Even though Mexico has recently passed some strong anti-smoking laws, enforcement has not made it to Holbox yet. Also, be advised (or excited!) that women occasionally sunbathe topless on Holbox.

Costs on Holbox were consistently higher than other places we’ve been. Our hotel was around 2,000 pesos ($110) per night and our meals ranged from 600 pesos for Mexican food to 900 pesos for international options ($30-$50), with an outlier of 1,400 pesos ($75) on Sandy’s birthday. On that night, we celebrated at La Cabane with lobster pizza (actually the smaller langostinos), plus we had an appetizer, dessert, and a bottle of wine. But we had expected the higher costs for this location. After all, Holbox is an island whose only economic development is tourism, plus everything needed to supply the island has to travel 2 hours from Cancun or 4 hours from Merida before being put on a ferry. Overall, with all of our travel costs for food, lodging, gas and tolls to Chiquila, 2 ferry trips, etc., we spent around $175 per day for the 6 nights (4 full days on the island) in Chiquila/Holbox, or almost 2x our daily budget.

Now that everything is said and done, would we return to Holbox? Yes. Given the basic infrastructure and entertainment, coupled with higher costs, we would never consider Holbox as a long-term destination or home. We would have been happy staying longer than our 4-day trip, but could not see ourselves enjoying more than 7-10 days at a time.