ONLY IF YOU'RE ALREADY THERE

Mexico · Isla Mujeres · #5 of Mexico's ten by fame

Playa Norte

Waist-deep for a hundred metres, and the day-trippers leave at five.

How we rated it: nothing lifts it and nothing sinks it. Photo: Ovedc · CC BY-SA 4.0

The hang

Playa Norte is the beach at the north end of Isla Mujeres, twenty minutes by ferry from Puerto Juárez with boats about every half hour. Town, ferry terminal and beach are all within a fifteen-minute walk. At the north end the water stays waist-deep for a hundred metres and has almost no waves. There is no shade after midday except the beach clubs' parasols. Day-trippers arrive around eleven and leave by five; outside those hours the island belongs to the people staying on it. Take the last ferry seriously.

The real intel

Best months · warmest sea: August (30.1 °C), then September and October. Coolest: January (26.2 °C). One year of data, 2025.
Best months · emptiest: Before eleven and after five, when the day-trippers have gone.
Getting there: Ferry from Puerto Juárez, about every thirty minutes, twenty minutes across, then a short walk.
The catch nobody tells you: No shade after midday, and the last ferry back does not wait.

The year at Playa Norte

Warmest sea in August. Fewest wet days in March and May. Pick your fight.

Sea (°C)

26.2

26.8

27.2

28.1

28.8

28.9

30.1

29.7

29.5

28.3

27.9

Air (°C)

24.4

25.6

26.3

26.4

28.6

28.4

28.5

28.9

28.3

25.3

Sun (h/day)

9.1

10.5

11.7

11.9

12.3

11.5

11.7

11.9

10.5

9.9

10.1

10.2

Rain (days)

One year of data, 2025, from Open-Meteo at this beach's coordinates. A rain day is 1 mm or more. The red bar is the month to aim for in each row.

The neighbours

1 beach within 6 km, as the gull flies.

550 mEsduma La Perla Hotel Isla Mujeres204 m of beach, measured. Not rated yet.

Straight-line distances from the mapped beach shapes (OpenStreetMap). Roads are longer, and in Bali they are much longer.

The crowd

Day-trippers from about eleven to five.

The receipts

Beach clubs rent loungers with parasols, effectively the only shade.

The facts · we measured

Length: 442 m
Mean width: 46.7 m
Area: 20,642 m²
Warmest sea (2025): 30.1 °C in Aug
Coldest sea (2025): 26.2 °C in Jan
Sea by month, °C: Jan 26.2 · Feb 26.8 · Mar 27.0 · Apr 27.2 · May 28.1 · Jun 28.8 · Jul 28.9 · Aug 30.1 · Sep 29.7 · Oct 29.5 · Nov 28.3 · Dec 27.9