Isla Mujeres day trip from Cancún: ferry and costs

Two piers, one island, five times the fare

Three Cancún terminals sell a ride to Isla Mujeres, and one of them is cheap. From Puerto Juárez, just north of downtown, Ultramar's Ultraplan round trip is 110 pesos. From Playa Tortugas or Playa Caracol inside the Hotel Zone, the only ticket on the board is Premium Plus, 580 pesos round trip. ²

That gap is the planning decision. Reach Puerto Juárez and the day starts with about USD 6.38 of boat. Walk to the pier outside a Hotel Zone lobby and it starts at USD 33.63. Same water, same island, same afternoon. ^{2, 5}

What waits on the other side is a 700-meter beach at the island's north end, shallow and clear, free to walk onto, with a buoy line out front where the anchored tour yachts from Cancún hold their distance. ¹

Every fare, rate and season date below was read on 25 September 2026 from the operator's own page, Mexico's federal gazette or the national park service. Pesos convert at the Federal Reserve's 18 September 2026 reference rate, 17.2454 to the dollar. ⁵

How much is the Ultramar ferry to Isla Mujeres?

Four fare tiers from Puerto Juárez, one from each Hotel Zone pier, read from Ultramar's own booking site on 25 September 2026.

Puerto Juárez is the only terminal that sells the Ultraplan fare, 55 pesos one way and 110 round trip, 26 and 52 for a child. The same window sells Premium Plus at 290 and 580, and a 100-peso tier for Quintana Roo residents and for INAPAM senior cardholders. ²

Getting to Puerto Juárez is the line nobody prices. The terminal sits on Avenida López Portillo, off the Hotel Zone bus route, and no fare authority or taxi union page we opened publishes a set rate from the hotels to that dock. Forum figures contradict each other. Ask your hotel for the metered range in writing.

Then weigh it against what the Hotel Zone ticket adds: 470 pesos a person, about USD 27.25. For two adults that covers 84 percent of a full day's golf cart. A taxi that costs less than the fare gap is the cheaper trip. ^{2, 3, 5}

When does the ferry run, and how late can you stay?

Departures leave Puerto Juárez roughly every 30 minutes from 5:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., and the last boat back from the island runs around midnight. Ultramar asks passengers to arrive 30 minutes before departure. The Hotel Zone piers keep a shorter, thinner day, about hourly and finishing mid-evening. ²

That schedule changes the shape of the trip. Sunset on the west-facing beach, dinner in Centro, a late boat, a Cancún bed. The island stops being a rushed six hours and becomes a full day with an evening on the end of it. ^{2, 1}

1. 01

   Buy the Ultraplan round trip at Puerto Juárez

   110 pesos, plus the 36.56-peso sanitation fee. Arrive 30 minutes early; the earliest boat goes at 5:30 a.m. ²

2. 02

   Walk north to Playa Norte

   A short walk from the island's terminal, about 700 meters of beach end to end. The water is shallow and calm, and the morning is quieter than the afternoon, when the tour boats from Cancún anchor off the shore. ¹

3. 03

   Pick up a cart at midday, if you want one

   Prisma's all-day rate covers 3 to 9 hours at USD 65, so a midday pickup carries you to sunset. Bring a driver's license; the office runs 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ³

4. 04

   Drive south to Punta Sur

   The island's south point holds a sculpture park and an ancestral Maya temple site. Published entry prices for Punta Sur conflict across every source we opened, so carry pesos and confirm the figure at the gate.

5. 05

   Eat in Centro, take a late boat

   Crossings run to 11:00 p.m. and the final island departure is around midnight. Buy the return when you buy the outbound, or buy singles and stay loose. ²

Playa Norte is free, and it mostly skips sargassum

Playa Norte charges nothing to sit on. It is public, a short walk from the ferry, and the only money anyone asks for is a lounger or a food and drink minimum at a beach club. About 700 meters end to end, clear and shallow, with a safety buoy line marking where the yachts and tour boats keep clear of swimmers. ¹

The sargassum pattern is the reason to put this beach on a summer day. Local currents keep the island's north and west-facing sand, Playa Norte among it, largely free of the seaweed that lands on Cancún's mainland-facing beaches through the region's May to September season. Storms push some onto the island's east side. ¹

• Every Mexican beach is public under federal law. The sand directly in front of Privilege Aluxes, Hotel Ixchel and Nautibeach Condos is informally held for their guests. ¹
• The reef around the island is a national park with its own fee. CONANP charges 125 pesos per person per day for the Parque Nacional Costa Occidental de Isla Mujeres, Punta Cancún y Punta Nizuc. Under-12s, seniors, retirees and disabled visitors are exempt; students and teachers pay half. ⁴
• That reef fee is a snorkeling line, not a beach line. Swimming off Playa Norte costs nothing; a guided reef trip inside the marine park is where the 125 pesos appears. ^{4, 1}

Do you need a golf cart on Isla Mujeres?

The island's taxi, priced by the hour and by the calendar. One operator publishes a full rate table; three others hide theirs.

Playa Norte is walkable from the ferry, so the cart buys the rest of the island. Prisma Golf Carts charges USD 26 for an hour, USD 50 for two, USD 65 for an all-day 3 to 9 hour rental and USD 75 for a full 24 hours, in the pricing window it publishes for 1 September to 15 December 2026. A week starts at USD 490. ³

The rate is per cart, so it divides. Two people on the all-day rate pay USD 32.50 each, four pay USD 16.25, and a cart shared four ways costs less per head than a second round-trip ferry ticket from the Hotel Zone. ^{3, 2}

Prisma is the only cart company on the island publishing a full rate table. The others quote inside a booking flow or through a partner, so expect to give dates before you get a price.

The holiday bracket shows how much season matters. From 16 December to 15 January, the same regular cart runs USD 78 for 24 hours instead of USD 75, and the week climbs from USD 490 to USD 525. ³

When can you swim with whale sharks off Isla Mujeres?

Season dates, the federal rules behind every small-group promise, and what two named operators charge.

The 2026 season runs from about 15 May to 15 September, and the sharks gather roughly 25 nautical miles offshore. Federal wildlife officials were preparing 280 to 320 tour permits for the season across Cancún, Puerto Juárez, Isla Mujeres and Holbox, under the 2025 to 2027 management plan. One operator puts the best window between 21 June and 15 August. ^{6, 7}

The small-group promise on every booking page is federal law. Mexico's official standard, published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación, caps an authorized boat at 11 meters, holds boats 50 meters apart, and limits any one boat to 30 minutes with a shark or group. ⁸

• Five swimmers per guide in the water, with 2 meters of clearance beside the shark's head and 3 meters behind its tail. ⁸
• A 5-meter observation distance and a 7-knot approach, dropping to 3 knots inside the aggregation zone. ⁸
• Daily boat caps: up to 120 boats across the Cancún, Puerto Juárez and Isla Mujeres zones, up to 40 from Holbox, with a maximum of 10 passengers per boat. ⁶
• Season dates, boat counts and the application deadline go on the environment ministry's website two months before a season opens. ⁸

The 300-peso dock and conservation fee is collected at check-in, per person, separate from the advertised tour price. Add the cheapest ferry round trip and the sanitation fee and the day comes to 4,026.56 pesos, about USD 233.49. ^{7, 2, 5}

The prices make more sense beside the fuel bill. One round trip to the sighting zone costs an operator about 8,000 pesos, roughly USD 463.89, in fuel, crew fees and supplies. Isla Mujeres has an estimated 150 authorized boats, supporting about 300 families, with around 30 out on an average day in season. ^{6, 5}

For readers pairing this with time underwater, the Cozumel diving budget prices boats and marine fees on the next island south, and marine park and conservation fees collects the charges that sit outside a dive package.

What does an Isla Mujeres day trip cost?

One adult, one beach day, the cart counted in full. Food and drinks are on top.

A full beach day lands near 1,392.51 pesos, about USD 80.75, with the whole golf cart inside it. Take the cheapest pier, snorkel the marine park, and the fixed costs stop there. Everything else on the island is lunch and a lounger. ^{2, 3, 4, 5}

The pier is the biggest swing on the sheet. A Hotel Zone round trip is 580 pesos against 110 from Puerto Juárez, 470 pesos more per person, about USD 27.25. Two adults leaving from the Hotel Zone give up most of a day's cart before they reach the boat. ^{2, 3, 5}

Whale shark season rewrites the sheet. A shared tour at 3,580 pesos plus the 300-peso check-in fee makes the ferry and the cart rounding errors, and the day moves from about USD 80 to about USD 233. Budget the island twice: one beach day, one tour day. ^{7, 2, 5}

For the wider trip, the Mexico travel guide sets out regional routes and first-day arrival costs, and the scuba diving guides hold the adventure budgets this page borrows its fee logic from.

One state tax, one reef fee, one phone number

A day on Isla Mujeres adds no second tourist tax. VISITAX is a Quintana Roo state charge on foreign tourists, paid once for the trip through the official portal at visitax.gob.mx, and commonly reported at 283 to 293 pesos a visitor. The peso figure is set as a multiple of Mexico's indexed UMA, which is why it shifts from year to year. ¹⁰

Garrafón Reef Park sells a different kind of day, boat included. Its Royal Garrafón admission lists from USD 99 and shows USD 64.35 on the site, about 1,109.74 pesos, with a buffet, drinks, round-trip transport and five activities. The VIP ticket lists from USD 119 and shows USD 73.78, adding an unlimited zipline, an infinity pool and lounge chairs. The park opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ^{11, 5}

Read that bundle as a replacement for the public ferry instead of an addition to it. The transport inside the ticket is the park's own boat from Cancún, so a reader who crosses on Ultramar and buys admission at the gate may be quoted an unbundled rate the website skips. ^{11, 2}

911 is Mexico's national emergency number, free from any phone and staffed around the clock with bilingual operators. Cancún's tourist police answer a direct line on 998 885 2277. Isla Mujeres has its own municipal police and a small Red Cross post, and 911 works island-wide. ¹²