Isla Contoy
Overview
Isla Contoy lies about 30 kilometres north of Isla Mujeres, at the point where the Caribbean Sea meets the Gulf of Mexico. It is roughly 8.5 kilometres long and never more than a few hundred metres wide, and nobody lives on it. It has been a protected area since 1961, a national park since 1998 and a Ramsar wetland since 2003, and it is administered by CONANP, Mexico's national commission for protected areas.
The island is one of the most important seabird refuges in the Mexican Caribbean, with more than 150 bird species recorded, and its beaches are a nesting site for sea turtles. That, rather than the sand, is what the protection exists for.
What a visitor finds is a single managed visitor area: a landing beach, a small interpretive centre, a viewing tower and a marked trail through the dune and mangrove. The rest of the island is closed. There are no hotels, no restaurants, no shops and no overnight stays.
Our current condition score for this beach is .
Our photographic record
Each photograph is published unedited and in date order, and is replaced as newer submissions arrive, so what appears here is the most recent view of the beach rather than a promotional photograph.
Photographs of Contoy arrive slowly, because visitor numbers are capped and every visit is a scheduled tour.
Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt
Sargassum reaching this region is carried west across the tropical Atlantic, into the Caribbean, and then north-west along the Quintana Roo coast by the Yucatán Current before turning into the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatán Channel. Contoy sits near the top of that run, close to where the current makes that turn.
Unlike the mainland beaches, Contoy is an island in open water, so what arrives comes directly from the sea.
The island's shape then divides it sharply. The eastern side faces the open Caribbean; the western side, where the landing beach and the visitor area sit, is in the lee and looks back toward the mainland across sheltered water. Visitors see the sheltered side almost exclusively, which is worth knowing when reading any photograph of Contoy, including ours.
Because this is a protected nesting shore, photographs from here show the coast in its natural state rather than a cleared hotel frontage.
The sargassum season
The regional season runs from roughly May to August, with June and July normally the heaviest months, and a quiet period from late autumn into spring.
The wider picture for this coast, including how the belt has grown over the past decade, is set out in our Riviera Maya sargassum season guide.
Swimming, snorkelling and the park rules
Swimming is permitted at the designated landing beach on the sheltered western side, where the water is shallow and calm. Most itineraries also include a snorkelling stop at Ixlaché reef, south of Contoy, which marks the northern start of the Mesoamerican reef.
The park's rules are strict and enforced by the on-site staff, and they are the reason the island is still worth visiting. Access is limited to 200 visitors a day, only through authorised tour operators. Visitors must stay on the marked trail and within the designated area, so the nesting colonies and the rest of the island are off limits. Nothing may be removed, including sand, shells and coral. Fishing is prohibited within the park, and drones require separate authorisation.
Practical points that catch people out: there is no shade beyond the thatched shelter at the visitor area, no shop, and the crossing is open water, so it can be rough enough to matter on a windy day. Biodegradable sunscreen is expected.
On sargassum: fresh weed in the water is harmless, if unpleasant to swim through. The sulphurous smell some visitors associate with it comes from material that has been decomposing on hot sand for a day or more and is releasing hydrogen sulphide, so a strong smell indicates old weed rather than a fresh arrival.
Choosing a hotel on this stretch
Nobody stays on Contoy; overnight stays are not permitted, and the only people who sleep on the island are the park staff and researchers. The question is where to base yourself for the day trip.
Isla Mujeres is the natural choice, and the northern end of the island around Playa Norte puts the best swimming beach in the region and the departure point within walking distance of each other. Cancún is the alternative, with more departures but a longer day; the sheltered bay beaches at the northern end of the Hotel Zone, around Caracol and Tortugas, are where several boats leave from.
For visitors weighing this against a beach day, Contoy is an excursion rather than a beach destination: you are on the island for a matter of hours, in a small designated area, and the appeal is the birds, the reef and the emptiness rather than the sand itself.
Access and getting there
Contoy is reached only by boat, and only with an operator holding a national park permit. Independent landing is not possible, and the daily visitor cap means trips are booked in advance rather than arranged on the day. Departures run from Isla Mujeres and from Cancún, and the crossing from Isla Mujeres is the shorter of the two.
A park entrance fee is charged in addition to the tour fare and goes toward the conservation programme; most operators include it, but it is worth confirming when booking rather than assuming. Trips typically combine the island landing with the Ixlaché reef snorkel and run most of a day.
We do not publish a car park for Isla Contoy, because there is no road access and no vehicle ever reaches the island. The relevant parking is at the mainland ferry terminals at Puerto Juárez and Punta Sam, where the operators run paid lots for passengers crossing to Isla Mujeres.
Check live conditions before you go
Contoy is uninhabited, uncleared and capped at a limited number of visitors a day, so it reads differently from every managed beach on this coast. On the live map we track it alongside Isla Mujeres, Isla Blanca and the Cancún beaches, so you can see how the whole northern corner is doing before booking a trip.
See live conditions, photos & cams →