El Palmar
- Well-known kitesurfing area
- Steady wind, roughly November to June
- Shallow flats on the lagoon side
- Almost no development
- Empty even in high season
- No facilities, bring everything
- Vehicle charge to continue north
Overview
El Palmar sits on the Isla Blanca peninsula north of Cancún, which despite the name is a strip of land rather than an island. It separates the open Caribbean on one side from Laguna Chacmuchuc on the other, and at points the strip narrows enough to see both bodies of water at once, deep blue to the east and pale shallow white to the west.
That double aspect is what the place is known for. The lagoon side is flat and shallow, knee to waist deep across large areas, with steady wind and almost no boat traffic, which makes it one of the better places to learn kitesurfing anywhere in the region. A beginner who drops a kite can usually walk it back to shore. The Caribbean side is a long, largely empty white-sand beach.
There is essentially nothing built here. No high-rise hotels, no nightclubs, no traffic, and only a handful of rustic beach clubs along the way. The lagoon also draws birdwatchers, with herons and flamingos, and fly fishers after bonefish, permit and tarpon.
Our current condition score for this beach is .
Our photographic record
Each photograph is published unedited and in date order, and is retained so the record builds rather than resets.
No photographs of this beach have been submitted yet. The grid below fills in as contributors send them.
Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt
The peninsula runs north from Cancún on the sheltered side of the coast, behind Isla Mujeres, which is the single most important fact about how sargassum behaves here. Weed arriving from the east has to work around the island rather than landing directly, so this stretch generally receives less than the exposed eastern arm of the hotel zone.
The Caribbean side of the strip is still open water and does receive material, but the lagoon side does not: it is enclosed, and kitesurfing there is largely unaffected by what is happening on the seaward beach. Anyone coming to kite rather than swim should judge the lagoon, not the ocean.
The other consequence of no development is no clearing. Nobody rakes this beach. What arrives stays until the sea takes it back, which means the seaward side can look considerably worse here than at a maintained resort frontage in the same week.
The sargassum season
The Caribbean sargassum season runs broadly from spring into late summer, heaviest between April and August, easing through the autumn. What arrives on a given day depends on the wind and current beforehand.
The kitesurfing season is the more useful calendar here, and it runs roughly November to June, when the wind is most consistent. That overlaps only partly with the worst of the sargassum, and in any case the lagoon is unaffected, so the two seasons need reading separately depending on why you are coming.
One local point worth knowing: northerly winds are onshore here while they are offshore along most of the Riviera Maya, which is part of why this spot works when others do not. The regional sargassum pattern is covered in our guide to sargassum season in the Riviera Maya.
Choosing a hotel on this stretch
There is very little accommodation on the peninsula itself, and what exists is small, rustic and often tied to a kite school, including camping in places. Anyone wanting a conventional hotel stays at Costa Mujeres or Playa Mujeres to the south and drives up.
The trade is stark and worth being clear about. This is the emptiest accessible coast near Cancún, with no restaurants, shops or services to speak of; in exchange you get water and wind that serious kitesurfers travel for. It is not a beach holiday in the usual sense.
Access and getting there
The route north runs from Cancún city along Avenida Bonampak and its continuation, past Puerto Juárez and Punta Sam, then past the Playa Mujeres entrance, from where a paved road continues onto the peninsula. A car is the practical approach, though vans run north from Avenida Tulum in the city.
One thing to budget for: a restaurant partway along charges a small fee per vehicle to cross its property and continue further north, which also covers parking there. It is a modest amount, but it is cash only and it surprises people.
There are no toilets, showers, lifeguards or shops along most of the strip. Bring water, food, shade, sunscreen and insect repellent, and be aware that mobile coverage is patchy the further north you go.
Check live conditions before you go
The seaward beach here is never cleared, so what a recent photograph shows is what you will find. Our live card for El Palmar carries the current condition score and the most recent contributor photographs with their dates.
See live conditions, photos & cams →