Isla Mujeres
 

Me and the Mrs and some family and friends are headed to Isla Mujeres MX Saturday for a week stay.

Plan to do some diving and snorkeling and mucho eating and drinking.

Who has been there and what suggestions you got for restaurants etc....

TIA

Swing by Isla Brewing Company and report back. I'll be in that area in Sept.

Taco Johns, champ.

Man, I don't know what I'd do for a week on Isla Mujeres. It's a tiny little tourist village for all intents and purposes.

We took a couple of day trips out there to go diving and there were some interesting little bars around the ferry, but holy hell - I can't imagine spending a week there. It's just a bunch of touristy little dirt floor poor shops and stuff. The folks at Casa something or other out by the ferry were damn nice; we ate some scorpions and stuff.

I guess you could just find a nice beach and spend most of the time drinking/swimming, but you'd have to be in the mood for a 'do nothing' kind of vacation rather than a real excursion. And if you're doing dive trips, always have a backup plan. The place we went the first time and booked a second trip for the next day was just a small family with a boat. They decided they wanted to stay out on the beach the next day and didn't show up. We were lucky to find another boat.

I thought the underwater museum was a little bland but the reef was a solid dive. Nothing terribly novel or adventurous to it - just a basic Caribbean shallow seas reef. They give you quite a bit of latitude so that's nice - you can just kinda motor about on your own provided that you're comfortable doing so. I did manage to see a sea turtle getting stalked for a bit by a barracuda before he turned around, faced the barracuda and the fish was kinda like "oh...i guess you're not sick or dying. I'll go..." For the underwater museum, after the first few statues it just starts to become stuff they dropped in the water and let a reef form about - nothing remarkable.

I'd probably skip myself, but if you're there for a week it probably wouldn't hurt to give it a look.

This.
Very small island.
I know I did a fishing excursion, but for activity take me to Telum

I had enough of it in one day and took the ferry back. Some awesome food, though.

Be sure to drink tap water.

Last time I was in that area I really enjoyed Cozumel, the Riviera Maya is cool too. But either in lime soup or in a margarita I got bad water and holy shit the way the lava flowed out of me the next day was insane.

Cancel your shitty vacation plans and go someplace better like Akumal or Tulum.

I've been; and Tulum is a favorite; although I now choose to spend my time on Mujeres exclusively.

The diving is excellent; I have a friend that's a dive master there, she works out of Aqua Adventures Eco Divers. If you're not certified, you can still take a 30 minute class and dive the reef, which is about 30 feet down. If you're certified, you can dive the shipwrecks, they're amazing. This time of year the whale sharks are around, and that's an incredible snorkeling trip. They're unbelievably huge and docile. Her name is Claire Potter Hernandez, she's a british ex-pat. North Beach is one of the best beaches in the world, crystal clear water and pristine white sand. Rent a golf cart to get around, the island isn't that big, but you'll want to be mobile as restaurants and bars are spotted all around the island. If you're like me and don't like the resort thing, but like to go off on your own and explore a place, you'll love Mujeres. Night life is great, but a bit more laid back than the Cancun thing, which I never really cared for anyway, myself.

There's a cuban restaurant one block off the main drag that's great, but I forget the name. A lady from Havana runs it. You can't go wrong, really, with seafood anywhere on the island.

Tulum is also a great place, but has gotten expensive in the last few years. There are a lot of expat chefs running restaurants there, but the real draw for the whole region are the killer beaches and clear water.

There's plenty to do, it's just up to you as to what you want to spend your time on.

Yea we were planning to rent a golf cart. The plan is to dive, snorkel, and relax.

I had just read about the Whale Shark snorkeling, sounds fun, I think there is a Sea Turtle Preserve on the south end of the Island?

I've heard the seafood was excellent, you have any restaurant recommendations?

Also we will likely take a trip to the mainland one day and do some exploring there.

That is on the list, I was surprised the little island has a brewery. I'll report back.

If that's your plan, then you're absolutely going to the right place. I tend to just wander around mostly, so I don't really remember the names of the restaurants so much. there's a great restaurant right on the pier there just left of where you come off the ferry; but really, the seafood is uniformly fantastic just about anywhere.

Does Mocambo sound right?

That's the only place we had a meal out there and yeah, it was damn good. Pricier than everywhere else out there IIRC but still nothing terrible; chain steakhouse kinda prices at worst.

The whale sharks weren't around when we went, I'd have loved to have done that. I guess we went to the wrong shop for a shipwreck because the two we went two didn't offer a wreck dive. I'd have loved to have done one of those. I'd absolutely recommend a wreck dive over the underwater museum.