A trip to Holbox

Sep 28

2 min read

Holbox is a wonderful place to visit, an experience not to be missed, it is not the easiest place to get to however, there are various transport services that will get you to the small town of Chiquila where the ferry leaves for the island of Holbox. There is a service from central Cancun and the Airport.

For those who want to go in a little more comfort, the taxi service we use for our Isla Mujeres property rental clients, charges 2,000 Pesos from Puerto Juares to Chiquila. 2000 Pesos is $120 USD, certainly worth it if there are four of you. It's a two and a half hour drive. We saw a luxury Mercedes car service advertised for $125 USD, which looked like a very good deal, until we inquired further and discovered it was $125 USD per person. You can even travel by private plane, but what's the rush, when you are going to a slow, relaxing, and laid back island?

There are a good range of hotels on Holbox, many of them at about $100 USD per night, but there also some very nice hotels at half that price. Restaurants are plentiful, although Holbox is far from cheap when eating out. Prices are similar to Isla Mujeres. Restaurant prices is something that many of our Isla Mujeres property rental clients frequently mention; they consider them to be disproportionately high.

When you step off the ferry on Holbox you step into a different world; there are no cars on the island and no paved roads just sand, it's a wonderful place to hire bicycles and explore. The island is low lying, generally just two meters above sea level, with the highest point being four meters above sea level. If a hurricane is expected, the island is often evacuated.

Although, in theory, you can have a hurricane any time from April to November, the main risk is September and October; once sea temperatures reach 28 degrees, a hurricane is guaranteed, then it's just a question of where it goes. In 2005, we had Wilma, a slow-moving hurricane that did a lot of damage to Isla Mujeres and its economy. We had virtually no Isla Mujeres property rentals or sales for eighteen months after Wilma. Eventually when the economy recovered, it came back even stronger . As a region, we have been very lucky with hurricanes; we had Wilma in 2005 and prior to that, Gilberto in 1988. Overall an excellent record.