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Isla Contoy Tour: Your Ultimate Day Trip Guide
Wondering if you should take an Isla Contoy tour? Or what happens on a day trip there? You’ve come to the right place!
I lived in Riviera Maya with my family for almost a year, and we did all the fun activities in the Yucatan. Including an Isla Contoy tour!
There has been ongoing commercial development in Riviera Maya over the last couple of decades. So it may be hard to believe that there is still a barely touched paradise just off the coast.
Taking an Isla Contoy tour means you get to visit exactly that! After all, Isla Contoy is one of the islands around Cancun.
Isla Contoy Fast Facts
➡️ 37.5 kilometers (~23.5 miles) northwest of Cancun
➡️ 8.5 km long
➡️ 700 meters at its widest point
➡️ 20 meters at its narrowest point
➡️ The smallest island in Mexico
➡️ Totally uninhabited
➡️ One of 67 National Parks in Mexico
➡️ Run by the non-governmental organization Amigos de Isla Contoy A.C.
➡️ Supervised by the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT)
Everything You Need to Know to Take an Isla Contoy Tour
Getting to Isla Contoy
There is no Isla Contoy ferry. The only way to get there is by booking an Isla Contoy excursion. We booked our Isla Contoy tour from Isla Mujeres.
To ensure Isla Contoy tours do not become over-touristed like other parts of the Mayan Riviera, only 200 visitors are permitted each day. In addition, the tour operators allowed to bring guests are severely limited.
According to the guide we used to book, there are only three companies with active licenses to do this.
Everyone else is basically a reseller for the permitted tour companies. If you aren’t sure who to pick, you can always go with the same company we did! It was a great experience.
👉 I recommend booking with this company for your Isla Contoy tour.
They offer an Isla Contoy tour from Cancun, Isla Contoy tours from Playa del Carmen, and even pick up as far south as Tulum.
Private Isla Contoy Tours
Private boats are occasionally allowed to visit for Isla Contoy tours. However, there are a lot of rules regarding when and how the boats may arrive.
Anyone wishing to take a private boat to the island must apply for permission in person at a National Park office. There are locations in both Cancun and Isla Mujeres.
👉 You can also book this private Isla Contoy tour.
They take care of all the paperwork for you so the cost of USD per person is more than if you book a small group tour.
Regardless of whether visitors travel by group tour or on their own boat, Isla Contoy tours are tightly controlled. All boats must arrive between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM. In addition, they must depart the island between 3:00 PM and 5:00 PM.
Isla Contoy Tour Itineraries
Due to heavy regulations ensuring the safety of local wildlife, all the tour operators offer the same standard Isla Contoy all-inclusive package. The Isla Contoy tour price is also roughly the same, including the motorized Isla Contoy catamaran tour
Note: The Isla Contoy catamaran tour is not a sailboat. It’s a huge 2-hulled motorboat that holds many people.
I don’t recommend the catamaran tour because when we visited, its group was twice the size of ours and seemed less personalized.
The guy who ran it didn’t seem very friendly either. He yelled at his passengers a lot. Our boat drivers and guides were really nice!
Tours depart Monday through Saturday but may be canceled if the weather is bad. Plan your Isla Contoy tour in advance, just in case it needs to be rescheduled.
After pickup in Riviera Maya or Isla Mujeres, boats head to the visitor’s dock on Contoy. It’s actually the only dock on the entire island.
Photo Credit: Giorgio Galeotti
Boats stagger their arrival times so that no one arrives at the same time and passengers can deboard easily. Tours are generally divided into four categories: hiking, relaxation, lunch, and snorkeling.
In addition, unlimited drinks are available on the boats. The open bar options include beer, Coke, and bottled water.
Pro Tip: Don’t skimp on drinking water despite all the beer available. Your skin will thank you later.
Hiking
One group at a time is taken along the gentle “hike” to the highest point on the island. Flip-flops are perfectly acceptable footwear for the “hike,” which is more of a gentle stroll on a sandy path.
Pro Tip: Don’t hike barefoot. The sand gets really hot!
The view from the top is absolutely lovely! There are scores of birds soaring on the air currents from end to end above the island.
Isla Contoy tour visitors can see the visitor center, the beach, the lighthouse, and kilometers of palm and mangrove trees.
At the end of the summit trip, guides take guests to the visitor center. It has helpful information about the island’s history. There is also detailed signage on local wildlife and conservation efforts.
We didn’t spend as much time as we wanted in the visitor center because the mosquitos were REALLY bad. We all needed to escape the bloodsucking swarm to swim in the calm, cool ocean.
Relaxation
Either before and/or after the summit trip, Isla Contoy tour visitors are encouraged to enjoy the beach during some free time.
Pro Tip: Walk to the end of the beach first. Explore as far as permitted and then return for swimming and relaxation. The cool ocean water will still be there after a hot stroll in the sun.
Tour operators provide snorkel equipment if you don’t bring your own. The beach doesn’t have a lot of highly interesting wildlife for Isla Contoy snorkeling.
However, younger kids often enjoy just swimming and looking around. We brought our snorkel gear onto the beach for Little Man. He had a blast exploring the sandy bottom.
Surprisingly, we actually did find some wildlife in the shallow waters including a few sea conchs. Don’t touch them, though; they’re endangered!
We also had a huge school of tiny fish swimming around us. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a thousand of them!
Lunch
All tours include a cooked lunch. Regardless of the tour company, the food is the same. This includes private tours to Isla Contoy.
It is served by the staff living on the island. On our tour lunch consisted of lasagna, chicken and veggies, fish, pico de gallo, chips, water, and juice. Little Man happily enjoyed lasagna, pico de gallo, and chips.
According to our guides, the lunches are generally the same each day with some small variations. The meals are planned loosely with kids in mind. This is why popular foods like chicken, pasta, and chips are easily available.
Lunches are served buffet style, so visitors can return as many times as they wish. For conservation purposes, all plates, cutlery, and cups should be reused.
Snorkeling
After leaving Isla Contoy, we headed to the nearby Ixlaché Reef for snorkeling. It’s a barrier reef and is part of the national marine park that takes up much of the area surrounding Isla Mujeres.
To stagger arrivals on the island, some tours snorkel before heading to Contoy. Little Man is a seasoned open-water snorkeler and has snorkeled in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Mexico.
Fun Fact: Ixlache reef sits where the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico meet. It’s the start of the 625-mile-long Mesoamerican reef system, which is the longest in the Western Hemisphere and stretches from Mexico to Honduras.
Because the reef is between two large bodies of water, the currents are chaotic and a bit strong. Thankfully, I am a strong swimmer and Little Man is fearless.
Due to the current strengths, there were some unique rules we had to follow for safety. Everyone had to travel in a straight, single-file line behind the guide.
We also had to swim hard to keep up with his pace but also to ensure we didn’t get too close to the corals. In some places, the reef is quite close to the surface.
We did see some really cool fish and coral formations. However, this was not the typical explore-and-meet-back-at-the-boat excursion. In order to ensure Little Man didn’t get left behind, I held his hand or arm the entire time we snorkeled.
At some points he got tired, so I pulled him with me as I swam. It was a very tiring experience.
Parents of children under eight or people who are weak swimmers should discuss with the guides how to accommodate their needs before getting in the water.
Stop in Isla Mujeres
When we got back in the boat at the end of our snorkel time, our tour guides told us that we were making a surprise stop. They were taking us to swim and relax at Playa Norte beach on Isla Mujeres.
This wasn’t part of our planned agenda, having booked from Isla Mujeres. However, it is included for tourists from Cancun.
We could have joined the tour for this option. However, we had enjoyed Playa Norte previously on our whale shark tour and we were staying on Isla Mujeres so we could go there any time.
Instead, we opted to head back to our hotel for a shower and early dinner.
Note: Swimming with whale sharks is really fun! Skip the private whale shark tour to save money if you do this experience.
Tours departing from Cancun typically arrive back there around 5:00 PM.
History of Isla Contoy
This island has a long history that pre-dates the Mayans. The origin of its use is so old that there are questions regarding what its name actually means.
What does Isla Contoy Mean?
Isla means “island” in Spanish. The word “contoy” is of Mayan origin but the exact meaning is disputed. Some say it combines the Mayan words “Kom” and ‘To’oy,” which together mean “low shelter.”
In that instance, it could be a reference to the island’s shallow waters that have provided refuge to fishermen, sailors, and pirates for centuries.
Other people say “contoy” is a mispronunciation of the Maya word “pontó,” which means “pelican.” These birds are one of the most commonly seen birds on the island, as we can attest from our Contoy Island tour.
Pre-Mayan Island History
Ceramics, worked shells, and other items lead archaeologists to believe it was occupied before 300-200 BCE. This was even before even the Mayan culture existed, in the period known as “Pre-classic Superior”.
The island was a part of the ancient pre-hispanic maritime route that linked the Laguna de Terminos, near Merida, with all the Caribbean islands. The Maya also visited Contoy but didn’t construct any permanent settlements on the island.
Fun Fact: Archeologists think the absence of permanent dwellings there is most likely due to the lack of freshwater.
The only known ancient structure on the island is the ruins of a Mayan shelling station, with fragments of carved shells and simple pottery found nearby.
Island History During Colonization
During the colonization of Mexico, it became a resting place and shelter for conquistadors exploring and plundering the region. Mayan people stopped visiting the island during this time, too.
The waters surrounding Isla Contoy witnessed naval battles between galleons and pirate ships as well as shipwrecks.
Isla Contoy tours leaving from Cancun take passengers past several shipwrecks. The water is so clear in some areas that a knowing eye can see the shadows of at least one.
Discovering Isla Contoy’s Ecological Value
Isla Contoy was first officially mentioned by John L. Stephens in 1892. He highlighted the presence of large numbers and varieties of birds there.
During the early 1900s, the island lighthouse was constructed. Locals referred to the island as the “island of birds” and it began to be recognized as a sanctuary. More naturalists, especially ornithologists, began to visit and do research there.
Photo Credit: Giorgio Galeotti
Also in the early 1900s, naturalists E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman briefly stayed on the island making observations on the birds. Local residents told the naturalists about the disappearance of a nesting site for the blue-faced booby bird.
The disappearance was a consequence of the construction of the Contoy lighthouse. Since then, there are no records that the blue-faced booby has again nested on the island.
During the 1950s, turtle camps temporarily inhabited the island. Generally, though, the island has remained uninhabited. The exception is a handful of scientists doing wildlife research as well as some staff for the preserve to support the limited tourism allowed there.
Protecting Contoy Island
Shortly after 1950, Mexican ecological authorities and naturalists realized Isla Contoy is one of the most important seabird nesting places in the Mexican Caribbean.
The island’s lagoons and dense mangroves provide shelter for over 177 bird species like brown pelicans, olive cormorants, brown boobies, red flamingos, and white herons. During the winter, over 10,000 birds migrate there.
Fun Fact: On February 8, 1961, Isla Contoy was made into a natural reserve area by then-president Adolfo Lopez Mateos. This made Contoy the first protected area in the Yucatan Peninsula.
For two decades, local tour operators traveled periodically to the island. The visitor center and observation tower were built in 1982.
Later in the 1980s, island oversight passed to the Urban Development and Ecology Secretary (SEDUE), who categorized it as a special biosphere reserve. On October 29, 1986 the island’s beach was declared a protected area for sea turtles.
The Mexican government realized that the island has both scientific and historical value, so additional protection was needed. Isla Contoy was made a National Park on February 2, 1998. This means that it can never be privately owned or developed.
Rules for Isla Contoy Tours
☑️ Don’t touch any wildlife. No animals, no sea creatures. As a wildlife sanctuary, humans are only visitors.
☑️ No sunscreen or bug spray is permitted. This includes reef-safe or environmentally friendly brands. Zero chemicals are permitted in the National Park area, either on the beaches or in the water.
☑️ Don’t hang anything from trees or bushes. This includes wet clothes. Living things need those plants for food or for their homes. Hanging things from them could damage the plants.
☑️ No smoking anywhere in the National Park. Including on the boats while they are docked. Most guides will not permit smoking on board at all.
☑️ Avoid the turtle nests. These are clearly marked with posts and caution tape. You cannot miss them. Stay far away if you see any. Sea turtles are endangered and Mexico takes seriously its role in increasing sea turtle populations.
Our guide warned us before leaving the boat of the consequences if we broke the rules. There are guards patrolling the island to ensure visitors follow the rules.
If they find someone breaking the rules, the entire tour group is required to immediately leave the island. When that happens, no refunds are given to anyone.
Can you imagine the uncomfortable ride back if you were found breaking the rules? We didn’t want that to be us!
In addition, all the rules are common sense. We are just visitors to an island that is maintained for the safety of the wildlife. Their needs come before ours.
Isla Contoy Tour Packing List
Everything you take should easily fit in a small backpack or wet/dry bag. You can leave them on the boat or take them ashore with you. However, there is no secure storage on the boat so I recommend taking at least your essential belongings with you.
👉 We like wet/dry bags with backpack straps, like this one.
These allow us parents to keep our hands free for taking photos or helping Little Man as needed. Based on our Isla Contoy tour experience, we recommend visitors take the following:
- Swimsuit. Definitely wear this under your clothing.
- Snorkel gear. You can also use what the tour companies provide. However, with the pandemic, we now choose to bring our own.
- Long sleeve rash guard. Preferably, choose one with a hood to protect your neck and face
- Binoculars. There are so many birds on the island, these will definitely get some use!
👉 We travel with these binoculars so Little Man can use them easily, not just the adults.
- Swim shorts or swim leggings. This day trip was the first time in years my legs were sunburned at the end. I tan easily, too.
- A buff or sunhat if your rash guard doesn’t have a hood. Trust me, you do not want to sleep with sunburned ears.
- Camera. Put it in a waterproof case if you plan to take beach pictures.
- Waterproof Waist Pouch. To store important things, like money and room keys.
👉 I love this waist pouch. It triple seals before rolling down to velcro shut. After 2+ years of regular use, I’ve had no problems.
- Flip Flops. While you can walk up to the summit barefoot, I wouldn’t recommend it. Even Little Man was grateful to have sandals, and he never wants to wear shoes.
- A big towel or sarong. This can also act as leg protection in the visitor center. You’ll eat lunch there, so avoiding mosquitos completely is impossible.
👉 We prefer these quick-dry towels. They’re soft but also don’t feel wet very long. Plus each family member can have their own color, which makes for easy packing!
- Sunglasses. This is self-explanatory. You’re in the sun all day, so protect your eyes!
- Dramamine. The crossing isn’t terribly bumpy, so most people won’t need this. But have some handy if you or your kid are prone to motion sickness.
👉 If your kid doesn’t swallow pills yet, pick up some chewable Dramamine tablets.
Conclusion: Taking an Isla Contoy Tour
As far as excursions in Riviera Maya go, to tour Isla Contoy is truly unique. It’s an undeveloped paradise and very different from an Isla Mujeres tour.
Adequate sun protective clothing will make this experience a winner for any family, especially since long sleeves, buffs, and sarongs can protect from mosquitos as well.
Although the snorkeling experience was faster-paced and more physically demanding than we’re used to, it wasn’t unreasonable.
Knowing everything we do now, we’d still take this Isla Contoy tour again. And we certainly recommend it to others as well!
👉 While we have global health insurance for our day-to-day lives, we also elect travel insurance with SafetyWing for our spurts of fast travel adventure!
