A somewhat remote island exists north of Cancun. Isla Mujeres, the significantly developed and touristic utopia, this is not. Holbox, pronounced “hole-bosh”, has roads of sand only. It appears dirt-like but alas it is sand. There are no cars, as advertised, but the “golf carts” are damn powerful and many people ride large ATVs which might as well be pick up trucks. This ain’t no Fire Island Pines, kids.
One funny thing about the island is that they love pizza and have many Italian restaurants. I’ve been loving eating seafood pasta around the Yucatan and Isla Holbox’s seafood pasta did not disappoint. Cheesy garlic bread doesn’t hurt either. There is the standard super healthy breakfast available as well.
Holbox’s beach was not crowded at all! You really get the beach to yourself. There are also beachfront services with lounge chairs for no charge. You just need to order food or drinks and you are golden.
We arrived in Holbox after the storm I experienced in Playa del Carmen. The beach was filled with seaweed and it looks like the locals don’t really invest much in beach maintenance or island maintenance. The seaweed really smelled. Along the sand roads were large impassable ponds of still water. Eventually they turned green. Super gross.
I met awesome people on Holbox, as described in my backpacking circuit post. There was serenity and peace on the island and it is was a great location to escape. The hostel is not beachfront and I thought it was interesting that many of us thought it would be considering the hostel on Isla Mujeres is beach front and all of the hostel in Laguna de Bacalar are lakefront.
The ferry ride and golf cart ride are all part of the experience. I met a French dude whose family bought land out there. He told me this whole story of when he was younger and meeting large groups of people at the hostel how he would take like 10 people on joyrides on his family’s golf cart, until one day it flipped over. And a girl he just met almost lost her finger. Ugh, nightmare.
I had the whole beach to myself.
The hostel staff lit a bonfire on the beach two nights in a row. We looked at the sky and watched the free celestial show: a barrage of shooting stars.
