Mexico has some of the best dive sites in Central America and the surrounding regions, and it’s also known as one of the world’s best destinations for swimming with whale sharks. These incredible creatures frequent the east coast for a few months of every year and can sometimes be spotted in huge shoals. If you’re planning a trip to Mexico and swimming with whale sharks is on your list of top activities, you need to know where is best to do it, right? I visited two of the top sites to answer the question on everyone’s lips: Where is the best place to swim with whale sharks – Isla Mujeres or Holbox?
WHAT IS A WHALE SHARK?
Before I get into the nitty gritty of which location is best for swimming with whale sharks, I’d like to clarify something.
A whale shark is a shark.
You wouldn’t think it would be necessary to have to point this out, and the clue really is in the name, but I was bowled over by the number of people I heard saying things like…
‘I’m going to swim with the whales tomorrow’
Or…
‘Is a whale shark more of a shark or more of a whale?’
It’s not some kind of hybrid. It’s a shark through and through. In fact it’s the biggest shark – and the biggest fish – in our oceans.
CAN YOU SCUBA DIVE WITH WHALE SHARKS?
For some reason, when you Google the whale shark experience, a lot of people refer to it as ‘diving with whale sharks’. This is somewhat misleading. It is not possible to scuba dive commercially with these gentle giants – at least not in Central America and Mexico.
The best reason I’ve heard for this is that people get too absorbed in following them that they neglect to check their depth and can reach dangerous limits without even realising it.
Aside from this, you can see them very clearly when they’re feeding on the surface, so there’s really no need to dive down with them unless you’re a scientific researcher. For that, I presume they would make exceptions.
WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO SEE WHALE SHARKS?
There are a few famous spots around the world to view whale sharks.
AUSTRALIA
Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia is one good option. The sharks can be seen from mid-March to mid-August and the tour operators tend to have a good understanding of the measures necessary to help protect the species and the reef.
PHILIPPINES
In the Philippines, from December to May, Donsol and Cebu are the top choices; however, Cebu is gaining a bad reputation after reports have circulated that the tour operators lure the sharks by hand-feeding them small shrimp. This practice affects their behaviour and should not be encouraged by tourists.
HONDURAS
Although sightings are less common than at other sites, the island of Utila off the coast of Honduras has sporadic whale shark sightings. Utila is famous as one of the cheapest places to dive in the world. I was there in late September and on my first two days of diving our boat stopped in the deeper water for excellent sightings. Bear in mind, though, that sightings here are by no means guaranteed.
MEXICO
Whale shark season in Mexico generally lasts between June and mid-September. There are two sites from which to visit them. Isla Holbox is a small island just off the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsular. Isla Mujeres is to the east of Cancun. Both are worthy of a visit regardless of their shark-watching merits, but if you only have one chance, which should you choose?
ISLA MUJERES OR HOLBOX?
MUJERES OR HOLBOX: WHO TO BOOK WITH AND WHERE TO STAY
I took two whale shark trips – one from Isla Holbox, which I booked from my accommodation at Hostel Tribu, and one from Cancun, via Isla Mujeres, which I booked through my accommodation at Hostel Ka’Beh. For the record, both of these hostels are absolutely fantastic.
TRIBU, HOLBOX
Tribu is discussed frequently on the backpacker scene. It’s a colourful beach-side castle with themed nights, comfortable air-conditioned dorm rooms and helpful and friendly staff.
KA’BEH, CANCUN
Ka’Beh is one of my top three hostels in the world, primarily because it attracts a great crowd and achieves the perfect atmosphere for meeting like-minded travellers.
NOT CONVINCED?
I’ve recently started using HotelsCombined to search for accommodation as I travel. It’s become one of my favourite tools because it aggregates the results of online searches from over 40 travel sites to bring you the best deals much faster than if you had to look them up to compare them separately.
MUJERES OR HOLBOX: WHAT ARE THE ISLANDS LIKE?
Both islands are laid back and stunningly beautiful. Most people get around by bike or golf cart.
ISLA MUJERES
Isla Mujeres is a little more built up, with some paved roads and more in the way of night life, hassling souvenir vendors and restaurant touts, while Holbox is quieter and its roads are more akin to compact sand tracks.
ISLA HOLBOX
Other than the whale shark tour, there’s not a lot else to do on Holbox, although horse riding tours along the beach are offered. Isla Mujeres has a bit more going on. There are some good dive sites, especially MUSA – an underwater museum where sculptures of human figures, houses, cars and landmines have been placed on the seabed to encourage more coral to grow there.
MUJERES OR HOLBOX: HOW DO YOU GET THERE?
If you’re visiting either Isla Mujeres or Holbox, you will probably fly into Cancun. At the time of writing, Thomas Cook Flights from UK airports start from as little as £212.
ISLA HOLBOX
From Cancun, Holbox is more of a mission to get to. You need to take a public bus north for approximately three hours to Chiquila. These buses only leave at 7:45 or 12:40, with the occasional extra service at around 10 am. From Chiquila, the ferry ride takes about half an hour, costs around US$7 and leaves approximately once every two hours from very early in the morning until 9:30 pm.
ISLA MUJERES
Isla Mujeres is an easy 20-minute crossing from Cancun. There are various ferry services from three different ports running between 5 am and 11:30 pm, so ask at your accommodation which is most convenient or cheaper for your location. Check if your ferry ticket is a single or a return, as this isn’t always made clear and you wouldn’t want to pay twice! Another option, if you’re not keen to see much of the island itself, is to take a whale watching trip from Cancun.
MUJERES OR HOLBOX: THE TOUR ITSELF
The Holbox tour was slightly cheaper, but when you factor in the additional cost of getting to the island there wasn’t much in it. Both tours had additional activities.
ISLA MUJERES
Since there are restrictions on the amount of time you can spend in the water with the whale sharks, we visited other locations after swimming with the sharks on both occasions. Both tours offer snorkelling opportunities. The Isla Mujeres trip included a beer, which we drank as we floated in the turquise water by the island’s beach.
ISLA HOLBOX
On the Holbox tour, we tried our hands at fishing and then the captain made a delicious lunch of ceviche from the catch. We also visited some sand bars known for having large numbers of pelicans and flamingos.
ISLA MUJERES OR HOLBOX: VERDICT
All things considered, I would be tempted to give Holbox the edge if it wasn’t for one very important point. The tours that leave Isla Holbox head towards the same waters as the tours that leave Cancun and Isla Mujeres, except that, as soon as they encounter one shark, they stop. If you take a tour from Cancun or Isla Mujeres, you’re more likely to see shivers of sharks (I admit I Googled the collective noun), and you will probably have more time in the water with more individuals. Given that that’s the whole point of you being there, my recommendation would be to take the tour from Cancun or Isla Mujeres. And if you need more persuading, on the Cancun trip, we saw about 30 of these manta rays!
THINGS TO REMEMBER
There are a lot of rules to follow to make sure you’re being ecofriendly. Your guides should brief you on your personal responsibilities before you enter the water, but in case they don’t, the following rules are important.
Stay at least three metres away from the shark and swim away if it heads in your direction
Never touch or obstruct the sharks
Avoid flash photography
Only enter the water in groups of eight or fewer
Each vessel is only permitted to give its occupants two in-the-water encounters. If you remember that you’re dealing with wild animals and that their behaviour is somewhat unreliable, and if you’re aware that your time in the water might be short-lived, you’re much less likely to come away disappointed and much more likely to appreciate it for what it is – an incredible privilege.
One final tip – swim as fast as you can and stay ahead of other snorkellers. Also, try to be on the other side of the whale to anyone else. As soon as you get stuck behind someone else, the bubbles kicked up by their fins will more or less destroy your chances of seeing anything at all!
Amazing shots…will have to add this to my to do list, love swimming with whale sharks and manta rays!
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Yeah, it was pretty special to get to see them both on the same day! I’ll have to check out the Philippines sometime as well!
Huh, how ironic because I was in Cancun 20 years ago and I never knew there were whale sharks down there. I think they are beyond so beautiful and graceful to watch swim (albeit from tv specials) and I’m absolutely thrilled for you. You continue to do the most amazing activities, Arianwen. Reminded me of you bungee jumping when you were sitting on the side of the boat :)
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This really is a fantastic experience. One of the best I’ve ever had! Whale sharks are beautiful. It takes your breath away being so close!
There are also whale sharks on the west coast of Mexico, particularly around La Paz in Baja California. I swam with them last December there and it was amazing. The water is colder and you generally would wear a wetsuit. However, there aren’t nearly so many tourists which can be an advantage.
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Oh, that’s a good tip Peter! Thank you! I’m not sure I’d enjoy the cold water, but it’s not like you’re in there for long, and it would be good to have fewer people around.
Thank you so much for the great information! We are planning our trip to Isla Mujeres in late June/early July and I’ve been wondering if we need fit in a trip to Holbox to get a better whale shark experience. It sounds like the tours from Isla Mujeres are just as good, especially since they all head towards the same water anyway. I’m sure Isla Holbox is breathtaking, but maybe we’ll save that for another trip. Thanks again!
No worries! I think that makes sense. I spent ages trying to decide which to do and in the end I saw it as a good opportunity to research a topic that would help other travellers! Holbox is lovely. I preferred the island itself because it was less busy, but they’re both lovely places, and Holbox isn’t as easy to get to. If you’re there for the whale sharks, I’d suggest Isla Mujeres would be the better option. I hope you have a great time. It’s a fantastic experience.
My lady and I are lying in our rickety cabaña in Cobá, trying to find some kind of lead on whether we should go to Holbox or Mujeres in a couple of days. We don’t care about the tourist infrastructure, there is only one reason we are going: the biggest fish in the sea. And yeh, they’re frigging SHARKS! Love your intro.
This is a perfect blog post: balanced, useful and entertaining. Thank you. With your advice and that of others, it looks like Mujeres is currently winning by a nose…
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Thanks Ben! I’m glad I could help, and I hope you have a fantastic experience and see lots of sharks. It really is incredible!
What tour company did you use for both the Holbox whale dive and the Isla Mujeres whale dive? We have a trip planned for late July/Aug and were planning to travel from Cozumel up to Holbox for a couple of days just so we can swim with the whale sharks. But, if we can swim with them in Isla Mujeres instead, that will save us a long trip! Thanks for posting this… very helpful :)
Hi Kristi! Thanks for your comment. I didn’t use a specific company for either trip. I booked the Isla Mujeres trip through Ka’Beh Hostel in Cancun, and the Hotbox trip through Tribu Hostel on Hotbox. You will very easily be able to find tours at most accommodation and many dive and tour shops in Cancun and on Isla Hotbox or Isla Mujeres, and you should be able to just book the day before. I also got the impression they use different boats depending on bookings, so I would assume the experience is very similar whoever you book through. It sounds to me like you needn’t make the long-ish trip to Holbox. If you’re based in Cancun or on Isla Mujeres, you can do a day trip to see the whale sharks of Isla Mujeres and, based on my experience and what people said when I was there, you’re more likely to see more sharks than if you go from Hotbox. I hope that helps! Have a great time. It was one of the best experiences of my life!
Spending a week in isla mujeres and defo have this on the list of must do i love isla mujeres. Visited 4 months ago before travelling around sth america. Stayed at the coolest place called el milagro. Super relaxed and they told me about these wale sharks. Cant wait. Thank you for your post / sharing.
I hope you love it as much as last time! I’d love to return one day. The whale sharks are definitely the highlight!
Hello,
Oooo…I love this above post. These pictures are saying a lot about the thrilling nature tour… Its an Awesome article…
Thank you! This has to be one of my top experiences! I planned my entire trip around whale shark season!
Hi, I know that November isn’t the best time to see whale sharks…but can you see a few if we were to go? We are leaving this week.
I’m afraid I don’t know. They recommend you go before mid-September and I’m not sure the tours will even be running at this time of year. I saw whale sharks off Utila, Honduras, in October last year, but sightings are much more rare in that region. You will probably struggle I’m afraid.
Just for the record whale shark diving is possible in Belize , Central America.
The season runs form around April through June, and the optimum time for viewing is around the full moon .
Thanks for the additional info! I love Belize so it’s great to hear you get whale sharks there as well!
Thanks so much for this really helpful and comprehensive post!
You’re welcome! :)
Great post Arianwen! I would love to go there and watch those huge but beautiful creatures! I’ve been to Oslob where you can watch and swim alongside the whale sharks. It was a very beautiful experience I ever had last year. By September, I’m hoping we can go to other places and enjoy such feat. Thanks for posting this one!
Great blog Arianwen! Very helpful information about the 2 islands. What time of year did you see the Manta Rays and the Whale Sharks together? That is definitely on my bucket list for next year. We plan on scuba diving on the same trip so my question is stay in Cancun or Isla Mujeres to do both activities? Thanks so much for these great tips!
Jack
Thanks Jack. I would have been there around August. If you have the time, I would recommend visiting both places, but if not, Cancun is a better base to get more done. Isla Mujeres is lovely, but it’s a bit remote, so you’d probably have to travel back to Cancun or Playa del Carmen to arrange scuba diving.
We just completed a whale shark tour with VIP Tours from Holbox. Great experience. There probably 100-200 whales around the boat and many manta Ray’s. Not sure how the tour could have been better. Isla Holbox was great beaches to explore and felt like the Corona commerical.
That sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks so much for this post, we were trying to decide between the 2 places, your post was very helpful in helping us decide
You’re welcome! I hope you have a fantastic time!