How Much Does It Cost To Go To Isla Contoy?

A trip to Isla Contoy is not one price, it is a stack of them: the booking, the on-site fee the listing charges on the day, sometimes a second payment stated in the fine print, and the official park entry that the Mexican government collects separately. Shared days from Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres run from $136 per person to $199 per person on the fourteen listings this site tracks, the single private charter starts at $840 per group, and nine of the fourteen listings add a US$20 per person fee on the day. We compared the listings line by line so the number you budget is the number you actually pay. Your hotel choice quietly changes that math too, since some departure points cost more time and taxi fare to reach than others, and our breakdown of where to stay before a Contoy boat day compares the options.

How Do The Listed Prices And Fees Add Up?

Count on the listed price plus the on-site fee when you budget: listed prices run from $136 to $199 per person, and nine of the fourteen tours add a US$20 per person government or dock fee paid on the day. Two listings also state a $60 per person final balance on top of the listed price. The Private 8-Hour Snorkel Day is from $840 per group plus US$20 per person.

That headline range comes straight from the listed prices. The cheapest shared line is the National Park, Optional Snorkel from Isla Mujeres at from $136 per person; the most expensive shared line is the Exciting Travel Holidays Beach Lunch Day at from $199 per person. Between them sit eleven other listings, most clustered between $139 and $179. The one private product, Ocean Tours Mexico's Private 8-Hour Snorkel Day, is priced from $840 per group, and the listing does not state a group size, so the per-person math is yours to do once you know your party.

The official park entry sits outside all of that. CONANP, the commission that runs the national park, charges MXN 225 per person per day, with exemptions for children under 12, seniors, pensioners and people with disabilities carrying valid credential, a 75 percent discount for students and teachers with credential, and 50 percent off for Mexican nationals and foreign residents of Mexico with official ID. CONANP publishes no dollar amount for that fee, so treat any USD figure you see for "the park fee" on another site with suspicion: the dollar lines on the listings are dock, marina or reef taxes that operators collect themselves, a related but separate charge. If you are weighing whether that fee is already inside your booking, Is The Isla Contoy Entrance Fee Included In The Tour? unpacks it listing by listing.

Before the full breakdown, here are the three days that cover most budgets: the most reviewed boat day, the cheapest national park departure, and the private charter for anyone pricing exclusivity.

What Does Each Isla Contoy Day Trip Cost?

The fourteen bookable listings split into three price bands: seven hotel-pickup boat days from $139 to $199 per person, three catamaran days from $139 to $155 per person, and three Isla Mujeres departures from $136 to $166 per person. One private charter sits apart at from $840 per group. Every figure below is the listing price only, before on-site fees. If that lone private option catches your eye, our guide to private Isla Contoy charters explains what the price covers, what the boat includes, and who the format actually suits.

The table below covers every tour, priced as each listing states it. Note the two listings that carry a second payment in their own fine print: Bluecaribe's beach BBQ day at from $141 per person also states a final balance of $60 per person, and Pescado Adventures' 10-hour nature expedition at from $139 per person states a second final payment of $60 per person or 1,200 Mexican pesos. Those two lines each add a stated $60 per person to their listed price, quoted exactly as the listings state them.

Reading the table, price tracks three things: how long the day runs, whether a van collects you at your hotel, and what the listing bundles in. The catamaran days at $139 to $155 look cheap until you notice the Cancun Sailing line includes no transport; the listing says you arrive at Marina Xtabay on your own or book transport with the operator. The Cancun Vacation Experts combo day at from $163 per person carries its own quirk: transport from Playa del Carmen is $10 US cash per person and from the Riviera Maya $20 US per person in cash, paid on top. The Turismo Channel Playa del Carmen day is the shortest hotel-pickup option at 6 hours and lists an open bar on board, which is rare: only four listings list one.

The most reviewed listing of all fourteen is Ocean Tours Mexico's Snorkel Day, 8 Hours, 4.8 from 829 reviews, from $179 per person with hotel pickup from Playa del Carmen, lunch and drinks listed, and a US$20 per person government fee stated as excluded from the booking price. Its sibling Private 8-Hour Snorkel Day, from the same operator, is the only private product, 4.9 from 144 reviews at from $840 per group, again with the US$20 per person government fee on top. For anyone weighing exclusivity against the shared deck, the private charter guide walks through what that premium actually buys.

Wondering whether the flagship shared day is worth locking in before prices move?

Which On-Site Fees Do The Listings Add On The Day?

Nine of the fourteen listings state a US$20 per person government, dock or reef fee paid on the day and not included in the booking price; one Isla Mujeres listing states US$10 per person instead; four state no fee line at all. Two listings separately state a $60 per person final balance. None of these US$ lines is the official CONANP entry fee.

This is where trip budgets drift, because the checkout price and the dockside price are different numbers. The fee lines are each quoted as that listing states it, and a fee stated by one operator cannot be assumed for another.

Two practical readings follow. First, the cheapest sticker price is not always the cheapest day: Isla Fun Tours' national park day at from $136 per person states no fee line at all, while its sister Untouched Beach Day at from $139 per person states a US$10 cash environmental and dock tax, so the real gap depends on that one line. Second, "fee not stated" is not "fee included": it means the listing says nothing, so budget the possibility and ask the operator before you travel rather than assuming either way.

That Isla Mujeres departure is the budget anchor of the whole set of tours. From $136 per person, 4.6 from 35 reviews, 6 to 7 hours, with drinks on the boat, a traditional lunch and a guided eco-tour listed, an optional snorkel stop at Contoy, and no on-site fee line in the listing. You trade hotel pickup for a meet at the Black Pearl dock, which is why it costs less than every Cancun van-and-boat product above it.

What Does The Official Park Entry Fee Add To The Total?

The official CONANP entry is MXN 225 per person per day, charged as a rights collection, and CONANP publishes no USD amount: never accept a dollar figure quoted as the official fee. Exemptions cover children under 12, seniors, pensioners and people with disabilities with valid credential, students and teachers get 75 percent off, and Mexican nationals and foreign residents get 50 percent off.

How this fee reaches your wallet depends on the operator. Some tours fold park access into their package, several itineraries show Contoy admission as free or included, while the dollar "dock" or "reef" lines in the table above are collected by the operators themselves and are not the CONANP fee. The safe planning move is to carry cash for MXN 225 per person on the chance it is collected from you directly, and to treat any discount you qualify for as a bonus, not a plan. The park's own page on the CONANP portal states the fee and every exemption, and the management program for the island's beach sanctuary is published as a full PDF by the commission if you want the primary documents behind these numbers.

The fee buys entry to a place that is deliberately hard to visit. About 200 visitors a day are allowed (the management program counts 202), a cap a 2023 press report says has often been exceeded and that a proposal to raise was rejected. Access is by boat only, about 25 km from Puerto Juarez, Punta Sam or Isla Mujeres, always through authorized operators, with a mandatory guide on the marked trails. That scarcity is the reason a Contoy day costs what it costs: you are not buying a beach, every beach in Quintana Roo is free, you are buying one of roughly two hundred daily seats on a protected island. That protected status extends to what you can put on your skin, and the rules about wearing sunscreen on Isla Contoy are stricter than most visitors expect.

What Extras Should You Budget Beyond The Ticket?

Beyond the listing price and fee lines, plan cash for gratuities (listed as excluded on nearly every tour), the ferry if you are self-transferring to an Isla Mujeres departure, photos and souvenirs where a listing names them as excluded, and transport surcharges on two specific products. None of these appears in any checkout total.

The ferry is the big variable for the Isla Mujeres departures. Ultramar runs from Puerto Juarez to Isla Mujeres in a reported 15 to 20 minutes, with an adult one-way fare reported around MXN 290 plus a small environmental and sanitation fee, and from Playa Tortugas in the Hotel Zone in a reported 25 to 35 minutes. Those figures are reported, not official; confirm current fares with the operator before relying on them. If the three Isla Mujeres listings are your target, add the round-trip ferry for everyone in your party to the cost side of the ledger.

Then the small print. Gratuities are the most commonly excluded item, so factor a tip for the crew and guide. The National Park, Optional Snorkel and the Contoy Adventours trip exclude towels, the Untouched Beach Day excludes GoPro files, while the catamaran sailing day lists all fees and taxes plus transportation as exclusions. The Cancun Vacation Experts combo day adds its Playa del Carmen and Riviera Maya transport surcharges in cash, $10 and $20 US per person respectively. The Exciting Travel Holidays Beach Lunch Day charges an extra US$20 per piece for luggage beyond a small backpack, subject to availability. None of it is hidden, but none of it is in the headline number either.

Weather is the one extra you cannot price. Listings state their own policies: the catamaran operators describe a different date or full refund when weather cancels the day, while noting that a skipped snorkel stop or a dropped Isla Mujeres visit is not grounds for a refund, and the Port Captaincy decides whether boats sail at all. CONANP recommends visiting any month except January, when Norte winds make opening the port unlikely. Build one slack day into a short trip if the boat day is the point of it.

How Do You Keep An Isla Contoy Trip Cheap?

The floor is the Isla Mujeres departure at from $136 per person with no fee line stated, reached by ferry on your own; the next tier is the $139 to $141 big-boat days, two of which carry $60 final balances you must count. Booking from Cancun rather than the Riviera Maya and skipping open-bar catamarans all hold the total down.

The single biggest lever is where you sleep. A Cancun base puts you inside the pickup zones of the ten hotel-pickup listings with no surcharge, while Playa del Carmen and Riviera Maya hotels mean earlier pickups and, on one listing, a cash transport add-on. If you are already staying on Isla Mujeres, the two Isla Fun Tours days and the Contoy Adventours trip remove the whole van-and-marina layer of the cost stack. The budget guide to Isla Contoy on a budget works through the same arithmetic from the low end.

The second lever is reading the inclusions carefully. Lunch is listed on thirteen of the fourteen products, so food is effectively covered. Open bar appears on only four listings, and it is only worth paying more for if the bar matters to you. Snorkel gear is listed on eight; on the six where it is not stated, ask the operator rather than assuming a rental fee. What you should not economize on is cash on the day: between the fee lines, possible tips and the ferry, a shared day asks for cash beyond the booking.

The third lever is timing within the week rather than the year. None of the tours price by day of week, but the visitor cap binds hardest in high season. Booking the from $136 and from $139 lines early is the cheapest insurance on this island. The trip picker on the Isla Contoy Tours homepage sorts the tours by budget in three questions if you would rather not read fourteen listings.

Whether the answer is the from $136 fast Isla Mujeres boat or the $840 private speedboat, every real product lands somewhere in the bands above, and now you know which line items push a number up.

Common Questions About Isla Contoy Trip Costs

Is The US$20 Dock Fee The Same As The Park Entry Fee?

No. The US$20 lines are government, dock or reef taxes collected by the operators themselves. The official CONANP entry is MXN 225 per person per day, and CONANP publishes no dollar amount for it.

Which Isla Contoy Day Trip Is The Cheapest?

the National Park, Optional Snorkel from Isla Mujeres at from $136 per person, with no fee line stated in the listing. You reach the Black Pearl dock meeting point yourself, so add the ferry if you are coming from Cancun.

Why Do Two Listings Say $60 On Top Of The Price?

Bluecaribe Tours at from $141 per person and Pescado Adventures at from $139 per person each state a $60 per person final balance or second payment in their own listing terms. Both amounts are charged in addition to the listed price.

Do I Need Cash On The Day?

Yes. Fee lines are paid on the spot, gratuities are excluded on almost every tour, one listing takes transport surcharges in cash, and the ferry to Isla Mujeres departures is a separate ticket.

Does A More Expensive Listing Mean A Better Day?

Not mechanically. Price mostly tracks duration, hotel pickup range and inclusions like open bar or a private boat. The most reviewed listing, 4.8 from 829 reviews, sits mid-pack at from $179 per person.