How does white sand, warm blue turquoise waters, colorful houses paradise sounds to you? Too good to be true? Well it turns out it exist.

If you are somewhere near Cancún and you are tired of crowds and noise and you just want to unplug and relax, Holbox is the place for you.

Isla Holbox is a small island (actually it's like a permanent sand bank) north of Cancún. To get there, drive to Chiquilá (where there are several places where you can park your car for a fee) and from there you can take a ferry to Holbox (it takes around 30min).

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Good to know: In Holbox there are no cars, the taxis are golf karts and the only vehicles you will see are bringing supplies to restaurants, hotels or to the supermarket. So either you take the golf kart or rent a bike (there are several places where you can rent them) and that's our choice.

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Initially we weren't planning to stay for the night but since it's quite a long drive and we wanted to enjoy the island we decided to stay for a night. We stayed at El Pueblito Hotel, near the main square and this hotel was just amazing, the staff was super friendly and provide good tips and the room was beautiful.

After we checked in, we went to get our bikes. Unfortunately there was a big storm the day before and since all the roads are basically dirt, a lot of the roads were just big pools of mud, which made it quite fun to ride the bike as you can imagine!

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Our first stop was Punta Cocos, on the west side of the island and where you can walk for hundred of meters in shallow waters. I was amazed with this beach, also it was the only one without seaweed.

After that was time to get some calories in, so we headed to Viva Zapata for lunch.

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In Holbox it's impossible not to fall in love with every colorful house, impressing street art and the most cute handcrafts shops. One thing that is famous here is the lobster pizza but I didn't get the chance to try it.

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Tip: Keep in mind that because it's an island everything is more expensive there.

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After lunch, we took the bikes to Playa de Holbox, where you can find the iconic sign and the hammocks (be careful because birds might poop on you while you are trying to enjoy your sunset).

The beach is huuuge! We walked a lot, also through some sand banks and found some beautiful spots to take photos.

We couldn't make it until Punta Mosquitos because we had to return the bikes.

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For dinner we went to have some tapas at LUUMA, it was good but not that impressive. We needed to have an early dinner because we planned a really cool experience for the night.

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Holbox is famous not only for the incredible beaches but also for two other things: whale shark diving and bioluminescence experience. Sadly when we went there it was still too early for the whale shark season (usually starts mid-may) so we choose to go with a guide to experience some bioluminescence. We arranged everything we our hotel and at 10pm, this mexican man called Alex came in his motorbike, gave us our wetsuits and took us (yes, 3 people in a motorbike for 2!) to a secret location: a beach away from the city lights and without too many waves. We got there and we jumped in the water, the sky was clear and full of stars and what we saw I will never forget, it was MAGICAL!

As you would move the water you would activate the oxygen and create a reaction from the placton, which would turn green, it looked like fireflies but in the water. Sooo beautiful!

We stayed there for more than 2 hours, talking and having fun with the placton.

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Tip: you can have this experience by yourself but be careful, Alex told us that people sometimes go, even with guides to Punta Mosquitos and it's dangerous there, there are a lot of sting rays in that area.

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On the next morning, we said goodbye to our hotel and head to Club Mandarina for breakfast. Really cute place and the juices were good.

Shortly after this we had to go and catch the ferry back to the mainland. I was really sad to leave and this island was definitely one of my favourite places in the Riviera Maya.

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