Isla Mujeres for a Group: Three Houses, One Dock

At six in the morning the dock is the only thing moving. It runs straight out from the sand into the Bahía de Mujeres, and the water on either side of it is flat enough to read. Across the channel the Cancún skyline is still lit. Nobody is up yet in any of the three houses behind you.

Most people meet Isla Mujeres from the other end — off the public ferry at the north point, into the golf-cart traffic and the shops. That island is real and worth an afternoon. But it is not where you stay with a group, and it is not what the island is like at six in the morning.

The sheltered side

Our houses are on Sac Bajo, the western shore that faces the mainland rather than the open Caribbean. It is the sheltered side, and that is the whole point of it.

Groups arrive by private vehicle to the marina on the mainland and then by boat straight to the dock — twenty to thirty minutes across. You can take the public ferry, but with eight or sixteen people and their bags there is no reason to. The island centre is a short golf-cart ride from the gate when you want it.

Three houses, or one estate

What we hold here is unusual enough to explain properly.

Casa Coral, Casa Ceiba and Casa Azul are three six-bedroom beachfront villas standing side by side. Each sleeps sixteen. Each has its own heated pool and jacuzzi, direct beach access, a terrace with lounge and dining areas, and a grill bar with a wood-fired oven. A private dock runs out in front of all three.

Taken together as La Colección Residences, the three gardens, three pools, the beach and the dock become one estate: eighteen ocean-view bedrooms, up to forty-eight guests, and nobody else on that stretch of sand.

That is a rare shape. Most places that sleep forty-eight are hotels, and most villas that sleep sixteen cannot grow. Here a wedding party, a company offsite or three families travelling together can have one estate and still close a door at the end of the night. Each house keeps its own kitchen, so the groups do not have to eat on the same schedule unless they want to.

Casa Coral is the warmest of the three in mood — rose-pink walls, coral and terracotta linens, an L-shaped heated pool that runs out towards the palms. It is the one for a group that will spend the week on the terrace.

There is a chef, and that is on the listing

Each residence has its own executive chef and cook. That is the listing's own wording, not a flourish of ours, and it is the reason this is an easy place to put a large group: breakfast happens where you are, not at a buffet thirty minutes away, and dinner for sixteen does not need a reservation or a boat.

The water, and the trip to start with

Kayaks and paddleboards go out from the dock itself, which covers most mornings.

For a day on the water, start with the three-stop snorkel — El Farito by the lighthouse, Manchones reef, and the MUSA sculptures standing on the sand underneath you. It is 4.5 from 57 reviews on GetYourGuide, and it works because the stops are short. Whale sharks are the island's other draw, in season only; what that involves is on our Isla Mujeres page.

When to come

It is a year-round stay, and we do not write any month off. Tell the advisor your dates and what the week is for, and you will get a straight answer about that week.

Who it suits, and who it does not

It suits a group that wants the water at the end of the garden and a town they can reach in ten minutes without needing it every night. It suits a celebration that wants one address for everyone. It suits families, because the dock is the whole day's entertainment for anyone under twelve.

It suits you less if you want to walk out of the gate into restaurants. The north point has that; Sac Bajo does not, and the golf-cart ride in the evening comes with the address. If your group wants to walk to dinner every night, the mainland coast is the more honest answer and we will say so.

How long

Four nights is the shortest stay that makes the crossing worth it. A week is better, and with the three houses together the week fills itself: the dock in the morning, a boat one day, the town one evening, and a long lunch that runs into the afternoon on the days nobody plans anything.