Do Marietas Islands Trips Run In Hurricane Season?

Yes, they do. Tours to the Marietas Islands operate year-round, and the park itself is open Tuesday to Sunday, 8:00 to 18:00, on CONANP's own published schedule. What changes from June to November is not whether boats leave, but how often sea conditions stop them, and what happens to your money when they do.

The green season is real: September alone averages 429 mm of rain across 20 rain days in the region. That is a different world from February's 12 mm over a single rainy day. Yet the same months deliver the warmest water of the year, 29.6 to 30.3 degrees Celsius, and the lowest per-person prices are unchanged from $67 for the Punta de Mita collective boat. Plenty of travelers sail happily in these months. Plenty of others get a cancelled departure and a refund.

This guide lays out the climate data month by month, the harbor authority's role, which tours spell out their weather policies, and how Hidden Beach access shifts when the summer swell arrives. If you are weighing months instead, the best time to visit the Marietas Islands guide compares the whole calendar.

Do Boat Trips To The Marietas Islands Run In Rainy And Hurricane Season?

Yes, tours from Puerto Vallarta, Punta de Mita and Nuevo Vallarta to the Marietas Islands operate through the June to November rainy and hurricane season, subject to sea conditions on the day. The park stays open all year, and listings keep their published schedules; individual departures can be cancelled when the harbor authority closes the port or when the operator judges the sea unsafe. When seas do allow the crossing, our answer to Puerto Vallarta's prettiest beach question points straight back to the islands, since the boat-only Hidden Beach tops the list.

The key distinction is between the tour calendar and the individual day. Neither the tours, the park's official page nor the climate record suggests a seasonal shutdown. CONANP recommends all-year visitation and notes plainly that in the rainy season there can be days with poor sea conditions. That is the whole picture in one sentence: the park is open, the operators are running, and some days the ocean says no.

Which days those are is a call made by the port captain's office, the Capitania de Puerto, which can close navigation for the bay when conditions warrant, and by each operator's own judgment for their vessel and route. No standing public document lists closures in advance, because closures are day-specific reactions to actual swell and wind. What you can control is the paper around the booking. Every refund and rescheduling term in this article comes from the cancellation line of a specific listing, not from a general assumption. Most tours state a full refund if you cancel at least 24 hours before the experience's start time; the difference between them is what the operator owes you, or does not, when the cancellation is theirs. That question deserves its own section below.

One planning note that matters more in these months: no tour states that hotel pickup is offered, several state it is not included, and summer rain makes the trip to the pier less pleasant, so build realistic time to reach your listed meeting point, whether that is Marina Vallarta for the featured Eco Explorer Vallarta snorkel tour, from $99 per person, or the Puerto Mágico terminal for the catamaran cruises.

When Is Rainy And Hurricane Season Around The Marietas Islands?

The rainy and hurricane season around the Marietas Islands runs from June to November, with hurricane probability highest from August to October. Regional climate data puts September as the wettest month at 429 mm of rain over 20 rain days, while the dry season from December to April sees as little as 4 mm per month.

The monthly record below is the planning table: sea temperature from seatemperature.org and rain figures from the CONAGUA and SMN 1981 to 2010 climate normals. Two things jump out for a green-season traveler. First, the water is at its warmest, 28.4 degrees in June rising to 30.3 in August. Second, the rain is heavily concentrated: June through October carries virtually all of the year's rainfall, and June alone jumps to 227 mm after May's 18 mm.

A caution on reading that table as a forecast: rain days in the tropics are often short, intense afternoon events, and the rain total for a month says nothing about the morning a tour departs. What the table does tell you is that the odds of disruption climb steeply from July through September and ease markedly by November, which averages just 24 mm over 2 rain days and technically falls back into the dry-season column of this dataset.

Hurricane risk runs June to November with higher probability from August to October. Named storms, specific port closures and cruise calendars are day-specific events; the planning takeaway is simply that late summer carries the widest spread of possible outcomes, from a flat, gorgeous crossing to a cancelled one.

None of this touches the marine calendar. Humpback whales are a dry-season possibility, with the official SEMARNAT window for the season just past running 8 December 2025 to 23 March 2026; no notice for the following season has been published, so summer bookers should treat whales as off the table rather than assume a date range. If you want the fuller picture on whale watching from these boats, our guide to whale sightings on a Marietas Islands tour explains what that seasonal window actually means for your chances on the water.

With the climate picture set, the practical question becomes which listing to put money on. The card below is a sensible place to start for a summer booking.

What Happens When A Marietas Tour Is Cancelled For Weather In Puerto Vallarta?

When sea conditions force a cancellation, the harbor authority's closure stops departures for the day, and your recourse is the cancellation line of the specific listing you booked. Most tours state a full refund for cancellations made at least 24 hours before start time; when the operator cancels, refund or reschedule terms come from that same listing text, so read it before booking.

The mechanics are simple and unglamorous. The Capitania de Puerto can close navigation in the bay, and when it does, no authorized operator sails to the islands, regardless of how the morning looks from the beach. Operators can also cancel on their own judgment for their vessel and route even when the port is technically open. In either case the decision is day-specific, which is why no guide can promise a given week will run.

What varies between listings, and what you should compare, is the stated cancellation text. The table below quotes the policy position of representative tours exactly as stated. Note the one outlier: the Vallarta Extreme Hidden Beach listing's cancellation line states that the experience requires good weather, without the 24-hour refund sentence the others carry. While you compare those policy lines, you may also be wondering what the Hidden Beach visit itself involves, and our guide to clothing and family questions at Hidden Beach sets out what the tour listings and park rules actually say.

That 24-hour line is the single most useful sentence on a summer booking page, because it defines your escape hatch if the forecast turns after you have paid. It applies to your own cancellation too, not just the operator's: if you bow out more than 24 hours ahead of a green-season departure, these listings state you get your money back in full.

The full-day all-inclusive catamaran from Chica Locca Tours, from $130 per person and rated 4.8 across 771 reviews, is the strongest summer-friendly option on this front: a clear 24-hour refund line, a premium all-inclusive food and beverage package with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, and a maximum of 66 travelers, so a weather-shortened day still has substance. Booking it for the wet months is a reasonable bet precisely because the paper is clean.

Should you take a weather worry straight to the operator before booking? Yes, and ask one specific question: what happens on the day if the port closes. The listing text answers the 24-hour case; the day-of case is the operator's own policy.

Which Marietas Tours From Punta de Mita Suit Unstable Weather?

Short Punta de Mita departures fit green-season uncertainty best: the Grimar Adventures collective boat runs 2 hours 30 minutes from $67 per person, and Grimar and Shark's Tours both run 3-hour Hidden Beach options both from $157 per person. Less time on the water means fewer exposed hours when conditions shift, and Punta de Mita sits 9 km from the islands, the closest departure point on record.

CONANP's published distances frame the choice: Punta de Mita lies 9 km, about 4.85 nautical miles, from the islands, against Puerto Vallarta's 34 km. In unsettled weather the shorter exposure of a Punta de Mita departure is a genuine structural advantage.

The budget anchor is Grimar Adventures' Collective Boat listing: from $67 per person, 2 hours 30 minutes, rated 4.9 from 32 reviews, with snorkeling equipment, life jackets, non-alcoholic beverages and a waterproof container for your phone included. Its Hidden Beach landing is an extra-fee item. For a summer day when the forecast is borderline, this is the smallest commitment of these tours.

The short-format options from the Punta de Mita and Corral del Risco piers compare like this:

Grimar's other listing, the Hidden Beach entry tour from $157 per person, 3 hours, rated 4.8 from 117 reviews, includes transportation by covered boat, distinctive to that listing. Cover matters in the tropics: green-season weather swings between downpour and blazing sun within an hour, and a covered boat plus a dry bag for electronics, which that listing includes, is built for exactly that.

The Monkey Adventures México Half Day listing, from $81 per person, pairs the islands with a Playa Nopalera visit and states plainly that Hidden Beach is not included. The Vallarta Adventures BBQ listing, from $79 per person and the most reviewed of these tours at 4.3 from 1,150 reviews, runs 7 hours and takes its beach time at Majahuitas instead. Neither promises the crater beach, which in these months is the standard structure.

Packing for rain and sun in the same bag is covered in detail in the what to bring to the Marietas Islands guide.

Does Rainy Season Change Hidden Beach Access At The Marietas Islands?

Yes, summer conditions can close the window to Hidden Beach even when the tour sails, because entry depends on tide, sea state and the park's daily rules. The 2016 CONANP reopening rules that operators still describe allow at most 116 visitors a day in groups of 15, with helmets and flotation vests compulsory and a 30-minute limit per group.

Hidden Beach, the crater beach also called Playa del Amor and Playa Escondida, is reached by swimming through a rock passage, and every relevant listing frames entry as condition-dependent. The Ecotours Vallarta Hidden Beach listing says it in as many words: operators cannot guarantee entrance ahead of time. The cap structure compounds the weather risk in summer. Under the reopening rules CONANP set in 2016, which operators still describe, the beach takes at most 116 visitors a day, in supervised groups of at most 15, for 30 minutes from leaving the boat, with helmets and vests compulsory and no fins, mask or snorkel at the entrance. When a morning's weather compresses everyone into the same afternoon low tide, that daily number gets consumed fast.

Listing-level detail helps you choose well. The sightseeing listing from Tours & Actividades states a swim of about 60 meters to enter Playa Escondida, minimum age 12, maximum 65, and requires the ability to swim that distance. A Puerto Vallarta Ecotours listing states about 250 meters from the boat. Both figures are that listing's own statement, not a general tunnel length, and both are swim requirements a choppy summer day makes more demanding, not less.

Age and fitness limits are per-listing facts and they cluster around the beach, not the boat: the featured Eco Explorer Vallarta tour sets 10 to 65 for the Hidden Beach activity with ID, the Vallarta Adventures Hidden Beach listing sets minimum age 12, and Ecotours Vallarta does not allow kids under 8 on the tour at all. Rainy season does not change these numbers, but it does raise the question of whether a swell-affected passage is your kind of swim.

Should You Book A Marietas Islands Tour For June To November?

Yes, if you accept a real chance of a weather cancellation and book a listing with a clear 24-hour refund line. In exchange you get the warmest water of the year, 27.7 to 30.3 degrees Celsius, and unchanged prices from $67 per person. November is the safest green-season month at 24 mm of rain over 2 rain days; August and September carry the highest disruption odds.

The value case is straightforward. Every firm price holds year-round, so from $67 for the Punta de Mita collective boat to $130 for the all-inclusive catamaran, a September traveler pays the same as a February one, on boats whose own listings cap the group: the Chica Locca all-inclusive at 66 travelers maximum, the Eco Explorer snorkel tour at 16, the Grimar boats at 8. Fewer crowds per boat in the green season is a qualitative pattern, not a sourced statistic, but the capacity numbers are listing facts.

Structure your booking around reversibility. Nearly every listing here carries the standard full-refund-if-cancelled-24-hours-ahead line, which converts a weather gamble into a free option: book the date, watch the forecast, and walk away without cost up to a day out. That logic is strongest for the Nuevo Vallarta and Puerto Vallarta full-day formats, which have the most hours exposed to a changing sky.

A same-week alternative worth naming is the Nuevo Vallarta Hidden Beach tour from All PVR Tours, from $168 per person, 6.5 hours, rated 4.6 from 81 reviews, departing the Paradise Village pier; it includes the Hidden Beach landing, with a 220-peso government bracelet tax not included.

Two closing cautions. First, book early in your stay, not your last day, so a cancelled departure leaves room to reschedule within the same trip. Second, keep expectations on wildlife realistic: the listings describe dolphins, turtles, giant mantas and reef fish as possibilities on any crossing, and humpbacks belong to the official December-to-March window, so a summer booking should be sold to yourself on water, rock and quiet, not on whales.

Common Questions About Rainy Season Trips To The Marietas Islands