Hidden Beach In The Marietas Islands: What It Is And How Tours Get You In

Hidden Beach is a ring of sand at the bottom of a collapsed volcanic crater on Isla Redonda, one of the two main islands of the Islas Marietas National Park in Banderas Bay. The park's managing agency, CONANP, lists the site under its official name, Playa del Amor, open Wednesday to Sunday from 8:00 to 17:00 and closed the other two days. Listings call it Playa Escondida, Hidden Beach or the Beach of Love; they are the same place. There is no walk-in access, no dock and no independent route in: the park's own page states that movement inside the protected area is by boat, with authorized private tourism providers of Banderas Bay. Since tour providers list the site under different names, this guide to which listings say Playa del Amor and which say Hidden Beach helps you match the wording before you book.

That single fact shapes everything on this page. A Hidden Beach visit is not a beach you choose on the day; it is an option inside a boat tour, governed by tide, sea state and a rule set that operators describe in their listings. The featured tour on this site, the Eco Explorer Vallarta snorkel tour from Marina Vallarta, from $99 per person and rated 4.8 from 1,033 reviews, lists the landing as an optional paid extra, a cash entrance fee of MXN 600 per person. Others, like the Grimar Adventures Punta Mita group tour from $157 per person, list the entrance as part of the ticket. The differences matter, and this guide walks through all of them. For the broader question of which boat style suits you, see small group versus large boat comparisons.

What Is The Hidden Beach In The Marietas Islands?

Hidden Beach is a small sandy beach sitting inside a collapsed crater on Isla Redonda in the Islas Marietas National Park, open to the sky through the crater's throat and walled off from the open sea except for a rock passage you swim through. CONANP, the federal park agency, calls the site Playa del Amor and opens it Wednesday to Sunday, 8:00 to 17:00, closed Monday and Tuesday.

The geology is the draw. The islands are the eroded remains of volcanic activity, and on Isla Redonda one section of the roof of a sea cave or crater collapsed, leaving a hidden chamber of sand that the ocean reaches from below and around. From the water you see cliffs, nesting birds and a slot in the rock; from inside, you stand on sand under an open ring of stone. CONANP's species list for the park reads like a reason the site is so tightly managed: blue-footed and brown boobies, Heermann's gulls, frigatebirds, bridled terns, king angelfish, giant mantas, spotted eagle rays, humpback whales and coral reefs, with Playa del Amor named on the page itself.

The beach is small and the visit is short. The Ecotours Vallarta listing that includes a Hidden Beach experience states an allowance of 10 minutes on the beach for its guests; the official reopening rules CONANP set in 2016, which operators still describe, allowed 30 minutes per group counted from leaving the boat. Either way, this is a brief, regulated stop inside a boat day, not a lounging beach. Tour itineraries pair it with snorkeling on the reefs, bird watching from the cliffs and time at nearby Playa Nopalera, a separate beach on the islands that several listings name as their swim stop. If your interest is mostly marine life, the Marietas Islands snorkeling guide covers the reefs, gear and rules in detail.

Another Playa del Amor exists on a different coast of Mexico; this page is about the Marietas one only.

Where Is Playa del Amor?

Playa del Amor sits inside the Islas Marietas National Park, on Isla Redonda, roughly 9 km (4.85 nautical miles) off Punta de Mita on the north shore of Banderas Bay. CONANP's distance table puts Puerto Vallarta 34 km (18 nautical miles) away and Nuevo Nayarit 15.96 nautical miles away, which is why departure point drives tour length and price.

The distances come straight from the park's official page, and they explain the shape of the whole market. Boats leaving Punta de Mita run short, small-group trips: the Grimar Adventures collective boat is 2 hours 30 minutes, from $67 per person, and its Hidden Beach tour with entrance listed is 3 hours, from $157. Boats leaving Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Mágico terminal or Marina Vallarta run longer days, from 3 hours 30 minutes to 9 hours, with breakfast, lunch and open bars built into bigger catamarans. La Cruz de Huanacaxtle sits 11.84 nautical miles out and Sayulita 12.68, though no tour here departs from those towns.

The location also explains the wildlife. The islands sit at the mouth of the bay, and CONANP's own list for the park includes humpback whales, which listings describe as a seasonal possibility on the crossing. The federal whale-watching notice for the season that ran 8 December 2025 to 23 March 2026 restricts watching activity within 1.5 km of the islands, so boats view from outside that radius. For where each tour actually boards, the guide to Marietas Islands trips from Punta de Mita and La Cruz maps every pier.

How the Hidden Beach listings compare:

Read the landing column carefully before booking. "Included" means the listing names the entrance as part of the ticket; "optional paid extra" means you decide on the day and pay cash; "not stated" means exactly that, so ask the operator before you book. None of it is a promise of entry: even where a landing is in the ticket, the tide, sea state and the park's daily rules decide on the day, a point the Ecotours Vallarta listing makes in its own words when it says operators cannot confirm the entrance ahead of time.

Three listings frame the real choice. The featured Eco Explorer tour keeps the base price at $99 per person and leaves the landing as a decision at the dock; the Grimar Punta de Mita tour folds the entrance into a 3-hour small-boat trip; and the Chica Locca full-day all-inclusive is a 6-hour catamaran day with the landing as a very limited extra-fee option. Which one fits depends less on the beach itself, which is the same beach for everyone, and more on how long you want to be on the water and what else you want from the day.

How Do I Get To The Hidden Beach In The Marietas Islands?

You get to Hidden Beach only as part of a boat tour with an authorized operator: the boat anchors off Isla Redonda, you swim or wade through a natural rock passage at low tide wearing a helmet and flotation vest, and you spend a short, supervised time inside before swimming back out. No listing offers walk-in or independent access, and the park states access is by authorized providers' boats.

The swim is the part to prepare for. The passage is a natural tunnel through the rock, and listings describe it differently because conditions differ: the Tours & Actividades sightseeing listing states a swim of about 60 meters for its Full-Package option, and one Ecotours Vallarta listing states about 250 meters from the boat, each figure attributed to that listing alone. You need to be a confident swimmer: the sightseeing listing says outright that you must know how to swim to enter, and several listings set fitness expectations in their notes. Our piece on swimming to the Hidden Beach takes the question apart stroke by stroke.

The rule set around the swim is not the operator's invention. The reopening rules CONANP set in 2016, which operators still describe, read as follows: groups of at most 15 people, supervised, at low tide; 30 minutes per group from leaving the boat; entry and exit only along a buoy-marked lane; helmets and flotation vests compulsory; no fins, mask or snorkel at the beach entrance; at most 116 visitors a day at Playa del Amor; and boats carrying more than 15 passengers may not enter the area. The Wednesday to Sunday hours and the MXN 125 entry fee are current, while the caps come from the 2016 reopening rules. Age limits are per listing, not per park, and they vary. The Eco Explorer listing sets 10 to 65 for the Hidden Beach activity with ID required; Grimar says 10 to 64; the Vallarta Adventures Hidden Beach tour says minimum 12; Ecotours Vallarta says kids under 8 are not allowed on the tour at all; the Vallarta Extreme listing says under 12 not allowed and no older than 65. Never assume one operator's limit applies to another's boat, and never assume the limits are park law: they are each listing's own rules, printed in its notes. If you are traveling with children or a non-swimmer, visiting the Marietas with kids and non-swimmers covers which listings still work.

One more per-listing wrinkle: footwear. CONANP recommends light beach clothing and swimwear and does not allow footwear for water or beach activities, and the Grimar listing is explicit that going down to the activities with shoes of any kind is not allowed. Reef-friendly sunscreen applied at least 30 minutes before entering the water is one of the park's eight official visitor rules, alongside the mandatory life jacket in the water, no alcohol, no littering, no single-use plastics and no removing or introducing animals. Beyond the park rules, smaller items like cash for boat fees and tips are easy to overlook, and the full Marietas Islands packing guide walks through them.

Is There An Excursion To The Hidden Beach In Puerto Vallarta?

Yes: several tours departing Puerto Vallarta and Marina Vallarta list a Hidden Beach landing or option, including the featured Eco Explorer Vallarta snorkel tour from $99 per person (landing an optional MXN 600 cash extra), the Ecotours Vallarta experience from $133 per person, and the All PVR Tours trip from Nuevo Vallarta from $168 per person with the landing included and a MXN 220 bracelet tax paid separately.

The Puerto Vallarta options split into three styles. Fast small boats from Marina Vallarta, like the Eco Explorer tour with its 16-traveler maximum and its CONANP bracelet and park permits listed as included (a US$6 per person government fee is listed separately as not included), get you to the islands with the least ceremony: light snacks of apples, bananas and a sandwich, snorkel gear, and the landing decision made on the day. Mid-size naturalist trips, like the Ecotours Vallarta tour led by a marine biologist with a 10-traveler maximum and a box lunch, lean on interpretation. And full-day catamarans, like the Live & Travel Tours all-inclusive cruise from $87 per person over 9 hours, or the Chica Locca all-inclusive from $130 per person with an open bar and waterslides, make the day itself the product; their Hidden Beach status is either not stated or an extra fee, because boats of 40 to 66 travelers cannot enter the restricted area under the 2016 reopening rules that operators still describe.

Departure logistics are the same for all of them: no tour here states that hotel pickup is offered, and several state it is not included, so plan to reach the listed meeting point yourself. The Puerto Mágico cruise asks arrivals for 8:30 am at the terminal; the Eco Explorer tour meets at Proa 22, Marina Vallarta, five minutes from the airport. Check the listing for your chosen date's meeting instructions. For a fuller map of piers and terminals, see Marietas Islands tours from Puerto Vallarta.

What the fee picture looks like across the main Hidden Beach listings from the south of the bay:

The sticker price is never the whole price, and the table shows why. Two tours with the same headline number can differ by MXN 600 in landing fees and bracelet taxes. The cheapest firm-priced boat, the Punta de Mita collective at $67 per person, lists the Hidden Beach entrance as excluded, while the nearby Grimar tour at $157 lists it as included, a gap that is mostly the landing itself. Do the arithmetic on the landing-included base before comparing, and read the full cost breakdown for the fee-by-fee version. On the park's own entry fee, MXN 125 per person per day sold as the conservation wristband, with exemptions for children under 12, older adults, pensioners and people with disabilities and discounts for students, teachers and Mexican nationals, the dedicated page on the park fee and conservation wristband is the reference.

What Happens If The Tide Or The Sea Says No?

The Ecotours Vallarta listing says it plainly: operators cannot confirm the entrance ahead of time and do their best on every visit, but it is not always possible. Guest reviews describe high tides delaying tunnel entry, and some guests did not get into the beach at all. The park's own climate note says rainy-season days can bring poor sea conditions, and tours can be cancelled for sea conditions. Nothing on this page or any listing can promise you the sand.

Booking around the odds is still rational. Choose a listing that names the landing as included or as a clearly priced option rather than "not stated". Travel midweek, keeping in mind the site is closed Monday and Tuesday, so Wednesday to Sunday are the landing days. And favor small boats: under the 2016 reopening rules that operators still describe, boats over 15 passengers may not enter the restricted area at all. Timing the wider trip is covered in the best time to visit the Marietas Islands, including the month-by-month sea temperature and rain table.

It also helps to reframe what you are buying. The Marietas Islands day includes reef snorkeling with king angelfish and rays that CONANP lists as park wildlife, cliff-side colonies of blue-footed and brown boobies, the marine geysers and stone arches several listings name on their routes, and, in season, humpbacks described by listings as a possibility on the crossing. Hidden Beach is ten minutes of that day for the people who get in.

The Ecotours Vallarta experience above is the naturalist version of the same question: a marine biologist guide, a 10-traveler maximum, and a listing that is frank that the entrance is never confirmed in advance. For readers deciding purely on price, the Shark's Tours Hidden Beach trip from Punta de Mita, from $157 per person with the landing in the ticket and 4.8 from 161 reviews, and the Marieta Sport Fishing trip from $156 per person with all fees included, sit near the top of the per-person ladder for a reason: they are buying the landing. The private charters guide covers private boats priced per group, where the landing is usually an extra fee, for groups who want the boat to themselves.

With the landing listings compared, the rules read and the tide respected, the decision left is only style and budget: the 3-hour Punta de Mita run, the naturalist panga from Marina Vallarta, or the full-day catamaran with everything included. All three put you on the water at a national park that federal rules keep deliberately quiet, and any of them can put you inside the crater, if the sea agrees.

Common Questions About Hidden Beach In The Marietas Islands