What To Bring To The Marietas Islands: Gear, Clothes And What Is Banned

The packing question for the Marietas Islands is not really a style question. It is a rules question. Parque Nacional Islas Marietas is a federally protected area run by CONANP, and the agency's official visitor rules decide half of what goes in your bag: reef-friendly sunscreen applied at least 30 minutes before you enter the water, a life jacket worn in the water, no alcohol, no single-use plastics, and no footwear for water or beach activities. The other half comes from the practical side of a boat day out of Puerto Vallarta, Punta de Mita or Nuevo Vallarta: sun exposure on open water, cash-only extras on several listings, and the short list of things operators themselves ask you to bring.

This guide walks through both halves using the park's own published rules and the bring-and-not-allowed lines from the tour listings on this site, including the featured Eco Explorer tour and the full-day all-inclusive catamaran. If you want the wider planning picture first, start with the site's Hidden Beach rules and closure days guide and the best time to visit the Marietas Islands comparison.

What Should You Pack For A Marietas Islands Boat Day?

Start with the five items that decide whether your day works: reef-friendly sunscreen, swimwear worn under your clothes, a towel, cash in small bills, and any motion-sickness remedy you normally use. Everything else is comfort, and several items on a usual beach list, from plastic bottles to water shoes, are actually banned inside the park.

The park's eight official visitor rules, published on CONANP's official park page, shape the list directly. Reef-friendly sunscreen must be applied at least 30 minutes before entering the water, which means you put it on at the marina or on the boat, not standing on the beach. Single-use plastics are prohibited, so a reusable bottle does double duty: several operators encourage it, and the featured Eco Explorer tour explicitly says drinking water is provided with cups available and reusable bottles encouraged for sustainability.

Sun exposure on the crossing is the other reason the list skews protective. CONANP recommends light beach clothing that covers the sun plus swimwear. A hat and a light long-sleeve shirt earn their space on any boat in Banderas Bay, and a dry bag or zip-sealed pouch protects a phone from spray; two Punta de Mita operators, Grimar Adventures and Shark's Tours, list a waterproof bag or container for phones and cameras as an included item, so you may not need your own on those trips.

Here is the core list, split by what the park rules require and what is simply practical:

One distinction matters for Hidden Beach hopefuls: no fins, mask or snorkel may be worn at the beach entrance, and helmets and flotation vests are compulsory, under the reopening rules CONANP set in 2016 and operators still describe. You do not need to pack a helmet or vest; the operator supplies them. Your own snorkel gear stays on the boat for the reef stop.

What Clothes And Swimwear Work Best At The Marietas Islands?

Light, quick-drying beach clothing over swimwear, a hat, and nothing on your feet once you are in the water: CONANP recommends light beach clothing that covers the sun and swimwear, and does not allow footwear for water or beach activities. Pack a warm layer for the ride back, since wet clothes plus wind cools fast even in warm months.

The footwear rule surprises the most people. It applies to water and beach activities across the park, so water shoes, flip-flops worn into the surf and sandals on the sand are all out; the Grimar Hidden Beach listing from Punta de Mita spells it out for its own trip, stating that going down to activities with shoes of any kind is not allowed, along with bags, backpacks, suitcases, food and drinks on the beaches. That is also why a towel and cover-up matter: you are getting on and off boats barefoot.

Clothing choice also follows the day's structure. Most trips from Puerto Vallarta are long: the catamaran listings run 6 to 9 hours, with breakfast and lunch aboard, so a light layer for the boat matters as much as the swimsuit. Shorter Punta de Mita trips of around 3 hours need less. Several listings set their own dress guidance: the Altus Tours catamaran asks you to bring a swimsuit, towels and extra clothes and to wear comfortable clothes and shoes for the terminal, while the Ecotours Vallarta hidden beach trip runs on a 30-foot super panga, so a windbreaker earns its spot.

Between the three formats the clothing needs differ. The featured Eco Explorer tour from Marina Vallarta, from $99 per person with a 4.8 rating from 1,033 reviews, carries at most 16 travelers on a smaller boat, so a windbreaker and a dry shirt in a sealed bag are worth packing. The Grimar collective boat from Punta de Mita, from $67 per person with 4.9 from 32 reviews, runs 2 hours 30 minutes on its own boat with a maximum of 8 travelers, the lightest packing job of all. The Chica Locca all-inclusive catamaran day, from $130 per person and 4.8 from 771 reviews, is a 6-hour affair with an open bar after the park, waterslides and water tubes listed, so a full change of dry clothes for the ride home is the move.

For families, the same logic scaled down: infants must sit on laps on several listings rather than having a seat, and the Chica Locca all-inclusive listing notes a maximum of 66 travelers, so a small dry bag per person beats one large shared backpack. The site's dedicated Marietas Islands with kids and non-swimmers guide covers the age and swimming rules in more depth.

What Does CONANP Ban At The Marietas Islands?

The park's eight official rules ban alcohol, littering, single-use plastics, removing or introducing animals, and entering the water without a life jacket; footwear is not allowed for water or beach activities, drones are prohibited by federal regulation on the tour side, and every visitor must pay the MXN 125 per person per day rights fee as the conservation wristband.

The eight rules are published on the official CONANP page: follow guides and rangers; life jacket mandatory in the water; no alcohol; no littering; no removing or introducing animals; no single-use plastics; reef-friendly sunscreen applied at least 30 minutes before entering the water; pay the rights fee. The fee, MXN 125 per person per day, is sold as the "Brazalete de la Conservacion" wristband through CONANP's wristband platform, with exemptions for older adults, pensioners and retirees, people with disabilities and children under 12, a 75 percent discount for students and teachers with credentials, and a 50 percent discount for Mexican nationals and foreign residents with documents. Foreign tourists pay the full amount.

Whether your tour ticket covers the fee is a per-listing fact, not a general one. The featured Eco Explorer tour includes the CONANP bracelet and park permits but lists a US$6 government fee per person as not included; the Punta de Mita snorkeling safari with a local guide lists port and Marietas package taxes as included; the Grimar hidden beach trip does not state its fee basis. A number of the big-boat listings out of Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta state peso amounts as not included, each attributed to its own listing only, and those lines are printed in the cash table further down this page.

The drone ban deserves its own line because three separate listings, Chica Locca, Vallarta Adventures and Monkey Adventures México, all cite federal regulations protecting the flight path of endemic birds. The sightseeing tour from Puerto Mágico adds its own not-allowed list beyond the park's: drones, jewelry and coolers. If you would normally pack any of those for a boat day, leave them at the hotel. The site's park fee and conservation wristband guide covers the fee mechanics in full.

What Should You Bring For Hidden Beach At The Marietas Islands?

Bring proof of age in the form of ID for anyone near an operator's stated age limits, swimming ability, and nothing on your feet: Hidden Beach, also called Playa del Amor or Playa Escondida, is reached by swimming through a rock passage, helmets and vests are compulsory, and no fins, mask or snorkel are worn at the entrance, under the 2016 CONANP reopening rules operators still describe.

The ID point is easy to miss. Several listings require it because park access rules carry age limits that each operator states for its own tour: the featured Eco Explorer tour sets a minimum age of 10 with an adult for the hidden beach and a maximum of 65, both with ID required; the Vallarta Adventures 3 hours 30 minutes tour states minors must bring a photo ID with date of birth, and guests near ages 10 and 65 must bring valid official ID. The Grimar hidden beach trip states ages 10 to 64. Pack the passports or copies for the whole family, not just the adults.

Swimming ability is part of the packing question because what you bring includes competence, not equipment. The sightseeing listing states a swim of about 60 meters to enter Playa Escondida; one Puerto Vallarta Ecotours listing states about 250 meters from the boat. Guests who cannot make that swim do not enter, and the sightseeing listing says plainly that to access Playa Escondida you must know how to swim. One small-group Campos & Moras listing even describes its guide carrying a life ring and a floating phone container for the tunnel swim, a reminder that phones need protection on this specific crossing.

The Shark's Tours Hidden Beach trip from Punta de Mita, from $157 per person with 4.8 from 161 reviews, lists a container to transport phones or cameras to the beaches among its included items, along with snorkel gear, non-alcoholic drinks and a life jacket, on a boat of at most 8 travelers. The listing title promises entry, but the landing depends on tide, sea state and the park's daily rules, so pack for the possibility rather than the promise.

The Grimar Adventures equivalent, from $157 per person with 4.8 from 117 reviews over 3 hours, asks guests to bring a swimsuit, towel, sunscreen and a camera or phone, with drinks in thermoses or reusable bottles for environmental protection, and bans bags, backpacks, suitcases, food and drinks on the beaches, plus alcohol and throwing garbage into the sea. Combined, the two Punta de Mita trips define the real Hidden Beach packing list: ID, swimwear, towel, reef-safe sunscreen, protected phone, cash, and almost nothing else.

What Cash And Extras Should You Carry From Puerto Vallarta Or Punta de Mita?

Carry cash in pesos for port fees, optional extras and tips, because a surprising share of the add-ons on these tours are listed as cash only: peso-denominated port and conservation lines appear as not included on many of the big-boat Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta listings, and the optional Hidden Beach landing fees quoted on two listings are cash payments. Exact amounts are per listing, printed below as each listing states them.

Start with the departure-point reality: no tour states that hotel pickup is offered, so your cash needs include getting yourself to the listed meeting point, whether that is Marina Vallarta, the Puerto Mágico terminal, Paradise Village pier in Nuevo Vallarta or the Punta de Mita piers. From there, the fee picture varies listing by listing, and the only safe way to plan is to read your own tour's block. A sample of what the listings state:

Note what that table is not: it is not a general price list. Each peso or dollar line belongs to the listing that printed it, and converting or generalizing any of them would be wrong. The pattern across the eight listings above is real and consistent, though: each of these big-boat Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta days excludes a port or conservation line payable at check-in, so arrive with pesos in small denominations and your booking confirmation. Listings that bake fees in, such as the featured Eco Explorer tour and the Marieta Sport Fishing trip from Punta de Mita marked all fees and taxes included, simplify the morning considerably.

Tips are the other cash line: gratuities are explicitly listed as not included, optional, on the Chica Locca, Vallarta Adventures and Ecotours listings, among others. No amount is stated, so treat tipping as a cash-in-hand courtesy rather than a printed charge. Beyond cash, the practical extras are a seasickness remedy taken before boarding, a sealed phone pouch for spray, and reef-safe sunscreen in a form you can apply on a moving boat. For the wider logistics picture, the tours from Puerto Vallarta guide covers marinas and terminals.

What Should Families And Non-Swimmers Bring To The Marietas Islands?

Bring ID for every child near an age limit, swim aids only if a listing permits them, and a realistic plan for who stays on the boat: the park requires life jackets in the water, one listing states you must know how to swim for Playa Escondida, and several listings set their own minimum ages from 6 to 12 or exclude kids under 8, so the packing list is shorter than the planning list.

The age rules live on each listing, never in the park's own visitor rules. The featured Eco Explorer tour says its snorkel tour is for ages 6 to 70 and recommends a private family tour at the edges of that range; the Ecotours hidden beach experience does not allow kids under 8; the Vallarta Adventures hidden beach tour sets a minimum of 12; the Vallarta Extreme hidden beach trip allows no children under 12 and no one over 65; the GoPralia sailing trip and the Live & Travel Tours catamaran both note infants must sit on laps. One Puerto Vallarta Net listing states children ages 3 to 5 pay MXN 200 directly at check-in, a cash detail worth knowing in advance.

Non-swimmers should pack around what the listings actually offer. The sightseeing tour from Puerto Mágico states that visiting Nopalera Beach does not require the tunnel swim; only the Playa Escondida entry does, and only under its Full-Package option. The Vallarta Adventures BBQ tour at Majahuitas states its tour does not include a visit to the Hidden Beach at all, which makes it one of the calmer choices for mixed swimming ability, with kayaks and paddleboards listed instead. The Campos & Moras small-group listing describes a guide with a life ring assisting swimmers into Hidden Beach, a listing-specific detail, not a park service.

For a family that wants its own boat, the snorkeling safari with a local guide from Punta de Mita runs from $369 per group for up to 6 people over 3 hours, with port and Marietas package taxes, a personal bilingual guide, snorkel gear and hydrating drinks listed as included, and the hidden beach admission excluded. A private boat solves several packing problems at once: one dry bag, no strangers, and a guide whose attention is yours, though the hidden beach landing still depends on tide and the park's daily rules like any other.

Whatever the boat, the final family checklist is short: ID for everyone, reef-safe sunscreen applied early, reusable bottles instead of plastic, towels, cash in pesos, dry bags for electronics, and nothing banned by the park. The rest, from fajita lunches to open bars, is already on the boat.

Common Questions About Packing For The Marietas Islands