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Holbox Island (Las Nubes)

Quintana Roo · Lázaro Cárdenas · Holbox town

also known as Isla Holbox, Playa Las Nubes, Kite Beach Las Nubes, Main Beach, Holbox Kite Beach

Part of Holbox →

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

beginner-friendlymedium crowds

On this page

The spot
Wind
Forecast
Month by month
Water
Level
The scene
Launch
Schools
Tips
Getting there
Photos
FAQ

Riding essentials

Season

Nov–Jul

Months riders and schools name

How windy

12-25 kt

Character: mixed

Room to launch

tight

access rules on record, below

Water

mixed

29 °C in summerLas Nubes has butter-flat lagoon water behind a sandbar roughly 100 m offshore, with light chop outside the bar

Hazards

Reported by riders

Level

Beginner to advanced

With a caveat: see Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Crowds

medium crowds · busy Dec Jan Feb Mar

Schools

named at this spot

From the airport

Cancun International Airport (CUN)

Transfer times under Getting there

When it fills in

Two different patterns. On easterly days the wind builds through the afternoon on the local thermal, so sessions cluster after lunch. Norte fronts ignore the clock: they blow day and night for several days, then leave a gap of four or five days before the next one.

Nearbystraight-line distance

El Cuyo31 km

Backup spotsWhere riders go when the wind doesn't work here.

Isla Blanca
Rio Lagartos
Punta Mosquitono page yet
Playa Ensenadano page yet
El Bajo / Punta Caracolno page yet
Cabo Catocheno page yet

The spot

The kite spot on Holbox is Las Nubes, at the eastern end of the developed north-shore beach, where a sandbar holds a shallow flat lagoon. Treat it as a zoned spot rather than a hotel beach you can rig on: kiting in front of the hotels is prohibited and the usable area starts around Las Nubes.

Seasons and wind

Winter through spring is the season, with Norte fronts bringing the stronger north-sector wind and spring settling into a more regular NE-E breeze with an afternoon thermal.

Learning conditions

The water is warm and shallow enough to learn in, but the rigging strip is small, so a beginner or a first-time visitor should go through a local school.

Punta Mosquito

Punta Mosquito is the other half of the spot, boat access only, choppier and deeper, and it is the answer on easterly to southeasterly wind, with a protected point to stay clear of. Foilers ride outside the sandbar, and the sandbar is the thing that catches them.

Getting there

Getting here is part of it: road to Chiquila, ferry across, then a bike, a walk, a golf-cart taxi or a boat.

The wind

locals call it El Norte / easterly trade and thermal wind

Direction

cross-on

Direction to shore

cross-on at Las Nubes on the N to NE wind that dominates the season. Easterly is side-shore there; southeasterly is the cue to move, either by boat to Punta Mosquito or east along the coast to Playa Ensenada.

Dominant direction

N to NE in winter fronts, turning more NE to E from late winter/spring; E to SE is used for Punta Mosquito

Kite sizes

5678910111213141516

metres · typical quiver highlighted

The quiver, in words

For a 75-85 kg rider: 8-10 m carries a Norte blowing 20-25 kt, 12 m is the workhorse for the 12-20 kt NE-E days that dominate from mid-February, and 14 m or a foil is what saves May and the summer tail.Winter riders are pointed at a 7-12 m band, so two kites cover almost every day of the season.

Character

mixed

When it fills in: see above ↑

Average strength

12-25 kt is the working season range. Long-run station averages for the main beach come out around 5 kt because they include the whole calendar year and the flat summer, so they say nothing about a windy-day quiver.

Typical strength

12-25 kt through the main season. From November to February the Nortes come round every four or five days at 12-25 kt and gust harder in the front itself; from mid-February the NE-E wind settles into a steadier 12-20 kt.

varies from steady easterly/thermal breeze to gustier synoptic Norte fronts

November to the end of May is the working season. November to February is Norte time: fronts arrive every four or five days with 12-25 kt of north wind and cooler water, and a 3 mm suit earns its place.

From mid-February the wind swings NE to E and settles into a more regular 12-20 kt afternoon pattern, March pairing strong wind with flat warm water. April is mostly easterly, May fades lighter and back to the north.

The season end is sometimes given as June or July; summer wind is much less predictable.

Forecast

Live forecast

Windguru Windfinder Windy

Month by month

riding season from the spot record · the wind series here holds no strength figure

No month-by-month share of windy days is held for this spot. The months riders and schools name are Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul.

Measured at Isla Holbox / Main Beach, Quintana Roo, Mexico, ~3 km from the spot (2014-08-01 to 2017-04-30 (~2.75 yrs, station now offline)).

How this was measuredmeasured · 2014-08-01 to 2017-04-30 (~2.75 yrs, station now offline)

The source named below holds no month-by-month figure for this place, so no season is drawn from it. The season is the one the spot record names.

Highlighted months are the riding season from the spot record.

Isla Holbox / Main Beach, Quintana Roo, Mexico · windfinder.com · 2014-08-01 to 2017-04-30 (~2.75 yrs, station now offline)

The water

Type

mixed

Standing depth

Yes at Las Nubes: the lagoon behind the sandbar is shallow enough to stand and walk a kite back, which is why the teaching happens there. Outside the bar it is open sea. Punta Mosquito is standable close in and gets deep after roughly 50 m, tide depending.

Tides

Small range. Highs of roughly 0.3-0.4 m against lows of 0.1-0.2 m are typical, so the lagoon at Las Nubes barely changes through a day. What does notice the tide is the sandbar line at Las Nubes and the depth off Punta Mosquito, which deepens past about 50 m from shore depending on water level.

Temperature

29 °C summer · 25 °C winter

Wetsuit

Boardshorts or a rash vest most of the year; a shorty or a 3 mm suit during the winter Norte fronts.

Currents

generally mild at Las Nubes; current is reported to increase near the point at Punta Mosquito

Conditions

Las Nubes has butter-flat lagoon water behind a sandbar roughly 100 m offshore, with light chop outside the bar. Punta Mosquito is choppier and is normally reached by boat when easterly or southeasterly wind suits it.

Sea temperatures average roughly 24–25 °C in the coolest winter month range and about 28–29 °C in late summer.

Your level

BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced

Conditions are shallow, flat and wave-free, suited to beginner lessons, while independent riders use stronger Norte days, foil conditions outside the sandbar, and boat trips to Punta Mosquito. Beginners should use a school because the rigging/launch area is limited and kiting is zoned.

The scene

What riders come here for

freerideflat waterbeginner lessonsfoilwarm-water island tripboat-access sessions

Who it suitsbeginner

An island kite scene built on schools and boat trips rather than a busy launch. The spots themselves stay quiet. Holbox does not, because in the dry months with wind it is a popular island stop in its own right.

Launch and rules

three ways on to the water, and what each one asks of you

With a school or a boat

3 schools name this spot

See who they are

On your own

Room to launch: tight

Read the access rules

Somewhere else

1 spot nearby

El Cuyo31 km

The one spot within 40 km is under Nearby

Rescue

School-run only. The island schools teach from boats and keep their own craft for pick-ups, and both Punta Mosquito and the outer sandbars at El Bajo/Punta Caracol are boat-access, so the boat is the rescue. No lifeguard service covers the kite zones.

911 is the national emergency number in Mexico and reaches medical and rescue dispatch from any phone.

Launch

At Las Nubes and Kite Beach the dry sand for rigging is limited, and you launch and land inside the lagoon.The kite zone begins north and east of Hotel Las Nubes; the hotel-front beaches south of it are restricted or prohibited.Punta Mosquito trips land on a boat-access beach, where the boat and its anchor line are what you keep away from.

Hazards riders report 12 reported

Wind

offshore or side-off wind possible depending on which side of the island and wind direction is used
hurricane/tropical storm season risk in summer/autumn was not locally quantified for kiting

Crowds and zones

boat/ferry traffic near town
boat-tour traffic near the kite areas and boat/anchor lines on Punta Mosquito trips

Bottom

shallow sandbars
sandbar at Las Nubes, especially for foilers

Waves and currents

sandy-colored stones and mangrove roots on the beach that may be hidden as sand and tide shift
current strengthening near the point at Punta Mosquito

Protected areas and rules

protected bird area at Punta Mosquito point
turtle nesting area at Punta Mosquito

Other

mangrove-lined stretches away from the open beach
limited beach rigging and launch/land area at Las Nubes

Rules & access

1 min read

2026: Holbox sits inside the Yum Balam protected area and kiting is confined to designated zones. Kiting is prohibited south of Hotel Las Nubes, in front of the island's hotels, and at Punta Coco and Isla Pasion; the usable Las Nubes zone runs from the hotel north and east along the beach.

Permits

2026: riders need the island bracelet, USD 10, valid one year, issued at Holbox Kiteboarding School or the mayor's office and handed over with a copy of the island's kite rules; an older figure of MXN 150 also circulates.

Protected areas

2026: Punta Mosquito is reached by boat only, its point is a protected bird area to be kept upwind of, and the beach is a turtle-nesting site. 2026: no municipal ordinance text is published, so the zoning is locally administered rather than formally documented.

Access rules drift faster than anything else we hold — check locally, and propose an edit if this has changed.

Schools that ride here

Rider tips

Talk to a school before your first session and buy the island bracelet: USD 10 in 2026, valid a year, handed over with a written copy of the kite rules.
At Las Nubes rig on what beach there is, then launch and land inside the lagoon; look at the sand first, because stones and mangrove roots hide in it as the tide shifts, and foilers should ask about the sandbar line before riding out.
If the forecast is E or SE, take the school boat to Punta Mosquito or go east to Playa Ensenada, 25 km of empty beach that works on anything from NW round to SE.
At Punta Mosquito stay upwind of the protected bird point and off the turtle-nesting beach; do not ride the point itself.
Time a winter trip to a Norte cycle rather than a single day, because the fronts come round every four or five days. Pack a shorty, or 3 mm if you feel the cold in a front.
Nobody watches this water. Ride with someone outside school hours, confirm the last ferry if you are arriving late, and keep a phone in a dry pouch for 911.

Getting there

Airport

Cancun International Airport (CUN)

Route

Road from Cancun and CUN to Chiquila, then the passenger ferry to Holbox.Holbox Express and 9 Hermanos alternate departures, running frequently through the day, and the adult one-way fare is around MXN 330 on the 2025/2026 timetables, with schedules and fares subject to change.Visitors do not bring cars, so it is walking, bikes, golf-cart taxis or boats once you land.

Transfer

about 150-180 minutes from Cancun airport to Holbox in normal conditions: roughly 2-2.5 hours by road to Chiquila plus about 25 minutes ferry and local transfer time

Cost level

medium-high by Mexico kite-trip standards; ferry and island transfers add cost, while accommodation ranges from hostels to boutique beachfront hotels

Staying

Holbox town and the north beach hotel strip have hostels, guesthouses and boutique hotels, including Casa Las Tortugas and Hostel Tribu; Las Nubes is the landmark at the kite-zone edge rather than a kite school base.

No-wind days

SUP, wakeboarding/boat foil with Holbox Kiteboarding School, kayak/mangrove tours, fishing, birdwatching, bioluminescence trips, Cabo Catoche snorkeling, three-island boat trips, and regulated whale-shark tours from late May to mid-September

Photos

FAQ

Is Las Nubes suitable for beginners?

Yes. Las Nubes has shallow, flat lagoon water behind a sandbar and is used by local schools, though the rigging area is limited.

When is the best time to kitesurf at Holbox?

The main windy season runs November to May, with the strongest wind during winter northerly fronts and more regular easterlies from February onward.

Are there rules for kiting at Holbox?

Kitesurfing is restricted to designated zones such as Las Nubes; a one-year local permit is required, quoted at around 10 US dollars in 2026 through a kite school or the mayor's office.

What is the wind like at Holbox?

Wind runs about 12-25 knots, from north to northeast in winter fronts and more northeast to east from late winter into spring.

What are the main hazards at Las Nubes?

Hazards include a shallow sandbar, nearby mangrove-lined stretches, and boat and ferry traffic near town.

The bigger pictureEverything about Holbox

Last updated: August 2026