Hidden Beach rules 2026-27

Which days is the Hidden Beach open in the 2026-27 season?

Wednesday to Sunday, 08:00 to 17:00. The rest of the park opens Tuesday to Sunday, 08:00 to 18:00, and everything is closed on Mondays.

These are the hours on CONANP's official page for the Parque Nacional Islas Marietas, the federal park authority. The gap between the two schedules matters. A Tuesday tour can snorkel and land at Playa La Nopalera, but it cannot take you into the crater. If the Hidden Beach is the reason you are going, book Wednesday to Sunday.

The 17:00 cut-off is earlier than it looks. The swim needs low tide and a calm sea, and operators plan their slots around both. A late departure from Puerto Vallarta may simply run out of window.

Has anything changed at the Hidden Beach in 2025 or 2026?

Not on the beach itself. CONANP's page lists the same hours, rules and fee, with no closure notice, as of 21 October 2026. The changes that touch visitors are elsewhere: fees and the whale-season zones.

We looked for closures, temporary resguardo periods and new rules on the CONANP site and in the Mexican press for 2025 and 2026, and found none for the Hidden Beach. The rule set in force is the one that came with the 2016 reopening. The beach can still shut at short notice for swell, a storm or a port closure, and some operators note that Playa La Nopalera is sometimes placed off limits too.

Two things did move. A reform of the federal fees law in force from 1 January 2025 raised entry charges at federal parks across Mexico, and the Marietas fee now sits at 125 pesos per person per day. Our post on the park fee and the bracelet covers who pays what. And every winter SEMARNAT closes a 1.5 km ring around the islands to whale watching while mothers and calves are in the bay, explained in our whale season post.

How many people can visit the Hidden Beach a day, and for how long?

116 people a day, in groups of about 15. Operators give 15 to 20 minutes on the sand, inside a visit of roughly half an hour.

The 116 figure comes from a carrying-capacity study by the University of Guadalajara and is the cap CONANP applied when the beach reopened. Local press at the time, such as PV Angels in August 2016, reported groups of up to 15 and visits capped at 30 minutes. That half hour includes the swim in and out.

Only operators holding a CONANP permit may land guests in the crater. Plenty of reputable boats do not have one, and their tours go to Playa La Nopalera instead. That is why two tours at a similar price can promise very different days. Check the inclusions for the words Hidden Beach, Playa del Amor or Playa Escondida, and expect a weather clause even when a listing says the swim is guaranteed. The listing for the Hidden Beach tour from Nuevo Vallarta promises 15 to 20 minutes on the beach.

A full day from Nuevo Vallarta built around the crater: the tunnel swim in a life jacket, then snorkelling, breakfast and a light lunch.

★ 4.6 · 6.5 hours · from $168

Explore the Hidden Beach tour from Nuevo Vallarta → Tour details

What can you wear and bring into the Hidden Beach?

A life jacket in the water is mandatory, a helmet is standard for the tunnel, and fins stay on the boat. Sunscreen is the rule people get wrong.

CONANP's own list is short: follow the guides and rangers, wear a life jacket in the water, no alcohol, no litter, no single-use plastic, no animals in or out, eco-friendly sunscreen applied at least 30 minutes before you get in, and no footwear for water or beach activities. Operators then add their own layer. Vallarta Adventures bans every sunscreen inside the crater, biodegradable or not, and suggests a UV rash guard instead.

Bring a small waterproof camera on a strap or mount. Drones, selfie sticks and big cameras are out with most operators, and you will need both hands for the swim.

What are the age limits for the Hidden Beach swim?

There is no single park-wide age rule. Operators set their own, usually 10 or 12 at the low end and 60 to 70 at the top.

The swim is short but it is open water, through a tunnel, against whatever the swell is doing. Each operator draws its own line, and some are stricter than others. Pregnant guests, non-swimmers and people with heart, back or neck problems are turned away by the operators below. One guest on the Nuevo Vallarta tour put it plainly: "don't take the swim lightly."

Travelling with younger kids? Our guide to the Marietas with kids covers the tours without the tunnel.

What changed at the Marietas after the 2016 closure?

Almost everything. CONANP closed the islands on 9 May 2016 after visitor numbers exploded, and reopened them later that summer with the daily cap, landing days and short visits still in force today.

The numbers explain it. The park counted about 27,500 visitors in 2012 and 127,372 in 2015, with days of more than 2,500 people on a beach rated for 116. Boat anchors were breaking coral around the islands. The reopening brought the cap, two closed days a week for the beach, a ban on fins and diving inside, and permits for the operators allowed to land.

Ten years on, the rules are why the beach still looks like the photos. The trade-off is that seats are scarce, and on busy dates the permitted tours fill first. Our Hidden Beach guide goes through the swim step by step.

Frequently asked questions