Playa del Amor
Marietas · Mexico · the Pacific Ocean
Hidden Coves · pocket beach · golden sand · sheltered bay · wild
A beach inside a collapsed crater, entered by swimming through a tunnel, with a cap of 116 visitors a day.
- Booking required to enter
Playa del Amor — usually called Hidden Beach — is on Isla Redonda in the Islas Marietas, an uninhabited archipelago off Nayarit in the Mexican Pacific, about an hour by boat from Puerto Vallarta. The beach sits at the bottom of a circular hole in the island, open to the sky, connected to the sea by a short tunnel.
The hole is probably man-made. The islands were used for military bombing practice in the early twentieth century, and the prevailing explanation is that the crater was blasted. Jacques Cousteau campaigned for their protection in the 1960s and they became a national park in 2005.
Its recent history is the reason it matters here. By 2015 the site was taking thousands of visitors a week; coral cover in the surrounding waters fell measurably and the park closed the beach entirely in 2016. It reopened in 2017 under a hard regime: a maximum of 116 visitors per day, in timed groups of fifteen, for thirty minutes each, with life jackets, no fins, no sunscreen, and access only through the tunnel by swimming or paddling at the right tide. Licensed operators hold the permits and they are limited. Trips normally include snorkelling around the islands and a stop at Playa Nopalera, the open beach on the same island, which requires no permit and has none of the constraints.
The beach itself is a small crescent of golden sand under vertical walls with the sky overhead. The water in the tunnel is shallow and the passage is low — at high tide it closes entirely, which is why trips run to a tidal schedule.
A bomb crater with a beach in it, reached by swimming through a tunnel at low tide with a helmet on, for thirty minutes, with a hundred and fifteen other people spread across the day. Every one of those constraints was imposed after the coral was wrecked in 2016, and every one of them is why there is something to swim to.
Watch Playa del Amor
The record
- Setting
- Marietas · the Pacific Ocean
- Shore
- pocket beach · golden sand · 0.1 km
- Water
- sheltered bay
- Development
- wild
- Access
- boat only · restricted
- Best for
- Boat-Only · Snorkelling
- Season
- Year-round · Tide-dependentAccess depends on tide and sea state and is cancelled in swell. Humpback whales pass December to March.
- Position
- 20°42.000′ N · 105°34.200′ W
Current notices
- Access is capped at roughly a hundred and fifteen visitors a day through licensed operators, with life jackets and helmets required, no fins, and about thirty minutes ashore. Entry is by swimming a low tunnel and depends on tide and sea state. Checked 2026-09-07 · source
Questions
How do you visit Playa del Amor?
Only with a licensed operator holding a permit, booked ahead. A maximum of 116 visitors a day enter in timed groups of fifteen for thirty minutes each.
How do you get in?
By swimming or paddling through a short low tunnel from the sea, at the right state of tide. At high water the passage closes.
Why was it closed?
Visitor numbers reached thousands a week by 2015 and coral cover fell measurably. The park closed it in 2016 and reopened it in 2017 under the current cap.
What are the rules?
Life jackets required, no fins, no sunscreen, thirty minutes, and no touching anything. They are enforced by the operators and the park.
Is the hole natural?
Probably not. The islands were used for military bombing practice in the early twentieth century and the crater is generally attributed to that.
