Los Arcos: A National Marine Park, a Cliff Jump and a Glow Nobody Can Promise
8 min read
For most people the answer is the 5 Islands of Los Arcos boat tour with snorkelling: €42.76 per person, 4.7 stars from 401 reviews, three and a half hours, and by a wide margin the most-reviewed trip out to these rocks. If you came for the cliff jump, book the Mismaloya snorkelling, cliff jumping and beach tour instead — €38.66, 4.9 stars from 44 reviews, leaving from Mismaloya rather than the city marina. And if you want the bioluminescence, the evening boats are a different trip again, with one variable you can check yourself before you pay: the moon.
See dates and prices for the 5 Islands of Los Arcos boat tour
The rocks look like a photo opportunity from the boat. What they are is a legal designation, and that is the reason there is anything worth putting your face in the water for.
What is actually out there
Five granite islets, twelve kilometres south of Puerto Vallarta, off the mouth of Mismaloya. The two largest stand 43 to 54 metres above the water; the biggest covers around 40,000 square metres. Sea arches run through them at the waterline – some navigable by small boat, some not – and that is where the name comes from.
The water around them is unusually deep for a bay this size. Published figures put it at up to 480 metres, possibly the deepest point in Banderas Bay, which is why a snorkelling stop of a few metres’ depth sits within sight of something that drops away entirely.
The dates that made the difference
Los Arcos was declared a refuge zone for the protection of marine flora and fauna by federal decree published on 28 July 1975, and reclassified as a national marine park in 1984.
The practical consequence is short: fishing is prohibited there. That single rule, kept for half a century, is the whole explanation for why a snorkeller sees king angelfish, giant damselfish, octopus and the occasional seahorse a quarter of an hour from a city of a quarter of a million people. It is not luck and it is not feeding. It is a fifty-year-old ban.
Above the surface the rocks carry ospreys, pelicans, cormorants and blue-footed boobies. Between December and March, humpbacks, dolphins and occasionally orcas pass through the same water on their own business – which is a different trip with different legal rules and a minimum distance attached to it.
Five Los Arcos trips compared
| Trip | Duration | From | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Islands of Los Arcos boat tour with snorkelling | 3h 30m | €42.76 | 4.7 from 401 reviews | Most first-time visitors, who want the fish and nothing complicated |
| Mismaloya: snorkelling, cliff jumping and beach tour | 2.5 hours | €38.66 | 4.9 from 44 reviews | Anyone who came for the jump, and people staying in the south of the bay |
| Bioluminescence and sunset boat tour to Los Arcos | 2.5 hours | €38.46 | 4.8 from 116 reviews | Couples, and anyone who would rather be out after dark than at midday |
| Los Arcos bioluminescent waters kayak and cave tour | 3 hours | €81.73 | 4.8 from 103 reviews | Paddlers who would rather be in the water than on a deck |
| Private boat tour to Los Arcos | 4 hours | €418.27 per group of up to 3 | 5 from 14 reviews | A family or three friends who want the boat to themselves |
The wider Los Arcos page carries 24 trips from €12.83, median €79.17, and the snorkelling category runs to 32 from €32.96 — including further evening departures, several of them also leaving from Mismaloya. Four shapes of day account for nearly all of them.
The daytime snorkelling run. The 5 Islands boat tour is the straightforward version: three and a half hours, the fish, and no decisions to make on the day. Its 401 reviews are more than the next three Los Arcos trips carry between them, which is the main reason it is the one to book if you have never snorkelled here.
The one with the cliff jump. The Mismaloya trip is the only one of the five built around the jump, and it is also the cheapest of the five. The jump is the part people book it for and also the part to ask about: the height, whether it runs on the day, and whether anyone is expected to do it are answers the operator has and a listing page does not. Nobody has to jump, and a trip where the guide treats that as negotiable is the wrong trip.
Check availability for the Mismaloya snorkelling and cliff jumping tour
The evening one. The bioluminescence and sunset boat tour is the most-reviewed of the evening departures at €38.66 and 4.8 stars from 116 reviews: sunset on the way out, the glow on the way back, two and a half hours in total.
See dates and prices for the bioluminescence and sunset boat tour
On the water rather than in a boat. The bioluminescent waters kayak and cave tour is €81.73 at 4.8 stars from 103 reviews – roughly double the price of the evening boats, for a paddle rather than a deck, and the only one of the five that takes you into a cave.
Check availability for the bioluminescent waters kayak and cave tour
The glow: check the moon before you check the reviews
The light comes from dinoflagellates – single-celled organisms that flash when the water around them is disturbed. A paddle stroke, a hand pulled through the surface, a fish moving off. It is real, it happens here, and the darker, less built-up stretches of the bay around Los Arcos are where it shows best.
It is also the single most oversold thing on this coast.
What it depends on is plankton concentration, water conditions and how much moonlight is falling on the sea. Around a new moon, a faint glow is visible. On a clear night at full moon, the same water with the same plankton in it will show you very little, because your eyes are competing with the sky.
That is a calendar, not a lottery, and it is the one variable you can check yourself before you book. Every operator selling an evening trip is selling the same water; none of them controls the moon, and any page that guarantees the glow is guaranteeing something outside its power.
The honest version: on the right night it is remarkable, on the wrong night you have had a sunset boat trip, and a sunset boat trip in Banderas Bay is not a bad evening. Book it that way round and you will not be disappointed either way.
Getting to Mismaloya without a tour
Mismaloya is on the city bus network. The orange-and-white C01 leaves from the corner of Basilio Badillo and Constitución in the Zona Romántica, and the urban fare rose from 10 to 11 pesos on 1 April 2026 – older pages still quote the ten.
That gets you to the beach, a bar, and a view of the islets. It does not get you to them: Los Arcos sits offshore and the snorkelling is done from a boat or a kayak. Walking down to Mismaloya and arranging something at the beach is a real option; turning up expecting to swim out is not.
What to expect, stated plainly
A snorkelling stop here is shallow, short and busy with fish, in water that is usually clear and occasionally is not. Visibility moves with swell and rain, and no operator can promise you a given day. The birds are on the rocks year-round. The whales are seasonal and belong to a different set of rules.
The one thing you can count on is the reason the place works at all, and it is written into a decree from 1975.
Our recommendation
For most people it is the 5 Islands of Los Arcos boat tour with snorkelling at €42.76 — three and a half hours, 4.7 stars from 401 reviews, more than any other trip out here, and the fish that the 1975 decree is responsible for. It is the wrong choice if you want the cliff jump or the glow: it includes neither.
If the jump is why you are reading this, the Mismaloya snorkelling, cliff jumping and beach tour at €38.66 is the cheapest of the five and carries 4.9 stars — on 44 reviews rather than 391, so that figure rests on far fewer voices. If you are nervous about heights or about open water, this is the trip to ask questions about before you book, not the one to book and hope.
For the bioluminescence, the bioluminescence and sunset boat tour at €38.46 is both the cheapest and the most-reviewed of the bioluminescence trips on offer here — book it around a new moon, not a full one. If you would rather paddle than sit, the bioluminescent waters kayak and cave tour at €81.73 is twice the money and the better evening for anyone who gets restless on a deck. And a private boat to Los Arcos covers up to three people for €418.27, and only makes sense if having the boat to yourselves matters more than the money — a seat on the shared 5 Islands tour costs €42.76.
If you would rather reach the water on foot, the hidden beaches walk south of town ends at snorkelling of its own. With children along, the turtle release and what else works with kids is the calmer evening. And for the sunset without the swim, sunset cruises number 10 from €38.46.
