Tortuga Bay Beach — Attraction in Parroquia Bella Vista

A couple of things to bear in mind.

Don't bother with a taxi. From the pier (El Malecon) it takes about 10 minutes to walk to the entrance steps, where you need to sign in, the it's a 1.5 mile or 2.5km walk which will take you upwards of 30-40 minutes to get to the beach. If you're travelling with kids or struggle to walk great distances, it's best instead to take a water taxi from the main pier for approximately $10

Take water, snacks, etc and bags to take your trash with you when you leave... There's nothing there so you'll need to look after yourself food and drink wise and make sure you look after the beach/wildlife.

You're probably not going to be able to swim on the main beach (there will be red flags up) and you probably won't see any turtles/tortoises at Tortuga Bay.

All that being said, Tortuga Bay is well worth a visit.

While you can't swim in the main beach, it's still a beautiful beach to look at and there's plenty of wildlife to be seen. From the walk where you'll spot lizards, finches and mockingbirds. On the beach you'll see iguanas, crabs, pelicans and other birds.

For swimming, if you walk the length of the beach you'll see signs for Playa Mansa, which is a peaceful lagoon. Bring your snorkeling gear and you may get lucky spotting marine life in the water beyond...

We took a scenic 45-minute hike from where we were staying, and the path was smooth and easy to follow. The walk was well worth it, as it opened up to a stunning beach with soft white sand and turquoise water. The first stretch of beach is gorgeous to admire, but it has strong riptides so swimming isn’t recommended. If you continue down a bit farther, you’ll reach a second beach where it’s safe to swim and snorkel, and there’s even a small stand for kayak rentals.

We rented snorkel gear for about $5 and saw wetsuit rentals ranging between $5–$10. The day we visited, the water had poor visibility, but it was still exciting to spot reef sharks gliding through the mangroves. With clearer conditions, this would be an incredible spot for snorkeling. Along the way, we spotted some sleepy sea lions stretched out on the sand, and a variety of other interesting birds. A blue-footed booby was even spotted. Even without perfect snorkeling conditions, the wildlife and scenery made this hike and beach visit...

Beautiful pristine white sand beach! It's about a 45 minute walk from town, alternatively you can buy a boat ticket ($10 each way per person). If you do this the boat will drop you off at another beach that is just a 5 minute walk through the trees to the real Tortuga Bay. The beach the boat drops you at is perfect for swimming, it's more of a lagoon than anything. The surf at Tortuga Bay can be rough, when we went they had red flags up not allowing anyone to swim because of the waves.

My favorite part of Tortuga Bay is if you come at low tide, walk all the way to the far end of the beach. There you'll find a very large tide pool (30ftx100ft). It's shallow, so the sun warms up the water nicely, and there were 3 or 4 baby sharks swimming around in it. Also, every 10-15 minutes a marine iguana would leave the rocks and swim through the lagoon and walk onto the beach. So you can be swimming with sharks and iguanas at...