Categories: Mexico

Destination Guide – Cancun

For Families there is almost no better place to go for a nice quiet and safe vacation than going to one of the many all inclusive resorts of Cancun Mexico. We went a while back and found many things to love about Cancun and the entire Mayan Riviera south of the city.

CANCUN is, if nothing else, proof of Mexico’s remarkable ability to get things done in a hurry if the political will is there. A fishing village of 120 people as recently as 1970, it’s now a city with a resident population of half a million and receives almost two million visitors a year.

To some extent the computer selected its location well. Cancún is marginally closer to Miami than it is to Mexico City, and if you come on an all-inclusive package tour the place has a lot to offer: striking modern hotels on white-sand beaches; high-class entertainment including parachuting, jet-skiing, scuba-diving and golf; a hectic nightlife; and from here much of the rest of the Yucatán is easily accessible.

For the independent traveller, though, it is expensive, and can be frustrating and unwelcoming. You may well be forced to spend the night here, but without pots of money the true pleasures of the place will elude you. There are, in effect, two quite separate parts to Cancun: the zona commercial downtown – the shopping and residential centre which, as it gets older, is becoming genuinely earthy – and the zona hotelera , a string of hotels and tourist amenities around “Cancún island”, actually a narrow strip of sandy land connected to the mainland at each end by causeways. It encloses a huge lagoon, so there’s water on both sides.

The Town and beaches of Cancun
There’s little to see in downtown Cancún. Most visitors head straight for the zona hotelera and the beaches. Though you’re free to go anywhere, and signposted public walkways lead down to the sea at regular intervals,…

To find out about Vacation Spots in Cancun

Cancun prices and availability

For a very indepth report about Cancun