Cancun

A City That Was Chosen, Not Grown

In 1970 the Mexican government ran an analysis to find the best possible site for a purpose built resort city and the answer came back as a fishing settlement of a few hundred people on the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo. Everything you see was built after that. Understanding that Cancun is planned infrastructure rather than an organic place explains most of what people either love or dislike about it: the Hotel Zone is a fourteen mile barrier island with hotels on both sides, the water is genuinely extraordinary, and there is no old town underneath it because there was never anything there to begin with.

The planning decision: the sandbar, the north, or the south

The Hotel Zone itself is the original strip, dense, convenient and covering every price point, with the beach on the Caribbean side and the lagoon behind. North of it, Costa Mujeres is the newer development, quieter, with more space per property and a shoreline partly sheltered by Isla Mujeres. South, Playa del Carmen and above all Mayakoba are where the best hotels on this coast actually sit, roughly forty five minutes to an hour from the airport. Many trips that are booked as Cancun should be booked as Mayakoba or Costa Mujeres, with Cancun as the airport rather than the address.

Season, weather and seaweed

December through April is the dry season, with reliable sun and the lowest sargassum. May through October brings the seaweed to the east facing beaches, variable in severity and impossible to guarantee against, which matters because most of the Hotel Zone faces east. Isla Mujeres and the west facing shallows are far less affected, which is one reason a day there is on almost every itinerary. Hurricane season runs June through November and peaks from August into October. Spring break, roughly March, changes the character of parts of the Hotel Zone entirely and is worth planning around unless it is the reason you are coming.

Where to base, and how far things are

Cancun International is the busiest airport in Mexico and the best connected in the Caribbean basin, with short direct flights from most of the United States and good European service. The Hotel Zone is fifteen to thirty minutes from it. Mayakoba and Playa del Carmen are forty five minutes to an hour south, Tulum around ninety minutes. Chichen Itza is about two and a half hours inland, and Ek Balam, far quieter and in some ways more rewarding, a little beyond it. Valladolid, a colonial town on the way, turns that drive into a day rather than an endurance test.

Stay strategy

Nizuc occupies its own peninsula at the southern end of the Hotel Zone with two beaches and the most privacy available on the strip. Waldorf Astoria Cancun sits up at Costa Mujeres and is the newest serious property on this coast. Grand Fiesta Americana Coral Beach holds the best position in the Hotel Zone proper. South at Mayakoba, Rosewood and Banyan Tree sit in a lagoon and mangrove development that is a completely different proposition from a beachfront tower, and for most travellers reading this it is the better answer. The all inclusive category here runs from genuinely excellent to genuinely poor with very little in between, so the specific property matters far more than the brand.

When to begin

Six months for the winter season, and nine to twelve for Christmas, New Year and Easter, which sell out completely. Four months for the shoulder. Chichen Itza is best done privately and early, before the coaches and the heat, and the good guides are booked in advance. If a group is travelling, note that the large resorts hold group inventory differently and it is worth asking about that directly rather than booking rooms individually.

Four experiences worth building the days around

• A day at Isla Mujeres, thirty minutes by ferry, where the water on the west side is calm, clear and free of the seaweed problem.
• Chichen Itza at opening with a private guide, or Ek Balam instead if you would rather climb the pyramid and share it with almost nobody.
• A cenote inland, which is the thing most visitors to this coast never do and the thing they talk about afterwards.
• The MUSA underwater sculpture museum by snorkel or dive, which is genuinely strange and worth the morning.

Who this trip suits

Cancun suits families and groups better than almost anywhere in the Caribbean, because the flights are short, the infrastructure is deep and the price range is enormous. It suits short breaks from the eastern United States. And it is the practical gateway for anyone building a longer Yucatan route through the Riviera Maya and Tulum.

When another plan may fit better

If you want boutique, design and quiet, this is the wrong end of the coast and Tulum or Mayakoba are the trip. If you want a Caribbean island with its own culture, Anguilla or St Barths are a different world. And if the seaweed risk is unacceptable in summer, the Pacific coast at Punta Mita does not have it.

Plan it with one accountable advisor

Tell us who is travelling and what the week is for, and we will tell you honestly whether you should stay in Cancun at all or use it as the airport for somewhere better. Our luxury leisure travel planning covers the coast end to end, and our group travel planning handles multi family weeks.