Cancún, Mexico

Evergreen city guide with quick facts, travel, business, and culture.

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Overview

Cancún is Mexico's Caribbean resort capital on the north-eastern tip of the Yucatán Peninsula — a long barrier island of white sand and turquoise water (the Zona Hotelera) backed by a real Mexican city, and the gateway to the Riviera Maya, the Maya ruins and the world's second-largest barrier reef.

Caribbean Beaches

The white sand and turquoise water of the Hotel Zone, from billboard-famous Playa Delfines to the calm northern bays.

Maya Ruins & Cenotes

Day trips to Tulum, Cobá and Chichén Itzá, the in-city El Rey ruin, and swimming in the jungle cenotes.

Reef & Islands

Snorkelling and diving the Mesoamerican reef and MUSA, and ferries to Isla Mujeres, Cozumel and Holbox.

Food & Nightlife

Yucatecan food downtown — cochinita pibil, marquesitas — and the famous clubs and beach bars of the Hotel Zone.
Travel Overview

Cancún sits at the north-eastern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, where the Caribbean meets the Gulf of Mexico, and it is the engine of Mexican beach tourism — the busiest resort in the country and one of the most-visited in the Americas. It has two faces. The famous one is the Zona Hotelera (Hotel Zone), a 22-kilometre barrier island shaped like a number seven, lined with big resorts, beach clubs, malls and nightclubs along a ribbon of powder-white sand and astonishing turquoise-to-deep-blue Caribbean water, with the calm Nichupté lagoon on its inner side. The other is the everyday Mexican city downtown (El Centro), where most locals live and where the markets, taquerías and more affordable hotels are. Purpose-built from the 1970s on what was almost empty coast, Cancún is unashamedly a resort, but it is also the perfect base for the wider region: the Riviera Maya unfurls south through Playa del Carmen and the cliff-top Maya ruins and beaches of Tulum; the great inland Maya cities of Chichén Itzá and Cobá and the colonial towns of Yucatán are within day-trip reach; and the Caribbean itself offers the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef — the second-longest in the world — for snorkelling and diving, the underwater sculpture museum (MUSA), cave-and-cenote swimming in the jungle, and the islands of Isla Mujeres and Cozumel a short ferry away. Eco-and-archaeology parks like Xcaret and Xel-Há, the laid-back Isla Holbox to the north, and a famous nightlife round out the offer. The climate is hot and tropical; the dry season from November to April is the best time, while summer and autumn are hotter and wetter and fall within the Atlantic hurricane season, and drifting sargassum seaweed can affect the beaches at times.

Discover Cancún

Cancún's reason for being is its beaches, and they are genuinely spectacular: fine, cool, white coral sand that never burns the feet, and water in dazzling bands of turquoise, jade and deep blue. The Zona Hotelera runs for 22 kilometres along a thin barrier island between the open Caribbean and the Nichupté lagoon, lined end to end with resorts, beach clubs, shopping malls and restaurants. Many beaches along it are public (all Mexican beaches are by law), with access points such as Playa Delfines — the big, open, billboard-famous beach with the colourful 'CANCÚN' letters and a small Maya ruin (El Rey) nearby — and the calmer, family-friendly bays of the northern stretch like Playa Caracol and Playa Tortugas, where the water is shallow and sheltered. The lagoon side is the place for sunsets, marina trips, jet-skis and the jungle tour through the mangroves. Beyond sunbathing, the Hotel Zone is the heart of Cancún's resort life — all-inclusive hotels, spas, golf, and the famous nightlife of the clubs at Punta Cancún. Whether you want to do nothing but lie on the sand or use the beach as a base for adventures, this is its stage.

Frequently asked questions

From the Maya kaan (snake) and kun (nest), usually rendered as "nest of snakes" — a nod to the wildlife of the lagoon and mangroves that once ringed the island. Until the early 1970s Cancún was a near-empty spit of sand with a handful of fishermen and jungle behind it, until Mexico's national tourism fund, FONATUR, picked it to build the country's first purpose-planned resort. That is why the Hotel Zone looks drawn with a ruler — it was, quite literally, designed from scratch.

It depends what you are after. The Hotel Zone is the 22-kilometre barrier island of big resorts, beach clubs and nightlife, right on the Caribbean sand — easy if you want the beach on your doorstep. Downtown (El Centro), a short bus or taxi ride inland, is the real working city: markets, taquerías and far better-value hotels and guesthouses at local prices. One useful point — by law every beach in Mexico is public, so even staying downtown you can use the Hotel Zone's public access points, such as the landmark Playa Delfines.

It is one of the Caribbean's most unusual sights: the Underwater Museum of Art, with more than 500 life-size sculptures sunk into the water between Punta Cancún, Punta Nizuc and Isla Mujeres. Opened in 2010, it began as a conservation project — the statues become artificial reef, drawing coral and easing the pressure on the natural reefs. You visit by diving the deeper Manchones gallery or by snorkel and glass-bottom boat at the shallower Punta Nizuc, always with authorised operators.

Diplomatic missions in Cancún

1 embassy based in this city, grouped by region.