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Cancun Trip Report

June 2002

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  • Tulum
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Cancun

beach

Cancun is a long stretch of white sand that is joined to the mainland by man-made bridges. Most people don't realize that it is actually an isthmus. 

Cancun has a full time resident count of about 300,000 people and houses about 25,000 hotel rooms.  Cancun is not a place to go for a quiet, restful, out of the way vacation. 

Cancun is a place to visit if you want beautiful Caribbean waters, lots of activities, and like to party into the evening.

Sunny Trip Reports Island Rating*

Click here for Explanation of Ratings

Accomodations

Snorkeling

Beaches

Dining

Activities

Shopping

Food Shopping

Friendliness

Cultural Experience

Value for Money

Would We Return

Hilton Cancun

When we arrived in Cancun we went to Avis to get our rental car. The Avis representative gave us a map and proceeded to tell us how to get to our hotel. (The Hilton) Before we knew it, he was telling us about the "Avis partners" on the island and how we could get our car for free. 

Yikes, the guy was selling us a timeshare presentation! Haven't been in Cancun for 15 minutes and we are already being pitched. We declined the offer and drove to the Hilton.

hilton cancun

hilton

Our room at the Hilton was awesome. We were put in the upgraded wing which included a balcony and breakfast every morning. 

The view shown to the left is looking south toward Punta Nizuc.

The Hilton room was great but their prices were a little steep. A 1.5L bottle of water was $6.40 USD. We thought that $6 a bottle was a little steep so we went to Sam's Club and bought an entire case for the week for just under $5. 

We ended the day by going to OK Maguey's for Brant's Entertainment Card gathering. We saved bunches of money throughout the week by using this 2 for 1 dining card. It was well worth the price.

hilton balcony

beach

Here is a shot of the beach in front of the Hilton. The shoreline is rather steep and the surf rough. 

Not near as calm and pretty as Playa del Carmen or Isla Mujeras.

The pool at the Hilton was very nice. We spent an entire day hanging out at the pool and catching up on some reading.

The horizon pool was a nice touch. Overall we like the Hilton but probably will not return. 

The Cancun "strip" of hotels was too commercial for us. We prefer smaller condos.

Cancun General Information

Transportation

If you are going to just hang out in Cancun then you will not need a rental car. There are buses that cruise up and down "hotel row" every 15 minutes or so. But if you get a car you'll have freedom to explore outside of Cancun proper.

hard rock cafe

Eating

We tried to eat at small "local" type places whenever we could. We never became ill and the food was very good almost everywhere we went. Cancun proper has everything from chain restaurants to small locally owned places.\

The picture to the left shows our meal at La Ruina in Playa del Carmen.

la runia

Tulum

We arrived at Tulum at about 9:00 AM which was well ahead of the crowds. Tulum is a very picturesque place. 

It was very hot and humid and there were mosquitoes everywhere so make sure you spray yourself before making the hike.

tulum

The drive down took about one and a half hours. We did not take a tour. Instead, we made the walk from the parking lot to the main gate. The walk was about 1/4 of a mile.

Get there early because it gets very hot.

As you can see from the picture, the ruins aren't enormous in height.

tulum lizard

We saw numerous iguanas. This one looked like he was posing for us.

Snorkeling at Yal-Ku

We now have an update to this report. Click here.

Yal-Ku is a freshwater/saltwater lagoon with crystal clear water that is a real experience to snorkel. We didn't know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised by the experience. 

The cost is only $6 which includes parking and bathroom facilities. Even though this was not a fantastic snorkeling experience we thought this was one of the highlights of the trip. We had never snorkeled a lagoon.

yal ku sign

You enter the water in a very protected arm of the lagoon.

There was a small tour group in the lagoon when we arrived. There are steps built into the bank for easy entry and exit into the water.

Turtles! Although we didn't see any, the tour group saw a few turtles out toward the ocean.

To find Yal-Ku take the Akumal exit. When you get to the white arch, shown above, drive through the arch and go left. Follow the road past hotels and condos and you should run directly into Yal-Ku.

akumal arch