Cancun Travel Information - Travel Tips

A vacation in Cancun, Mexico, is popular with tourists because of its luxurious hotels, convenient location and numerous things to do.

A Cancun vacation is convenient because the city is within easy reach for most U.S. citizens. Flight times are about 1.5 hours from Miami and about four hours from Chicago.

Cancun is the second most popular place to visit in the Caribbean region. As a result, airlines offer a large number of flights from airports in the U.S. That makes it easy to schedule a flight, and it also keeps airline tickets less expensive than other Caribbean destinations that are farther away and less popular.

Visitors will find that Cancun is actually a lengthy strip of land surrounding Nichupte Lagoon. Hotels and restaurants are lined up closely together on the main road -- Kukulkan Boulevard -- with many shops and restaurants on the lagoon side and the hotels facing the ocean. One added advantage for tourists is an inexpensive public bus system with buses that run along the boulevard during both day and night.

Like most destinations in the Caribbean region, Canun has a heavy emphasis on water sports including scuba diving, snorkeling and boating. Families swim with dolphins at Isla Mujeres. Other popular attractions includ the huge Mayan ruins at Chichén-Itzá, plus other ruins at Calakmul, Palenque, Tulum and Uxmal.

Anyone thinking about a Caribbean trip will find that Cancun has numerous large hotels, plenty of shopping, restaurants and nightlife, and a wide variety of outdoor activities.


Cancun Island off the Yuchatan Peninsula of Mexico is the place to go in one condensed location for beaches, nightlife, excursions to Mayan ruins and the enclosed lagoon that provides a myriad of watersports opportunities.

The hotel strip is 19 miles long, and visitors can eat at more than 500 restaurants. The intense concentration of hotels on such a small area creates numerous things to do.

It is a nicely packaged vacation like a visit to the many all-inclusives of Dominican Republic. Go to Cancun for simple relaxation with the potential to keep as active as you want. It is at the opposite end of the spectrum with an island such as St. Kitts, where tourists go almost entirely for relaxation.

Cancun is 10th in total tourism.


Unique attractions include the nearby Mayan ruins of Calakmul, Chichén-Itzá, Palenque, Tulum and Uxmal. Cozumel lies about 40 miles to the south and provides additional things to do, especially diving and snorkeling. (Our Cozumel snorkeling experience was fairly routine compared to places such as St. Thomas, although others may do better.) Noteworthy regular attractions include the seemingly endless beaches and the numerous watersports activities.


U.S. and Canadian tourists require a passport. U.S. citizens also can show a birth certificate plus driver's license.

Cancun is not a cruise destination because it does not have a cruise port, but it certainly is a stopover destination. Only Dominican Republic and Jamaica are more popular.

It is a unique in that the most popular month is July followed by December and then June.. The summer popularity flies in the face of the summertime hurricane threat. Visting is made even easier by the high number of flights from the states and the fact that it is only 1.5 hours from Miami and four hours from Chicago.


Weather is a factor in determining the ideal time to vacation in Cancun. Rainfall is lightest in March through June when the daytime temperatures average from the mid-80s to low-90s Fahrenheit. September and October have far fewer visitors when about nine inches of rain falls each month during the annual Caribbean hurricane season.

The average year-round temperature is 80 degrees. Some research indictates that Cancun gets touched or hit by a hurricane on average about once every two to three years. Most recently, tourists were forced to flee the island in August 2007 because of Hurricane Dean.


Currency is the Mexican Peso, but U.S. currency and most major credit cards are widely accepted. Tipping is generally 10-15 percent with 15 percent being more common. The hotel room tax is 12 percent, and the departure tax is $17.


The official language is Spanish, but English is widely spoken. The low-lying island located in the state of Quintana Roo is about 16 miles long and about a half mile wide. The longest barrier reef in the Americas is just offshore and helps create a unique L-shaped lagoon. Cancun Island connects to the mainland city of Cancun by a causeway.

• Mexico Tourism Board
  
• Mexican Government Tourism Office
  
• Caribbean Tourism Organization
  
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration