cmb57

Hi,

I'm a female in my mid-20s traveling alone and am planning to go to Cancun for about a week in January. Does anyone know of any good hostels, and how far they are from the beach?

Also, what's PDC like? I know almost nothing about it. Is it easy to get to from Cancun? Which would you recommend?

I'm interested in beaches, watersports, adventure sports, meeting other 20something travelers...

norbrad393

Hostles in Cancun? Are there hostels in Miami Beach? Sorry, don't mean to be facicious. Actually there may be a hostel in Cancun City. but never heard of one. There is a nice one on Isla Mujeres. You might like it being a female traveling alone--very quiet, laid back, plaesant. We are there every year. From in town to the beach is a few minutes walk. There is a hostel--don't know of an address, seems nice enough, has restaurant, just ask around. To get to Isla Mujeres, just take a cab to Puerto Juarez (northern suburb) and take the boat $3.50 US pp--leaves every half hour--about a 20 min. ride. From the boat dock, walk two blocks east, hang a left, walk two blocks, take a right one block--it is a white building, rather modern. To me CC is busy, expensive, hectic, but that might just be me. Once yhou get a feel for IM, you won't want to leave. Used to be a small Mayan fishing village.

What is PDC like?-not Cancun, but it is changing fast. Fastest growing resort in the world. It is fun. Ranges all the way from funky to posh. Main street, one block from ocean is a pedestrian mall w. many shops, restaurants, etc. Food is getting expensive. There is a full range of hotels from cheap to moderate, to expensive. The beach is better at IM. Little tip. If you go to PdC, go south of the pier--the beach is much better. Have to walk around a hotel being remodelled to get there. Just few minutes walk, but worth it. Check IM and PdC on Google--many sites.
I you got to IM instead of CC, get a ticket for the "collectivo" ($12.00us) and tell them you want to go to Puerto Juarez. Taxi will take you to the boat terminal.

Good luck,
Norm

twoinluv

I saw a hostel in PDC last January. It was extremely small. And I hate to be cryptic, but this is the best explanation I can give as to it's location. It was on Avenida 10 (just 2 blocks off of the ocean) about 3 - 6 blocks north of the pier. That pretty much sends you on a wild goosechase. But at least it lets you know there was one there at one time so there might be another if that one is not around.

suze

Downtown Cancun offers some simple inexpensive hotels. I highly recommend reading &/or posting at www.lonelyplanet.com on the Mexico Branch of The Thorn Tree. Lots of young, budget travelers there with collective information better to answer your question than here.

For what you describe Isla Mujeres or Playa del Carmen sound more like it than Cancun proper.

Ryberg

I enjoyed reading the summary of Playa by norbrad393, in general. Not an easy task to sum up a place, especially one as diverse as this one.

However, one point is well out of date now:

"If you go to PdC, go south of the pier--the beach is much better. Have to walk around a hotel being remodelled to get there. Just few minutes walk, but worth it."

On the contrary, the beach is better these days north of the pier (assuming you mean the old pier, here) and has been so since Hurricane Ivan passed through and basically reversed what were the fortunes at that particular moment by throwing up huge amounts of sand (up to 5 feet, like snow in drifts) on the northern half of the stretch between the two piers, most of it taken from the southern half or from south of the old pier.

This is another example of why you can't talk about which particular area of the beach is the best or describe the beach in a particular area as if it's more or less in the same condition. People who were here just a few months ago and have come back say they cannot believe how different the very same parts of the beach look now as opposed to then.

Steve

norbrad393

Steve,

RE: Playa beach. We just got back three weeks or so ago. Just south of the main pier at the old Continental Plaza Playacar Hotel,now being redone as an AI, there is no beach at all!--water comes right up to the wall. But a bit farther south around the little rocky point, we found it to be fine. not many people, beach in good shape.

Norm

Ryberg

" Just south of the main pier at the old Continental Plaza Playacar Hotel,now being redone as an AI, there is no beach at all!--water comes right up to the wall."

That's what I mean, yes. That's why I thought it was funny when you said that south of the pier the beach was much better! I guess you meant a good deal farther south.

Steve

norbrad393

Steve,

Well, two-hundred yards or so. Doesn't seem to me that that is that far. But like a say you have to go through the shopping coplex just south of the pier and the road along the old
Continental and a bit farther--on your right is a small cluster of Mayan Temples (Xaman Ha)--one of three along that road. To the left is access to the beach. From the road that the pier is on to the beach is probably 4 or 5 minutes.

Norm

Ryberg

Guess that would about cover it, but it's interesting because some people I know who own condos immediately south of Fisherman's, which is to say about in the range you're talking about, are complaining about the lack of beach in that area and asking when we're going to "give it back" (since Ivan deposited a lot here). I thought the effect would have gone down farther into the Playacar resorts, based on that, but I haven't been down there to see for myself.

I don't have much truck with Playacar...

Steve

cdt

Although I can't give a specific recommendation, I think someone looking for budget accommodations would be much better off in Playa del Carmen - where there are some very inexpensive hotels a few blocks from the beach - than in Cancun.