Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Cancun "Must Do's"

My girlfriend and I just returned from our first trip to Cancun (and Mexico). We spent 4 nights/5 days. As far as trips are concerned, there are about seven pre-packaged tours (ruins, island, snorkeling, etc). First of all, we did not pre-purchase our tours, and consequently found that we were hit on by tour salesmen from all fronts, begining at the airport. If you speak Spanish, all prices were negotiable, and we reduced our tickets to less than 30% of the starting price (about $45 for two, down from $96 each). Second, I really enjoyed snorkeling/swimming, while she really enjoyed shopping. We managed to work it out in our first few days there. A word of warning - in return for our cheap tour prices, we had to sit thru a a 1.5 hour-long vacation/resort developer sales pitch. It wasn't terrible, but we did not purchase it on the spot. It turns out Tuesday was the cheaper (50% off price for Chichen-Itza) which their company bought out the Tuesdays it seems. Of the tours, we decided to see the ruins at Chichen-Itza, and to take the "Jungle Tour" snorkeling trip our last days in the few hours before our early evening flight back to the US. We went to Isla Muejres (Island of Women) on our own. Tours we did NOT SEE: (1) Tulum ruins and snorkeling at Xel-Ha. (2) Xcaret snorkeling/water show. (3) Playa de Carmen. We hope to go back and check those out someday, but we were very happy to do what we did. Chichen Itza - Ruins are a must see! This tour went from 8am to 8pm. It is a 2.5 hour bus trip one-way, with about 4 hours there, including buffet lunch. On the way back, you visit small Mayan/Mexican villages, and stop for handicraft shopping. You can still climb all over the largest pyramid. We decided to do this day-long trip early on, because we thought if one get traveller's diarrhea, this would be a hellish trip indeed. We strongly suggest to bring some bottled water along, as it can get hot in the mid-day sun. Luckily for us, it rained all day in Cancun, but was totally sunny inland at Chichen-Itza. "Jungle Tour" - This is a 3 hour tour using either jetski's or small motor boats (my girlfriend choose motor boat) to drive along the lagoon and coast to get to a secluded reef snorkel area. We spent about 45 minutes snorkelling, and it was a great half-day trip, perfect before out early evening flight out of Cancun. She loved driving the boat, since she doesn't have a driver's license. Definitely bring sunscreen. We decided to do La Isla Mujeres on our own. We took the slow Mexican local ferry boat (about $3.60 for two), rather than the tourist boat ($15 each) to get to/from the island. We went twice on our second and fourth day. There is excellent shopping there (which my girlfriend loved and found to be the most negotiable prices), and excellent snorkelling there. We spent $30 to rent a snorkel boat and guide. Underwater disposable cameras are about $18-20 there, and we managed to get a few spectacular shots underwater there (along with a few wasted photos of bathing suits and legs). Again, bring bottled water and sunscreen. Surprisingly, we did not spend that much time in downtown Cancun or the central hotel district. Prices there are more touristy, and there are very nice (expensive) shopping to do there (such as Gucci, Gap, Tiffany's, Cartier, McDonalds, etc). We were in the low season, just prior to the end of the rainy season - dance clubs were mostly empty. We didn't mind since we don't drink much nor club much nowdays. Well, I hope that helps. Email me if you have more questions. I hope to get our vacation photos online shortly, since we just got a digital camera. -Cheers! -Shishin Yamada -UIC Medical School [email protected]