I just returned from five days in Cancun with two old friends of mine and really enjoyed the trip. We stayed at the Le Meridien, which was on the main strip of large hotels. We were able to book the rooms at under $100 per night and I was able to upgrade to a nice suite using some Starwood magic. The suite's spacious balcony was unique to the hotel (room 810) and afforded fine views of the lagoon and the sea. The room itself was very nicely appointed in continental European style. My only complaint about the room is that the in-room coffee was awful. The hotel did not provide free coffee or water, so we had to stock up on provisions at a small convenience store about 100 yards to the right of the hotel as one exits the property. The hotel has three nicely designed pools, one of which is heated. The hotel grounds are not extensive, but the space that is available is well used. An issue which anyone researching the hotel will probably come across is that a large hotel is being constructed right next to the hotel. As a city boy, I did not mind the occasional construction noise which other visitors have complained about, but it is unfortunate that the new structure casts a shadow that blocks the sun from most of the pool area in the afternoon.

Another unfortunate situation that impacts not only this hotel, but probably virtually every other property in Cancun, is the severe beach erosion. We arrived immediately after hurricane Ida passed by and there was virtually no beach. In fact, it was not easy to access the beach since so much sand has eroded, that guests have to descend down some temporary wooden steps to a strip of beach that is just a few feet wide, and that more or less disappears entirely at high tide.

After spending a few hours poolside, where lunch and mixed drinks were quite good, we hopped on the R1 bus to downtown Cancun for dinner. The bus costs about 50 cents, runs frequently, and is nice and clean. It travels at breakneck speed and may arrive at your destination before most taxis would - at a tiny fraction of the cost. We had dinner at La Habichuela, which is generally noted as one of the best restaurants in Cancun. This was our most formal dinner of the trip and probably not our favorite. My skirt steak was fine but my friends did not care very much for their food and Pete (who eats most anything) did not finish his ceviche.

For the next morning, we reserved a tour of the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza through the hotel tour office. Everything is negotiable in Cancun and we got the tour price down to $60 from the list price of $75. This trip was an all day affair, departing the hotel shortly after 7:00 am and not returning until after 7:00 pm. The bus stops at a "cenote" (sinkhole), where visitors descend into a cave sacred to the Maya and can take a dip in the underground river, hopefully not offending any local deities in the process. Next it is on to lunch - well, actually we had to wait a bit for lunch and we were strongly encouraged to spend some pesos in the adjoining handicrafts shop. Lunch was served buffet style and was quite good, if basic, local cuisine. Finally, after another half hour or so on the bus, we arrived at the ruins. Our guide, Simon, did a wonderful job of explaining the history of the site and the development of the various architectural periods of Maya construction. Almost as impressive to means the temples, palaces, ball courts, observatories and so forth was the jungle wildlife. We saw huge lizards, highly colorful birds and a micro-highway carrying thousand of ants bearing leaves. The Mexican authorities keep the park in pristine condition, but for some reason they permit local vendors selling trinkets to operate throughout the park.

The next day, Wednesday, we spent the morning at the hotel lounging by the pool. Although Hurricane Ida was long gone, this was our windiest day. Red flags were up along the beach all week, but we jumped into the warm azure water anyway and the waves were not very high at all. The undertow is strong but manageable. For lunch we headed back downtown (on the R2 bus this time) and wandered around the Mercado 28, where shopkeepers aggressively sought our business (I bought some sunglasses for about $10, after some moderately successful haggling). We had a delicious lunch in the middle of the market - I believe the restaurant was called Veracruz, but I am not certain. My grilled squid and octopus was probably my favorite meal of the trip. We headed hack to the "hotel zone" and stopped at Playa Tortugas on the north shore. Tortugas is supposed to be one of the best beaches in Cancun but it has been severely impacted by erosion. In the evening we went to the La Isla outdoor mall - a well-designed place with a large number of medium and high-end shops. We had a drink at the La Madonna (rated in DK Guide as the #1 bar in Cancun) and were rather disappointed that the staff of a place which describes itself as a "martini bar" did not know what type of gin the place had! All of the "top ten martinis" on the menu were various types of vodka drinks that happened to be served in martini glasses. Dinner was at a local place on the lagoon which was quite good. After dinner we headed to Senor Frogs, which had some semi-descent live music that stopped after 3 songs. My friends said the frozen drinks were awful. I stuck to beer - although I was almost put into a headlock by a waitress who tried to force me to drink a shot of some glowing blue liquid (perhaps Curacao?)

Thursday we headed to Isla Mujeres off the north coast of Cancun. We asked the hotel about tours involving a catamaran, snorkeling, lunch and swimming with sharks, but decided to go on our own. This was probably the best decision of the trip - we later saw the catamaran tour and people were virtually spilling over the sides ofthe boat, it looked miserable and cost $75 per person. We just walked down the dock and found a local captain who took us out to the reef for $20 per person (plus $5 national park fee) for a great snorkeling adventure. We saw huge schools of brightly colored fish in dozens of varieties, a lobster, a squid and a barracuda. After snorkeling we wandered around town for a bit, checked out the fascinating local cemetery, had a couple of cervezas at a beach bar and then had a delicious lunch a a little place in town. I had the local soup (sopa de lima) and the local grilled pork dish (pok chuk) both of which were among my favorite eats on the trip. I found that my enjoyment of my meals was inversely proportional to the cost. We rented a golf cart and scooted around the island, winding up at the southern tip, which is supposed to be the eastern-most point in Mexico. There is an outdoor sculpture garden with some semi-interesting abstract designs, some weird honeycombed rocks and a small Mayan temple at the end of the island.

After relaxing at the hotel for a bit, we headed back to Cancun and went downtown for dinner again, this time to La Padrilla. This restaurant is near La Habicuela and generally is referenced as one of the better place in town. It had a more festive atmosphere than La Habicuella and we all enjoyed our food, so this is probably where we would go again for dinner. However, as noted above, I ost enjoyed our little hole-in-the-wall lunch places. On the way back to the hotel, we were determined to get a good deal on a taxi, hoping to bargain the driver down from the listed rate of 180 pesos to 120 pesos, Things must have been slow, however, since he gave us a 120 rate when we asked the price.

Friday was the best day weather-wise, but unfortunately I had to fly home in the afternoon. I spent the morning bobbing around in the ocean and lounging poolside before packing up and heading home. It was a great little trip!

Thanks for posting!

Sounds wonderful. How do you know where to get off when you take the bus, and how do you tell the driver to stop?

thanks for your report... we'll be there in just over a week and intend to visit Isla Mujeres for the first time.

When boarding the bus and paying my fare (7.5 pesos - about 60 cents) I would ask the driver to let me know when we were coming to the stop and they invariably announced it and stopped. My requests didn't involve any Spanish grammar - they were usually along the lines of "Tortugas?' and the driver would nod that he understood and then say "Tortugas!" when we arrived. If you do not do this, they may just not stop, since they do not appear to make every stop unless requested. It's also a good idea to study a map ahead of time -everything in the hotel zone is noted in kilometers along the main boulevard. Since my hotel was at kilometer 17.5, I would note that my destination was at, for instance, kilometer 10, so I knew we had to travel about 7.5 kilometers to get there.

Thanks for the info. We'll have to be adventurous next time we visit.