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Cancun Vacation

AirWalke

AirWalke

Well-Known Member
Aug 7, 2006
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Des Moines
Fanatics,

We will be going on our honeymoon next week to Cancun, and my wife and I will be looking for things to do outside of our resort. We're staying in Playa del Carmen, and have already booked ourselves for a day at Xcarat, and are looking for a few other things to do, and maybe some other helpful pointers making a trip like this.
 
if u want a fun night out, definitely go to Coco Bongo- it's a blast. It's a cheesy vegas style show but it's a ton of fun. Theres one in playa and one in downton cancun.
 
The only thing we do outside of our resort is go to Playa for a day. Otherwise we feel no need to leave the compound. That way our toughest decision is pool or beach? margarita or daiquiri?
We once went to Tulum and saw the Mayan ruins, it was interesting and educational, but ehhhh.
 
It's your honeymoon. Eat, ****, sleep. Repeat. The honeymoon DOESN'T last. Get some while you can. Don't leave the hotel unless it's on fire.
 
Realize im not answering your question but I always tell people the following about Cancun. Ive been numerous times and always stay at the resort 95% of the time.

Coco Bongo is a great place most of the time, the rest of the time its a great place to get mugged. Watch out for the people at the resorts trying to get you to go there, they usually have alternative motives.

Cancun is fun however when you leave the resort make sure you are always prepared for the worse, the police wear masks and carry assualt rifles for a reason (luckily for me seeing truck load after truck load of masked men with M16s drive by was enough for my g/f to want to stay at the resort)

Plan out as much as possible to avoid asking workers at the resort for reccomendations or directions. The same people that are helping you are mugging you later.

Dont drink to much off resort, a guy I know who worked down there has told horror stories about Coco Bongo and The area where Hard Rock is.

Last piece of my rant about Cancun is always be w/ a group if off resort, Ive had friends mugged at gun point on the beach. A friend who was there on his honeymoon get pistol whipped and they tried to take his wife by telling them they were the police, and another friend got the shat beat out of him buying some coke. Which brings me to the last point, dont do mexican drugs.
 
Also, best way to get past the timeshare people at the cancun airport is make up a fake language and then speak to them in it. They dont want to waste their time w/ someone who doesnt speak english.
 
You might want to do something like XPLOR. That is actually down near Xcaret. It has Zip lines, swimming in a cenote, Floating in an underground cave, etc.

Xplor - Beyond the Surface -

The Ferry to Cozumel is at Playa del Carmen. Take the Ferry over to Cozumel and rent a jeep or a scooter and go around the island. Or just shop and look around. Nice day trip. Costs about $20 pp RT for the ferry.

Go to Playa and spend some time at the beach bars and do some shopping. Playa Maya on the beach around Calle 8 has great food during the day. Bad Boys on the beach has the Nasty Bastards band playing from 5-9 on Thursdays and Saturdays. Good bar. Calle 4 and Fifth Avenue is a great place called Carboncito's. Great Mexican food. Happy hour 3-6 pm with 25 peso Margaritas and 2X1 Tacos al Pastor. Exploring Fifth Avenue and surrounding area is a day in itself.

I have been to Tulum. Beautiful. But once is enough. Chichen Itza is about a 3 hour drive away. Coba is supposed to be pretty good. But both take all day. And if history and ancient artifacts aren't your thing, I wouldn't recommend it.

Here is a great website with lots of info. Playa del Carmen info

I have been to Playa many times and will be making a couple of trips to Playa this winter. Once in January. Once in February. I do not stay all-inclusive. Beer is cheap. Food is cheap and great. Playa is a great place.

By the way, ignore the talk about Playa not being safe. It is very safe. Just don't be completely stupid. That will get you in trouble anywhere.

Just out of curiousity, what resort are you staying at?
 
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My wife and I went to Cancun for our honeymoon. We had grand plans of laying on the beach and enjoying ourselves.

She got sick and started throwing up as we left Iowa and didn't stop until we got back (early) three days later.

I wouldn't recommend following our example.
 
I'm going to cancun for the first time in January, can't wait. Staying in the Royal in Cancun.
 
I know the Thread Title says Cancun Vacation, but from Airwalke's post he states he is staying in Playa del Carmen. BIG difference IMO. Airwalke will fly into Cancun Airport but he will be going south to Playa del Carmen, Playa del Carmen is at least 45 minutes away from Cancun. And a taxi ride each way from Playa to Cancun will cost around $45 USD.

One of the reasons I was asking where Airwalke was staying is that even though a resort may say they are in Playa del Carmen, distances are pretty vast. And some are a bit more remote. The lone exceptions of an AI resort in Playa del Carmen would be the Royal Playa del Carmen and the Gran Porto Real. There are also many AI resorts in Playacar, about 5 minutes south of Playa del Carmen which is walkable to Fifth Avenue or about a $7 taxi ride each way.

To get an idea of what I am saying, the distance between Playa and Cancun is roughly similar to the distance between Ames and Des Moines. And there are many resorts in between. The whole Cancun--Tulum Corridor is roughly 100 miles long and dotted with resorts all along the way.

So Airwalke, it might be helpful to post your resort to give you some help.
 
dmclone said:
I'm going to cancun for the first time in January, can't wait. Staying in the Royal in Cancun.
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My daughter and son-in-law stay there at the Royal in Cancun. Very nice. Use the bus system that runs in the Hotel Zone when you go places. It is cheap, safe and fun. A ride costs about 70 cents.
 
Check with your Concierge when you get to the resort. If the resort is reputable at all they won't be sending their guests off to a destination where they might get mugged. Most resorts have activities or shows in the evenings as well. We stayed at The Excellence Rivera Cancun a couple of years ago and there was something going on every night. No reason to leave the resort at all.
 
Sterling4Cy said:
Check with your Concierge when you get to the resort. If the resort is reputable at all they won't be sending their guests off to a destination where they might get mugged. Most resorts have activities or shows in the evenings as well. We stayed at The Excellence Rivera Cancun a couple of years ago and there was something going on every night. No reason to leave the resort at all.
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How safe is travel in Mexico? Depends on your destination - Chicago Tribune

FTR, you are probably more likely to get mugged in downtown Des Moines than you are in Playa or even Cancun.

I would highly recommend getting off the resort a couple of times and doing something else. Playa del Carmen and the surrounding area is an amazing place. IMO, it would be a total shame to only see it from the perspective of going from your room to the beach to the restaurant to the bar.

There is little threat of mugging. But use your head. I would not recommend going down to the native district of Cancun Centro late at night and go into an authentic Mexican cantina.
 
dmclone said:
I'm going to cancun for the first time in January, can't wait. Staying in the Royal in Cancun.
Click to expand...

Went a few years ago and stayed at The Excellence Playa Mujeres. It was pretty amazing. Going the week after Thanksgiving and staying at The Royal.

Looking forward to being in more of the resort area this time around.
 
AirWalke said:
Fanatics,

We will be going on our honeymoon next week to Cancun, and my wife and I will be looking for things to do outside of our resort. We're staying in Playa del Carmen, and have already booked ourselves for a day at Xcarat, and are looking for a few other things to do, and maybe some other helpful pointers making a trip like this.
Click to expand...

I literally just got back from Xcaret yesterday. We stayed in the Occidental Grand Flamingo right next door to the park. We mostly just got drunk every day at the beach and pools but one night went to Coco Bongo in Play Del Carmen and had a riot.
 
Brentwood said:
Went a few years ago and stayed at The Excellence Playa Mujeres. It was pretty amazing. Going the week after Thanksgiving and staying at The Royal.

Looking forward to being in more of the resort area this time around.
Click to expand...


I have been to cancun multiple times and The Royal in Cancun is the best place we have stayed. All of their food is amazing. Even the buffett
 
Stormin said:
How safe is travel in Mexico? Depends on your destination - Chicago Tribune

FTR, you are probably more likely to get mugged in downtown Des Moines than you are in Playa or even Cancun.

I would highly recommend getting off the resort a couple of times and doing something else. Playa del Carmen and the surrounding area is an amazing place. IMO, it would be a total shame to only see it from the perspective of going from your room to the beach to the restaurant to the bar.

There is little threat of mugging. But use your head. I would not recommend going down to the native district of Cancun Centro late at night and go into an authentic Mexican cantina.
Click to expand...

i would stay in the vicinity of your airport.cancun can be a fun place but the whole country of mexico is under duress due to the dam mexican drug cartels.. the druggies have been real active in cancun this last month. i do some consulting to food companies in mexico(particularly in mexico city and in monterey).

what we need to do is bring our soldiers home from afghanistan and from iraq and put them on our southern border and get together with the mexican solders and clean out the drug cartels in mexico. these cartels are ruthless b*****ds. so be alert for these jerks in cancun...
when i go to mexico,i only fly to my airport location and meet the people that i do consulting.most of the time i have them come to the united states. costa rica is a nexus for drugs coming from south america. we need to stop the flow thru costa rica from south america. columbia has done a very good job in getting rid of drugs in columbia by attacking the bad boys in columbia. we should clean house in venzuela(including their socialist government head and we would hinder the growth of the faboulous hemp operations there).
keep your eyes open in cancun,because the drug cartels have been very active there this past couple of months... when i have travelled to bad areas, i have always carried a sharpened clothes hanger in my suitcase or in my briefcase. it can work very well as a weapon to punture someone's diaphragm muscle should you get into an altercation...it is hard to carry a concealed weapon in foreign countries..a hanger as such can provide you with some ammunition should you get someone attacking you in a place that is unfamilar to you.

have a safe trip to cancun and keep your eyes open for these worthless drug cartel people.
 
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