Traveling to Cancun and Cozumel

Late Feb. I wil be venturing to cozumel and cancun. Does anyone out there know of some places to check out or posibly some "can't miss this" locations?

Young at tiki. Willing to learn.

[ Edited by: BrokenHeartTiki 2008-01-31 07:50 ]

Nothing Tiki, but I have been to Cancun many times. Email me and I'll give you the long version of what to do and where to go to maximize your fun.

2 words 'CARLOS and CHARLIES'

If you dive, there is supposed to be an immense underwater cave under the entire island, but no one will tell you where it is because they don't want you getting killed or anything that would be bad for tourism.

However...If you go to their little family oriented park, "Chankanab Lagoon", you can visit a museum with all sorts of pictures of the 30 foot cave mouth and photos of the inside, but again no one will tell you where it is.

If you're feeling adventurous just go straight out to the beach, swim down a ways and it's right there! Apparently the 30 foot opening got filled in by a hurricane once and it's only 4 or 5 feet now, but it's right there and goes on forever. Have fun and don't die!

Short list:

Shopping at Market 28. Avoid all the others. A 19 peso taxi ride from downtown. Good prices. No hassles. Grab a beer at the Oxxo and drink while you browse. When its empty, give a local kid some money to fetch you more. Eat at one of the restaurants and have a wandering band play something for you.

Pericos. Not the greatest food, but a floor show that is, well, awesome. Say hi to Jhony Boy. Stay late.

Xel-ha. A bay with tons of huge fish to snorkel around

The Origial Snorkel Adventure. There are two of them. Really. Get the old one. Private beach, great snorkeling, great food, free beer. Very relaxing and they play exotica. Run ahead when you get there and claim a palapa with a hammock.

Diving off Isla Mujeres. Visit Playa Norte if you go over there.

Get all your cash exchanged at one of the booths at the first stop on the bus line downtown. Don't spend US dollars. Just pesos. It will add 10% to your money. Just spend it all or exchange back before you leave.

For a romantic evening, Locando Paolo. Italian food downtown.

Breakfast buffets are killer there.

Go to the grocery store downtown at the first stop. Appleton rum $4 a liter. Fresh fruit. Beer cheap, etc.

Turn down the side street at Burger King dowtown and try Gorey Taco. Very quaint.

When you get to Cozumel, spend some time just walking around town. It isn't that big so you can just wander around. Get down the side streets too. I found places like a bakery that the locals go to and another place that I filled my own drink bottle with fresh squeezed orange juice EVERY DAY because it was so good. Not a lot of traffic makes it nice too. I also liked walking along the pier because there were big cruise ships tied up and some ships from the Mexicn navy.
And one more thing, if you snorkle along the beach by the big hotels, don't go too far out and look out for the swarms of those tiny jellyfish. They stung the hell out of me before I figured out I was in their midst. HAVE FUN !!!!!!

What everybody else said plus-- I just got back from a week in Playa del Carmen. I prefer it over Cancun because it has more of an old village feel. My favorite restaurant there is Ajua Maya, great food and very fun staff. Last year I spent nearly a week on on Cozumel. The best time was taking a day with a rented jeep and circling the island. The fun is stopping at every beach-side cerveza joint you come across. (They call them beach clubs.) What a hoot! Some are no more than an umbrella, a few plastic chairs and a cooler. Others are tres cool with all kinds of food and drinks. For me, the funkier, the better. THAT was a great day!

This March will be our eighth trip to Cancun, so we've had some time to find some favorite places! I second Gory Tacos. One of my favorite places in Cancun and cheap, with classic Mexican movie photos on the walls and other assorted kitsch. I also second Pericos, for the experience! Another cheap option for good food is Chocko's & Tere.

If you feel like spending some money, I highly recommend the lobby bar of the Ritz-Carlton. Very elegant, live music, excellent cocktails and great service. Another pricey, but wonderful, option is La Habichuela (http://www.lahabichuela.com/), which is one of my favorite restaurants in the world. The garden is magical, the food is incredible and, again, the service is unbeatable. You also can't go wrong at Puerto Madero (http://www.puertomaderocancun.com/) for steak and some great Argentinian wine or a whiskey.

BTW, I also second a side trip to Playa del Carmen. It's easy to get to from the downtown Cancun bus depot and I don't remember how much it is, but it's not much.

One more thing CaptainQuad just reminded me of: when we were there last year there was a tiki bar, which was new and which we're not at all sure will still be there this year. It was called Lucky Monkey and was next door to Hooters, which was fitting. The drinks were downright bad, but the decor was pretty good, with some Doug Horne art. If it's still there and you feel compelled to enter I'd definitely recommend going in the middle of the day, before the horrible music gets too loud, and having ONE drink (although they'll keep bringing you freebies).

Another tip. Avoid vodka and gin drinks there. They generally have good rums and tequilas at the bar, but the others seem to be rot gut stuff.

Itenary:
First day, relax at the beach bar.
Go to Pericos for dinner and stay for the floor show which is constant

Day two, take a taxi to Market 28 and shop. Have lunch there too.

Come back downtown and have dinner at Gory Taco

Day three do an excursion

...

I wanna go!

Try to find time for a day trip to Tulum - just a few miles down the coast - It's the only Mayan ruins on the coast (the others are inland) - some cool temples, carved murals (kinda tiki-ish) etc. - You may have seen this place at the end of "Planet Terror", Rodriguez' segment of "Grindhouse" (and some other movies as well) It's really amazing looking and worth a trip

Thomas Moore Travel does a trip to Tulum and Xel-Ha, which is one way to do both if you're interested. We kind of wished we had a little more time at Xel-Ha on that trip, though we did get some snorkeling in.

If you want to see some ruins in Cancun there is El Rey, which is accessible by city bus. It's not that big, but it's cheap and easy to get to. RevThumper and Kristiki said last time they were there there were LOTS of iguanas. You may consider that either a plus or a minus!

I have done the Tulum Xel-Ha trip a few times. Tulum is pretty, but a bit weak on the ruins tip. LOTS of lizards. Up on the cliff when you walk away from the traffic areas, man. Cool stuff.

Xel-Ha is a great place to snorkle for beginners. No waves and lots of big fish up close and people always nearby. Just be sure to snorkle under the foot bridge. Very creepy and cool to be that close to that many fish that big...

Actually, we've been thinking of going back to Xel-Ha precisely because the snorkeling is so calm. The last few times we've gone in the open ocean we've been totally bitch slapped by the white caps! Good exercise, though!

Xcaret is another good place for beginning snorkelers (and kids). Expensive, but lots to do.

In Cancun, I liked the casual, laid back restaurant "100% Natural", and downtown Cancun has my favorite restaurant, "La Habichuela". The tour to Chichen Itza was very worth it. I have a few photos of these on my blog (excuse my grumpy text, I must have been in a mood when I blogged!) :
http://yogaluca.blogspot.com/search?q=cancun

Here's a direct link to a panoramic vid of La Habichuela:
http://www.lahabichuela.com/espanol/jardin.htm

Aloha amigos!
Many years ago there was a Polynesian bar in Cancun... Near Camino Real... I don't know if it is still there.

Z

Complete tiki Spain

I will be spending a week in Playa Del Carmen in November. Very first time ever on the Mexican Riviera!

I'm not very interested in hunting down tiki stuff (which is good cos there isn't any). However, I am VERY interested in bringing back some bottles of rum and tequila. It looks like there's a 5-litre limit per checked bag so between the missus and I, we should be able to bring back a nice selection of bottles. What I am wondering is: given its proximity, can you find Cuban and/or Jamaican rums that you are unable to get here in the US? I know you can find Havana Club in Mexico but I am wondering if there's any distribution of others. If so, I will happily take a cab wherever I need to in order to bring back some rare goods.

Any recommendations on particular bottles and/or where to seek them out is greatly appreciated!