First Time Visitors to Cancun/Cozumel

Cancun sucks unless you're a frat boy who wants to fuck a fat girl. It's one big hotel after another and nothing else. Nothing.

It's a made-up city for drug dealers to launder their money. Seriously - that's how it was started.

Never been, but never heard anything that would make me want to go either.

Better to stay at a resort in the Riviera Maya or Playa Del Carmen. You don’t get the trashy crowd you find at Cancun resorts.

Cancun is wonderful for a beach vacation on easy mode. The weather is great throughout winter, though may be a little hot right now. The water is beautiful, and the prices are reasonable. I'm in Chicago, so loads of people fly down to Cancun for an extended weekend when it's cold.

I went with my mother last year. I ended up hooking up with Midwest guys (in their hotels). One was a University of Wisconsin college student, another a hot mid-30s fit (closet case) from Ohio vacationing alone, and a travel writer. If I had my own room and could host, I could have gotten even more dick.

I plan to head back to Cancun in a year or two. It was wonderful.

After I early-voted for Biden, I was afraid Trump might win, so I rented a condo in Cancun I found on Hotels.com for three weeks. Yes, it was in the hotel zone, but it was a real condo surrounded by other condos. It was about a block away from Ted Cruz's infamous escape hotel and the beach was beautiful and very safe. The air conditioning was great and there was a washer/dryer and bottled water. Also, I could walk from there to the grocery store (Sorano's) for food and take a bus to the Walmart, which was an interesting cultural experience. Plus the condo had great Wifi, so I made all my cell phone calls free through the Wifi and streamed TV shows on my laptop just as if I were in my own living room.

I had four years of high school Spanish way back in the 70s, but I can still hold a "present tense" conversation. So I spoke Spanish to all the Mexicans. They were very helpful, coaching me with my verbiage, and I said to a young male masseuse on his lunch break who worked at one of the hotels (in Spanish), "Everyone is being so nice to me, helping me with my bad Spanish -- don't any Americans ever try to speak to you in Spanish?" The masseuse looked sheepishly down at the sand, shook his head, and said, "You're the first one." I wanted to cry, I was so ashamed to be an American.

I had a wonderful time, OP! And best of all, Biden won the election! So I flew back home to FL. You should go.

Sorry -- the grocery store was Soriano's.

Soriana.

I’ve been, but stayed at an all-inclusive place. It was a nice enough hotel. Spent many days visiting the ancient ruins and taking the ferry to Isla Mujeres.

I’d love to go back.

I went to Cozumel to dive back in the day, and had a great time diving and snorkeling.

When we decided to spend a day on land, we were hard pressed to find anything of interest. We drove around the island, we saw what Mayan ruins there were, we got gifts for loved ones back home, and I got sick because I was stupid enough to eat a salad.

I’d also recommend Playa del Carmen/Rivera Maya. It’s about an hour bus ride from the Cancun airport. There’s a pedestrian street, Avenida 5, lined with lots of shops and restaurants. We did a day trip over to Cozumel from there, and did a submarine excursion there that was really interesting. We didn’t venture beyond the comparatively sleepy Cozumel town so I can’t speak to the rest of the island.

There’s also an “eco” park near PdC and the Tulum ruins, which are a must see. This was in 2005, so I understand there’s been lots of growth there since. Tulum has become a celebrity hot spot and there’s apparently a lot of expensive hotels around there or something. I can’t compare to staying in Cancun, since I haven’t visited there.

R5/ Senior lez, do you remember the name of the condo?

XCaret, “echcaret” is the park.

Back when I went it was about 90 dollars for the whole day, with a lunch buffet included. It’s a zoo/lazy river type place.

There’s other activities you can do but for a significant upcharge.

If you do go you must, absolutely must, stay for the show they give at the end of the day. It tells the story of the area, up until the god-damned Spaniards show up. They also play a game which is sort of similar to basketball, except it had deadly consequences for the losing team.

I can’t swim so I didn’t get to do much.

There’s actually more parks in that area that have different attractions and activities. Zip-lines, canoeing, that type of thing.

I don't know if this link will work, R10, but this is the condo I stayed in -- the one with the "E" on the front. If the link is bad, I'll look at the Google map again to see if I can find the name.

Be careful where you swim and snorkel in Cozumel.