"Summer Holiday in Cancun" a Cancún Travel Page by patatina

We stayed in Cancun for a week. The first couple of days the weather was not very good, mostly overcast. We spent that time enjoying the shopping centers - the La Isla mall over by the Hotel Zone and Mercado 28 in Downtown. During the trip, we also enjoyed many great restaurants, mostly Mexican food because that was what we had been craving the moment we booked the trip!! Reviews on all those coming up!

The weather cleared up for the last 5 days of our trip, thankfully, and we spent them at the beach!! Although it gets to about 90F, the ocean breeze keeps you cool; and the tuorquise water is just gorgeous! There are plenty of water sports going on, but we liked to spend our days lazing around on the beach and occassionally leaping about in the water. The water is lovely to swim in, but the Hotel Zone coast does get waves, so expect to have to conquer those before you get to the calmer, slightly deeper part to swim around. Overall, the water was beautiful, and when it got cooler out, we spent some time walking along the beach, enjoying the sound of the ocean.

The big question is how Cancun is faring after the hurricane of October 2005. Reconstruction is going on all over the place, some hotels are still under construction, while most are about 80% done - with some light work being done on the side with most of their facilities available. Walking along the beach, you still see some villas that are demolished, but overall, they have progressed dramatically and I think by next year Cancun will be back to normal. The beach itself is cleared of any debris and safe, there is just one part where they are still reconstructing the beach, that's more by Park Royal. Farther down by the Marriott the beach is much more quiet and nice. While we did see some hotels under construction here and there, it didn't interfere with our trip, and they've worked hard and quickly to put much of Cancun back together so you can enjoy the beautiful beaches.

We were very excited to go to Mexico for the food! Having lived in San Diego, both of us miss the cuisine and good Mexican restaurants are few and far between in Europe. I have written reviews on all the restaurants we visited. Our absolute favorite was La Parilla Restaurant in Downtown - the tacos al pastor there are AMAZING! We couldn't get enough of those and ended up going there for lunch four times during our 7 day trip! The last time was right before our flight :)

Another one we enjoyed and went once for lunch and again for dinner the next day (once we find something we like, we keep going back!!) was La Casa de las Margaritas. Their pork tamale appetizer is delicious!!! We went there late for dinner so we weren't able to see the performances, which was disappointing, and the place was near empty but we really enjoyed our dinner and drinks.

I have to say though that we were disappointed that Cancun doesn't have any beachside restaurants. We kept our eyes out but really, unless they were by the bay area which we didn't visit, there weren't any advertised or easy to find. Most of the restaurants are along the lagoon, which I didn't really like too much. The lagoon in some parts smells terrible and we were looking forward to having a dinner and drinks in front of the ocean, watching the waves. We were able to have that in Isla Mujeres at Playa Lancheros - a very beachy restaurant, complete with plastic tables that you can bring down by the water. Very, very, very casual place, pretty good for a late lunch after snorkeling - definitely go for the grilled seafood.

The place where we had the BEST dinner ever was Cambalache, aka the "BIG ARGENTINIAN STEAKHOUSE" over on Kukulcan Blvd in the Plaza Forum. There are a couple of reps downstairs between Coco Bongo and Carlos & Charlies showing the menu if you're interested. For a two person dinner with wine, we spent about $140 and it was well worth it! We ordered the tenderloin filet for two with grilled vegetables, they brought it out on a sizzling platter, it was delicious! See my review for that restaurant for photos. It's a great place for a nice, romantic dinner for two.

Anyway, I have reviews on the restaurants we went to. There are plenty for families in Cancun - there's Outback and Bubba Gump and Johnny Rockets as well as Carlos & Charlies over on Kukulcan Blvd that has OK food but a great, fun atmosphere. There are plenty of taco restaurants in that area too, while most of the more authentic restaurants are in Downtown but they're also quite hard to find. Much of downtown isn't that nice for a stroll around to explore and find a restaurant especially with the incredible somewhat inland heat and things tend to be spread out so it's much better to get a list and know where you're going so you can hop in a taxi. Besides La Parrilla Restaurant, we found that the marketplaces like Mercado 28 have fun casual restaurants.

A week was just not enough! By Saturday, we were getting a feel of the place and an idea of where to go and where not to go but it was soon time to leave on Sunday evening!!

If we were to go back, we would probably spend more time more south of Cancun, if not staying there completely, in Playa del Carmen. Cancun struck us as far more of a family place than for couples, while Playa del Carmen seemed more our type. Everything is so much more tranquil, the beaches are beautiful, there were plenty of little beachside restaurants, and even the Fifth Avenue marketplace had less of the touristy trinkets and more unique artwork, jewelry, etc. We were there for only part of the day since we were just passing through to Isla Cozumel, and ended up staying for dinner and found that there are so many great-looking restaurants - some where lively, some more romantic, a great selection that we hope to go back and try out! Of course there's more to Playa del Carmen than that small strip that we saw, but definitely a place to go back to and spend more time in!

We went to Isla Mujeres as well as Isla Cozumel - between the two, I liked Cozumel much better. Isla Mujeres is tiny, just 3km, so it is nice for a day trip. If you are choosing between the two, I would recommend Isla Cozumel. It's about 70km long and renting a scooter for a day is cheap - $28! - and you can head out to one of the many snorkeling areas on your own while in Isla Mujeres you would have to go out on one of the boats - $45 for two people - to be taken to a place teeming with other tourists.

In short, we had a great vacation that just flew by. We were so sad when it was time to leave and look forward to going back sometime!

Here are some useful links on Cancun:

Tourism Information:

Cancun.com
Cancun.info
Go Cancun
Cancun Blast
Cancun Weather
Cancun Care
Cancun DMC

Trip Planning / Flights / Travel Deals:

TripAdvisor
Caribbean Flights
Last Minute.com
Thomsonfly
Orbitz
United Holiday Packages

Restaurants / Nightlife:

La Parrilla, Downtown
La Casa de las Margaritas, La Isla Shopping Center
Cambalache Argentinian Restaurant
Coco Bongo