Finding a way to the Beach

Looking out from Playa Delfines
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We caught a bus from Playa Del Carmen to Cancun. It's an easy one hour journey. Cancun has two distinct accomodation areas. The hotel Zone which is full of fancy beach front resorts, and the town which has a combination of more affordable nice hotels and backpackers places, we stayed in the town.

A word of warning - ignore the many people (manly Americans) who offer to "help" you find a hotel or say their friend owns a hotel. These touts get paid a $2 commission and only work for the tatty places that struggle to get guests based on their own merits. If you walk in with one of these people you loose any possible negotiating power and will have to pay the price that the tout says. We stayed in, and reccommend, Hostel Chacmool. Its simple but really clean and quiet with much needed aircon. We paid 300 pesos (U.S $25) for a double room with shared bathroom. This hostel is located in a great position right next to a square which has an excellent and cheap food market at night. We ate brilliant Mexican food here both nights for only a couple of dollars each.

The water was an absolutely amazing fluro blue colour

Shannyn and bright blue water
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For going to the beach its about a 5 minute walk to the bus stop and then a 10 - 20 minute bus ride depending on which beach you choose.The majority of the beach is taken up by resorts and despite what the Lonely Planet says you can't access the beach through these resorts. They have security who will stop and question you and stop you from proceeding. You therefore need to enter via one of the many public access points. You can then walk along and sit on the beach in front of any of the resorts without any issues. We tried a couple of Cancun's northern beaches called Playa Langosta and Playa Tortugas but found these to be very average with not much sand and lots of seaweed.

Red flags out - no swimming
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We then went to Playa Delfines and again despite what Lonley Planet says this beach was spectacular to say the least. The sand was white (a little coarse but in a nice way) and the water was an absolutely amazing fluro blue colour. It looked as if someone had added blue food colouring to the water. Out of all the sights we have seen in the last 5 months the water here was definately one of the things that has '' Wowed'' us the most.

On the day we visited there was a nearby tropical storm that resulted in the waters being extremely rough. For us though the huge crashing waves only added to the appeal and made this magnificent beach even more stunning and dramatic. Because of the ferocity of the water we only went in knee deep and even then it was a struggle to stay upright. Locals told us that its not normally this rough though so don't let this put you off visiting. As a result of Hurricane Wilma in 2005 unfortunately Cancuns beaches lost the majority of their sand. At some points the water now comes right up to the edge of the resorts. So be careful in choosing where to lay, yes we got caught out! The area in front of the Hilton appeared to have a more generous amount of sand.

Shannyn in the water
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We visited another spot which has easy public access and is behind the Plaza Kukulcan shopping centre. This is also a beautiful spot and has a bit more sand to lay on. There are even Palapas that you can lay under free of charge. There is an old dilapidated tennis court here that is quite run down but it kind of adds some character to the place.

We rate Cancun as equal second best Caribbean beach out of 5. We probably would have rated it equal first if we'd seen it when it was calmer.

More fluro water
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If you wish to visit Isla Mujeres then Cancun is where you catch the ferry from. Shannyn