1

It would depend on exactly where your hotel is. If it's in a dodgy part of town then maybe it's not advisable but Las Americas mall is in the modern part and it's not dangerous around there at all. If you're very late then you could always get a cab - it's not that expensive if you only use one occasionally.

2

While I agree the area around Las Americas is usually a safe area, do take precautions. Yesterday, gunman in three vehicles with automatic weapons opened fire on several leaving a popular restaurant on Av. Nader in Cancun. That is also usually considered a very safe area.

3

Nader is not very far at all from many of the budget hotels and hostels in Cancun centro!

I stayed in the centro (near Parque de las Palapas) last January for several days and felt safe at all times (but I am a man).

4

Nader is a `pretty busy area to have automatic gunfire. Usually many people around. It was reported several were wounded and several vehicles damaged but they apparently missed their intended target

Edited by: RobertSDF

5

At 8pm there will be plenty of families with small children out and about in the Plaza las Americas area. It's highly trafficked though and some parts close to Las Americas aren't the most pedestrain-friendly. I have managed on foot over there plenty of times, but it is an area where you have to be cautious!

Also, there are fewer buses from the Hotel Zone to the Plaza las Americas area, so if you get sick of waiting for one that goes there, you would be fine taking another to downtown and then grabbing a taxi to your hotel.

6

IMHO The issue may lie in just how much money you are willing to pay to eliminate risk. Someone else will have to offer knowledge about the cost of a "several blocks" taxi ride, but the "attraction" given forth by an adolescent girl, especially if she is the type to turn heads should be carefully weighed in the cost/benefit decision, especially after dusk.

7

Why go to malls in the hotel zone? Las Americas has all the same stuff at better prices and then after you shop get a taxie to your hotel. Taxies are chap in Centro Cancun. If you want to see the hotel zone get on the bus during the day and see them during the day. I have been going to Cancun since 1990 and have seen every mall many many times. Las Americas has it all so why bother with the hotel zone. My hotel has always been the Handal on Avenida Tulum in Cancun Centro. Hail any taxie on the street not sitting and set your price with the drive. If you try to reach lLas Americas by bus you have to run across the highway which can get you killed.

8

I've been there, and I wasn't gunned down or raped, even a little bit.

Use my 'women and little children' rule. If you don't see women and little children around, then maybe you shouldn't be there.

Need more info? Enter 'safety' in the forum search box. There is nothing that hasn't been covered here over and over, and over, and over on this subject.

---

Posted from banned IP address 212.84.206.250. If I can do it, then so can the spammers.

9

I have been going to Cancun for over thirty years and havent been raped or gunned down either. But its not the same Cancun and many places I went for years where I wouldnt go now. Like many places, Cancun gets a pass on much of the news regarding cartel violence because the tourists cant or dont read the local newspapers. Its not the most dangerous place on earth but not the safest either.

10

The rule about noticing if there are women and children around is just great! I will always take it into consideration.

I live in a Central American country and unfortunately we get our share of crime and violence every day. It has horribly spiked in the recent years thanks to drug trafficking. The drug HAS to pass through our countries in order to reach the U.S. I only wish that people who use these drugs would understand that everytime they get high, their drug has caused a lot of suffering, violence and bloodshed to innocent people in different countries . But of course, nobody thinks about these things. In any case, I know downtown Cancun is much safer than, say D.F. or Monterrey or my own dowtown, but still I will always be alert while walking the streets, I am well trained in that.

And I think I'll try to be at the hotel by 8 p.m. Hopefully their wifi works well!

11

I haven't been to Plaza las Americas Cancun yet, only went to the hotel zone malls once and then to the whale shark scuba diving tour. Went to the La isla mall and save for duty free ray ban glasses and Chanel perfumes at it's Liverpool boutique has the excat same department stores available in the rest of Mexico. Bershka, Shasha, Ay guey!, Oysho, etc.. all clothing stores I saw at that mall and are pretty much everywhere else in Mexico. Mexico City alone probably has easy 30 Bershka stores. The Bershka and Shasha clothes in Mexico City vary a bit with what they sell in Cancun and PDC (the stores in Quintana Roo have much cooler stuff!!), but for the most part sell the same stuff. Oysho Cancun sells the exact same clothing as it's sister stores in Mexico City and at the exact same price.

Again I can't say what stores Plaza Las Americas has because I didn't visit it (I wanted to see the hotel zone much more because I never really been to Cancun before), but if people say it has the same Bershka and Shasha clothing stores as the hotel area, they are probably right.

As a woman I found hotel zone Cancun to be safe (was just there a few weeks ago!!) even after 8-9 pm, not as bustling with people like other parts of the country at that hour (not many tourists these days even in peak season), but I didn't see any crime or guys with guns or anything, just a normal upper middle class neighborhood with lots of fancy apartments like in upper scale areas of Mexico City. The buses are still very frequent at 8 pm, reliable and easy to use and the price is okay in my opinion. What I REALLY hated about visiting the hotel zone is the absurd amount of traffic getting the hell out of it at 8 pm. The highway is like what, 10-15km? The trip at that hour lasted a whopping 1 1/2 hours!

It's not lack of safety, more like epic annoying-ness to be stuck in urban traffic during your vacations with hotel employees that just got off their shift and are all heading to downtown Cancun to go home. I would also recommend the hotel area to be best visited during the day to see the manglars and shoreline. The only really big merit of hitting hotel area at night is to go clubbing at bars and night clubs and even in Mexico a 15 year old teenager would have a hard time getting into a club because she's still underage. Not much fun there.

12

There is a Bershka at Las Americas. Not sure about the other stores mentioned though.

Honestly, don't worry about being back at the hotel by 8pm. Though I would say that Plaza La Isla is MUCH more pleasant at night....definitely visit then.

13

So the peak traffic hour in the Hotel Zone is 8 to 9 p.m., then? Or are there several rush hour times? What about in the morning?

I have malls in my city that also have Zara, Bershka, Pull&Bear, Tommy, Nine West, etc... there’s even one mall with a Carolina Herrera store. I don’t think we’ll be doing a lot of shopping in the Cancun malls, but my daughter and I love to visit new malls, even if many of the stores we’re familiar with. That’s why we’re planning on devoting time to see the malls.

My daughter, like me, is not a party girl (I did my share of clubbing in the U.S. when I was younger but I felt it was overrated). So we’re not interested in the hotel zone nightlife. We both love the beach, and that is the reason we chose to go to Cancun and Mayan Riviera, we’ll be visiting several beaches!