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Cancún is situated in the state of Quintana Roo on the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, a seal-head-shaped land mass that stares longingly toward Cuba from Guatemala and Belize. Cancún is on the northeastern tip of the Peninsula and shaped by Bahía de Mujeres (Bay of Women), the Caribbean Sea and several lagoons.
Cancún is actually two places in one. On the mainland lies Ciudad Cancún, a planned city founded as the service centre of the resort. The main north-south thoroughfare is Av Tulum, a long tree-shaded boulevard lined with banks, shopping centers and restaurants. The smaller, low- to medium-priced hotels and restaurants are within this city center, but it's far from the beach.
The 23km (14mi) long sandy spit, Isla Cancún, known as the Zona Hotelera or Zona Turística, is where the action is. It is traversed by Blvd Kukulcán, a four-lane divided avenue, which leaves Ciudad Cancún and goes 9km (5mi) east to Punta Cancún, then heads south for 13km (8mi), flanked by palatial hotels, malls and dance clubs. The boulevard turns west at Punta Nizuc, rejoins the mainland and heads inland to the airport.
Cancún International Airport is 8km (5mi) south of Ciudad Cancún. Puerto Juárez, the port for passenger ferries to Isla Mujeres, is about 3km (2mi) north of the center. The busy bus station is just west of Av Tulum.
Few of the buildings in the Zona Hotelera have numbered addresses. Instead, because the vast majority of them are on Blvd Kukulcán, their location is described in relation to their distance from Km 0 - the boulevard's northern terminus in Ciudad Cancún, identified with a roadside 'Km 0' marker. Each kilometer is similarly marked.
Getting There
About 8km (5mi) south of the city center, Aeropuerto International de Cancún (Cancún international airport; tel: 886 0049) is the busiest in southeast Mexico.
Puerto Juárez, the port for passenger ferries to Isla Mujeres, is about 4km (2.5mi) north of the city center. Punta Sam, the dock for the slower car ferries to Isla Mujeres, is about 8km (5mi) north of the city center. In the Zona Hotelera, a ferry shuttle service to Isla Mujeres is available daily at both El Embarcadero (Blvd Kukulcán Km 4) and Playa Tortugas near Fat Tuesday's (Blvd Kukulcán Km 6.35).
Cancún's bus terminal (cnr Avs Uxmal & Tulum) has 1st- and 2nd-class options. Across from the bus terminal, a few doors from Av Tulum, is the ticket office and mini-terminal of Playa Express, which runs shuttle buses down the Caribbean coast to Tulum and Felipe Carrillo Puerto at least every 30min until early evening, stopping at major towns and points of interest along the way.
Getting Around
If you don't want the expense of a taxi ride into town from the airport, there are a few options. Comfortable shared vans leave from the curb in front of the international terminal about every 15min, heading for the Zona Hotelera via Punta Nizuc. They head into town after the island, but it can take up to 45min to get downtown. If volume allows, however, they will separate passengers into downtown and Zona groups. To get downtown more directly and cheaply, exit the terminal and pass the parking lot to a smaller dirt lot between the Budget and Executive car-rental agencies, where there is a ticket booth for buses that leave the lot every 20min or so.
To get to the airport you can catch the airport bus on Av Tulum, or a colectivo (minibus or car that picks up and drops off passengers on a predetermined route) from the stand in the parking area a few doors south; they leave when full.
Riviera runs buses to/from Playa del Carmen (1hr). Tickets are sold at a counter in the international terminal of the airport.
To reach the Zona Hotelera from downtown, catch any bus with 'R1', 'Hoteles' or 'Zona Hotelera' displayed on the windshield as it travels south along Av Tulum or east along Av Cobá. To reach Puerto Juárez and the Isla Mujeres ferries, catch a Ruta 13 ('Pto Juárez' or 'Punta Sam') bus at the stop in front of Cinemas Tulum (next to McDonald's) on Av Tulum, north of Av Uxmal.
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