March, 2002

Jane and I just recently returned from a vacation in Cancun and we wanted to share our photos and pass on a few random observations, which I’m sure have been stated before.

1. Though passports may not be required, they are the norm, and seem to be expected, and may perhaps speed up the identification process.
2. After going though immigration at the Cancun airport, you will turn to the left and be immediately offered a cart. There is a charge if you accept it.
3. After refusing the cart you will see immediately in front of you in the luggage carousel area an “island” of official-looking people offering tourist information. They can be of help if you can tear yourself away in a reasonable time, but their primary mission is to sign you up for timeshare tours.
4. After picking up your luggage off the carousels you go through customs (you know the drill – red light, green light) through more vendors then to the transportation dock. If you are not with a package deal you can get a van to your hotel for $9 US. There will most likely be a uniformed official to help you if you ask. The vans will depart when they have crammed in as many passengers as possible.
5. My wife and I stayed at the Hotel Internacional de Cancun (pictures), better known as Vacation Clubs International or VCI, on the north end of the “island”, and across from Isla Mujeres (pictures). This is one of the “Royals” or associated complexes, the Royal Sands being another. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay there. They staff was very attentive in every way, perhaps due to the smaller size of the complex.
6. The beaches on the north side do have a lot of seaweed on the bottom, but it is out at the point where you would start to swim anyway, and any that washes up is cleaned up fairly quickly.
7. The Brant card is a good deal IF you intend to eat out. We fixed some light meals in our unit more often than not, so we probably lost money in buying the card. Note too that the card is good a perhaps 5-10 percent of the total number of restaurants in and around Cancun so the choices are limited. And if you are accustomed to dining at Dominoes or KFC you are out of luck (pictures). One thing that perhaps prevented us from taking full advantage of the card was the need to hop a bus or take a taxi if we wanted to enjoy, for example, a particular breakfast buffet.
8. Mr. Brant does provide some good deals on excursions (unless you want to sign up for a timeshare tour), for which the card is not needed. I took the Chichen Itza tour for about two-thirds the price of other offers I saw. And it was on a great bus – double-decker, with WC (just no solids, please).
9. If you go to Chichen Itza (pictures), take a book, or be prepared to sleep, since you won’t see anything enroute except green trees. And it’s long – coming back, the trip was three hours, since the bus started dropping people off at hotels at the south end, at Moon Palace.
10. The best deal on internet access was at Wal-Mart – cost was 10 pesos for 30 minutes. Bus cost is now six pesos.
11. Some pronunciations I heard, different than I expected: Isla is “Is-la”, Xel-Ha is “Shel –ha”, Xcaret is “Sh-ca-ret”. (Take this with a grain a salt – I can’t even speak English all that well.)
12. If you do ride the bus, expect no mercy if you really need to sit during those crowded times. And if you need a little more time to exit, get off at the front or else you may find yourself half on and half off when the bus departs (in other words it doesn’t linger at any stop).
13. FONATUR, the name you see on all those little markers (every 500 meters on the North Shore), is the name of the official agency responsible for the development of Cancun, in case you’re curious.
14. Finally, when you get to the airport (we took a shuttle – a taxi would have been faster and cheaper) and the driver is unloading your luggage, chances are there will be someone right there at your vehicle with a cart. You guessed it – 10 pesos, please.

Hey, we had fun! The weather was beautiful, the people were great, the plane trip (Champion Air, a charter) was smooth and on time – what more could you ask?