Best advice for Cancun?

Question

Going to Cancun on Friday, anything I should be prepared for. Looking for what and what not to do.

Answer 1

Don't go downtown unless you are highly prepared to haggle for shirts, cigars, jewelry, masks, and other minor trinkets and items. Most of the shops are all the same items of sale, and they can be extremely pushy. It smells pretty bad. Just a short walk from the downtown market is a Wal-mart that we found was selling all the same things in the market. So go there first, see W-mart prices then if you're determined, go to the market and wheel and deal.

Bus is cheap but very crowded. Taxis love to exhort money and if you don't pay they will call the police so make sure you get an agreed upon price to your destination. We'll probably rent a car next time so we can travel on our schedule to further places. Make sure your car is not destinctive as a rental or extremely wealthy looking unless you're prepared for being possible pull overs by local police for no reason other than to force you to pay up to avoid jail time.

We loved the hotel Mayaland at Chichen Itza would very highly recommend it for a romantic get away.  It was such a wonderful, tropical oasis. We stayed in a beautiful bungelow that had its own pool and it was a two minute walk from the pyramid. The restaurant had the best food and service ("shrimp your choice" were huge).  If you want to see the pyramids, you will want to stay overnight so you can walk the park in a cooler climate.  We paid $99 a person for the overnight light & sound show (which was very pretty--get the headsets for hearing anything other than spanish--$2.50 a piece at entrance). We would not recommend the ruins for during the day. It is extraordinarily hot but if you must, take an umbrella/person with insulated thermas for cold water.  

If you want to climb ruins, go to Coba.

Isla Mujeras was a bit uneventful and we are likely only to do it again for the dolphins. We chose the snorkeling and it was a bit of a joke for those (myself) who really want to see the exotic underwater marine fish and landscape, however, for the timid less adventurious it was good ice breaker (my husband has fears of water).  If you do go with the Islander, find the guy doing the "paparzi" as soon as you arrive. He charged us $35 to film us for the day during our activities, which made a nice record of our day on the island.

Our friends did the dolphins and loved it. They also did the Captain Hook. Some of our friends loved, other didn't. Its completely subjective I think. Same friends went to Coco Bongos and each was subjective.