The advantages of renting an apartment in downtown Cancun – local restaurants – how to use buses in Cancun – roaming Zona Hotelera – Isla Mujeres – Isla Mujeres for boaters and cruisers – how to rent a car in Cancun – Mexican grilling secret

In anticipation of our road trip through Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, we decided to spend a week in Cancun. We wanted some time to look around and figure things out. You can live a lot cheaper if choose downtown over Zona Hotelera (in Cancun it is a long street along the ocean). There are enough places on Airbnb as low as $400 a month. However, if you want to rent weekly, or daily, it would be a bit more expensive, but still very reasonable. We found a one bedroom apartment with a pool in a nice guarded neighborhood for $150 a week.

Before you go, check with your phone provider – some companies offer roaming in Mexico with no additional charges – you can use your phone as if you were in the US and call both Mexican and American numbers. If your provider doesn’t offer that, you can always buy a local SIM card in a convenience store.

Where We Stayed In Cancun:

If your Airbnb host is meeting you at the airport, make sure that when you exit the airport, you don’t go where all the hotel shuttles and tour buses are. Go through the doors, immediately turn left, through a gate that says “Friends and Family”. We didn’t know that, and it took us a good half an hour to figure out, where our Airbnb hostess Elizabeth was waiting for us.

Airbnb is definitely the way to go! If you are lucky with your neighbors, you become part of an international “family”! (Marco here is from Italy and Rosalva is from Spain, although she lives in Mexico for many years). You feel like you are actually living in Cancun like a local!

The Advantages of Staying Downtown:

Basically, Cancun is like any other mid-size city, I found it neither dangerous nor scary. There are a lot of people around, just living their lives. If you try to behave like a local and be friendly, people will be friendly to you as well.

There are a lot of inexpensive places to eat in downtown, as well as banks with ATM and currency exchange kiosks. There are enough supermarkets within walking distance and a bunch of convenience stores, called Oxxo or Six. Majority of the stores and restaurants take credit cards. It is always good to have a credit card that doesn’t charge for foreign transaction, like, for example, Capital One, or SunTrust Credit. Our favorite local place to eat was about 3 minutes by foot from our apartment –  $1.5 fish or shrimp tacos were definitely a hit! Mariscos El Salvavidas, we will be back! 😉

How to use buses in Cancun:

Taxis are all around, but you need to ask for the price in advance and bargain. The regular price within downtown is about 35-50 pesos, but they for sure will start with at least double! Apparently, there used to be Uber, but a taxi “mafia” squeezed them out and forced them to stop. Bummer! However, there are enough buses and mini-buses around, and they could take you pretty much anywhere you want. Here is a very convenient web-site where you can see the routes. 

The stops are very frequent, but you can also flag the bus down anywhere. Most buses don’t have a “request a stop” button. So, if you want to exit, just get up and start walking towards the driver. Mini-buses reminded me of Russia, where you hop in, take your seat and just pass the money to the driver through other passengers. It made me smile! One of the biggest landmarks for downtown is Plaza Las Americas, which is a big mall, and a lot of buses go to Walmart and Zona Hotelera.

Zona Hotelera:

This long strip with hotels and all kinds of restaurants and entertainment venues is very convenient if you want go to party, or to the beach, or to one of their beautiful shopping malls. My favorite is La Isla Cancun, which is designed as a village with streets, fountains and sculptures. Have a margarita by the water, or try a variety of tacos al pastor (Mexican variety of gyro-type meat) or a cactus taco! 

Oh, and on the bus home, don’t be surprised if you are serenaded by a street musician!

Fun Fact:

By the way, did you know that tomato comes from Mexico? (and not Italy at all, as many people think)

Isla Mujeres:

Besides the obvious trips that all the tour agencies offer (such as Chichen Itza or snorkeling trips), one of the less known, but quite interesting things to do is to take a boat to Isla Mujeres for a day. It only takes 20 minutes to get there. The ferries depart from Puerto Juarez or Playa Tortugas (in Zona Hotelera). The ticket is $19 round trip (however, it’s a lot cheaper for Yucatan residents!)

The island is less famous than Cozumel, but, in my opinion, a lot more interesting to see. It got its name because in pre-Columbian times it was sacred to the Maya goddess of childbirth and medicine, Ixchel. When the Spanish arrived, they found a lot of images and idols, representing the goddess and so they called it The Isle Of Women – Isla Mujeres. It is just small enough to not be overpopulated or overbuilt, but big enough to have everything a cool resort island has to offer. The island has its own downtown, residential quarters, a small Maya ruin (it used to be a lot bigger, but, unfortunately was nearly destroyed by hurricane Gilbert in 1988.)

Isla Nujeres is also the home to the “coldest place in Mexico” –  The Ice Bar – a bar, built completely out of ice, where you will want to have a couple of shots to get warm, even though they give you a coat. Have you ever gotten drunk in a giant freezer? Michael, however, preferred something hotter! LOL

To get around the island you can rent a scooter, or a golf cart. Driving a golf cart is more fun that I had imagined! A short instruction, and off you go! Be careful on the road tough, the other tourists have possibly just as little experience! Haha, I actually did pretty well.

Isla Mujeres For Boaters and Cruisers:

We also visited a couple of marinas, to “scout” the possible place to land if we ever come here with a boat. Our favorite became El Milagro Marina. It doesn’t have a large infinity pool, like Marina Paraiso next door, but the grounds, covered in multi-colored tile, the friendliness of the stuff and the atmosphere are absolutely awesome. It even has its own little beach!

There are also quite a lot of boats anchored in the bay, which is protected by land on three sides. Check our their Facebook group for more info and discussion.

How to Rent a Car in Cancun:

For our road trip, we decided to rent a car. The only company that allows their cars to go to Guatemala and Belize, besides Mexico (and some other countries, but we only need these three) is America Car Rental. It goes by several other names, for example Caribbean Car Rental). There are offices at the airport, and one in downtown. If you are planning to go to Guatemala, make sure you allow a couple of days for the Guatemala car import permit to process. It costs US$180. Belize is included free of charge.

You shouldn’t have any problem if you have a GPS. We use regular Google Maps in Mexico, but for Belize and Guatemala we need something that we can use offline. My favorite app for that is Maps.Me – don’t forget to download maps in advance. Google Maps also allows you to download maps in advance to use them offline.

Make sure you check the car before you leave the agency, they are really picky about every scratch. We chose to purchase the additional tire and window insurance. I hope we won’t need to use it, but I have read at multiple web-sites that they pay special attention to tires and windows and everyone recommends to buy it. Also, the roads in some parts of these countries are not the best.

Highways and avenues in downtown Cancun have lot of roundabouts, as many as 3 lanes wide, it might take you some getting used to, but after a while you’ll be driving like a local!

A Fun Story:

We bought a couple of hamburgers at a local supermarket, and a bag of charcoal. Asked around, if they had any charcoal lighter fluid. “what?” “what?” the guys at the store didn’t even have any idea what we were talking about. So we got back and asked our hostess Elizabeth, what we should do. Apparently, no one here uses the charcoal lighter fluid. Instead, they have a genius method of lighting the grill: you take some paper towels and thoroughly wet them with a mixture of vegetable oil and sugar. And it works like magic: organic, natural, smell and tastes great. One more way to prove that if you are open-minded in a foreign country, you always learn something cool!

So, after a week in Cancun, we embarked on a 3000 km trip around Mexico, Guatemala and Belize and it was an unforgettable adventure!