Things to do in Cancún: 9 highlights, from the beaches to Chichén Itzá

About 200 km west of Cancún, a 2.5 to 3-hour drive, Chichén Itzá is the great Maya city of the Yucatán, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988 and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Highlights are the Pyramid of Kukulcán (El Castillo), the Great Ball Court, the Temple of the Warriors, the Group of a Thousand Columns and the El Caracol observatory.

You can get there by hire car, ADO bus or organised tour, often combined with a cenote and the colonial town of Valladolid.

The Hotel Zone is a narrow strip of sand between the Caribbean Sea and the Nichupté lagoon, lined with hotels and white-sand beaches. On the north shore, facing Isla Mujeres, Playa Tortugas, Playa Caracol and Playa Langosta usually have calm water that suits children; on the east shore, from Playa Chac Mool to Playa Delfines, the beach takes the open-sea swell.

Playa Delfines, with its lookout and the big « Cancún » letters, is one of the few large beaches without a hotel behind it. All beaches in Mexico are public, including those in front of the resorts.

Isla Mujeres is a narrow island off Cancún, reached by Ultramar ferries from Puerto Juárez in twenty minutes to half an hour. You get around it by golf cart or bike: Playa Norte in the north with its shallow water, the town and its seafood restaurants, then Punta Sur and its cliffs above the sea at the southern tip.

The island is also the starting point for snorkelling trips to MUSA and the Manchones reef.

From Puerto Morelos a road heads inland through the jungle to a string of cenotes open to visitors, including Siete Bocas and its seven openings, as well as adventure parks with zip lines. Cenotes are natural freshwater sinkholes in the limestone, typical of the Yucatán; some were sacred to the Maya.

Further south, Gran Cenote and Casa Cenote are covered in our Tulum guide.

About half an hour south of Cancún, the fishing village of Puerto Morelos faces a coral reef protected as a national marine park, a few hundred metres offshore. Trips leave the harbour in small boats, with two snorkelling stops over the coral among reef fish, rays and sometimes turtles.

The sea is often calm, which makes it a good first trip for beginners and families.

MUSA (Museo Subacuático de Arte) holds about 500 sculptures in three galleries submerged 3 to 6 metres deep, inside the national marine park that runs from the west coast of Isla Mujeres to Punta Cancún and Punta Nizuc. Started in 2009 and opened in 2010, it works as an artificial reef that draws divers away from the natural reefs nearby.

You can see it snorkelling, diving or from a glass-bottom boat, often with a stop at the Manchones reef.

On the north coast of the Yucatán, about 3 to 3.5 hours' drive from Cancún, the salt-works ponds of Las Coloradas turn pink because of micro-organisms in the very salty water. A few kilometres away, the fishing village of Río Lagartos is the starting point for boat trips into the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, through mangroves home to flamingos, pelicans and herons.

The two combine into one long day.

Behind the Hotel Zone, the Nichupté lagoon is a system of mangrove-fringed lagoons between the city and the strip of beaches. You can explore it by kayak, paddleboard or guided boat; herons, pelicans and crocodiles live along its shores.

At sunset, from the Hotel Zone jetties, it is the quietest corner of Cancún.

At the bend of the Hotel Zone, Punta Cancún is where the city's big nightclubs and bars are, including Coco Bongo, half club and half acrobatic show. Nights run until dawn, especially in high season and during American college spring break.

France Diplomatie advises particular vigilance in Cancún's nightlife venues.