Everything You Need to Know About Traveling to Cancu
Channel: Top Articles & Blogs
Date: 2019-06-26

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Plan Your Trip to Cancún
When to go   
Peak season stretches from around Dec. 20 until after Easter week, with a slight lull between New Year’s and President’s Day weekend before spring break begins. This is the dry season, when humidity is lowest, daytime temps hover in the low- to mid-80s, and some nights even call for a sweater. 

Although the lights and pageantry are lovely during the Christmas season, from Dec. 15-20 until Three Kings’ Day, Jan. 6, hotel rates are the highest of the year, doubling or even tripling, and crowds become unpleasant.

The weeks between Thanksgiving and the Christmas offer the best of everything: few crowds, the year’s lowest prices, pleasant weather and a festive holiday atmosphere. The period from the second week in January until spring break kicks in is a close second.

In low season, from May until Christmas week, crowds thin out as the temperatures and humidity rise. Hurricane season is June to late November, with most storms hitting in September and October. If you plan to travel then, you might want to consider travel insurance. Historically, storms have brushed or hit Cancún every three years. 

Entry requirements
U.S. travelers must have a valid passport to enter Mexico. An entry permit known as the “tourist card” is issued upon arrival and must be surrendered when you leave Mexico. Losing it can cost you up to $60. No visa is required for stays of up to 180 days.

Currency
Don’t panic if you get a bill for $300 after enjoying a simple meal. The “$” symbol is also the sign for the Mexican peso.

Though dollars are widely accepted (you’ll receive change in pesos), it’s smart to carry some coins and small bills in pesos. Change can be as elusive as unicorns, particularly in smaller towns and the Yucatán Peninsula interior.

For the best exchange rate, use credit cards and get cash from bank ATMs — not third-party machines, which charge higher rates when they work at all. While Visa and MasterCard are universally accepted, American Express is less popular. Avoid the airport’s currency exchange booths, even if you have to use dollars until you get to an ATM. Those in downtown Cancún offer better rates than those in the Hotel Zone.

Ways to save: Always pay in pesos, even if the price is quoted in dollars. Hotels and merchants set their own, usually exorbitant, exchange rates.

Electricity
Mexico’s electrical system is 110 volts AC (60 cycles), as in the United States. Older hotels sometimes have only two-pronged outlets, so bring a plug adapter if you have a three-pronged plug.

Telecommunications
You’re never far from an internet connection here, certainly in most hotels and restaurants. Internet cafes, though dwindling, are still easy to find.

It no longer requires a second mortgage to use a cellphone in Mexico, which is one of the world’s least-expensive countries for mobile users. You can take advantage of that by inserting a local SIM card in an unlocked phone, but an add-on roaming plan from your phone carrier is simpler.

Tipping
Tipping rates are similar to those in the U.S. for porters, housekeepers, waiters and bartenders. But keep in mind that tips make up the bulk of many service employees’ income; some, like grocery baggers, earn nothing else. Tip taxi and airport shuttle drivers only if they handle bags; 10 pesos (about 50 cents) each is fine. Tip tour guides 10 to 15 percent of the fee. Gas station attendants customarily receive 5 to 10 pesos if they clean your windshield and check your oil and tires. Dollar bills are acceptable for tips, but U.S. coins cannot be exchanged.

Ways to save: Be careful not to double-tip in restaurants: Always check to see whether a service fee is added to the bill. Most times it won’t be, except for larger groups, but a waiter or owner will occasionally try to slip it by a tourist. Non-Spanish-speaking guests often mistake the tax for service charge, but menu prices, by law, already include the 16 percent federal IVA (value-added tax), which may sometimes be broken out for accounting purposes.

Where to stay
With 32,000 hotel rooms just in Cancún alone — from ultra-chic to laid-back beach bum — you’ll be spoiled for choice. Cancún's famous Hotel Zone occupies a skinny island shaped like the number seven, tracing a path between the Caribbean beaches on the east and Nichupté Lagoon on the west. It’s connected to the mainland by two causeways. The mainland city to the north, where Mexicans live and do business, is called El Centro (downtown) even though it sprawls far beyond the city center.

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