Cancun Travel Guide (Cancun, Mexico)

Charter flights from Europe and South America, and direct scheduled flights from dozens of cities in Mexico and North and Central America, land at the airport , 15km south of the centre. Colectivos take you to any part of town for a fixed price (US$7.50 per person to downtown, US$9.50 to the hotel zone) - buy your ticket from the desk by the exit. Taxis cost considerably more. Arriving by bus, you'll pull in at the city's main bus station , in the heart of downtown, just by a roundabout at the major junction of avenidas Tulum and Uxmal.

Av Tulum , Cancún's main street, is lined with the bulk of the city's shops, banks, restaurants and travel agencies, as well as many of the hotels - up side streets, but in view. The state tourist office is a couple of blocks from the bus station at Av Tulum 26 (daily 9am-9pm; tel 9/884-8073) and the friendly bilingual staff will help with even the smallest enquiries. They also dish out free maps and leaflets and copies of the ubiquitous promotional listings magazines , the glossiest of which is Cancún Tips - all information you can pick up at just about every travel agency and hotel reception. There are several other tourist information kiosks on Tulum and in the zona hotelera ; some are genuine, but if you're asked if you want "tourist information" as you pass, it's almost certain you're being selected for a timeshare sales pitch. Many hotels arrange trips to the chief Maya ruins - most commonly Chichén Itzá, Tulum and Cobá. Check with the receptionist about the latest offers.

Downtown you'll be able to walk just about anywhere, but you need some sort of transport to get around the zona hotelera , which stretches for more than 20km. Buses marked "Tulum-Hoteles, Ruta 1" run along Av Tulum every few minutes. There's a fixed fare of US$0.50. Alternatively, taxis are plentiful and can be hailed almost anywhere - the trip between downtown and the zona costs around US$5-8. A car affords you more scope and makes day-trips as far as the ruins at Cobá perfectly feasible.