Cancun Hotels

In the 1970s Mexico's ambitious tourism planners decided to outdo Acapulco with a brand new, world-class resort in the Yucatán Peninsula. The place they chose was a deserted sand spit offshore from the little fishing village of Puerto Juárez. Its name was Cancún.

In the last two decades Cancún has grown from a tiny jungle village into one of the world's best-known holiday resorts. The Mexican government sunk vast sums into landscaping and infrastructure, yielding straight, well-paved roads, drinkable tap water and great swaths of sandy beach.

Cancún has the sun on permanent retainer. The city's temperature averages an idyllic 27°C (80°F) year-round, dipping painlessly from time to time, hitting 19°C (65°F) in January. It can swelter to 38°C (100°F) in May, though ocean breezes keep it more bearable than the rest of Yucatán. Hurricane season lasts from July to November. Cancún got severely clobbered in 2005 by Hurricane Wilma (but has made an impressive recovery since then). November and early December are perhaps the best times to go, as the climate is good, there are fewer tourists and prices are low. The busy season is from mid-December to April, when prices are noticeably higher. Surcharges get tacked on around the Christmas, New Year's and Easter holidays.