Cancun Wonders Blog Articles, Stories & Advice Travel & Tours

Archivo de enero de 2009

Casa González
Simple, centrally located guesthouse with a nice garden. Draws foreign budget travelers, university students, and groups of all ages. The 32 rooms are all unique and comfortable. Walking distance from the Zona Rosa, but tucked away from the hubbub. Rió Sena 69, Col. Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City.

 

Hostel Mundo Joven Catedral
The location right behind the towers of the Metropolitan Cathedral and within earshot of the thudding Conchero drums has backpackers and international guests clamoring for dorm rooms and suites with bath and small terrace. Single-sex and mixed floors, wireless Internet. República de Guatemala 4, Col. Centro, Mexico City.

 

 “Some still see us as a leisure destination, yet our infrastructure is ideally suited to meetings and conventions of all size,” says Daniela Martinez, groups and conventions manager for the Cancun Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In September, the World Travel Awards North & Central America awarded a prize to the Cancun Center, Conventions & Exhibitions, naming it the best convention center in Mexico and Central America. The prestigious awards have been called “the Oscars of the Travel Industry” by The Wall Street Journal.

The 154,000-square-foot Cancun Center in the heart of the hotel zone can accommodate 8,000 simultaneous attendees; its 13 meeting rooms can be divided into 37 breakout rooms, yielding 75,350 sq. ft. of meeting space. In addition, the center offers 78,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, spanning two levels.

To recognize the importance of meeting and convention travelers, who bring in more than 51-million U.S. dollars to the destination each year, the CVB has extended its popular discount card for another year. The average visitor to Cancun with a group or convention stays four days and three nights and spends $1,250 per person, or 30 percent more than the average individual visitor. The cards provide significant savings at more than 140 participating restaurants, jewelry stores and other retailers, golf courses and other travel-related companies within Cancun and nearby Puerto Morelos.

Situated in the tropical tourist region known as Riviera Maya, Playa del Carmen is 65 kilometres south of Cancun and 20 kilometres from the island of Cozumel. This hot spot provides all the sun, sand and surf of its trendy cousins.
Named for Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patron saint of Cancun, Playa del Carmen was a rest stop and readying point for the earliest travellers making their way from the great Mayan cities to the island of Cozumel. From the same shores that now house modern-day resorts and restaurants, they launched dugout canoes to journey across the open water.

During ensuing centuries of European exploration, Spaniards travelled up and down the Yucatan Peninsula, and pirate ships patrolled the waters. Trade was established in the area, where local commodities like salt and honey were bartered for goods imported from other regions.
Today, bartering still takes place, with the commodity being the Mexican peso or U.S. dollar. You can still venture away from the shoreline, but the vessel will most likely be a kayak, fishing boat or perhaps a parasail. But first, you have to get to the waterfront.
Riviera Maya’s coastline extends nearly 145 kilometres along the eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula, with Playa del Carmen at the heart of it all. Bordered by the Caribbean Sea, the beach looks exactly like those magazine pictures of turquoise water and sparkling white sands.

If you are visiting Playa del Carmen, you must stroll down La Quinta Avenida, or Fifth Avenue, a festive pedestrian walkway running parallel to the ocean. It offers a wide selection of shopping, dining and entertainment, along with Internet cafes, money exchangers and other specialty places. It’s also lined with boutiques, stores and kiosks, giving tourists plenty of potential to practise the age-old tradition known as haggling. Of course all that walking around and haggling will make you hungry, so stop in at one of the many restaurants along the Quinta. With ex-patriots from dozens of countries around the globe calling Playa del Carmen home, the town has a vast selection of food choices, including Italian, Argentinean, Chinese, French and other cuisines.

After a long day’s roaming it’s always a relief to rest your weary head. Being one of Mexico’s fastest-growing destinations, Playa del Carmen has had a boom in the quantity and quality of lodgings. Small hotels possess a captivating Caribbean charm, with some offering spectacular ocean views, while others resemble cosy nests surrounded by tropical jungle. And of course you have the high-end, all-inclusive resorts, which line the waterfront up and down the Yucatan Peninsula. Looking like fenced-in fortresses, some of these places are the size of small villages and have all the amenities.