Dining

Cayo Largo

An intimate poolside garden restaurant with a relaxed ambiance, Cayo Largo offers Caribbean seafood and International favorites.
Cayo Largo is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the Terrace Bar is a popular spot for cocktails.

Pacos Tacos

The upper deck at Cayo Largo is home to Paco's Tacos, our casual and colorful Tex-Mex restaurant. Satisfy your cravings for a crispy hard shell Tex-Mex taco, a burrito, chimichanga or your favorite fajitas. Of course, we also serve a variety of traditional Mexican tacos with soft corn and flour tortillas, guacamole and spicy salsas! Open daily: 12 noon - 10 p.m.

Bartolo's Pizza

Order a pizza to go from the convenient resort delivery service.

Tradewinds at The Royal Caribbean

Casual dining, Caribbean decor, buffet breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch, seafood and steaks for dinner, giving a taste of the topics.

La Palapa at The Royal Mayan

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, La Palapa features International favorites such as hamburgers and sandwiches and mouthwatering Mexican specialties including fish and shrimp tacos and Yucatecan lime soup.

El Conquistador at The Royal Mayan

Cancun's best kept secret, this intimate little restaurant is an enchanting spot for a romantic candlelit dinner. The menu features French, Italian and International specialties, seafood and prime Angus steaks. Tableside flambes are a house specialty, there is an Early Bird Special for those who like an early evening meal, and for an unforgettable dining experience don't miss Prime Rib Night.

Captain's Cove at the Royal Yacht Club & Marina

the street Lagoon location. Waterfront indoor/outdoor dining, fresh seafood and cuisine, breakfast buffet and Sunday brunch, Happy Hour and dinner buffet available.

Exchange money

Best place to exchange money at Cancun Airport or PDC

Aug 25, 2011, 1:47 AM

I would do it at the airport. Be wary of ATM's as I've heard of some charging outrageous rates. I did use the one at Walmart; however, and only paid a $2.50 fee.


Sorry, I would not take this advice



Exchange money at airports anywhere in the world give lousy rates as do ATMs that give US$.

I know there is a Santander (Bank of America afilliated) in Terminal 3


I'd rather pay the 3% fee at the ATM.



The bank affiliated ATM at the airport or in town will always be best. And, as said above, get pesos, never dollars.

 if you bank with Bank of America, you can make withdrawls from Banco Santander Serafin in pesos without a service charge.

It has often been said that Cancun airport, surprisingly, offers a good rate. The problem here is that until you've had chance to check out the alternatives you have nothing to compare against. I'd tend to steer clear of changing money at the airport unless you are well aware of the rates in Cancun.

The best place to change travelers checks is at a money exchange place or 'Cambio' in downtown Cancun. The Cambio's in the hotel zone normally offer an inferior rate but may be more convenient, there are many of these in the main shopping areas. Your hotel probably offers the worst rate going, however, they are convenient and you may not feel it worth the effort of a bus ride in to town to make a few extra dollars as you may have better things to do! 

Royal Islander

Location.
On the beach in Cancun (Cancun Hotel Zone), The Royal Islander is close to Playa Delfines, El Rey Ruins, and Aquaworld. Additional attractions near this condominium resort include La Isla Shopping Mall and Luxury Avenue.

Property Features.
The Royal Islander has a marina, an outdoor pool, and a children's pool. Wireless and wired high-speed Internet access is complimentary in public areas.

Complimentary wireless high-speed Internet access is provided.

Standard Room

Spacious and tastefully decorated, the rooms at The Royal Islander have two beds, ample closets, an en suite bathroom with shower and tub, centrally controlled air-conditioning and complimentary Wi-Fi access. Room amenities include a TV, telephone, coffee maker, microwave oven, mini fridge and an in-room safe. The balcony offers panoramic views of the Caribbean, the pool area and gardens or the Nichupte Lagoon.

Spend the morning on the beach or by the pool, play tennis or join in the daily activities lined up for you. Sign up for an hour's sail boating on the lagoon or try your hand at pottery painting, and of course you can also enjoy the facilities at the neighboring Royal Caribbean and Royal Mayan.

There are lighted tennis courts at the resort and tennis gear can be signed out at the Sports Desk.

• Aerobics on site
• Bicycle rentals on site
• Bird watching nearby
• Boating nearby
• Boat launch nearby
• Dock on site
• Ecotours nearby
• Fishing nearby
• Golfing nearby
• Golf lessons on site
• Helicopter/airplane tours nearby
• Kayaking nearby
• Motor boating nearby
• Parasailing nearby
• Personal motorized watercraft on site
• Pilates classes on site
• Playground on site
• Running track/path nearby
• Sailing on site
• Scooter/moped rentals nearby
• Scuba diving nearby
• Snorkeling nearby
• Surfing/boogie boarding nearby
• Swimming on site
• Table tennis on site
• Tennis lessons on site
• Tennis on site
• Volleyball on site
• Water skiing nearby
• Whale-watching nearby
• Windsurfing nearby
• Yoga classes/instruction on site

Wi-Fi access is available in the villas and throughout the resort. Water sports can be arranged at the lagoonside Royal Marina next to Captain’s Cove restaurant. Guests can also use the facilities at sister clubs The Royal Caribbean and The Royal Mayan and a shuttle bus service links all five Royal Resorts.

We tried all the Royal Resorts restaurants in Cancún and we can safely recommend the following. If you are going for the buffet breakfast, stay away from the restaurant at the Royal Islander. Oddly it is not as good as the Palapa restaurant in the Royal Mayan (stroll from the Royal Islander through the Royal Caribbean on to the Royal Mayan). If it is a Sunday, go to Captain's Cove breakfast. In fact, the only restaurant of the Royal Resorts in Cancún that we can recommend is Captain's Cove, both for breakfast and for dinner. Food is good and the price is justified. 

We played tennis on the courts one day, and they were very nice and kept up nice with lights so you could play at night too. The raquets and balls were complimentary.   But on the bright side, the wifi was very good throughout the hotel.

Oh, we ate breakfast in our room almost everyday with the purchases we made in the Royal market

Free wifi (but pretty bad connection in the room),
no toiletries provided (shampoo, conditioner, body wash)

market place to get drink mixers, water, milk, eggs, bacon, toast, pico de gallo and ice for our 8 day stay. The priced were reasonable, not as cheap as WalMart but very reasonable. We planned on having breakfast 4-6 days in the suite and eating lunch and dinner out. We ate at Pacos Tacos several times, the fish tacos are the best I have ever had, ever.

the bus only costs 8.5 peso per person irrespective of distance

If you need internet, make other arrangements. The resort provided internet on a complimentary basis and we received very limited service. Enough to check email, but not much more. If you are bringing children and plan on streaming netflix movies. Not going to happen.

enjoying complimentary chips & salsa around the pool during happy hours

Go to the welcome party, free drinks! We met our concierge Shari who was such a delight. She gave us some advice on the best places to shop, snorkel, and eat.

It is actually easier to use pesos than the american dollar, but you have to continually remind yourself of what the exchange rate is or again you will pay more for things than they are worth. The best shopping we found was at market 28 in Cancun.

Always a great stay but the internet service is terrible. I have stayed here before and never had problems, but this time was the worst

Many activities that were included in your rental fee - sail boats, snorkel equipment, games, classes.

Upon arriving in Cancun, we caught the shuttle for our pre-booked airport transfer with Thomas More excursions. It was a nice ride and the driver and porters were very nice. The upon booking, you can enter your room number (if known) or the hotel confirmation number and the fee is charged to your room. Pretty convenient.

limited amenities (no shampoo, conditioner, lotion which seem to be standard in all the hotels and timeshare resorts we stay in these days). We were in a small studio which appears to be a lock off from a larger unit and included a small microwave, refrigerator, coffee maker and a drawer with plates and silverware but I would definitely not call it a kitchenette--more like a hotel room with these minor additions.

We were very appreciative to find out there was free WiFi but subsequently disappointed when we discovered how sporadic the service was. We kept getting and loosing signal even though the signal always indicated it was very strong

According to one taxi driver The Royal Islander has the best beach of all Cancun. I liked the beach very much.

Gotta love happy hour!!! Free chips and salsa and half price on drinks.
We used Cancun Shuttle for transporation and they were cheaper than Thomas Moore and were friendly and prompt!

the drinks were usually fairly strong. I especially liked the “vacation” sized margaritas in the Paco Taco restaurant. There were happy hours each day with half-priced drinks

NS: The location is probably the biggest con since you are pretty far from most Cancun restaurants and shopping. The resort had a shuttle bus but it was very small and only ran a couple times a day so it was not very convenient and filled quite quickly. So we ended-up taking taxis (easy to get) or used the city bus (very cheap). Again related to location, the Islander isn't on the main street where the bus ran so you had to walk all the way to the Mayan and then a couple blocks to the main street to catch it. The Royal Sands is in a much better location and about the same price (and newer). The internet was very spotty at best and very slow when we could connect. I can only imagine how bad it would be in the winter when they have a lot more guests

only a towel for each person in the room and they charge for extra towels. So this can be a problem but you can work around it by checking out a pool/beach towel and exchanging it several times a day if you want to. Finally, while it is true you have a personal “concierge” assigned to you, I found that his primary job was to try and get you to take a tour of their latest property and try and sell you on a membership. I ended-up unplugging the phone so he couldn't bother us. You can book tours through the tour desk anyway (and they can answer any of your questions) so I didn't see much value in having a salesman assigned to me.

 For us the downside of that is that when you are signing in, you are assigned a "personal concierge" that you are supposed to have access to all week and that will give you recommendations and make reservations for you, etc. Actually their main job is to make sure you hear a timeshare presentation. We have always made it very clear that we are there on an exchange and are not going to buy a timeshare there right up front, so as not to waste their time or ours

The different restaurants have various theme nights throughout the week. Our favorite, and the one my husband has always called "the deal of the week", is the Mexican Buffet with live show at La Palapa at the Royal Mayan on Monday night. The buffet is quite good, and margaritas are included with the meal. The waiters continue to walk by during the show, long after you've finished your meal, making sure you are not thirsty. We have not found these to be all that watered down either, in fact, quite the opposite, and it always surprises us just how free flowing the margaritas are.

hear the bell ring at 3pm from the pool bar signifying that Happy Hour has begun. Prices are half off
And we love Pacos Tacos there at the Islander also. They have a great combo plate that I recommend trying. It's alot of food


I was looking forward to sailing the small and free sail boats again, but that didn't go well. They were unable to provide me with a reasonable wind :)

Other reviewers stated that the rooms needed updating. We did not find that at all. They were exactly as shown in the photos on their website - very nice.

The welcome party on Sunday afternoon was fun. Free beer and rum/coke for drinks. You could purchase food. Great way to meet other guests. They also have "Happy Hour" from 3-6 each day. Drinks are 1/2 off. Drinks and food kept me from rating this a 5 star. The drinks were watered down. You couldn't get a buzz on if you tried.

We used Cancun Transfers in lieu of Thomas Moore.. cheaper..
We particularly love the fish tacos at Pancho Willys

We also borrowed golf equipment from the sports desk (towel hut outside) and played golf at a Par 3 Course, the Grand Oasis which is a short walk away. It was a nice course and we had it all to ourselves. It was $20 to play if you don't need to rent clubs or buy golf balls.

Shopping

When shopping in Cancun, you can either go into downtown or the hotel zone. Downtown is much cheaper.

• Market 28. This is the local market in downtown Cancun. Great shopping for souvenirs. It also has some great Mexican outdoor restaurants. Very cheap and good shopping. Don't forget to bargain. edit

• Market 23. This is more of a 'locals' market. Doesn't have the same range as Market 28, but is worth a visit. edit

• La Isla Mall, KM 12.5 hotel zone, ☎ 998 8835025, [27]. Beautiful mall in the hotel zone. Offers many boutiques and designer stores plus a wide range of restaurants and bars. Nicest mall in town! mid to high.

• La Isla, [20] La Isla is a huge outside shopping mall in Cancun right near many of the local hotels. It features hundreds of stores ranging from American brands like Polo to Mexican brands like Senor Frogs. There are numerous restaurants including Chili's and McDonald's along with more local Mexican foods.

Chichen Itza

Step 4

Visit the Pyramid of Kukulcan, also known as El Castillo. This is the most famous of the Mayan Pyramid, and was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in 2007. Check to see if climbing the pyramid is permitted before doing so, as climbing is periodically banned.

Step 5

See the Cenote of Sacrifice, one of the famous flooded sinkholes of the Yucatan. This is also where the Mayans sacrificed human victims to their rain god.

Step 6

Visit the other ancient sites of the lost city of Chichen Itza, such as the seven ball courts. One of those is the largest of its kind in Mesoamerica. There are also many other temples, palaces, and zumbul, or sweat lodges.




If you can't make it during the equinox don't worry as this is recreated nightly in the awesome sound and light show after dusk.
Chichen Itza was built around 600AD which is almost 1,500 years ago! The main pyramid El Castillo has 91 steps on each of it's four side leading to the throne room at the top making a total of 365. The pyramid was actually built on top of a smaller pyramid and this was only discovered as recently as the 1930's and contained a Chac Mool statue and a temple in the shape of a Jaguar.

At the present time you are no longer allowed to climb El Castillo, often this is attributed to structural damage from Hurricane Wilma in 2005, but of course Chichen Itza survived Wilma just as it has survived other hurricanes for thousands of years. Sadly, the true reasons are erosion from thousands of feet on the steps, graffiti carved into the temple at the summit and accidents where people have either accidentally fallen or deliberately jumped from the top.
El Castillo isn't the only interesting feature to be found at Chichen Itza. The Mayan Ballpark, the Temple of the Warriors, the Cenote of Sacrifice and the Observatory provide other spectacular scenes from a world long forgotten

Tour Attractions

The ancient Mayan civilization of Chichen Itza is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (unesco.org), located on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It features several ancient monuments, buildings, and artistic works of art. Popular sights to see include El Castillo's stepped pyramid, the warrior's temple and El Caracol's circular observatory. Other sights to consider exploring are the underwater "Cenote" grotto, the Skull Wall, Temple of the Jaguar, House of the Eagles and many more tombs and temples.

Valladolid

THE COLONIAL CITIES

A trip to one of the nearby colonial cities is an adventure into the past. Many of the cities in this area are an exotic blend of the Spanish and Maya cultures giving them an distinct character and charm.

Valladolid

Valladolid is a city founded in 1543 by the Spanish Conqueror Francisco de Montejo. It is a picturesque village with many 19th century buildings and churches. Its main sights are the large cathedral found off the main square and the marvelous ex-Franciscan convent and church of Saint Bernardino of Siena (founded in 1552). Both were ransacked during the War of the Castes when the Maya, tired of abuse and discrimination, rose up against the Spanish residents, killing most of them and reclaiming the city. A history of this uprising is displayed in a series of paintings in the town hall. In the middle of town is the ancient cenote Zaci where the original Maya city of Sisal was first built. Other architectural highlights include a variety of majestic mansions, the cathedral of Saint Servacio, and the museum of Saint Roque. Outside of town is the famous Dzitnup cenote, an underground water hole feature in National Geographic. Valladolid is famous for its delicious sausages and its local liqueur, Xtabentún, flavored with honey and anise. There are also excellent markets where you can buy sandals, baskets, handmade textiles and leather goods. Located on Highway 180, two hours west of Cancun.

http://www.visitcancun.com/activitiessubpage.htm

Museums

Mexico's multi-million dollar Mayan museum in Cancun

Museo del National Institute of Anthropology and History (Museo del INAH / INAH Museum)

Address: Retorno del Rey, Cancun, 77500, Mexico, MX
Tel: +52 998 883 0305
Cancun's National Institute of Anthropology and History Museum, often abbreviated simply to the INAH Museum, is an impressive archaeological museum and located on the southerly side of the Centro de Convenciones, within the Zona Hotelera. The majority of the exhibits date back to the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries and include jewellery, masks and even some skulls, being displayed in a series of individual rooms. Various art works and visiting exhibitions complete the main attractions.
Open hours: Tuesday to Friday - 09:00 to 20:00, Saturday and Sunday - 10:00 to 19:00
Admission: free

National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH)

Cancun’s museum is located on the ground floor of the city's convention center. It traces the Maya culture with an impressive collection of 1,000 to 1,500-year-old artifacts. There are a number of impressive carvings and frescoes, along with ancient artifacts that have been unearthed at nearby sites throughout Quintana Roo. A visit to the National Institute of Anthropology and History can add another dimension to your exploration of the Maya ruins and is a fascinating introduction to the ancient culture. It’s also a great way to pass a rainy day in Cancun. Guided tours in English, French, German, and Spanish are available. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 9 AM – 7 PM. Admission: $3, children under 11 free. Sundays free. Located at the Cancun Convention Center, Blvd Kukulcán Km 9. Tel: (998) 883-0305. 

Zona Arqueológica El Rey

Address: Boulevard Kukulcán, Retorno del Rey, Cancun, 77500, Mexico, MX
Located within the Archeological Zone of Cancun, this cultural attraction is regularly visited by tourists and offers an insight into the region's ancient and quite fascinating Maya civilisation. The Zona Arqueológica El Rey is an impressive archaeological site and was once a city, with remains dating back to 13th century. Guided tours are one of the best ways to make sense of these remains and are available in different languages, including English.
Open hours: daily - 08:00 to 17:00
Admission: charge

According to the director of the INAH, Alfonso de Maria y Campos, the more than 12 million annual foreign and local visitors that come to Cancun for its sun and beaches will be pleasantly surprised to discover this unique museum in the area’s famous hotel zone. The museum expects about a million annual guests.

Five buildings are open to the public: The Great Pyramid, a 26 foot structure where the main building is located; The South, comprising of residential units, palace-style building and small altars; Dragons - named in the 1970’s after an area where snake heads were found and mistaken for dragon heads - in this area stands a temple adorned with fragments of ancient mural paintings of animals and marine elements.

Next to the Maya Museum, the San Miguelito archeological site recently opened as well. This location was inhabited over 800 years ago until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.
Cancun’s Maya Museum and the archeological site of San Miguelito are located on Km 16 on Kukulkan Boulevard in Cancun’s Hotel Zone.

The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., except on Thursday (7 a.m. – 10 p.m.) Tickets cost around $5 for access to both the museum and San Miguelito site.

Children under 13 and adults over 60 years old receive free admission. On Sunday, admission is free to local residents with official identification.
http://cancun.travel/en/2012/11/16/cancun-welcomes-its-very-own-maya-museum-2/

1. located at km 16 of the Cancun hotel zone, within the 20-acre premises of the Archaeological Site of San Miguelito.
   
   
   
   Three exhibit halls, elevated more than 3,000 feet above sea level to prevent flood damage during storms, focus on the Mayan people, architecture, art and artifacts, including tools and fragmented sculptures.