Cancun, Mexico cant miss locations?

going to cancun at the end of september for seven days. i will rent

a jeep for three or four days. willing to drive but only want to do

day trips(all inclusive resort!) have info on 5 or 6 ancient ruins

within 3 hours, what else is worth snapping?

Chichen Itza ruins.

Tulum is another obvious choice. I would also spring for a decent guidebook; the

Lonely Planet Yucatan one springs to mind. And if you give up a day of your all-

inclusive, and plan to spend a night somewhere else, you could see some of the other

ruins reasonably accessible out of Merida, like Uxmal. With any of the ruins, early

mornings, before the tour buses and the heat arrive, are usually best.

Having done a few shoots there, Cancun itself is one of my least favorite locations. Pure

and simple it is a tourist trap --by design the existing villages on the site were bulldozed

ino oblivion and therewas a small massacre of the Mayan people who lived there when the

Mexican goverment built Cancun -- Go to enjoy the beach and don't expect much in the

way of scenery. Hopefully they have recreated the beaches in the past ten years (most of

the sand in front of the large resort hotels was washed down to where Club Med is by a

hurricane in the late 1990s.

 

Tulum is very good in the late afternoon, Chichen Itza is astonishing and worth visiting bit

I recommend you plan for an over night stay . See if you can find a small town and go for

Sunday or Saturday market.

Ellis is right. The only reason to be in Cancun is that there's an airport there. If you do go to Chichen Itza and aren't going to stay overnight, leave as early as possible to arrive right when it opens. There isn't much point in going later in the day, it's overrun with people and not much fun. Also, tripod usage costs $35 at some sites and is forbidden at others.

 

You don't really need a jeep to hit the ruins. The most important thing is to have a vehicle with air conditioning.

If you visit Tulum - it's fine early in the morning before the tourons arrive - head inland to Coba. This is a huge site that is slowly being extracted from the grips of the jungle. Great ruins, birds, and far smaller crowds than at the bigger places.

For a non-Cancun view of Mexico, try Isla Mujeres. Rent a golf cart to get from one end of the island to the other, enjoy the small square, watch kids play basketball and soccer, shop at the market. Google will point you to online resources.

Lots of good sites mentioned here. If you do make the trip to Chichen Itza, I would recommend taking the toll road - it's not expensive, and is virtually deserted most times of the day.

 

Steve

Another vote for Isla. The ruins are a must if you've never been. Get there as early as possible. I spent a week there in June and had a great time. Photos will be hard to come by but what tourist spot doesn't have people? And I loved nothing better than at the end of each day going back to my 5 star hotel ordering room service and later taking a dip in the pool(Fiesta American on hotel row). Don't let the other memebers sour it for you. It is VERY huimd in Cancun so you'll have to learn to live with swetting all the time while your down there. Take care when you move from a cool room to the humidity (lens fogging) Enjoy.

I know you want only daytrips, but from a money standpoint Merida is possible. We were staying in downtown Cancun (not all inclusive) and didn't mind keeping our hotel in Cancun while spending one night in Merida because we got a place there for about $30 per night. That was enough time to enjoy the Sunday festival in the city and spend a few hours at the beautiful and very photogenic Uxmal ruins.

 

The Coba-Tulum combo is a great way to spend a day. Tulum is no more than two hours from Cancun, and Coba is another 30-40 minutes inland from the Tulum ruins. I also completely agree with those who advised getting to Chichen-Iza as early as possible. I have a section on my Web site from a few years ago. I had just gotten into photography at the time. You may get some ideas from the photos and travelogs - Cancun, Merida, Uxmal, Chichen-Itza, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Coba, Tulum, and Xel-Ha are covered.

I meant to say I also covered Isla Mujeres in my Web site. A great choice that is easy for a daytrip. Nice beach there too.

Chitzen_Itza, obviously (and other temples).

 

Just like in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, I would recommend shooting in B&W. These temples are vrey grey-ish, vegetation around the complex is very sparce, therefore you get a much stronger sense of place and time of the complex shooting in monochrome, that's my opinion (or shoot both if you wish). Go very early or later (it's a 2-3 hour long trip, bring WATER), the place gets really hot and swarmed with tourists. Isla Mujeres is OK for an afternoon visit (I think the beaches are overrated, but the inexpensive boat trip and the proximity of it from Cancun is worth it), the local cemetary is interesting as a photo subject for instance. Other than that, Cancun is a tourist trap. Cheap Corona beer though.

Do you speak Spanish?

no habla espanol