Cancun ( Quintana Roo Mexico, Riviera Maya)

Cancun is a Caribbean port city located on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico's Quintana Roo state) with population around 0,9 million. Cancun (1970-founded and specifically designed to foster resort-style tourism) is today one of the country's top-visited tourist destinations.

Puerto Juarez Cancun (port locode MXCUN) is the principal seaport (cruise and ferry) and the gateway to Isla Mujeres (Women Island) which is approx 13 km / 8 mi to the east of Cancun City. Regularly scheduled ferries connect Mujeres Island with Cancun's Puerto Juarez Dock and Gran Puerto Pier. The ferry service is provided by two passenger shipping companies (UltraMar Ferries and Jetway Fast Ferry), with UltraMar also providing daily connections between Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. Cancun is approx 100 km / 60 mi from Cozumel (~2,5 hours drive distance).

As cruise port, Cancun is visited by smaller-sized ships and superyachts as Puerto Juarez Dock can handle only vessels with low draft. In 2021 (November through December), the USA company AQV-American Queen Voyages scheduled for its cruise ship Ocean Navigator (fka Victory 2) a new 11-day itinerary themed "Yucatan's Mayan Cruise Tour". Leaving roundtrip from Cancun (homeport), the voyage includes an optional flight to Cancun (overnight hotel stay), bus travel/excursion to Tulum and embarkation in Cozumel (Day 2), Costa Maya (Day 3), Gulf of Mexico cruising (Day 4), Progreso (Day 5), Campeche (Days 6-7 / overnight), Gulf of Mexico cruising (Day 8), Progreso/Valladolid (Day 9), Valladolid/Cancun (Days 10-11 / overnight hotel stay). The cruisetour's prices started from USD 3300 pp (with double occupancy). AQV's land excursions are led by bilingual tour guides and on premium motorcoaches transporting tourists to Chichen Itza.

In 2023 (February 3rd first departure), AQV's Ocean Navigator introduced the 9-day "Immersive Yucatan Exploration Cruise Tour" (from Cozumel to Cancun). The voyage included an overnight hotel in Cozumel (included ferry travel to Playa del Carmen and bus travel to Tulum Archaeological Site and back to Cozumel), departure from Cozumel (Day 2), an overnight port stay in Campeche (Days 4-5), an overnight port stay in Progreso (Days 6-7, including bus travel to Merida and back to Progreso), bus travel/tours to Valladolid and Chichen Itza (Days 8-9), and the cruisetour ended in Cancun. Prices started from USD 3800 pp (with double occupancy).

Cancun has two small-sized Mayan ruins/archeological sites - El Rey (in the Hotel Zone), and El Meco (outside the city). Guided bus tours (traveling to the south along the coastline) visit the Mayan sites Coba, Muyil, Kohunlich, Xcaret, Kohunlich, Kinichna, Dzibanche, Oxtankah, Tulum, Chacchoben. Chichen Itza (in Mexico's Yucatan state) is approx 200 km / 120 mi to the west and accessed via Highway 180. Approx 35 km / 20 mi to the south of Cancun is Puerto Morelos popular for its offshore dive sites and inland freshwater pits/sinkholes, the best-known of which are in Cenote Las Mojarras (diameter 65 m/213 ft, depth 14 m/46 ft) and Cenote Verde Lucero.

Tulum Avenue is the city's main street (running north-south) and also links downtown with Cancun Airport (approx 19 km / 12 mi to the south). The other large streets are Coba and Kukulcan which link to Isla Cancun (Hotel Zone). Paseo Jose Lopez Portillo Avenue connects Cancun (via Carretera Federal 180/Highway 180) to Merida (Puerto Progreso) and runs through Chichen Itza. The main ferryboats to Isla Mujeres dock at Puerto Juarez (on Paseo Jose Lopez Portillo).

By annual traffic, Cancun International Airport is currently ranked Mexico's 2nd-largest (after Mexico City Airport) and Latin America's 3rd-largest (after Mexico City and Sao Paulo's Guarulhos Airport). Cancun Airport has four passenger terminals (total 62 gates) of which the newest (2017-opened) Terminal 4 has annual passenger capacity ~9 million. Numerous airlines interconnect Cancun with popular (domestic and international) destinations, with the busiest routes being Mexico's Mexico City, Monterrey (Nuevo Leon), Guadalajara (Jalisco), Leon (Guanajuato), Veracruz, and Puebla, also Panama City, and the USA's states Texas (Dallas, Houston), Illinois (Chicago), Colorado (Denver), Georgia (Atlanta), Florida (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando), New York (NYC), California (Los Angeles, San Francisco), New Jersey (Newark), North Carolina (Charlotte), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Michigan (Detroit), Maryland (Baltimore), Arizona (Phoenix), Minnesota (Minneapolis), Utah (Salt Lake City), Missouri (St Louis).