Where to stay for family vacation near Cancun?

January 20, 2008 5:22 PM

Family vacation to Cancun area - where should we stay?

Six adults (30s to 60s, vet travelers to newbies, one Spanish-speaker), one young child and a baby. We're looking for a place that's in or near Cancun so we can fly in cheaply and then leave that horrid city behind to explore everything around it on day trips: Isla Mujeres, Isla Holbox, Tulum, Riviera Maya, Chichen Itza. We'd like a house, ideally, reasonably priced ($300-400/night?), convenient to all of the above...and maybe even near or on a beach.

posted by gottabefunky to Travel & Transportation around Cancun, Mexico (5 answers total)

You can rent houses on Isla Mujeres, which I quite like. Last time I was there (more than 10 years ago), there wasn't much around Tulum in terms of places to stay or rent, but Playa del Carmen might also be a good option -- lots of accommodation, and at least last time I was there, still a pleasant, smallish feeling to it.

I'd stay well away from any of the big resort places down the coast south of Cancun, but it sounds like that's not the way you're leaning anyway.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:55 PM on January 20, 2008

If you go down to Tulum, I've enjoyed staying at Ana y Jose.
posted by gen at 7:01 PM on January 20, 2008

2nding Playa del Carmen. There were tons of families there when we went, and it's just as convenient as Cancun for all the trips you mentioned. There are plenty of reasonably priced resorts on the beach. We were happy at the Iberostar we stayed at.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:03 PM on January 20, 2008

I just got back from a trip down that way. We stayed on Isla Holbox and loved it. Once you're on the island you're pretty much stuck there so it wouldn't make a good base but it would be a nice place to stay for two or three days. Very, mellow. Great beach and a nice mellow time. Within two days you'll have eaten at every restaurant on the island. You can see our photos here. URLs to all the places we stayed are in the description for each photo.

Tulum was nice, but not really nice enough to go back to. Too touristy for us.

P.S. TripAdvisor is your friend.
posted by pwb503 at 9:36 PM on January 20, 2008

Response by poster: I should have added that we'd prefer to stay in one place the whole time, no switching hotels. So the closer to more interesting stuff, the better. That's why I'm wondering about being "stuck" on an island.
posted by gottabefunky at 11:00 PM on January 20, 2008