Best Things to Do in Cancun That Aren't the Beach (An Honest Local List)

Cancun's beaches are world famous, and rightly so. But if the sand is the only reason you came, you are leaving the best of this place on the table. Behind the hotel zone there is a whole other Cancun of jungle sinkholes, Maya ruins, old markets, world class reefs and a fishing village most tourists drive straight past.

This is the honest local list of what is actually worth your time beyond the beach, from people who live and work here. It includes a few things we would tell you to skip, and one or two tips that will save you money.

If you do one thing that isn't the beach, get under the water

We are a dive and snorkel shop, so of course we would say this, but we mean it: the single most memorable thing you can do in Cancun happens below the surface. You do not need to be a diver. Snorkelers can float over the MUSA underwater museum, a gallery of more than five hundred sculptures slowly turning into reef, and drift above living coral full of fish. Certified divers get the reefs, the wrecks and the deeper galleries.

And inland you have the cenotes, the flooded limestone caves that feel like nothing else on earth, gin clear freshwater lit by beams of sunlight. If you take one recommendation from this whole list, make it this one.

Start with our certified scuba diving and snorkeling tours, read what snorkeling MUSA is really like, or see why cenote diving is worth the trip inland. Water temperatures here sit in the high twenties Celsius for most of the year, so you are comfortable in a thin wetsuit or none at all, and visibility on a good day runs to well over twenty metres.

Take the ferry to Isla Mujeres

A short, cheap ferry hop across the water gets you to Isla Mujeres, a small island with a completely different pace from the hotel zone. Golf carts instead of taxis, calmer beaches, better snorkeling and a relaxed downtown worth wandering. It is one of the easiest and best day trips you can do. It earns its own full guide, which is coming, but for now: go, and go for the whole day rather than a rushed few hours.

Rent a golf cart for the day and loop the whole island: Playa Norte at the northern end is regularly rated one of the best beaches in Mexico, calm and shallow enough to wade out a long way, while Punta Sur at the southern tip has a cliffside sculpture park and the first sunrise point in the country. Take the passenger ferry from Puerto Juarez rather than the pricier hotel zone boats if you want the local price.

Step into the Maya world at Chichen Itza and the ruins

You are in the heart of the Maya world, so see some of it. Chichen Itza, one of the New Seven Wonders, is the headline, a couple of hours inland and genuinely staggering in person. Closer to home there are smaller sites like El Rey right in the hotel zone. The big archaeological days deserve their own honest breakdown of whether the tour is worth it, which we will give them, but do not leave the Yucatan without standing in front of at least one pyramid.

Two honest tips if you go: aim for opening at eight in the morning, before the heat builds and the tour buses roll in from the coast, and pair the ruins with a cooling swim at the nearby Ik Kil cenote. If actually climbing a pyramid matters to you, Coba further south still allows it, and Tulum's ruins perched on a cliff over the Caribbean are the easiest coastal option when you would rather skip the long drive inland.

Escape to Puerto Morelos (and find our beach club)

Here is a local favourite most visitors miss. Puerto Morelos is a small fishing village about half an hour south, with a sleepy square, the best protected reef on the coast and none of the hotel zone noise. Spend a slow beach day there and you will understand why the expat crowd quietly moved down the coast. While you are there, come find Don Ernesto's, our own beachfront spot, home of what regulars will happily tell you is the best happy hour around, from three to four in the afternoon.

Feet in the sand, drink in hand, panoramic water in front of you. We will give Puerto Morelos its own full guide soon, but consider this your tip off. The reef straight off the beach is a protected national marine park, so the snorkeling here is genuinely good without going anywhere, and the small craft market by the square is a nicer, calmer browse than anything you will find in the hotel zone.

Shop like a local, not a tourist

Skip the marked-up hotel zone gift shops. For real character, spend a few hours at Mercado 28 in the old downtown, a warren of stalls where haggling is expected and half the fun, dotted with tiny hole in the wall restaurants that are worth the trip on their own. For a more modern day of it, and genuine deals rather than tourist prices, locals head to Plaza Las Americas, a proper shopping centre off the usual visitor track.

Between the two you can spend a very enjoyable, very cheap day, and take home something better than a fridge magnet. Mercado 28 is also the spot for real Mexican craft: hand embroidered textiles, silver, hammocks and bright Talavera pottery. Agree a price with a smile, be willing to walk away once, and you will usually land somewhere that feels fair to both of you.

Get the photo at Playa Delfines

Yes, it is a beach, but nobody goes to Playa Delfines to swim. They go for the giant colourful CANCUN letters, the most photographed spot in the city, with the turquoise sea behind them. One honest tip: go early. By late morning it is hot, the letters are crawling with people and the queue for a clean photo is real.

First thing in the day you get the shot, the light and the place almost to yourself. It is a free public beach with real Caribbean surf and a lookout over the water, so once you have the shot it is a pleasant place to sit for a while, just do not expect the calm, swimmable water of the sheltered bays further up the coast.

Play a world class round of golf

Not everyone's holiday, but if it is yours, you are in luck. Cancun and the Riviera Maya have several championship courses, some designed by the big names, winding through jungle and mangrove with the odd Maya ruin on the fairway.

They are genuinely world class, and genuinely popular, so book ahead rather than hoping to walk on, especially in high season. Expect jungle fairways with iguanas sunning themselves on the greens and the occasional crocodile minding a water hazard. Book the earliest tee time you can and play before the midday heat really settles in.

Do Coco Bongo once, and use the bathroom before you leave

Cancun's nightlife is legendary, and the one everyone means is Coco Bongo, less a club than a full blown show, with acrobats, tribute performances and confetti storms. It is genuinely worth doing once, and worth booking table service so you are not standing all night.

One honest, money saving tip from people who live here: use the bathroom before you head out. Getting caught relieving yourself outside while you wait for a taxi is exactly the kind of thing that can end in an expensive fine, and it is entirely avoidable. Enjoy the show, then get home the smart way.

Eat where the locals actually eat

The hotel zone will feed you well and charge you for the privilege. The better meals, and the better prices, are downtown. A standout is La Magdalena, where the price is a pleasant shock and the atmosphere is, to put it mildly, a lot of fun.

Add the little kitchens tucked inside Mercado 28 and the taco stands the locals queue at, and you have some of the best eating of your trip for a fraction of the resort bill. We are putting together a full honest restaurant guide, local versus hotel zone, but La Magdalena belongs on any short list.

So what would we actually tell you to do?

If your days are limited, here is the honest priority order.

• Get in the water at least once, ideally a cenote or MUSA. It is the one thing you cannot do at home.

• Give one day to the Maya world, whether that is Chichen Itza or a closer ruin like El Rey in the hotel zone.

• Spend one slow day out of the hotel zone, in Puerto Morelos or wandering downtown and Mercado 28.

• Eat where the locals actually eat at least once. La Magdalena is a fine place to start.

• If you want one big night out, make it Coco Bongo, and do it sensibly.

The beach will still be there when you get back to it, and you will have actually seen Cancun rather than just its coastline.

Ready to start with the best of it? Book a dive or snorkel trip with us, and if you want the honest word on anything else on this list, just ask. We would rather send you somewhere genuinely good than sell you something average.

Dive and snorkel with Manta Divers, Cancun.

Call (800) 659-0712 · Info@mantadivers.com · mantadivers.com