The most beautiful and clean beaches on the entire Caribbean coast Mexico — in Cancún (from Isla Mujeres the beaches are even more beautiful). Even when the entire coast of the Mayan Riviera was littered with algae last summer, Cancun's beaches looked the cleanest. In addition, their cleanliness is carefully monitored.
Absolutely all beaches are municipal property, which means you have the opportunity to breathe on any beach, even on spruce beaches. Lying on the sand — This is free, but sometimes you have to pay for the use of sun loungers or umbrellas, especially in the area of hotels or beach clubs.
Public beaches in Cancún are located in the so-called Hotel Zone — on a sand spit with a length of more than 20 km, where in addition all the key hotels are located and where the guest is considered the country center of the city. There are no other beaches outside the Hotel Zone, except one: Playa Niño in the Puerto Juárez area.
Access to all public beaches in Cancún is free. You cannot get to the Fromel beaches through the Fromel territory, but you can walk along the shore.
Beaches of the Cancúna Hotel Zone
Kukulkan Boulevard runs through the entire Cancúna Hotel Zone. Its beginning (the so-called “zero kilometer”) is considered to be the intersection with Bonampak Avenue in downtown. Accordingly, all beaches in the Hotel Zone are located on one or another kilometer of Kukulkan Boulevard.
Playa las Perlas
2.5 km Kukulkan Boulevard
This is the closest beach to downtown, there are always a lot of people breathing here, both the local population and guest countries. Beach location — on the northern part of the sand spit — protects it from big waves, the sea here is always calm. In some places, entry into the water is obstructed by stones, and the sea is quite shallow.
The beach has only palm trees for shade, but there are also changing rooms and toilets. There are only a few restaurants and bars along the shore. The beach also offers all kinds of water activities.
Nearby is a pier lined with fishing boats. There is another beach nearby, Playa Juventud, but we would not separate them.
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Playa Linda
4 km Kukulkan Boulevard
The beach is located on both sides of the canal connecting the Caribbean Sea and the Nichupte Lagoon. From the entrance to the beach it is better to go to the right, where it is cleaner and less crowded. Like on the previous beach, there are a lot of locals breathing here, and therefore it is quite noisy. There are almost never strong waves. Nearby are popular entertainment, a shopping mall, the Cancúna Theater, the Ultramar ferry terminal on Isla Mujeres and restaurants on the ships.
The beach offers a lot of entertainment, beach volleyball, tennis, etc. The descent into the water is sandy and gentle. Sun loungers and umbrellas are available from the spruce trees located along the shore. There are also changing rooms and toilets here.
We would call this beach a real city public beach!
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Playa Langosta
5 km Kukulkan Boulevard
A spacious and beautiful beach, loved by many vacationers. There are umbrellas only near the trees, but there the width of the beach is smaller, and there are more people breathing. Towards the entrance, the beach widens and there are noticeably fewer people. The water is almost always calm and clean.
Apart from the from zone, there are almost no hotels, bars or restaurants. But everything is calm and measured.
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Playa Pez Volador
5 km Kukulkan Boulevard
Behind the Casa Maya hotel is Pez Volador Beach, little known, rather because there is no direct access to it — you should walk along the shore, and because the shore there is rocky, there are also places for breathing and swimming. The beach is not wide at all. There is almost no infrastructure.
The beach is mostly visited by residents of neighboring hotels, but it is always clean and especially romantic.
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Playa Tortugas
6 km Kukulkan Boulevard
One of the most popular and visited beaches in Cancúna. There is all the infrastructure, and even a jumping tower. The beach here is wide, the shore is flat, the entrance to the water is very comfortable.
Here you can find several bars and restaurants; guests are offered a variety of water activities. Mexican guests from countries visiting Cancún, for some reason, are often taken to this beach.
The beach is not surrounded by spruce trees, so sometimes there are problems with removing algae. On the other hand, it is from this beach, in our opinion, that real Caribbean beaches begin, as we are used to seeing them on advertising brochures.
Near the beach there is a large parking lot, shops and a souvenir market. In addition, the Ultramar ferries depart from here to Isla Mujeres.
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Playa Caracol
8.5 km Kukulkan Boulevard
A small beach sandwiched between fir trees and a residential complex in the heart of the Cancúna Hotel Zone, in Punta Cancun, in front of the Chedraui Selecto supermarket. In the evenings there are likely to be a lot of locals here, taking their breath away after their shift. But here it is always clean, snow-white sand, the sea is a beautiful turquoise color, and big waves are quite rare.
The strip of sand is quite narrow, abutting the wall of the pool fromel. After 3 o'clock in the afternoon the sun sets behind the fir trees, and the entire beach is plunged into shadow.
In our opinion, this is one of the best beaches in Cancún, especially for those who do not need large, large numbers of «organized» from breathing and endless promoters of water activities. One bad thing: there are no toilets or changing rooms here. But the piers give the beach a special romance!
Behind this beach, the spit (and Kukulkan Boulevard) makes a sharp turn from south, the sea there is already covered and less calm, but the beaches — wider and with a deeper turquoise water shade due to greater depth.
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Playa Gaviota Azul
9.5 km Kukulkan Boulevard
The further along Kukulkan Boulevard, the wider the beaches, and the fewer people on the beaches. On the other hand, the sea here is often rough and the winds are stronger. But there are always a lot of people on the Gaviota Azul beach, and the waves are not that big yet.
You can get to Gaviota Azul beach through the passage behind the Coco Bongo club. Accordingly, it is always crowded and very young. Music, clubs serve cocktails, everything is for sale, and it’s hard to call this beach a family beach. Toilet and shower are paid. This is the center of the Hotel Zone, the prices here are not at all affordable.
A common occurrence — night beach discs. So this beach is never deserted even at night.
We would not single out another local beach — Playa Forum, located closer to the Forum shopping center. By and large, he and Gavifroma Azul — one beach.
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Playa Chac Mool
10 km Kukulkan Boulevard
A wide beach with snow-white sand, which is crowded only on weekends. You can safely walk along the shore for long distances. Sun loungers, umbrellas, cocktails — There is everything here, even the traditional cold beer vendors on Cancun beaches.
The sea is already more choppy, but there are lifeguards on the beach (like many others), and they warn about the strength of the waves by hanging flags of the appropriate color. The beach attracts surfers and parasailing enthusiasts.
When it’s windy, the horizon is covered with a haze of waves sprayed over the water surface, and the beach no longer seems so spacious. On the other hand, in hot weather the sea spray always brings relief.
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Playa Marlin
13 km Kukulkan Boulevard, entrance on the left side from Kukulkan Plaza.
Marlin is quite similar to the previous beach, but it is larger and therefore more deserted. Umbrellas are only available near the trees, which surround the beach. There are no bars; drinks can be purchased from peddlers. In addition, there is a problem with toilets, but you can ask for one.
Sometimes this beach is positioned as a place where turtles come from laying their eggs. The Ritz Carlton can even arrange a tour for you to a small turtle sanctuary, but in recent years there have been noticeably fewer turtles. There are also the Mayan ruins of Yamil Lu'um, which can be accessed without payment through The Westin. Honestly speaking, a modest likeness of its more famous brothers.
To eat, cross the highway to the La Isla shopping center. All basic entertainment (except the sea) in this area are located there.
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Playa Ballenas
14 km Kukulkan Boulevard
Some people believe that this is one of the most beautiful beaches in the southern part of the Hotel Zone, due to the rocks and trees surrounding the beach. But there are also a lot of people here, more people breathing, but there is still no independent beach infrastructure.
Strong undercurrents are already beginning to appear here, and at times swimming becomes unsafe.
Access to the beach — or from other beaches, or from the highway past the Meridien Hotel.
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Playa San Miguelito
16.5 km Kukulkan Boulevard
You will not find much difference between this beach and others located nearby. Actually, this is just one of the long beaches, which stretch for 10 kilometers from the center of the Hotel Zone almost to the exit towards the airport.
Beach infrastructure is only available near the hotels. The Museum of the Mayan World (Museo Maya) and the archaeological site of San Miguelito are nearby.
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Playa Delfines
17.5-19 km Howulkan Boulevard
Playa Delfines — the largest and one of the most famous beaches in Cancúna. It is here that there is a large platform with large colored letters CANCUN, to which there is always a line of people wishing to have their photograph taken.
This is a huge and very wide, simply endless beach, where you will feel all the beauty and power of the Caribbean Sea. It has everything that visitors to the country need: free straw palapas, free toilets and changing rooms, free parking. It's never crowded here — This beach is simply impossible to fill! There are cafes and sellers of drinks and souvenirs, and there are sellers of water activities. But the sea here is quite often choppy. However, lifeguards will always warn you that swimming is not advisable.
The sea here is quite deep, the shore often washes away. But the waves are very beautiful, long and stretch towards the shore from the very horizon. The sand here is also somewhat different than on other beaches: not white, but rather gray-yellow and coarser.
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Playa Coral
The only beach in Cancún, Mexico, where dogs are officially allowed, — Playa Coral. It is also called El Mirador II. The beach is located at the 25th kilometer of the Hotel Zone, right at the turn from Kukulkan Boulevard to the airport. This is the very last beach in the Cancúna Hotel Zone.
There is free parking on the beach. The beach is also equipped with palapas (straw umbrellas) and changing rooms. The area is small, but very green and cleaned regularly.
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How to get there
All the beaches of the Cancúna Hotel Zone can be reached by bus routes R-1 and R-2, which run on both sides of Kukulcan Boulevard at intervals of several minutes, if not one after the other. Price of travel — 12 MXM ($0.6). Tell the driver the name of the beach and he will tell you where to get off. On these same buses it is possible to get to the beaches from Downtown and some other areas of Cancúna.
The price of a taxi fare, even within the Hotel Zone, starts from 150 MXN ($7.7) for a short trip. You can try to bargain with the taxi driver, but this is not always possible.
If you rent a car, keep in mind that not all beaches have free parking, and some have no available parking at all. In this case, just go to another beach — As you can see, there is no shortage of beaches in Cancún.
Dogs are not allowed on all public beaches in Cancúna.
Playa El Niño
The only beach located outside the Hotel Zone — Playa Niño («Children's Beach») in the Puerto Juárez area. This beach, of course, cannot be compared in beauty to the main Cancun beaches, but it has its own charm. Those who are breathing in Puerto Juáreze just need to get out of the area and cross the road.
It's more of a rural beach. On weekdays it’s quite deserted, but on weekends the beach is filled with locals, who come from families with all their inherent flavor: mariachi musicians, shrimp on skewers, noisy and a lot of children.
This beach also has the highest environmental label «Blue Flag» and good beach infrastructure: showers, toilets, a sufficient number of shelters from the sun and palm trees on the shore. Nearby are several «authentic» fish restaurants (more like coastal cafes), which serve freshly cooked fish and seafood. Let us add that Puerto Juárez is also famous for its fish shops.
The sand is yellow and coarse, very clean. The sand strip is not as wide as in the Hotel Zone. Entry into the sea may be difficult due to the rocky bottom near the shore, a little further — rocks covered with algae. But the water is always clear and very warm due to its shallow depth.
There are numerous residential complexes with apartments for rent nearby, so foreign travelers on this beach — are by no means rare guests.
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How to get there
From downtown Cancun towards Puerto Jaures, city buses run on routes R-1 and R-6. From terminus R-1 (Ultramar ferry terminal) you need to walk 500 meters towards the beach; bus R-6 makes its final stop right on the beach. Price of travel — 10-12 MXN.
In addition, you can take a taxi from the center of Cancun to the beach (60 MXN or less than $3).
There is free parking near the beach.