Where to go from Cancun

How far is everything

The single most useful thing to know before booking a hotel: your transfer is twenty minutes or two and a half hours, and that changes the whole trip.

Travel time from Cancun airport
Destination	From CUN	Getting there
Cancun Hotel Zone	20 min	Road
Downtown Cancun	25 min	Road · ADO bus available
Puerto Morelos	30 min	Road
Playa del Carmen	50 min	Road · ADO bus available
Isla Mujeres	20 min + ferry	Road to Puerto Juárez, then 15–20 min ferry
Akumal	1 h 15 min	Road
Tulum	1 h 30 min	Road
Cozumel	50 min + ferry	Road to Playa del Carmen, then 45 min ferry
Chichén Itzá	2 h	Road · 200 km inland
Holbox	2 h 30 min + ferry	Road to Chiquilá, then 25 min ferry

Two of these you cannot drive to. Holbox does not allow cars on the island at all, and Cozumel and Isla Mujeres are reached by passenger ferry. If you were planning to rent a car for the whole trip, factor that in.

Where to go

Cancun Hotel Zone or downtown, beaches by kilometre, and where the food really is. 20–30 MIN Tulum Clifftop Mayan ruins over the Caribbean, cenotes and the most photographed beach in Mexico. 1 H 30 MIN FROM CUN Isla Mujeres A 7.7 km island with the one beach in the region that never gets seaweed. 20 MIN + FERRY Chichén Itzá One of the New Seven Wonders. Two hours inland, and worth starting early. 2 H FROM CUN Holbox Sand streets, no cars, whale sharks in season. The furthest and the quietest. 2 H 30 MIN + FERRY Cozumel The best diving in Mexico. Palancar, Colombia and El Cielo reefs. 50 MIN + FERRY Playa del Carmen Walkable, lively, and the launch point for Cozumel. A better food mix than Tulum. 50 MIN FROM CUN

How we recommend things

We do not take commission from any restaurant, hotel, tour or attraction, and we have no commercial relationship with any of them. The only thing we sell is the airport transfer, and we say so plainly.

That means the recommendations on these pages are based on established reputation, not on who pays us. It also means we will tell you when something is overpriced or when the free option is better — which a site funded by referral fees cannot afford to do.

Guides for your moment

I'm arrivingImmigration, baggage, customs and how to get out I'm departingDocuments, security, timing and your terminal I'm picking someone upWhere to wait, park and what time to arrive I'm planningWhat to pack, what not to, and what it costs to get there

The distance decides the price

Twenty minutes to the Hotel Zone, two and a half hours to Chiquilá for the Holbox ferry. Tell us where you're staying and we'll show you the fixed price for that zone.

26 destination zones · fixed price per vehicle, not per person

See price

Tours and activities

What runs from each of these, how long each day takes and which ones fit around your flight.