Can a Cancun Vacation Deliver the Authentic Taste of Mexico?
Tourism is clearly an important industry in Mexico. It accounts for a huge slice of the country’s GDP, a factor that has prompted Mexican governments to work to promote the region as a global tourist hub for decades. It welcomes tens of millions of international tourists each year (largely recovering from the worldwide slump in 2020), many of whom will arrive from Canada and the United States.
Cancun, of course, will be top of many people’s lists for a Mexican vacation. In 2022, Cancun International Airport welcomed 30 million visitors, ranking it as one of the most popular holiday destinations in the world. For many of us, the pristine beaches and luxury hotels on the Yucatan Peninsula represent a dream destination. But one might ask: Is Cancun authentically Mexican?
Cancun is a Wonderful Hub
The answer is a little more nuanced than one might think. Let’s start by considering what is authentically Mexican. Often, we might delve into cliché. We might think of tequila, the Day of the Dead, sombreros, the emblems we see in Mexican game titles like Spinata Grande, and so on. There is validity to these symbols – Mexico still makes the world’s best tequila – but there is also an idealism that does not befit a modern country.
Cancun very much serves an international tourist population. You’ll likely go through your vacation without using Pesos, and you’ll probably never need to speak a word of Spanish (although it’s always polite to try). As you lounge on the sun beds at the Intercontinental Presidente or Hard Rock Hotel, you’ll be lying next to Americans, Canadians, British, Germans, and so on. Only a handful of your fellow holidaymakers will be from Latin America, although that has started to change in recent years.
Nonetheless, Cancun has positioned itself as a destination to escape to, not to explore. Broadly speaking, tourists want to eat, drink, and relax. It is not – and again, we mean broadly here – the type of place where you rent an Airbnb. The majority of international tourists stay in the huge self-contained resorts in the aptly named Zona Hotelera. Sure, some will take day trips to the market in Cancun town, and there will be excursions to Isla Mujeres and Chichen Itza, but many will not leave the resort. This is not a criticism, simply a fact.
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Leaving the Hotel Zone
However, every vacation is what you make of it. And while we might argue that, yes, staying in a Cancun resort hotel and never leaving is not going to deliver the authentic taste of Mexico, Cancun is, nevertheless, a wonderful hub destination for exploring the wider region. For a start, Cancun Centro (aka downtown Cancun) is a world away from the Hotel Zone. It is somewhat rough and ready, but if you do your research, you can find places to eat, drink, and explore that will give you the sense of the real Mexico.
Further afield, you can visit towns like Valladolid and Puerto Morelos. There are islands to explore like Isla Cozumel and Isla Contoy. Cancun also offers much more than Chichen Itza in terms of wonders of the ancients, and we would recommend the Mayan site of Ek’Balam as a worthy alternative. None of these places are unspoiled by tourism, of course, but they offer a different side of the region compared to the norm.
Of course, the more intrepid traveler can go further. Some caution is advised. Cancun is safe, and the surrounding region is broadly welcoming to tourists. But Mexico has its well-documented problems, and the areas around Cancun haven’t wholly escaped them. If you are planning an adventure trip, make sure to get local advice on how to keep safe.
The short answer to our question, then, is Cancun is what you make of it. Some want to visit to simply have some R&R by the pool, whereas others will want to go further afield. Cancun is a wonderful launchpad to visit some cool places that are most authentically Mexican, but make sure you do your research before you start.
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