Day 3: Cancun Palace Beach
Today, after breakfast, we decided to book an excursion or two. We knew we wanted to do Chichen Itza, but we had to decide what the other would be. We also decided that today we would go up to Cancun, and the Cancun Palace to see the water and check out the sights. We booked our shuttle time to leave at 12 noon (earliest you can get) and then headed over to the Apple vacations section to book our tours. We booked Chichen Itza for Sunday, and decided on the Snorkeling Adventure Tour for Thursday. We'd leave the other days open for whatever came to mind. Chichen Itza costed us 72 bucks per person, and the snorkeling tour 60 per person.
We booked the tours, and headed out to the pool to relax until the shuttle time. Just a note - the "free tours" the hotel offered were not any that we wanted to go on. They offer a tour to Xpu-Ha, Coba, and one other place. All were full day trips, and the places were not the best spots to spend a day. We personally decided we'd rather pay and spend our day someplace worthwhile. I had heard all different kinds of things about which tours were free - from Chichen Itza, to Xel-Ha, but none of these were the free ones. They were all upwards of 70 bucks per person! As they say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Around noon, we headed into Cancun, and got off at the Cancun Palace. Eventually along the week, we'd get to see all 3 resorts - and in my opinion, I liked Cancun Palace the best of the other 3 besides Moon. It was a lot busier and nosier, but it was a fun crowd. The pool was small, but nice, and the food was fair. We ate lunch here, and it was similar to the food at the Moon. After we ate, we found a nice spot on the beach, and went for a swim. The beach water was pretty chilly, but calm enough for swimming that day. There were nice waves, but the current was not strong. I swam for about an hour before getting out! The water here is gorgeous compared to the Moon's water... The only thing I did not like, is that you got solicited to buy trinkets and souvenirs the whole time you were on the beach. The other nice thing about Cancun Palace - is that if you spend the day at the beach here, and then want to change and go further up into cancun, or into downtown, there are changing rooms, showers and the likes in the gym section past the pool. There were clean towels, and soap available, and lockers you could use. I'd highly advise that if you want to wash your hair, you bring one of the small shampoo bottles from the hotel with you, as I didn't see any there when I was there - and conditioner too if you are a gal or guy with long hair and want to get your brush through it afterwards!!
After about 2-3 hours on the beach, we headed out to catch the local bus up to Punta Cancun where all the 'action' is supposed to be - along with the shopping. There is a bus stop right outside of the Cancun Palace, and we caught a bus in no time. We paid the man about 9 pesos, and got off at the Hard Rock cafe. We stopped in for a drink and some souvenirs... and walked around to check out some other hotels. We looked at the Fiesta Americana Coral Beach. NICE!! This is where I would have stayed if I had not done all inclusive. A very BEAUTIFUL hotel. Very very nice. Also, we visited the Ritz Carlton. Photos are below:
I wasn't very impressed with the Cancun main area - it was overly touristy, and there were tons of chain restaurants - Outback Steakhouse, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, McDonalds, etc. etc. And malls and shops. That's not really what I came to Cancun to do. So, we hopped back on the Autobus and headed for downtown, to take one of Laura Map Chick's recommendations of El Pescador for dinner. This place was great! Open air, sitting outside or inside was nice. The food was reasonably priced, and very good! The seafood here is excellent. I had the garlic shrimp and it was wonderful! The mexican appetizers are also very good. Dinner was about 50 bucks including appetizers, drinks, meal, and tip. Our waiter was very friendly and nice to talk to. My only advice is - don't sit in the outer most tables (by the walk) unless you want to be solicited for souvenirs by the locals at the beginning of your dinner! When we started to eat, they finally gave up, but it started out kind of annoying...
Thanks to Laura's great map, and the advice about the restaurant and which buses to take, we got to downtown and back home easily. After our dinner we walked briefly around the downtown touristy areas, and were solicited for everything from a bracelet for one dollar, to dinner again and again which we'd already eaten! I had been annoyed by this at first - but later in the week - when we were heading to Carillo's to eat, we were solicited by a gentleman who wanted us to eat there! We told him we were on our way to that very place. When we got to the place around 6 pm, there was NO ONE in the restaurant but us! Such ashame, a very beautiful place with great people, food, service, (how could the service not be good, right?) and great prices - and it seemed sad that they had to walk out to the street to solicit for business for a place that shouldn't have to do that!! Anyways, I'm getting off track here.
We took the Autobus again, back to the Sun Palace in hopes of picking up the shuttle back to the Moon. We found a small crowd of guests also waiting for the shuttle - they informed us that the last 2 shuttles had not shown up. One couple said they had been waiting an hour - and asked us if we would want to split a cab with them. So we did - it was only 5 bucks per couple, and it was much better than waiting for a shuttle that might not come! So, good advice - if you don't want to take the shuttle, stop on the steps of one of the palace resorts, and ask people if they are going to the Moon, waiting for the shuttle - and if they'd like to split a cab. Of course, catching the cab from Sun Palace is going to be cheaper. And ALWAYS negotiate price before you get in the cab! The other couple negotiated 10 dollars U.S. for our cab ride. Worked for us...
Day 3 down, on to our Snorkeling Adventure!!
* none of these photos may be used for any reason without permission -
all are copyright, Amy Newcomb or Ray Newcomb, 2000
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Check-In - Lobby, Room, Pool Photos More Pool shots, and Grounds Photos Cancun Palace Beach Photos Snorkeling Photos (Underwater) Mostly advice about downtown Sunset/Sunrise Photos, another day at the Pool Trip to Chichen Itza and Photos Packing up, and Going Home
