You’re all excited about your vacation at one of the Quintana Roo beaches in Mexico, then you get to the Cancun Airport and meet with…mayhem. First you deal with a chaotic luggage and customs line, then pass a gauntlet of pushy timeshare salespeople in front of supposed “tourist information” desks, only to exit the doors and face 30 people trying to get you into one of their company’s taxis.
But hey, at least there’s a bar out there.
The state of Quintana Roo beaches are often lovely, the calm waters are as pretty as a Corona commercial, and as good as they look in your friend’s vacation photos that make you drool. Well, at least when the sargassum is not pummeling the Caribbean Coast that is. The problem is getting there in the first place.
As a travel writer who has landed in airports in as many countries as I would have birthday candles on an accurately covered cake, I’d rate the Cancun International Airport (CUN) as being about the most unpleasant one in the world for a first-time visitor. On top of all the hassles just to get out of it and get on your way, there’s only one road in and one road out from the highway, with no currently operating hotels inside the airport zone if you have a late arrival or early departure.
This means that the airport authority and transportation companies have all the power and control over how you get out of the place. They have a strong incentive to collude on prices to keep them high. You’ve got no other choice but to deal with the rates they set. You usually have to wait for your ride as well somewhere in a parking lot since there’s no convenient pick-up area at the curb for anyone.
There’s no Blacklane or similar worldwide service in Cancun and for now anyway, it’s much easier to get an Uber ride to the airport than from it. The further you’re going, the more it’s going to cost you. Getting from Cancun to Tulum by taxi is especially pricey since it’s around two hours away with any traffic in the mix.
If you’re staying at a true luxury hotel that takes care of you from start to finish, like Casa de la Playa resort south of Playa del Carmen, then your transfer will be included as part of your stay. Most of them are not this generous though, especially the high-end a la carte chain hotels that bill you at premium rates for everything they can manage to tack on. It can still pay to arrange a transfer with them so you don’t have to deal with the Cancun airport madness, but it will likely cost you $80 to $200 per person.
Here’s how to get to the various beautiful white sand beaches lined with palm trees, starting with the top of the state at Holbox Island and going down to Tulum and the bottom of the state past that point.
Cancun Airport to Holbox Island
Until the Tulum airport is fully functional, this partly protected island in the northeast of the Yucatan Peninsula is the one Quintana Roo beach area you can fly to in a plane instead of going by land the whole way. Unfortunately though, the company that used to serve this route on a set schedule seems to have changed ownership and/or dropped that offering during the pandemic, so you have to arrange a charter flight through a private operator. If you want to go the easy route, you can book a private flight to Isla Holbox on Viator for around $1,000 for up to five people.
The next-best option is to arrange a private shuttle for your group from the Cancun airport to Chiquila. From there you take the ferry across to the shallow waters of Holbox Island. It’s about a two-hour trip one way.
In theory there is an ADO bus, but you’d have to get to the downtown Cancun bus station to board it, which is nowhere close to the airport.
See our reviews of the best luxury hotels on Holbox Island (scroll down on the page to those three). Note too that this is a prime jumping-off point to go see whale sharks in the right time of year.
Getting to Playa Mujeres
This stretch of coast on the mainland across from Isla Mujeres is a purpose-built hotel zone that’s meant for one thing only: staying at a resort you don’t plan to leave. It’s rather far from anything else and there’s no local life around. You come here to spend time with your honey or your family and then you return to the airport when you’re done.
Because of this, most guests get here on some kind of hotel-arranged transfer. It’s too far to get to by taxi, especially considering Cancun taxi cartel prices, though the rocky introduction of Uber would help make this more palatable if you could manage to get an Uber from the airport.
You could rent a car to come here, but since few people leave these isolated resorts, you wouldn’t use it for much else unless you’re headed to Holbox or Yucatan state soon after. If you need to set up a transfer yourself, we’d advise doing it through the official airport site or arranging it with a company like Travel Yucatan Transfers that we wrote about in that earlier blog post.
Taxi and Ferry to Isla Mujeres
Isla Mujeres is on the opposite side of the Cancun Hotel Zone from the airport, so a taxi to the ferry port will cost you more than one to a Cancun hotel. Then you have to take the ferry across to the island and get another taxi there unless you’re staying near the ferry dock.
Because this is rather convoluted, the best bet is to set all this up with your hotel during the booking process or purchase a package where transfers are included. Some resorts have their own water taxi to pick you up on the mainland.
Transportation to Riviera Maya Quintana Roo Beaches
The Riviera Maya is a vast area along the whole coast of the Mexican Caribbean, encompassing dozens of Quintana Roo beaches such as Puerto Morelos, Maroma Beach, and plenty with no name. When it comes to resorts though, most of them tagged as being in the Riviera Maya are in the stretch of coast between Cancun and Playa del Carmen (including Puerto Morelos) and the area south of PDC stretching almost to Tulum (including Akumal Beach).
While you could take your chances and just get a taxi upon arrival, it’s a big hassle and you’ll face some predatory pricing when you don’t have much negotiating power. It’s much less stressful to set the transfer up ahead of time, especially since some of the Riviera Maya resorts are a mile or two from the highway after you finally get past the gate. The ones well south of Playa del Carmen, such as the new Riviera Maya Conrad and Escencia, are going to take you an hour and a half in transit.
Ask the resort you booked with who they use or shop around to find the right service. Last time I was there and made the short trip to the Waldorf Astoria Cancun, which is south of the airport, I used their pickup service which was pricey but excellent: Iconic Unique Experiences.
Cancun to Playa del Carmen
If you’re headed to Playa del Carmen proper and the long public beach, this is one of the easiest routes to navigate. If your timing is good, you can even take a nice ADO bus right from the Cancun airport terminal to central PDC and be in the heart of the action in an hour and a half. Fares are around $14.
There are also shared van services for about the same price that you can book in advance and these follow a more direct route, getting you there in about an hour. The quickest is a private taxi or car service, of course, which will likely be $70 to $100 for the car.
There’s also a company called Cancun Helicopters offering to get you from the CUN airport to a heliport at the Playacar development close to Royal Hideaway Playacar for a much quicker option.
Don’t forget that you can catch a ferry from here out to Cozumel if you want to dive or snorkel around some coral reefs.
Cancun to Tulum Transportation
Someday soon you’ll be able to fly directly to the town of Tulum from Mexico City. We assume that eventually some international airlines will fly into this new airport as well, so then you’ll be able to skip Cancun and land two hours south to go straight to your Tulum luxury hotel on the beach.
When the controversial Maya Train is completed, that will go to Tulum town as well and will provide a much more pleasant alternative to get down the coast, with far less pollution emitted as well. The train is not from the Cancun airport though, so you’ll still have to get to the terminal from the airport to start.
For now, you have options from $22 (a three-hour bus), $30 (a two-hour shared van), or a private transfer that will probably cost your group $100 to $300 depending on the vehicle size and how many people are going. Search all the Cancun to Tulum transportation options. Also remember that Tulum is really three areas: the Tulum Mayan ruins, the town with that name that’s not on the water, and the beach area jammed with restaurants, expensive hotels, and humming generators.
Going Beyond to Mahual, Bacalar, and Belize
Not many vacationers venture further south along the Caribbean Sea after landing at the Cancun airport. It’s easier to just fly into Chetumal instead if you’re taking a trip to Bacalar Lagoon (where the turquoise waters are not salt water) or to the secluded, laid-back beach town of Mahual (where you’ve got a better chance than in most places to see some sea turtles).
If you do want to venture down this far from the Cancun airport, the best bet is to take a taxi to the Cancun bus station and then get a bus from there. Or just rent a car at the airport and settle in for a long drive down a straight road without much to see.
If you’re feeling like an adventurous overlander, you could keep going and cross the border into Belize to continue. The crossing is just south of Chetumal.
We hope you found this rundown on how to reach the Quintana Roo beaches from Cancun to be useful. Have a great trip and enjoy Mexico!
