Just 40 years ago the Mexican resort centre of Cancun was little more than a sandy stretch of Caribbean coastline. Not any longer: according to the Cancun Hotel Association more than 50,000 British tourists visited last year, even though it lacked a direct, scheduled service from the UK.
The launch of British Airways’ new service from Gatwick on November 3 is big news for Cancun, which is situated on the north-eastern tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The nine-hour journey time adds potential for a significant uplift in visitor numbers and the fact it operates twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, makes it easy to arrange seven, 10 or 14-night trips. Moreover, it’s set to increase to three times a week next March.
Holiday heaven
BA is also offering package holidays, and other operators have been quick to capitalise on the move too. Hayes & Jarvis, for example, has launched its first dedicated Mexico brochure on the back of the new service, featuring 24 hotels, including 15 new to the company.
Hayes & Jarvis’s Mexico Collection features seven resorts including Cancun and the nearby Cozumel and Riviera Maya. All five Cancun properties and nine of the 11 on the Riviera Maya offer all-inclusive options.
Alternatively, visitors can opt for its 10-day escorted tour, A Journey Through Mexico, which combines the history and culture of Mexico City with Cancun beaches and local Mayan sites from £1,399.
Other operators who have recently launched standalone Mexico brochures include Funway Holidays, whose brochure features a range of early booking discounts, ‘kids stay for free’ offers and wedding and honeymoon packages at a total of 41 hotels, including some in Cancun.
Prices lead in at £829 per person for seven nights all-inclusive at the three-star Flamingo Cancun Resort & Plaza, including BA flights from Gatwick and return airport transfers. What’s on offer?
Cancun certainly has a lot of strings to its bow. Bordered by the Caribbean Sea and the Nichupte Lagoon, itself a popular spot for water sports and boat tours, it’s dripping with luxury hotels and top-notch spas, not to mention some great golf courses and a 16-mile stretch of white sandy beach.
A popular target for local excursions, also offered by the cruise ships calling at nearby Cozumel, is Xcaret Park, home to eco trails, lush jungle, abundant wildlife and the remains of a Mayan village. Those who venture inland can explore yet more Mayan ruins that dot the Yucatan Peninsula.
Regional highlights
This year the Cancun Convention & Visitors’ Bureau has been trying to get visitors to venture even further afield to the wider region of Quintana Roo to explore its natural, cultural and gastronomical treasures. A key aim is to encourage longer visits, and increase the average stay in the Mexican Caribbean from five to seven nights.
Its Cancun and the Treasures of the Caribbean promotional campaign, and corresponding tourism route, is designed to boost tourism in nearby locations such as the colonial port town of Puerto Morelos and the Mexican Caribbean islands of Holbox, where you can swim with whale sharks; Isla Mujeres, with its fascinating history full of swashbuckling pirates; Cozumel, which has the Mesoamerican, the world’s second-largest barrier reef; and Contoy, home to a colourful bird sanctuary.
New developments
New activities include exploring Cancun’s ‘Underwater Museum’, comprising hundreds of sunken concrete sculptures that are intended to double as an artificial reef by attracting corals and other marine life.
Repeat visitors to the region will find an enhanced beachline after the completion of a $71 million beach recovery project for Cancun’s Hotel Zone. The project, involving more than 1.3 billion gallons of sand, was completed in April and many local hotels now have new beach frontages.
Other recent openings include the Tequila Herradura Sensory Museum, a one-stop shop for fans of the feisty local firewater, with activities such as tastings on offer.
Alternatively, visitors can head for Morelos just a few kilometres from the international airport and Cancun’s hotel zone. Aside from being a colonial gem, the port town is home to a range of activities such as cooking courses, at places like the Little Mexican Cooking School.
Hotels
Local hoteliers have also been quick to promote themselves in light of BA’s new flight. The swanky five-star Rosewood Mayakobá, near Playa del Carmen, about half an hour’s drive south of Cancun, is targeting Brits with a ‘stay seven nights, pay for five’ offer from now until December 13 through a range of high-end tour operators including ITC Classics, Abercrombie & Kent, Carrier, Elegant Resorts, Cox & Kings, and Kuoni.
The stunning resort is built along a network of lagoons and has 128 suites with private decks and plunge pools, and 32 villas, not to mention a sumptuous spa. Other luxury options nearby include the Fairmont Mayakoba.
Other properties with great spas include the recently opened Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach, which has a Gem Spa with 26 luxurious spa treatment rooms. And The Zoetry Paraíso de la Bonita Riviera Maya Resort, a member of Leading Small Hotels of the World, is set in 14 acres of grounds in Cancun’s Riviera Maya region and has a private beach, as well as North America’s first certified thalassotherapy spa.
Family-friendly options include Jade Riviera Cancun and Now Sapphire Riviera Cancun, both part of the AM Resorts family. New programmes at the resorts’ Explorer’s Clubs for three to 12-year-olds, open from 9am-10pm, include Explorer’s Movie Nights, during which staff convert the kids club into a cinema showing the latest box-office releases.
Kids are given ‘play money’ to exchange for snacks such as popcorn and drinks. Operators featuring Jade Riviera include Sovereign Luxury Travel, who have included it in their latest brochure.
The all-inclusive Gran Caribe Real in Playa del Carmen is running a Kids Stay, Eat & Play Free program until December 23 (check for blackout dates). When families stay in a Master or Presidential Suite, up to three children under 12 can stay for free.
And families staying for a minimum of five nights in an Ocean Front suite or higher at sister property the all-inclusive Gran Caribe Real Cancun receive a complimentary ‘swim with the dolphins’ experience for one person.
The latter has also expanded its Oki Kids Club (for four to 12-year-olds) for 2010 and its Oki Fun World includes a water attraction, Oki Splash.
Adult-only offerings include the sumptuous Secrets Maroma Beach, which sits on a breathtaking stretch of beach, and two all-inclusive, all-suite sister properties, The Royal Playa del Carmen and The Royal in Cancun. Here, couples can learn how to whip up tasty romantic three-course meals for each other in a programme of cooking classes run by its chefs. Once the job is done, they get to sit down and enjoy the fruits of their labour.
For guests who heed the call to break out of Cancun’s Hotel Zone and get closer to nature, options include all-inclusive properties from Occidental Hotels & Resorts, like the Occidental Grand Xcaret, which neighbours Xcaret Park; the Occidental Grand Cozumel and Allegro Cozumel. At all three properties, two children aged 12 and under can stay for free when accompanying one paying adult until December 17.
Sample product
The lead-in price in Hayes & Jarvis’s Mexico Collection brochure is £769 for a seven-night package at the three-star El Tukan Hotel & Beach Club Puerto del Carmen on the Riviera Maya, including British Airways flights and staying on a bed-and-breakfast basis. The price is valid for bookings until March 31 2012. 0871 200 2211
Cosmos has seven nights’ all-inclusive at the four-diamond-plus rated Occidental Grand Xcaret in Playacar for £995 in May 2011, including flights from Gatwick with Monarch. cosmos-holidays.co.uk, 0871 423 8518
Sovereign Luxury Travel is offering seven nights all-inclusive at Now Jade Riviera Cancun from £2,939 for a family of three, departing March 30, including flights from Gatwick and transfers. sovereign.com, 0844 415 1936
