Cancún · Backpacking
ON A BUDGET
Ignore the hotel zone: downtown Cancún is an ordinary Mexican city with hostels and cheap food.
El Centro, not the zone
Hostels cluster downtown around Parque Las Palapas and the Avenida Yaxchilán strip, half an hour and twelve pesos from the beaches by bus.
What a day costs
Roughly 650–1,100 pesos, about $38–65: dorms 300–500, market and taquería meals 150–250, and bus fares under 60 for a full day.
R1 and R2 buses
The R1 and R2 run the length of the hotel zone day and night for a flat fare paid to the driver. ADO coaches leave downtown for Tulum and Mérida.
Free by day
Playa Delfines has public access, parking and a lookout; Playa Las Perlas is calmer, and the evening food stalls at Las Palapas cost very little.
Avenida Yaxchilán
The downtown bar strip where the hostels send everyone — cantinas, cheap michelada buckets and the start of most improvised nights out.