Cancún is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo. It is the seat of Benito Juárez municipality and a world renowned tourist resort.

The average temperature in Cancún is 80° F with more than 240 days of sunshine, and rain is rare, with late August through early October being the rainy season. The beaches are almost 100 percent limestone; the porous quality of the limestone makes for cool sand even under the intense tropical sun.

Cancún is divided into two parts. The narrow14-mile Cancún Island is lined with modern beachfront hotels. On the tip of Cancun Island sits the Dreams Spa and Resort surrounded by the Bahía de Mujeres (Bay of Women), the Caribbean Sea, and the Nichupte and Bojorquez lagoons. The mainland downtown commercial section (Cancún City), connected to the island by two bridges, has broad avenues lined with whitewashed shops, restaurants, and hotels.

HISTORY
In the early 1950s Cancun was a virtually unpopulated and undeveloped island just off the Caribbean Sea coast of the Yucatán peninsula. It was home to three caretakers of a coconut plantation and small Pre-Columbian ruins of the Maya civilization. The government of Mexico decided to develop a tourist resort on Cancun, which was originally financed by a $27 million dollar loan from the Inter-American Development Bank. A causeway was built to link Cancun to the mainland, and an international airport was built, along with what was at first a model city for workers, complete with housing, schools and medical facilities. On the opposite side of the island from the Caribbean Sea is Nichupte Lagoon, which is used for boat and snorkelling tours of the area.

Although many international publications now spell Cancun as Cancún, in the area itself it is usually Cancún in Spanish and Cancun in English.

The earliest known reference to Cancun called it Cancuen. There's also a site in Guatemala called Cancuen. Cancuen refers to a snake totem, usually identified with Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl (the Plumed Serpent). The romanization of Mayan words varies, but it is common to use an apostrophe to indicate a kind of glottal stop. It is probable that some Yucatecan or Mexican Mayanist wrote the name as Cancu'en, which was turned into Cancún by someone at the Mexican government tourism development fund that created Cancun. The belief that Cancun means "nido de viboras" (nest of snakes) is modern folklore, according to a long-time resident Jules Siegel, author of the Cancun User's Guide.

Development of Cancun started in 1970 and grew rapidly in the 1980s. Unfortunately, the original very sensible master plan was repeatedly modified and, on the mainland, often ignored. Siegel, who was the translator of Fernando Martí's "Cancun, Fantasy of Bankers," says that municipal authorities have struggled to provide public services for the constant influx of people, as well as to control squatters and irregular developments, which now occupy an estimated ten to fifteen percent of the mainland area on the fringes of the city.

Despite initial skepticism that forced the Mexican government to finance the first eight hotels, Cancún soon attracted investors from all over the world, but approximately 70% of the Hotel Zone properties are owned by Mexicans, many of them local residents, Siegel says. The figure is close to 100% for the mainland. Some observers believe that the resort is foreign-owned because they are confused by the hotel operating companies, which are international companies that supply administration and marketing services. They do not usually own the hotels themselves. Even outlets of restaurant chains such as McDonald's and Domino's Pizza are Mexican-owned.

The city has grown rapidly over the past thirty years to become a city of approximately 750,000 residents, covering the former island and the nearby mainland. Most 'cancunenses' here are from Yucatán and other Mexican states. A growing number are from the rest of America and Europe.


TOURISM
In Cancún there are about 140 hotels with 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily. The hotel zone is one of the most exclusive internationally, with upmarket restaurants, bars, and the like which have catered for quite a number of the rich and famous.

Around March and April, Cancún experiences a flood of college students (usually from the United States) who travel to Cancún to party. For just about all of these students, drinking alcohol is usually the reason why they come to Cancún. The drinking age in Mexico is 18; while in the United States, it is 21. Dreams does not accept Spring Break groups.

The temperature of the city is warm, moderated by the marine breeze which circulates through its avenues. The temperatures are typically between 78°F and 96°F.

Cancún's hotel zone also has an interactive aquarium where visitors can see the marine diversity of the area, swim with dolphins and feed sharks. Here and there in the hotel zone are some ancient ruins.

The main language in Cancún is Spanish, although English is widely spoken throughout the tourist areas. Mayan dialects are also spoken between some workers and people born in the Yucatán peninsula.

Explore Yucatan
      archeological sites:
      Tulum • Chichén Itzá • Uxmal


  In the southeast of Mexico, surrounded by the clear blue waters of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, lies the peninsula of the Yucatan, where the great Mayan culture once flourished amidst tropical forests.
  
  We invite you to combine your beach vacation with the splendor of past eras. Visit the Yucatan Haciendas while enjoying the luxurious amenities and services expected of five-star hotels.

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