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An extraordinary little town in which over 2,000 years of time are expressed, from its ancient Mayan edifices to a fine 18th-century Spanish church.

A multi-activity fun center on Cancún Island offering jungle tours, submarine rides, jetskiing, snorkeling, diving, fishing, parasailing, dinner cruises, and tours to Isla Mujeres and Cozumel.

The most complete Spanish walled city in Mexico, Campeche is full of reminders of the era when it was a trading hub of Spain’s empire and looked upon with greed by Caribbean pirates. In recent years the old city – with its churches, patios, Andalusian-style grill windows, and façades in delicate pastel colors – has been restored to refresh its distinctive charm.

A Spanish colonial walled city that retains a charming, old-world feel. The 17th-century ramparts and bastions were built to defend it against pirates. The streets within are lined with delicately colored old houses featuring patios and iron-grilled windows. A museum, housed in an old Spanish fort, contains jade funeral masks and other fine relics from the recently excavated site at Calakmul.

Every one of the Riviera’s beaches has the same wonderful fine white sand, which stays deliciously cool to the touch, but Cancún’s is unquestionably the finest, stretching the whole 23 km (14 miles) of Cancún Island. Along it, in the Hotel Zone, are resort hotels, shopping and entertainment centers, snorkeling and fun parks, plus the Mayan ruins of El Rey (see Cancún).

Señor Frog, Cancún

On the mainland at the north end of Cancún Island, Ciudad Cancún, also known as “Downtown,” was created at the same time as the Hotel Zone in the 1970s. It’s developed an atmosphere of its own, though, and the main drag of Avenida Tulum and the nearby squares and avenues are enjoyable places to explore, with plenty of shopping and great restaurants offering traditional Mexican cooking at low prices (see Cancún).