Duty-free shopping at the Cancun Airport

December 31, 2012 by
 

When you leave Cancun Airport to head home after your vacation in Mexico, you may want to take a few things back with you. Almost everyone has a list of friends, co-workers, nieces and nephews for which to buy souvenirs. There are some good markets in Cancun, like Market 28, however it is handy to grab these items on your way out of Cancun at the Duty-Free shops at the Cancun Airport.

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The shops are located in all the departure terminals. It is not possible to access these stores upon arrival. Duty-Free Shops are accessible on departures only. Some of the most popular shops are Sr. Frogs, Sunglass Island, Hard Rock Cafe, Oprendi & Ocean Blue. You can buy liquor, cigarettes, t-shirts, and souvenirs of all kinds.

Map of the Cancun Airport Stores: http://www.asur.com.mx/asur/ingles/aeropuertos/cancun/map.asp

Cancun Airport Departures Area

Cancun Airport Departures Area

There are also food court areas at both terminals, including a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., California Pizza Kitchen, Johnny Rockets, Starbucks (of course), Margaritaville, Domino’s Pizza, Peking Xpress, Guacamole Grill (fast food), Burger King, Baskin Robbins, TGI Friday’s, drug store and convenience store.

Now, there are limits to what you can take back with you when you leave Cancun. Each person can bring back $800 USD worth of items purchased in Mexico, duty-free, including:

  • One liter (33.8 ounces) of alcohol (provided the resident is 21 years or over)
  • 200 cigarettes or 100 cigars that are not of Cuban origin (1 carton)

Items brought from the duty-free shop may [Read more…]

Filed Under: About Cancun, Cancun Airport, Food & Drink Tagged With: ,

Day Trip to Playa del Carmen

December 14, 2012 by
 

We’ve seen the beaches in Cancun, ate at the popular restaurants, and we’ve been to the shopping centers here, so we decided to spend our day off this week in Playa del Carmen. Playa del Carmen is located 1 hour south of Cancun. It is referred to as simply “Playa”. Since a few margaritas were in our future we opted to take the ADO Bus instead of driving ourselves.

ADO bus depot in Cancun

ADO bus depot in Cancun

The bus costs $48 pesos ($3.70 USD) per person each way. From the hotel zone you can take the R-1 Bus to the ADO bus depot. At the depot you can buy a ticket to almost anywhere. We only had to wait about 2 minutes for the next bus to depart Cancun. The bus was comfortable and quite. In 1 hour we were arriving to Playa del Carmen. The bus depot in Playa is right on the famous 5th Ave, very close to the ferry dock that goes to Cozumel. We did not need any other transportation while in Playa.
If you hover over the little blue square on the map you can see the ADO Bus Depot. From there we walked northeast on 5th Ave. Our first stop was 3 blocks away from the beach to this cool little area with a handful of food carts in a small park. For only 20 pesos we got lechon tortas (pulled pork & onion sandwiches) that were really tasty.

The shops on Playa’s 5th Ave. are super chic and you can buy almost anything you need. Silver, swimsuits,  cigars, clothes, hammocks, jewelry, in addition to souvenirs of all kinds. While we do get some of the aggressive sales tactics of the vendors on the street yelling “Come into my shop, I have what you need!” it is less aggressive than the markets in Cancun.

After we walked the entire length of 5th Ave and we were done shopping, we cut back to the beach. The beach is Playa is wide and perfect white powdery sand. The waves roll in with less force than in Cancun’s ocean side hotel zone. Playa’s beaches are full of beach bars  and restaurants with lounge chairs and umbrellas. There are relaxing cabanas where you can get a massage for about $18 USD for 30 minutes. By this time is was afternoon and we were ready for a cold beer on the beach. Beers are about 30 pesos each and that was just what we needed.

Beach at Playa del Carmen

Beach at Playa del Carmen

Females have the freedom to go topless on the beaches of Playa del Carmen. This is not the case in Cancun. Playa has many European vacationers [Read more…]

Filed Under: Food & Drink, Travel Info, Trip Reports Tagged With: , , ,

Tejuino drink

November 26, 2012 by
 

We traveled north on Kabah Ave from Cancun centro to find a cart making fresh Tejuino. This drink is made with fermented corn and shaved ice with lime juice. Don’t be scared, it is surprisingly delicious!

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Tejuino is originally from the state of Jalisco, Mexico. It is made from corn dough. This dough is mixed with water and brown sugar, then boiled. It is lightly fermented, then mixed with a little salt and lime sherbet or shaved ice with lime.

Filed Under: Food & Drink