My experience in cancun

I recently returned from a 5 day trip from cancun, it was my first visit. I stayed in riu palace peninsula. Food was ok for vegetarian / vegan, options are great for non vegetarian, tacos are the most common food a vegan could find in breakfast. I followed plancun.com, booked hotel pickup and drop-off from usa transfers ( pretty good service 90 usd for round trip and uber was showing around 38 usd for one way )

I stayed in riu which is in hotel zone, it is a pretty safe area, clean streets, party vibes but also saw few families and also saw elderly people chilling by pool.

I used uber for going around hotel zone to go to a restaurant or to some sightseeing location nearby and uber was pretty affordable; was initially scared to use it as everyone said taxi drivers try to harass you if you use uber. Luckily I didn't face any issue, most of the times I stayed inside and booked uber, when uber is ready to pick me, I exited my building and directly went to the Uber and faced no issues.

I saw multiple places like Chichen itza and tulum and isla mujeres using trip advisor, it was pretty fun. For some reason flights were pretty expensive ( probably because jan is ideal time to visit ).

Expect to pay tips ( it is very common ).

I withdrew cash using Santander atm in airport using my debit card which offers higher usd to mexican peso conversion ( got 19.5 ) than converting to peso by giving dollars to third party conversion services in airport ( saw them offering 18.5 or 18 ).

I would recommend carrying 1 dollar bills and smaller bills, i took 20 dollar bills and most local vendors had tough time to give me 5 usd or 10 usd when I gave 20 usd.

If I paid in pesos I saw that the vendors offered me somewhat better prices than dollars, I took about 250 usd worth pesos by withdrawing from atm and used almost all of it by the end of 5 days.

Most vendors ( even people selling magnets or handmade ribbons on beach) accepted both pesos and dollars.

I was initially scared to use water from tap to do face wash and to brush teeth, as people suggested me to use mineral water. After 2 days I tried using tap water and had no issues ( personal experience again, could be different for others ).

Overall, cancun is a great place to visit ( specially in winters ). It had great sightseeing locations like isla mujeres ( to play in beach ) and tulum ( to see ancient mayan structures near water), it also has chichen itza which is one of the new 7 wonders of the world.

Local people were extremely nice and pleasant to talk to ( uber drivers, servers in riu and restaurants ).

But it is a little expensive, my budget was 5k USD ( 1800 riu 4 nights, 2k flights for 2, trip advisor 3 experiences on 3 days - 500 for 2 people ) and i almost spent 6.5k

PS - Don't forget to negotiate prices with local vendors, someone offered my wife handwoven dress for 100 usd, i got it down to 50 USD. Same with basic stuff like magnets, if they say 7 usd, ask for 4 or 5 usd. Try to do the walkaway trick to reduce prices.

PS - I made a last minute plan and booked flights and hotel in January, i may have got dynamic price.