by Megan Briscoe

In the mood to party? Prefer your beach country-club calm? How about a little of both? The Caribbean coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula has an enclave for every taste.

Mexico’s tourism forces forever changed the face of the Yucatan Peninsula in 1974, when Cancun rose out of scrubby land outlined by tempting blue waters. Since then, development has trickled down the coast from Cancun south to Belize with varying degrees of haste and tender touch. The state of Quintana Roo offers affordable ease, great beaches, sensational snorkeling and diving on the world’s second-largest coral reef, Mayan ruins, low language barrier, and off-beach side trips no matter where you spread your towel. The vibe, however, is distinctly different at each visitor hub—so we offer this menu to the Mayan Riviera.

Cancun: Bright Lights, Big Beach
A massive wall of high-rise hotels runs north and south for 11 miles on Cancun Island, facing east into the Caribbean. The sun sets behind the hotels, and by 4 pm the wide beach is bathed in soothing shadows created by the beach-resort barricade. The visual hush kills the Spring Break spirit—the volleyball game ends, fan-back wooden chairs are empty, and most of the swings at Kuku’s Beach Bar hang motionless.

It’s peaceful—something I didn’t expect to find in Cancun. A young man ambles up the beach, khaki pants casually rolled to his knees, white sand coating his dark shins. He slips his backpack to the ground, pulls out a perfect conch shell, and, in silhouette, cups the shell, raises it to his lips, tilts his head back, and blows. It sounds deeply primitive—how Cancun should not sound.

He stops, holds the conch shell high, and shouts: “Ten dollars! Ten dollars for a conch!” It’s commercial, yes, but American, not exactly. Visitors carry pesos in their pockets, shout “alto!” to end a 50-cent bus ride, and choose from hundreds of brands of tequila—and that is culture enough. They come to Cancun for easy fun, and Cancun delivers famously. The sun shines constantly, beaches are right in front of the hotels, and banks of shops and splashy clubs choking Kukulcan Boulevard behind the hotels are reached effortlessly on the buses. For a change of scene, there’s always Cancun City on the mainland, where one can be certain that the guitarists strolling through the festive cantinas are not selling their instruments.

Playa del Carmen: Bohemian Rhapsody
Highway 307, the main artery of the Mayan Riviera that heads south out of Cancun, is a four-lane divided road. Each side has a passing lane, but it’s not often used. Instead, drivers watch for traffic approaching behind them, and get out of the way by merging onto the wide shoulder and continuing along at full speed until the vehicle passes. It happens a lot, because Highway 307 is tortilla flat, scenically sterile, and populated with people in a hurry to enjoy the charming coastal hamlets before they change.

George Mikelsons’ Yucatan The reel appeal of Isla Mujeres When Ambassadair founder and AmTran Chairman George Mikelsons wants to get away with his wife, Muriel, he heads in the same direction as many of his planes—Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The avid fisherman has found a soulmate in Isla Mujeres, a tiny island located six miles north of Cancun. On any given day between December and March, you may find Mikelsons on a reef about 24 miles out to sea. “I’ve fished all over the darn place, and I enjoy Mexico a lot—mainly for its variety,” he says. The bounty of sailfish in Isla’s waters attract anglers from all over the world. “The tail looks exactly like the sail on a Chinese junk. When you get one on the hook, the tail dances—it looks like he’s walking on the water. No sportfishermen worth their salt would kill it, though. They’ll measure it and make an exact replica out of fiberglass.” Lured by the Yucatan’s predictably sunny weather in winter months, Mikelsons’ first port of call was Puerto Aventuras, almost two hours down the coast from Cancun. He immediately put the country-club marina scene on Ambassadair’s schedule, but came to prefer the rustic, brightly painted village on Isla Mujeres, where golf carts are the fastest-moving objects and the shop-filled town doesn’t even have a name. Dinner is laid-back at Rolandi’s—the casual one in town, not the shinier location on the hill. “We’re burnt out on fancy restaurants,” Muriel says. While George fishes, Muriel explores. A best-kept secret, she says, is the uninhabited nature preserve of Isla Contoy, more than an hour by boat from Isla Mujeres. Keep your eyes open for a dancing sailfish—George just may be in the neighborhood. Day Trips From Cancun Skip the tours and take the high-speed ferry from Playa Linda Pier right into the town, where you can rent a golf cart and circle the entire island in half a day, stopping to snorkel at El Garrafón national park and looking for the conch-shaped house on the eastern coast. Villa Rolandi restaurant (the shinier location on the hill) provides free roundtrip ferry transportation for those who make a reservation.

Playa del Carmen is one of those hamlets. One of the only bona-fide towns on the coast, it was a fishing village long before anyone arrived with suitcases and sunscreen. Beachgoers collided with an entrenched local community, and created a colorful hangout.

Polished, all-inclusive resorts have cropped up in an adjoining neighborhood called Playacar, but the heart of Playa is the town. A wide beach is lined with laid-back happy hours, and the water is kept calm and clear thanks to the shelter from the island of Cozumel to the east.

A cluster of pedestrian-only streets butts right up against the sand. Fifth Avenue is the centerpiece, and you can buy Calvin Klein sunglasses, a handmade marionette, and a $5 platter of local specialties on the same eclectic block. Europeans and backpackers stay in small, independent hotels, alternating between reading a book on the beach and reading a book in shady bars overlooking the street scene. Taking the 45-minute ferry ride to Cozumel is nice idea, but Playa may prove too captivating to leave.

Puerto Aventuras:
Country-Club Quiet
Keep heading south past Playa del Carmen on Highway 307 to reach Puerto Aventuras, one of the newest resort areas on the coast. While other burgs specialize in thatched-roof cabanas and eco-lodges, Puerto Aventuras sticks to small, sophisticated resorts built around both the beach and a yacht-filled marina—also home to a family of dolphins. Puerto Aventuras is billed as a 900-acre development, but don’t plan on seeing most of it. Intimate hotels offer supreme service and quaint touches—for instance, at the Omni Resort breakfast is delivered to a small window between the hall and each room, which can be accessed from inside the room at guests’ convenience. In each frilly bathroom, the back of the stand-up shower opens onto the balcony equipped with a hot tub and hammock. The marina is just steps from the lobby, offering shopping and strolling diversions. The golf course and nearby ruins may be the only temptations away from the uncrowded beach.

Puerto Aventuras is the last stop on the Mayan Riviera corridor before the ruins of Tulum and the wild Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, where boat tours are the only way to see the jaguars and jabiru storks.