Expedia Special Rate Hotels offers travelers top deals on hotels throughout the Caribbean.
Amenities - Dining table - Minibar - Individual air-conditioning and heating controls - Ceiling fan - Private balcony - Remote-control colour television with satellite channels - Direct dial telephone - Voicemail - Bathroom with tub and shower - Toilet and single sink - Hairdryer - Make-up mirror - Bathrobes - Coffee makers - Telephone with dataport for Internet access - Scales - Dual-voltage electric outlet - Closet - Safe - Sprinkler and smoke detector - Accessible rooms available - Adjoining rooms available - Non-smoking floor
Please note that the maximum occupancy per room is three adults (a supplement for the third person will apply), or two adults and two children (12 years old or under).
Four rooms are specially designed for disabled guests, and the hotel, lift and restaurants are all accessible by wheelchairs, which are available at no charge.
Recreation
Hyatt Regency Cancun offers a wide range of facilities that include a magnificent pool area, an array of recreational activities and the ocean-view Nautilus Health Club with a fully equipped gym, massage room, sauna and beauty salon.
For guests needing to attend to business, the Business Centre is equipped with the latest technology and has a private room available for small meetings for up to six people.
For recreation and adventure, enjoy a wide variety of outdoor games and water sports. Tennis and golf centres are both nearby. For your children, we offer Camp Hyatt®, the best way for them to spend the day with new friends, and for guests with babies, our First Step Baby Programme.
Japanese Guest Services
To help our Japanese guests from check-in to check-out, our Japanese-speaking staff at the front desk can assist you in a number of ways, such as restaurant reservations, car rentals, directions or anything else to make your holiday perfect.
In order to make your stay even more comfortable, Hyatt Regency Cancun offers slippers in your room and the Japanese television channel NHK, as well as a guest directory in Japanese and Japanese restaurant menus.
Services and facilities: - Babysitting services - Beauty salon - Express check-out - Laundry and valet - Ice machines on all floors - Multilingual hotel staff - Safety-deposit boxes - Doctor on call 24 hours a day - Car rental desk - Sightseeing tour desk - Parking - Water purification system - Major credit cards accepted - Gold Passport floor - Wheelchair-accessible room - Concierge - Wedding arrangements - 24-hour in-room dining - Shuttle to Hyatt Cancun Caribe
Activities Archeological Sites
Your visit to one of the richest civilizations should include an exotic adventure to the mysterious Mayan cities of Chichén-Itzá, Tulúm, and Cobá. All areas are within easy access of the hotel. Our Concierge will arrange an unforgettable excursion to one of the marvels of the past.
In Mexico, all the archeological sites are considered part of the National Patrimony. This means that on Sundays and national festival days guests can enter free, and that the normal entrance fee is kept low.
Chichen Itza
The most famous and probably one of the best restored Mayan sites in Mexico, Chichen Itza is about 125 miles west of Cancun, near the town of Piste in the north-central Yucatan. The site is covered by hot, dense, swampy, lowland forests over a huge underground limestone aquifer with natural wells and sinkholes. Chichen Itza had two periods of greatness. The city was abandoned and then resettled and rebuilt after 1100 AD by Toltec invaders from Tula, in the central Mexican highlands to the north-west. Chichen Itza was then dedicated to the feathered serpent half god Quetzalcoatl, or Kukulcan in Toltec, who had been cast out of his homeland, and had come from far across the ocean into this new land.
The site is extensive, containing numerous structures from different periods, the largest and best preserved Ballcourt in Mexico, and the world-reknowned Castillo, or Pyramid of Kukulcan, which acts as a giant astronomical equinox and solstice marker in the center of the city. During the equinox (21st and 22nd March and September), the sun casts shadows on the steps that create the effect of a snake wriggling down the face of a pyramid. At the southern end of the site stands the Caracol, or observatory, a cylindrical structure in a fusion of styles with a vaulted circular
How to get there?
From Mérida (116 kilometers / 73 miles) or from Cancun (200 kilometers / 125 miles), on the highway (free) or Expressway 180 (toll charge). It is an approximate 2.5-hour drive.
Tulúm
This is an imposing walled city on the coast that dates from the Classic period (250 to 900 AD). Tulum is surrounded by a wall and it is the only known walled city by the ocean that the Mayans ever constructed. Tulum's temples were observed by the Spanish, as they sailed by on an exploratory expedition led by Juan de Grijalva in 1518. When they arrived they saw the city as a new Sevilla, Spain.
Tulúm, Maya for "wall", is protected by three massive wall a 40-foot (12 meters) cliff with a sandy cove at its base. From this beach, the seafaring inhabitants of Tulum launched fishing and trade boats establishing Tulum as the principal port on the coast, and as the eastern gateway to the Maya civilization that opened trade routes to the north and into central Mexico.
Perched at the cliff's edge and dominating the turquoise water is the Castle "El Castillo", the largest and the most impressive structure. It is crowned by a two-room temple, finished with serpent columns and the distinctive winged descending god, which archeologists believe was Tulum's most important deity. Exactly what this god represented continues to be a mystery. The view from the top is breath taking of the sweeping sea to the east and the dense jungle to the west.
The town of Tulum is a few miles south of the entrance to the ruins on the main highway. Traditionally populated by Mayas, this small village has been adapting slowly to the changes that have occurred along the rest of the coast. Small restaurants and gift shops line the highway, which functions as the town's main street.
How to get there?
Take a bus, taxi or car; Tulúm is 131 kilometers (82 miles) from Cancun on Highway 307. It is an approximate 1.5-hour drive.
Cobá
Cobá once occupied almost 100 square kilometers (60 square miles). The pyramid of Nohoch Mul (43 meters high, 130 feet), is the tallest pre-Hispanic structure in the Yucatán. You can get to Cobá along sacbés (a Mayan word for a white clay road), 50 of which lead away from the city. The nucleus of Coba covers about 2.5 square kilometers (1.5 square miles) and is made up of five groups of large buildings: Coba, Nohoch Mul, Chumuc Mul, Macanxoc and Uxulbenuc. It is supposed to have had 50,000 inhabitants and cover more than 50 square kilometers in its peak years. Now most of it is covered by the jungle.
There are two large pyramids, some 2 kilometers apart. The first one, on the right from the entrance, is the Temple of the Churches, a 26-meter (79 feet) high pyramid. From the top you can see the lakes and over the canopy of the forest you can catch a glimpse of the Great Pyramid, Nohoch Mul. The second complex is the Conjunto de las Pinturas (Complex of Paintings). All the ruins in Cobá are in the jungle so a good mosquito repellent is necessary.
How to get there?
At Tulúm take the highway to the right, then drive 42 kilometers (26 miles) to Cobá. It is an approximate two-hour drive.
Uxmal
This city dates from the Mayan Classic period (250 to 900 AD). One of the masterpieces of prehispanic architecture in Yucatan. Its name means "constructed three times" and it is of very imposing proportions. According to archaeological investigations, Uxmal was one of the largest cities of the Maya world and a site of economic and political power over a great area. The greatest constructions of this Maya city are in the form of courtyards or quadrangles, such as Las Monjas (Nunnery), and are located along a north-south kilometer (.62 mile) long axis. The House of the Adivino (Magician) or Enano (Duarf) looms above the entrance to the archaeological site, which is about 35 meters high, is a classic example of how the Maya built on top of existing structures. According to a legend, this pyramid was built in only one night.
The Juego de Pelota (Ballcourt) is composed of two parallel constructions falling North-South and enclosing a playing field. Another building worth seeing is the Palacio del Gobernador (Governors Palace), whose great proportions speak of the laborers, sculptors and painters who were engaged in its construction. Uxmal offers a light and sound show every evening.
How to get there?
From Mérida, take Highway 261; Uxmal is 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the south. It is an approximate two-hour drive.
The Río Bec Route
The Río Bec Route has one of the largest concentrations of Mayan ruins spanning the states of Quintana Roo and Campeche yet only a small portion have been cleared. Rió Bec is famous for its towers adorned with roof combs resembling latticework, its doorways carved to look like monster mouths, underground passageways that lead to temples atop the pyramids and false narrow staircases lining the front of its towers and pyramids. The ruins located in Quintana Roo are known as the Valley of the Masks and consist of Kohunlich, Dzibanche and Kinichná.
Kohunlich is a corruption of the name Cohune Ridge (Cohune is a species of fruiting palm common to the area). This ruin is renowned for the giant stucco masks on its principal pyramid, El Edificio de los Mascarones (The Building of the Masks). The 6-foot tall masks were originally thought to be portraits of the gods but are now considered to be composite sculpture of the rulers of Kohunlich. Archaeologists believe there are at least 500 mounds on the site waiting to be explored. Dzibanché and its sister city Kinichná are thought to have been the most powerful alliance ruling southern Quintana Roo during the Maya Classic Period (300 - 900 AD). At Dzibanché (Place where they write on wood), several carved wooden lintels have been found. At the plaza is the Temple of the Owl, a tomb was discovered atop the temple - the second of its kind in Mexico. Nearby Kinichná (House of the Sun) consists of a two-level pyramidal mound split into Acropolis B and Acropolis C, dedicated to the sun god. Here a giant Olmec-style jade figure was found. The area is also filled with orchids, wildflowers, birds and small animals.
How to get there?
Located 40 minutes west of Chetumal on Highway 186. Chetumal is five hours south of Cancun along Highway 307.
Kabah
This is a monumental example of Puuc style architecture in which each stone element forms part of the total, linking man with his universe. Recent investigations indicate the zone was inhabited in 250 BC and reached its splendor in the 8th and 9th centuries of our era. The trip from Merida takes an hour, a pleasant drive through villages and haciendas. Kabah was linked with Uxmal by a stone causeway; it has two groups of buildings: the Codz Poop, a building which means rolled carpet and which has ten chambers, forty-six meters long, communicated by only one door and which facade is ornamented with 250 masks of the God Chaac (rain god) ; and the Palacio, which displays a dozen platforms and altars.
How to get there?
Kabah is situated 140 kilometers from Merida, Yucatan by the Highway 261 in Mexico.
Ek Balam
Ek Balam (black jaguar) is a little visited ruin north of Valladolid. It's a beautiful site with rare carvings of full figures and well-preserved wall paintings. Construction at Ek Balam began during the late Pre-Classic Period (100 BC - 300 AD) and continued well into the Late Classic period (700 - 900 AD). There are a number of splendid complexes; its central plaza has three massive ceremonial structures with small temples, altars and living quarters while the chief pyramid, El Torre (the tower), is 100 feet high and 527 feet long making it one of the largest found in the northeastern Yucatán. Inside the main temple are wall paintings of Maya rulers performing rituals. The original paint remains, as does the painted hieroglyphics. As recently as 1987, a network of sacbé (white limestone roads) have been uncovered suggesting the site was an agricultural center - the area still produces corn, vegetables, honey and cotton. Its setting deep in the forest only adds to the general mystique of this delightful site.
How to get there?
Located 3 hours from Cancun, (2 hours west on Highway 180, one hour north on Highway 295.)
Ruinas del Rey
This small site rests within the Cancun Hotel Zone. Ruinas del Rey (Ruins of the King) dates back to 200 BC and is thought to have been an astronomy lookout. Skeletons found on site also suggest it may have been a royal burial ground. While Del Rey is not as impressive as some of the other larger sites it is still worth a visit to see it unusual architecture. It has two main plazas flanked by two main streets (most ruins have only one) and a small pyramid topped with a vault. Inside are fresco paintings in fairly good condition. If you don't have time to visit some of the larger sites, El Rey in an excellent introduction offering the flavor of ancient Maya cities.
How to go there?
The Ruins El Rey are located at kilometer 19 on Kukulcan Boulevard and can be easily arrived at either by taxi or the local bus.
Muyil
Muyil is an overlooked site about 30 minutes south of Tulum, quite lovely and very photogenic. Its name is Maya for "place of the rabbits" and is often referred to by the locals as Chunyaxché (Trunk of the Green Tree) also the name of a nearby village. At its peak Muyil had more temples than Tulum, however only a handful have been cleared. The Entrance Plaza Group, located near the entrance to the site, consist of pyramids built around a plaza. Six of them are open to visitors. The most notable site is the remains of the 56-feet temple-pyramid, El Castillo (the castle) located at the center of a large patio. The pyramid suffered damage from Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 and should not be climbed.
How to get there?
Located on Highway 307, 27 kilometers (16 miles) south of Tulum, 2.5 hours from Cancun.
Oxtankah
Oxtankah is one of the newer ruins uncovered along the shores of Chetumal bay. Built during the Early Classic period (200 - 600 AD), it played an important role in trade because of its locations. The city, includes temples, sunken palaces, seats, patios and isolated constructions and reached the edge of the bay finally including the nearby island of Tamalcab. The Plaza de las Abejas, (Plaza of the bees), Plaza de las Columnas, (Plaza of the columns) the Cenote and the remains of a Spanish church make this site worth a visit.
How to get there?
Located approximately 16 kilometers north of Chetumal. Take the Chetumal-Calderitas highway and continue on the asphalt road that borders the bay north to 4.5 kilometers to site.
San Gervaiso
This small, charming site stands in a lovely forest on the island of Cozumel. Once the island's capital and principal ceremonial center, San Gervaiso is one of the few sites dedicated to the Maya goddess, Ixchel. She is one of the oldest goddesses, considered to be mother of all other gods, responsible for fertility, childbirth, bodies of water, rainbows and the moon. Constructed during the Early Classic period (300- 900 AD) and occupied well into the Post-Classic period (900 - 1500 AD), its varied architectural style can be seen throughout the ruins. Typical architectural features include limestone plazas and arches atop stepped platforms, as well as stelae and bas-reliefs carvings. Be sure to see the "hands" temple, which has small red handprints all over its altar. If you want a rugged hike, take the 15-kilometers (9-miles) dirt road that travels north to the coast to a spectacular deserted beach.
How to get there?
Located east off Av. Juárez, follow the road north for 7 kilometers (4.5 miles). Closed in October
Property Amenties & Services: Services & amenities not necessarily included in rate.
Resources >>
Type: Hotel
Caribbean Hotels Home
