Cancun Beaches

Cancun's beaches are incredibly beautiful, some of the best you can find in the world.

The 23 kilometers of beaches in the Hotel Zone are white sandy beaches, with warm crystalline waters typical of the Caribbean Sea.

And if you are lucky enough to stay in an All-inclusive beachfront hotel or resort, you will have all the services and amenities available.

Umbrellas, sun loungers, bathrooms, elements for water sports, enjoying a delicious cocktail or natural juice .... all this in the paradisiacal beach of Cancun.

Public and Private beaches in Cancun

But if you are not staying at a resort in the Hotel Zone, don't worry, there are also public beaches.

In fact, all beaches in Mexico are public (that is, there are no "private" beaches in Cancun). Everyone has the right to access any beach and no one should prevent you from accessing them.

But the reality is that the big resorts occupied the best beaches and set up a whole complex of facilities and services, only available to their guests.

And the resort staff is watching out for any problems... So if you are in one of these "private" beaches of a hotel and you are not a guest, you will feel something uncomfortable and out of place...

But if you don't mind that, you can quietly enjoy those beaches... of course, you won't be able to use the facilities and services offered there, only the beach.

Cancun beach access

So, you know that all the beaches in Cancun are public, even the hotel beaches.

The problem is that in the Hotel Zone there are not so many access points to the beaches, since the hotels are so close to each other and have not left any "little way" for the common public to access the beaches.

For example, take a look at the following Google Street View capture: This is the access to Ballenas Beach, which you have to walk through between the large hotel complexes to access it:

If you go along Kukulcan Boulevard, it looks like there is a whole "wall" of hotels side by side, with no beach access....

But it is not that there are no access points to the beaches, only that there are few... and in some cases they are not well signposted.

The public beach access signage is a blue and white Fonatur (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo de México) sign, and they are located at each access point on Boulevard Kukulcán.

 

Best Cancun Beaches

In this post, we indicate these public beaches in Cancun and the access points to them:

 

Cancun beaches erosion

Cancun's beaches, especially those in the Hotel Zone, are delicate and suffer erosion caused by various factors.

In fact, erosion continues to occur in different parts of the area, causing unfortunate losses of its beautiful beaches.

The Mexican government has a whole program that tries to maintain the beaches and in many cases they have managed to recover the lost beaches.

But the truth is that human effort has a limit against nature, since erosion is a natural process that could one day completely end the beaches of Cancun and other Caribbean beaches.

Many will remember the terrible hurricane Wilma that in October 2005 hit the city of Cancun, taking with it almost all the sands of the Hotel Zone, ruining kilometers of beautiful beaches.

Thanks to the efforts of the Mexican government and hoteliers, today Cancun has recovered its beaches and millions of people can enjoy them again.

Sargassum in Cancun and the Riviera Maya

Another problem facing the beaches of Cancun and Riviera Maya is the arrival of sargassum.

Scientists say it is due to a man-made environmental imbalance.

The truth is that the sargassum has a great impact on the tourist activity on the beaches.

If you want to know more about this topic, I invite you to read our article about sargassum.

And an on-line alert tool for the presence of sargassum on the beaches of Cancun and Riviera Maya:  the post will be soon.