Quintana Roo

The Mexican state of Quintana Roo might be more recognizable to many as México’s Caribbean Coast. From north to south, it is 260 miles / 420 km of land hugging the aqua blue waters of the Caribbean Sea.

The coastal cities of Cancún, Puerto Morelos,  Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Tulum, and Bacalar all claim this state as their home.

Cancún was a planned resort beach destination. Prior to all the hotels being built, this area was mostly just a remote sandy coastal region where pretty much no one lived. The word, Cancún means a nest of snakes. There were about 50 different species of snakes who inhabited this area with a couple of them being deadly to humans. Of course, today you will not see any of these slithery creatures as their natural home was drastically altered by all the commercial infrastructure created for tourists.

A “plus” in this region is that with the construction of all the modern highways and roads, most of this state is easily drivable in a rental car.

Quintana Roo is now home to many manmade tourist attractions likened to theme parks as well as ones of the natural kind. Many cenotes, jungle reserves to spot monkeys, off-shore coral reefs, and scores of white sand beaches make this state the most populated with foreign and domestic visitors in the country each year.