I landed at the Cancun airport on an international flight the other day. It was a bit stressful.
I wanted to get to the main part of the city—downtown. In Cancun, that’s called Ciudad Cancun. But when I got out of customs, there wasn’t a cash machine in site. I even asked. NOPE.
So I went outside. A million people all yelling in my ear. Shuttle. Taxi. Shuttle. Taxi. How much? 400 pesos. No thanks.
In the end, I asked around, found an cash machine, and grabbed the next shuttle to Ciudad Cancun for just 45 pesos—that’s basically 1/10 the price!
I made a little video showing you exactly what you need to do to replicate this for yourself:
And if you prefer just a brief explanation along with some photos…here ya go:
STEP 1: Go through customs. Follow signs to the exit (salida). You will immediately be bombarded by people offering you taxis and shuttles (even inside the airport). The same will happen (even more) when you exit the airport. Just say nothing or say “no gracias”. Most of them actually speak English too.
STEP 2: When you walk out the door to the outside, turn right and walk around the building. Within 1 minute, you will see an entrance into the airport for departing flights. Walk in the door. To your left you will see a restaurant (it’s called MERA) that looks like this:
STEP 3: Go behind the restaurant to find the cash machine. You can either walk on the right of the restaurant or the left. If you walk to the right, you’ll see the machine on your left. It looks like this:
If you walk to the left of the restaurant, you’ll immediately see this bank:
Just walk toward the bank and make a quick right, and you’ll see the cash machine on your right.
STEP 4: Exit the airport the same way you came in. Look to your right. This is what you should see:
Walk toward the covered area.
STEP 5: Buy your ticket on the ADO bus. It’s a big grey/red bus. It looks like this:
They leave every 30 minutes. As of this writing the cost is 45 pesos. Just tell the man you want to go to “Ciudad Cancun”. There will be somebody working at a little thing like this:
That’s it. Real simple. Yet a little information can save you over 350 pesos—that’s more than my budget for a whole day.
Till the next time. Buen viaje.
do you work for ado? thank you for making promotion about this service.
Hi Brenda, I definitely don’t work for ADO. I was just on a trip to Mexico and found that service to be the cheapest and fastest way to get from the airport to the center. Trying to help my fellow travelers out is all.
Just keep focused, straight ahead, when entering any city in Mexico from an airport. It is always total chaos! Some of the millions of people trying to get your attentiopn will NOT take NO for an answer. Simply tell them you own a house in the city…they will leave you alone….