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What to do, where to stay, and where to eat in Cancun & the Riviera Maya

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© Morgan & Owens

Like sequins on a dress of powder-fine sand, the Riviera Maya’s resorts dot 80 coast-skimming miles of the Yucatán Peninsula, topped by the showiest sparkler of all—Cancún, glittering brazenly on a flat limestone slab that divides the Gulf of Mexico and the turquoise-blue Caribbean Sea. The draw has always been the region’s natural assets—that sky, those waves—but don’t mistake this 40-year-old for a city with no heritage. Remnants of  Mayan civilizations endure, as does the tranquillity of the Riviera Maya’s fishing villages, thanks to restrained development policies. The result: a rare, near perfect balance of comfort and traditional simplicity, at least for now.

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