We spent 2 weeks in Playacar in January. We stayed in the Sandos Gala Playacar next door to the Tucan. Both of these hotels are excellent and the location is on the best beach in the area. The bus to Cancun is really easy, the bus station is in PDC at the southern end, you can walk to it in 40 mins or a cab costs $5. There are plenty of taxis everywhere but when we looked at doing the excursions this way it was more expensive than our tour operator (Signature/FC). Xcaret is a great day and evening out. We did go to Cozumel for the snorkelling independently, again very easy because the ferry terminal is not far from the bus station. We did the Isla Mujeres excursion but for us this would have better and cheaper using the bus and regular ferry. Dont worry about the Nov. /Dec. weather, Jan. is mid winter and it crept into the 90s most days, the humidity is intense but this is a tropical area so its expected. We did'nt expect to see so many wild animals in the hotel grounds including monkeys, iguanas and agoutis( giant guinea pigs) but these hotels are adjacent to the jungle, we loved it.

Thanks for the info rdv. Can you tell me where the bus drops you off in Cancun and if thats the same place we would catch the bus on the way back to PDC?

Thanks

The bus route ends at the bus station and you get the return from here. The buses are modern and air conditioned and the Mexicans are friendly and helpful. Cancun is a large resort and very American, it covers around 12 miles of coastline so if you know where you want to go just get a cab when you leave the bus station, always best to ask the fare in advance. Its about 40 miles into Cancun and takes about an hour on a multi lane highway which has very severe speed control humps (called topes) every 5 or 6 miles, these actually bring the traffic to a standstill, very strange on what is a modern motorway.