Playa Las Perlas
- Children’s playground
- Calm, shallow water
- Free parking
- Lifeguard service
- Popular with local families
- Closest hotel-zone beach to the city
- Toilets and showers
Overview
Playa Las Perlas is one of the first public beaches inside the Cancún hotel zone, at Km 2.5 of Boulevard Kukulcán, close to the city end of the boulevard. It faces the Bahía de Mujeres rather than the open Caribbean, and the water is calm and shallow, with a gradual slope out from the sand.
It is a small beach used mainly by Cancún families rather than by visitors, largely because of its facilities: a free children's playground beside the sand, public palapas, toilets and showers, a lifeguard during set hours and a small free car park. Being at the start of the boulevard, it is also the quickest hotel-zone beach to reach from downtown, about ten minutes by car.
Our current condition score for this beach is .
Our photographic record
Each photograph is published unedited and in date order, and is retained so the record builds rather than resets.
No photographs of this beach have been submitted yet. The grid below fills in as contributors send them.
Position relative to the Atlantic sargassum belt
Las Perlas sits on the northern arm of the Cancún sandbar, which faces into the Bahía de Mujeres. The long eastern arm running south from Punta Cancún faces the open Caribbean, and conditions on the two sides often differ on the same day.
The bay is sheltered rather than closed. Sargassum can still reach it when the wind and current bring it in, and the calm water that suits small children leaves little surf to carry it back out.
The sargassum season
What reaches a beach on a given day depends on the wind and current of the days beforehand rather than on the month alone.
The regional pattern is covered in our guide to sargassum season in the Riviera Maya.
Choosing a hotel on this stretch
The first kilometres of the boulevard hold a few hotels but are not the heart of the resort strip, which lies further east towards Punta Cancún. Staying here means calm water nearby and a short trip into the city.
For families with small children the northern arm is the calmer side of the sandbar. Anyone who wants surf or a long open beach should look at the eastern arm instead.
Access and getting there
The access is off Boulevard Kukulcán at Km 2.5. The R-1 and R-2 buses run along the boulevard and stop at the beach, the boulevard cycle path passes it, and from downtown Cancún it is about ten minutes by taxi.
Parking is free, but the car park is small and fills at weekends, so arriving early is the safest approach on a Saturday or Sunday.
The hotel-zone ferries to Isla Mujeres leave from El Embarcadero, at about Km 4 of the boulevard, a short distance further along.
Check live conditions before you go
The bay often keeps this beach calmer than the eastern arm, but it does not keep sargassum out. Our live card for Playa Las Perlas carries the current condition score and the most recent contributor photographs with their dates.
See live conditions, photos & cams →