La Isla Shopping Mall, Cancún

Even though you are not the type of person who like shopping a lot, you will feel like you'll miss something if you didn't go here. I would suggest you to go to La Isla shopping village in the evening time when all the decoration lights are on. You wouldn't believe that you were shopping in Mexico!!

This shopping mall is well organized and well designed. There are many different well known brand shops there (e.g. Zara, Gucci, nike, Walner Brothers, etc) and many nice restaurants too.

It is the biggest and nicest shopping village that I found in Cancun.

What to buy: They sell handcrafts, boutiques, jewellries, souvenirs, services and others. There are sport bars, restuarants and attractions too.

La Isla is probably the nicest shopping mall in Cancun. It's outdoors, with man made canals going through it that try to have something of a Venice feel to it. The shops range from rather upscale European ones like Zara all the way to the chain tourist shop Fiesta, where you can get all the souvenirs you could ever want (they actually have two locations in this mall). There's also an aquarium here, which we didn't go to, and several restaurants. These include some chains like Johnny Rockets, Hooters and McDonalds, along with some local places with nice views of the lagoon. Currently two of the better ones are Elefante (Indian) and a Thai House. That is where the photo in this tip was taken from, during our dinner there.
Sunday nights are fun at the mall, when the locals come to stroll and hang out. There are a lot of families just having fun.

Fairly upscale mall with souvenir shops, jewelry and clothing stores. The prices aren't too bad at all after comparing them with the street vendors and other area malls. Outdoors so no air conditioning except inside stores.

What to buy: Silver, tee-shirts, ceramics.

What to pay: $20-50 for quality bracelets. $3-7 for tee-shirts.

This mall is in the middle of the Hotel Zone. It has several restaurants including La Casa de las Margaritas (do try that one) as well as many fast food ones like McDonalds and Johnny Rockets. It's on the lagoon which smells very bad there, unfortunately for the restaurant that overlooks it. There's an aquarium as well, if you're interested in bringing the kids there. Do pick up maps at the airport because you'll usually find coupons for the aquarium or the restaurants throughout the mall and Hotel Zone itself.

The mall is easily accessible by bus, using the R-1 route, there's a bus stop right across from it. Taxi prices are high along the Hotel Zone, so if you're staying on one part of the area and need to get anywhere else, it averages about US $7 to US $9. At least with the bus you pay only US $0.75 (they only take Mexican pesos, it's about 70 Pesos)

The stores there are Zara, Massimo Dutti, Diesel - most of them are European and the prices are not far from how much you would pay in Europe or the States. I ended up buying from Zara because I could not find many other places in Cancun where I could buy a nice outfit for going out. Same with bathing suits, we ended up getting ours at the mall. A note on Diesel, while many of the jeans cost about US $160 or so, you can buy some in that store that are made in Mexico and cost only US $60.

What to buy: Clothes, shoes, beachwear, etc.
There is a souvenir shop along the same way as Zara, right after the bridge. There you can get fair prices on towels, Cancun clothes, as well as liquors. We found great prices on Don Julio Reposado for just over US $10. Also, there is a tasting station to try some of the liquors available. We picked up a bottle of "La Mestiza Nance Liquor", very good.

If you like to shop for nice clothing, this is the place to go. It is absolutely beautiful at night. Even if you don't like shipping, it is really nice just to walk around. They also have some great restaurants there. It is a short cab ride from most hotels, a little far to walk in the evening.

We had dinner one evening at La Madonna. A great place. I will do a little write up on that one. It is definitely worth the money.

Cancun's number one shopping mall
LA ISLA SHOPPING VILLAGE has many name brand outlets, like -Nike Shop--Tommy Hilfiger--Nine West--Guess--Sunglass Island.
Also numerous restaurants to choose from like--Chilli's--Haagen Dazs--Shokuni--McDonald's.
There is also an interactive aquarium in the complex.

The largest shopping Center in Cancun is the LA ISLA SHOPPING VILLAGE
It's like walking through a Mexican Caribbean Villa, highlighted by a picturesque man-made river lined on both sides with more than 150 shops offering a variety of products.

Haggle,haggle,haggle it is expected from all local vendors. Go to different shops and ask for pricing, prices do vary from shop to shop. Remember that prices go up for all tourist. Negotiate and be firm about what you are offering. If they don't budge so elsewhere.

This shopping mall is beatifull, it has white canopes instead of a roof, and the outside walls change colours every 30 seconds.

There are a lot of designer shops not cheaper than usual except. Local goods you must haggle.

What to buy: Great T-Shirts for kids

Sergio Bustamante store at La Isla Mall. One of Mexico's finest artist. Dealing in mostly figurines, ceramic, bronze and paper mache.