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Tags: Shopping Travel / Mexico Travel / Cancun Travel / → All Tags

New Perfume Line Promises To Make You Smell Like Cancun

Smells like Carlos & Charlies? Cancun-based cosmetics retailer Ultrafemme is putting out a new line of high-end "Cancun perfumes," designed explicitly to make the workaday woman smell like a girl living it up in Cancun. There's an argument to be made that this is a curious branding decision, given that Cancun was put on this earth to make Key West look classy. Nevertheless, they've got five distinct scents that they're selling in stores throughout the Mexican Caribbean and Los Cabos.

If you can't get down to Cancun, but still want that fresh overcrowded resort tourist trap scent, they've set up a retailer so you can purchase the scents online. All fragrances come in specially-shaped 1.7oz bottles, and each of the five is its own unique treasure.

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Tags: Volunteer Travel / Ecotourism / Cancun Travel / Green Travel / → All Tags

First Lend A Hand In Cancun, Then Get Drunk And Sit On The Beach

Think a trip to Cancun is just about getting drunk and returning home with nothing more than a hangover and a sunburn? This might be true for few, but we recommend you think again. Hands Up Holidays' Yucatan Explorer Package gives travelers two weeks to explore Mexico, do a little eco-sightseeing and get a taste of volunteering.

Hands Up Holidays provide an opportunity to help people in need around the world without having to sleep on the floor or share a bathroom with dozens of college kids. Instead, all of their trips include upmarket, often luxurious accommodations. They also provide a balance between helping out and being able to enjoy a relaxing getaway.

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Tags: Swine Flu / Memorial Day Travel / Mexico / Cancun / Riviera Maya / Airfare Sales / → All Tags

Will Flu-Free Guarantees Lure Travelers Back to Mexico?

We're already well acquainted with good weather vacation guarantees, but now it seems that desperate destinations are jumping aboard the no flu guarantee bandwagon.

Desperate to get travelers to again view Mexico as a safe tourism destination, twenty coastal resorts have launched a "flu-free guarantee." All you need do is book an upcoming trip to any of the resorts, which are mostly in Cancun or the Riviera Maya, and if you do happen to get swine flu (and have the bloodwork to prove it), the consortium will pay for the entirety of your next three vacations.

The CDC lifted their travel ban to Mexico last week, and most countries have now resumed flights to the country, although travelers are still understandably hesitant to return south of the border.

So is Memorial Day weekend the time to return to Mexico? The prices say yes. Unlike just about anywhere else in the world, you can book a plane ticket to Mexico right now and still get a cheap fare for this weekend. Searching on Kayak, we found Friday-to-Monday roundtrip flights to Cancun for $281 from New York, $316 from Chicago, and $363 from LA. Get to clicking, and leave those flu masks at home.

Related Stories:
· Mexico resorts offer 'flu-free' deal [USA Today]
· CDC downgrades Mexico travel warning [USA Today]
· Swine Flu Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: ramonbaile]

Tags: The Real World Cancun / Reality TV Travel / Cancun / Mexico Travel / → All Tags

Stalking The Cast of 'The Real World Cancun'

Summer may be just around the corner yet, but down in the land of a thousand Coronas, Cancún, production on the 22nd season of Mtv's The Real World is already wrapping up. Although the group's job this season will be with StudentCity.com, with the goal to "give people a safe and fun vacation," there's no doubt that the house will be chock full of its own contrived drama and weepy issues. As The Real World is a formulaic show, let's have some fun and attempt to predict where they'll be doing the Four G's of MTV Reality: Groping, Getting, Giving and Going.

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Tags: The Real World Cancun / Reality TV Travel / Television Travel / → All Tags

The Real World Calls Dibs on the Cuervo, Heads to Cancún Next Season

Is the Real World: Brooklyn getting you down with its drama and not fulfilling your weekly ration of reality hottub hijinks? Never fear, for MTV feels your pain: seeking to take a break from the city life and industrial landscapes typical of most Real Worlds, the network is moving the show to Cancún for it's 22nd season. In fact, hurry down south soon as production has already begun at the ME Cancún Resort and spring break hits full swing in less than two months.

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Tags: Celeb Travel / Leonardo DiCaprio / Bar Refaeli / → All Tags

Mexico Travel: Leo's Last Hurrah

Leonardo DiCaprio and model girlfriend Bar Refaeli hunt for the suntan lotion on a beach in Cancun, Mexico over the weekend. Sadly, Leo appears to have packed that weird chin-beard he wears in his latest movie, Ridley Scott's "Body of Lies."

Back in December, trend-trackers predicted that travel to Central and South America would continue to rise in '08, and certainly many celebs have chosen to vacay in our neighbor to the south.

But given the economic climate, are people looking forward to any vacations in 2009? Forget "climate change" travel and learning-focused trips (two more trends predicted for this year); what's going to be the new hot trip? Taking one at all?

Related Stories:
· Leonardo DiCaprio Takes a Respectable Vacation in Hawaii [Jaunted]
· December 2007 Prediction: What's Hot for 2008 [ABC News]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: JustJared]

Tags: Travel Delays / Caribbean Travel / Hurricanes / Travel Storms / → All Tags

Hurricane Dean Lands in Mexico, Tourists React

After gaining plenty of strength last night, Hurricane Dean made landfall on Mexico's Yucatan coast Tuesday morning as a beast of a Category 5 storm. Dean's eye came ashore around 4:30 a.m. just north of Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo. Winds were over 165 mph, and Dean, which is reportedly a storm the size of Texas, will affect the entire Yucatan peninsula.

Tourists, who mostly inhabit Cancun and Cozumel, which are well north of the eye, were frantically trying to get seats on the last planes out before the storm last night. Reportedly. Of the 20,000 tourists in Quintana Roo, about 13,000 had been evacuated.

The above photo of a Cancun beach near the Oasis Cancun Hotel was taken yesterday and shows a definite calm before the storm. Tourists seem to be trying to milk every last second of beach time even as the hotel they are staying in boards up the resort windows and a Cat 5 storm lurks less than 24 hours away.

Stuck in Cancun? Let us know what the scene is like.

Related Stories:
· Hurricane Dean's Path to the Yucatan Peninsula [Jaunted]
· Hurricane Dean Travel Report [Jaunted]
· Cancun Hotels [HotelChatter]

[Photo: brits in cancun]

Tags: Travel Delays / Caribbean Travel / Hurricanes / Travel Storms / → All Tags

Hurricane Dean's Path To The Yucatán Peninsula

Playa del Carmen is empty and the Cancún airport is full of tourists trying to jet back home, many are trying to get aboard the "ferry" flights designated for evacuation. After two or more days of waiting, plenty of people are still camping out on the airport floor, despite what Barger says. Still, by the time Dean reaches the Yucatan tomorrow morning more than 50,000 tourists will have been evacuated -- not bad.

What to do if you are in Mexico or going to Mexico in the next couple of days? Be patient and flexible. Most airlines will issue you credit in a situation like this, as will most hotels, but be sure to read the fine print.

Back of the envelope travel guide to Hurricane Dean:

· Tourists Flee Cancun [TheAge]
· What Travelers Need To Know About Hurricane Dean [Elliott]
· Yucatán Peninsula, battening down for hurricane Dean [CSMonitor]
· Hurricane Dean Tracker [Weather.com]
· Hurricane Dean [National Hurricane Center]
· Cancun Hotels [HotelChatter]

[Photo: Eduardo Verdugo/AP]