In the early 1980s, the pure, Caribbean beaches girdled Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is marked by little more than a few fishing villages. There is a hotel in the here and a hammock in there, but not much of an effort to identify their position, not a lot of infrastructure to support them.

But just as it was to Cancun, Mexico’s tourism development agency decided to put a name to this beautiful face, and the Riviera Maya was born. Before long, the road was built parallel to the beach, the beach is connected to the Cancun airport. Romantic marketing ring name, but the Riviera Maya, indeed, an ideal description of the magic carpet unrolls unbroken sand for nearly 81 miles south of Cancun.