I only knew of the existence of Cancún through PhD Comics (a popular conference venue), but agreed with Oziel to break the northern hemispheric winter with something a little more tropical.

Cancún itself is a strip of resorts along white sand beaches. We used this as our hub to see the Yucatan Peninsula. This took us to Chichen Itza (a Mayan pyramid), Merida, [a tropical cyclone in] Tulúm (another Mayan pyramid), and Isla Mujeres.