If you're looking for souvenirs from shot glasses to leather bags this is where you want to be. You…read morecan even have breakfast, lunch or dinner in the same location. I ate at El chipilin, a small family owned restaurant in the back area where the vendors are less pushy. I had the Costilla De puerco frita ( fried pork ribs with tacos, black beans, lettuce salad ) . The service at the restaurant was friendly. Dealing with the vendors while walking through the market can be overwhelming as they can be pushy to purchase from them, politely decline and keep walking .

Not a fan. Not actually easy to get to (if you take the wrong bus from the Hotel Zone). We took the…read moreRed #2 / local (no AC bus) and quickly discovered it was more local than tourist. The bus was packed with locals heading home from working in the hotel zone, so it was nearly impossible to alert the bus driver to stop...so we were dropped off a mile from our original planned stop. Thanks Google/Apple Maps for getting us to Mercado 28. Not fun! I'm guessing the orange bus (that we took to parque de las palapas) has a more direct route. Once we found our way there, it's the park of visiting these type of venues I hate. All the vendors are attempting to get you into their little shop, sometimes quite aggressively...and there are many small shops in the aisles/corridors of Mercado 28. So that aspect is not fun in the least. Then comes the next step, trying to get a good price on something you might be interested in. Know your peso conversions! They'll start extremely high, so you have to haggle. My daughters BF was buying a "drug rug" hoodie for a relative. It started at roughly $80 US. After quite a bit of time going back and forth, he finally got the price down to $35 (and that still seemed high ... for me at least, knowing I had one of these 40+ years ago and it was like $10, lol). I bought two hats from this same vendor and the haggling was nearly as exhausting. It started out for like $65 for the two hats, but we finally got to a price I was happy with. Something positive to say? There are many, many vendors selling goods (many of which are the same, but there are quite a few unique shops). If you love haggling, this is the place for you. Odds are you may get a better price than what you can find in the hotel zone. There are also many food vendors, but they're pushy too so we just decided to walk the half mile (maybe more like 1 mile) to parque de las palapas for our meal. We also knew where to get the bus back to the HZ from Palapas, unlike from Mercado 28 where we had to hike in from parts unknown.

Total tourist trap (and not in a good way)!…read more If you're looking to purchase unique arts & crafts and other artisan gifts, you're at the wrong place, amigos. This flea market is where every hotel concierge and taxi drive will direct you to (probably because they're getting some sort of kick-back). This place is like a Turkish bazaar with hundreds of tiny vendors. Each shop more or less sells the same stuff (tacky Mexican souvenirs, soccer jerseys, shoes, jewelry, tequila, etc.). The salespeople here are VERY aggressive. As soon as you step out of the cab, you'll be hounded by 10 different sales guys welcoming you to "The Price is Right." Be sure to keep your purse/wallets/personals close to your person. This place is infamous for muggings and robberies. And if you're looking to purchase something, make sure you negotiate. My friend was able to bargain with a sales guy for a soccer jersey (she got it from $50 to $30 in 5 minutes). Unless you're in desperate need to shop, I wouldn't make a point of visiting here. Stick to the Cancun beaches and resorts.