Cancun and the Riviera Maya account for the lion's share of U.S. tourism to Mexico, and most of those travelers set their compasses south in winter, beginning around the Christmas holidays. Most northerners don't think of the Caribbean coast as a fall destination, but that's when some of the region's best events — aimed primarily at locals, since that's who is around — take place.
This is also the time of year when prices are lowest – right up until the week before Christmas, when they soar to the highest levels of the year. Yes, it's humid early in the season, but November is comfortable and December weather often approaches perfection. If you haven't considered the Mexican Caribbean for a fall vacation before, here are some reasons to try it this year.
Day of the Dead
Roughly analogous to, yet profoundly different from, our Halloween, the annual Day of the Dead celebration (Nov. 1-2) produces some of Mexico's most joyous pageantry, and the Caribbean coast is no exception — the Maya version here is called Hanal Pixán. The Xcaret theme park extends the celebration to five days with its annual Festival of Life and Death Traditions, Oct. 30-Nov. 3. program. Music, dance, visual arts and a patchwork of traditions from cuisine to spiritual rituals to altars and offerings combine to provide the pageantry, and visitors can participate in children's activities and cemetery tours. The central theme for this year's Day of the Dead festival is Ix'tabay, a beautiful woman of Maya myth who appears to men and takes them with her as she walks through the night.
Playa del Carmen's Yaxche restaurant hosts a reservations-only fiesta with traditional Maya food on Nov. 2, attended by a local shaman and a dance troupe that performs a farewell to departed souls. Playa del Carmen hosts a parade down Fifth Avenue, with some altar displays and decorations on the pretty little side street called Calle Corazon. Alltournative, the local ecotourism company, offers a tour to the Tres Reyes Maya community for Day of the Dead observations, including a traditional meal and a ceremony led by a community shaman. 

Food, glorious food
With its famous whale sharks departed for the season, Isla Holbox's tourism slows to a trickle. But visitors savvy enough to visit this fall will reap the benefits when the tiny island shows off a culinary might wholly out of proportion to its size during the Second Annual Holbox Gastronomic Festival, Oct. 16-20. A pantheon of visiting chefs and local restaurants (CasaSandra, Paraiso, El Chapulin, Mandarina ...) will showcase Caribbean flavors, fresh seafood and international dishes prepared in unique island style. In honor of the occasion, the carless town's famous golf carts will stage a parade through the sandy streets.
Playa del Carmen started its annual Taste of Playa food festival five years ago to honor the creativity and diverse cultural influences of the Riviera Maya's cadre of chefs. This year's event, Nov. 24 in the Parque Fundadores, will have more than 30 participating restaurants, from traditional and contemporary Mexican to European meats and cheeses, French pastry, Mexican-Asian fusion, Cuban seafood, Thai, vegetarian, sushi and an array of cocktails and tequila. 

Cancun's Underwater Museum
Cancun's Underwater Museum (Spanish acronym MUSA), which sank its first set of sculptures to the bottom of a national marine park in the waters between Cancun and Isla Mujeres in 2010, has installed 11 new sculptures, designed to be altered by the fish, coral and other marine life that colonize them. Even bigger news is the opening of a visitor center in the Kukulcan Plaza luxury shopping center. Featuring 26 replicas of the most popular submerged sculptures, it also offers exhibits showing sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor's process, step-by-step, for creating internationally recognized art installations that become part of the marine environment. Another center, which will emphasize the Underwater Museum's role in marine conservation, is planned for Isla Mujeres.
See more photos on the Get Lost travel blog

We got culture
Cozumel's Fall Cultural Week, Oct. 19-27, takes place at venues all over the island. Culture meets ecology through various events such as a Mother Earth ceremony, a water drum/fire-dancing performance, an organic market, a puppet theater, films and videos, an organic agriculture conference, contemporary dance and ballet, an organic gardening workshop and concerts.
The Riviera Maya Jazz Festival, Nov. 28-30 at the Mamitas Beach club (end of Av. 28 Norte), is ranked as one of the world's top 10 jazz festivals. Among the jazz legends and Grammy winners who have appeared in its 11 years are George Duke, Four Play, Sergio Mendes and Herbie Hancock. This year's festival will bring Grammy-winning guitarist Frank Gambale, pianist/composer Jim Beard and ground-breakers Earth, Wind & Fire to the Mamitas Beach club.

http://www.sfgate.com/mexico/mexicomix/article/Cancun-and-the-Riviera-Maya-in-the-fall-4840970.php