We recently took a family trip to Cancun, MX. This was somewhat of an unplanned trip, and we were able to do it because of the vouchers we received from Continental. Since this was an unplanned vacation we only had one budget. Spend as little as possible. We were able to spend under $600.00 while we were there for all four of us. The truth is can have a lot of fun without breaking the bank.
Change your Dollars to Pesos
This is probably the most important part. If you pay in pesos you will be charged more due to the exchange rate. At the end of the day you will pay much more less if you pay in pesos than if you pay in dollars.
Transportation to and from the Airport
If your hotel does not come with transportation to and from the airport you will have to figure out a way to get your hotel. Arriving is harder than leaving. Only a certain cab company is allowed to operate out of the airport. You will be bombarded with offers to take you to your hotel, all ranging from $40.00 to $50.00 USD. Too much!!! Lucky, there is a bus station right on the airport. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TAKE A CAB TO YOUR HOTEL! As soon as you leave customs to your left hand side there will be a red bus ticket office for ADO. This bus takes you to the Cancun bus station where you can find a taxi for much less than they will charge you at the airport. Buses leave every 15 minutes and cost $45.00 pesos per person, kids are half price. At the bus station you can get a taxi for about $100 – $150 pesos to the hotel zone (zona hotelera).
The best way to get a good fare is to figure out how much you want to pay and be ready to talk the drivers down to that price. As soon as someone approaches you, ask them how much they charge. If you are only willing to pay $200 pesos or $20USD tell them no thank you, they will come back with a counter offer at this point you can tell them I have $200 pesos and I am going to this hotel, do you want to take me for that? If not tell them you will take the ADO bus. You can easily talk them down from $40 USD to $50USD to $20USD. The truth is that $20USD is a good price compared to what you will pay in the states and $20 is a well paid fare in Mexico.
Once you have checked out of your hotel and are ready to come back home. Walk to the nearest street and stop any taxi driver and ask them how much charge you to take you the airport. You can get a taxi for around $200 pesos to $150 pesos which amounts to about $15USD.
ACTIVITIES
If you are planning to do any activities you can save tons of money by doing most things yourself. You will find many companies offering tours to all the different attractions and places to visit.
XCARET
The best place to visit by far, according to the locals, is XCARET. It is also the most expensive! While there I saw tours ranging from $100USD per person to $150USD per person, and that only included entrance to the park. The truth is that the basic entrance to the park is $69USD when you buy tickets at the park itself. ADO has four morning buses at 8am, 9am, 10am and 11am, with two returning at 9:40pm and 9:50pm everyday. The price for the round trip would be around $12USD. You can easily save $20USD to $70USD per person by going straight to the park. Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to go there, but I hope we will return one day.
CHICHEN ITZA
Another must see place is the historic Chichen Itza. The eight wonder of the world, seem a little over rated to me, specially since the Teotihican ruins I thought were much more impressive. Here are again you will find trips ranging from $70USD to $100USD per person. If you decide go by yourself you can save quite a bit of money. The entrance to the park is around $16USD. Here again to can take the ADO bus straight to from Cancun to Chichen Itza. ADO only has one first class bus per day to Chichen Itza. It leaves Cancun at 8:00am and returns at 4:30pm the trip is 3 hours long, so be prepared. The price for the bus ticket is around $26USD, so you can go and come back for around $42USD per person.
SNOKERLING AND OTHER WATER ACTIVTIES.
My wife loves snorkeling, so we wanted to do some of that while we were there. We were able to find a place that had snorkeling and a dolphin encounter. We paid $120USD for the four of us, which included food. While there we paid an extra $13USD to do a snorkeling tour. It was a very nice and inexpensive park. They had a range of other activities that were included in the package, like swim the Sharks, swim with manta rays and a bike tour. The island is located in Isla Muejres and transportation was included. They also had transportation from the island to down town isla mujeres, which was also included. All in all we had a really good time at a very reasonable price. You should check it out!
Do you know any good Cancun money saving tips. Leave it in the comments.
