It’s only February and I’m so happy to say I fulfilled one of my New Year resolutions – travel outside the U.S. My boyfriend and I went to Cancun for 4 days, thanks to Expedia’s mistake promo, and we had an amazing time away from the snow and soaking up the sun – we’re now roasted but it’s worth it =p
Here are a few tips that I learned along the way for anyone who’s planning on traveling to Cancun:
- Once you step outside the airport, you’ll be bombarded by tour guides trying to sell you bus and tour tickets. Pat and I took a shuttle (to Downtown) that costed $17/person. But if we took a taxi, it would have only costed 250 pesos, or about $20 for both of us.
- Bring a credit card (preferably one with chip and pin and no foreign transaction fees) with you. The currency exchange rate is 1 USD = 15 Pesos. If you use USD cash, you only get about 13 pesos per dollar in store.
- Bring lots of $1 bills for the bus. We stayed in a hotel in downtown and took the bus (R1 and R2) to the hotel zone. Each ride was $1 or 13 pesos per person. We ran out of dollar bills and paid with $10 and $20 bills, we ended up getting charged way more – probably because the bus driver wasn’t good at math or I didn’t do the calculations beforehand.
- If you’re doing any tour, they usually pick you up from your hotel. Cancun time is one hour behind Eastern Standard Time. Make sure you change your clock. We forgot and missed the pick up so we ended up losing the deposit.
- Speaking of tours, the prices are likely negotiable, especially during off seasons. We weren’t originally planning on doing any tour but we got chatted up by a tour guide and he offered us a tour with an advertised price of $109 USD for $50 USD.
- Pat and I have heard horror stories about stuff gone missing in hotel rooms. Unless you’re staying in a super high end hotel, the safes are not that safe. We brought tape and a few ziploc bags, put our passports inside and taped one to the bottom of a shelf and hid the other one under the sink.
The day before we flew back, we were on our way back to our hotel and walked pass a souvenir store. The owner approached me and asked to trade my t-shirt (with the sparkly red-lipped gorilla, it was one of my favorite shirts I owned) for any shirt in his store. I agreed. And from now on, t-shirts are going to be my travel souvenir.
Sipping margaritas on the beach. This might have been his 4th.
Along this river had alligator warning signs but the water was so clear. What’s worse than getting eaten by an alligator? Apparently, not jumping in the water.
This was a Mayan ruin by Playa Delfines (Dolphins Beach) in Mirador. It was a less popular ruin and the admission was only $4.
If you have other tips for traveling to Cancun, please share them in the comment so other people can benefit. I hope this post is entertaining and informative.
Mild Turbulence 