I finally visited Mexico over New Years and managed to keep the cost down during this peak travel time. Mexico is not known to be an expensive country to visit. However, the price tag can skyrocket in an island cruise destination like Cozumel.
Not including travel insurance, I spent just over $1000 on 9 days in Cozumel, Mexico. That’s about $115 per day including airfare, accommodation, food, activities, transportation, and more.
I am quite proud of that price tag considering I did everything I wanted to do and even some things I didn’t know I’d do!
So how did I keep the cost down? Aside from travel points for my flights, many of the excursions and activities I did involved finding back ways to experience the same thing without the cost or bargaining my way to a better deal. Check out this full cost breakdown to understand how I spent my money in Cozumel.
Bargaining In USD And MX Pesos
Everything in Mexico is marked with a dollar sign ($) but are usually priced in Mexican Pesos. I quickly learned to move the decimal over and multiply by 6 to slightly overestimate the cost in USD. So $100 MX is <$6 USD.
This made calculating the actual cost a bit easier for me. I learned I would get overcharged when using USD rather than using MX, for example. Locals seem to know you’re a tourist and charge you more when (1) you’re at a tourist spot or area especially when there are USD prices on display; (2) when you hand over USD instead of MX.
You can respectfully decline and suggest a different rate. Most of the time people honored it simply because I asked. At the same time, I never did this with small, mom and pop type places, even if I felt like I was being overcharged.
Flights
The break period I had available to travel happened to coincide with the exact start of peak travel season for Cozumel which extends from the end of December through April. This was the stretch from Christmas through New Years Eve and into the first week of the new year.
As a result, I was bound to pay peak travel prices for flights. Thank goodness for travel points! I ended up shoveling out 33,000 Delta Skymiles for my round trip tickets (with a stopover) plus fees. The fees to get to Cozumel are pretty brutal, too, at $131. As far as I could tell, there was no avoiding this, even when trying different airlines.
For a points hoarder like me, this felt like big spending! LOL. Seriously, this was the most I’ve paid in fees for a trip in a while! But, hey, the rest of the trip wasn’t going to cost much to balance things out.
Accommodation
I was looking to stay in the main city of San Miguel on Cozumel. This would put me in a central location to my needs. As a cruise ship town, there’s lots to do and places to stay near the water but I didn’t mind being a bit farther away from that. In fact, it was somewhat preferrable to be embedded more in the residential areas of town.
After looking into hotel prices and Airbnb prices, I was not able to find a happy middle ground of comfort/amenities at a low nightly rate. The rates I found seemed to be jacked for the season and cruise ships. I went on over to booking.com and managed to find the perfect option. A private room in someone’s home with its own entrance, bathroom, and kitchenette. The big seller for me was all the cute plants on the terrace and surrounding the small pool out back.
The place being only about $26 per night was also a selling point! Not to mention it was walking distance form the airport and away from all the chaotic tourist areas of San Miguel.
I didn’t know just how amazing this place was going to be until I was actually staying there, however. When you choose to stay in a local’s home, far away from the tourist area, let’s just say that magical experiences are bound to occur. I really had no idea but this place was about to become truly priceless. I’ll explain in future posts, for sure! But just know that it had to do with the neighborhood on New Years Eve!
The only downside to the room? The bed. I guess in my older age, I’ve become slightly more picky about what I sleep on. For one night or when camping I don’t mind a harder surface. But for 9 nights? I needed something softer. I also had a friend who was going to visit me for 2 nights on this trip—and I wanted him to be comfortable, too.
So, I went to a local department store and bought a foam topper for the bed. This was definitely a great decision and only $29. I gifted it to the couple staying in the unit next to me at the end of my stay (that story is also to come in a later post!).
Food
Cozumel can get expensive when it comes to food and drink if you aren’t mindful of where you’re spending your dollars (or pesos).
Most of the restaurants in the cruise ship part of San Miguel are going to charge you US prices. Okay, not New York City prices, but definitely upstate New York prices. Whereas, if you go to a small restaurant before it closes in the late afternoon, you can fill up on tacos that cost less than a dollar each.
That being said, I did a mixture of pricier tourist restaurants and super cheapo local food. I think I struck a good balance!
Because it was New Years and Mexico loves their tequila, I was feeling a bit more inclined to purchase alcohol on this trip than I usually do when I travel. A typical price for a drink is about $5. For instance, a sangria, a glass of champagne, and a fruit margarita were all about $5 each. One of my favorite places, Aqui y Ahora, had a 2 for 1 happy hour deal on margaritas every evening.
My alcohol budget was honestly probably a good portion of my total food costs. I didn’t calculate this specifically because it’d be a hassle to itemize, but I can honestly say alcohol probably accounted for 1/4 of my total food costs.
Overall, my total restaurant (including alcohol costs) for 9 days/nights in Cozumel was $238.
That’s not all! As usual, I went grocery shopping my first night in Cozumel. The nicest grocery store I went to was Soriana Supermarket. I was there to get a few staple items for breakfast and then to splurge on Made In Mexico snacks and candy. This is my tradition and I’ll never regret the price tag of what I pay to try new food items made in the country of origin!
I spent about $70 total on groceries for the entire trip—and I am still eating some of the chocolate I brought back! :)
Transportation
In San Miguel, I was able to walk to most things I needed. I walked from the airport to my accommodation, and from there to the grocery store on my first day. If you need to go farther, you can take a taxi, rent a car, or rent a scooter.
Taxis are all over and available at all hours. Just make sure the taxi has the “Sindicato de Choferes Taxistas” logo on the vehicle to know they are legit. Also, try to agree on the price before you get in and go.
I never paid more than $5 for a one-way taxi ride from one side of town to the other. I only took about 3 rides my entire time there so I estimated $15 total for all taxi rides during my stay.
If it’s really late and you’re in a very remote part of town, it may take a little longer to hail a taxi that is available. On one occasion, I hailed a taxi that went and dropped someone off first and then came back for me a few minutes later! Otherwise, the number I used to call a taxi to my me, such as to my accommodation, was written in a booklet that my host provided. The number was 987-872-0041.
One of the convenient and cost-saving parts about traveling to Mexico is that local calls and data use were still covered under my Verizon plan—so I didn’t need to buy and change SIM cards!
I decided before getting to Cozumel that my primary mode of transportation was going to be a scooter. I read online that it was a popular form of travel among locals and the easiest way to drive and park around San Miguel. It would also be the least expensive option daily. I’d have the most freedom to go wherever I wanted and I’d save significantly on gas.
I managed to acquire a scooter for less than some of the jacked rates I heard around the tourist areas. I heard anywhere from $25-$40 per day offered to tourists. I’d nearly start laughing and ruin their sales pitch when I overheard this.
I paid $19.50 per day using a recommended company in my host’s booklet (“Chac Choc”). I denied the insurance since it was covered by my United Mileage plus credit card, saving me a bit more.
The cost of gas was almost laughable. It took zipping all over the island over 4-5 days to have to fill my tank. When I did? I’d fill it up for just $6. My friend got a scooter, too, and I filled up his tank for him. So the total cost of filling up was under $15 total for my full 9 days there.
I just made sure to take things steadily. You may remember my fear of motorbikes in Thailand and how I worked to get over that fear there? Scooters are still really dangerous no matter what way you look at it. But driving slowly and not overdoing what I could handle kept me safe and in control.
Activities
As I always say, activities are where I prefer to spend the most of my money. I’m always willing to splurge a little to truly see the place where I am. For this trip in particular, I was determined to actually see and do it all and not be “cheap” about getting to experience all that I really wanted.
Did that stop me from trying to experiences things at the lowest cost possible? Of course not! :)
I managed to find a great place right on the water to SCUBA dive with called Blue Angel. The staff and dive masters at Blue Angel were very easy going and they were willing to help put me with an advanced group to increase my chances of going to the dive site I was most keen to see. I can’t wait to share more about how this turned out (spoiler: it was amazing!!). But let’s get to the cost…
Initially they were going to charge me about $130 for 2 nitrox tank dives plus gear. But when I said I could pay in pesos they said, “Oh ok, that’ll be $100 USD.” What?! Only $100 for 2 dives and gear? And they didn’t even charge extra for nitrox. That’s the lowest price I’ve paid in a very long time!
Now, to go SCUBA diving, I do prefer to have adventure-level travel insurance just in case something happens. I always buy travel insurance for every international trip through World Nomad. They are a bit pricey, but they’ve saved my ass on numerous occasions having nothing to do with diving. This has included covering the cost of my lost $300+ glasses in New Zealand, and most recently covering the cost of my $2000+ COVID debacle in Norway.
So it’s definitely paid for itself over the years!
For this trip, their price tag was $120. I don’t usually include this in the total cost of my trip because it is optional for some and it isn’t a part of the cost of Cozumel itself. However, I mention it anyway for transparency and because I’d never dive without insurance (even when I neglect to mention it in past “Cost of” posts)!
Outside of diving, I spent most of my adventure/activity dollars on entrance fees or access to see different parts of the island, including San Gervasio, Punta Sur, El Cedral, and Isla De La Pasion. All of these had their own, unique, and very-worth-the-fee experiences.
Now, I never paid over $20 access to any of these locations. For some of them, I accessed at a discounted rate because I bargained or found a different way in.
For example, most people go to Isla De La Pasion for a $45-$65 tour fee. I found a back way to take a small boat to it for just $15.
Sure, I had to bounce over pot holes on my scooter, traipse across a garbage-strewn beach, and blindly navigate a jungle to get there (rather than getting dropped off by ferry boat). But who cares? It added to the adventure and I still got access to all the amenities (and more) that the overpaying tourists got.
Altogether Now
Below is an outline of the total cost of all aspects of my trip outlined above. This table includes the insurance. If you’re taking that out, the total cost of my trip to Cozumel comes in at $1048.68.
I had such a great time in Cozumel. I did so much and had a lot of surprise cultural experiences and amazing budget-related wins. I look forward to sharing each part and each story in-depth in the coming months!
