This post kicks off what will be a few very brief stories about my trip back to Mexico for 7 days in late April-early May of this year.
My friends, Ellen and Tori, invited me to join them just across the water on the mainland in Playa Del Carmen a few months after we met in Cozumel. I turned it into a week-long stay, including a few days on my own to try diving the world’s second largest barrier reef again.
This ended up being an extremely low cost trip at around $900 for 7 days. This was not only because of the generosity of my travel friends but also because I applied my usual, low-budget approach to my experience.
And I still didn’t sacrifice on doing what I wanted which included: roof top pool bars, a visit to the famous Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza, a boat ride to see flamingos, four dives to the sea floor, swimming in crystal clear cenotes, and so much more!
Flights
As usual, I used miles to cover the majority of the cost of my flights to Cancun. I used 16,000 American Airlines AAdvantage Points and paid about $111 in fees for my round trip, non-stop, economy class ticket from Miami to Cancun.
The airport fees were a bit hefty again, but not as much as Cozumel since this was a larger, mainland airport.
But I still needed to make it to Playa Del Carmen from Cancun.
Ground Transportation
Taxi rides from Cancun to Playa Del Carmen can run you $100 USD. That was a big nope for me! Ellen told me about the local buses that are air conditioned, run on time, and run real cheap.
For about $35 USD, I got round trip bus tickets to Playa Del Carmen from Cancun airport. I was even able to change the time on my pre-booked ticket fairly easily through some broken Spanglish with the local bus organization (ADO) at a booth at the airport.
We all rented a car at one point so we could make our own way to visit Chichen Itza—possibly the most famous Mayan Ruins in all of Mexico. More on the tour later, but the car cost only $22 per day. We took it for 2 days and I decided to tack on an extra day for myself to enjoy other parts of the area around Play Del Carmen. So the total was around $65.
Add on gas and some tolls, which we all shared between the three of us, and my additional costs were only maybe $25 for ground transport.
Lastly, I paid for parking in one location and also took a Biciplaya public bicycle around Playa for a day, adding a total of about $15 extra that I included in ground transport.
In total, I spent only about $135 on all ground transportation costs for the whole trip!
Accommodation
As I mentioned, Ellen and Tori were nice enough to offer me a room to stay at their 2-floor, 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath Airbnb.
They often rent places that are bigger than they need so they can invite family and friends to stay with them. It means they get to more easily see people from back home while they are on their forever trip.
They had a 4 day window to accommodate me. They also covered the cost of our one night stay in Valladolid at a very inexpensive Airbnb for easy access to our Chichen Itza experience the next morning. The place was gorgeous and had an epic outdoor pool that I definitely dipped in for a night swim. Ellen and Tori covered the cost because I covered the cost of the car rental.
I didn’t want to go all the way to Mexico and stay for only 4 days, though. I found another Airbnb nearby that cost less than $20 per night! I stayed 3 more nights solo.
I ended up only spending a total of $56 on accommodation while in Playa Del Carmen.
The place I found was a single bedroom and private bathroom with air conditioning. I loved the plants and colorful paint that led up to the rooms in my host’s home—so beautiful!
Food
As a foodie, it’s important to me to experience all that a place has to offer in the ways of its cuisine. But I prefer to experience it like a local as much as possible. This not only means the food is more authentic, it also means it’s less expensive!
I did my usual grocery shopping run—now feeling a bit like an experienced veteran since I was grocery shopping in Mexico only a few months earlier. There were definitely still a few items on my list to try—candies and other snacks and the like. I indulged and spent about $15 on snacks alone. In total, my groceries cost less than $50.
I mostly cooked breakfasts for myself, and even dinners when staying with Ellen and Tori. But a few times we went out and experienced some of the local takeout—like their rotisserie chicken meals—yum!
I also splurged at a few more tourist-centric meals. Like on my last 2 days, I wasn’t feeling well so going out to a restaurant was a treat to myself as I spent my days mostly inside blowing away at my nose!
Included in my grocery costs were actually pharmaceuticals—some natural cold remedies and pain medications for a total of $33.50. Sickness is, sadly, sometimes the cost of travel (as I learned the very hard way 2 years ago when I got COVID in Norway!).
My restaurant costs in total were only $114. That’s after Ellen and Tori paid for a meal or two to balance the expense of the car rental I got us!
Does it all even out in the end, though? I’ll share this in the conclusion of this post!
Activities
I like to save my money for the cost of the fun stuff—like fees to enter parks or to cover the cost of SCUBA diving. If my biggest totals end up in this category (and maybe food), I know I traveled the way I like to travel.
Still, I save where it makes sense to!
Ellen and Tori and I saved a bunch of money by finding our own way to visit Chichen Itza rather than relying on a guided tour. Other benefits to getting a car rental there was that we avoided the crowds, got the best photos this way, saved a bunch of time, got 2 totally separate experiences out of it, and avoided the scorching heat!
We stayed the night before in the local Airbnb just an hour away from the tour. This gave us easy access to it before all the crowds arrived. We were in the first 20 people on line for the day (whereas others wait on line for up to 3 hours!).
We also visited Casa de los Venados, a famous art collector’s home for $5 entry and $5 tip. A detour to the Yucatan Peninsula’s north shore also brought us on a $20 boat ride at sunset to see wild pink flamingos—an experience I won’t soon forget!
Upon returning from our little road trip adventure, I extended the car rental by a day and took myself to see a couple of places in the area. For one, I did some cenote hopping! There are minimal fees to park and enter the cenotes—about $2-$5 depending on the one. The ones I visited were amazing!
I chose to go on 4 dives total (two 2-tank dives) over 2 days from Playa Del Carmen. I went with a company that was having a discount for those two days, since it was low season. I love a low tourist season! ;)
With gear included, I paid only $215 total for the dives. So that’s just a little over $50 a dive—a fantastic price.
Altogether, all the activities I did in Mexico cost less than $300 total.
Of course, I also paid for insurance to cover the trip. I don’t travel without it, especially considering how much insurance has saved me over the years. My car rental insurance was covered by my United Explorer Mileageplus Card. My flights were also covered by my Chase Ink Business card.
But for diving and any other mishaps, an added layer of insurance is necessary. Worldnomads Adventure level insurance that covers my diving experience for the 7 days in Mexico cost $122. Without that, my trip would have been closer to around $800!
In Conclusion
The total cost of my trip, just over $900, is outlined by category in the chart below.
Not included were my Lyft rides to/from the airport in Miami.
Also, for full transparency, this trip was as affordable as it was mainly thanks to Ellen and Tori’s generosity. After working out what they paid and what I paid, I determined that they actually spent $74 extra on me covering additional things like meals out, gas, and other little bits and bobs that added up.
So things don’t always even out in the end when you travel with others. But they seemed very happy to cover these things—especially since I drove us both ways to/from Chichen Itza while they got to rest up! I’ll call it my chauffeur fee!
And that is probably what cost me later in getting sick. Ah well, it was a great trip either way and I’m glad I did it for less than $1000!
