Mexico
Originally we had planned to travel Mexico from Mexico City to the border crossing of Chetumal in 3 weeks but instead we ended up spending 33 days travelling through, and taking a coach from Tulum, instead of Chetumal, to Belize City.
This occurred due to a combination of a few days of illness, which I guess was to be expected, and realising that luckily we had over budgeted for our time and could afford to travel a little slower too.
Following Mexico, which was a bit of a learning curve for us, we have decided to try to slow down our travels where possible. We want to avoid feeling like we are jumping from place to place every few days or we will be whirlwinding our way through Latin America instead of enjoying it.
This page is a re-cap of what we saw, where we stayed and how much we spent in whilst in Mexico. My hope is that this can help anyone looking to visit these places and help with budgeting.
Archaeological sites and places of interest we visited:
- Teotihuancan
- Monte Alban
- Arbol del Tule
- Mitla
- Hierve el Aqua
- Las grutas de San Cristobal
- Palenque ruins
- Misol Ha
- Aqua Azul
- Dzibilchaltun
- Chichen-Itza
- Tulum ruins
- Coba
- Cenotes
Towns and cities we visited in Mexico:
- Mexico City
- Oaxaca
- San Cristobal de las Casas
- Palenque
- El Panchan (the Jungle lodge area outside Palenque)
- Merida
- Valladolid
- Tulum
Accommodations we stayed in:
Below is a summary of where we stayed in Mexico, for how long for and a rating based on 3 key criteria for us; cleanliness of rooms/bathroom, location to amenities and value for money based on the town’s/city’s price range. All of our accommodations were on a room base and not dorms.
Please note that there are 3 nights missing from here as we travelled on overnight buses to help keep costs down as well as to not waste time by travelling by day.
The ratings below are 1 – 5, with 1 being awful and 5 being fantastic:
| Town | Place | Nights | Cleanliness | Location | Value |
| Mexico City | Hotel New York |
5 | 3.5 | 4 | 3.5 |
| Oaxaca | Hostel Pochon |
3 | 4 | 3 | 4 |
| San Cristobal | Hostel el Leon |
7 | 4 | 4.5 | 4 |
| Palenque | Hostel San Miguel | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3.5 |
| El Panchan | Margerita & Ed’s Cabanas | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3.5 |
| Merida | Hotel Medio Mundo(our treat hotel) | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Hostel Zocalo | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | |
| Valladolid | Antonio’s Rooms | 2 | 3.5 | 4 | 5 |
| Tulum | Hotel L’hotelito |
4 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
Breakdown of our costs in Mexico:
In total we spent 33 days in Mexico even though we had originally planned to stay 21 days. During that time we spent a total of £1,363, which worked out at £41 per day for the both of us. We did treat ourselves to 2 nights in a luxury hotel in Merida which added around £90 to our accommodation totals. Below is breakdown of what we spent:
| Type of Expense | Total (GBP) | Daily Ave. (GBP) |
| Accommodation | 395 | 12 |
| Food (inc eating out) | 440 | 14 |
| Transport | 289 | 9 |
| Attractions | 111 | 3 |
| Other (toiletries, souvenirs, calls etc) | 128 | 4 |
| Total | 1,363 | 41 |
For images of our trip, visit our dedicated Mexico gallery page.
