Student's Guide to Mexico Travel - Beginner's Guide to Mexico Travel

Before you go to Mexico: Do I need a passport for Mexico travel? Do I need a visa in Mexico, and what's a tourist card? What do I need to drive in Mexico? How much money should I budget for Mexico travel? Do I need shots before I travel to Mexico? Get those answers first with a Mexico travel planning FAQ, or keep scrolling for the rest of the beginner's guide to Mexico travel.

• Mexico Travel Planning FAQ

Getting to Mexico: Believe it: you may find the best Mexico airfare deal from a local travel agent with access to charters which aren't advertised. Try these for cheap Mexico air:

• Apple Vacations
  
• Funjet

Students can find special airfares -- check student airfares against an aggregator.

• Student airfare finders
• What's an aggregator

Bear in mind that air to Mexico may be cheaper with an air/hotel package.

More Mexico travel options:

• About driving to Mexico
• About taking the bus to Mexico
• Cheap Mexico airlines

Lodging in Mexico: Hostels aren't always the best way to go for budget Mexico lodging -- funky little hotels can be charming and cheap. Ask to see a room before you pay.

Expect to pay less than $20 for a hotel -- less than $10 is totally possible. You can get cabanas on the beach for a few bucks -- a thatched roof and a hammock. Camp for free or $3.

• Student accommodations in Mexico by city
• Camping and campgrounds in Mexico

Getting around in Mexico: Learn about cheap airlines in Mexico.

Taxis are plentiful. Pay about one peso per mile -- negotiate before you get in.

• Read about foreign taxis

Take the local bus (often called "chicken buses") -- crowded, cheap and safe enough.

• Read about buses in Mexico

Driving in Mexico

Driving in Mexico is a snap -- in fact, it's easier than driving in the US provided you pay attention.

• Read about driving in Mexico - road rules, auto travel documents

Photos:

• Mexico buses, cabs
• Mexico streets

Mexico money and budget: Mexico uses the peso as currency; the exchange rate usually hovers around ten to one.

• Learn about the exchange rate for travelers

Don't assume that Mexico will be a super budget destination -- it can be; Mexico resorts like Cancun are as spendy as any, though. You can get by on $25-30/day if you're adventurous.

• Eat street food and buy food in mercados - $2/meal
• Stay in hostels or budget hotels or camp -- $15/less per night

See a Mexico student travel budget

Riviera Maya student travel budget

Health, safety and crime in Mexico: Food is perfectly safe. Health care is remarkably cheap and advanced -- feel safe going to the ER or clinic (I've done it). Carry insect repellent, though malaria's not common.

Mexico is generally safer than some US cities.

• Gals should avoid gypsy cabs (see below).
• Those guys in army uniforms with machine guns are the Federales, there to help keep you safe.
• Mugging is not common.

  • Drinking the water in Mexico

  • Read women's travel safety tips

  • See a great natural insect repellent

Where to go in Mexico: Mexico beaches are fantastic, but there's more to Mexico than sun splashed sand and gin clear water -- the mountains of Mexico offer a whole different world to Mexico visitors: wowser architecture, master craftwork and fab food. Do both with these routes:

• Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa - Patzcuaro
• Hualtulco or Puerto Escondido - Oaxaca
• Acapulco - Taxco

Mexico's Pacific side is about hills and surf; the Gulf offers Veracruz seafood and colonial Merida. Try Tulum on the Caribbean.

Internet and email in Mexico: Internet cafes are springing up everywhere in Mexico -- I saw quite a few in remote and rural Taxco, for instance. If you bring your own laptop, you can find free wifi -- I found it within my first hour of my last Mexico visit.

• How to set up free email
• Find internet cafes
• How to find wifi hotspots
• Wifi finder keychain gadget

Feel okay about carrying your laptop --just keep an eye on it, of course.

• Best laptop backpack
• Travel tech gadgets

Learn about phone calls in Mexico below.

Mexico photo galleries: Whet your appetite for Mexico travel with a few Mexico photo galleries.

• Mexico "Color" - Photos Featuring Gorgeous Color in Mexico
• Mexico Streets - a Photo Tour
• Photo Tour: College Students in Mexico
• Acapulco Hostel Photo Tour

Final beginner's Mexico travel tips:

More Tips on Getting Around in Mexico

• If you return to your parked car to find the front license plate missing, you've been given a parking ticket -- get the plate after paying the fine at the police station.

  Waggle your forefinger (think "no-no") if a cab or bus pulls up and you don't need a ride.

• Take cabs from taxi stands -- "gypsy" cab drivers may charge outrageously. The cab-kidnapping stories have some merit...
  • Top 10 Tips for Taxi Safety
  • How to Avoid Ripoff in a Foreign Taxi

Quick Tips on Social Life in Mexico

Clubs and booze

You gotta try margaritas, but they're spendy. Booze on a budget: tequila and lime. Don't drink? Say, "No bebo."

• About nightclubs in Mexico
  • Prep for a late night -- things jump off around 10-11:00 p.m.
    
  • Expect to spend up to $40 for entrance in resort area clubs; cover usually includes all-you-can-drink.
    
  • Grunge don't usually get it -- dress up and wear shoes to avoid being turned away.

About drugs in Mexico

• Forget about drugs -- don't buy 'em, don't travel with 'em, don't hang with natives who offer to sell 'em: they're clueless.

• Forget what you've heard about prescription drugs -- you need a prescription to buy most drugs in Mexico that are precription drugs in the US.

Quick Metrics Tips

Mexico uses the metric system.

• Celsius: Twenty is nice, zero is ice.
• One mile equals 1.6 kilometers.
• One litre is just over two pints, or a fifth plus 1/2 pint.

Mail and Phone Calls in Mexico

The mail is slowish -- if you'll be there a few weeks, you can set up a snail mail address.

• Learn how to set up an international snail mail address

You can buy phone cards good for making calls in Mexico for about $3-5-10 USD in Mexico shops and airports.

• Learn how to make a phone call in or to Mexico and see emergency Mexico phone numbers.

• Learn about international cell, GSM and satellite phones

"Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."
--Miriam Beard