Today we're talking about some things you don't want
to forget for your next trip to Mexico.
So this is sort of your Mexico travel checklist.
First up is that your passport needs to be valid
for at least six months after your date of entry.
And keep in mind that maybe your flight
could possibly be delayed by one day.
So make sure it's valid for at
least six months and a few days.
And although it's unlikely if you're
checking luggage, assume that that luggage
doesn't make it to your destination.
So with that in mind, make sure that anything that
is life or death, like there's any medications you absolutely
need to take, like when you arrive, or even the
next day or a few days later, make sure to
have those things in your carry on.
The next thing is that if you're bringing
any electronics that have a three prong adapter,
well, then you should bring an adapter to
convert that three prong to a two prong,
because there are three prong adapters in Mexico.
However, I've stayed in a lot of accommodations
during my six years in Mexico where there
were nothing but two prong adapters.
So that might be all you
have depending on where you're staying.
Now, let's talk about some things related to customs.
Let's say you're a hunter in the
US and you're bringing your hunting backpack.
Make sure that it's totally empty because one single bullet
hidden at the bottom of your backpack that you forgot
was there could land you in a mexican prison.
Make sure that any guns or ammunition are totally out
of your luggage or vehicle if you're bringing one.
There's a long list of things that customs doesn't allow or
limits you for, but I'm going to go over a couple
of them that might be frequently exceeded by tourists.
One is the single laptop limit.
Customs in Mexico limits you to
one laptop and three phones.
So I know a lot of you have
one personal laptop and one business laptop.
If you can get away with it, only bring one laptop.
Now, I've heard people say, oh, I've been coming
to Mexico for years and bringing two laptops every
time and I've never been given any trouble.
Yes, that happens. You've been lucky.
But it is on their list that you can only
have one laptop without paying duties on the second one.
Something else that they're not as relaxed about,
they're not relaxed about this at all is
exceeding the limits for tobacco or alcohol products.
Like for example, if you're a cigarette smoker, you
can bring up to ten packs of cigarettes.
If you're a cigar smoker, I believe
you can bring up to 20 cigars.
If that's wrong, I'll put a
correction on the screen here.
And then for alcohol products, I believe
you're limited to two liters of alcohol.
It's really, really important that you don't exceed
these limits for tobacco or alcohol because if
you do and they catch you, you're going
to be hit with massive fines.
I'm talking at least hundreds of dollars
and maybe even into the thousands.
A lot of you come to Mexico for a nice beach vacation.
So you might be thinking, oh, I'm just going to pack
shorts and t shirts and swimsuits and things like that.
Well, don't forget at least one dressier outfit
because you will probably want to go to
a nice dinner while you're here.
And oftentimes you're going to want at
least one dressier outfit for those occasions.
And speaking of packing shorts and t shirts and
things like that, don't assume that just because you're
coming to Mexico, it's going to be hot.
Mexico is not hot everywhere.
That's a common misconception.
In fact, many places across the
country get very, very cold.
So if you're going anywhere but the beach,
you may want to prepare for colder weather.
And heck, even some beach destinations in Mexico
can get pretty cold during the winter months.
And you may be kicking yourself if
you didn't pack pants and a sweatshirt.
As a matter of fact, we went to Mazatlan last
year and it was colder than we were expecting.
We ended up going to the mall to
buy some warmer clothing one of the days.
Fortunately, in Mazatlan, it's cheap and easy to
get around, so it didn't cost a lot
of money to go to the mall.
But depending on where you're going in Mexico, you
may not have Uber, it may be taxis only,
and taxis can get very expensive, especially if you're
staying at a resort that's not close to things.
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If you're coming to Mexico and staying for an
extended period of time, consider going to a convenience
store and picking up a telcell sim card.
You can get one for about $5 or less, and then
you can recharge it for about ten dollars to twelve dollars.
And that's going to give you enough
data to last an entire month.
Now let's talk about how you should get pesos.
I recommend that you bring some cash with you,
maybe a couple of $100 that you can exchange
for pesos at a money exchange place.
But I also recommend that you bring a debit card
or a credit card with no foreign transaction fees.
So basically, any credit card that's branded
with anything travel, like almost any airline
card and almost any hotel card, are
going to have no foreign transaction fees.
But there are some other good travel cards as well.
For example, the American Express green
card is a great one.
There's some from Chase that are really good as well.
None of those have foreign transaction fees.
And on the topic of credit cards, Visa
and Mastercard are the best, and those are
going to be accepted almost everywhere.
And then Amex is also really good, and
that will be accepted almost everywhere as well.
Maybe like 5% of places that accept Visa
and Mastercard won't accept Amex, but most will.
And paying with that no foreign transaction fee
credit card is how you're going to get
the very best exchange rate while you're here.
And getting screwed on exchange rates can
cost you a lot of money.
Like for example, if you're coming to Mexico and you're
spending, let's say, $2,000, it wouldn't be uncommon for you
to take a 10% haircut on every single purchase or
exchange that you do at a money exchange.
Things like that.
So if you spend $2,000 and you're taking a
10% hit on every purchase, that's going to cost
you an extra $200 during your trip.
So bringing that no foreign transaction via credit card
is going to save you a lot of money.
And I recommended bringing a couple of $100 as well.
And two things you can do with that is one,
you can exchange it at a money exchange place.
And if you're going to one, I recommend
looking for one that has a spread, a
buy and sell spread that's less than 5%.
A lot of them are 10% or more.
So look for one that has a spread of
5% or less between the buy and sell rate.
And also, something else you can do
with the dollars that you're bringing is
you can spend them at certain stores.
In fact, if you're going to Cancun,
for example, or another popular tourist destination,
you can spend your dollars almost everywhere.
However, again, most places are going to hit you
with about a 10% fee for using your dollars.
But if you pay attention to the exchange
rate they're offering, not every business keeps up
with the exchange rate every day.
And at some businesses, it's actually in your best
interest to pay in dollars, because sometimes you get
a cheaper price paying in dollars than in pesos.
I would say that happens at about 10% of places,
but 90% of places screw you with the exchange rate.
So let's say you're coming to Cancun and you're
staying at one of the many resorts around the
Cancun area that isn't close to much, that it
doesn't really have any stores nearby.
Well, in this case, you definitely
want to bring your sun essentials.
So like sunscreen, a hat, and
also maybe bug repellent as well.
Because if you come here and you're staying at
an isolated resort, you're not going to be able
to easily go shopping for those things and you're
going to have to shop at the hotel convenience
store where those things are very, very expensive.
Like a sunscreen that costs you $10 in the US
might cost you 30 in that hotel convenience store.
However, if you're coming to Mexico and you're staying at
a hotel or resort that's in near stores, where there's
a grocery store nearby, where there's a pharmacy nearby, things
like that, well, then you're going to be able to
go and pick those things up very affordably and it's
not so necessary to bring them on your flight here.
Something else I recommend you bring is a power bank.
Because a power bank is going to come in
handy in many situations, especially on those travel days.
Like you may be in an airport where you can't find
any outlets and your phone is dying and you need your
phone to show your boarding pass and you need your phone
to research, like how long you have until the next destination
and where you need to go and all sorts of things.
You may not always have an outlet available
so that power bank can save you.
So let's say you have a phone plan in the US
that gives you coverage in Mexico, and you come to Mexico,
you turn on your phone and your phone doesn't work.
You're like, what the heck?
I had coverage.
Well, you do, but you have to go into
your phone settings and click turn on data roaming.
And after you turn on data roaming,
then your phone will work in Mexico.
The first time I did this, I was super
scared that I was going to get a huge
cell phone bill because my phone wasn't working.
And then I turned on data roaming.
And no, my phone bill with T Mobile stayed
exactly the same because I had coverage in Mexico.
But I mentioned the tip about
getting a SIM card earlier.
If you're staying for an extended period of time.
And that's because telcell and the other networks
that offer coverage in Mexico, it specifically says
in their contract that although they provide international
coverage, it's not for extended stays.
And after I was in Mexico for a couple of
months, or maybe it was three months, I got an
email from T Mobile saying I need to use less
data or I'm going to get kicked off their network.
And then I got another email from them saying that
I was getting kicked off their network in 30 days
and there was nothing I could do about it.
So I had to switch to a mexican cell phone plan.
When you come to Mexico, you're going to arrive
to your hotel and you'll fire up your laptop
and you'll go to some of your favorite websites.
Well, let's say you go to@yahoo.com now you're getting all the
news for Mexico, so you're no longer even getting the same
news on Yahoo that you get in the US.
But in addition to that, everything's in
Spanish, everything's in pesos, everything's in Celsius.
So to avoid that headache, you may
want to consider getting a VPN.
With a VPN and a click of a button,
you can virtually locate yourself back in the United
States or wherever else you came from.
And poof, your websites will
magically be back in English.
So that's one easy way to get around that problem.
My favorite VPN can be found@tangerinevpn.com that's my affiliate
link, and it will take you right there.
I think it's a great value and well worth the money.
The next thing you may want to do is
notify your bank or your credit card company that
you're going to be traveling to Mexico.
You can usually do this online where
you type in your dates, your destination.
So then when you get here and you use your card,
your card doesn't get blocked, and then you don't have to
worry about contacting them and proving that you are actually in
Mexico and that your card hasn't been stolen and things like
that, because it can be a headache.
Something else you may want to consider is getting
travel insurance because let's say you get hurt and
you have to go to the emergency room.
Well, some hospitals really try
to screw foreigners here.
So although medical stuff is usually pretty affordable
in Mexico, especially compared to what it costs
in the US, sometimes it's not.
And tourists can really get screwed
over if they get hurt here.
So you may want to consider travel insurance to
protect yourself from getting a $30,000 hospital bill.
And my next tip for you is
to download offline maps on your phone.
You can do this with Google
Maps and also an offline translator.
So to translate your native language into Spanish,
you can do this with Google Translate, but
there are also other options as well.
Thanks for watching.
Please subscribe to the channel.
And next, watch this video.
What not to do in Cancun.