- These are the things you should and shouldn't do
on your next trip to Cancun and the surrounding areas.
The first thing you shouldn't do is,
do not deal with the taxis at the Cancun Airport.
You'll be put into a very high pressure sales situation.
And the taxis are run by the mafia
so definitely avoid that.
Something you should do is to take the ADO bus
from the airport if you're staying
in one of the cities or towns along the coast
and not at a resort.
For example, if you're staying in Playa del Carmen
or in Tulum or Akumal or Bacalar,
the ADO bus is going to be a great option
for you to affordably get from the Cancun Airport
to where you're staying.
And after you go through customs in Cancun
and you get your luggage, you're gonna walk out there
and you're going to see the ADO bus booth.
And there will probably be a line of people
waiting to get tickets
because it's one of the best transportation options
from the Cancun Airport.
If you're searching online,
looking for a resort to stay at on your next trip,
don't be fooled when the resort says the resort name
and then Cancun or the resort name and Tulum,
because oftentimes it is actually not in Cancun or in Tulum,
but reasonably close.
For example, I'm staying at the Waldorf Astoria Cancun,
but it's actually between Cancun and Puerto Morelos.
And another example is the Conrad Tulum,
which in reality is located in Akumal.
And if you're staying at a place like where I'm staying
and it's not all inclusive,
seriously consider renting a car,
especially if the resort is isolated.
Like if you're staying at a place that's not all inclusive
but like you're walking distance
from everything in Playa del Carmen,
no problem if you don't have a car,
you're gonna be able to walk
to pretty much wherever you want to go
or take a short taxi ride.
However, like this resort, it's very isolated.
There's no stores nearby or anything like that
and all the stuff inside the resort is pretty expensive.
So having a car gives us a lot of freedom
for our vacation here.
And it also helps us save a bunch of money
by going out to Puerto Morelos for a lot of our meals.
The next don't I have for you is,
if you're renting a car, do not rent from Hertz.
(buzzer buzzes)
Okay, so I booked my ticket on Aeromexico's website,
my plane ticket to get here.
And then after I purchased that,
they offered me a car rental from Hertz,
and it was a pretty good price or a decent price at least.
So I'm like, yeah, sure,
I think it'd be convenient to have a car while there.
So I went ahead and purchased that.
Well, then I got here to Hertz
and it turns out they're running a giant scam operation,
and when I went to reveal their scam to you guys,
they tried to put me in jail.
So it's a total nightmare.
Do not rent from Hertz and be very careful about renting
from the other major car rental companies here as well.
But down the description of this video,
I'm going to link to a small car rental company
that's honest and reliable and isn't running a scam on you.
So be sure to check that out
if you wanna rent a car in Cancun.
The next thing you should do
is go explore outside of your resort,
like especially if you have a rental car
but you can also hire a cab for the day
or something like that, you might not realize it
but there's a long history of Mayan civilizations here
and there's ancient ruins around.
For example, I highly recommend the Tulum Archeological Site
and the Coba Ruins as well.
Both of those are a really cool experience.
The next thing you shouldn't do is,
don't believe the lies the salespeople will tell you
at the Cancun Airport.
For example, one of these big lies
is they'll have a fake price sheet laminated in their hands
and they'll be trying to sell you a taxi
to wherever you're going.
And if you want to compare the prices of like an ADO bus,
for example, to your destination, versus a taxi,
well, they'll have highly elevated prices
on their fake sheet to show you,
well, here's the cost of the ADO, here's the cost of a taxi,
and it will make the taxi cost look reasonable.
And another lie they'll tell you,
they'll ask you if you have transportation yet.
And if you say yes, they'll ask you,
oh, who are you going with?
And then you say the name of the company
whether it's some shuttle company or the ADO bus,
and they'll say, oh, they're no longer in business
or, oh, the ADO bus actually isn't running right now.
But these lies are very common
because they're just trying to steal a sale
from that other company and sell you an overpriced taxi.
As a matter of fact,
this just happened to one of my friends who lives here.
He lives right down the road in Puerto Morelos,
and just to see, he went up to one of the taxi guys
and he's like, how much to Puerto Morelos?
And they quoted him like 1,400 pesos
or some ridiculous number for the short drive
it is to Puerto Morelos.
And he goes, no, I think I'll just take the ADO.
And the guy goes, oh, actually the ADO is closed right now.
And he's like, oh, really?
And then he actually went to the ADO booth
and asked them if they're still running
and they're like,
yes, we're going to port the mores every 15 minutes.
The next thing you should do is,
if you're staying at one of the hotels
that's operated by a major hotel company here,
be sure to check out what credit card options are available
from that brand.
So think like if you're staying at a Hilton or a Marriott,
for example, I'm staying at the Waldorf Astoria Cancun,
which is part of the Hilton chain,
and I have a Hilton credit card
that gets me automatic top-tier status in Hilton,
which saved me like $500 on food here.
And also it got me about a $10,000 room upgrade
during my stay, which was incredible
just by having a simple credit card.
So I know there's a credit card for Hilton that does this
and I know there's one for Marriott that does this,
so be sure to check that out.
The next thing you should not do is forget your sunscreen,
because a lot of times the lobster people
outnumber the regular people here.
And if you don't bring sunscreen
and you're going to a resort,
it's going to be very expensive to buy it at a resort.
It will probably be about $30,
but you're gonna find affordable sunscreen here
at grocery stores, pharmacies,
and a lot of times at convenience stores as well.
A lot of Americans and Canadians love coming to Mexico
and visiting one of these beautiful resorts
and I'm not knocking them, it is an awesome experience,
but the next thing you should do
is consider spending some time outside of a resort.
For example, if you stay at a hotel in Playa del Carmen,
that isn't a resort, you're going to save a ton of money.
You're probably still going to have an awesome time.
And with all the money you saved,
you'll be able to come back sooner.
The next thing you should not do,
this is a really important one,
is do not exceed the duty free limit
for alcohol or tobacco products.
I've gotten so many comments on this channel of people
who've said they came into the Cancun Airport
exceeding the number of packs of cigarettes
they were allowed to bring into the country
and got totally screwed with massive fines.
I remember one lady commenting saying,
she got hit with a $1,500 fine
for exceeding the number of cigarette packs
she was allowed to bring in.
At that time,
the limit was 10 packs of cigarettes per person
but they might have increased that, and if they have,
I'll put the adjusted number on the screen right here.
So let's say you're coming to the area for a week.
I think one thing you should definitely do
is take at least one day trip during your time here.
So one thing you could do is take in a catamaran tour
to Isla Mujeres.
So you get on this catamaran,
a lot of times it's in Cancun, and then you'll sail around
where it's unlimited booze while you're out there
and then you'll arrive at Isla Mujeres.
You might have a couple hours
to spend exploring Playa Norte and the shops there.
It's a really cool experience and so much fun.
Another recommendation I have for you
is any of the Xcaret Experiencias.
There's a reason Xcaret Experiencias are so popular
and it is because they are really great
at making sure you have an awesome time.
The next thing you should do is
take into account the time of year you want to visit.
The best weather of the year
is going to be December to February
and the worst weather is probably August and September.
However, pricing can be drastically different
between the various months of the year.
So going out to restaurants
the pricing is probably going to be the same
no matter what time of year.
However, the price of the hotels can vary so much.
For example, I've seen a hotel on the beach in Tulum
that's $100 a night during the low season
and $700 a night during the most popular months.
And the next thing you shouldn't do
is if you're coming during one of the hotter months
of the year, do not forget that staying beachfront
makes all the difference in the world
in terms of how comfortable you're going to be on your stay.
Like, yeah, if you come in August or September,
it's going to be super hot and really humid
and if you're not beachfront,
it will be very uncomfortable weather.
However, if you're beachfront, at least for me,
it is still very enjoyable because that ocean breeze
makes all the difference in the world.
A lot of people think Mexico is just beaches and desert,
and the next thing I think you should do,
is do come and enjoy Mexico's beautiful beaches,
but at the same time, realize that's not all that Mexico is.
I did live here in this area for a couple of years,
but right now I'm living in Central Mexico.
And where I live, it's at higher elevation.
The weather is beautiful all year round.
And the city is about 500 years old
so it has this gorgeous colonial Spanish architecture
all over the center of the city there.
All I'm trying to say is,
there's a lot of other really awesome vacation destinations
in Mexico that aren't at the beach.
So if you come to Mexico and you see a price tag,
don't get confused and think that it's in dollars
because the same symbol we use for a dollar
in the US or in Canada, they use for the Mexican peso here.
So all prices are going to be in Mexican pesos
unless it's clearly marked otherwise,
and it will say X amount of dollars or USD
or something like that.
So you can easily do the conversion.
For about the past five years,
ever since I've been living in Mexico,
the exchange rate has hovered around 20 pesos to $1.
It's gotten as high as 25, as low as 17,
but it's always been relatively close to 20 to 1.
And for you to easily do a conversion from pesos to dollars,
drop a zero then divide by two.
For example, if it's 400 pesos,
get rid of one zero it turns into 40, divide by 2, it's 20.
So 400 pesos is $20.
And do realize that all prices in Mexico
already include a 16% sales tax.
So if you ever see sales tax added on
to something you're buying, added on to the price
that was on the menu or something like that,
there's a good chance
that they're trying to weasel a little bit of extra money
out of you.
The next thing you should do is,
if you're going going to a resort,
arrange your airport transportation ahead of time
whether that's renting a cab
or communicating with the hotel you're staying at
and having them send a car for you.
In fact, a lot of hotels and resorts include transportation
to and from the airport,
or maybe this means booking private transportation.
Booking private transportation is going to be so much better
for you than taking a cab because you're not going to be put
into a high pressure sales situation
with the people trying to sell you taxis
and you're going to have someone standing there
with your name on it waiting for you
after you walk out of the doors of the Cancun Airport.
And in addition to taking you to your hotel,
they'll also stop by the grocery store for you
or stop by convenience store so you can get some snacks
and some liquor, maybe some other mixers for your trip,
and it's going to make your trip a whole lot better.
When we arrived in the Cancun Airport,
May said to me, what a nightmare,
this is worse than arriving in Vegas.
And it is a nightmare, there's so many people,
it's so hectic,
there's so many people trying to sell you things
and lie to you and scam you.
Just trust me, you want to avoid it all
and book that transportation ahead of time.
I'll link to some transportation options
down in the description below.
The next thing you shouldn't do is don't let cops bully you
if you're driving.
This unfortunately is one of the parts of the country
where it's more common to have police try to shake you down.
But something you can do is there is a law here
that states that tourists here in Quintana Roo,
must be given a warning for minor infractions.
So I'm going to link to something down in the description
that you can print out a couple copies of
before your trip and if you ever get pulled over,
just give that to the cop.
It will say the name of the law and say in Spanish,
and that is going to help you avoid a lot of the shakedowns.
But in addition to that, something the cops look for here
is people driving their rental car
back to the Cancun Airport.
They specifically look for rental cars on the airport road
and a lot of the rental cars are marked
so they'll know who's driving a rental car
because like you're going to the airport,
you need to return your rental car pretty quickly,
otherwise you could miss your flight.
So they know that this is a perfect time for a shakedown
and that's why I think you should go down
in the description of this video
and look for the guy I recommend who rents cars
because his cars don't have anything
that indicate it's a rental car.
The next thing you shouldn't do
is don't forget to bring a credit card
that has zero foreign transaction fees
because when you're here in Mexico,
paying with a credit card is going to be your best option
for getting hit with the least amount
of foreign exchange fees.
So if you like bring dollars
and you go to a money exchange,
you're probably going to lose 5 to 10% each way
converting into pesos and then back into dollars,
or if you bring a bunch of dollars
and are paying with dollars everywhere,
well then you're probably gonna be taking
about a 10% hit most of the time
because a lot of businesses really hit you
on that exchange rate,
because they're going to have to take the US dollars
and convert them back into pesos,
which is going to cost them money.
Granted, there are some businesses
that don't keep up day-to-day
with the exchange rate fluctuations
and sometimes it actually is better to pay in dollars
but that's the exception, not the rule.
But having a credit card
that has no foreign transaction fees
is going to give you great exchange rates
and allow your money to go a lot further
when you're here on vacation.
And if it charges foreign transaction fees,
you're going to be charging additional 3%
on every single purchase.
So look for the travel branded credit cards.
Almost every single credit card
that's branded as a travel card,
whether that's through an airline or a hotel,
it's probably not going to have foreign transaction fees
but you can always double check.
Oh, and in terms of credit card,
Visa and MasterCard are accepted pretty much everywhere,
and American Express is accepted
in 90% of places around here.
However, there are some places that will say,
Hey, if you wanna pay with a credit card,
it's gonna be 3%, 4%, 5% extra.
That's fairly common, especially in some small towns.
For example, going to Isla Holbox,
that was super common there.
Almost every place that did accept credit cards
charge a fee for doing so.
But if you're in one of these most popular
tourist destinations, so Cancun, Playa del Carmen,
Puerto Morelos, Tulum, Akumal,
almost all the places here are going to accept credit cards
and most places do not charge an extra fee for doing so.
The next thing you should do is subscribe to the channel
and watch this video next.