For every 20 passengers
that fly into Cancun every year,
only one flies into Mazatlan.
These are 12 reasons why Mazatlan is a way
underrated destination and should be considered
for your next Mexico vacation.
First off, the prices of the hotels. The average hotel
in Mazatlan is going to run you about $100 a night,
whereas the average hotel
in Cancun is going to be about $250 a night.
So, on the hotel alone,
you're going to be saving so much money.
For example, on this trip, we're staying
at the DoubleTree by Hilton, and the rooms here started
about $100 a night.
Or if you want to upgrade and get the biggest suite
in the hotel,
that's going to be about $200 a night,
or at least that's what the current prices are.
Whereas if you want a big one bedroom suite like that
at a Cancun hotel that's oceanfront,
well, then you are probably gonna be paying
about 600 bucks a night for that.
So, on your hotel alone here, you're going to be saving
so much money by choosing Mazatlan instead of Cancun.
As a matter of fact, last night we were driving
down the Malecon and there's a whole bunch of hotels
along there, and I saw rooms for as little as $35 a night
that still have an ocean view.
Sure, it's not a super nice hotel by any means,
but still, for that price and an ocean view,
that's a heck of a deal compared to
what you can get in Cancun.
Nothing will ruin your Mexico vacation
like getting hit by a hurricane while you're visiting.
And over here on the west coast, you are much less likely
to have your vacation ruined by a giant storm
than over there in the Riviera Maya and the Cancun area.
Next is the taxis and the transportation options.
So, in Cancun, the taxis there are run by the mafia
and although Uber is technically legal there
for all intents and purposes, you can't use it.
Because the taxi mafia has done
whatever they can by any violent means necessary
to make sure Uber will not operate there.
For example, they'll order an Uber and then beat
up the Uber driver, or they'll violently throw passengers
out of an Uber and beat up the driver.
Things like that have been going
on for a number of years now.
So, there, basically your only option to get
around is to take a taxi.
And if you are staying in one
of the resorts along the Cancun-Tulum Corridor
and let's say you want to take about a 25-minute taxi ride,
well, that's probably going to cost you about 50 US dollars.
Yeah, that's right.
Whereas here in Mazatlan,
Ubers are plentiful and you can take
an Uber from anywhere to anywhere.
And if you want to take a 25-minute drive here at an Uber,
that's going to cost you about 5 US dollars,
literally one tenth of the price to get around here.
And last night we went to a restaurant
that was about 10 minutes away
and that Uber costs less than $2 dollars.
So, you can get around here very affordably
or if the cost of Uber for you is too much here,
you can take a bus for about 50 cents to pretty much
whatever destination you want to go to.
Something that makes Cancun and the Riviera Maya
such a popular place to visit is a gorgeous turquoise water.
Now don't get me wrong, I really love that.
And here in Mazatlan, admittedly you don't have that.
Now, it's still beautiful.
I mean, look at this behind me here.
But you know something that comes
with that Riviera Maya water is seaweed.
They get sargazo.
It used to just be in the summer,
but now these days it seems to be like,
they're getting it all year round.
And it's gross, and it's smelly, and it completely
ruins the whole gorgeous water experience for me.
But here on the west side of the country,
you don't get that.
There is no seaweed out here on the sand.
It's free of seaweed, which for me is much more enjoyable.
If taking care of our planet is important to you,
I'm going to give you an environmental argument
for visiting Mazatlan instead of Cancun.
All along the Cancun-Tulum Corridor is mangroves.
It's totally filled with mangroves
and every new hotel and resort that they're building there,
they're destroying some of that mangrove habitat.
And why this is so important is
that mangroves absorb ten times
the amount of carbon dioxide than forests.
Like, we all know how important trees are to keep
the air clean and whatnot.
Well, mangroves are ten times more important than trees.
But here in Mazatlan,
they don't have to destroy any mangroves
to build a new hotel.
So, for environmental reasons, if you care about the planet,
come to Mazatlan instead of Cancun
because the more you support Cancun resorts and hotels,
the more are gonna get built
and the more mangroves are going to be destroyed.
It's not that mangroves don't exist in Mazatlan
because they do, but there's a lot more
of them over on the Yucatan Peninsula.
And in addition to that,
they're a lot more ecologically sensitive over there
because there are no lakes or rivers
in that part of the country, whereas there are in Mazatlan.
And the reason why this is important is
because mangroves are a mix of saltwater and freshwater.
And over there, like let's say you build infrastructure,
you build a road or something,
well then, you may be cutting
off the supply of freshwater to the mangrove with that road.
And when you do that, it changes the levels
of salt in there, which can kill it off.
Whereas the mangroves are more robust
in Mazatlan because there are lakes and rivers there.
Over in Cancun on the east side of the country,
the sun rises over the water.
But if you're like me,
I'm never awake early enough to enjoy that ocean sunrise.
But here on the west side of the country,
the sun sets over the water, and there are few things
in life that I enjoy more than a sunset over the water.
It is gorgeous.
If you're staying at any one of the resorts
in the Cancun to Tulum Corridor,
there's a very good chance
that your resort is going to be really isolated
and you're not gonna be walking distance to anything.
Well, there, if you need like a hat
or sunscreen or something else that a lot
of vacationers need during their trip,
you're probably gonna have to buy that thing
in the hotel gift shop.
And there, for example,
a sunscreen will probably cost you about $30.
Whereas if you're staying here in Mazatlan,
pretty much no matter what hotel
or resort you're staying at,
there's going to be a lot of stuff within walking distance.
And you can go to a convenience store, pharmacy,
a grocery store very easily
and buy sunscreen for $10 instead of $30 dollars.
So, things like this is gonna help save a lot of money
during your trip.
Since many of the resorts are so isolated,
for a lot of visitors to Cancun,
they really want to have a rental car while there.
Well here, a rental car is totally unnecessary
because you can walk outside of your hotel and order an Uber
for $2 to whatever restaurant you want to go to
or grab one of these pulmonias here,
maybe that's going to cost you about $4.
So, it's more than an Uber, but still way more reasonable
than getting an expensive taxi in the Riviera Maya area.
So, because everything is so close
and because there's such great transportation options
here in Mazatlan,
it is completely unnecessary to rent a car.
And this is one
of the many things that's going to save you a ton
of money by coming here instead of to Cancun.
So, when you fly into Cancun, as soon as you arrive,
it feels like everybody's trying to scam you
and sell you something and really high pressure everything.
Whereas flying into Mazatlan,
everything's super chill and you feel much more welcomed.
And yes, there's still a few people trying
to sell you a real estate opportunity,
but it's nowhere near what it is in Cancun.
Here in Mazatlan, you just walk
past those few people who are trying to sell you a taxi,
but really they're trying to give you a free taxi
for you to explore some real estate opportunity.
You walk past those people
and you walk through the official taxi booth
where you can buy not too overpriced cab to your hotel here.
If you're staying in like the Zona Hotelera
or the Zona Dorada,
one of the places where most people who come
to Mazatlan are staying,
well then, that's going to cost you about 25 US dollars.
Whereas in Cancun
you're gonna be paying way more than that.
And if you don't have your transportation booked
in advance, well then there's going to be a very
high pressure sales situation
and it's really just best to avoid that.
But to me, arriving in Mazatlan
feels so much more welcoming
than arriving to Cancun.
And on that topic, in the Cancun area,
you have to deal with a lot of scammers.
Something about that area just attracts scammers like crazy.
Whereas here in Mazatlan,
I haven't experienced any scammers.
Now, I'm sure there's some here, but I think
because the level of tourism is so much lower,
it hasn't attracted the scammers yet.
So thankfully here, there's
much fewer scams than in Cancun.
Another selling point for Mazatlan is
that the weather is a little bit nicer here
at least for what I like.
Like, I've lived in the Riviera Maya area in the summer
and it can be miserable.
It's super hot and incredibly humid,
whereas here in Mazatlan,
it's a few degrees cooler and there's a bit less humidity.
So, although that might not sound like much, in practice,
it makes a huge difference.
And for me, it's much more comfortable here in Mazatlan
than in Cancun for those hotter months of the year.
I mentioned earlier that there's a lot
of scammers in Cancun, but I would also like to say
that I have a lot of friends there who work
in the tourism industry, and they all hate the scammers too
because it gives people a really bad impression
about Mexico, and it scares people away for future trips.
And it also gives people a bad impression
about Mexicans overall
when they encounter all those scammers.
But I'm happy to report
that I haven't experienced any scammers here at all.
And the people that we've come
across here in Mazatlan have been super incredibly helpful
and very nice as well.
Like no joke, I am almost in disbelief how nice the people
have been here in this city.
I've told you about quite a few different ways
that you're going to save money
by coming to Mazatlan instead of Cancun.
But in addition to all those things,
it's just more affordable in general.
It's more affordable to go on tours.
It's more affordable to go out to restaurants.
Heck, another example is we went
to a mall yesterday, and parking there,
Like if you want to park at a mall in Cancun,
you're probably gonna be paying about 20 Pesos an hour
as are you where we live in Queretaro.
But here, parking at the mall
was 14 Pesos every 12 hours
like a tiny fraction of what it costs
in Queretaro or Cancun.
To give you another example of the difference in prices,
we just went to Cancun. And if we wanted a cocktail there
at our hotel, it was about 20 US dollars.
Whereas here at the DoubleTree in Mazatlan,
the cocktails were $8 dollars,
but every single day they were running some kind
of two for one promotion.
So, if you got that promotion, that brought them down to $4,
whereas there were never any promotions
at the hotel in Cancun.
Now this isn't a totally fair comparison
because we were staying
at a nicer hotel when we were in Cancun,
but still, overall food and drinks are a lot more affordable
in Mazatlan than in Cancun.
Watch one of these videos next.
They're gonna save you money and help you
out a lot on your next trip to Mexico.