The first time I flew to the Cancun Airport was 35 years ago in 1985 with my young bride and a couple of military friends.  At the time, I was a Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force and Cancun was the newest Resort region in the world.  Over the years I have made dozens of trips to the area usually to Cozumel, the Island off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and usually on a cruise ship.  The major draw to the Yucatan for us is the warm waters, beautiful beaches, ancient ruins and proximity to the USA.  Now with Mexico open for business, no cruises and almost no one traveling; it sounded like the perfect time to go back. Unlike some of my other blogs, this one is about putting together a high-quality vacation on the cheap and less about the location. The location is amazing…..but you should already know that.

So, with the pandemic in full swing, I was intrigued by a Travelzoo.com top 20 deal for a five-night all-inclusive stay in the Cancun area for $499 per person including airfare.  The hotel included was OK but didn’t have great reviews.  But we could upgrade to a hotel in Playa Del Carmen (the town on the Yucatan Coast just south of Cancun and directly across from the Island of Cozumel) for $599 per person including airfare.  Great deal … but it had some other drawbacks.  First the flight was on Spirit Airlines and was out of Ft Lauderdale.  Transportation and bags would add about another $200 to the trip and I also had a complicated refund policy to work through.  So, I decided to build the trip myself and see what I could do on my own.

Now when you think about it, you should always be able to beat a travel company’s price since you should be able to cut out their profit.  Now they get good package rates but you can too.  Let’s go through it.

Airfare:

If you have read my book or followed my Financial Freedom for the Average Person Facebook page, you would understand how we earn the Southwest Airlines Companion pass through their branded Credit Cards.  I won’t go into the details here (its easy to find on the web) but early in the year I earned 125,000 Southwest Points and a Companion pass for Reva.  Now to fly from Orlando to Cancun was about 9,000 points each way.  So, for 18,000 points I was able to have two roundtrip tickets for just the Tax.  The tax was $85 each or $170 total.  Now if I had to buy the tickets, they would have been $270 each or $540.  If you have flown with Southwest you may know that there are no change or cancelation fees and you can cancel up to 10 minutes before your flight.  That is a great perk in the age of Covid-19!  Also, you get two bags for free, each!  Perfect!

Resort:

I use all of the different booking agencies when I am pricing hotels.  This includes: Priceline, Booking.com, hotels.com, Expedia, Trivago, Air B&B and google.  However, lately Priceline.com has been giving me the best rates and that was the situation here.  In this case, a five-night stay at the 3.5 Star Viva Wyndham Azteca All-Inclusive Resort, Garden view room was $690.  I had to prepay for the room but I had a three day prior to the trip cancellation policy.  As the trip got closer, the price dropped and I was able to book an Ocean-view room at the Viva Wyndham Maya Resort for $550 (total five day stay for two including all taxes and fees).

Car Rental:

In this case, I could have gone cheap…….no I mean CHEAP…$16 total.   And since I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card (expensive $550/yr but worth it) which gives me primary car rental insurance on cars worldwide, I could have got the car for $16.  But based on the reviews, I knew it would be a fight.  It also would be quite the hassle if I did have a problem.  The Mexican rental car agencies will sell you insurance that is around $40 and up per day.  That makes your $16 rate now $216 for your five days.  So, using Google, I found several companies that included all insurance in the rate upfront.  America was one of those companies.  It had OK reviews and my total rate for the five days was $90 all-inclusive ….no hassles.  Car was not the greatest …but what the hell, this is Mexico.  Looking back. I may have given Avant Rental Car a try.  It was a little more ($116) but included all the insurance and had very positive reviews.  It also was off-site but slightly closer than America Car Rental.

Airport Parking:

Now often we Uber to the train station and take the train to the Airport.  This costs us about $40 total for as long as we are gone.  This is especially great when we go for extended periods.  However, for a week it’s a bit of a hassle.  So, I used Airportparking.com and Google to compare prices.  Also, sometimes Goupon.com has a good deal; it’s worth looking.   This time however, I stumbled on onairparking.com (an airport parking wholesaler).  After getting a $2 discount from liking them on Facebook, I was able to get a one-week parking rate at the airport for $22.  You aren’t notified on where you are parking until after you book and we ended up at BMI parking.

Night before the trip:

Since our flight was shortly after 7:00 AM, we like to stay at the Airport the night before.  To accommodate this, Reva has the Chase Hyatt Credit Card, which gives us a free night at almost any Hyatt in the world annually for just the annual fee of $95.  Typically, we use that at the Orlando Airport and go early to enjoy the hotel.

Total Costs:

Total trip cost (not including credit card annual fees) about: $850 for two including Airfare, Rental Car, All-Inclusive Ocean-view room in a 3.5-star resort for five nights.  Through in gas and entrance fees to the Mayan Ruins and you have a $1,000 top-notch vacation!

But what about Covid-19?

International travel, hotels, rental cars, resorts…many of you that may read my blog may think that I am insane, to travel internationally, during a pandemic.  (Many of you who know me, may confirm that opinion.)  I am a numbers guy and I have always believed in taking care of myself and family, while enjoying life.  So, while this sounds risky, I didn’t feel much at risk, especially once I left the USA.  In the Mexican vacation areas, the residents make their living on tourism and they are really suffering with no tourists in almost a year.  As such, the local controls in place were much tighter than in the USA.  For example, temperature screens were taken of everyone entering or exiting the Mexican airports, masks were required virtually everywhere, sanitizer stations were in every hotel room and hallway, food was dispensed by a screened worker or wrapped in cellophane.  Temperatures were checked on entrance to hotels, shopping centers, and even tourist attractions.  I also noted that every worker’s temperature was checked prior to coming to work.  This was the cleanest I ever felt in Mexico.  Everyone was cleaning and disinfecting everything!  It was hard to find a bathroom in the resort that wasn’t actively being cleaned.  If you stood in one spot too long, expect a young lady with a squirt bottle and rag in hand walking toward you.  No, in Mexico they are taking this seriously as if their existence depends on it….and it does. 

On our last day on the beach, I wanted to buy Reva a wooden bowl and brought a $20 bill with me to purchase one.  If you are familiar with the beaches in Mexico and the Caribbean in general, you know that locals are always walking up and down the beach looking to sell you something.  This was the case here as well and I felt that $20 was about the right price for a painted wooden bowl.  The first “bowl” lady that walked by had a nice one but wanted $45.  I offered $15 but she wouldn’t come down below $30.  Latter in the day, a man in his 20s came by with bowls and I offered him $20 for one.  He wanted $40 and came down to $30 pretty quickly.  No, all I had was a twenty.  He left but came back a few minutes later and asked if I could offer any more?  I told him no and that we were leaving tomorrow.  He said that there weren’t many tourists and he would take the $20.  When he asked if I could get him a piece of pizza or something to eat…..I felt like a total asshole.  Here I am laying on a beach and I am hard bargaining with a man that is hungry.  I took the bowl, gave him the $20 and went and got him a hamburger.  After, he left I remembered that I did have a $10 bill with a small tear in it in my phone (worthless in Mexico…international banks won’t excepted damaged money) but he could have given it to another tourist for change.  I waited for him to come back around to give him the $10 but I didn’t see him again.  Maybe he was too embarrassed or maybe he was too proud.  Either way, it drove home the impacts of this Pandemic.  It can kill in multiple ways.

While we were there, the Viva Wyndham Azteca Resort a few properties down closed for six weeks.  We also noted that there was almost no one at the adjacent resorts.  The only place where we saw any crowd was at the Tulum ruins.  There the parking attendant and ticket taker played a scam on me where they said they didn’t take credit cars and then gave me a conversion rate 25% less than the published rate.  I was pissed at first since it was clear that it was a scam…..but I got over it.  There was an air of desperation in it.  The cash only sign taped next to the Visa signs, the parking attendant not letting me insert my card into the automatic card reader at the parking lot exit…..it was only $5 but I felt used. 

Bottom line:

Covid-19 has taken away the tourists and the majority of the jobs in the area…….so the sooner we get back traveling and let others know that it’s safe to do so….maybe others will travel and people in the world can get back to their lives as well.  If we don’t get back to normal; this could be a long, dark, hungry, lonely 2021 for people well beyond our borders.

Note: Often I am asked how long does it take me to build an vacation trip. In this case, I worked about two hours and then a few minutes each couple of weeks rechecking prices.