Two Days in Cancun for Less Than 100 USD
Tourism Networks Don't Want You To Read This
This article is mainly addressed to travelers leaving Cuba to Cancun to get a new tourist visa. But in reality it is useful for anyone who wants to visit Cancun and wants to save as much as possible on the price of the structures and services. In other words, how to book and organize a trip to Cancun paying as little as possible in terms of travel, stay and transportation.
Camaján Guide to Cancun
A camaján is (in the Cuban slang) a tourist who can not only perform a trip without being under the control of tourism networks, but also who lives, in the visited countries, under the same rules of native people and, once more, beyond the context (and interests) of tourism networks. It is someone who is emancipated in the place where he/she is and who knows the environment around him/her as well as the natives.
Who is lodging in private houses in Cuba is often a camaján, because he/she is about to customize a trip without depending on tourism packages or travel agencies. It's someone who knows how to move and where places are, he/she doesn't need to pay someone else to get what he/she needs. Lots of these tourists will eventually need to to spend in Cuba more than the two months that the Cuban government usually allows to stay (or six, in case of Canada). In order to get a new tourist's Visa, they need to leave the country and come back again. And one of the most popular destinations to make this, is surely Cancun (Mexico), because the flight ticket is less expensive and it's the nearest international destination (excluding Haiti and Jamaica, where, despite the fact they are geographically even closer, there is not however a direct flight from Cuba to get there).
For these tourists it's typical to stay one day in Cancun and return to Cuba the next day. Technically it would be possible to return the same day, but very often flight schedules do not coincide and people prefer to spend a night in Cancun rather than stressing at an airport.
In addition, you might want to take a little time off in Cancun, get to know the place and bring things back to Cuba, which are always needed, and we even advise you to have at least one day off between your departure from Cuba and your return, so that you have a full day to enjoy in Cancun. A single night is very stressful and it is very easy for a fortuitous event to ruin your trip by making you lose a lot of time in one of the respective airports. Sometimes, when the season is very high at the Cancun airport, things can get very hectic at the immigration check, baggage claim or customs control. And very often you arrive just in time to spend the night and return to the airport the next morning, which is not very desirable because whoever goes to Cancun at least wants to relax for a day and buy things.
So, assuming you will stay at least two nights in Cancun, let write down our guide accordingly and see the more convenient formula to pay as low as possible in facilities and services.
Organizing the Travel to Cancun
The Flight Ticket
Any travel will begin with a flight ticket and for that, you don't have to go to a travel agency, nor book hotels (anyway there are always some with free chambers even during high seasons), because if you do so, everything would go through the national agency Havanatur which has a basic tax for any kind of trip, and this will automatically raises the prices of hotels and transfers.
Get your ticket directly from the airline you like best (typically Aeroméxico or Copa Airlines). If you are not a resident in Cuba, it is not necessary to present a departure ticket from Cuba when returning to Cuba, what is required is to have a reservation of a departure ticket and not a paid ticket (however this data is subject to change over time, for this reason you always have to verify the requirements for returns, such as the departure ticket, medical insurance, etc.).
Which Currency?
Mexican pesos or American dollars? It is best to exchange any currency in Mexico because in Cuba currency exchange is always complicated and now impossible. Years ago it was advisable to change money in Cuba, but this is no longer feasible. Where is it best to change? The best exchange rates in Mexico are always at the airport. Sometimes it is better to go to the exchange desks in the area of departing flights, other times it is more convenient in the arrivals area. You should always compare. And it is always convenient to change all dollars or euros into Mexican pesos, leaving however some dollars for the return, especially if your flight has connections at intermediate airports such as Panama's Tocumen (if you are traveling with Copa Airlines or such).
The Baggages
To travel to Cancun, we suggest you to leave Cuba with only one hand baggage with basic stuff, you can bring up to about 20 lbs and you will save with this lot of time. In fact, in the Cancun airport, regardless of the season, travelers loose about one hour in average just to retrieve their baggages. For this, we recommend to travel without them and to buy one or two luggages directly in Cancun for your return to Cuba, you will find them quite inexpensive in many luggage stores.
In Havana Airport, Leaving Cuba to Cancun
It may be another airport, but we have mentioned Havana because it is the most typical. The Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) no longer exists in Cuba, but the good news is that at the airport, if you want to have a coffee or eat a snack, you can do it in national currency (CUP) by now, not like in 2019 or 2020, where everything at the airport worked exclusively with cards in freely convertible currencies (MLC). However there are not many choices in terms of restaurants and recreational places. There is only one fast food cafeteria outside the airport (of very poor quality, by the way) and several inside the airport (after you pass through immigration control). In general we advise you to eat something at home before you leave, because you will not find many choices in Cuba's airports.
The recommendation also comes from the fact that trips to Cancun always leave at 2:00 pm and you always fall spending the lunch time at the airport. Bring a baguette with ham or any other lunch. Clearly you will not be allowed to pass through the boarding lounge with it, consume it before going through the immigration check. This way you will avoid another unnecessary expense.
In the Cancun Airport
If you get lucky and you will not arrive at the same time than five other flights, the migratory checking is quite fast. The most complicated thing is exactly the luggage retrieval, you will never leave it before about an hour of waiting, for this reason, we suggested you to not bring luggage.
After this, you reach the customs checking. Remember that Mexican authorities will only allow you to bring duty free just one cigars box, one cigarettes carton and a bottle of alcohol. Mexican customs is even stricter than the Canadian. Once you have passed all the checking, go directly to the exit door without listening to any proposal. Transfers offices representative will even lie to you, telling you that the taxi or the bus that awaited you has left, so you will buy their bus or taxi ticket. If nobody is waiting for you, anything they could possibility propose, will surely be much more expensive than normal.
Go directly to the exit instead, don't listen anyone, not even the collective bus proposals because they will sell it for six dollars, and it is not so expensive. The only useful thing you have to do in the airport, is exchange your money, as we already said.
Buying Mexican Pesos
After exiting the arrival area, go directly to the departure area at your right. Walk up to the end and don't listen anyone. Aside from the toilets, you will find a Santander bank cashier. This is where, at the time of writing this article, the best exchange rates were offered. As mentioned above, this can sometimes change and it may be that the best rates to buy pesos are on arrivals rather than departures. Always check both.
Finding the Transfer
In Mexico there are cab agencies outside the airports that for more modest fares will take you to places, but Cancun's airport is quite far from downtown and if you want to economize on transportation it is best to get a ticket with the ADO bus line. The official fare will not be mentioned here, because this may be subject to change over time, but, typically, it should be around six dollars or its equivalent in Mexican pesos. Get a transfer to Cancun downtown.
The taxi, in this context, is an optional luxury that you can choose for convenience or perhaps because it is included in your package, in case you bought one, but these included cabs are usually collective and before taking you to Cancun Centro they will first take passengers to the hotel zone, which is far from downtown and this will waste time for you, the trip will be longer. This is why it is definitely better to take an ADO bus.
Once you arrive to the Cancun central bus station, you can then take a taxi to your hotel. And if you take it from the street directly it will be even less expensive, because taking a taxi from a station, hotel or commercial center in Mexico is called "site taxi" and is much more expensive. So, you just have made an entire airport transfer for less than 10 USD. Yey!
The Lodging
You will have many options. If you really want to pay less, you can walk into an hostal. There are two near to the central bus station and you can easily get them by walk without taking a taxi. One of them is the Laurel Hostal, located in Laurel street and Uxmal avenue. The other is the Mayan Hostel (Margaritas #17) which offers shared chambers, private rooms with common bathroom or completely private rooms. These accommodations are very affordable because they may cost less than 30$ at day, the Laurel offers all the rooms with private bathroom, but it doesn't offer the breakfast, it doesn't have air conditioning and you have to pay cash, because, at the time of writing this article, it didn't accept credit cards. The Mayan offered even more affordable prices for shared rooms, while private rooms with common bathroom have air conditioning and the completely private ones didn't have it. This option may be useful if you travel with a group of friends and you are willing to share a room with someone, therefore you will pay much less.
If you don't like hostels and you want air conditioning, you can also find inexpensive hotels. For example the Alux Hotel, #21 Uxmal street, at a few steps away from the bus station, wanted about 700 Mexican pesos at the time of writing this article (high season). You can also go to the Soberanis Hotel, Cobá Avene 5 and 7, Super Manzana 22, which is only 10 minutes on foots far from the bus station by walking on the Tulum avenue, in the opposite direction than the McDonald's. This hotel asked about 800 Mexican pesos during high season (at the time of writing this article). In general, it's much better located than the Alux hotel. Furthermore it has always been the official hotel if you make your travel booking from a Cuban travel agency (something we don't recommend, as explained above).
It's also worth mentioning the Rey del Caribe Hotel, #21 Uxmal, an ecological hotel also a few steps away from the bus station, a little more expensive than the others mentioned above (at the time of writing this article it was around 80 or 90 USD per day, depending of the season), but it's very beautiful because it is an ecology hotel, it has a lot of vegetation and other interesting facilities.
In general you have plenty of possibility in Cancun to find affordable hotels of the same category, that is, three or four stars.
The Way Back to Cuba
Some hotels offer the airport transfer facility, but it's about taxis which will cost about 60 or 70$. While a taxi taken form the street will costs about 40 USD. Prices are given in dollars only for indicative purposes. In reality, everything is in Mexican pesos. Anyway, the most convenient option is still the ADO bus, taken from the central station. They will leave every 30 minutes and you can book it from the day before. The bus tickets are not transferable and not refundable.
If you stayed in a hotel near the station, you can get this latter by walking, sure, if you are not overloaded with your luggages. Or you can take a taxi from the street, it will costs 25 or 30 Mexican pesos to bring you to the station. Obviously if you take the taxi from the hotel station, it will be more expensive, since it would be a site taxi.
In the Cancun Airport, Returning to Cuba
If you have taken either a taxi or a bus, you have to go to terminal 2, which is the one for international departures and arrivals.
As ever, since flights to Cuba leave always at 2 PM, the dinning time will fall again over you. But in the Cancun airport you have enough choices, even if most of them are expensive and fast foods.
If you are asked for a duty to exit the airport, this one costs generally 330 Mexican pesos, but I have to say that last time I have traveled I had not to pay it. This is another information which is subject to change over time and you should always verify in advance.
In the various duty frees, don't buy anything, because even if they are tax free, they are very expensive, so it would have been better to pay taxes in Cancun normal shops! The same thing applies with duty free in Cuba. Have a nice return!
Conclusion
As you can see, if you have adopted the most affordable options, you should have spent less than 100 USD, obviously we only talk about services and facilities, shopping and dinning is up to you. For example, eating in Cancun (unless you eat always in taquerías) is quite expensive, it doesn't matter where you go. But this is unavoidable, even if there are some places, for example in the Yaxchilan Avenue, where you can eat a roasted half chicken for 60 Mexican pesos (at the time of writing this article again!). But in general it is expensive, even if you eat in fast foods all the time. Furthermore, Cancun offers several other options of entertainment and places to visit, including the Hotels Zone itself. But, as we have said, this guide is only about services and facilities.
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