Buying a round trip ticket feels like a dream come true. A year of life outside of the pressures of work, outside of the responsibilities of having an apartment, bills and a chores. A year to wander the globe, taking in as much as humanly possibly of foreign cultures, exotic foods, and once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

The round trip ticket is only a quarter of the work. Destinations don’t just materialize in your path, restaurants and hotels haven’t made it into your notepad suddenly. The hardest part is getting out of the airport and making a route, picking and choosing what will need to be missed and what can be counted in. Our trip became a reality in late November, and between then and March when we took off, most of our time was filled with needle jabs, long hours at work and about a 1000 trips to REI. We spent maybe a week, tops, planning where exactly we wanted to go in what country and we hardly ever considered routes.

In America, it’s quite easy to connect any city with another via about 3 interstates at most. Around the world, infrastructure is unpredictable, and sometimes uncooperative; many of the most intriguing destinations are deep within the native center of a nation.

Renting a car in Mexico was one of the best ideas we came up with. We spent over $200 on two bus trips which ate up entire days with boredom and took us only to the most-populated of places. The car gave us freedom to experience what was along the way, at our own schedule. Our lack of route selection before our tour took it’s toll when we had to backtrack 5 hours on the most windy, speed bump ridden nightmare of a two lane road between Palenque and San Cristóbal de las Casas. Was it worth it?

San Cristóbal de las Casas view from the West Church

Certainly. San Cristóbal is a remote gem, a tiny world-class destination. We stayed in an absolutely luxurious hotel for only $25 US. The walkable part of the city is much larger than most, and we took our time exploring many side streets, the hilltop churches, and even the local marketplace.

San Cristóbal Mercado

We missed out on Tikal, and Guatemala as a whole, because access from Mexico is very limited, and we would spend about 3 days we couldn’t give up en route. The cost was hard to calculate as well — we were told for 300 pesos ($22 US) we would be transported to Flores in Guatemala. From there we would have to find our own accommodations, our own transportation to and from the Tikal site, and our own transportation back to Palenque to our car and stuff. We knew from the little experience that we had in Mexico that being over a barrel like that doesn’t end well, especially when we only had a few days for the trip.

A little planning goes a long way, but we wonder how possible that is when you have a whole year and 28 countries in front of you. We’re grateful we saw so much of Mexico, truly a feat in itself, traveling almost 3000 miles in 3 1/2 weeks, while still relaxing and taking time to find those unique local restaurants and see the tiny sites and natural splendors along the way.

Our route took us from Mexico City to Veracruz and Boca del Rio, and then on to Villahermosa where we rented a car before seeing the beautiful La Venta Park ($3) — a zoo, a collection of Mayan sculpture throughout a jungle park, and lots of wild coatimundi!

Olmec Heads at La Venta Park

We drove to Palenque (and wrote a whole post about it here - notably our favorite temple site and the cheapest at $4.20 US) and then down to San Cristóbal, where we stayed a few days longer to enjoy some day trips to local waterfalls.

Cascades at Misol Ha

Swimming in the waterfalls at Chiflón

We had to return for another stay in Palenque ($14 US this and every time) before we got back on the road to Campeche at the base of the Peninsula. We stayed at our first hostel here, right in off the main square in town (quite a high price to pay at $23.50 US)

Working from the Monkey Hostel in Campeche

From there we traveled to Merida, a destination both of us loathed and would never wish on anyone, but “all roads lead to Merida,” and our options were cut. At least we made the most of it by traveling up the Puuc Route, a beautiful expanse of jungle connecting numerous temple sites. From Merida we drove to Chichen Itza (the most expensive temple site at $8 US) only to face disappointment at the state of the site and the overall tourist experience. We left for Villadoloid, another small gem marking the start of a gauntlet of cenotes (fresh water sinkholes for swimming and cave diving). We arrived in Tulum late in the evening on the opposite side of the Peninsula for perhaps our most cherished few days of relaxation and endless soft beaches (lots of gushing here).

Enjoying the beach below the Temple Ruins of Tulum

Traveling north we cruised up to the most touristed areas of the Yucatan Peninsula which radiate from Cancun at it’s heart. To skirt the chaos that is Cancun (and the budget strain), we parked the car and took off across the water to Isla Mujeres (ferry ride from Cancun $15 US, ferry ride from deeper in town $2.50 US)

Isla Mujeres

Not wholly different from Cancun, Isla Mujeres loves the American tourist set, and has prices and menus to match. But island life has it’s allures, and any traveler to Cancun should take the day at least to explore it. We looked at several hostels (about $18 US for shared dorms), but ended up finding at room with internet at a hotel ($20 US). In the morning we inadvertently bargained for a delicious and spicy whole grilled snapper ($4.25 US) which made a great seafront meal. Otherwise our usual cheap ($3 - $5 US) meals were found on the fringes of the tourist areas, but cheap beers ($1 - 1.50 US) could be found in town if you looked hard enough. Looking for even greater seclusion, we moved on to Isla Holbox, another car-less island, this time north of Cancun.

Isla Holbox

We may have expected more relaxation and fewer tourists, but Holbox’s mellow lifestyle and sandy streets gave us the respite we were looking for. We even managed to find the cheapest hotel on the beach (at $42 US it was our most pricey), even if it required about 2 hours of walking with our 25lb packs. Food was a little bit more expensive than in other parts of Mexico, but with nothing to do except wander the beaches, our budget remained intact, and both the meals and food were honest and atmospheric.

Isla Holbox

Isla Holbox marked the end of our route, and from there we were making a path back to Mexico City for our flight to Lima. Along the way we found Telchac Puerto, a small surfing community which has yet to make it to any guidebooks. Relaxed, colorful and beachy, Telchac Puerto made us regret our lack of time (or so we thought) — it would have been a great place to spend a day or two. We moved back through Merida again (shudder), passing through the Yellow City of Izamal and it’s local markets and surprising archeological sites.

Izamal

Then back to Campeche for another round of our favorite tortas and horchata. This colorful city is easy to walk in, and friendly. While the shopping may be a big part of Merida, in Campeche the vendors are friendlier and less pushy.

Colorful Campeche

Along the path back to Villahermosa, we stopped in Ciudad del Carmen, bordered on both sides by very expensive toll bridges ($4 US). Expecting much more than we found, we drove around in shock until we realized that all the missing locals were at the beach fair, which raged until 4am.

Fair in Ciudad del Carmen

Finding a hotel nearby was easy, and we acknowledged our luck in finding the fun, since there was not a gringo in sight. At Villahermosa, we returned our tiny radio-less Atos (Mexican car rental agencies charge by the kilometer when returning cars to different locations from the origin), and once again boarded a bus ($108 US!), this time bound directly for Mexico City. A small oversight in our planning did give us two nights in Villahermosa we didn’t need or want, and we pined to turn back time and spend those extra days back in the cabana in Tulum. But such is life.

Coming back to Mexico City was wonderful; we now knew what we were doing in Mexico and how to find the things which entertained us. Those last few days where nothing like the ones at the start of our Mexican adventure. We wandered the beautiful neighborhoods of Condesa and Roma, visited the famous Museum of Anthropology, and ate our fill of the Mexican foods we had grown to love. One truly amazing thing in Mexico City for the traveler is the metro. It’s incredibly large and well organized (with graphically-intriguing symbols!) and costs 2 pesos a ride ($0.14 US) — it’s the cheapest metro system in the world!

At the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City

By a mix of bad planning, bad luck, and bad customer service, we were turned away at the airport in Mexico City and had to spend another 24 hours, which cost us a day in Lima. But, as of now, this little derailment has earned us a $200 US voucher from American Airlines to use at another hotel worldwide, or for an additional flight.

There were a few destinations we did miss, and regretted it, but we doubt it would be possibly to come up with the perfect route. Cuernavaca and Oaxaca are our major disappointments, but it would have been too much of a rush to fit in two such deserving cities — and we only hope this means we can someday return to spend more time in the Mexico we have grown to love. In hopes it might benefit someone else someday, or perhaps us on a return visit, here is the route we could make knowing what we know and learning what we have learned.

In summary, we toured mexico for almost a month spending $38 per day, per person. It would have been possible to travel even more cheaply, but we are pretty proud of our accomplishment with the budget. One of the major burdens to our budget has been the bus. We expected bus transportation to be significantly less expensive in Mexico, and it can be we suppose, on second-class buses. The reason we opted for first class buses (and after a bad experience here later in Perú will opt for them in the future as well) is that the second-class buses run on unreliable schedules as they stop and pick up passengers on the side of the road countless times, and often have no working bathrooms. I believe I saw a sign that the Mexican 1st class buses offer a discount of up to 50% for students (but this may be seasonal) so age could be a big benefit when traveling in this country. The bus also carries the hidden cost of one or two taxi rides, as terminals are typically located far outside of town and crowded buses are not the place for large backpacks.

The other problem we encountered with budgeting was what we call “orientation costs.” During the first day or two in a country we don’t have a good grasp on exchange rates, and often stay in the touristy center of the city. We noticed this problem again in Lima, but tried harder to combat it. Hotels and food on the main square can be 4 times what we will later pay on the streets, and it’s hard to estimate how many pesos we have to spend everyday. Everything seems cheap, and it is, but we still have to be smart about it.

Backpacking with a budget has been rather fun for us. It’s interesting to see how much we spend a day and what pleasures we can trade for others to make things balance out. By traveling as a couple, we often save money on accommodations in comparison to a single traveler (unless that person is staying exclusively in shared dorms). We eat much much less than most tourists just out for the week (ahh… those handy “vacation calories”) and often just share plates, again cutting costs. We try to find the places where the locals are eating, and always make a point of asking locals we interact with about their favorite restaurants. Very many people eat out in Mexico, and we received some great suggestions, like our very last tacos and tortas ($3.25 US) - under an overpass at the airport.

Cultural experiences average about $8 US. It’s not expensive, but it does add up in our tiny budget, and we sometimes have to pick and choose between a big meal or museum.

We post our daily spending and several other fun statistics at a site called Daytum, which we hope you will check out. It’s quite addictive, and updating it regularly gives us an interesting picture of our progress so far.