This diversity of choice also extends to accommodation options. The places which we repair to after a day of exploration and activities are becoming, for some, an integral part of the overall travel experience. Boutique Hotels are an ideal choice for people who pay attention to this detail as they offer smaller, intimate, properties, where guests may find an elegant, tranquil and serene environment to enjoy during their stay in Mexico.

Searching for a great place to stay on your vacation is time-consuming and can also be something of a guessing game. That’s why we’re pleased to be able to offer our readers and members a value-added service by way of our new alliance with Mexico Boutique Hotels, a firmly-established and highly respected travel brand in Mexico.

For over 10 years now, MBH have been nurturing the Boutique Hotels niche market in Mexico, and today they actively manage an intimate collection of just 37 hand-picked properties. Every hotel on the collection is visited by a member of the MBH team and carefully vetted to ensure that the highest levels of comfort, cuisine and service are present to welcome guests. Re-inspection visits ensure that standards are maintained before the property’s inclusion in the collection is renewed.

The properties in the MBH collection are situated in some of Mexico most beautiful colonial cities, as well as stunning beach locations. You’ll also find a boutique property on the island of Holbox (about a 90 minute drive from Cancun) and, for those who want a special place to stay in the capital, there is also a recommendation situated in Mexico City.

MBH supports customers with a comprehensive service and travel support package, delivered by means of a ‘Global Concierge Service’. This service ensures you’re fully supported from the moment you book your stay. Your concierge is provided to ensure that the Boutique Hotel experience you arranged with us is the best it can be: before, during and after your stay.

You can learn more about Boutique Hotels and the services we provide in partnership with MBH, and connect to detailed descriptions of the hand-picked boutique properties on the Mexperience guide to Mexico Boutique Hotels.

Third party insurance—which covers third parties but not the car renter in the event of a mishap—is compulsory by law in Mexico, and our car rental quotes always include this insurance.  Our quotes also include all the taxes and fees and unlimited mileage.  Rates start as low as $13 a day for an economy car.

Additional insurance products are optional, and can be purchased at the rental counter.

It’s a good idea to get yourself covered in addition to third parties, because if you don’t, you would be liable for the full retail value of the vehicle in the event that it becomes stolen or written-off in an accident.

Some credit card companies offer ‘rental car protection insurance’ automatically when you pay for the rental car using the card.  Precise coverage varies depending on the card company, so call them for advice.  If your card company does offer this useful perk, it can save you having to purchase additional insurances separately.

Here is a list of the different types of optional insurance products you can buy at the counter.  The prices noted alongside these are in addition to the daily rental fee and subject to change without notice; use them for general guidance. Mexican sales tax is currently 16%.

CDW – Collision Damage Waiver. This is an insurance product that covers the vehicle in the event of an accident or damage, with a 10% deductible.  The 10% is based on the full retail value of the vehicle, as new.  Approximate fee is US$30.00 + Tax per rental day.

LDW – Loss Damage Waiver. This is sometimes referred to as “full cover”, as it covers the vehicle for any accident or damage, as well as theft, and with zero deductible. Approximate fee: US$39.00 + Tax per rental day.

PAI – Personal Accident Insurance. This is an insurance product that will cover medical expenses for occupants in the vehicle, in the event of an accident.  If you have a travel insurance policy, you will most likely be covered already and there will be no need to purchase this. Approximate fee: US$3.00 + Tax per rental day.

ALI –Additional Liability Insurance. This insurance product extends the cover for damages to third parties up to $5,000,000 Mexican pesos. Approximate fee: US$13.00 + Tax per rental day.

TP – Theft Protection. This insurance product protects you in the event that the vehicle is stolen; it’s included with LDW if you purchase that, and some credit card companies will also cover theft of the vehicle in their policies; check the small print.  Approximate fee: US$13.00 + Tax per rental day.

Car rental itself is quite inexpensive in Mexico; it’s the insurance products which may be added on that can add significantly to your price.   If you are covered by other insurance products you have—e.g. travel insurance or credit card company insurance perks, you don’t need to concern yourself with these extras and you can enjoy low rates for car rental.  But do check the small print in all policies to ensure that they cover rental cars in countries other than your own, and that Mexico is not on any exclusion list.

We offer excellent rates on car rental in Mexico, using Hertz cars from all major airports and many main towns and cities across the country.

See Also: Guide to Renting a Car in Mexico | Guide to Driving in Mexico

As the demand for rooms falls, accommodation prices are usually discounted by hotels and resorts, or they offer ‘free’ extras like breakfasts, spa treatments, and room upgrades during the quieter or ‘off peak’ periods.   You may find discounts of 25% or more in comparison to rates offered when you attend these hotels during periods of higher demand.

If you’re planning to visit Mexico City, you will get much lower rates at many hotels here year-round when you reserve over a weekend—Friday to Sunday.  The capital’s hotels earn the lion-share of their income from business travelers; people who leave the capital and return home or use their weekends to explore Mexico’s colonial cities or relax along one of its beaches.  Conversely, hotel rooms on weekdays in Mexico City may not be discounted outside of the ‘peak’ holiday periods as they are in other places.

Most hotels at Mexico’s most popular colonial cities (especially those within a few hours’ drive of the capital) and Acapulco get more expensive at weekends, and some offer discounts during the week.  A location’s proximity to Mexico City cannot be over-emphasized in regards to weekend demand in provincial locations within easy striking distance of the capital: a city with over twenty million inhabitants creates a colossal market—and when significant numbers of its residents head out for a weekend break, demand soars at hotels situated in nearby provincial towns and cities.

The closest (and therefore most popular) colonial cities to the capital are: Cuernavaca, Puebla, Taxco, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Queretaro, Valle de Bravo, San Miguel Allende and Guanajuato.  All of these locations are subject to higher hotel room prices during the weekends.  The closest beach location to the capital is Acapulco and so hotel prices at this port city also rise on weekend days.

The Mexico Hotel Deals feature on Mexperience enables you to search for hotel deals at locations across Mexico: simply pick your location and a list of hotels currently offering a discount or promotion will be presented to you.   The system is dynamic; as soon as we negotiate a deal with any hotel we have an association with, that new offer appears on the list.

If you want to search across a wider selection of hotels, use the main Hotels Search page on Mexperience.  All of the hotels available at the location you choose will be presented to you and those with a current deal will be tagged with a red-colored “Deal” tag.

We offer secure reservations online or you can telephone, toll-free from the USA, Canada and Mexico to make your reservation.  Our booking associate is Mexico’s leading travel operator, with over twenty-five years of experience and over 300 staff at your service.

The rates we offer on hotels are extremely competitive.  A team of professional hotel account managers hold a sole responsibility to negotiate the best deals with hotels across all of Mexico.  We earn a small commission in return for your patronage.  This income helps to bring you the wealth of local knowledge and precise information that is published on these web pages and our blogs.

We sincerely value your business.  Thank you for using Mexperience to arrange your Mexico travels and for encouraging your friends, family and colleagues to consider using our services, too.

Book Online: Mexico Hotel Deals

The archaeological park opens its doors at 8 a.m. and by 10 a.m. Chichen Itza starts to get really busy.  By midday, the full complement of day tour buses has arrived, the heat of the jungle is at its peak, and the park is swarming with hoards of people vying for space and views.

A better way to see and absorb the unique atmosphere of this unique place is to stay overnight at one of the hotels situated next to Chichen Itza and visit the park early in the morning.

Chichen Itza is well served by a modern toll highway (Highway 180D) that connects Cancun and the Riviera Maya with Merida.  It’s an easy drive, and the toll fee is not excessive.  If you want to save money you can take a free road (Highway 180) that runs near the tolled highway.  You can rent a car for your journey from Cancun, Tulum, Playa del Carmen or Merida.

A good choice of hotels in Chichen Itza is on offer with rates starting at around US$60 per room, per night.  There are also a couple of exceptional accommodation options: we like Hacienda Chichen or a Bungalow room at the Mayaland hotel.

Here is our recommended itinerary.

Leave Cancun or Merida after breakfast and take a leisurely drive to Chichen Itza.  The journey is about 175 miles, so allocate about 3 hours of clock time to get there.  If your starting point is Tulum or Playa del Carmen, you might want to take Highway 167 instead of Highway 180D and stop for a couple of hours to see Coba – a small, but worthwhile archaelogical park.  From Coba, Highway 167 continues on to Valladolid and then connects you to Highway 180 west to Chichen Itza. Highways 167 and 180 are not toll roads and are best driven during daylight hours.

You’ll arrive at the hotel in time for lunch, or a bit later if you stopped at Coba, in which case you could take a pack lunch or find an eatery—perhaps a comedor—en route.

Check-in at your hotel.  If you booked in at the Hacienda Chichen, or one of the hotels offering spa services, you might like to arrange some afternoon or evening treatments.  You can spend the rest of the afternoon at the hotel swimming, taking spa treatments or just relaxing in a hammock in the manicured tropical gardens of the hotel’s grounds.

The hotels offer evening entertainment, or an opportunity to relax quietly under star-filled skies in the middle of the jungle.  Enjoy a delicious al-fresco dinner by candlelight with foods served using the freshest locally-sourced ingredients, and sip rich coffee produced from beans grown in the neighboring state of Chiapas.

After a good night’s rest, wake early to the sounds of tropical bird song. After a morning swim, you wander across to the hotel’s restaurant for an open-air breakfast, where you may choose from fresh fruits and fruit-juice blends, just-baked morning breads, an ample selection of dairy produce, omeletes prepared to your personal tastes, and freshly brewed teas, or coffee.

The doors to the Chichen Itza archaeology park open at 8:00 a.m.  Hotel guests may use one of the side entrances, avoiding the busier main entrance.  The group tour buses have yet to arrive, so you have at least two hours to enjoy the park in relative tranquility.  Local guides offer guided tours in English; your hotel may also be able to arrange guided tours for you.  As it is still morning, the sweltering heat of the midday sun has not come to pass and it’s much more pleasant than being here later in the afternoon, when the heat is intense.

By the time the tour buses begin to arrive, you’ll have seen the most important aspects of the park and can begin to explore some of the peripheral areas, which don’t become busy until much later in the day.

If you’re staying two nights, you can enjoy another evening at leisure, and perhaps book yourself in for the ‘light and sound’ show presented some nights inside the park (ask locally for details), and head out on the third day.  If you’re only staying one night, you could take lunch at the hotel and drive back to Merida or Cancun in the afternoon.

While most people who experience Chichen Itza will do so as part of a very long and exhausting day trip, with some forward planning, your experience can be significantly enhanced.  Staying overnight at Chichen Itza is affordable and great value for your money.

Taxi cabs in Mexico’s three big cities are all metered.  Elsewhere in Mexico, cabs are charged by zone, metered, or not metered.  In the latter instance, passengers should agree their price before they board.  Locals will ‘know’ what the current fare is from A to B, but visitors may be charged a premium on that.  As a rule of thumb for local trips, ten to fifteen pesos per kilometer is fair.   We publish a comprehensive guide to taxi travel in Mexico, which includes details about taxi types and the latest fares.

The price of car rental in Mexico has fallen dramatically of late.  Car rental used to be quite expensive here—almost prohibitively so.  Today, the car rental market is changing, and renting a vehicle has become affordable when you book online, in advance.  If you book a rental car through Mexperience, you can drive around in a small economy car for as little as US$13 a day—a rate that includes taxes, fees, compulsory third party insurance and unlimited mileage.  All our car rentals are furnished by Hertz.   If you don’t mind the driving, renting a car—especially in popular resort towns where taxis charge a premium—could prove financially worthwhile and will give you a lot of extra transport flexibility.  We publish very complete guides to renting a car and driving in Mexico.

Car rental is ideal when you want to explore the local area.  Taxis are better if you plan to stay in one place (for example, your beach resort) and walk or take a small few taxi trips to places locally.   If you’re visiting Mexico City during your stay, we recommend you take cabs unless there’s a very good reason for renting a car from there; one example is to take an independent day-trip to nearby Teotihuacan, another would be to use Mexico City as your start and end point for a fly-drive vacation around central Mexico.

Mexico offers visitors and residents a thoroughly comprehensive—and eminently affordable—choice of public transport options.  For more details about taxis, car rental and virtually every other form of transport in Mexico, visit Getting Around, part of the Travel Essentials section here on Mexperience.

Then one day, along came the Internet.

Mexperience, in association with ETS, offers you live online rates at hotels across Mexico.    These rates don’t just appear by magic: every agency, including ours, needs to negotiate rates with the hotels every year.  A specialist team is dedicated to managing the relationships with the hundreds of contracts under management and to negotiate the best rates as well as special seasonal deals for our customers.  The work undertaken by this team is directly reflected in the rates you see quoted for hotels on Mexperience.

In addition to the offered rates, many hotels offer seasonal special deals, or discounted rates when you stay on certain days of the week.   Our product managers are continously in touch with the hotels they are responsible for and, as soon a special offer or discount is confirmed, it is made available to you online.  You can find hotels across all of Mexico offering discounts using our Mexico Hotel Deals search page.

The ‘Rates From’ figure you see published on Mexperience is a direct feed from the live reservations system. Rates quoted are based on double-occupancy.  Single occupancy discounts may be available at some hotels.

You can get a live quote for all the hotels we manage by indicating what dates you want to travel on and how many guests are traveling in your party.   Most reservations can be confirmed instantly, online.  However, at some of the smaller hotels, it’s necessary for us to contact the hotel on your behalf to ascertain availability; in these cases a member of our customer service team will be in touch within 24 hours to confirm your reservation or offer you possible alternative hotels to consider.

If you prefer to talk to a sales agent to make your hotel reservation, you can speak with a sales agent in person to make your arrangements.

Thank you for choosing Mexperience to make your Mexico Hotel Reservations.

The survey’s report is sub-headed into groups such as “performance by attribute” and “emotional triggers” including a measure entitled “emotional bond”, which is defined as “percentage of customers’ heart that has been conquered by an airline as a consequence of its ability to be associated to six emotional dimensions: warmth, empathy, justice, trust, interest in the customer and pride”.

Notwithstanding the notion that (a percentage of) one’s heart may be conquered by a corporation is perhaps more akin to heart disease than heart-felt sincerity, the figures reveal that many of the 870 or so people surveyed rated Volaris and Interjet quite highly.  Both companies operate low-cost Mexican airlines offering affordable flights connecting Mexican cities on routes previously monopolized by Aeromexico and Mexicana.   One therefore might conclude that conquering a lesser percentage of a customer’s wallet is likely to attract a larger percentage of that same customer’s value perception.

Volaris and Interjet also rated highest overall in this survey, followed by Mexicana, Continental and Aeromexico.  The remarkable result is that Aviacsa, a regional Mexican airline that scored low throughout the report’s findings, beat American Airlines—one of the world’s premier airlines with more Latin American routes than any other US carrier.   With a net satisfaction of score -18 and a net recommendation score of -11, it would appear that hearts are being broken in spades at AA.

You can download a copy of the Leventer Group report here.

See Also: Air Travel in Mexico

Aguascalientes is one of Mexico’s smallest states, situated near the center of the country’s colonial heartland.  Its capital city shares the same name as the state and, although it has not been as well-frequented by foreign visitors as some of it’s neighboring colonial cities like San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato and Zacatecas, the state has been working hard in recent years to better position itself as a tourist destination, particularly in the area of adventure and outdoor tourism.  The new ‘canopy’ tour is a good example of this, offering visitors the opportunity to visit an area of outstanding natural beauty some 30 miles north of the capital city.  Other activites include tours of the city and historical areas around the capital.

Cuernavaca is one of Mexico’s most popular colonial cities; and is particularly well-known due its proximity to the nation’s capital, and because it’s a place frequented by capitalinos who oftentimes are found taking weekend and holiday breaks here.  The new tours and activities offer visitors an opportunity to take a formal guided tour of the city, as well excursions to nearby attractions including the Xochicalco archaeological park and the endearing town of Tepoztlan, some forty minutes southeast from Cuernavaca.  You can also take a tour of the so-called “Zapata Route”, which takes in many places associated with one of Mexico’s most famous revolutionary heroes who emanated from here–Emiliano Zapata.   The Monastery Route offers a tour of the three most outstanding ex-convents in the state of Morelos.

You can find and book local tours and activies in towns, cities and resorts across Mexico using Mexperience.  All of the tours we offer are organized and run by well-established, professional and fully-insured operators. You can browse tours by location or category and make reservations online or by telephone. Booking tours in advance is more convenient, and your spaces on the tour are guranteed.

See Also: Mexico Travel Center

Language courses in Mexico usually last from a week to several weeks, and most language schools offer foreigners an opportunity to be ‘placed’ with a local Mexican family; an arrangement that saves the student money by not having to pay hotel fees and eat at restaurants, and helps local families to earn some wothwhile additional income.  The arrangement is all part of the learning experience, as it encourages students to speak Spanish while becoming immersed in local Mexican culture.

When the Swine Flu story broke in spring last year, support services which cater to foreign visitors in Mexico collapsed.  Spanish language schools, which rely upon a continual flow of foreign visitors to the country, were among the worst-affected businesses.

Existing bookings were cancelled as fear gripped the traveling public, and no new customers came forward to replace them.  Some schools were forced to temporarily lay-off teachers and administrative workers.  Mexican families who had budgeted for the income they earn from hosting foreign students in their homes found their personal economies severely curtailed by the events.  One language school owner I spoke with described 2009 as the worst year they had experienced since they opened their school doors 15 years ago.

A year later, language schools are still in the recovery phase, hoping for better tidings this spring and summer.  Foreign visitors are on the increase again, and language schools are returning to the ad market with promotions and initiatives to attract customers back to their courses.  No doubt, they will have contacted the people who cancelled last year to encourage them to attend a course this year.

If you want to learn more about language schools in Mexico, and the benefits of attending a course here, connect to the Learn Spanish section.  If you’re hoping to take a break this year, but your budget is tight, a language school vacation—in which you can mix learning with pleasure—could be the ideal way to keep your costs down and give your personal development a fillip.  If your finances are preventing you from even getting out of the door this year, you might want to consider learning Spanish at home; you can try some distance learning lessons online.

Students of the Spanish language will also find Foreign Native’s Spanish Tips to be a very worthwhile and entertaining learning resource.

Airport Shuttles – Most of the country’s principal airports offer an airport shuttle service. Pre-booking a shuttle from the airport to your hotel or other accommodation is the simplest way of arranging your ground transportation in Mexico, especially so if you don’t speak much Spanish, as the principal alternative to an airport shuttle is to purchase a ticket from the authorized taxi booth at the terminal. Airport shuttle staff will meet you or your party at the airport arrivals area. They will monitor the status of your flight and, if your plane is delayed, they will wait for you.  There are usually two classes of services offered: Standard and VIP.  With the Standard service, a comfortable suburban van drops-off a number of people at their hotels in the vicinity, in turn.  The VIP service is exclusive to you or your party; you don’t share the transport vehicle with others and you’re driven directly to your local destination.  We offer professional airport transfers from airports at all of Mexico’s most frequented cities and resorts.   Visit our Airport Shuttles page for more information and to make bookings securely online or by telephone.

Airport Taxis – Taxis from Mexico’s airports are among the most expensive taxis you’ll hire here; it’s not just Mexico—worldwide, airport taxis charge a high premium to travelers using their services.  All of Mexico’s airports offer official airport taxis, where rates are set by zone.  To use the service in Mexico, you buy a ticket from one of the ‘authorized taxi’ kiosks, proceed to a taxi rank outside the terminal building and board the next available cab. At some Mexican airports, travelers are bombarded by verbal offers from an eye-boggling selection of taxi/transport services as soon as they exit the customs area.  The experience can be somewhat intimidating to unseasoned travelers.  If you plan to use an airport taxi, we recommend you buy a ticket from the airport’s authorized taxi booth.  You can read a detailed guide about traveling by taxi in Mexico here on Mexperience, which also includes a section about airport taxis.

Local Buses – Some airports have a bus station situated at the terminal building; however, many of Mexico’s airports don’t have a bus station adjacent and so to use local buses you may need to exit the airport area and hail a local bus on passing road.  If you’re carrying a lot of baggage, the bus option may not be your best choice. Travelers arriving at Mexico City’s airport can avail themselves of the bus services which depart from there to popular colonial cities such as Puebla, Queretaro and Cuernavaca without the need of first having to take a cab to one of the capital’s bus terminals.  Note, however, that bus services offered from the airport are considerably less frequent in comparison to those which operate from the capital’s bus terminals, so if your flight arrives late in the evening or overnight, you may need to book a hotel overnight or take a taxi to a bus station to find later services than those offered from the airport.  Our guide to bus travel in Mexico is comprehensive and shows you how to get around locally by bus.