Any image Mexico might have had as being a cheap place to visit must now belong to the past. It is still true, that since Mexico is not a fully developed country, it is possible to find the food and accommodation that the locals are used to, for cheap. But that food and accommodation would not make for a lot of fun for aging northerners.

On the other hand, the super luxury food and accommodation that is also quite common, makes us intensely nervous. So we look for some sort of middle ground.  And it's that middle ground that we are saying is not exactly cheap anymore.

Overall, this time around, Yucatan excluding airfare, cost the equivalent of 92 euros per day. Well ok, that compares to 125 euros  in Germany last Spring and 129 euros  in England and France in the Fall. So Mexico was 25% cheaper. That's something, I guess.

Heart

0

Comment

3

Link

Fern DavisHi. As a senior cyclist from Canada I am curious about your health insurance provider. May I inquire as to which company you use? It is difficult to find insurance for travelling senior cyclists! Too risky they say! Too expensive I say!
I do love your journals.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Fern DavisHi Fern, well taken question. We used to use BCAA, but their rates seemed to climb out of sight. We switched to a Quebec based company called Tour-Med. They seem very professional both on the phone and in their web site. And they did make an actual payout without squabbling when Dodie crashed last year.

We think insurance of all types is too expensive to be buying coverage for every little thing that might happen. So we go for quite large deductibles. That way, if something really big happens we are covered, but if it's something smaller, the deductible will not sink our financial ship.

The cost of Tour-Med for the two of us has ranged from $11.50 to 15.50 per day on our last three trips. The total cost seems to be figured from a per day rate, so the longer the trip naturally the greater the cost. None of the insurance companies will cover pre-existing conditions, which makes sense, but there can be differences in for how long they want any condition to be "stable", before they will cover any recurrence. I think Tour-Med talks about three months.

We used to buy one year policies allowing any number of up to 90 day trips, but no one seems to offer that any more, or at least, not to us! Tour-Med seems to offer 30 day trips over a year. It also could be that should we make it over 80 and still be cycling, they will not want to cover us. In that case, we will go anyway!
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Fern DavisTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThank you for the great info. I will certainly look into this before my next trip.
Reply to this comment
1 year ago

Log in to comment or reply

The makeup of the Mexican costs differs as well. Surprisingly food "weighs in" more heavily in Mexico. That's for two reasons. Firstly breakfast is not included as often with the hotel, and the breakfast when provided can not keep you going for much of the day.  Next, while it is possible to buy lower cost salbutes and tortas at the roadside, these also will not keep you going for all that long.  A full meal costs at least 200 pesos, which is the same price as a "plat du jour" in France (or at least what we who live in the past think of a plat du jour costing). You could avoid also paying for an evening meal by picking up some stuff at OXXO, but then you have quite costly overpackaged junk type food. They did have a yogurt, made by Yoplait, called Disfruta ("Enjoy") that was better than most things on offer in other countries. OXXO also had packaged sandwiches made from mystery meat, Bimbo white bread, and often Philadelphia Cream Cheese. It got so we would consider that to be real food.

With hotels, we stayed in ones priced as low as 500 pesos ($Can 35) and it can be said that these at least did have air conditioning, but the beds were rickety, the sheets paper thin, and the towels scarce. For 1800 pesos ($Can 125) we had elegant surroundings and large rooms.  That's kind of a typical European price, and we certainly would expect a nice breakfast along with it in Europe. For 1800 pesos in Mexico there still would likely be no breakfast, but there usually would be a pool!

In Yucatan, what we called "Tourism" was also important. That's because of the prominence of the Mayan sites, for which the Mexicans properly charge foreigners a pretty penny. But it's also the cenotes, unique in Yucatan, and also costly for foreigners.

Airfare, which we don't include in our main description of cost because it differs for each reader, is the same for us to Yucatan as to Europe.  The distance, about 5,000 km is less than the 8,000 to Europe, but no one expects rational pricing from airlines. Overall, we used to think of $1800 for the two of us return to a cycling destination, but that must have been way back and pre-pandemic. Now we have to think more like $2400. Last Spring, it was $2800 for Frankfurt. Sheesh.

Stay tuned for our final report, on "Was it actually hot there?".