Travel To Cozumel, Mexico For $850. Flights, Food, and Tequilia.
Brush up on your Spanish it’s time to head to Mexico! I just recently returned from almost a week on the island of Cozumel and it was amazing. The weather was nice, the drinks were cold, and the food was delicious. What more could someone ask for in a vacation? If you’re planning a trip to a resort then I have a perfect guide for you. The best part is we did it all under $850. Here are the trip details:
Where: Cozumel, Mexico
Duration: 6 Days/5 Nights
Group Size: 15 People
Let’s start this article out by addressing the elephant in the room. How in the world do you vacation with a group of fifteen people? The answer is simple, you go to an all-inclusive resort. It can be extremely difficult to make a group of four happy let alone a group of fifteen. That is why you let the resort take care of the fun for you. I’m going to talk about the resort in this article but if you want a full explanation of all-inclusive resorts then check out my post: All-Inclusive Resorts Explained. Are They Worth It?
Flights
As usual, let’s start out with how you are going to get to Mexico. Since Cozumel is such a popular tourist destination you can get there fairly cheap. Just a quick Google Flight search I found flights from Houston and Dallas for under $300 round trip. The problem I face and many of you might as well is we don’t live in these big hubs. These connecting flights are what eat our budget up.
We paid for our flights around two and a half months out. IF (that’s an important if) we would have paid full price it would have been $596 round trip. The routes were Wichita -> Dallas -> Cozumel and on the return Cozumel -> Atlanta -> Wichita. All of the layovers were around 2-3 hours long which I believe is the perfect amount.
Ok, so let me explain the ‘IF’. The truth is we didn’t pay that $596 instead we only paid $68, but how? It’s pretty simple actually and something that I’ve talked a little about before. It boils down to credit card points. That’s right reward points paid for over $500 of our flights.
It took almost 40,000 points per person but that’s the exactly why I save the points up. Be on the lookout for an article about credit card points down the road. For $500 off your trip, it’s worth it.
The final cost for the flights per person: $68
The Resort
The resort we stayed at had just about everything you needed. I’ve stayed at a couple other all-inclusive resorts in Mexico so it’s hard not to compare but this one is right near the top. The place we stayed at was called Secrets Aura Cozumel and it was about a twenty-minute drive from the airport down the coast.
A guy can get used to someone meeting him at the entrance to take his bag and offer a cool towel and a drink. The resort overall was extremely well kept and the staff would bend over backward to make sure you had a good experience. Here is a picture I snapped one night while walking the beach.
For the price, which I’ll talk about in a minute, it provided above my expectations. Some highlights were the three pools, six restaurants, and the endless amount of bars. Being that it is all-inclusive you can order just anything you want and not have to worry about the bill.
When I say anything I really mean it. For instance, one morning my girlfriend and I ordered breakfast in bed because why not? I ordered an omelet with waffles while she opted for some eggs and bacon. With a side of extra bacon. You can never have too much bacon.
Ok, enough about the food and resort if you want to learn more click on the link in the opening paragraph. Let’s talk about the cost. First off I have to give a thank you to my sister who hooked the group up with a discount code. A quick email where she explained we were coming with a group of fifteen people got us 15% off our total.
After that discount, the total cost for the room came out to be just at $600. A simple email saved each person almost $100. Remember, this is for EVERYTHING at the resort. All of our food, drinks, and activities. It is all covered under that cost.
The final cost for the resort per person: $600 or $120/day
Activites
We didn’t stay at the resort the whole time though, we had a whole island to explore. During our stay, we did two main activities, one on land and other in the water. Let’s start by talking about the water.
Snorkeling
The first night we met two young couples from Canada. I was more talkative than I normally am maybe because of the drinks, who knows. Anyways, they were awesome and super friendly so we decided to go snorkeling together. We went through the hotel and booked a private boat for four hours that would supply all the gear for $55 a person.
On the day we went out on the water it was rough. I’m a lake guy, I love the water, but this was ridiculously rough. So bad in fact that we only snorkeled in one spot. We saw quite a few starfish and it was pretty cool but the water was beating us up. We decided as a group that we needed to go with plan B. Plan B was to pull up to a private beach and just hang out.
When I say hang out I mean consume more than our fair share of margaritas and Coronas. We even got our captain to join the party. It was a great time and well worth the cost.
Jeeping
The second major activity we did was rent a jeep for the day. Normally renting a vehicle can cost a couple hundred dollars per day and it takes all kinds of requirements to get one. Again we went to the front desk and in twenty minutes we were set up with three jeeps.
I like my deals (obviously) but the cost of this jeep for 24 hours was better than any deal I could have imagined. We had them delivered to the hotel and picked up whenever we wanted. All we had to do was fill the gas tank back up and pay $75. That’s right, only $75. This came out to about $25 per person when you add in gas.
We cruised around the southern end of the island with the top down and then made our way back through town past the cruise ships. No radio, no air conditioner, just the open breeze. We made a couple stops along the way and even had lunch at a bar called Coconuts. You can use your imagination to figure out why it’s called that.
The final cost for all activities including tips per person: $80
Miscellaneous Costs
Luckily this trip didn’t have very many random or surprise costs. Before even leaving the states we had a pretty good idea of how much we spending total. The only few things that were extra was the lunch we had at Coconuts ($20), the shuttle to and from the airport ($30), and some cigars ($30).
Total cost: $80
Wrapping It Up
Are you ready to head south and enjoy the beach and sunshine? Taking a Caribbean vacation doesn’t have to break the bank. If you add up all the costs above the total comes out to $828!
Something I hinted at and will do a full write up on soon is taking advantage of what your credit card offers you. If you add in the full price of our flights as well as the resort the total then becomes $1,285. All of a sudden the trip has gone for relatively affordable to pretty expensive. More on that soon though, until then happy travels!
Looking for cheap flights? Check out: How to Find Affordable Flights 101
Looking for the best places to stay? Check out: Where to Stay While Traveling 101
Want to travel to Iceland? Check out: Travel to Iceland for Only $1000
