Mexico

Overview

Tailor-made tours

Small group tours

Highlights

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Useful information

Currency

The Yucatán Peninsula's Caribbean coast is pricey, but elsewhere you can expect to get away with spending around US$20-35 a day, particularly in rural areas. It's best to bring US dollar denomination traveller's cheques and some US dollars in cash.

You can exchange money in banks or in casas de cambio. Bank exchange facilities are often only open between 9am and 3 or 4pm. Major credit cards are accepted for most services. In heavily touristed areas such as Cancún and Cozumel, you can often spend US dollars as easily as pesos at hotels and restaurants (although the exchange rate will probably be awful).

Note that the dollar sign is used to refer to pesos in Mexico; prices in US dollars are usually marked US$ or USD. Mexico has a 15% value-added tax (IVA) which by law must be included in quoted prices. Sometimes prices are quoted without this tax.

Tipping in restaurants in resort areas is equivalent to US levels - somewhere between 15% and 20%. Outside these areas, a tip of 10% is sufficient at mid-range restaurants. Expect to bargain at markets and with drivers of un-metered taxis. Treat haggling as a form of social discourse rather than a matter of life and death.

Visas

Citizens of many countries - including the USA, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Argentina, Chile and virtually all Western European countries - do not require visas to enter Mexico as tourists. However, if they are staying longer than 72 hours, or are traveling beyond the Border Zone or certain exempted areas, they must obtain a 180-day Mexican government tourist card (tarjeta de turista), available from embassies or at border crossings for around US$20 per person.

How to get there

Around 30 Mexican cities receive direct flights from North America and Canada, and there are relatively cheap connections to the Caribbean and the rest of Latin America. From Europe you can fly to Mexico City and Cancún. Aeroméxico and Mexicana are the largest Mexican airlines.

Our tours are designed to coincide with available flights. If and when you are thinking of booking a tour, we will advise on suitable flight arrangements.