To JR or not to JR?! That is the question…Historically the JR pass has been the absolute ‘go to’ for people planning exploritative travel around Japan. Being offered in 1, 2 and 3-week increments they are pretty comprehensive and all of the information about them will tell you that you can pay off the cost of the pass in as little as two train journeys. While this can certainly be the case, it is not quite as clear-cut as that, as JR train travel is absolutely not your only option to get around Japan. The JR pass is definitely a worthwhile consideration if you plan on moving regularly around the country over a set amount of time. In addition, it makes things a lot easier with much less planning and preparation needed on the ground to get around. It is also almost unquestionably the most efficient way to navigate around. If ease and efficiency are your primary focus when visiting Japan then there is little argument I can make against acquiring a JR pass. Having said that, if you’re willing to put in the effort both in terms of planning and executing journeys you can travel around the country a lot cheaper using buses and alternative train routes/companies. In many ways the countrywide JR passes are great, but the do limit you exclusively to JR trains ONLY and there are a huge range of other train, bus and boat options available. Furthermore, in places like Osaka and Kyoto they are completely useless in terms of local transport. A lot of people travel to Japan and buy a JR pass believing this is all they will need to pay for all transport for the whole time they are in the country and 99% of the time this is just not the case. We carefully considered and eventually vetoed the JR Pass for our recent 6-week trip to Japan, which turned out to be a very wise choice! These are the three most effective methods we used to ‘beat’ it!
Overall, a combination of these methods proved to be massively effective for us. To put this potential saving into real perspective for you, here’s a little glimpse at some final facts. We were in Japan for 6 weeks (41 days) in total and we went all the way from Tokyo down to Okinawa Island in that time. Our TOTAL travel costs for entire time in Japan including local and intercity buses/trains/trams etc and a flight from Fukuoka to Okinawa: ¥50,992pp ($619.25AUD/$465.10USD) vs 3 week JR rail pass ONLY: ¥70,000pp ($849AUD/$639.89USD) I’m not gonna lie and say it was easy to achieve that, but it is possible. We didn’t hitchhike anywhere, we didn’t steal a car and we didn’t hide out in train toilets to avoid paying. We did plan meticulously and we did walk...a lot...but the numbers speak for themselves. It was worth it! Other money saving tips…
By using all of these hints, tricks and methods combined we managed to do absolutely everything we wanted to do in Japan, visit everywhere we wanted to go and see everything we wanted to see. We went in with what we believed to be a bit of an optimistic budget of $130AUD (¥10,650/$100USD) per day for two people. At the end of the trip we came in at $121.36AUD (¥9,943/$91.15USD). Japan on a budget DOES exist! What it actually cost: $4,368.85 AUD for 36 days (We spent 5 days at Disney which was a separate budget). Transport: $1238.51 Accommodation: $1226.76 Entertainment: $557.37 Drinks: $155.68 Souvenirs: $82.47 Miscellaneous: $79.38 This works out at $60.67 AUD ($45.70 USD) per person per day, which is well under the $100 USD that the lonely planet recommends.
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Having had 9 wonderful days in our favourite city for Dani’s 30th we were ready to start the next leg of our adventure. We had a long flight from New York to Taipei including a 4 hour layover in San Francisco and by the time we landed in Taipei we were slightly delirious from lack of sleep. We had arrived back in Asia at last (we spent 9 month backpacking around Southeast Asia in 2013 and had loved every minute of it). Taipei customs was a breeze and after waiting for our bags (neither of us trusted they would arrive from New York) we were off to the city. The connection to main station couldn’t be easier and only costs $160 ($7 AUD/5.40 USD). We would recommend picking up an emoney card as they make life so much easier, can be used around the whole country and can be refunded as you are leaving. They are usable on almost every type of transport option and can be used in convenience stores like 7-Eleven and Family Mart as well. A little after 9pm we were settled into our hostel (4U Taipei Guesthouse - $30.25 AUD/23.20 USD for a double bed in a 2 double bed bunk dorm - yes you did read that right), just a ten minute walk away from the MRT station (exit name?!) which was wonderful and now it was time to sleep! At 11.45pm I woke up to the bed shaking. Still exhausted it took me a while to realise that it wasn’t Dani shaking the bed it was moving due to an earthquake. Not exactly the smooth start to Taiwan we were hoping for and there were a further 2 tremors that night that woke me up (Dani slept like a baby through the other 2). It wasn’t till the morning that we found out that there had been a very significant earthquake in Hualien which had been felt all the way in Taipei. When booking our flights to Taiwan (we booked the cheapest flight to Asia from New York) we hadn’t realised we were going to be there during Chinese New Year. Once we realised and started to research, everything told us that contrary to every other place around the world where it is a big celebration, in Taiwan it’s a home based family affair and everything in the country shuts down. In consultation with Taiwanese friends we had pre booked everything in advance for the trip, meaning we had a lot less flexibility than we would have liked. To fit around the days we had been told not to travel we had made the decision to explore Taipei at the end of the trip but had given ourselves one days grace at the start. This was the day we did the walking tour (Tour Me Away) which was, as usual a brilliant introduction and gave us a better understanding of the culture of Taiwan which has a very interesting history. We also got stuck into eating everything we saw, because having lived on rice and beans for 3 months it was so exciting being back in the world of Asian flavours. Having prebooked all of our transport online before arriving in Taiwan we were both slightly concerned about collecting our tickets and seeing if our attempts to navigate a website in Cantonese using google translate had been successful. As it turned out this was a super smooth process and we were able to collect all our tickets from one machine in one station. If you have prebooked all you need is your booking code at the ticket machine and they will be printed. That being said there really is no need to book as far in advance as we did (or even at all to be honest) unless you are traveling through the New Year period. Our first real stop was Taichung (Train was $16 AUD/12.25 USD) as we were using it as a base for Sun Moon lake. We had booked in to the Harbour Hotel ($37.20 AUD/28.55 USD) which we could highly recommend even just for its superb staff and buffet breakfast alone. Our first day we were heading to the lake. (This was prior to being joined by a Taiwanese friend of ours who would be meeting us the next day to be a local tour guide.) We caught the bus from the Gancheng Station which takes you directly to the lake for $360 ($15.95 AUD/12.20 USD). It’s supposed to be beautiful on a sunny day but unfortunately for us we arrived to grey skies and drizzle. This made the lake fairly unspectacular really so we made the choice not to take the boat trip and opted instead for the cheaper bus trip around the lake ($80/3.55 AUD/2.70 USD). This allowed us to explore at our own pace and discover what was definitely our favourite temple in all of Taiwan Wenwu. It’s absolutely beautiful and the intricate carvings had me mesmerised. Damp and hungry we headed back to Taichung to meet with our friend. Because we had a guide we were lucky enough to see that there are two very distinct sides to Taichung. One is the less modern, older Asian city which is where we stayed and the other is the area around Literary Park which is really modern with an intense hipster vibe. It was an interesting contrast. It was also with or friend that we were able to sample all of Taiwan’s foodie delights (note the sarcasm) there was tofu pudding desert, stinky tofu, mochi cakes with pickled cabbage and other strange not to be repeated items. Our next destination was hailed country wide for its culinary delights and this was the fundamental basis of it’s appeal to us. Tainan is the home of the original night markets and all of Taiwan’s distinctive traditional snacks. Unfortunately for us Tainan didn’t start off well because while we were waiting for check in time in the lobby of our hotel Dani had her camera stolen. The fact that this happened in Taiwan still shocks us both as it is one of the most honest cultures we have come across in our travels and we must have been really unlucky. This did mean that we spent the next few days hunting for a new camera for Dani (luckily for us we were in Asia the home of electronics as this would have been a lot harder in Latin America). Although we did explore quite a few temples we didn’t really get Tainan and even the night markets felt a little lacklustre with just the same (albeit delicious) food as others around the country. We did find a great breakfast spot though which did egg rolls (my new favourite breakfast), dumplings and bao all really cheap. You will never find us complaining about finding a hearty breakfast spot anywhere in the world!! The New Years shutdown was finally starting and this had meant all trains between Tainan and Kaohsiung had been sold out when we’d tried to book leaving us with a weird alternative of taking a 12 minute bullet train half way and then a metro line to the main station. This actually only took an hour door to door and was probably the cheapest bullet train we’d ever catch ($6 AUD/4.60 USD). Not an experience we had wanted to miss out on but one we didn’t really believe we were going to be able to afford! We found our accomodation Hone Lane Buisness Hotel ($43.65 AUD/33.45 USD for a double room) which turned out to be unexpectedly nice and set out to find some food. This hotel also had the advantage of being quite close to a Liuhe night market which had some delicious food including a really cheap exclusively vegetarian stall. It was here that we realised though that as delicious as night markets are they are often three times the price of a decent restaurant meal in Taiwan. Dani had done some research into what to do in Kaohsiung and had discovered Cinjun Island which was really easy to get to and looked like a fun day out so the next morning we set off to the metro station. To get there you just hop on the orange line to Sizihwan and then jump on the ferry. ($25/1.10 AUD/0.85 USD) From here you can hire any number of modes of transport from bicycles to golf buggies. Just come out of the ferry terminal and peruse the options at your leisure until you find the mode you want. All of the prices seemed pretty similar so no need to negotiate or try to haggle. We decided on the tandem bicycle option and set off for the lighthouse. The route on Cinjin island takes you round the lighthouse, beach, fish market, rainbow church and if you’re interested the shell museum (we’re suckers for a weird museum) before rounding you back to the ferry. This can of course all be done on foot but it’s a long day. While not culturally inspiring or breathtakingly beautiful it was one of our favourite days in Taiwan and we would highly recommend it as there’s nothing quite like a bicycle ride in the sunshine next to the sea. (🎵On a bicycle made for two🎵...sorry had to go there!) We had been lucky enough to book our hotel next to the train station so it was nice and easy to get to the train to continue on to Taitung. Neither of us could quite believe that we were already heading back up the country so soon. The train from Kaohsiung to Taitung is quite long in comparison to other journeys but is by far one of the prettiest as you wind through the mountains rather than city scapes. When we arrived Jackson from our hostel (Hostel Who Knows - $540/23.90 AUD/18.30 USD pp for an 8 bed dorm) had provided us with great detailed instructions on getting from the train station to the hostel by bus. It turned out to be straight forward and easy which meant we were quickly settled in. We only had 2 nights at Taitung to avoid catching a train during the busy days of the holiday period but it turns out this was plenty and we probably would have been financially better off to skip it. It really is a town for cyclists and not really anyone else. I’m sure if you’re a cyclist it’s great and very beautiful but the town itself has little to offer and due to the holidays so many of the shops were shut. True to form though we found ourselves a wonderful noodle shop that became our staple for 2 days. Having said Taitung was a little lacking we met some really nice people in that hostel and it was definitely the most social of the hostels we stayed at in Taiwan. Ready for our final location before heading back to Taipei we were (read I was) a little apprehensive about going to Hualien due to the earthquake that had happened the night we had arrived. I had been to visit my family in Christchurch (New Zealand) just weeks after their big earthquake and that’s what I was expecting arriving in Hualien based on the few buildings I’d seen on the news. There was absolutely no visible damage anywhere when we stepped off the train. Cave Hostel (which was fantastic by the way at $27.65 AUD/21.20 USD for another double bed bunk in a 4 bed room) was a 30 minute walk from the train station and we saw nothing to indicate an earthquake the whole way. To be honest if you didn’t see the one majorly damaged building (or hadn’t felt the aftershocks) there is no way you would have known there had been a big earthquake there only 2 weeks beforehand. We were using Hualien as a base to visit Taroko Gorge which became our favourite location in Taiwan. There is a bus ($250/11.05 AUD/8.45 USD) that goes from the train station and a one day pass allows you to hop on and off if you’re wanting to do more than one trail. The only downside to this is the buses aren’t very regular so you need to time your stops well. We chose to do the Shakadang trail which was absolutely beautiful and relatively flat along the river. The views are spectacular and you can walk back to the visitors centre from the start of the trail. If you only have time to visit one thing outside of Taipei this should be it. Taroko Gorge is just stunning. Hualien made a great base for Taroko Gorge and we’d highly recommend it as just that. It’s got quite a nice vibe and there is lots of good food available too. At this point it was time to wrap up Taiwan though and head back to Taipei. The train from Hualien took 3hrs and cost ($340/15.05 AUD/11.55 USD). We were soon back where we started (this time at a new hostel) next to main station (the first hostel was far superior) just as the rain started in. Having had many grand plans for our 6 days in Taipei we ended up spending most of them planning our next leg in Japan due to terrible weather. We booked ourselves on to another walking tour which was excellent and on the only sunny day we walked through the palace grounds which were really pretty but overall we didn’t do much other than eat in Taipei (there is so much good food). Overall we really enjoyed Taiwan. We can now understand why it’s not on the backpacking trail around Asia despite not being very expensive as it doesn’t have the pull of other places. It’s not as beautiful or as full of adventures, it’s a little bit further away and it doesn’t have the street cred of it’s neighbours but if you give it a chance you’ll be rewarded. It’s not the prettiest or the most interesting but the food is fantastic and the people are even better. They’re weird and they’re quirky and frighteningly honest but they will go out of their way to help you. I think you only need to give yourself 10 days to 2 weeks to travel this weird and wonderful island but don’t skip it. LGBT: Taiwan is set to be the first Asian nation to recognise same sex marriage and it will come in to effect no later than May 2019. We found that Taiwan was very accepting of us as a couple. We had no issues checking in to hotels or any negative experiences in Taiwan as a couple. We were even on a walking tour in Taipei where not only did the guide openly discuss the changing attitudes in Taiwan towards the LGBT community but the walking tour even ended up in the gay district. This being said there is still a very traditional omponent to Taiwan and from speaking to Taiwanese friends it can still be difficult to gain acceptance from your family in Taiwan. Budget Time $$$What it actually cost:
24 days = $1526.42 (AUD) Accommodation: $729.63 Food: $396.10 Transport: $238.80 Souvenirs: $66.66 Drinks: $61.97 Entertainment: $21.92 Miscellaneous: $11.35 This worked out at a daily budget of $31.80 a day each Planning and organising Taiwan presented an unusual challenge for both of us. It was a fairly significant break from our norm as for the first time in a long time we were forced to have almost everything planned prior to us even arriving in Taiwan. This was down to a slight oversight in the timing of our flights as we had accidentally booked to be there over the whole of the Chinese New Year period where a huge number of Taiwanese people move around the country to be with their families and then take advantage of the extended holiday break. From a budget perspective this was both a dream and a nightmare, let me explain why! As a result of it being CNY we prebooked all of our accommodation and transport around the country (trains) before we went. The good thing about this was that I could account for all of this prior to the trip meaning that our unknowns in terms of spending in the country were much lower - only food and entertainment really! The bad thing was that being in Taiwan over CNY meant that prices for accommodation had risen astronomically. Riv tried her very best to keep us within the 30% bracket in terms of total spent over the course of the trip on accommodation, however, by the end of the trip it turned out to be just under 50%! Probably our highest ever! That being said, our average cost per night was $30AUD for both of us and the percentage would have been lower but we came in under budget for the trip as a whole. Transport prices do not change but had booked up much further in advance than usual so we had many fewer options. In Taiwan the train and bus systems are both extensive and both options are very very affordable on a backpacker budget. The average cost of a 2-3hr train journey was $10-15AUD. Buses are marginally cheaper but do take a lot longer. Food in Taiwan costs absolutely nothing. You’d be hard pushed to spend more than about $5AUD per person per meal. Obviously it is possible and if you want to go to a nicer restaurant and have beers then spending can be done, but it definitely doesn’t need to be. Eating at night markets, while it is fun in terms of variety and having a local experience can be much more expensive! The average stall snack costs anything from $1-4AUD which seems like great value until you realise you probably want to try about 4/5 things in an evening! Activities in Taiwan are very good value for money. Lots of temples are free to enter and National Park fees are nominal. There are planned tours that can be joined but the majority of tourist attractions around the country can be got to very easily independently much cheaper. Overall, Taiwan is not a particularly expensive country to travel around, provided you’re not trying to do it over a major festival period. What is really lovely about Taiwan and it’s eastern Asian neighbours is how honest they are as a people. It is highly unlikely they will ever try to rip you off and they are much more interested in being fair than they are about making extra money off you! Despite our positive experiences in Palenque we were still feeling a little overwhelmed by Mexico making it feel harder than it probably was. This continued in San Cristobal where we arrived late at night to find our accommodation was shut. We tried to contact them but the number on the website wasn’t accurate and after being told by the person who did answer they would contact the owner but no one showing up we gave up and went in search of another place to stay. We were extremely lucky and stumbled across a lovely old man at Hotel Miramar who kindly opened his door at 11pm to let us in and had a room available for 400 MXP ($27.45 AUD/21.35 USD). Looking back I think San Cristobal would have been one our favorite places had it not been tainted on the first night (They cancelled our booking without our permission after they had left us on the street late at night). This experience coupled with our travel fatigue meant that we didn’t really give San Cristobal a fair chance. We did however do the free walking tour (which was honestly one of the best we’ve ever done) run by Carlos who is an ex-Zapatista with lots of wonderful stories to tell and then made the decision to push on to Oaxaca a day early (427 MXP/$29.25 AUD/22.75 USD on ADO). It’s definitely worth noting that if you are taking ADO buses they are often cheaper the earlier you book them. If you are not travelling on any kind of schedule it can be hard to plan in advance when and where you are going next but as soon as you have decided it’s best to book the bus at a local ticket office or bus station as this is likely to save you money. On departure day our bus wasn’t leaving until late that night so we decided to head to a film about the Zapatista being held at Foro Cultural Kinoki which was incredibly interesting and well worth watching for a better understanding of what is going on in the area. The cinema shows a free social commentary film every night and they come with English subtitles so if that’s your kind of thing this is your kind of place! Despite our positive experiences in Palenque we were still feeling a little overwhelmed by Mexico making it feel harder than it probably was. This continued in San Cristobal where we arrived late at night to find our accommodation was shut. We tried to contact them but the number on the website wasn’t accurate and after being told by the person who did answer they would contact the owner but no one showing up we gave up and went in search of another place to stay. We were extremely lucky and stumbled across a lovely old man at Hotel Miramar who kindly opened his door at 11pm to let us in and had a room available for 400 MXP ($27.45 AUD/21.35 USD). Looking back I think San Cristobal would have been one our favorite places had it not been tainted on the first night (They cancelled our booking without our permission after they had left us on the street late at night). This experience coupled with our travel fatigue meant that we didn’t really give San Cristobal a fair chance. We did however do the free walking tour (which was honestly one of the best we’ve ever done) run by Carlos who is an ex-Zapatista with lots of wonderful stories to tell and then made the decision to push on to Oaxaca a day early (427 MXP/$29.25 AUD/22.75 USD on ADO). It’s definitely worth noting that if you are taking ADO buses they are often cheaper the earlier you book them. If you are not travelling on any kind of schedule it can be hard to plan in advance when and where you are going next but as soon as you have decided it’s best to book the bus at a local ticket office or bus station as this is likely to save you money. On departure day our bus wasn’t leaving until late that night so we decided to head to a film about the Zapatista being held at Foro Cultural Kinoki which was incredibly interesting and well worth watching for a better understanding of what is going on in the area. The cinema shows a free social commentary film every night and they come with English subtitles so if that’s your kind of thing this is your kind of place! Probably due to pushing ourselves a little hard Dani came down with a bug on the night bus to Oaxaca (Our 2nd night bus in 4 days). This meant that when it came to trying to find accommodation we didn’t do much hunting and basically opted for the easiest option. It was more expensive than we had been used to paying (500MXP/$34.30 AUD/26.70 USD) but still reasonable and turned out to be a great decision. Hotel Magda had the combination of comfortable beds, hot showers, clean towels and peace and quiet in a private room and was everything we so desperately needed! Oaxaca is a striking city and great to wander around. After a rest day (read me forcing my wife to stay in bed) we spent the next day wandering and trying to organise a day trip to see Hierve el Agua that are petrified waterfalls outside of Oaxaca City. These day trips all seemed the same and include visits to the Arbol Tree El Tule, a mescal factory, Mitla (ruins), a textiles factory and Heirve el Agua. Some include entrance, some let you pay on the day, some include lunch, some don’t...but they are all pretty much the same with an English speaking guide and transport in a minivan. We found a lovely woman opposite the cathedral whose trip cost (200MXP/$13.70 AUD/10.65 USD). This wasn’t including entrance fees (130MXP/$8.90 AUD/6.90 USD in total but this may change based on bribes and your tour guides unofficial cut) or lunch but seemed like a good deal nonetheless. Although worth noting that you can do Heirves independently, we found both the textiles and mescal factory quite interesting as extras (even bought a rug at the textiles factory because you know...all backpackers should travel with rugs!). If you like mescal there is also a lot of free tasting but we just stuck to the liqueurs. We also took our own lunch but I think it may be worth paying the extra as there is nowhere comfortable for you to hang out during the hour over lunch and also it’s supposed to be great to taste all the moles (sauces) that Oaxaca is famous for. Overall it’s a very reasonable day trip and it seemed worth doing it all together rather than independently to get the few extra stops. We were wrapping up Mexico now, which meant that we were finally heading out of Latin America. Having traveled from Argentina all the way up to Mexico in two chunks, (unfortunately not seeing Paraguay, the Guyana’s, Suriname or Venezuela) it was an odd thought that we would no longer be trying to fumble our way through in Spanish or that we would no longer be in the Americas in a few weeks time, after a year and a half of ducking in and out. Our final stop in Mexico isn’t usually on many people’s itinerary but Dani’s Mum had a friend in Cuernavaca who we were going to stay with. This turned out to be the perfect end to Mexico and Latin America. We finally got the rest we needed after an intense few months through Central America and it turns out that Cuernavaca is pretty beautiful. On our last day before we caught our late night bus to Mexico City Airport we finally went in to central Cuernavaca (after days of lazing in the sunshine by the pool and learning how to make sopes) and visited the Tom Brady House museum. I’m not going to go in to detail about it because I don’t want to ruin the mystery but trust me on this one, if you find yourself in Cuernavaca it’s definitely a must visit. There is a direct bus from Cuernavaca to Mexico City Airport and as we had a very early morning flight to New York we chose to take a late bus (250MXP/$17.15 AUD/13.35 USD) to the airport and then sleep there. Well we’re definitely too old for that these days and it most certainly meant a night without sleep before a long day heading to New York. This being said it made sinking into the cloud like bed in our hotel in Time Square all the more magical once we finally got there! Overall we loved Mexico. It was a lot harder to travel in than we were expecting but as I’ve said above that may have been because we were tired and had just come from Cuba where everything was harder than it should have been. Mexico has so many wonderful things to offer and is a fantastic place to start off a Latin American adventure (we know we’re some of the very few travelers who did it backwards). Random tip - be warned that the food gets significantly less flavorsome from Mexico down so stock up on the wonderful variety of tasty treats while you’re there if you plan is to move south down the continent! Now it's off to Asia for us... LGBT: We found Mexico to be extremely accepting of us as a couple. We didn't face any problems with getting double rooms and found it quite easy to be out. We even learned that the Mayan's believed in fluid sexuality so in Mayan communities there is a lot more acceptance. There is also legal reccognition of our relationship in some states but not all however and it does pay to check as you may need to show discresion in these states. Mexico's LGBT protections vary from state to state so it pays to research a little before traveling. However Mexico has drawn in LGBT travelers for years and it remains a fairly accepting place where there are a lot of tourists. Budget Time $$$So, Mexico! Before we entered Mexico we had heard the full range of things regarding the cost of travel in and around this fairly well trodden country. We knew everything from luxury travel right down to super basic backpacker style was available but we were unsure upon entering how easy it was going to be to navigate our way around such a broad spectrum of possibilities. It turned out that getting what you wanted throughout Mexico was super easy and it’s very much a country where you get what you pay for.
Our greatest expenses while in Mexico were transport and accommodation. Transport is expensive because Mexico is a big country and unless you are willing to take multiple forms of local transport and turn an 8-10hr journey into a multiple day adventure then you have little choice but to use the long distance bus companies which charge for convenience! As I’ve said in the main blog, with companies like ADO, the further in advance you book the cheaper the fares. Advanced planning obviously isn’t always possible but when you can it’s a good money saving tip. Accommodation doesn’t have to be as expensive as we made it. There are major budget options in every touristed location around the country. While we were in Mexico we opted to have a couple of mid-range splash outs as these were still comparatively cheap and offered the comforts of aircon and en suite bathrooms that we just felt we needed at the time. Activities and food are not expensive in Mexico. Tourist attraction entrance prices are rarely more than a couple of dollars and a good feed, either in a basic restaurant or from street food vendors is unlikely to cost more than $3-5 per person. Local places can be found around the country serving Mexican staples like burritos, tacos and quesadillas and these are always freshly prepared, super tasty and great value for money! In terms of infrastructure, Mexico is incredibly well equipped. This means that accessing all the basics of travel requirement like transport, accommodation, food, excursions etc is generally really easy. It pays to shop around as the sheer amount of options for all of these things means there is often some bargaining to be done, especially in shoulder or quiet season and also if you plan to stay somewhere for a while or do multiple trips/have a larger group. Like I said, this is definitely a country where you get what you pay for though, so that’s worth keeping mind. Finally, Mexicans generally aren’t shy of having a go at getting a bit more out of you than they should, so try to be a bit savvy and have an idea of what something should cost/what you are willing to pay before you enter any kind of negotiation. It’s not uncommon to hear of backpackers being ‘gringoed’. Sometimes this is almost unavoidable but most of the time some educated reasonable discussion will result in a fairer price being able to be settled on! What it really cost: $1365.51 AUD Transport: $386.52 Accomodation: $355.97 Food: $253.26 Souvenirs: $175.24 Entertainment: $118.24 Drinks: $57.57 Miscellaneous: $18.04 This is a daily budget of $37.93 AUD per person per day. |
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