Trip motivation: Swimming in a cenote
Carter asked for a trip to Mexico to swim in a cenote (an underground lake). I knew they were in the Yucatan peninsula inland from the coast but didn’t know a lot more and began researching where and how to visit!
Neither Ben nor I had been to Mexico before. In Mexico, I’m most familiar with Cancun and have many friends that have visited this area. Cancun was also on my traveling wish list due to the numerous all-inclusive hotels like the one we stayed at in Jamaica. However, I didn’t want to pay for a pricey all-inclusive stay just to travel all day to cenotes and ruins, so I looked for cheaper hotels closer to our desired activities. I looked at an award map of Hyatt hotels (our favorite hotel brand) and saw that there were inexpensive hotels in the city of Merida. I had never heard of this city, but the more I learned through Googling, the more I found this city would be the perfect one to base our trip out of. It is on the northern coast of Yucatan, only an hour drive from cenotes and ruins such as Chichen Itza, and Uxmal. After a few days in Merida, we continued on to the second half of our trip in the Cancun area by hiring a driver, spent a few days at an all-inclusive hotel and then flew home. Phew!
Flight: BNA to MID
Getting There: Nashville (BNA) to Houston (IAH) to Merida (MID)
Fri 8:55a-11:15/11:56a-2:05p (5h 10m)
Coming Back: Part 2 of our trip was in Cancun and we flew back from there
United Flights to Merida
After searching Google flights, we found that both United and American offered reasonably timed 1-stop flights to Merida through Houston (United) or Miami (American). We purchased one-way flights on United for $163 per person. (We flew back through Cancun) This was a better deal than using United miles for this trip (12.5k). If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can use 10-13k points per person through the travel portal. At this point in time, we still liked using the airlines directly as much as possible for ease of flight changes and cancellation options.
Airport Lounges and Other Perks
When traveling with layovers or to new cities, we always check the website of the airport and the priority pass lounge website prior to the trip (link here). The Chase Sapphire Reserve card (in addition to others) comes with Priority Pass access which gives you a card that gets you access to lounges at different airports. Often it is more common internationally. There is a minute suites currently at BNA. Another perk we got from several credit cards is Global entry/PreCheck. PreCheck is a program that offers faster TSA lines at airports. There are separate lines for PreCheck travelers, and you don’t have to remove shoes, laptops, liquids, etc. It is amazing and has saved us so much time and makes it SO much easier to travel with kids. For more on this benefit and how to use a credit card to receive it for free, see here. On the way back, we used our global entry benefit to skip the US immigration lines.
Flight Details and Immigration
The flights themselves were straightforward. Carter has been loving the Magic Treehouse books and Ellie loves activities in the Magic Ink and small play pack coloring books (Amazon links). We have one iPad that the family shares and we use this case to protect it. On the plane, these are our favorite masks for adults and kids from Amazon. For more on our favorite activities and tips for flying, see our post here. On the second flight, we filled out immigration and customs forms on the plane and when we arrived in Merida, we waited in a reasonably short line to get our passports stamped and go through customs. (From landing to leaving the airport took us about 45 minutes.) Be sure and keep your immigration paperwork as you’ll need those when you leave Mexico.
Other Logistics for International Travel
Passport: Before you fly internationally, check those expiration dates on your passports! I had to get my renewed and it was a a little nerve-wracking worrying if it would arrive in time. Note that some countries require your passport to valid for 3-6 months after your flight but Mexico does not.
Phone/Internet We have AT&T and were able to use phone/text/data at no cost while in Mexico. We did have to turn on data roaming in settings. Reception was spotty in some areas outside the city.
Language: We worked with the kids to know basic greetings and that’s about it. Ben knew a little more Spanish from his high school classes. We did our best to be polite and worked with the kids to say, “Hello good morning, Excuse me. Do you speak English?” in Spanish first instead of just speaking English to people. Most of the people we interacted with at the airport, hotel and restaurants spoke very good English. We made a stop at a Walmart walking distance from the hotel and the staff did not speak English. What we have found is very helpful from our other international travels is the Google translate app. You can type in English and show the Spanish translation or speak it.
Currency Exchange The exchange rate was approximately 20 pesos for an American dollar. There was even a 20 pesos section at Walmart. Upon arrival, we stopped at a bank across our hotel and used our bank debit card to pull out the equivalent of $100 for some of the Ruin sites, market shopping and tips. There was a small $7 fee.
Covid Restrictions: We were surprised that Mexico had a mask restriction for both indoors and outdoors. The kids are well accustomed to their Disney masks, but if yours are not, maybe wait to travel to countries that are requiring them. While we appreciate the indoor mandate and would have masked indoors regardless, outdoors was hot and difficult. Just something to keep in mind if you’re visiting soon.
Airport to Downtown Merida
We relied on taxis during our stay in Mexico. At the airport, after customs, we stopped at a company called ADO where we paid at the desk and received a receipt that we took outside to a driver who took us to the hotel. It cost $12 (240 Mexican pesos) to go to our hotel about a 20 minute drive away. AirBnbs and hotels closer to the downtown area will be more like 10 minutes from the airport.
