141. I Spent $6,500 on a Trip to Mexico: Vacation Budget Reality

I am breaking down the real cost of a last minute family vacation to Mérida, Mexico, including flights, an Airbnb, excursions, food, souvenirs, airport transportation, and pet sitting. I also share the financial tradeoffs of celebrating a milestone birthday while juggling rental property expenses and other debt.
If you are planning a Mexico trip and want a realistic look at what can get expensive fast, especially when plans change and you book close to departure.

Key topics
I share a  rough, honest vacation budget after overspending on my 40th birthday trip.
The biggest expenses were flights, the Airbnb, and an unexpected extra night after a flight delay.
I also cover how much an excursion cost that included Chichen Itza, a cenote, a meal with a Mayan family, and a stop in Izamal, plus extra entrance costs and food.
Transportation lesson from the trip: taxis from the airport were far more expensive than Ubers, and airport pickup rules can be confusing.

00:00 — Overspending on vacation
01:57 — Turning 40 and choosing Mérida
03:20 — Family trip and extra day cost
04:35 — Flight costs and last-minute booking
06:02 — Hotel cancellation and Airbnb switch
07:28 — Airbnb review and heat in Mexico
08:52 — Chichen Itza excursion breakdown
10:26 — Uber vs airport taxi lesson
12:17 — Entrance fees and extra excursion costs
13:55 — Food and rooftop restaurant spending
15:23 — Souvenirs and artisan market finds
18:17 — Why handmade goods cost more
21:40 — Total trip cost estimate
22:55 — Thinking about buying property in Mexico
24:22 — Flight issue from passport name mismatch
26:32 — Missing the flight and extra hotel night
27:50 — Pet sitting and hidden vacation costs
28:47 — Final budgeting lessons

Transcript

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Violeta 0:00

Amigas, me pasé. Like, I overdid it on my spending when I went on vacation. And I want to just come on here and do a quick little episode and share like what I spent on vacation. It's gonna be rough numbers because I didn't really go in to figure out how much I spent on food because then I have to like, you know, go back and look at the pistols, convert them to dollars and all that. But I want to share with you like everything that went into my vacation. Uh, so that way if you are planning to do a vacation, you kind of get an idea of what to expect and what to budget. Now, mind you, like my budget went out the window here. I was like, you know what, I'll let future Violetta worry about it. Vacation Violetta, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe. And it's not uh a huge deal. It's just kind of like now I gotta suffer the consequences. Now I gotta, you know, be more mindful of what I'm spending this next month and a half because I have to cover down the extra cost. And that is because I'm also on top of that for full transparency, I'm also still owing money from my the updates to the rental property that I just purchased. Now, mind you, that's kind of getting paid for by the rents of the property, but it's on my credit cards and stuff like that. So, on top of that, I put the vacation stuff on the credit card as well. So, like it just is a lot of debt. But I want to come out here and share it with you. And just a quick little background a few weeks ago, my birthday was July 22nd, and I turned 40. And I originally no iba a ser nada, like I was like, you know what, like tenemos muchos expenses. We were working on the the rental property. I had some issues with my other properties out of state, and I'm taking them over, so there's kind of some some expenses there and transferring and all of that. And I wasn't like, you know what, maybe we'll just do something, maybe a weekend getaway somewhere. But I was like, no, sounds good. I'm turning 40. Like, I need to do something. I need to do something memorable, like I deserve it. Like, you know, I'm turning 40, and I really wanted to take my family with me. So we went to Mérida, Mexico. It was my mom, my sister, then my husband, my stepson, and me and my daughter. And we stayed about it ended up being seven days or eight days, but because we had an extra day, so that meant extra cost that I didn't uh plan for, but it is what it is. So I'm not gonna feel guilty about you know overspending on my vacation, but that is because I know I'm capable of recovering pretty quickly, right? So let's go ahead and start talking about like how much I ended up spending on this vacation. So off the bat, I had to pay for the flights, right? Now each one ended up being $733 for everybody. Now, my mom and my sister paid for their own flights, and I use points for my flight, so really only had to buy three tickets. So that came out to about $2,200. I also had originally, you know, booked a hotel, and then I ended up canceling it, and even though I it was it was so weird, and because I I booked it through a third party, they charged me to freaking cancel it. So no, don't ever book through third party because wow, what a pain to cancel it, even though I had a significant time before the actual trip. But uh, the reason I had to cancel it is because I had convinced my mom and my sister to go. So then I decided to just you know book an Airbnb, and I decided to, you know what, like I'm gonna get a nice Airbnb Aikasi, like local, a little bit central. So that of course came with the price, which ended up being like 1035 in total for the the whole days. Now, mind you, I did get delayed and I had to pay an extra day, so that was an additional $3.25 for that extra night. If you want to see the Airbnb, go go check out the YouTube. And like it was like staying in a novela, like I was living my novella life in this Airbnb, like La Casa estaba bien bonita, like being very, very, very like you know, hacienda vibes, and just it was so it was so beautiful. Now, the downside is with Mexico, all of it is mini split, but I didn't actually have a hard time once it was whenever we first got there, but once you you got the mini split going, and then she had some fans to kind of do like a cross breeze thing, and that worked perfect, and we didn't have no problems with the heat. Now, mind you, we went during the hottest one of the hottest times. Of course, August is the hotter ones, but we weren't in July, end of July, and let me tell you, it was hot. So overall, we didn't have trouble with that, but I enjoyed that one, and I would go back to it again if I whenever I go back to Medida. Now, the other thing I did do an excursion, and I think uh the total for us I paid for my parents, yeah, my sister, I just booked everything. My daughter was free, and I think it was like a total of five hundred dollars for uh for everybody, and we did an excursion and it took chichen itza, we went to a cenote, and then we ate with uh you know a Mayan family in that area, and we went to Isamal, and it was it was just a fun day. It was a long day, but it was such a fun day. The Ubers were like pretty cheap, like they were like always like $2 or $3. The Ubers are are pretty safe. I never had any issue, I never had any like craziness. The only craziness that I had was with a taxi from the airport. Speaking of, uh I'll come back to that because I forgot about the taxi from the airport uh to the Airbnb because that that was expensive. Um but the Ubers won't pick you up at the airport because the taxis kind of have like first dibs, and they're not so Ubers can drop you off, but they cannot pick you up. And I didn't know that, so when I booked an Uber, it turned out I had to walk off the airport. Luckily, the airport's small, so it's not like a big deal. It's just like, you know, walking up like two blocks. And uh, but that was the only time that I was kind of like iffy, and then it turned out it was just kind of like a taxi, just making sure that our Uber didn't pick us up inside the airport boundary because I think he cave uh he was gonna snitch, and so that was the only incident that was any type of craziness the whole time that we were in Merida. And when we got there, because it was so late and we didn't I wasn't sure about Ubers yet or anything like that. I just we just got a taxi and that was like it was it was expensive. I think it was like a hundred dollars, and that was a lot because it was only like a 15 maybe 14 minute drive, and so I was like, oh, never again. The bus is there, the transport public transportation picks you up from there as well. You could take that if that's not a big deal for you. That's the cheap way too. But the tech the taxis, like don't get don't get fooled by them because they're they're so expensive. So that was that. Then the other thing uh with the excursion, uh, I mentioned that I paid $500, but then you also had to pay your entrance, so it didn't include the entrance fee. And I think that came for us three was like $120, I think it was, because as foreigners you get charged way more. If you have if you're a dual citizen, uh you have your Mexican passport or anything uh showing that you're Mexican citizen or resident, then you get like half of that. The other thing, we bought some hats, and then of course the food that was there, that was another probably like 30, let's say 50 bucks, because it was like my my stepson, myself, my my daughter, and my husband, and we needed snacks and all that stuff. Although the uh the the tour included like a little snack, a little sandwich and stuff, so that was good because that tied us over for a little bit, and then we also had to pay the the Mayan family that we ate, so that was like 300 pesos a person, so that was like another 60 roughly, and then of course, just souvenirs. This is where I kind of like went overboard with a little bit of the spending. I spent way too much on souvenirs let's see. I bought myself like some earrings and some some some other knickknacks here, and I want to do like a little separate kind of like haul, and so I'll post that on YouTube if you want to check it out. I'll I'll post it a few days after this goes live. That way it's not so like you know on top of each other videos uh for YouTube. But if you want to check out kind of like what I bought and how much that cost, but if you ever find yourself going to these types of areas like Merida, like try to find the local ones because one of the things that I uh one of the locals was telling me we were at this uh restaurant, and the the waiter was telling me, like, you know, as you're walking by here, like feel the fabric and and stuff like that, because the problem is that a lot of foreigners are coming over there and they're starting businesses like for souvenirs and everything, and they're just China-made products. And so he actually per ended up personally walking us to the market, which was just around the corner, maybe a block away, and it's a artisan market, and so I bought a few things now. Mind you, it is going to be pricier. So if you do go to these things with the intentions of getting some really true artisan crafts, uh just know that si va costar, but you know what, you're supporting the Mayan community, like they are are you know combating China products and cheap products from like you know, other places, and you know, they're trying to keep their traditions and culture alive. So I if I go back, I'm just now going to know that to take more spending money for that because I felt I bought a few things and it it was a little bit more than what I thought, you know, because a lot of people think like oh Mexico and then cheat cheat at this and that or whatever, but you know what? They deserve to get paid because let me tell you, the quality and all of that is beautiful. They created some beautiful things. I wasn't able to like video, they don't let you take pictures or record, which I totally understand because that's how you know, then somebody goes steals their their design and then go to go create a cheap version of it, and then you know, so they're protecting their uh their artistry, right? I bought a few things and the total was six hundred dollars, and then I bought a few souvenirs at Chitanitsa, and then that was actually, if I remember, I think that was like sixty dollars for just myself, because then my husband and my stepson they bought some other stuff as well, and I want to say they spent a hundred dollars together, so uh yeah, so I kind of went overboard. So I want to say in total, it was probably five to seven thousand because I'm not including some of like the the food. I bought some food at the excursion and some other things. Oh, I had to pay for my entrance there as well for the boat ride. That was another fun excursion. I enjoyed my time in Merida and I was snooping around and uh looking at things because you know, like as a real estate investor, I'm always just looking and uh we'll see what happens. But I definitely am on the path to wanting to buy a property in Mexico. I'm probably going to get one in Monterrey because that's where I'm from. Plus, my parents go over there for their medical stuff, so I want to have somewhere for us to stay. And I want to, again, I want to do a hybrid situation. If you don't know that about me, I want to create a life where I could live over here. Uh, my goal is that I'll live over here during like the gardening season, like the spring and midsummer, and then maybe go over there whenever I don't have to worry about you know maintaining my my homestead or anything like that. And just live a few months because I want my daughter to grow up with with the culture with Spanish and learn Spanish, be yeah, immersed in it. So yeah, I I think I've rambled enough. What are your thoughts? Is it more than you expected, less than you expected? Um, I think the big ones, of course, was the flights. The next one was the Airbnb. Uh, again, I had to um stay an extra night. I submitted a claim because I with my with my amex, I'm supposed to have like travel insurance or whatever. And I had an issue where our flights got canceled, which okay, I'll I'll put that on here in case for people that do not know that if you happen to travel like with your parents or whatever, and they have like a Mexican passport. For my mom, she ended up having her uh her maiden name in her Mexican passport. So then when I booked the flights, because I didn't realize this, I put her married name, and so then when we were going to fly out, we realized this, and you know, there was an issue, but they fixed it and they said it was going to be okay on the way back. We were supposed to leave uh Thursday, and we called uh the day prior to make sure that everything was good. They said, Yeah, everything looks good here. The only thing is you just gotta check in in person because it wasn't letting us do check-in online, should have been a red flag right there. So then the next day we went to go check in and everything like that, and come to find out like there was a hiccup, we couldn't uh check in, and then because for some reason, like when they fixed it, it erased the ticket, which is weird because it was in the system, so I don't I don't know what happened with the system, but at the end of the day, like we couldn't even be like, Well, some of us go, because you know, like I could have stayed with my mom and and get it fixed, but then they could have gone ahead of time and you know, still catch the flights, but it wouldn't let nobody do it. And then they were trying to like separate them, but then it took so long that our flight our flight left without us, right? So then we missed our flight, and they only fly out once a day to to Mexico City and then uh back to to San Antonio. So we had to wait till the next day, so then yeah, los regresamos back to the Airbnb, which ended up costing us more money because matter of fact, that was the day where I found the artisan shop and spent the extra $600. So I mean costó más, me costó más dinero. But you know what? I'm not gonna be worried about it. A veces, you know, like that's what the money is for, is for you to enjoy life. My dad always tells me, like, you know, work hard for your money and and all that, and make sure you take care of your bills and savings and all that. But don't forget that the money is there for you to enjoy, to live life, and you know, make memories. And although I spent way more than I thought I would be spending, and then now I have to kind of like recover, the memories are staying with me. I got to spend my 40th birthday. I wish my dad would have would have gone, but he didn't want to leave the dog and uh he couldn't stay for like a whole week like we did. And matter of fact, I uh another side note that I didn't include in this vacation, but because it might or might not apply, but it just came into my head that I didn't include it. I also had to pay $800 for pet sitting and plant sitting, which was kind of shared with my sister because she has two cats, so she she chipped in a little bit, and then I have my two pups that uh weren't too potty trained yet, and then it's in the middle of the summer, so they can't be left alone outside too long. So I had to pay somebody to come and stay at the house, and then also keep my trees alive because uh they're not established yet, and you know, I don't want to lose those trees. So that was another $800 that I had to pay. So on top of that, so don't forget you gotta think about the flights, of course, easy one, your where you're staying, the hotels, the food, any excursions, souvenirs and also any pet sitting that you that you may have, and you know, transportation around and things to do, eat food, of course. Uh so next time I know I will have a better budget and track my funds better. Um, but you know what? I don't regret not one thing, you know. It is what it is. I had fun. But yeah, that's the cheese mail on my vacation. And don't forget, I will release the other uh YouTube. It's not gonna be on the podcast because obviously it's going to be a haul, so uh that's not gonna work as a podcast episode, it's just gonna be on YouTube video, and you could go be uh the you know, go see what all I bought and the beautiful things I bought. So um, other than that, I will see you in the next episode. Bye.