Mexico: Insider Secrets and Travel Tips for Your Next Trip

00:00:00.000 | If you've been thinking about planning the perfect getaway to Mexico,

00:00:03.200 | or maybe you haven't but now you're intrigued,

00:00:05.400 | you're going to love this video because we've got Zach Rabinor,

00:00:08.320 | founder of Journey Mexico,

00:00:09.920 | who's dedicated his career to curating

00:00:12.320 | unforgettable experiences in one of

00:00:14.400 | the most mesmerizing destinations in the world.

00:00:16.860 | We'll cover all the main places you already know,

00:00:19.760 | as well as places you didn't even know you wanted to go.

00:00:22.680 | The best times to travel,

00:00:24.360 | ways to get around the country,

00:00:25.760 | some hidden gems, must-try eats, and so much more.

00:00:29.320 | Then after, I'll cover some tips and

00:00:31.120 | tricks for getting the best deals on your trip.

00:00:33.520 | If you're convinced to visit Mexico by the end of this episode,

00:00:36.160 | please click that thumbs up and hit "Subscribe" to help the algorithm.

00:00:39.640 | All right, let's get into it.

00:00:41.280 | [MUSIC]

00:00:47.200 | Zach, thank you so much for joining us.

00:00:49.320 | It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

00:00:51.480 | I think Mexico is a very different travel destination

00:00:55.200 | than all the ones we've done before,

00:00:57.400 | which are all have you cross an ocean.

00:01:00.480 | I was thinking about how I would

00:01:03.000 | describe an itinerary to a foreign country.

00:01:06.720 | Often it's thinking, "Oh,

00:01:08.520 | I'm going to go to this place for

00:01:10.240 | two weeks and try to fit the whole country in."

00:01:12.460 | Mexico feels so close to home for people living in the US and

00:01:16.040 | Canada that you might approach it differently.

00:01:19.320 | I think I'll just start by kicking off.

00:01:21.440 | How do you think people should be thinking about

00:01:23.160 | Mexico as a travel destination,

00:01:25.360 | given that we might all have a lot of different preconceived notions?

00:01:28.720 | Sure. Well, you hit it on the head.

00:01:31.120 | We see a real dichotomy in the way that people travel through Mexico.

00:01:36.960 | The longer haul origin markets.

00:01:39.960 | If you're coming from the UK or Europe or further afield,

00:01:44.560 | you'd come for at least two weeks and often three or four weeks,

00:01:47.920 | and you'd treat it as a once-in-a-lifetime trip.

00:01:50.960 | You'd travel all over.

00:01:52.120 | You'd go from north to south.

00:01:53.320 | You'd visit the cultural centers, the beaches,

00:01:55.760 | and all the diversity that Mexico has,

00:01:57.960 | or at least as much of it as you can fit in in the time you have.

00:02:01.020 | For North Americans and Mexicans as well,

00:02:04.920 | Mexico is a repeat destination.

00:02:07.640 | It's really close.

00:02:08.960 | It's a really unique destination in that it's close to home,

00:02:12.840 | it's familiar, but it's exotic.

00:02:15.360 | You've got a different language,

00:02:16.720 | you've got different customs,

00:02:17.920 | you've got different cultures, different history,

00:02:20.120 | especially for North Americans.

00:02:22.920 | Yes, you often would travel for a long weekend or a week,

00:02:28.480 | a week max, and you would come back.

00:02:31.680 | Perhaps one type of trip would be sun and sand,

00:02:35.080 | the beach, get out of the cold.

00:02:36.720 | The winters are long in North America.

00:02:38.800 | We do see incredible correlations of spikes in bookings.

00:02:43.640 | When those first cold fronts come and the first snowfalls come,

00:02:47.440 | and all of a sudden, boom, we see bookings spike.

00:02:51.060 | But then there's also the cultural side of Mexico.

00:02:53.960 | Mexico City has been so popular recently,

00:02:56.760 | San Miguel de Allende, Oaxaca,

00:02:59.000 | the Yucatan Peninsula, Merida, there's a lot.

00:03:02.880 | I think there's two decidedly different ways to travel in

00:03:06.680 | Mexico for the closer to

00:03:08.680 | home trips in North Americans and Mexicans as well,

00:03:11.440 | which would be either your typical sun and sand type of trip,

00:03:14.820 | or your more cultural trip.

00:03:17.120 | Yes, Mexico certainly is

00:03:18.600 | a repeat destination that people come back to over and over again.

00:03:22.280 | You mentioned a lot of places.

00:03:24.340 | Is there a way, you just broke it up pretty easily into two.

00:03:27.840 | How do you think within there about even trying to process all of these options?

00:03:33.600 | I imagine someone on the East Coast is probably like,

00:03:35.800 | well, I've probably been to Cancun,

00:03:38.220 | and someone on the West Coast is like,

00:03:39.240 | I've been to Cabo and maybe been to Mexico City or Puerto Vallarta.

00:03:42.480 | But there's so much more.

00:03:45.200 | How do you start to break it down for someone who's like,

00:03:47.720 | I have a week, I want to think about it. What should I do?

00:03:50.720 | Sure. Well, absolutely.

00:03:52.400 | People are very interested,

00:03:53.640 | especially when it's a short haul trip.

00:03:55.500 | They want direct flights.

00:03:57.040 | You start looking at flight access and you ask people to really try.

00:04:01.360 | Don't tell me where you want to go.

00:04:02.640 | Tell me what you envision.

00:04:04.440 | What do you want to do?

00:04:05.520 | What hat do you have on?

00:04:06.760 | Do you have your beach lounging hat and escape the cold hat?

00:04:10.320 | Do you have your culinary hat on?

00:04:12.720 | Do you have your history and culture and art hat on?

00:04:16.560 | Really listen to someone about what it is they want to do,

00:04:19.880 | and then try to direct them towards or at least explain

00:04:23.040 | the different options and what there is to do,

00:04:26.240 | and what type of experiences there are in different destinations.

00:04:29.820 | Are there a few places,

00:04:31.340 | you mentioned the big list, but it stand out as,

00:04:34.360 | in your mind, you're like, I don't know why these places don't get the visits,

00:04:38.760 | the credit that some of these other more popular places get,

00:04:42.440 | but they probably should.

00:04:43.720 | My mission with Journey Mexico was to share the beyond the beach destinations.

00:04:50.220 | It's interesting, through the pandemic,

00:04:52.600 | we've seen a lot more focus on a lot of the more cultural,

00:04:55.440 | more off the beaten path,

00:04:57.120 | more remote destinations.

00:04:58.800 | But I always wondered why people had never been to Mexico City,

00:05:02.380 | or people had never been to Oaxaca,

00:05:04.080 | people hadn't been to Chiapas or the Yucatan Peninsula,

00:05:07.440 | like Merida, the Haciendas, Campeche.

00:05:09.800 | These are all incredibly culturally historically rich destinations

00:05:15.400 | that people often hadn't heard about.

00:05:18.960 | During the pandemic, when people couldn't go and get their Italy fix,

00:05:24.360 | or their safari fix,

00:05:25.880 | or their Far East fix,

00:05:27.720 | or Middle East, or these more exotic destinations,

00:05:30.560 | people really started exploring Mexico in ways they hadn't before.

00:05:34.760 | That was a great silver lining,

00:05:37.680 | if you will, of the pandemic,

00:05:38.920 | is that Mexico saw a lot of people in destinations that they hadn't seen before.

00:05:44.800 | What is it about Mexico?

00:05:46.120 | I mean, you started an entire company dedicated to the country.

00:05:49.200 | What about Mexico do you think is so special?

00:05:52.560 | I had worked as a tour leader and a guide.

00:05:56.760 | This was on the back of just exploring,

00:06:00.640 | and backpacking, and being a mountaineer, and a surfer.

00:06:04.520 | As I led people through these destinations,

00:06:08.200 | I was fascinated and I covered all of Latin America.

00:06:12.400 | I was leading tours to Mexico, Central America, South America.

00:06:17.880 | When in particular, Mexico blew me away,

00:06:21.480 | because I too had the stereotypes,

00:06:23.320 | and had traveled to Club Med as a child with my family.

00:06:27.320 | All of a sudden, we were in these incredible UNESCO World Heritage Cities.

00:06:31.600 | The architecture, the food,

00:06:33.480 | the culture, the history, the archeological sites,

00:06:35.760 | the people, it really blew me away.

00:06:38.480 | That's where the light bulb went off,

00:06:40.360 | and I said, "This is an untapped resource.

00:06:43.360 | This is a treasure." That was the inspiration.

00:06:46.360 | I'm a treasure that for the majority of people listening to

00:06:50.320 | this show is much cheaper and

00:06:52.760 | easier to get to than a lot of other places in the world.

00:06:56.240 | You make such a good point there,

00:06:58.120 | and that's so interesting that I said it before,

00:07:01.960 | it's close enough and familiar enough,

00:07:03.920 | but exotic enough and far away enough.

00:07:06.480 | That's right. It's got so many compelling reasons to visit,

00:07:11.960 | not the least of which is the proximity, the value.

00:07:16.400 | When I say value, I'm not saying it's a cheap destination.

00:07:19.320 | Everyone who's been to Mexico recently,

00:07:21.720 | especially will attest to the fact that it's not the cheapest destination,

00:07:25.520 | although the whole world seems to be a little wacky in terms of prices these days.

00:07:29.840 | But the service you get,

00:07:32.840 | apples to apples, pound for pound Mexico,

00:07:36.120 | especially when you look at the competitive set in sun and sand terms.

00:07:40.560 | Often people are considering a beach holiday over Christmas or New Year's to,

00:07:44.480 | well, I'm either going to Hawaii,

00:07:46.480 | Mexico, or the Caribbean.

00:07:48.040 | That's the competitive set.

00:07:50.160 | Not only the value you get in terms of the quality of the hotel or the experiences,

00:07:56.660 | but the service.

00:07:58.080 | I think that's where really the difference is stark,

00:08:01.200 | is Mexico is such a hospitable country.

00:08:04.600 | The culture is so hospitable.

00:08:06.600 | Mexican culture is so warm.

00:08:09.600 | It takes two seconds before someone's inviting you into their home,

00:08:12.920 | inviting you for a drink, a meal.

00:08:15.200 | A very common expression is,

00:08:17.520 | "Estás en tu casa.

00:08:18.920 | Mi casa es tu casa.

00:08:20.240 | My house is your house."

00:08:22.580 | I think that that's where it just really goes off the chart in terms of value.

00:08:27.660 | You're getting better product,

00:08:29.220 | you're getting more for your money,

00:08:31.700 | and you're getting far superior service than you would get in almost anywhere in the world.

00:08:36.220 | For someone who just heard that expression,

00:08:39.380 | the idea of getting invited to someone's home,

00:08:42.460 | to me that seems a little foreign,

00:08:44.500 | having been focused most of my trips to Mexico,

00:08:48.060 | maybe more like your childhood where it's Cabo or Cancun at a resort with family.

00:08:54.880 | Is that something that you think people visiting might actually

00:08:58.600 | experience if they just got off that standard track?

00:09:02.160 | Because it feels a little foreign to think about it.

00:09:04.680 | Absolutely. That's, again,

00:09:07.680 | part of our mission is I can't encourage people enough to get out of the hotel,

00:09:12.600 | to go and visit archaeological sites,

00:09:15.360 | to visit local people,

00:09:17.180 | to interact with the locals.

00:09:19.600 | Even if that means having a local guide or it's not always that easy,

00:09:23.740 | especially if you're not fluent in Spanish or you don't

00:09:25.940 | have someone who you know or friends in the country.

00:09:30.340 | But that said, I think, yes,

00:09:33.300 | getting out of the hotel, opening your eyes,

00:09:35.300 | even speaking to the taxi drivers or your transfer driver or the people in a store,

00:09:41.060 | you'll really find an incredible warmth and you'll find invitations do flow freely.

00:09:47.460 | Do you think Spanish becomes more necessary the further away you get?

00:09:53.600 | How much of the country's ability to speak English is focused just

00:09:58.400 | on hospitality and major tourist destinations?

00:10:03.480 | Sure. Tourism is a tremendous and important revenue generator for Mexico.

00:10:09.280 | Obviously, that's another part, by the way,

00:10:12.240 | of the services. Mexico has had

00:10:13.600 | real professional level tourism and travel for 70, 80 years now.

00:10:19.760 | It's well ahead of a lot of Latin America in terms of

00:10:23.320 | the development and the maturity of its tourism market.

00:10:26.600 | You really do have incredible human infrastructure.

00:10:30.480 | The people are well-trained, they're professional.

00:10:33.000 | They're second, third, fourth generation hospitality professionals.

00:10:37.880 | You will find a lot of English.

00:10:39.040 | However, you get off the beaten path and I mean,

00:10:41.680 | even in Cancun or Los Cabos or Puerto Vallarta,

00:10:45.400 | you step into a convenience store and the clerks are not speaking English.

00:10:51.400 | Spanish is an incredibly valuable tool.

00:10:54.680 | I can't stress enough,

00:10:56.160 | whether it's Mexico or wherever you may travel,

00:10:58.720 | how valuable and how important it can be to know even just a few words.

00:11:04.040 | Of course, more is better.

00:11:05.400 | But yeah, certainly for me,

00:11:08.400 | what led me into the tourism field was my travels and then my fascination with

00:11:13.800 | the culture and then a real focus and a real passion for learning Spanish language.

00:11:20.320 | I ended up getting a master's degree in international affairs and being able to

00:11:24.720 | penetrate and get into the culture and be able to

00:11:28.400 | converse and interact with people in their own language.

00:11:31.600 | That's a whole nother level of interchange and of sharing that you can do.

00:11:36.640 | Yeah. For anyone who didn't check out,

00:11:38.520 | we did an episode recently with Benny Lewis who runs Fluent in

00:11:41.760 | three months and we talked a ton about both becoming fluent,

00:11:46.000 | but also just like crash-coursing yourself in

00:11:48.320 | a language in a short period of time and effective ways to do that.

00:11:51.600 | If someone listening is thinking,

00:11:52.920 | "Gosh, I took Spanish in school.

00:11:54.560 | I need to brush up."

00:11:55.800 | There's some good tips in that episode to go back and check out.

00:11:58.880 | I want to jump into a few regions, but before that,

00:12:01.640 | talk generally about getting around.

00:12:03.800 | You mentioned people target places with direct flights.

00:12:07.040 | What's it like to actually get around outside of

00:12:10.440 | the main hubs in Mexico when it comes to transportation?

00:12:14.840 | There's all kinds of transportation to the most remote places in Mexico,

00:12:19.440 | from very modern buses.

00:12:22.280 | Of course, you've got taxis.

00:12:24.200 | You've got even some trains like in the Copper Canyon and some other areas.

00:12:29.040 | But yeah, you've got internal flights that you

00:12:32.840 | can hub and spoke at a Mexico City or Guadalajara or Monterrey.

00:12:37.000 | But all kinds of very good and constant transportation.

00:12:43.080 | Very frequent running, regularly running.

00:12:46.480 | You've got ferries, you've got boats,

00:12:49.120 | you've got all kinds of stuff.

00:12:50.160 | Remember, the large majority of the population does not have a car.

00:12:55.000 | They are using public transportation.

00:12:57.960 | Then you can rent vehicles,

00:13:01.760 | you can contract vehicles.

00:13:04.600 | Our company organizes transportation, of course,

00:13:07.640 | but there's loads of ways to use public transportation,

00:13:10.960 | and it's very effective, efficient, and cheap.

00:13:15.720 | When it comes to timing throughout the year,

00:13:18.880 | are there times to avoid or times to you think Mexico really shines?

00:13:22.760 | I know Caribbean has rainy season.

00:13:26.800 | How would you tell someone to think about when to plan a trip?

00:13:29.440 | I imagine there will be people that end this episode and think,

00:13:32.560 | I've always thought of Mexico in one way,

00:13:34.480 | I now think of it in a new way,

00:13:35.840 | and I'm ready to go experience that.

00:13:37.680 | When should they be thinking about it?

00:13:39.360 | Yeah. I think anybody who has

00:13:40.920 | true flexibility and freedom with when they travel,

00:13:44.000 | should target non-peak periods.

00:13:46.120 | I mean, that's obvious, right?

00:13:52.920 | That's a no-brainer if you can.

00:13:55.920 | The peak periods are going to be the most crowded,

00:13:58.560 | they're going to be the most expensive,

00:14:00.440 | they're going to be a hassle in general.

00:14:03.680 | Then you look at rainy season,

00:14:06.280 | when's the weather best?

00:14:07.720 | You've got, in general,

00:14:09.520 | rainy and dry season throughout all of Mexico.

00:14:12.120 | The rainy season spans from about June through October,

00:14:17.520 | with the worst of it being late August into late October.

00:14:22.400 | You probably want to avoid that.

00:14:25.000 | But even the rainy season,

00:14:26.080 | the early parts of the rainy season,

00:14:27.720 | June, July, even early August,

00:14:30.160 | we look at it as the green season.

00:14:32.280 | It's lower prices.

00:14:34.000 | I think that's a travel hack, if you will,

00:14:36.920 | is getting there.

00:14:39.280 | What most people think is rainy season,

00:14:42.000 | but it only has a little bit of thundershowers

00:14:45.000 | in the late afternoon.

00:14:45.840 | But generally, you've got nice weather

00:14:48.440 | and much better prices,

00:14:49.960 | less people, more availability,

00:14:51.960 | and that goes for everything, right?

00:14:53.200 | It's not just the hotels,

00:14:54.960 | it's guides, it's in the archeological sites,

00:14:58.440 | the restaurants, Mexico City restaurants,

00:15:00.440 | seeing everybody's after these iconic restaurants.

00:15:02.880 | So yeah, I would say those are great months.

00:15:05.640 | Also, I love November.

00:15:07.560 | November's a great month,

00:15:08.960 | outside of Thanksgiving week,

00:15:10.560 | which is kind of a peak little week there.

00:15:12.840 | But otherwise, all the way into early December,

00:15:15.640 | before the Christmas rush,

00:15:18.440 | you can find great values and the same deal.

00:15:21.040 | You've got good weather,

00:15:22.360 | you've got great availability,

00:15:24.120 | you can get into the restaurants,

00:15:26.200 | traffic is more mellow.

00:15:28.240 | And then you really have to go destination by destination.

00:15:30.880 | We've seen a real uptick in travel to Mexico City

00:15:34.320 | over Christmas and New Year's.

00:15:36.080 | In the beginning, people thought,

00:15:37.160 | well, I don't really want to visit

00:15:38.560 | because a lot of Mexico City shuts down.

00:15:40.720 | But that also means you don't have

00:15:42.200 | the crazy chaotic traffic, right?

00:15:44.480 | And you can get around, it's more mellow.

00:15:46.520 | Sure, I mean, maybe one or two restaurants

00:15:48.720 | or clothes that you wanted to go to are an attraction,

00:15:51.440 | but the calmer pace in a very chaotic city

00:15:54.720 | is a big attraction, very attractive to people.

00:15:57.240 | And then I think, yeah,

00:16:00.560 | I think that those are some good

00:16:02.160 | kind of insider tips on when.

00:16:04.640 | - Yeah, we did a trip as a,

00:16:06.400 | well, we planned a trip as a family

00:16:08.760 | to Mexico City over Christmas.

00:16:10.720 | And for whatever reason, everyone in our family bailed.

00:16:13.280 | And so my wife and I just went, the two of us.

00:16:15.440 | And I would say, I give my full endorsement

00:16:18.880 | to that time of year.

00:16:20.760 | We didn't have a problem,

00:16:21.840 | like restaurants might've been closed a day or two,

00:16:24.680 | but it wasn't impossible to get incredible meals.

00:16:27.920 | So I think for people who probably haven't been

00:16:31.040 | to Mexico City or really left,

00:16:33.760 | you know, major tourist hotels and stuff,

00:16:36.240 | how would you describe Mexican food?

00:16:38.120 | Because I feel like there's American Mexican food,

00:16:40.680 | there's Tex-Mex, and when you're truly in Mexico

00:16:43.120 | and experiencing everything, how different is it?

00:16:46.800 | - Sure, that's a great question.

00:16:48.280 | And there's not an easy answer to that

00:16:49.720 | because Mexico, like the US, is a vast country.

00:16:52.800 | It's really big and cuisine is very regionalized.

00:16:56.000 | So the food you get in Baja, California is very different

00:17:00.120 | than the food you're gonna find in the Yucatan.

00:17:02.600 | There are some commonalities, right?

00:17:04.720 | You've got the staple ingredients of corn,

00:17:07.720 | chili peppers, tomatoes, lime,

00:17:11.320 | that you can find ubiquitously, it's everywhere.

00:17:15.360 | But the way, the preparation,

00:17:17.560 | you've got regional specialties,

00:17:18.920 | you know, the tlayudas of Oaxaca,

00:17:21.080 | you've got panuchos in the Southeast, in the Yucatan.

00:17:25.000 | Mexico City's famous for its tacos.

00:17:27.680 | You've got a special way of preparing fish and shrimp

00:17:30.440 | in Baja, California.

00:17:32.680 | So, you know, I always say having a bad meal

00:17:37.000 | is a sin in Mexico because the food is so good.

00:17:40.200 | You really, you know, it's like having a bad meal in Italy.

00:17:42.320 | Like, you've really gotta have bad luck

00:17:44.080 | or, you know, really screw it up.

00:17:46.040 | But Mexico, the cuisine is so good.

00:17:48.240 | We were the third country in the world

00:17:50.200 | after France and Italy to be declared

00:17:53.920 | a UNESCO World Heritage Site for our gastronomy,

00:17:56.760 | for our cuisine, and that's an intangible heritage

00:18:01.320 | of Mexico, and you can read more about that.

00:18:03.480 | But so interesting.

00:18:05.680 | The food is just amazing.

00:18:08.000 | It's one of the most visible,

00:18:10.520 | the most obvious things that I miss

00:18:12.720 | when I'm traveling out of Mexico is just heavenly.

00:18:17.600 | It's amazing.

00:18:19.280 | - If you were just randomly transplanted

00:18:21.080 | to a city in Mexico and you had to find

00:18:22.880 | the best restaurant with no knowledge,

00:18:25.000 | is there, are there ways to get that information?

00:18:27.800 | I feel like asking someone, especially as a foreigner,

00:18:32.400 | can often lead to, well, let me take you to this place

00:18:35.360 | that maybe I'd make some money for sending you to.

00:18:37.840 | How would you suggest people find great places to eat?

00:18:41.680 | - Well, first of all, absolutely, what you said is true.

00:18:45.120 | I think it's important to kind of slow people down

00:18:47.640 | and really ask them, no, don't tell me where I should eat.

00:18:51.800 | Where do you eat?

00:18:52.760 | You know, where do you go when you have day off

00:18:55.760 | and you're gonna take the family for a nice big lunch?

00:18:59.280 | And by the way, that's another important thing

00:19:00.800 | to keep in mind.

00:19:02.160 | Mexico, the important meal is the lunch.

00:19:04.640 | It's not dinner like we do in North America, right?

00:19:07.000 | So where do you take your family for lunch?

00:19:09.680 | And also be specific, like we like seafood

00:19:11.960 | or we'd like tacos or we'd like certain types of meal.

00:19:15.080 | You know, what's your preference

00:19:17.080 | in terms of different foods?

00:19:19.760 | But yeah, kind of urging people, you know,

00:19:23.760 | stop your stock answer or where you might make a commission,

00:19:27.240 | but where do you go?

00:19:28.960 | Where do you go for the best taco or the best lunch spot

00:19:32.160 | or the best seafood or whatever it is

00:19:34.640 | that you have a hankering for?

00:19:37.400 | - And is there any website or app that Mexicans are using

00:19:41.100 | to rate and review places that might be helpful?

00:19:44.720 | - That's interesting.

00:19:45.560 | I never thought of that because it's so ubiquitous in the US

00:19:48.320 | and in the rest of the world.

00:19:50.400 | It's not as common because it's all word of mouth.

00:19:53.520 | We have restaurant guides that we put out

00:19:58.160 | and so you can find them on our website.

00:20:01.340 | But yeah, I think that asking locals

00:20:05.000 | and this is really interesting, you know,

00:20:07.160 | as the world becomes more commoditized

00:20:10.080 | and as you've got AI,

00:20:11.800 | you've got access to so much information,

00:20:14.400 | getting those recommendations from people you really trust

00:20:17.400 | and you feel like you share the same taste with,

00:20:22.040 | that's real gold and getting those recommendations.

00:20:25.520 | And not just, you know,

00:20:26.480 | what's the most famous restaurant in Mexico City,

00:20:29.000 | but the little hole in the wall places,

00:20:31.240 | the under the radar places,

00:20:33.060 | the places and also the places that are still good, right?

00:20:36.680 | It was not just that it was good yesterday,

00:20:38.320 | but is it still good today, right?

00:20:40.680 | That's the type of local knowledge that's really valuable.

00:20:44.640 | - And in general,

00:20:45.720 | to kind of logistics from a timing

00:20:49.080 | and reservation perspective,

00:20:50.720 | how should people think about going out to eat?

00:20:53.280 | - Listen, if you go to Mexico City,

00:20:55.800 | you gotta get on that.

00:20:57.360 | If you're interested in the iconic,

00:21:00.960 | super sought after reservations,

00:21:03.400 | you should be making your restaurant reservations

00:21:06.040 | when you made your hotel reservations,

00:21:07.600 | even if that's months out.

00:21:09.420 | Otherwise, it's really difficult to get a bad meal.

00:21:13.840 | I mean, there's so much good food.

00:21:16.280 | I don't think you have to worry much,

00:21:17.400 | but if you do want the kind of,

00:21:18.800 | there are no Michelin star rated restaurants in Mexico,

00:21:21.320 | which is laughable to me.

00:21:23.460 | But if you want the iconic best of the best in Mexico City,

00:21:28.600 | or even in Oaxaca or perhaps Merida,

00:21:30.640 | it's good to make those reservations early,

00:21:32.280 | especially in Mexico City.

00:21:34.240 | - Timing wise, what time do people eat dinner?

00:21:36.720 | And I feel like I've gone and I don't remember,

00:21:39.540 | but is there a hack to, you know,

00:21:42.440 | if you want to get into some of these places,

00:21:44.080 | go a little earlier, go a little late?

00:21:45.520 | - For sure, for sure.

00:21:46.840 | Mexico City and Mexico in general,

00:21:49.440 | dinner is typically not eaten before eight o'clock at night

00:21:52.420 | and often as late as 10.

00:21:54.760 | Lunch doesn't begin until two

00:21:56.480 | and can often be eaten as late as four.

00:21:59.000 | So it's very much in the Spanish tradition.

00:22:02.100 | You've got the siesta,

00:22:03.240 | people often leave for lunch and don't come back.

00:22:05.740 | Yeah, so it's a much later cycle.

00:22:09.480 | So a good hack is eating earlier.

00:22:11.880 | - Absolutely, if you're okay with eating dinner at 6 p.m.,

00:22:15.000 | as long as the place is open,

00:22:16.520 | you know, you may have to wait for them

00:22:18.580 | to get the grill fired up.

00:22:20.140 | But yeah, that's a good way to go about it.

00:22:23.260 | - You know, I keep thinking back to that recommendation

00:22:25.840 | you gave in Puerto Vallarta,

00:22:27.160 | that I'm like, I'm literally gonna go there for dinner.

00:22:29.800 | And so I'm gonna push back a little,

00:22:31.720 | since I know you put together a few things in advance,

00:22:35.080 | maybe give people a couple places,

00:22:37.420 | even just one in a few areas that are like that,

00:22:41.600 | that would just really top off a trip

00:22:44.360 | in the kind of food, drink, kind of cafe area.

00:22:48.560 | - It's so vast, right?

00:22:50.180 | But there are these gems that really stand out to me,

00:22:54.320 | and it's so rich,

00:22:56.960 | and there's such a range of different type of things.

00:22:58.780 | But Mexico City in particular,

00:23:01.560 | you know, the street food and the tacos,

00:23:03.960 | and it all changes, right?

00:23:05.120 | So we definitely, before you go, check back in with me,

00:23:08.000 | need to make sure that it's still performing

00:23:11.160 | and still putting out the goods.

00:23:12.440 | But El Venadito, which is Carnitas in San Angel,

00:23:16.260 | you eat, you literally eat standing up outside,

00:23:20.240 | but it's the best Carnitas tacos you'll ever have.

00:23:22.960 | Carnitas are fried pork and pork rinds.

00:23:27.960 | Also the Tacos Moran, which is the suadero,

00:23:30.880 | that's in San Miguel, Chapultepec.

00:23:33.280 | Those are two amazing taquerias.

00:23:36.200 | I was also thinking about in Oaxaca,

00:23:38.980 | this little trendy place that we just went to,

00:23:42.840 | Levadura de Olla, check that out.

00:23:46.520 | And then a really local place is called La Teca,

00:23:50.360 | you know, really locals only, kind of hole in the wall,

00:23:52.760 | but just delicious.

00:23:55.060 | I mean, I actually dream about the mole that I had there.

00:23:58.700 | And there are places like this all over, you know,

00:24:02.800 | Merida, Riviera Maya, you know,

00:24:06.520 | you were talking about Cancun.

00:24:08.020 | How do you find, right outside of Playa del Carmen,

00:24:11.360 | there's a place called Cocos Cabañas,

00:24:13.480 | about seven miles north of Playa del Carmen.

00:24:16.600 | It's owned by this Swiss-Mexican couple.

00:24:19.600 | And our operations manager, our groups manager,

00:24:23.320 | who lives in Playa, she's Swiss,

00:24:25.560 | so she probably has an affinity

00:24:26.880 | for this Swiss-Mexican combo, but just beautiful.

00:24:31.200 | A mixture of like European and Mexican.

00:24:33.840 | There's just, everywhere you go,

00:24:36.920 | there's such a plethora of amazing places

00:24:40.200 | from high cuisine to kind of street foods,

00:24:43.560 | you know, stand up and eat tacos on the street.

00:24:46.400 | And I, interestingly, that's the trend lately is,

00:24:49.660 | you know, people want to eat at Pujol,

00:24:51.320 | which is Enrique Olvera, Mexico's most celebrated chef,

00:24:54.560 | Michelin star, if Mexico had Michelin stars.

00:24:57.420 | And the next day they want to eat tacos on the street,

00:25:00.280 | like standing up and dripping taco juice on their shoes.

00:25:03.480 | So, you know, let me know when you go

00:25:06.920 | and we'll fill you in on all the little details,

00:25:09.500 | but there's so much and it's always changing.

00:25:11.920 | It's a moving target.

00:25:13.040 | It's so much fun keeping on top of it.

00:25:15.080 | - I haven't had lunch yet,

00:25:16.280 | so I am very excited to eat just in general,

00:25:19.080 | but even more excited for the next trip.

00:25:20.960 | So what I think would be helpful,

00:25:22.360 | you kind of divide it into two broad regions,

00:25:25.880 | the kind of vacation, sun, beach,

00:25:28.800 | and kind of more heritage.

00:25:30.800 | And I don't know if Mexico City falls in heritage

00:25:32.800 | or a third category on its own,

00:25:35.160 | but let's pick those three.

00:25:36.220 | Let's start in kind of beach and relaxation

00:25:39.680 | and maybe hit on kind of some of the favorites

00:25:42.440 | and the highlights from your perspective,

00:25:44.580 | where people wanting that kind of trip should look,

00:25:47.540 | both if it's a place that they've heard of,

00:25:49.620 | but still worth going.

00:25:50.620 | But, you know, I think I'm hoping to maybe hear

00:25:53.120 | of a place I've not considered for that experience.

00:25:56.040 | - Sure, so there's kind of the big three these days,

00:25:59.000 | at least for international tourists,

00:26:00.320 | which are Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta,

00:26:02.840 | couple that with Punta de Mita,

00:26:05.440 | and Cancun, Riviera Maya, all the way down to Tulum, right?

00:26:09.280 | Those are the three big beach destinations.

00:26:11.640 | Acapulco used to be in that category,

00:26:14.120 | and it's since fell out of favor,

00:26:16.400 | at least internationally, big destination

00:26:18.760 | for people from Mexico City and within Mexico.

00:26:21.540 | But there are more off the beaten path destinations.

00:26:25.320 | And I think that's very much in high demand these days.

00:26:29.920 | People wanna know what's the next Tulum, right?

00:26:32.360 | So you've got places like Sayulita,

00:26:34.760 | you've got Puerto Escondido on the Pacific Coast.

00:26:37.080 | I think quite a bit of the Pacific Coast

00:26:39.360 | is still relatively unexplored.

00:26:42.640 | You've got Ixtapacihuatanejo, which is lesser visited,

00:26:46.480 | still more popular than these kind of

00:26:48.520 | very little fishing towns.

00:26:50.440 | At Todos Santos in Southern Baja is another place

00:26:53.400 | that people are keen on, you know,

00:26:55.720 | looking for off the beaten path, smaller beach destinations.

00:27:00.720 | Even going further than Tulum, down to Bacalar,

00:27:04.440 | which is down all the way towards Chetumal,

00:27:06.320 | that's another interesting spot

00:27:08.240 | that's just starting to be noticed.

00:27:11.160 | Those are a few of the lesser visited, Sun and Sand.

00:27:14.640 | - In the, how would you compare the three more visited?

00:27:18.120 | For someone's like, I'm going to Mexico, I wanna beach.

00:27:21.200 | It's funny, 'cause I've been to all three,

00:27:22.560 | and I don't know if I have the right answer.

00:27:24.720 | So if someone asked me, I'm hoping I now have a place

00:27:26.920 | to send them to kind of compare.

00:27:29.600 | - In broad strokes, you've got the Caribbean,

00:27:31.680 | which is this turquoise water, this fine white sand.

00:27:35.080 | You know, if you're a snorkeler, a scuba diver,

00:27:38.200 | this is heaven.

00:27:40.000 | That said, it's also the most visited, right?

00:27:43.080 | So the Cancun Airport gets flights from,

00:27:44.960 | well, it did get flights from Moscow,

00:27:46.800 | not quite so much anymore.

00:27:49.160 | But you know, from very, very far flung

00:27:51.840 | international destinations.

00:27:54.000 | Got thousands of flights landing and taking off daily.

00:27:57.760 | And it's crowded, it's busy, it's commercial.

00:28:00.400 | So you really have to dig there, right?

00:28:03.280 | Get out of Cancun, used to be Playa del Carmen.

00:28:05.480 | Now Playa del Carmen is full.

00:28:07.880 | You go down to Tulum.

00:28:08.800 | Tulum seems to be a bit overcooked at this point as well.

00:28:11.840 | So you've really got to kind of dig

00:28:13.560 | and find little off the beaten path places

00:28:15.960 | to find any kind of peace and quiet

00:28:18.520 | or more relaxed atmosphere.

00:28:21.680 | Quick question, where does Cozumel fit in there?

00:28:24.200 | My wife went as a child every year

00:28:26.720 | and neither one of us had been there in a decade

00:28:30.040 | and you didn't mention it.

00:28:31.000 | So I thought I'd just ask.

00:28:32.360 | - Cozumel is a big dive spot

00:28:34.520 | and it's also a huge cruise port.

00:28:36.560 | So that is what dominates Cozumel travel and tourism.

00:28:42.040 | I don't know if your wife's family were divers.

00:28:43.800 | - They were going for diving every year.

00:28:45.360 | - There you go, yep.

00:28:46.600 | Yeah, and then you've got Isla Mujeres.

00:28:49.600 | You've got a bunch of little different Puerto Morelos.

00:28:53.240 | There's little spots that you can try and hit.

00:28:57.400 | So it's important to dig a little further.

00:29:00.160 | Then you've got Puerto Vallarta.

00:29:02.800 | I would say Puerto Vallarta

00:29:04.240 | is probably the most traditional beach destination.

00:29:08.120 | That's where I've lived for the last 16 years.

00:29:10.480 | It had, there's a colonial historical center.

00:29:14.560 | It had a life and an economic life

00:29:17.800 | and historical life before tourism and travel came.

00:29:20.880 | Tourism and travel came back in the fifties.

00:29:22.840 | If you remember Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton film,

00:29:26.200 | "The Night of the Iguana" there.

00:29:27.440 | So it's been on the radar.

00:29:29.960 | It kind of was a jet setty type of destination

00:29:32.920 | back when Acapulco had fame and was shiny

00:29:36.400 | and it still really retains a lot of local charm.

00:29:41.400 | One of the things that I love about Puerto Vallarta

00:29:43.840 | is the initial waves of travelers and tourists

00:29:48.560 | that came and even settled there

00:29:51.080 | were largely North Americans, also some Europeans

00:29:54.480 | that came to live like Mexicans.

00:29:56.600 | You know, they put on their huaraches,

00:29:58.600 | their traditional sandals and got their little bag

00:30:00.880 | and went to the market and they were very respectful

00:30:04.240 | and created a very symbiotic type of relationship

00:30:07.840 | with the local people.

00:30:08.760 | So that in turn created a very kind, generous,

00:30:13.000 | open-hearted outlook from the locals towards the tourists

00:30:17.320 | and towards the settlers, right?

00:30:19.520 | And we found that as a family living in Puerto Vallarta.

00:30:22.680 | Cancun, on the other hand, really was an invention, right?

00:30:27.080 | It was a business operation.

00:30:29.520 | They saw the potential.

00:30:31.200 | They came in, Fonatur, and created Cancun

00:30:33.640 | with the sole purpose of bringing travelers there.

00:30:36.440 | And it was literally wetlands and mangroves

00:30:38.640 | and there was no community there, right?

00:30:42.280 | So everything is imported, including even the locals.

00:30:45.080 | There's no real locals.

00:30:46.480 | There's a few local fishing and it was more migrant, right?

00:30:50.360 | Seasonal fishing.

00:30:51.840 | So you feel that difference very starkly.

00:30:55.280 | You've got traditional architecture

00:30:57.240 | and it reflects in the food as well.

00:30:59.440 | When we talk later about

00:31:01.640 | the more cultural heritage destinations,

00:31:05.320 | you'll hear me talk a bit about, you know,

00:31:07.080 | people often ask me to compare San Miguel Allende and Oaxaca

00:31:10.280 | and not to detour too far off what we're talking about,

00:31:13.960 | but wherever you have more tradition...

00:31:17.400 | So Oaxaca has a lot of indigenous,

00:31:19.080 | pre-Columbian culture, history, people.

00:31:21.640 | And so that influences the food and the culture

00:31:24.560 | and the history and the clothing

00:31:26.600 | and the language and everything.

00:31:29.240 | It's the same way with Puerto Vallarta.

00:31:30.360 | You've got more of a historical...

00:31:32.760 | You have more roots there.

00:31:34.120 | And that shows through in the food and the architecture

00:31:37.640 | and the history and the culture.

00:31:39.680 | And also the sense of pride that the local people have

00:31:41.960 | about their own hometown.

00:31:43.720 | So that's Puerto Vallarta.

00:31:45.760 | Los Cabos is really the new kid on the block.

00:31:48.840 | You know, the Baja Peninsula was considered

00:31:50.840 | literally an island for a long time before...

00:31:53.520 | Yeah, we're talking historically, right?

00:31:54.840 | Back in the 16 and 1700s,

00:31:56.920 | before people realized it was connected

00:31:58.440 | all the way up at the border with...

00:32:00.880 | Well, I guess it was still part of Mexico,

00:32:02.880 | all of the Southwest of the United States.

00:32:04.880 | But in that sense, it's very removed.

00:32:08.680 | It's very expensive, Baja,

00:32:10.760 | because of the same reasons, right?

00:32:12.200 | You have to import everything.

00:32:14.120 | A lot of the products and even the history

00:32:17.200 | and the culture comes from North America,

00:32:18.920 | not from the mainland of Mexico.

00:32:21.480 | But Los Cabos, yeah, it's new and glitzy

00:32:24.960 | and shiny and fancy and definitely more expensive.

00:32:29.160 | But it's also got a very, very high level

00:32:32.320 | in terms of quality, of service, of...

00:32:36.240 | And many people say that it really does feel

00:32:38.600 | almost like an extension of Southern California.

00:32:41.000 | And, you know, you had Baja California, Baja Sur,

00:32:46.000 | and this was just lower California.

00:32:49.000 | And you still feel a lot of North American influence there.

00:32:52.800 | I'd also add to that, just geographically,

00:32:55.040 | it's this very stark desert

00:32:58.800 | contrasted by this sparkling, dazzling Sea of Cortez

00:33:02.760 | and the Pacific Ocean.

00:33:04.800 | So that juxtaposition of the desert

00:33:06.880 | with this deep blue Pacific

00:33:08.600 | and the sparkling, dazzling blue Sea of Cortez.

00:33:12.720 | And the Sea of Cortez in itself is worth mentioning.

00:33:15.240 | This is what Jacques Cousteau called the world's aquarium.

00:33:17.840 | So this is like a Galapagos level

00:33:20.280 | marine wildlife environment.

00:33:22.120 | So there's a lot there.

00:33:23.960 | - Before we move on from beach,

00:33:25.560 | I wanna think there's probably, I guess,

00:33:28.560 | some high percentage of the audience

00:33:30.160 | who's going to, in the next year or two,

00:33:32.320 | go to one of these three destinations.

00:33:35.240 | If we cycle through each of them,

00:33:37.680 | what's one or two things people should consider adding on,

00:33:42.280 | whether it's for the day or a couple of nights

00:33:45.000 | that's nearby to kind of enrich a trip

00:33:48.520 | to Riviera Maya, Los Cabos, or Puerto Vallarta?

00:33:51.880 | - Sure, I mean, it's a bit of a can of worms here.

00:33:54.720 | There's a lot, you know, but if I could generalize,

00:33:58.080 | I'd say, you know, make sure,

00:33:59.760 | even if you're in an all-inclusive hotel,

00:34:01.480 | which offer great value, and I'm not down on that,

00:34:04.760 | but get out of the hotel.

00:34:07.600 | Get out there.

00:34:08.880 | You know, there's some must-see type of things.

00:34:12.000 | If you're going to the Riviera Maya or the Caribbean,

00:34:14.200 | you're probably gonna have to see an archeological site

00:34:16.480 | if you haven't been,

00:34:17.320 | whether it's Chichen Itza or Tulum or Coba.

00:34:20.480 | But, you know, interact with your driver, with your guide.

00:34:23.960 | Stop into a local restaurant.

00:34:26.320 | Try to mix it up with the locals a little bit.

00:34:28.440 | So I'd say, in general, get out of the hotel.

00:34:32.560 | Try to interact with the locals.

00:34:34.240 | Go have a local meal at a local restaurant.

00:34:37.120 | Often, taxi drivers are a great source,

00:34:39.400 | and remember to ask them to go to somewhere they would go,

00:34:43.000 | not someplace that they want to take you to.

00:34:45.260 | Tell them that you'll even pay their commission.

00:34:48.200 | You'd be happy to pay for their honest tip

00:34:51.520 | and their honest recommendation,

00:34:52.800 | and not just someplace they might get a kickback.

00:34:56.280 | - Yeah, I'd also say, look around,

00:34:59.880 | and of course, we're a resource,

00:35:01.440 | but look around on the internet

00:35:03.200 | or with friends or other resources.

00:35:05.800 | What are some small towns around where they're staying

00:35:08.120 | that they might be able to go in

00:35:09.600 | and have a beer at sunset or meet the locals

00:35:13.160 | or something that wasn't so built up?

00:35:15.680 | You know, if you can find a little small town

00:35:17.240 | to go have a coffee or a meal or a drink,

00:35:20.880 | that's a great opportunity to kind of feel

00:35:24.040 | a little bit more of the authentic nature of a destination.

00:35:27.200 | - I'll push a little bit on each one,

00:35:29.060 | maybe one at a time, just to get a couple specific things.

00:35:32.880 | So someone's going Riviera Maya.

00:35:34.680 | Let's say they're in Cancun.

00:35:36.880 | Maybe give 'em a couple things,

00:35:39.160 | whether it's a restaurant, a bar, or a day trip

00:35:43.080 | that would kind of just elevate the trip

00:35:45.760 | that they might've otherwise taken

00:35:47.680 | and stayed at the, in my case, since I've done this,

00:35:50.960 | stayed at the JW Marriott for a while.

00:35:53.440 | That was 10 years ago.

00:35:54.800 | - If you're going to the Riviera Maya or the Caribbean,

00:35:56.440 | I'd say definitely, you know, go and find,

00:35:59.920 | go visit Puerto Morelos, for example,

00:36:02.680 | and just kick around the town and go down to the beach

00:36:05.560 | and get a ceviche and yeah,

00:36:09.400 | you should try to find that small town feel.

00:36:11.880 | You know, it used to be Tulum.

00:36:13.800 | Tulum is now, as I mentioned, kind of a bit overcooked.

00:36:17.000 | It's still cool, it's still bohemian chic,

00:36:20.080 | but yeah, it's gotten quite crowded and busy.

00:36:22.220 | So, go to Puerto Morelos,

00:36:24.480 | or if you want something totally away from the sea,

00:36:27.760 | go over to Valladolid,

00:36:29.200 | which was the first capital of the Yucatan Peninsula.

00:36:31.440 | That's to the west of Cancun,

00:36:34.120 | colonial town in the middle of the peninsula.

00:36:37.600 | You could actually combine it with a trip to Chichen Itza

00:36:40.440 | and just walk around and feel that colonial history

00:36:43.600 | that really you don't get

00:36:46.320 | if you just stay at the beach resorts.

00:36:48.760 | So, that would be the Caribbean.

00:36:50.800 | If you go to Puerto Vallarta--

00:36:53.620 | - Which by the way, we are going,

00:36:55.580 | my family and I are going the first week of December.

00:36:58.720 | So, have plans, looking to add something on.

00:37:03.540 | So, this one-- - To Puerto Vallarta.

00:37:05.260 | - Yes. - Okay.

00:37:07.020 | Well, I'd ask you if you'd been before,

00:37:08.740 | but I'd say take a trip over to Sayulita,

00:37:12.860 | which is a little town north of Punto de Mita.

00:37:15.940 | You could also go and get tacos in Pitial,

00:37:20.220 | which is a little local part of Puerto Vallarta City.

00:37:23.520 | Walk the Malecon, which is the seaside promenade at sunset,

00:37:29.260 | along with all the other Mexican families and their kids.

00:37:32.820 | I could go on and on.

00:37:34.460 | There's some amazing beach clubs

00:37:36.620 | in the south side of the bay, Majahuitas,

00:37:39.580 | or there's a whole string of them.

00:37:41.780 | Casamaraycas that are amazing.

00:37:44.260 | I think you have to get out on the water in Puerto Vallarta

00:37:46.260 | and see that perspective with the mountains

00:37:48.500 | and the whole Bay of Banderas.

00:37:51.980 | So, those are a few things that you might consider

00:37:54.560 | in Puerto Vallarta.

00:37:55.620 | And in Los Cabos, I might encourage you

00:37:58.060 | to go one way or the other up the coast,

00:38:01.140 | either to Todos Santos, which is on the Pacific side,

00:38:04.060 | amazing little colonial village, an oasis town,

00:38:07.220 | a lot of artists, an expat surfer vibe,

00:38:10.620 | great little restaurants as well.

00:38:12.860 | You go for a surfing lesson in Los Cerritos Beach.

00:38:15.540 | So, that could be one way.

00:38:16.500 | Or, go the other side of the peninsula,

00:38:18.980 | which would be up towards Cabo Pulmo.

00:38:21.380 | Cabo Pulmo is home to the northern most tropical reef

00:38:25.020 | in North America.

00:38:27.380 | And you can do some incredible snorkeling

00:38:30.060 | with giant fish balls of mahi and of whitefish.

00:38:35.060 | And yeah, I think that that's a world-class experience.

00:38:40.580 | And also, there's some great little cevicherias

00:38:44.460 | and marisquerias right there,

00:38:46.140 | little seafood restaurants in Cabo Pulmo.

00:38:48.660 | So again, get out of the main town, get in a car,

00:38:51.260 | go take a drive, open your eyes,

00:38:53.820 | meet some locals, eat some good food.

00:38:56.140 | I think that's a good formula for Mexico

00:38:57.780 | of getting a bit more of a feel.

00:39:00.820 | - I feel like I'm gonna be a little embarrassed to say this,

00:39:02.860 | but I'm gonna do it anyways

00:39:03.820 | for the sake of everyone listening.

00:39:05.360 | So, I've probably been to Los Cabos, I don't know,

00:39:08.020 | plenty of times, like for many times for a bachelor party,

00:39:12.060 | 'cause from California, it's the easy option.

00:39:14.300 | And we've never spent any time in San Jose del Cabo.

00:39:18.060 | Is that a huge mistake?

00:39:20.060 | - I like San Jose del Cabo.

00:39:21.820 | And again, there is a village there.

00:39:23.800 | There is a town there that was there before tourism.

00:39:27.120 | You've got colonial architecture, you've got some shops.

00:39:30.460 | So, I absolutely think it's worth a visit,

00:39:32.740 | especially, you're right there.

00:39:33.860 | It's not a big investment of time.

00:39:35.900 | Go check it out, for sure.

00:39:37.660 | - Okay, and then before, last, last thing,

00:39:40.060 | before I move outside of the beach is,

00:39:43.100 | since I actually am going to Puerto Vallarta,

00:39:45.780 | is there a couple, like, we're going with kids,

00:39:48.900 | so keep that in mind.

00:39:50.180 | Maybe we could escape them for a day also.

00:39:52.460 | But is there a place that my wife and I,

00:39:54.620 | if we leave for a day or an hour or two to get a meal,

00:39:58.760 | we should be checking out specifically?

00:40:00.420 | Since this one, at least for me, is like,

00:40:02.620 | yep, I'm gonna go book it, we're gonna go do it.

00:40:04.440 | I'll report back to the listeners.

00:40:05.820 | - Here's an even better one.

00:40:06.900 | You can bring the kids,

00:40:08.260 | go to a little restaurant called Barracuda.

00:40:11.340 | And they have a couple locations.

00:40:13.540 | They're buddies of mine.

00:40:15.540 | And the one in the center of Puerto Vallarta,

00:40:18.660 | so it's Barracuda Centro.

00:40:20.980 | The reason I say bring the kids,

00:40:22.220 | so you've got this beachside restaurant

00:40:24.240 | that has wonderful seafood, amazing view,

00:40:27.380 | but it's right there on the sand,

00:40:29.700 | and the kids can run around on the beach.

00:40:31.160 | So they go and, you know, they'll eat their food,

00:40:32.860 | and then they can run right out there.

00:40:34.620 | It's safe, you can see them,

00:40:36.820 | and you guys can hang out and have a margarita,

00:40:39.040 | and you can even get tables right on the sand there.

00:40:42.220 | So that could be one.

00:40:43.180 | Now, if you really wanna leave 'em behind,

00:40:45.220 | and you got a little more than a couple hours,

00:40:47.120 | there's this amazing restaurant called The Ocean Grill.

00:40:50.420 | You've gotta go over to Boca de Tomatlan,

00:40:53.260 | or you can actually leave from downtown Vallarta.

00:40:55.580 | You get a water taxi, and you gotta make a reservation.

00:40:59.120 | They only go by reservations.

00:41:01.620 | And it's this incredible setting

00:41:03.940 | where you're nestled into this cliff

00:41:06.060 | on the south side of the bay.

00:41:07.580 | They don't allow kids.

00:41:09.360 | And it's just really simple, fresh seafood.

00:41:14.220 | It's a grill.

00:41:16.060 | They throw on the grill either fish, octopus,

00:41:19.020 | lobster, shrimp.

00:41:21.220 | I think they make a little bit of meat as well.

00:41:23.820 | And it's really a special experience,

00:41:26.600 | and kind of a time travel, if you will.

00:41:29.100 | You know, you feel like you've gone back in time,

00:41:30.900 | and you're in this little tropical paradise

00:41:33.520 | with the jungle all around you, and the sparkling sea.

00:41:36.440 | And you can even, there's this cool little area you can,

00:41:39.680 | if you like to jump off of stuff,

00:41:41.000 | you can jump off into the ocean, and it's awesome.

00:41:44.120 | - I do, I feel like nice dinner,

00:41:47.240 | jumping in the water is an activity

00:41:49.400 | I am interested in.

00:41:50.280 | My wife would be like, no, I did my hair

00:41:51.840 | for this nice dinner, and we left the kids at home.

00:41:53.680 | I'm not jumping off.

00:41:55.000 | But we are bringing our au pair,

00:41:57.120 | who's never been to Mexico, and she's so excited,

00:41:59.380 | which means that we will be able to sneak away

00:42:02.000 | for at least one evening.

00:42:03.240 | So I'm adding that to the docket.

00:42:05.140 | We will make that reservation.

00:42:06.640 | Okay, I wanted to go a little deeper

00:42:09.880 | on the new things to try while you're in those places,

00:42:12.920 | 'cause I imagine most people maybe don't do that normally.

00:42:16.340 | But a lot of these other destinations,

00:42:17.840 | more heritage-focused cities are things

00:42:21.560 | that I know a lot of people haven't checked out in Mexico.

00:42:24.200 | So how would you break down those options?

00:42:26.440 | I don't know if you wanna start or end with Mexico City,

00:42:28.760 | but you let me know.

00:42:31.600 | - Sure, so Mexico City definitely fits

00:42:33.600 | in the whole heritage, culture, history category.

00:42:37.860 | I think you gotta start and finish with Mexico City.

00:42:41.520 | Mexico is a very centralized country, right?

00:42:46.040 | Everything begins and ends in Mexico City.

00:42:50.200 | It's a very centralized place in terms of politics,

00:42:53.080 | economy, culture, and yeah,

00:42:57.840 | it is such a fascinating, dynamic city.

00:43:02.520 | I believe that everybody who likes cities

00:43:05.960 | and enjoys traveling in cities should go.

00:43:08.880 | You've got culture, you've got history,

00:43:11.200 | you've got music, you've got cuisine,

00:43:12.960 | you've got incredible museums.

00:43:15.540 | The hotel scene is amazing, the bar scene.

00:43:19.480 | You could spend a long time in Mexico City.

00:43:22.820 | You've got some of the, you know,

00:43:26.460 | not only is it the most important place

00:43:28.520 | in modern-day Mexico, but this is where the Mixtec,

00:43:32.960 | actually, not the Mixtec, sorry, the Mexica,

00:43:35.840 | which Mexico is named after, they came to Mexico City,

00:43:40.400 | they saw an eagle with a snake in its claw on a rock

00:43:45.000 | and said, "This is where we're forming our capital."

00:43:47.080 | That was Tenochtitlan.

00:43:48.080 | That's ancient capital of the Mexica.

00:43:52.080 | And so it's been the most important capital city

00:43:55.920 | of Mexico from the very beginning, right?

00:43:58.140 | We're talking about thousands of years ago.

00:44:00.240 | So yeah, I couldn't recommend it highly enough,

00:44:04.580 | and you definitely need inside knowledge

00:44:07.620 | to kind of make the most of your time.

00:44:09.460 | You need a minimum, minimum, minimum,

00:44:11.740 | of four days in Mexico City,

00:44:13.740 | but I think you can easily fill up a week or two,

00:44:16.660 | depending on your interests.

00:44:18.260 | Just doing the highlights takes four days,

00:44:20.520 | and those are the top-level highlights.

00:44:23.740 | And then if you want to kind of get under the skin a bit

00:44:26.000 | and go a little deeper and explore,

00:44:27.960 | you need at least a week.

00:44:29.760 | - Okay, so I'm very curious to see

00:44:31.000 | what we may have missed or not missed.

00:44:32.440 | We went for, I think, five days.

00:44:34.520 | I'll second everything you said.

00:44:36.040 | I think for someone in the States

00:44:38.320 | looking for an international city to go on an adventure to,

00:44:42.700 | I can't think of a better place.

00:44:45.200 | Like, easy to get to on flights, super affordable,

00:44:48.440 | incredible hotels, food, drink, everything.

00:44:51.600 | So let's talk about some of these highlights,

00:44:53.160 | because if someone listening hasn't been to Mexico City,

00:44:55.640 | I think it just has to be on the list.

00:44:57.960 | - And by the way, one other thing I'd mention

00:44:59.520 | about Mexico City is one of the greatest thing

00:45:01.920 | about not just Mexico City, Mexico in general,

00:45:04.080 | are the Mexicans.

00:45:05.200 | I mean, the most hospitable, warm, dynamic people,

00:45:08.920 | but also in Mexico City, it's such a big city.

00:45:12.360 | It's such a big city that you don't,

00:45:14.000 | it's not a touristy place, right?

00:45:15.680 | It's really dominated by Mexicans, right?

00:45:17.560 | The city is living and breathing

00:45:20.240 | and pulsing with Mexicans.

00:45:22.240 | So you're there, you're not real important,

00:45:25.920 | you're just kind of observing and flowing

00:45:29.480 | and trying to flow with that city,

00:45:32.000 | 'cause if you're flowing against it,

00:45:33.160 | it's the chaos, the traffic, it's a bad scene, right?

00:45:36.500 | So that's why you really do well to go with an expert

00:45:41.500 | or someone, if you're really lucky, a friend,

00:45:46.140 | or you're an invited guest.

00:45:49.100 | But if you're not, someone who understands the city

00:45:51.200 | and how to get around and how to avoid that chaos.

00:45:53.660 | So yeah, I'd say that.

00:45:57.160 | Now, as far as the highlights, right?

00:45:58.380 | You've got the Historic Center.

00:46:00.680 | There's several UNESCO World Heritage sites

00:46:03.440 | within Mexico City.

00:46:04.680 | You've got the Historic City Center,

00:46:08.300 | which has the Metropolitan Cathedral.

00:46:10.080 | It's got the Zócalo, which is the central square,

00:46:12.080 | which is the third largest central square in the world.

00:46:14.600 | It's got the Templo Mayor,

00:46:16.080 | which was the Aztec capital archeological site.

00:46:20.800 | You've got the Palacio de Gobierno,

00:46:23.280 | which is the government palace,

00:46:25.840 | which has the Diego Rivera murals,

00:46:27.900 | which by the way, you can't see right now, unfortunately.

00:46:30.440 | You've got the Palacio de Bellas Artes,

00:46:32.120 | the Fine Arts Center, which has other incredible

00:46:35.320 | Orozco murals and other of the great muralists.

00:46:38.900 | The whole city, they call it the city of palaces,

00:46:41.920 | because it literally was just lined up

00:46:44.400 | with palace after palace during the colonial era.

00:46:47.880 | Each family trying to outdo the next

00:46:50.680 | with the grandeur and the majesticness

00:46:54.040 | of these different palaces.

00:46:55.660 | They now have taken on the function of the correos,

00:47:00.660 | the mail room, or the post office.

00:47:04.440 | And then some of them are government offices

00:47:06.200 | and some of them are museums.

00:47:08.140 | So it's an incredible center,

00:47:11.120 | really tight, dense historic center

00:47:13.400 | with architecture and all the rest.

00:47:14.840 | Speaking of architecture, you could spend a whole day

00:47:17.680 | exploring the architectural riches of Mexico City,

00:47:20.840 | including La Gorreta or Barragan.

00:47:24.620 | I mean, these are just incredible world-renowned architects

00:47:29.200 | that have their work spread out throughout the city.

00:47:32.220 | You also have the pyramids, right,

00:47:33.680 | which are the third and fourth largest

00:47:35.440 | pyramidal temples in the world.

00:47:37.440 | They're about 45 minutes outside of Mexico City.

00:47:40.000 | That's a must-do, must-see for sure.

00:47:42.640 | You've got the south of the city,

00:47:43.800 | which includes Coyoacan and San Angel.

00:47:47.160 | This is where Xochimilco is.

00:47:49.120 | These are very traditional neighborhoods

00:47:50.960 | where you can still feel the Mexico City

00:47:53.360 | of the '40s and '50s and '60s,

00:47:55.680 | before it just got subsumed by this massive metropolis.

00:48:00.680 | You've got Spanish colonial architecture.

00:48:02.720 | You've got cobblestone streets.

00:48:04.640 | You also have the Saturday Market in San Angel.

00:48:08.520 | And then you've got Xochimilco,

00:48:09.760 | which is some of the last remaining

00:48:11.680 | preserved Aztec waterways, right?

00:48:15.760 | All of Mexico City actually sits on what were,

00:48:20.180 | basically, wetlands and canals, much like Venice, right?

00:48:26.520 | So the transport, the mode of transport

00:48:29.600 | back in the day of the Aztecs,

00:48:30.880 | when the Spanish first arrived, was by canoe.

00:48:34.120 | And Xochimilco is some of the last preserved

00:48:37.560 | traditional floating gardens,

00:48:39.280 | the chinampas and the canals.

00:48:42.360 | And you can see what that was like.

00:48:44.400 | We also have some access to lesser visited ones.

00:48:47.680 | This is a very raucous,

00:48:50.200 | the Xochimilco is a very raucous, touristy,

00:48:53.680 | a Saturday or a Sunday there is filled

00:48:56.160 | with Mexican families and mariachis

00:48:58.720 | and beer-slinging vendors.

00:49:00.840 | And it's a lot of fun,

00:49:02.880 | but it's pretty dynamic, let's say.

00:49:05.960 | We've got access to some areas that are not as busy,

00:49:10.000 | and you can get a little bit more peaceful experience

00:49:12.160 | of what those canals were like.

00:49:14.720 | So that right there, I think I've named enough stuff

00:49:18.160 | to be three or four full days, right?

00:49:20.720 | - Yeah.

00:49:21.560 | - And that's full days.

00:49:23.600 | You then have the neighborhoods of Condesa and Roma, right?

00:49:26.600 | If you wanna go check out the gallery scene and the art

00:49:29.960 | and just cruise and have a coffee

00:49:32.160 | and see kind of the contemporary creative class

00:49:34.640 | and what's going on there.

00:49:35.800 | By the way, Mexico City and especially Roma Norte

00:49:38.760 | and Condesa have become these enclaves,

00:49:41.760 | international enclaves, especially full of North Americans,

00:49:45.360 | Americans and Canadians who have remote working,

00:49:48.160 | global nomads, people living and working remotely.

00:49:51.960 | And you can hear quite a bit of English these days

00:49:53.920 | on the streets, it's interesting.

00:49:55.560 | And then you've got so many other kind of more subtle things

00:50:01.560 | if you're into art or if you're into handicrafts

00:50:05.000 | or if you're into museums.

00:50:07.600 | We didn't even mention the Anthropology Museum,

00:50:09.840 | all the different museums and these different...

00:50:11.480 | So you've got a week minimum to kind of make sure

00:50:16.120 | that you hit all of the great museums, galleries,

00:50:21.120 | the highlights that we mentioned, check out Reforma,

00:50:25.880 | then the nightlife, the restaurants.

00:50:28.960 | So...

00:50:29.880 | - Yeah, I think we under-indexed on museums

00:50:32.600 | and over-indexed on food as we often do,

00:50:35.800 | trying to fit, you know, we're like,

00:50:37.000 | how do we fit four meals in a day?

00:50:39.000 | How do we try all the things?

00:50:41.440 | I was blown away at the quality of the food you get

00:50:46.440 | and the price, like meals that would be hundreds

00:50:51.240 | and hundreds of dollars in the US for less than $100.

00:50:54.400 | - And how about the service?

00:50:56.240 | - It doesn't feel like you're sacrificing anything

00:50:59.560 | other than a couple hours on a plane.

00:51:02.040 | - Well, again, and this is, and trust me,

00:51:05.680 | I've thought about it more than once,

00:51:06.840 | like just get on a plane just to get some tacos for lunch.

00:51:09.320 | I mean, it is that good,

00:51:12.320 | but I meant the service is so good and it's so natural.

00:51:15.200 | And, you know, before you even know you need something,

00:51:17.480 | it's there in front of you.

00:51:18.640 | The service in Mexico and in Mexico City in particular

00:51:21.840 | is phenomenal, it's world-class.

00:51:25.000 | Yeah, but don't sell the museum short, right?

00:51:28.000 | You've got the Anthro Museum,

00:51:29.560 | which you could spend literally days in.

00:51:31.720 | You've got, you know, the Casa Azul,

00:51:34.960 | which is Frida Kahlo's childhood home.

00:51:37.560 | You've got the Dolores Olmedo,

00:51:39.400 | if you're interested in Diego and Frida.

00:51:42.080 | You've just got all kinds of museums,

00:51:44.040 | even within Chapultepec Park.

00:51:47.360 | There's several other museums, there's nonstop.

00:51:50.280 | You really could spend a week

00:51:52.280 | just going through the museums.

00:51:54.040 | You know that the Zona Maco,

00:51:55.640 | which is the largest contemporary art fair in Latin America

00:51:58.640 | is held every year in Mexico City.

00:52:00.760 | And it's fascinating the amount of private collections,

00:52:05.560 | which we can, by the way,

00:52:06.400 | we can open for people who are interested in that

00:52:09.520 | through the relationships that we have.

00:52:11.240 | So there's just so much to do.

00:52:13.680 | - You've mentioned a few things

00:52:14.680 | that you guys might have access to.

00:52:16.080 | And one question that I imagine someone,

00:52:18.280 | myself included, are wondering is,

00:52:20.200 | you know, when you work with people

00:52:21.240 | to help them plan these amazing trips to Mexico,

00:52:23.600 | does someone, if someone's just looking

00:52:25.400 | for a really interesting tour for a day in Mexico City,

00:52:29.040 | can they reach out to you and do that?

00:52:31.040 | Or is it more of a, let's plan the whole thing?

00:52:34.120 | - We would love to be able to help everyone

00:52:36.800 | with even the littlest tiny bit,

00:52:38.600 | but we are a small boutique company.

00:52:41.320 | We don't have the resources to kind of be able to help you

00:52:44.480 | with one day trip here or there.

00:52:45.800 | So we do tend to focus on whole holidays, whole trips.

00:52:50.220 | But you know, if you catch us in a moment

00:52:52.280 | where we're not too busy,

00:52:53.600 | we'd be glad to help with whatever you need.

00:52:55.580 | But in general, we do stay busy, thankfully.

00:52:58.880 | So it is generally the whole thing, yeah.

00:53:01.960 | - So we didn't, you've gotten so many recommendations

00:53:04.720 | that I'm like, these show notes are gonna be long.

00:53:06.320 | We might even need a second page for them.

00:53:07.940 | But on the food side, if someone's really looking to eat

00:53:11.840 | in Mexico City, do you have any favorites to suggest,

00:53:14.560 | either food or drink or both?

00:53:16.520 | - You know, there's just, yes, loads.

00:53:20.320 | And I think that there's an over-focus

00:53:23.100 | on kind of the iconic, you've got Pujol

00:53:26.360 | and you've got Rosetta and you've got, you know,

00:53:29.880 | these restaurants that, Gusino, Oaxaca,

00:53:33.280 | and you've got these restaurants

00:53:35.160 | that people are so focused on that they have to go to.

00:53:38.360 | But there's a whole world of restaurants

00:53:42.420 | that you're not sacrificing anything in quality.

00:53:44.800 | You know, maybe they haven't done as good marketing-wise.

00:53:47.640 | But yeah, Contramar and all of these kind

00:53:51.560 | of more recognized places are wonderful.

00:53:55.140 | They're awesome.

00:53:55.980 | I'm not taking anything away from them.

00:53:57.360 | But it's a real challenge to get in,

00:54:00.060 | especially if you're not making

00:54:01.000 | your reservations months in advance.

00:54:03.280 | So we pride ourselves on staying up

00:54:04.920 | on the latest and greatest, and we're happy to share them.

00:54:08.420 | It's kind of, it doesn't make a lot of sense

00:54:11.260 | to share them right now out loud

00:54:14.160 | because, you know, tomorrow they're not good,

00:54:16.800 | today they are, you know, you have to really--

00:54:18.280 | - But they're on the website,

00:54:19.240 | and we can link to them in the show notes?

00:54:20.680 | - Yeah, we have them.

00:54:22.120 | We don't put them on the website,

00:54:23.160 | but we have those restaurant recommendations.

00:54:25.400 | They're very carefully guarded and curated

00:54:27.880 | and updated constantly, and we're glad to share them

00:54:30.840 | with those who are planning travel with us.

00:54:34.060 | - Okay, so if someone's not excited about Mexico City,

00:54:36.980 | I think you're missing out.

00:54:38.760 | But let's talk about this third category

00:54:41.640 | of other places in Mexico, not beach,

00:54:44.400 | that I think probably go maybe the least noticed

00:54:47.840 | by the average North American traveler.

00:54:50.400 | Talk about some of the ones that you think need

00:54:52.000 | to be on people's kind of radar for something.

00:54:55.320 | - Sure, sure, sure.

00:54:56.160 | So I'm gonna go just to help myself organize my thoughts

00:54:59.920 | from Northwest to Southeast.

00:55:02.160 | I think of it kind of geographically.

00:55:04.640 | I mentioned already Todos Santos,

00:55:07.560 | which is this kind of magical town.

00:55:09.020 | And by the way, the Pueblos Magicos, or Magic Towns,

00:55:12.760 | is a program that Mexico's tourism board developed

00:55:16.200 | to kind of shine a light on some of these lesser-visited

00:55:19.600 | cultural heritage hotspots.

00:55:23.880 | So check that out, by the way.

00:55:25.320 | You can search that.

00:55:26.440 | We have articles on our blog.

00:55:28.840 | We'll put that in the trip notes as well

00:55:30.960 | that point to some of these different magic towns.

00:55:33.940 | But in addition to Todos Santos,

00:55:36.080 | don't forget the Valle de Guadalupe,

00:55:38.400 | which is the wine-producing region in northern Baja.

00:55:40.780 | You've got the whole Sierra Cortez side, right,

00:55:42.720 | that includes Muleje, Loreto, La Paz.

00:55:46.800 | These are all incredible places in Baja.

00:55:49.240 | Moving across onto the continent now,

00:55:51.400 | you've got the Copper Canyon.

00:55:52.700 | This is a place that, no matter how much I've championed it,

00:55:56.640 | it goes unnoticed.

00:55:58.760 | It is four times the size of the Grand Canyon in the United

00:56:02.640 | States.

00:56:03.600 | It's composed of seven major canyons and 22 minor canyons.

00:56:08.200 | And it's like visiting the Grand Canyon 100 years ago.

00:56:11.600 | There's indigenous people living in the caves

00:56:14.160 | and on the side of cliffs.

00:56:16.320 | There's just incredible jaw-dropping landscapes.

00:56:20.520 | There's amazing opportunities for hiking, mountain biking,

00:56:24.140 | rock climbing, you name it.

00:56:27.020 | And there's a train that crisscrosses and traverses

00:56:29.580 | the whole canyon system called El Chepe.

00:56:32.660 | So that's another amazing place.

00:56:35.980 | Los Alamos, which is also up in Sinaloa,

00:56:39.300 | another amazing town.

00:56:40.340 | Now coming down a bit further down the coast,

00:56:43.340 | I'd say don't miss Sayulita or San Pancho, which

00:56:48.100 | is north of Puerto Vallarta.

00:56:50.460 | Those are amazing little villages

00:56:52.860 | that are really worth visiting.

00:56:55.860 | You've got tons in the cultural interior, right?

00:56:59.600 | Cities like Durango or Zacatecas,

00:57:02.580 | Guanajuato, San Miguel Allende, these are all kind of on there.

00:57:06.360 | If you think about the Rocky Mountains in the US,

00:57:08.760 | they don't stop just because you've

00:57:10.260 | got a border with Mexico.

00:57:11.340 | They continue, and the name changes.

00:57:13.580 | It's called the Sierra Madre, the Mother Mountains.

00:57:16.940 | And within these mountains exist these beautiful mountain

00:57:21.420 | towns.

00:57:21.920 | So I'm talking about a few of them, Guanajuato,

00:57:24.180 | San Miguel Allende.

00:57:26.020 | Mexico City is found in that same mountain range.

00:57:28.380 | But going a little bit further south,

00:57:29.980 | you've got Oaxaca, San Cristobal de las Casas down in Chiapas.

00:57:34.460 | These are some of the most beautiful, lesser-visited

00:57:39.620 | cultural heritage destinations that you can find in Mexico.

00:57:44.060 | People travel halfway around the world

00:57:46.060 | to find cultural richness, history, indigenous culture

00:57:50.020 | that they can find right here in Mexico.

00:57:53.700 | I feel like there's like 10 trips I could take to Mexico

00:57:56.220 | that I haven't really processed before.

00:57:58.460 | Some of them will be repeats.

00:57:59.700 | I feel like just talking about Mexico City

00:58:02.180 | makes me want to go back.

00:58:04.060 | So that's on the docket.

00:58:06.500 | Did we miss anything?

00:58:07.420 | I feel like--

00:58:08.560 | So much.

00:58:09.700 | We missed so much.

00:58:10.540 | Can we go-- we've got to go on for days here.

00:58:12.620 | But next time you go to Mexico City,

00:58:14.660 | go and have a visit to Puebla.

00:58:16.540 | Puebla is two hours south of Mexico City.

00:58:20.860 | In fact, you can take this little road that

00:58:22.940 | goes from Mexico City to Puebla that

00:58:25.420 | goes between two volcanoes that are almost 17,000-foot

00:58:31.300 | volcanoes, Iztaccihuatl and Popocatépetl.

00:58:34.700 | If you can pronounce those real fast 10 times,

00:58:36.780 | I'll give you a free trip there.

00:58:39.060 | But the road is called the Paso de Cortés

00:58:42.780 | because when Hernán Cortés came from the port of Veracruz,

00:58:46.460 | which is in the Gulf of Mexico, and he came up to--

00:58:49.340 | he had intel about what was going on in Mexico City

00:58:54.300 | and the Aztecs and everything else.

00:58:55.820 | And he was coming up with La Malinche,

00:58:57.540 | which was the traitorous--

00:58:59.200 | well, I won't get into that whole story.

00:59:00.860 | But he comes up from Veracruz to Puebla

00:59:03.660 | and then crosses from Cholula into the Valley of Mexico.

00:59:08.180 | If you get a chance, read the book Mexico by James Michener.

00:59:11.220 | It gives this incredible account of that journey.

00:59:15.060 | It's a little bit of historical nonfiction.

00:59:17.180 | But it's worth reading.

00:59:19.060 | And it's this little dirt road that

00:59:21.700 | goes between the saddle of these volcanoes.

00:59:23.620 | And as you come down into the Valley of Mexico,

00:59:25.940 | you really--

00:59:26.860 | it's jaw-dropping.

00:59:28.020 | And we're talking about you're in pine forests

00:59:30.180 | with glaciated volcanoes on either side of you, one of which

00:59:33.420 | is very active, by the way.

00:59:34.780 | So you've got to check to make sure

00:59:36.220 | that it's open on the day that you decide to go.

00:59:39.340 | We'll give you some tips to do it.

00:59:40.820 | It's an amazing, amazing way to do it.

00:59:43.060 | And you go and check out Puebla.

00:59:44.740 | Have more than 360 churches in Puebla.

00:59:47.820 | Got incredible colonial architecture.

00:59:49.820 | It's the home of mole.

00:59:52.420 | And then, actually, don't go back to Mexico City.

00:59:54.540 | Keep going to Oaxaca.

00:59:55.940 | You got to go to-- have you been to Oaxaca, Chris?

00:59:57.540 | I have not.

00:59:59.140 | I had a list of things I want to discuss.

01:00:00.820 | The last question was, I was like,

01:00:02.020 | I don't feel like we've talked about Oaxaca.

01:00:03.540 | And I feel like I keep hearing people have incredible trips.

01:00:06.540 | Yeah, yeah.

01:00:08.540 | So the two places that I think--

01:00:10.740 | Oaxaca is probably more well-known.

01:00:13.900 | But Oaxaca and San Cristobal de las Casas

01:00:15.980 | are two of the most beautiful mountain towns

01:00:18.500 | where indigenous pre-Columbian culture is most intact.

01:00:21.660 | Probably San Cristobal is more so.

01:00:24.940 | Oaxaca has become more popular and more visited,

01:00:27.620 | but still really retains its charm.

01:00:29.940 | So the beauty of Oaxaca is the fact

01:00:32.720 | that it has this really strong pre-Columbian indigenous

01:00:37.420 | cultural roots that are still living on strongly to this day.

01:00:41.700 | And you've got people--

01:00:43.140 | these are Mixtec and Zapotec people

01:00:48.380 | that are still speaking their native languages.

01:00:51.340 | I mean, they obviously also speak Spanish.

01:00:53.060 | And some of them even speak English.

01:00:55.820 | And these are artisans, and these are farmers.

01:00:59.340 | And they're people that are producing mezcal.

01:01:02.420 | They're producing handicrafts.

01:01:04.020 | They're farming the land.

01:01:05.140 | They're living very much traditional lifestyles

01:01:07.420 | that have gone on for centuries.

01:01:09.660 | And this, as I was mentioning earlier in the show,

01:01:13.140 | the indigenous roots, the pre-Columbian culture,

01:01:16.020 | lives on so strongly that it influences everything about it.

01:01:19.300 | So the food, the dress, they're still

01:01:22.900 | wearing traditional clothing.

01:01:25.020 | They're still living subsistence agricultural lives,

01:01:27.460 | many of them, in the valleys surrounding Oaxaca.

01:01:30.220 | But the influence on the food, the art, the history,

01:01:33.860 | the culture is overwhelming.

01:01:35.980 | And really, it's hard to find such a pure evolution

01:01:42.180 | and a real organic evolution of the indigenous culture

01:01:46.060 | into contemporary life.

01:01:47.260 | And I think the pride that these people have has--

01:01:50.500 | and the recognition and the celebration

01:01:53.780 | of the international community has

01:01:55.620 | helped to preserve this and celebrate it and protect it.

01:01:59.220 | So very much worth a visit.

01:02:01.620 | But if you really want to get even more off the beaten path,

01:02:04.460 | check out Chiapas, the state of Chiapas

01:02:06.620 | and the town of San Cristobal de las Casas,

01:02:09.340 | and then the lowland jungles where

01:02:10.660 | you have one of the most incredible

01:02:12.580 | archaeological sites, Palenque.

01:02:14.820 | And are these places that someone who--

01:02:21.100 | let's just assume for this conversation hasn't

01:02:23.420 | planned a trip with you guys, people can just go to?

01:02:26.020 | Do they need to set up tours and guides?

01:02:28.060 | Do they just show up?

01:02:29.740 | I mean, look, that's a good question about anywhere, right?

01:02:32.220 | So it's how comfortable, how intrepid are you?

01:02:34.500 | But yes, I mean, there's a Lonely Planet.

01:02:36.580 | There's guidebooks.

01:02:37.500 | There's public transportation.

01:02:38.860 | There's the internet.

01:02:41.020 | You don't even need this stuff anymore.

01:02:42.700 | But it's definitely probably--

01:02:48.220 | I'd gauge it by how intrepid you are

01:02:50.740 | and how comfortable you feel navigating

01:02:53.340 | lesser-visited places, places where maybe not everybody

01:02:56.780 | speaks English.

01:02:59.220 | And yeah, but certainly with the internet and email

01:03:01.500 | and everything else you can set up accommodation

01:03:04.340 | and experiences on your own just depends

01:03:06.740 | on your own comfort level.

01:03:08.260 | And how much work you want to do, right?

01:03:12.020 | If you want to spend hours and hours planning this or not,

01:03:15.260 | obviously, that's-- and what experience do you want.

01:03:19.260 | I know there was a window where I remember people

01:03:22.740 | asking about safety in Mexico.

01:03:24.900 | Is that still a concern?

01:03:26.380 | Should people be thinking about that at all, planning a trip?

01:03:29.580 | Well, it's funny you should say that.

01:03:31.180 | I knew that the pandemic was coming

01:03:33.100 | to an end when people's questions of concern

01:03:36.700 | shifted back from COVID questions

01:03:40.820 | to safety and security questions.

01:03:43.660 | And so it's a constant headwind that we face when planning

01:03:47.060 | travel to Mexico.

01:03:48.300 | Unfortunately, there's this stereotype.

01:03:49.940 | And people are always asking, is it safe?

01:03:52.220 | And will I get sick?

01:03:53.860 | And that kind of stuff.

01:03:55.220 | And honestly, Mexico has come so far

01:03:59.620 | from the days of Montezuma's revenge.

01:04:01.380 | That doesn't mean that you can't get

01:04:02.860 | sick when you travel to Mexico.

01:04:04.140 | You can get sick when you travel anywhere.

01:04:07.260 | The first recommendation I'd have

01:04:08.540 | is don't drink yourself silly.

01:04:12.420 | Use sunblock.

01:04:13.660 | And don't get sunburned.

01:04:15.340 | And don't get dehydrated, right?

01:04:16.940 | That's usually the beginning of all of this stuff.

01:04:21.500 | But the whole education and consciousness

01:04:26.140 | about water purification and even ice purification,

01:04:30.940 | you don't have to ask anymore, is the water purified, right?

01:04:33.740 | I mean, in tourists, in restaurants,

01:04:36.420 | locals are not drinking tap water.

01:04:38.660 | Locals are drinking purified water.

01:04:40.260 | Locals are drinking purified ice.

01:04:43.100 | And in terms of safety and security,

01:04:45.300 | look, anywhere you can have issues,

01:04:48.180 | the idea is to be in the right place at the right time.

01:04:50.940 | Mexico is safe in general.

01:04:53.860 | And it behooves you-- and it's really your responsibility

01:04:56.840 | as a traveler-- to make sure that you understand

01:04:59.100 | what are the safe places.

01:05:00.340 | I mean, what about parts of upper Manhattan?

01:05:04.940 | What about parts of Chicago and Detroit?

01:05:07.340 | Like, there is--

01:05:09.260 | I think you said you're in the Bay Area, right?

01:05:11.340 | There are certainly places in the Bay Area

01:05:13.060 | you wouldn't want to be after dark.

01:05:16.500 | There's parts of LA and San Diego as well.

01:05:19.060 | So Houston, Dallas.

01:05:20.380 | So knowing where you should be and where you shouldn't,

01:05:24.220 | being well aware of your whereabouts.

01:05:27.300 | And those are all kind of recommendations

01:05:30.180 | you make for any place you travel in the world.

01:05:32.380 | Mexico is still a developing country.

01:05:34.580 | So you have to keep your wits about you

01:05:37.780 | and be well-educated and aware.

01:05:40.180 | But I don't think it's a reason why people should not--

01:05:44.340 | would I recommend to my own mother, my own sister,

01:05:47.500 | my own family to travel just about anywhere in Mexico?

01:05:50.180 | I would.

01:05:50.460 | And if there are places that I would recommend

01:05:52.460 | they don't travel, I'd let them know that as well.

01:05:54.820 | Yeah, I always tell people, you know,

01:05:56.500 | you read guides online that say, well, this place is safe.

01:05:59.660 | It might not be safe.

01:06:00.700 | Keep your money in a money belt and all this stuff.

01:06:03.300 | I always point out that if you go pick up

01:06:05.140 | The Lonely Planet for New York, it says a similar thing.

01:06:07.780 | Like, we don't read guidebooks for our own towns.

01:06:10.700 | So we don't realize that the general advice

01:06:14.300 | applies everywhere.

01:06:15.700 | And would you say that, like, a hotel concierge or the person

01:06:19.980 | at the front desk is, like, a good person to ask?

01:06:22.020 | Or how would someone get acquainted with where to

01:06:24.820 | and not to go?

01:06:25.500 | Absolutely.

01:06:26.260 | I think that your hotel staff, I think even taxi drivers,

01:06:30.700 | you know, I mean, official taxi drivers,

01:06:32.820 | that's another recommendation we always make.

01:06:34.820 | You don't take just a taxi off the street.

01:06:36.580 | You get it at the airport, the official taxis,

01:06:38.900 | or at the hotel, an official taxi stand.

01:06:41.780 | But locals don't want visitors getting hurt or in trouble.

01:06:46.260 | So absolutely, I think the concierge, the reception,

01:06:49.780 | they're going to give you good advice as to where, what, when,

01:06:52.180 | with whom, how to get around, and how to keep yourself safe.

01:06:55.740 | So you said official taxis.

01:06:57.660 | What other things, just kind of running

01:06:59.540 | through the how to get the best optimized trip to Mexico,

01:07:03.580 | I'll give one question.

01:07:05.220 | I always remember my cousin and I were in Puerto Vallarta.

01:07:08.700 | My grandparents had a timeshare for 20 years in Puerto Vallarta

01:07:12.460 | at the Mayan palace.

01:07:14.460 | And then they kept upgrading.

01:07:17.340 | And we were always thinking, gosh,

01:07:19.700 | it seems like we wanted to go dune bugging in high school.

01:07:24.620 | And it was like, everyone seemed like they

01:07:26.660 | were going to make 20%, 30%.

01:07:29.020 | And the way it always worked was pay us a 20% down payment

01:07:32.780 | and pay the rest when you get there.

01:07:34.540 | So we had convinced ourselves that if we could just

01:07:36.980 | find the source, we could avoid the 20%.

01:07:41.020 | Is that the way it works?

01:07:42.740 | What advice do you give someone who's

01:07:44.260 | trying to avoid getting taken advantage of in that way?

01:07:49.580 | I think that you want to think about it in a different way.

01:07:52.860 | What you really want, especially when you're going dune bugging,

01:07:56.100 | is to find the best operated, safest dune buggies.

01:08:01.140 | And so you need a trusted source to get you there,

01:08:04.980 | not just someone who wants to make money on you.

01:08:07.220 | The cost of distribution, you know

01:08:09.180 | how wholesale and retail works.

01:08:11.540 | The dune buggy guy is focused on running his dune buggies.

01:08:14.380 | He's not focused on marketing and selling you tours.

01:08:16.860 | So he has a whole army of people,

01:08:18.420 | from timeshare salesmen, to concierge companies,

01:08:21.580 | to airport transportation people.

01:08:24.500 | So I think that the key is working with an expert company

01:08:29.580 | that is locally based, that has their eyes and ears

01:08:32.460 | to the ground, and can really, at the end of the day,

01:08:34.620 | everyone has to make their money.

01:08:36.260 | And if you buy the tour directly from the tour company,

01:08:38.740 | you're still going to pay the retail price.

01:08:41.180 | But you just don't know which tour company to buy from.

01:08:43.500 | So I think using travel professionals who are really

01:08:46.860 | experts and have local presence and eyes and ears on the ground,

01:08:50.220 | that's my recommendation.

01:08:52.100 | And where do the hotels fit into that?

01:08:56.220 | Is it find the experts in organizing trips and adventures,

01:09:00.140 | or is that over using your hotel as a source?

01:09:04.860 | I think that's a little tricky.

01:09:06.780 | I do think, in general, that hotels

01:09:08.820 | want you to have a good experience.

01:09:10.300 | They want to see you coming back from your tour day with smiles

01:09:13.780 | and having had a great time.

01:09:16.220 | That said, hotels are also incentivized by commission.

01:09:21.100 | But I would like to think that, in general, they're

01:09:24.500 | going to get a commission from whomever they work with.

01:09:26.860 | They'd like to work with the people that

01:09:28.260 | are going to return you safe and sound

01:09:29.940 | and with a smile on your face.

01:09:32.020 | Tips for traveling, or booking, or saving money,

01:09:35.460 | or anything that kind of falls outside

01:09:37.140 | of the general overview?

01:09:39.660 | Since you mentioned money and how

01:09:40.900 | to avoid excessive surcharges and commissions,

01:09:44.420 | I found the best way to get cash is actually using your ATM card.

01:09:48.180 | Just check before you leave what are the affiliated banks

01:09:53.540 | in the country you're going to.

01:09:56.140 | And in addition, when you take out the money,

01:10:00.740 | make sure that you decline their conversion.

01:10:03.700 | The ATMs in Mexico will--

01:10:05.340 | you'll say, OK, I want 10,000 pesos.

01:10:07.420 | And then they'll say, OK, 10,000 pesos equals this much dollars.

01:10:10.380 | Do you accept our conversion?

01:10:11.780 | You say no.

01:10:13.300 | And then your bank will do the conversion

01:10:15.140 | at a pre-negotiated rate.

01:10:16.740 | And you're avoiding another level of commission.

01:10:20.700 | So that's the way that I would get cash.

01:10:23.580 | Paying local currency is always better than using dollars,

01:10:26.980 | where you're going to get an onerous conversion or exchange

01:10:30.780 | rate.

01:10:31.340 | And do you need cash?

01:10:32.580 | Or are we at a place now in Mexico

01:10:35.060 | where cards and Apple Pay are--

01:10:37.140 | Cards are ubiquitous.

01:10:38.500 | I mean, cards are widely accepted.

01:10:40.380 | But it's always good to have a little bit of cash.

01:10:42.820 | I mean, even in the States, I walk around

01:10:44.940 | with a $100 bill folded up inside my wallet,

01:10:47.140 | just in case, right?

01:10:48.660 | I carry $100, a $20, and a $2.

01:10:51.220 | Cool, this has been great.

01:10:52.500 | I really appreciate it.

01:10:53.620 | Where can people go find all of this stuff?

01:10:55.460 | We're going to put lots of links in the show notes.

01:10:57.580 | But where can people stay on top of all these great things

01:11:00.180 | you're finding?

01:11:01.820 | We have an extensive website, journeymexico.com.

01:11:07.140 | We've got all kinds of links to accommodation,

01:11:10.140 | to sample itineraries, to best times to travel,

01:11:13.580 | to different ceremonies and celebrations,

01:11:18.340 | different natural migrations, whales, turtles,

01:11:21.940 | all kinds of stuff.

01:11:22.900 | So yeah, I like to think that we've

01:11:25.660 | been told that it's a comprehensive resource.

01:11:27.740 | So you can find that in the trip notes too.

01:11:30.140 | Awesome.

01:11:30.940 | Thank you so much for being here.

01:11:32.500 | Thank you, Chris.

01:11:33.820 | All right, I don't know about you guys,

01:11:35.420 | but I am really excited to go to Mexico.

01:11:37.620 | I already have one trip planned, but I

01:11:39.340 | feel like there's a lot more coming in my future.

01:11:41.980 | So before we wrap, I wanted to dive a little bit

01:11:44.380 | into flights and hotels to help make your next trip even

01:11:47.260 | better.

01:11:48.180 | I'm actually going to do an entire episode sometime

01:11:50.700 | in the next six or seven months that

01:11:52.260 | includes how to search for flights,

01:11:54.220 | how to search for hotels, and get the best

01:11:56.300 | deal with points and miles.

01:11:57.780 | So when I do these country deep dives,

01:11:59.780 | I'm going to focus mostly on some unique, specific things

01:12:02.900 | that are maybe a little different than what you need

01:12:05.100 | to do for any trip in general.

01:12:07.060 | So when I looked into flights, first off,

01:12:10.180 | Mexico is not that far away for people that lived in the US,

01:12:13.420 | or Mexico is not that far away for people

01:12:16.300 | who live in the US or Canada.

01:12:18.300 | And flights can often be pretty cheap.

01:12:20.100 | So it's a little bit of a different experience

01:12:22.020 | than trying to book flights to Iceland or Japan

01:12:24.220 | or other places where you have to cross an ocean

01:12:26.420 | and you might really value being in business class

01:12:28.820 | versus a short flight where economy is just fine.

01:12:31.740 | That said, I'm going to hit both of those things.

01:12:34.060 | And when you're searching for flights,

01:12:35.820 | obviously, Google Flights is your friend.

01:12:37.580 | It's a tool I use.

01:12:38.660 | But because you're in North America

01:12:40.180 | and Southwest flies to Mexico, you'll

01:12:42.620 | definitely want to check the Southwest site as well.

01:12:47.180 | And make sure you're looking at a couple other airlines,

01:12:49.980 | Volaris, Viva Aerobus.

01:12:51.460 | They also fly to the US.

01:12:52.740 | They're not the most obvious.

01:12:54.060 | But I'm going to drill in and quickly focus

01:12:55.860 | on a few unique things I learned about points and miles

01:12:58.540 | just to help you get your searches going.

01:13:00.860 | So first off, I did a bunch of searches just in October

01:13:03.780 | this year to try to get a sense of where you want to book for.

01:13:06.940 | So on the SkyTeam side, Aeromexico

01:13:09.500 | has a ton of flights to the US.

01:13:11.540 | And when you're trying to book those flights,

01:13:13.820 | I found the best way to do it is through Delta.

01:13:16.620 | And so if you have Amex points, you

01:13:18.380 | can transfer directly to Delta.

01:13:20.060 | That's a great option.

01:13:21.460 | Not that you can't book those flights on Aeromexico,

01:13:23.980 | but they're just going to be more expensive.

01:13:25.860 | So for example, I looked at a flight from Chicago

01:13:30.020 | to Mexico City, and the flight was $322.

01:13:33.620 | But on Delta, it was only 10,000 points,

01:13:36.420 | despite being 30,000 points on Aeromexico,

01:13:39.260 | which is as high as $0.03 per point, which

01:13:41.780 | is a great redemption value.

01:13:43.660 | In business, flights are about $550 and 25,000 points

01:13:48.020 | on Delta.

01:13:48.940 | So you could get a little bit lower value, $0.02 per point.

01:13:52.260 | But in general, pretty good redemption value.

01:13:54.500 | I know a lot of times we talk about needing

01:13:56.460 | to go on really far, fancy business class flights

01:13:59.700 | to get good value from our points.

01:14:01.500 | And I know even more, we talk about Delta

01:14:03.300 | being really hard to find any value.

01:14:05.340 | But 10,000 points for a $320 flight

01:14:08.140 | is an awesome deal if you have some Delta points,

01:14:10.780 | or if you have Amex points that you can transfer to Delta.

01:14:13.540 | Next, I looked at a flight in One World on American

01:14:16.140 | from Chicago to Cancun.

01:14:17.900 | In economy, that flight was $291.

01:14:20.420 | And yes, you could book directly with American for 20,000 points.

01:14:24.060 | But you can also book that flight on British Airways

01:14:27.060 | for only 11,000 points.

01:14:28.860 | And British Airways often has transfer bonuses

01:14:31.660 | from Chase and Capital One and American Express.

01:14:36.380 | But even without that, it's great

01:14:39.180 | because British Airways is a transfer partner of almost

01:14:41.660 | every single major card program.

01:14:43.620 | And so you can get obvious points very easily.

01:14:46.780 | That ended up being about $0.06 per point, which is awesome.

01:14:49.940 | And the taxes and fees on British Airways

01:14:52.220 | domestically or within North America

01:14:56.220 | are so much better than they are if you're looking

01:14:58.540 | to fly internationally.

01:15:01.060 | In business class, flight was $486.

01:15:04.500 | And you could do it for 22,000 points on British Airways

01:15:07.500 | or 30,000 points on American.

01:15:09.300 | So not quite as good of a value, but not terrible.

01:15:13.780 | So again, really good values on short-term flights.

01:15:16.900 | But knowing which airline to book through

01:15:19.340 | is part of the challenge of getting the best deal.

01:15:21.700 | Sky Team, Delta was the best.

01:15:23.260 | American, British Airways the best.

01:15:25.100 | Last, I looked at Star Alliance.

01:15:26.860 | I looked at a specific flight from Washington DC to Cancun.

01:15:30.900 | And on United, the flight was $200.

01:15:33.300 | You could actually get it for as low as 10,000 points

01:15:35.860 | as long as you booked on Air Canada.

01:15:37.660 | It was about 12,000 on United, about $0.02 per point.

01:15:40.820 | Not too different booking between the two programs.

01:15:43.260 | But when you look at business class, it changed a lot.

01:15:46.500 | If you booked through Turkish Airways,

01:15:48.060 | a flight that was $469 was 15,000 points.

01:15:51.580 | Air Canada was 20,000 and United was 35,000.

01:15:55.580 | So you could get a much, much better deal

01:15:57.940 | booking on Turkish Airways.

01:15:59.620 | And you could get as high as 3 cents per point that way.

01:16:03.700 | Not saying you need to use all your points

01:16:05.180 | for a first class or business class flight going to Mexico.

01:16:07.900 | 'Cause if you're in North America,

01:16:09.180 | the flights are pretty short.

01:16:10.620 | But it is worth pointing out that where you search

01:16:13.180 | and where you book might be different.

01:16:15.260 | And just because it's a United plane

01:16:17.140 | doesn't mean United is gonna be the right place to book.

01:16:20.340 | Also worth noting that taxes and fees

01:16:22.820 | across different airlines can be different.

01:16:24.980 | So while Air Canada looked like the better option in coach

01:16:28.820 | because it was 10,000 versus 12,000 points,

01:16:31.740 | the taxes and fees were about twice as high.

01:16:34.140 | So definitely compare both number of points

01:16:36.480 | and taxes and fees on that route.

01:16:38.340 | A few other things related to flights that are interesting.

01:16:42.220 | Number one, Southwest Companion Pass.

01:16:45.040 | If you have a lot of trips to Mexico planned

01:16:46.980 | can be a really, really, really great option.

01:16:49.340 | I've talked about this in the past,

01:16:50.580 | so you can go to allthehacks.com and search.

01:16:53.060 | But in general, if you can manage to,

01:16:55.180 | through credit card points or flight points,

01:16:58.180 | build up enough points, which I think right now

01:17:00.220 | is 135,000 on Southwest.

01:17:03.820 | Whatever year you hit that milestone,

01:17:05.660 | you get Companion Pass that year and the next year.

01:17:08.120 | And because you can go to Mexico with Southwest,

01:17:10.100 | you can get two for one flights for that entire period,

01:17:13.300 | which could be as much as almost two years.

01:17:15.620 | Last cool flight hack, which is very niche.

01:17:18.700 | If you live in San Diego,

01:17:20.540 | I only recently learned about this.

01:17:22.220 | Maybe it is common knowledge for everyone there,

01:17:24.500 | but there's actually a cross-border,

01:17:27.380 | kind of border crossing at the Tijuana Airport,

01:17:30.360 | where you can drive, park in the US,

01:17:32.860 | and the Tijuana Airport is literally

01:17:34.340 | right on the other side of the border.

01:17:36.060 | So you can go through cross-border express,

01:17:38.100 | do all your customs and immigration much, much faster,

01:17:42.140 | literally cross a bridge over the border into Mexico,

01:17:45.260 | into the Tijuana Airport,

01:17:46.760 | and then buy domestic flights within Mexico.

01:17:49.700 | And they are so, so, so much cheaper.

01:17:52.540 | Not worth it if you need to fly to San Diego

01:17:54.820 | and then take an Uber or a Lyft between airports,

01:17:58.380 | probably not a good thing.

01:17:59.220 | But if you're already in San Diego and you haven't tried that

01:18:02.140 | a friend of mine did that and had a great experience.

01:18:04.740 | Okay, when it comes to hotels,

01:18:05.860 | similarly gonna do a whole episode here,

01:18:08.100 | because I think that the strategies

01:18:10.620 | for each of these episodes,

01:18:11.740 | when I talk about a country are pretty much the same.

01:18:14.340 | So for Mexico, you know, between Hyatt at 59 hotels,

01:18:18.720 | Marriott at 274, Hilton at 93,

01:18:21.840 | and IHG I couldn't figure out,

01:18:23.360 | but Google Bards says IHG has 524 hotels in Mexico.

01:18:27.760 | I assume that number is wrong,

01:18:29.280 | but I think the moral of the story is

01:18:30.720 | there are hundreds of hotels

01:18:31.960 | you can book with points in Mexico.

01:18:33.640 | So going through all of them would just be way too much.

01:18:36.480 | I will highlight a few places

01:18:38.100 | that I'm either excited about,

01:18:39.320 | have stayed at, or have heard good things.

01:18:42.480 | If you're going to Cabo,

01:18:43.940 | the Waldorf with Hilton points, I've heard is incredible.

01:18:46.780 | The Cape with Hyatt points, I've heard is incredible.

01:18:49.780 | And Solaz, which closed down for a couple of years

01:18:53.620 | using Bonvoy points through Marriott,

01:18:55.900 | we have stayed at and I can say

01:18:57.780 | that it was really, really great.

01:18:59.940 | Everything from the pool, to the food, to the drinks,

01:19:01.980 | we had a wonderful time.

01:19:03.500 | I would definitely go back there.

01:19:05.580 | If you're going to Punta Mida,

01:19:07.860 | the St. Regis and the Conrad both look great.

01:19:09.820 | I have not been to either.

01:19:11.240 | If you're going to kind of Cancun, Riviera Maya,

01:19:13.780 | the Andaz Mayakoba is one that we've had on our list.

01:19:16.780 | That entire Mayakoba complex,

01:19:18.620 | you can kind of search around a little bit, looks amazing.

01:19:21.260 | If you really want to splurge,

01:19:22.740 | you can go to the Rosewood Mayakoba,

01:19:24.300 | which looks just a level above.

01:19:27.380 | But we talked about our points,

01:19:28.900 | so I haven't been there yet.

01:19:30.820 | I have been to the JW in Cancun

01:19:33.060 | on a family trip almost a decade ago,

01:19:35.780 | and it was a great experience for exactly what you want.

01:19:38.940 | A really nice JW Marriott hotel,

01:19:41.640 | pools, beaches, everything.

01:19:44.400 | It was just good,

01:19:46.160 | but there was nothing that really set it out

01:19:48.000 | side of craziness for me.

01:19:50.320 | In Mexico City, we stayed at the St. Regis,

01:19:52.960 | super central, fantastic experience, really loved it.

01:19:56.600 | But Las Alcobas also looks like a cool hotel

01:19:59.040 | we might check out next time.

01:20:00.680 | And then across a couple of different cities in Mexico,

01:20:04.560 | I know at least Cancun and Cabo,

01:20:06.200 | Hyatt has these two brands, the Zalara and the Ziva,

01:20:10.320 | and they're both all-inclusive.

01:20:12.280 | And I've heard really great experiences about both.

01:20:15.260 | One of them happens to be adults only,

01:20:18.240 | so Zalara is all-inclusive adults only,

01:20:20.300 | and Ziva is like all-inclusive families.

01:20:23.040 | Definitely something that I want to try out

01:20:24.840 | on a future trip.

01:20:26.120 | Ziva is probably the one in our future,

01:20:29.320 | but if anyone's had good or bad experiences there,

01:20:31.440 | let me know.

01:20:32.560 | I've been fortunate to go to Cabo quite a few times

01:20:35.320 | for group trips, many bachelor parties in my years,

01:20:39.320 | and booking villas is also a really great option.

01:20:42.120 | So just because you can't use points there

01:20:44.280 | doesn't mean it's not worth considering.

01:20:47.080 | Having a big house for a lot of people,

01:20:49.120 | we did this also for my family over the holidays

01:20:51.800 | a couple of years ago, you can hire a chef,

01:20:54.880 | and it just really creates an amazing experience.

01:20:57.500 | So if anyone needs help with that,

01:20:59.480 | I have a bunch of good relationships

01:21:01.040 | with some villa companies, happy to connect you there.

01:21:03.440 | You can just shoot me an email, podcast@allthehacks.com.

01:21:06.640 | Also for houses, you can use Capital One Points

01:21:10.160 | or Wyndham Points and Capital One Transfers to Wyndham

01:21:13.760 | to book vacasas, and you can get as high

01:21:16.080 | as two to three cents per point there.

01:21:17.580 | So you can go search online,

01:21:19.460 | or I'll put a link in the show notes

01:21:20.720 | to find the Wyndham to Vacasa transfer flow

01:21:24.240 | and how it works, but that's an option.

01:21:26.400 | And then last, I just helped,

01:21:30.020 | I just put together a site that I'd love to share

01:21:32.760 | with anyone who's interested.

01:21:33.880 | Just shoot us an email, podcast@allthehacks.com

01:21:37.160 | to help you use our upgrade program online.

01:21:40.400 | Alternatively, you can go to allthehacks.com/upgrade

01:21:43.260 | or email, get email upgrade@allthehacks.com.

01:21:46.720 | Alternatively, you can go to allthehacks.com/upgrade

01:21:48.800 | and read a little bit more about it.

01:21:50.360 | But we have a site where you can look online

01:21:53.100 | and book all of these five-star properties,

01:21:55.680 | not with points, but through the various programs

01:21:59.280 | where you get upgrades and perks.

01:22:01.000 | So for example, in almost all of them,

01:22:02.760 | you'll end up getting free breakfast,

01:22:04.840 | you'll get an upgrade if it's available,

01:22:07.240 | early, late checkout, early check-in, late checkout

01:22:09.660 | if it's available, and usually a property credit

01:22:12.080 | of somewhere around $100 for your stay there.

01:22:14.940 | Very similar to the Amex Fine Hotels and Resorts perks,

01:22:17.960 | except it's about 3,000, 4,000 hotels

01:22:20.820 | instead of Amex's 1,000.

01:22:22.680 | And we finally have put together a site

01:22:24.720 | so you can use that yourself

01:22:26.000 | and do your searching on your own.

01:22:27.460 | So if you want access to it, shoot me an email

01:22:30.280 | or go to allthehacks.com/upgrade.

01:22:32.500 | And then last, I wanna do an episode on this,

01:22:34.840 | but I'll do a quick rundown

01:22:36.020 | 'cause there's a few sites and tools

01:22:37.900 | for booking award rooms with hotels

01:22:41.080 | that I've noticed recently,

01:22:42.160 | and I just wanna do a really quick overview of them.

01:22:45.240 | So first, I've talked about Aways a lot,

01:22:47.800 | and you can go to allthehacks.com/aways

01:22:50.100 | to get a special deal there.

01:22:51.940 | I think Aways is the best tool for a search where you say,

01:22:55.640 | I wanna go to Paris and I wanna use my points

01:22:58.120 | and I have points in these programs, what should I do?

01:23:00.880 | And that is the search that I think they nail

01:23:03.200 | and they do a really fantastic job.

01:23:05.320 | And usually that's how we're doing our searches,

01:23:07.160 | so it's usually my first place to go.

01:23:09.980 | However, one of my favorite sites

01:23:11.780 | for searching for flight availability is seats.arrow,

01:23:15.680 | and they just launched in beta rooms.arrow.

01:23:19.040 | And if you go to that site, they don't support IHG,

01:23:22.360 | but they have Hilton, they have Hyatt,

01:23:24.880 | they have Bariat, and it's really good

01:23:28.160 | if you're really open to anything.

01:23:30.840 | You're like, I want a really great property,

01:23:32.940 | I'm flexible where I stay, flexible on my dates especially,

01:23:37.060 | and they'll show you options across everything.

01:23:40.400 | So they basically index all the stays at all the hotels

01:23:43.360 | and have a big database you can filter on.

01:23:45.880 | So you really need flexibility there,

01:23:48.320 | or you need to be kind of enjoy filtering big databases.

01:23:52.560 | And on that, if you want to sign up

01:23:54.560 | and support the show, you can go

01:23:55.560 | to allthehacks.com/seatsarrow, A-E-R-O,

01:23:58.920 | that's my affiliate link.

01:24:00.320 | Two other sites, staywithpoints.com and maxmypoint.com.

01:24:05.320 | Both of them are tools to be able to set alerts

01:24:08.560 | and then also find availability at very specific properties.

01:24:11.880 | So this is great if you're like,

01:24:13.320 | I want to stay at the Ventana in Big Sur,

01:24:16.300 | and I just wanna see what's happening.

01:24:18.640 | You can do that same search on Aways and rooms.arrow,

01:24:21.280 | but this is their sole purpose.

01:24:23.040 | But the big thing they do is they allow you to send alerts.

01:24:25.840 | So if there's a place you wanna stay

01:24:27.200 | and you wanna set up an alert so you get notified

01:24:29.140 | when it opens up, you can do that there.

01:24:31.140 | Stay With Points has a better UI,

01:24:33.900 | but when I was looking at a few examples,

01:24:35.600 | it seemed that their availability was less accurate.

01:24:38.440 | I probably won't let the UI win in that case.

01:24:41.160 | And Max My Point, in my opinion,

01:24:43.260 | had a very outdated older UI, but at least worked.

01:24:47.640 | And you can get your first alert free

01:24:49.640 | and with referral links, you can get more.

01:24:51.800 | And so if you wanna help me out

01:24:53.540 | and give me access to these tools,

01:24:54.840 | you can use our referral links for any of these,

01:24:56.920 | allthehacks.com/seatsarrow, allthehacks.com/maxmypoint.

01:25:01.240 | And like I said earlier, allthehacks.com/aways with a Z.

01:25:04.920 | So those are some of the tools.

01:25:06.600 | I'll do a much bigger deep dive on how to search for

01:25:09.200 | and book hotels with points,

01:25:10.920 | but I just wanted to flag those

01:25:12.240 | 'cause I've been starting to play with them a bit more.

01:25:14.520 | I hope that's super helpful for you guys

01:25:16.080 | to plan and book your next trip to Mexico.

01:25:18.600 | I wanna hear about it because it's awesome.

01:25:20.880 | And I might actually partner with every person I do

01:25:24.000 | one of these country episodes on

01:25:25.720 | to plan future All The Hacks trips.

01:25:28.200 | So the URL is still a little focused on the Iceland trip

01:25:31.400 | we're planning for next year.

01:25:33.440 | But if you go to allthehacks.com/iceland,

01:25:36.360 | there's a survey there.

01:25:37.320 | Even if you're not interested in Iceland

01:25:38.680 | and you really just wanna go to Mexico or Japan,

01:25:40.840 | you can go fill that out and let us know.

01:25:43.240 | And that's kind of a good opportunity

01:25:44.720 | for us to learn what people are looking for

01:25:47.160 | so we can plan some of these trips

01:25:48.960 | for listeners and readers and subscribers.

01:25:51.280 | All right, that's all we got this week.

01:25:53.040 | If you need anything, podcast@allthehacks.com

01:25:55.760 | and we will see you next week.

Mexico: Insider Secrets and Travel Tips for Your Next Trip

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