TRAVEL ON A BUDGET: HOW A WEEKEND TRIP TO MEXICO WAS CHEAPER THAN A WEEKEND TRIP TO MIAMI
“There’s a whole world out there… ya’ll are going to Miami and Atlanta yourselves to death…”
–Random Instagram Meme
I saw this quote on Instagram and it tickled me… now, there’s definitely nothing wrong with going to Miami, and if you know me, then you know I’m in Atlanta at least three times a year. But at one point I was definitely that person that was only visiting Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas… It wasn’t until 2016 that I started thinking outside the box and traveling to other places. I just had to figure out that traveling didn’t always have to be super expensive!
So guys… let me tell you how a quick weekend trip to Mexico ended up being cheaper than a quick weekend trip to Miami.
So here’s the tea…
Last month I traveled to Mexico to celebrate my cousin’s birthday. It was my first time visiting the country and even though our trip was really short, I had a blast and can’t wait to go back!
So, since Miami is typically a quick weekend getaway, my cousin decided that was where she wanted to go for her birthday this year. However, once we calculated flights, food, and hotel… we were about to come out of pocket with about $1,000 a piece… Nah bruh!!!! That price was definitely not going to work! I’m not sure what was going on in Miami that weekend, but prices were through the roof for hotels and plane tickets were almost $400 for the weekend, even with every hack I used to get deals. So, myself and another friend that was joining us on the trip posed a question to my cousin “If we can find an out of the country trip for less than $600 would you be willing to get a passport?” Before I could even finish my sentence she quickly responded… “YES!!!” And so, the search for a cheap weekend getaway began!
We stumbled upon Bookit.com and found a ton of amazing resorts, we knew we needed to stay within a certain budget so we were willing to go with resorts that weren’t rated as Book It’s “Top Ten”, but were still rated nicely on Trip Advisor and Google. We chose the Occidental Costa Cancun all inclusive resort. For those that don’t know, “All Inclusive” resorts include all food, beverages, various activities and entertainment. Staying at an all inclusive resort really gets you the most bag for your buck… This particular resort was pretty nice, had good reviews, and for three days and two nights, our total came to $612 which divided three ways ended up being $205 a piece… JACKPOT!
Our Room at Occidental Costa Cancun
One of the cool things about Book It, is you don’t have to pay everything up front. We put a down payment of $5 to book our hotel and then on the 30th of each month one of us made a payment of $203.33.
With the hotel booked, all we needed was to find plane tickets. We were able to find flights with Spirit (yea yea yea I know I’ve talked so much trash about them) for about $243 (we got our flights for SUPER early in the morning so that we could maximize our time in Cancun). This brings our trip total to $446.33 per person. Note: if we didn’t wait until the last minute to book our flights, we could have gotten them for $100 cheaper maybe even more.
Full off tacos and soaking up the sun!
Since our trip was super quick, there wasn’t much time for excursions. We did have time to take a trip to a spa and do a little shopping. Our total spent on shopping and massages was about $150. Our final total was around $600 per person which was the exact amount of our budget. Actually… I didn’t do any of that… I left my cousin and her friend behind and spent my entire weekend laid up on the beach and eating the bomb food at the restaurants at the resort ( sorry they had me at all you can eat tacos *Kanye shrug*). While my cousin and her friend spent $600 on their trip, my trip total was $446.33. I’m a pretty simple person, so I really don’t need the excursions on a trip… I’m content with just walking around… seeing the sites… and laying up on the beach eating tacos!
And that’s how a quick weekend trip to Mexico was less than a quick weekend trip to Miami!
While two days in Mexico may not be ideal for some, it was just enough time for me to escape reality and keep my budget in tact.
As I’ve mentioned before, traveling doesn’t have to to break the bank. You just have to be willing to think outside the box and do a little bit of research.
