Accommodation

Finding a room is rarely difficult – in areas that are not overly touristy the cheap places to stay are usually concentrated around the main plaza (the zócalo), with others near the market, train station or bus station (or where the bus station used to be, before it moved to the outskirts of town). In bigger cities, there’s usually a relatively small area in which you’ll find the bulk of the less expensive possibilities. The more modern and expensive places often lie on the outskirts of towns, accessible only by car or taxi. The only times you’re likely to have big problems finding somewhere to stay are in coastal resorts over the peak Christmas season, at Easter, on Mexican holidays and almost anywhere during a local fiesta, when it’s well worth trying to reserve ahead.

Hotels

Mexican hotels may describe themselves as anything from paradores, posadas and casas de huéspedes to plain hoteles, all terms that are used more or less interchangeably. A parador is totally unrelated to its upmarket Spanish namesake, for example, and although in theory a casa de huéspedes means a small cheap place like a guesthouse, you won’t find this necessarily to be the case.

All rooms should have an official price displayed, though this is not always a guide to quality – a filthy fleapit and a beautifully run converted mansion may charge exactly the same, even if they’re right next door to each other. The only recourse for guaranteeing quality is seeing your room first. You should never pay more than the official rate (though just occasionally the sign may not have kept up with inflation) and in the low season you can often pay less. The charging system varies: sometimes it’s per person, but usually the price quoted will be for the room regardless of how many people occupy it, so sharing can mean big savings. A room with one double bed (cama matrimonial) is almost always cheaper than a room with two singles (doble or con dos camas), and most hotels have large “family” rooms with several beds, which are tremendous value for groups. In the big resorts, there are lots of apartments that sleep six or more and include cooking facilities, for yet more savings. A little gentle haggling rarely goes amiss, and many places will have some rooms that cost less, so just ask (“Tiene un cuarto mas barato?”).

Air-conditioning (aire acondicionado) is a feature that inflates prices – it is frequently optional. Unless it’s unbearably hot and humid, a room with a simple ceiling fan (ventilador) is generally better; except in the most expensive places, the air-conditioning units are almost always noisy and inefficient, whereas a fan can be left running silently all night and the draught helps to keep insects away. It might seem too obvious to mention, but be careful of the ceiling fans, which are often quite low. In winter, especially at altitude or in the desert, it will of course be heating rather than cooling that you want – if there isn’t any, make sure there’s enough bedding and ask for extra blankets if necessary.

When looking at a room, you should always check its insect proofing. Cockroaches and ants are common, and there’s not much you can do about them, but decent netting will keep mosquitoes and worse out and allow you to sleep.

Campsites, hammocks and cabañas

Camping is easy enough if you are hiking in the backcountry, or happy simply to crash on a beach, but robberies are common, especially in places with a lot of tourists. There are very few organized campsites, and those that do exist are first and foremost trailer parks, not particularly pleasant to pitch tents in. Of course, if you have a van or RV you can use these or park just about anywhere else – there are a good number of facilities in the well-travelled areas, especially down the Pacific coast and Baja.

If you’re planning to do a lot of camping, an international camping card is a good investment, serving as useful ID and getting you discounts at member sites. It is available from home motoring organizations.

In a lot of less official campsites, you will be able to rent a hammock and a place to sling it for the same price as pitching a tent (around US$5/£3), maybe less, and certainly less if you’re packing your own hammock (Mexico is a good place to buy these, especially in and around Mérida in the Yucatán).

Beach huts, or cabañas, are found at the more rustic, backpacker-oriented beach resorts, and sometimes inland. Usually just a wooden or palm-frond shack with a hammock slung up inside (or a place to sling your own), they are frequently without electricity, though as a resort gets more popular, they tend to transform into sturdier beach bungalows with modern conveniences and higher prices. At backwaters and beaches too untouristed for even cabañas, you should still be able to sling a hammock somewhere (probably the local bar or restaurant, where the palapa serves as shelter and shade).

Hostels

There are fifteen official youth hostels in Mexico, charging around M$100 per person for basic, single-sex dorm facilities. A YH card is not usually necessary, but you usually pay slightly more without one. Rules are strict in some places (no booze, 11pm curfew, up and out by 9am) but others are open 24 hours and provide kitchen facilities, laundry, travel advice, internet and other services. At holiday periods they may be taken over by Mexican groups. There’s a list of official youth hostels (with contact details, prices, location maps and online booking), on the HIM website (wwww.hostellingmexico.com), but most hostels are not YHA-affiliated, and generally have mixed dorms, liberal alcohol policies and no curfews.

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