At long last, I’ve scoured the Spreadsheet archives to unearth the total cost of our travel hack of Cancun, Mexico back in November 2020. We spent an entire week relaxing on the beautiful beaches of the Hotel Zone, including several days with some good friends (and future FI travel buddies).
Let’s dig into the details!
Where We Went
We spent 8 days/7 nights at two different resorts in Cancun. Nights 1-3 were at the Hyatt Zilara Cancun, an adults-only all-inclusive resort on the northeastern side of the Zona Hotelera. Nights 4-7 were spent with our friends at The Royal Cancun, a smaller family-friendly resort located on the more laid-back portion of the beach.
Days 1-4: Travel Day & Hyatt Zilara Cancun
Flights
As I mentioned in my Travel Hack Recap of Colorado, Travel Day is one of the most exciting days in our household. Our early morning Southwest flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Cancun (CUN), with a short layover in Nashville, arrived in Cancun around 1:30pm local time. Plus side of traveling during a pandemic: no lines. It took us about 10 minutes to go through security at MSP, and maybe 15 minutes to get through customs and out the door to our transfer shuttle in Cancun. Pretty slick.
Transportation
In Cancun, the transportation scene at the airport is complete chaos. There are people everywhere, hawking rental cars, taxis, and luxury rides to your destination. We highly recommend booking your airport transfer ahead of time with a reputable company. Contact your resort and ask them if they have a preferred transfer partner, or any recommendations. Follow that up with some research of your own – you won’t regret it. Avoid the tourist horror stories of extortion (or worse…) and get to your destination safely, even if it costs a little extra. We rode with Kalido Tours from CUN to the Hyatt Zilara for $35 plus tip and had a great experience.
Accommodations
Upon our arrival at the Hyatt Zilara, we were greeted by friendly hotel staff observing all the pandemic-related precautions we have come to know and love. At the time of our stay, masks were required inside the building and there were hand sanitizer stations everywhere. Hotel staff were wiping down handrails, spraying pool furniture, and generally making us feel confident that we weren’t going to catch COVID here. They rely heavily on American money to maintain their operations and it would be pretty difficult to do that with a virus outbreak on their hands.
The rest of our time at the Hyatt Zilara was pretty uneventful, which was by design. Unfortunately, the food and entertainment options were limited due to COVID restrictions. I still managed to survive by drinking my bodyweight in strawberry daiquiris. The rooms were clean, service was great, and the views were incredible – the cover photo for this post was taken from our balcony. The best part? All three nights were (almost) FREE. Just 25,000 Hyatt points per night (later reduced down to 18,750 due to a 25% points back promo), plus a small environmental fee.
Days 4-7: The Royal Cancun
After checking out of our room at the Hyatt (I still miss the view), we had the front desk arrange us a taxi to our next destination, The Royal Cancun Resort. If memory serves, we paid $20 cash, which included tip. We arrived at the Royal Cancun and were immediately met by our good friends, whom we hadn’t seen in over a year.
These friends of ours are also on the path to retiring early, so we have a fun little competition going to see who can hit their FI number first. Best of all, they get as excited about smoking hot travel deals as I do.
They stayed at a sister resort of The Royal Cancun during their honeymoon a couple years back and agreed to come back for 5 days/4 nights in a 2 bedroom suite for just $500. The catch? They had to sit in on one of those infamous timeshare presentations. Luckily, they’re really good at saying no, so it just cost them a couple hours of their time.
The Royal Cancun is a smaller, slightly older resort with mostly family-friendly suites. They have just two restaurants on site but they also partner with a few other local restaurants that are included in your all-inclusive package – just hop on a free shuttle bus between destinations and you get to sample some of the authentic local fare. You can also take the shuttle to the sister resorts, including the Royal Sands, where we spent a day at their much larger beach and pool.
Day 8: Travel Home
They say all good things must come to an end, and this trip was no different. After 7 full days enjoying the sun and sand, good food and good company, we took a shuttle back to the airport and headed home.
How Much We Spent (and Saved)
This is a money blog, so let’s talk about money. After all, I’ve teased the life-altering benefits of travel hacking for some time now. How did this trip measure up?
| Category | Budget | Actual | Notes |
| Flights | $22.40 | $179.28 | $89.64 per person (international fees…) + 55,614 Southwest Rapid Rewards miles |
| Hotels | $0.00 | $3.91 | $3.91 “environmental fee” at the Hyatt Zilara + 56,250 Hyatt points |
| Food/Drink | $160.00 | $165.70 | Rough estimate of tips for meals, a million daiquiris, and an airport coffee |
| Entertainment | $0.00 | $0.00 | No off-site excursions; plenty of free lounging on the beach |
| Transportation | $170.00 | $148.59 | $86 of this was the Lyft to and from MSP; rest was transfers in Cancun |
| TOTAL | $642.40 | $787.48 |
The budget was botched a bit by forgetting to include the international taxes and fees, but $180 for 2 round trips tickets is still a steal. I also botched the “how much money did this actually save us” question…I didn’t make a note of the cash value of those flights or hotel nights at the time, so the value of the points we redeemed is hard to quantify. By reaching into the deep recesses of Mrs. FIby35’s memory, we estimate the flights were about $350 per person round trip. The cash value of 3 nights at the Hyatt Zilara were also about $350 per night at the time, for a total of $1,050. While not exact since this post is 4 months after the trip, it’s pretty safe to assume we saved over $1,500 by travel hacking our trip to Cancun. That doesn’t even take into the account the deal we got sharing a suite with our friends at the Royal Cancun.
Conclusion
Ugh, I miss Mexico. The weather was perfect and the price was absolutely right. Not to mention, enough free rum to drown a pirate. This was our third trip to Mexico and each vacation has been unique and enjoyable. With reasonable costs and a boat load of Southwest points to use, we will certainly be back again soon.
