All of our accommodation in Mexico!

Just in case anyone fancies a trip to Mexico in the near future, I've rounded up all of our accommodation and included links and some basic info on each place.

We booked pretty much everything through either booking.com or Airbnb.co.uk. When we used to travel as just a couple I was happy to wing it and find places to stay on arrival; the idea of doing this with two kids in tow did not fill me with joy. I booked most of our accommodation several months in advance once I'd figured out our route but I chose places that offered free cancellation right up until a week or so before arrival to give us some flexibility if our plans changed. 

This is the massive advantage of booking.com and Airbnb - the ability to have places sorted but also have the freedom to switch things around if we needed to. I have also stressed for a long time about our budget and whether it would be sufficient for all the stuff we wanted to do so I found it much easier to have places booked and therefore a reasonable idea of how much accommodation was going to cost in advance.

The other big advantage of using booking.com is that if you use QuidCo.com you can click through from their website to book and you earn cashback on every booking. I've only been using this for a few months and I've earned around £200 cashback so far!

So below is a full list of everywhere we stayed during our month in Mexico.

Hotelito del Mar, Playa del Carmen (7 nights)

Cost per night: GBP£63/US$79

Though we didn't love Playa del Carmen, this little hotel was really lovely and away from the hectic centre of town but only a 10-min walk to the beach. The rooftop pool was fab and we were often the only ones up there. Each apartment had it's own wifi router which meant that the wifi was fast and reliable, and the beds were super comfy, the aircon was powerful (very helpful in the Yucatan heat!) and the boys loved the fact that there was a TV in each bedroom loaded up with Netflix and Disney+.

Hotel San Clemente, Valladolid (4 nights)

Cost per night: GBP£32.50/US$41

This was definitely one of the more old-fashioned places we stayed, and I was a bit nervous prior to check-in as it had got some mixed reviews online. It was cheap though and after staying in Playa del Carmen for a week this was our priority! 

The rooms are quite dated and the bathrooms definitely need a refresh, but the pool and the communal courtyard area are beautiful and the hotel is right on the corner of the main square in Valladolid, so the location couldn't really be any better. 

The wifi didn't quite stretch to the rooms but it was fast in the courtyard which was a nice spot to hang out in anyway. The showers were hot and the beds were comfy enough. All in all this was a pretty good value stay.

Santa Fe Studios and Suites, Cancun (1 night)

Cost per night: GBP£48/US$59.85

We stayed here to one night as we had a flight from Cancun airport to Mexico City the next day. It was in a quiet residential area, and though it was closer to the airport than downtown Cancun it was still further away than I thought and so the taxi was costlier than I anticipated! 

The room itself was really nice and the shared kitchen/pool area was lovely. From the pics on booking.com I thought this place came with it's own kitchen but they are basically just rooms with access to a shared space (which was fine for us for one night, just something I wasn't aware of!).

Centro Apartment, Mexico City (4 nights)

Cost per night: GBP£61.50/US$77

I've written a little about this place in my Mexico City blog post here. We loved this apartment - right in the historic centre but super quiet and tucked away from the hectic-ness of CDMX. The living space was massive and the kitchen was really well-equipped. There was also a fab roof terrace with views right across the city.

The wifi worked throughout our stay and was fast/reliable enough for all the maths videos we needed for home schooling (much to the boys' delight!). 

Best of all we had access to two washer-dryers, so we could do all our laundry free of charge, which is such a bonus when you're travelling long-term on a budget.

This wasn't the cheapest place we stayed in Mexico but was pretty good value for CDMX and we got a lot of space/location for our money.

Hotel Escala Signo XXI, Mexico City (1 night)

Cost per night:GBP£64/US$80

I booked this place fairly last minute as we decided to stay in CDMX over the weekend and travel to Oaxaca a day later than we'd originally planned. The apartment we'd stayed at that week (above) wasn't available for an extra night so we had to move; as I'd left it late and it was both Grand Prix weekend and close to Day of the Dead there was very little available in the city.

This was a strange old place - we got an Uber there and out again as the area seemed a bit sketchy, so probably not a place to stay if you want to wander the city sightseeing. But as a place to crash for a night it was fine - the room was a bit dated BUT it came with this weird giant solarium space with an enormous hot-tub bath! The boys declared this their favourite hotel of the trip and were disappointed that we couldn't stay longer 😅

Paulina Youth Hostel, Oaxaca (4 nights)

Cost per night: GBP£58.50/US$74

This was the first bit of accommodation that I booked for our trip, knowing that Oaxaca gets booked up waaay in advance around Day of the Dead. It also ended up being the only hostel we stayed in during our time in Mexico; generally it worked out much cheaper to pay for a private room for four than for four single beds in a dorm (and is a much better options anyway with the kids).

The hostel is in a great location, about a five minute walk to the main plaza in the old town. The room we had was a decent size, with a massive bathroom - it was however right on an intersection which meant that there was a lot of noise from traffic. It was spotlessly clean though and the wifi was fast and reliable.

The rate also included breakfast - which was a good feed! Each morning we got fruit juice, a plate of either pineapple, watermelon or papaya plus eggs, toast and access to cereal, tea and coffee and jam. This was definitely a huge bonus!

Pyramid Bedrooms, Toluca (4 nights)

Cost per night:GBP£49/US$61.50

We stayed here for Hell and Heaven Open Air, which took place just outside Toluca. I don't think Toluca is on many travel itineraries - it had a nice old town part and some fab cafes near the apartment but not a huge amount else in the way of sightseeing (but we were there for a heavy metal festival!). 

The room we had though was pretty nice - decent sized for the four of us, and the rooftop kitchen/terrace (with some lovely views over the mountains) gave us extra room for school work/chilling out.

The shower was powerful (to the point of painful!!) and hot and the beds were comfy. The apartments are in a really nice residential street with a bakery opposite and loads of places to eat/supermarkets etc.

Mexico City Airport Apartment, Mexico City (1 night)

Cost per night: GBP£40/US$50

This was probably the most random place we stayed in Mexico! We needed a room for one night near the airport as we had a morning flight to Costa Rica the next day. This was one of the most affordable options I could find that would sleep all four of us. It's in a residential area right next to the airport with a few eateries and bakeries etc dotted around. 

The apartment itself is in a residential apartment block, on the ground floor - it was very dated and tucked away amongst the apartments of the permanent residents. 

The people there were lovely and friendly and helped us get settled in when we arrived (as it was a dropbox for collecting the keys, so there was noone else there to check us in). 

The boys had a sofa bed for the night which was possibly the most uncomfortable bit of furniture I've ever come across! Thankfully it was fine as it was only for one night (and they'd both been up until 3am the night before at the festival, so were straight to sleep!). Although there were no external windows, there were windows in to the corridor/communal utility area and the curtains on these were super thin so didn't really keep out any light (or noise). It was fine for one night (which I imagine is all anyone books it for given the location). You can walk to T2 at the airport  but unfortunately our flight was out of T1 and with the crazy CDMX traffic this still took us about 30mins in an Uber, even though it's so close.

That's it! A bit of a range of hotels/hostel/apartments, most of which worked out pretty well for us. If anyone wants any more info on any of the places, give me a shout in the comments below :)

All GBP/US$ rates were correct at the time of writing.