Rachael91

Hello all,

I am currently living in New York originally from NZ. Looking to get out of the city for 2 weeks over the Christmas and NY period. I was thinking of doing a tour in Central America / Mexico as it seems like a cheap place to travel and get some sun. Can anyone recommend any tour guide companies? I'm 24, don't want to party for 2 weeks with 18yo's but want to do some adventuring and have a nice social holiday. Any tips would be great.

Christina

I haven't taken a tour to that area, but generally, once you do a tour, it isn't going to be nearly as cheap as if you do it yourself, of course. But it may be what you want, of course, and makes the logitics easier. Special interest groups may provide congenial companions (hiking, etc., such as REI tours, which aren't that cheap), also. But with a tour, I'd still expect you to spend about $100 a day on the cheapest ones, not including your air fare.

Check Lonely Planet, they may have good recommendations. Gate1travel has reasonable rates, a friend of mine took one and said it was well done. GAdventures is one I've heard of, don't know much about them, like this one
https://www.gadventures.com/trips/ma...e=LonelyPlanet

See, that's really only 11 nights and costs $1200 but is already sold out for Christmas period. this one is 15 nights
https://www.gadventures.com/trips/ma...e=LonelyPlanet
and costs $1379 for departure on Christmas day, which is open. Covers more places, of course. As you can tell from the description, those are not luxury tours.

There are probably some known budget good tours to these areas, but I'm just not up on that any more than these suggestions. If you just want a cheap place to travel and get some sun, you could do that yourself, though. Maybe you don't really mean a tour, could you just be asking about say, cheap packages or something? Christmas is not a cheap time to go to popular vacation areas, even in Mexico. rates are high (say on the Mayan Riviera).

jamie99

I've been to Mexico over Christmas and it is not cheap, even with the strong USD in relation to the peso, also lots of places may already be booked up.
You can get around easily most places via the bus system if you do not want to rent a car and yes the buses run on Christmas. I personally would not want to take a tour as they are very regimented and seldom give you enough time in places.
Mexico is a huge country, it might help if you can read up a bit on it and narrow down what area and types of things you are interested in such as Mayan ruins, colonial cities, shopping, beaches, nightclubs, etc.

suze

I've been in Puerto Vallarta over Christmas. It's festive and fun, but hotel and apartment rates almost double in price those two weeks.

hopefulist

We've enjoyed bits of Mexico but head back at least once/year to Guatemala, generally ending in either Honduras or Belize for some blue water time. I'd be happy to help with a visit to any of those places but would need your travel priorities (snorkeling, diving, beaches, Maya sites, caving, indigenous culture, hiking, etc.) and estimated budget/night to help much.

My photos with blog, travelogue, and review links on the main page of each collection are below in case you're interested - lots of ideas and recommendations are embedded there.
Happy trails!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections