calling home from Cancun
 

I have never traveled out of the country before and will be going to Cancun soon.<BR>How do I call home? I know you use country codes and all that. What is the least exprensive way to call. I have heard you don't want to use the phones in the hotel becuse they cost alot.<BR>Can anyone help me?<BR>

There is a Mexican calling card you can purchase at grocery stores, etc. to use in pay phones that is good for a certain amount of minutes. Also there are 'shops' specifically set up to make long distance international calls. Email is usually cheap and easy to find. This is not specific to Cancun (because I've never been there) but what I've seen in several other Mexican towns. And YES the calls thru a hotel ARE very expensive.

definitly buy the calling cards. do not ever call home collect and as mentioned, don't use the hotel phones.

Are the calling cards easy to use or do you have to dial forever only to find that you must go thru an operator that you can't understand his/her Spanish.<BR>

There are prepaid phone cards (called LadaTel, if I remember right)that fit right inside slots in special pay phones. I have never been to Cancun, but Puerta Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas has these phones all over the place, and I believe Cancun and even the smaller towns have them, too.

Oops! I mean Puerto Vallarta

<BR><BR>We just returned from Maya Rivera and found ourselves needing to call home from our hotel. The rate was 3.50 USD per minute. Too bad we didn't have the Mexican phone cards.<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>

There are some places in the malls where you can make a prepaid call for very little money. I called N.J. and talked for about 4 or 5 minutes and it cost about 3 or 4 dollars.

Lucky you guys!!!<BR>Get a prepaid calling card at Sams/cosco, etc... it works the same and you can add extra minutes if need be while you are away. We go each year without our kids, and my daughter likes to hear my voice each day, soooooo. You can't beat this rout.<BR>have a blast!

use your cell phone==89 cents a minute to the states

Your cell phone probably won't work so call your carrier first to confirm if it works and what the rates are. A plan change may work for a month. By far the easiest is to buy a phone card in cancun sold everywhere and anywhere. Drug stores seem to be the easiest place to get them. The caveat is that only certain phones accept certain phone cards. Find the payphone and look up and around at the stores to find the matching card that goes with it. The cards are about $10-$15 depending on the minutes. There is no operator you use a pin number on the card that you scratch off. No need to worry about calling it is simple! Have fun.

NEVER use a hotel phone and NEVER charge a USA call to your credit card unless it is a real emergency.<BR>Use the local phone cards others here have recommended.

I had always used the cards that you can buy in the malls. I have been to Cancun a few times and never have had a problem with these cards. I thought that buying a card before I left might get me more minutes. So I bought a card at Target for $10 and it only came to 2 minutes from Cancun. The ones you buy there are $10 and you get like 11 minutes on most of them. I would recommend buying them there. I know there is a restaurant in the Flamingo mall that sells them.

Ladatel and Telmex cards can be purchsed just about anywhere. You put them in the phone, the readout shows the time you have and you dial away. Don't have to speak Spanish- just punch in your country code, area code, and number. They are somewhere between 90 cents to a dollar a minute. When you have a little time left they beep so you can end your call or put a new card in. I buy the 50 peso cards so I don't talk too long.