Calling in Cancun
 

We're giong to Cancun for the 1st time and want to find out the best/cheapest way to check an the home front. Any ideas?
Joe from Ca.

This was an absolute hassle for us in Cancun! The first thing that we did, though, is changed our cell phone service (before we left home) so that we could make and receive calls in Mexico. That said, however, the price made it so that we could only use that option in case of emergencies. My husband had to check into the office once we arrived so what we did was find a phone card. This was a challenge. We walked a lot until we found one in a mall. And, after we bought the card, we realized that it didn't even have as many minutes on it as was advertised! We also made some calls from our hotel rooms (we stayed in Cancun, Merida and Valladolid) because some of the rates at the hotels we were at were even better than our phone cards. Beyond that, I don't have too many ideas and would be interested in what others have to say because calling home on our trip sort of ended up marring my memories of that vacation. Part of the problem in Cancun, of course, is that the hotels gouge you on everything that they can, so calling from a hotel there might not be the best option (rates were best at our hotels in Merida and Valladolid).

Buy a Telemex card @.50 per minute. Can be seen at cancunmx.com. Phones are everywhere!

As dougout says, it is very easy with a Telmex (Ladatel) card. You can buy the cards most anywhere and the Ladatel phones are everywhere. Just insert it in the phone, it will tell you how much time you have and deduct the call from the card. Very easy!

As above telmex cards. Dail 001 area code and number and you can call home no problem.

the BEST was to communicate when you go anywhere international is by EMAIL. my mother travels all over the world and we learned our lesson the hard way with expensive phone calls in the beginning. just email your family/friends everyother day -- all hotels have business centers. the cost is literally about $1.00 each time you send/read an email. even the local markets (mexico, spain, greece, vietnam, etc...)have computers set up in them so that people can email home. if there is an emergency, pick up the phone and just call. i look forward to my moms emails every day. good luck!

I agree - email is the cheapest and easiest way to communicate back home. My husband always brings the laptop on our trips to Cancun. We check and/or send messages in the morning and again around 5 or 6 p.m. The last time we went (Oct '03) we stayed for a week and our Internet service added an extra $9.95 for our week's stay.

1Mandy1,
We have always considered bringing the laptop to Mexico, but think it would probably be a hinderance. How do you fit your laptop in the hotel safe? What do you do with it when you're away from the room?

I have had an easy time using an AT&T calling card from Cancun. The best rates that I have found are the cards purchased from Sam's Club. The card includes an AT&T access number (from Mexico 01-800-288-2872). The access number will get you an ATT line, which will prompt you for your card information.
I can't remember the rates for the calling cards at Sam's, but the conversion is a 100 minute domestic card will give you 10 minutes of calling from Mexico to US. (there is an additional charge from pay phones).
The nice thing about these cards is that you can use the unused minutes from the states when you return.

I bought an AT&T card from Sam's Club and I think it was $20 for 600 minutes. I called to get the access code from Mexico and was given a different number so if you buy a card you probably would want to call and check. Also, they said they would take 7 minutes off for each minute in Mexico. We have used the Latadel card in the past with no problems but we had this card so I thought I would check to see if we could use it.

I have just come back from the Yucatan.

This time I bought a cell phone from Cellular Abroad (phone+SIM Card+200 pesos of time for $189)

I had to buy more minutes (you can get pre-paid cards almost anywhere in Mexico) but had great service in all the major cities and felt that it was the best way to stay in touch