High Season in Mexico, for under $500

Justin and I have booked an 8-night trip to Mexico from January 15-23.  I've never been, and we're both taking Spanish classes, so we are pretty excited!  I have to dust of my scuba gear before then, but I have a few months.

The best part is the trip is costing us less than $500 each for airfare and hotel.  Here's how you can do it too:

1) Book now.
Is the recession really over?  You'll find out on Black Friday (11/27).  If it is, by then  all the good rates will be long gone and you'll be pouring over all-inclusive resorts for hundreds of dollars a night.  If it's not over, a tropical vacation in the middle of winter has never been less than we're paying now.

2) Shop around.
On Saturday, I found $283 round-trip airfares (SFO-CUN) on Kayak.com, which kicked me over to Expedia.com.  No one else had these fares.  Before I could check with Justin, the fares were gone from Expedia, but I found them Sunday on Travelocity.com.  Travelocity still has a few seats left at this price!  Know the options for airfare deals and check them all twice before clicking to buy. 

3) Package deals.
Sites like Travelocity and Hotels.com can have great hotel deals, in everything from 2 to 5 star spots.  Especially check for vacation packages that include flights. 

4) Get Budget.
Consider other hotel options too, and don't be afraid to look outside the big search engines.  I used Hostelworld.com to book 5 nights in a budget hotel/guesthouse in Playa del Carmen for $40/night.  It's not the Ritz, but it's on the beach, has a bar and over 50 reviewers have rated it 85%+.  That's good enough for me!

5) Pay now.
When January rolls around, this vacation will be long since paid.  More money for snorkeling and umbrella drinks.

A final word of advice:
Do your homework.  We're staying 1 night on Cozumel, which can be positively overrun by up to 3 cruise ships docking per day.  If I wanted to spend my vacation with 9,000 Americans, I'd take a nap in Union Square.  So I researched the Cozumel docking schedules and picked Sunday (no ships) and Monday (1 ship).  A little bit goes a long way.  LonelyPlanet.com, LetsGo.com and even good old Google.com are great resources.

Hasta luego!