Chris made a comment yesterday that I should consider flying to Mexico this winter. I already have! So I thought I’d share my thought process to better explain why I feel that driving is the better option for me to get to Mazatlán.
Driving Pros:
-I can bring pretty much everything I want to take down with me for the winter, including my entire office setup, like my chair and printer, as well as what I need in the kitchen since I know that as much as I joke about wanting to eat out all winter, I am going to want to cook at some point.
-I don’t need to commit to the entire round trip amount at one time, ie. I can save for the gas money to come north over the course of the winter.
-I can stretch the winter season by spending time in the U.S. if needed (especially useful in the spring, as this past trip north demonstrated).
-I have control over what days I arrive and depart.
-I enjoy driving/the trip down is part of the fun.
Driving Cons:
-My truck is a gas guzzler — when the exchange rate was better, the savings in the States made the couple of Mexican tanks I’ll have to buy insignificant, but now, I’m looking at expensive fuel all the way down.
-I have to pay for hotels along the way.
-I have to go through the temporary vehicle import process at the Mexican border.
Flying Pros:
-All-in, it’s cheaper than driving.
-I don’t have to go through U.S. Customs.
-My truck won’t continue rusting in the sea air down there (I really don’t need my truck in Maz).
Flying Cons:
-No control over the dates I get there and have to leave.
-Getting to and from the airport in Regina will be a huge hassle. I’ll either have to leave my truck here all winter and bum rides to and from Assiniboia to catch the bus or pay for storing my truck in Regina all winter.
-There are no direct flights from Regina to Maz; flights go through Calgary or Vancouver and are poorly timed so I’d very likely lose a full night of sleep. I don’t handle losing sleep well and the recovery will cut into my enjoyment at arriving in Maz.
-I can’t bring everything I need for the winter and would be limited to the computer equipment I can fit in a carry on.
-I’m limited to my 180 days in Mexico and traveling directly between it and Canada, so I’d have to go straight home in late April/early May (brr).
-I’d have to commit to the round-trip ticket now. I know some people just buy a one-way and look for deals for the trip home there, but knowing my luck at the border, I’ll have to show a proof that I’m planning to go home, ie. a return ticket.
When you add it all up, it boils down to the fact that I love the drive. It’s a decompression period for me, even if I am planning to do a cannonball run this time around. If I was dreading the drive, flying would be more appealing. But I’m just thinking of getting all my luggage from Haven to Maz and feeling rather faint at the thought. Driving actually feels like less trouble!
Of course, if I get a bad inspection report, I could change my mind…
Rae…..fuel is pretty cheap right now. Gas is about $2.20/gal in San Antonio. I just traveled up to Calgary and back and it is cheaper everywhere in the U.S. than it was last year.
Oh, I know what US prices are chepaer, but when you factor in the exchange rate, the savings aren’t that great. I only had about a $0.40CAD difference per gallon between Assiniboia and Plentywood when I went there, so $7 on a full tank of fuel. I thought it was a lot more than that (close to $20), but I did all the conversions and realised that it really wasn’t.
Good analysis. I do suspect that the dollar exchange is going to get worse re fuel costs within the US but sometimes you just have to live with it. For us we have to pay our rent in USD. Sure I could pay in pesos but it would have to be the equivalent of 600.00US. But that won’t stop us from going. Just means less meals out.
I get paid in USD, which sounds great on paper, but I have to convert back to CAD before I can convert to MXN, which sucks. I am leaving with as much US cash as I can to cover meals and fuel on the way down as well as my vehicle import fee since I don’t want to lose at the conversion this year. At least, I’m pretty sure I can pay in USD…
The CAD to MXN rate looks pretty good, though. If I was paying my rent today, I’d only be paying $433. It was $424 last week and averaged $450 last winter.
I have always paid the vehicle impost in US cash to avoid losing on the exchange. NIce to get that US cash back just as we cross into the US.
Great, I will do that, then!
The date commitments would be the deal breaker for me. If it was stuff, I’d look at cost of shipping/mailing things vs driving them. When I came back from North Carolina last spring I sent a box UPS rather than pay excess baggage on the plane. But I wasn’t crossing any borders.
Driving down will cost me more money, but I can plan it around work. I shouldn’t have to take any time off at all. That likely won’t be the case if I fly.
Forget shipping anything to Mexico! 🙂
When I went to Montreal in, oh, 2010 I think it was, I only had a carry on bag. So I used my baggage allowance to bring stuff back. But we did the cost comparison of what it would have cost to ship the package versus pay an overage with Air Canada and Air Canada was definitely the cheapest option to fly a huge heavy package cross-country!
I have a USD account @BMO Can’t you get one and just have the USD income deposited directly and then converted to MXN, thereby eliminating the CAD step?
I can do that from Canada, but not from the US and Mexico. I can’t take USD out of my USD account outside of Canada. I know, stupid! CIBC says the only bank that has a USD account that lets you do that is TD because they have branches in the States.
Note that in Mexico, the government doesn’t ever lower the price of gasoline, so it’s probably still around $4.00 USD/Gallon. By the way, there’s a website, http://www.gasbuddy.com, that will show you the cheapest gas around an entered zip code or address. That might help you save as you drive across the US. And you could do worse than to buy a couple of jerry cans to stock up on fuel on the US side before crossing into Mexico.
Last year I drove from Boston to Mérida and all over Mexico in my ’89 Toyota pickup, which averaged ~20-21 MPG. I’m toying with the idea of driving again, but this time I want to go in something with better MPG. I have a tiny Mercedes sports coupe (SLK230) which can get in the low 30’s on the highway. I’m a little worried about it attracting the wrong kind of attention (even though it’s more than 10 years old), but more worried about it not being able to clear some of the taller topes.
But I too am hoping to spend winter, or at least a chunk of it, in México.
Saludos,
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where the whole drive vs fly argument gets rerun in our head nearly daily.
Mexican gas prices are comparable to those in Canada. My truck is pretty much parked once I get to Maz, so I’m not too worried. I have started to use Gas Buddy when in the States!
Gas mileage for my Ranger is terrible, but Rangers of that vintage are so common in MX that the only thing that sticks out is my license plate!
That’s why I drove my Toyota pickup last year; it looks like something owned by every campesino around and thus doesn’t attract attention.