Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips - What You Must Know Before Traveling to Los Cabos

Before You Travel to Mexico:

You must have a passport to travel to Mexico via air. Gone are the days when you can travel with a certified birth certificate. Even young children must have a passport. If you've never obtained or renewed a passport, you may not know that the entire process can take as long as 2-3 months, sometimes more. If you need to get passports quickly, this service can obtain your passports (they also do visas) in as little as 48-72 hours.

Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips: Making Airline, Hotel and Rental Car Reservations

If you haven't yet made your flight to Cabo San Lucas, we recommend the online travel service we use every year. The prices are great and the service is excellent.

Due to misunderstandings that can occur because of the language barrier, we recommend that you book your Cabo San Lucas rental car before you leave on your trip. This way, you won't have any surprises because your contract will have been drawn up in the United States.

Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips - the Mexican Culture

Hopefully, you're traveling to Cabo at least partially because you want to experience the Mexican culture. Mexican people are generally honest and hard-working, although you will occasionally encounter those who try to milk the tourists which is why it pays to do your research. Read more about common misconceptions about mexican people. Debunk these myths and you will be much more relaxed which will increase your satisfaction with your Cabo San Lucas Mexico travels.

Although a large majority of mexican people speak english, learning spanish online before you embark on your trip is a wonderful way to immerse yourself in the culture and widen your perceptual lens. If you have children, it makes for a great family experience and educational adventure. Plus, speaking spanish in the U.S. is a benefit and can increase your worth in the eyes of your employer.

Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips: Learn some spanish because it will help you to better understand the culture. Plus, it is a survival skill that will help you in a pinch.

Even if you just learn a few spanish phrases, mexican people will treat you differently because they will respect and appreciate your attempts to speak their language while in their country. You don't have to speak perfect spanish. Case in point: since my husband is Native American and his grandparents spoke spanish (due to conquest), he learned to speak the language as a child, but because his grandparents were uneducated, he does not properly conjugate his verbs. Despite this, the locals understand him fine and gently and graciously correct him to help him improve his language skills.

This is the spanish-language learning program we recommend. It's the one we've used to teach our family spanish:

Rosetta Stone Spanish (Spain) Level 1

Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips

• Know your pesos - Before leaving on your trip, it is important to know the exchange rate for mexican dinero. Generally, the rate is 10 mexican pesos to 1 U.S. dollar. This means that if you exchange $10 USD, you will get $100 pesos, minus the exchange rate fee, of course. Practice making change, so you understand how things work. If you plan to keep some money in U.S. dollars, make sure you can do the calculation in your head. Since it's generally a factor of ten, this makes things easy. Most mexican businesses will accept pesos as well as U.S. dollars.

  
  
  When handing someone a large denomination bill for a charge that is much less, make sure to preface with the words, "Tiene cambio?" (pronunciation - tyen E cahm bEO - where capital letters indicate long vowels) which means "Do you have change?" so the person doesn't assume that you're giving them a big tip. This is especially a problem with taxi drivers.

  Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips: Practice converting dollars into pesos before leaving on your trip.

• Leave your attitude at the border - in case you haven't been keeping up with the news, Americans are pretty much hated worldwide. Of course, some of those amongst us exacerbate this perception by acting like dumb, disrespectful gringos. For instance, traveling to Mexico with the sole intention of partying and drinking the entire time. Mexican people value their country. While you're in it, be sure to do the same.

  Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips: In Mexico, the people are conservative.

  As a rule, mexican people are conservative (for instance, there's no public nudity on the beach and if this is what you're looking for, then you might be interested in Desire Cabo—the new clothing-optional resort) and expect people to treat each other respectfully. If you show interest in the people, history and culture, they will be your most gracious hosts. If you get drunk off your butt every night you're there, you'll see lots of people shaking their heads and rolling their eyes. And if you do plan to get inebriated, be aware that there are some people who will take advantage of your situation.

  
  
  For instance, one morning at 5 am while I was on Medano Beach in front of Club Cascadas, waiting to catch the sunrise on my video camera, I met a Mexican man who told me that every morning before daybreak, he scours the beach for possessions left behind by drunken tourists the night before. He's scored digital cameras, cell phones and video cameras which he sells on Ebay. In this man's view, if you're so drunk you can't remember to pick up your possessions, then that's your loss and his gain. Word to the wise: when you're in a foreign country, drink responsibly and stay vigilant of your surroundings.
  
  Cabo San Lucas Travel Tips: Mexico is part of North America.

• Know where you are - Mexico is in North America (just like the U.S. and Canada), not part of Central America as some people assume.

• Tip often in small amounts to show your gratitude. Although tipping is an option, it's a great way of showing your respect for those who go out of their way to help you. Although this is not an example of "tipping small" when we went on a recent sport fishing trip and the captain went out of his way to create a beautiful day of sightseeing (we saw 8 grey whales, dolphins and seals) and sport fishing (we caught 12 fish) for our family, we tipped him $100.

  If you've read my Cabo San Lucas travel tips, you'll know that you do not need to tip taxi drivers because they're union. Since taxis are expensive in Cabo, try to remember this, especially if you're used to tipping taxi drivers in the United States.

Be sure to read my family beach vacation travel tips for making the trip to Cabo San Lucas fun for everyone.

If you haven't yet book your flight to Cabo San Lucas, use the online service we use every year to book our trip.

I hope you've enjoyed these Cabo San Lucas travel tips and that they've given you a taste of the culture and ideas for how to enjoy it to the fullest. If you've read our series of articles and have an important tips to add, please submit them using the Contact Us link on the navigation bar to the left.

Cabo San Lucas

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