La Peñita, Mexico - My husband and I have discovered a new way to travel! We have either RV'ed or hotel stopped throughout this country half a dozen times or more - and both have their up and down sides.

RV’s are a great deal of fun; you can sleep in your own bed, have all your own stuff, cook your own meals and be somewhat economical to boot. By the day RV parks can cost $200 to $300 pesos on average for full hookups, that's $5000 to $7000 pesos per month.

I am being brave here because pricing is relative to preference and there are those out there that will prefer to boon dock or stay in a Wal-Mart rather than an RV Park. On the flip side, there are those that will not stay in many of the parks that we think are just fine... they are too “rustic” for them. I am trying to generalize here, so bear with me.

Hotels are a matter of personal preference too. For a clean motel/ Motel 6 type room in a city you are likely to spend $500 to 750 pesos per night. If you stay a week, it calculates to $3500 to $5250 pesos a week. The sky is the limit on the upper side. You can spend as much as you want for the high end stuff.

So this trip Bill asked, "why don’t we try booking apartments in the places we want to stay for more than a few days?" We went online and Googled apartments for rent in Oaxaca. Sure enough there were many to choose from. We decided to take a “lower-end” apartment – not just because we are Codo (cheap), but because we wanted to be able to walk out of the deal in case it didn’t work out.

Our criteria were that it was clean, had sleeping quarters, was close to Centro (walking distance) and of course had Internet. We selected one that we found on Craig’s list priced at $1000 pesos for 1 person or $1200 for two people per week. We thought we would give it a try.

Oaxaca

We arrived and were met by the caretaker, Ines. She led us up the very steep driveway past a line of casitas to our unit at the top level. The place was tiny, but managed to have all the criteria we needed; cleanliness, bed, kitchen, bathroom, Internet etc. The place was just fine; it also had a table and chair outside in a wide open area.

Ines didn’t speak a word of English (we dealt with the owners over the Internet who did) but she was extremely helpful throughout our stay. Unlike hotels, we found that conversations naturally developed with our neighbors. We would chat about our days of exploration with other fellow travelers.

The downside was that it was all mismatched. (Big Deal) The casita layout for the kitchen was odd and allowed only one person at a time. It was awkward maneuvering around chairs etc. The bathroom was poorly laid out and extremely small – but everything worked well. The place had only one pillow and the towels were a bit worn and skimpy. The plates were small. We fixed that with our next trip to Bodega for just over $400 pesos.

Overall rating? Would we go back? YES! The apartment was close to downtown, in a safe neighborhood, offered at an extremely reasonable price, and the people were very friendly. Where else would the caretaker give you a big hug and a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye?

To learn more about these apartments for rent in Oaxaca, email oaxacapartments(at)gmail.com or visit oaxacapartments.com.

Mexico City

We also found the next place on Craig’s List.

(I would like to mention that we found a scam artist who wanted the following:
Your full name
Your Sex
Your nationality
Your date of birth
Your passport ID number
Your phone number
Your move in and move out date
Your current address that i can send the keys
A $700 USD deposit... and rent in advance.
We determined that we will pay cash when we get there when we go apartment–hopping.)

We made arrangements with a couple called Tanya and Diego over the Internet. The apartment was priced at $2200 pesos per week and was in a very good neighborhood – Condesa and La Roma. We liked the pictures and made the arrangements.

Bill and I drove into Mexico City on Sunday – which is an excellent strategy for those wanting to explore this metropolis! The traffic was bearable and we found street parking. We hit the intercom and were buzzed up by Diego.

We went up the elevator to the 5th floor and were met by Diego who led us into the apartment. We were surprised to see how lovely it was. Very modern, clean, light and airy. The kitchen is fully furnished, including fridge, stove/oven, microwave, toaster, coffee maker - and the plates and cutlery all matched. It also had granite counter tops – table and chairs with a welcome bottle of red wine.

The spacious bathroom with glass enclosed shower had two terry robes waiting for us. The bed/sitting room is large with tons of storage space, a large work desk, TV, DVD player, Internet, and sliding glass doors to the balcony and BBQ outside. The view is over garden apartments. The whole place has plenty of light and is immaculate. We love it! We think we have found our Mexico City home!

Send an email to frijolfrijol(at)gmail.com for more information.

Conclusion

We love RV travel in Mexico for the beach areas. It is fun, economical and you can cook if you want. The major problem is if you like to visit the interior colonial cities, many do not have camping - and if they do, it is generally far away from the center of town which is often the best area to explore the city. Too, large RV’s are difficult to maneuver in cities that were built for horse and carriage. We won't even talk about axles and the cost of tolls.

We also love traveling and using hotels. The downside is that it can be quite expensive and you can’t cook even the simplest meal. This makes long term travel prohibitive.

Apartment hopping seems like a great alternative. It is certainly more economical than hotels and you can cook 24/7 if you prefer – saving even more money. The hitch here is that you have to know where you want to stay a week and which area of town fits your needs. We are fortunate to have explored most of this country and know which cities and towns we can lose ourselves in for weeks and weeks... well, years.

For us what works is a combination of all three modes of travel/accommodation and, in the future, we are going to explore apartment-hopping even more.