Ten family travel tips from Mexico – part one
Do bring micro-fiber towels. Serious backpackers will snicker because they’ve known about microfiber towels for ages. Car travel in the Yucatan means stopping here and there for Cenotes and beaches. The towels absorb all the water off you easily, dry quickly and fold flat. If you get the large size, like we did, they are large enough to keep little shoulders from shivering.
Don’t go with one computer Even though I was the only one on the road working, we found one computer not enough to handle the live travel blogging. A netbook, like the one we own, would probably have been enough.
Do store at least one credit card separately. We carry three cards when traveling. It was a lifesaver that we had put one card (with some cash) separately in our suitcase. When my wallet got stolen, we still had one that we could use. In retrospect, I would have kept a spare Visa or Mastercard instead. The American Express wasn’t as useful as we hoped.
Don’t forget to phone your bank and credit cards before you leave. We did this for the Middle East, but forgot to do this for Mexico. After the great Mexican wallet theft we had to begin taking a lot of money out of ATM’s. Bank of America got worried and shut off the ATM card. It took a few nerve-wracking hours to get it corrected and could have delayed us by three days because of bank holidays.
Do bring Starbucks Via instant on your next trip. The Italian roast is really good, a thousand times better than Nescafe. I’ve always felt like the giant jar of Nescafe at the breakfast table was taunting me, laughing at my helplessness and misfortune. Now I have the last laugh.
Thanks for the tips, my bf and I leave tomorrow!