how to find pensions/rooms for rent?
 

So we've been bumbling through Baja, having trouble finding nice cheap places to stay besides the touristy hotels. We've stayed cheaply in some small towns, even stayed with Coco at Coco's Corner, but can't really figure out how to find a room for rent (ie at a private house). How do we do this?

i rode through mexico and never spent over 15USD on a room. On average i probably spent around 11USD. i just skipped all the touristy places and the really small towns. find a mid-small town and the prices will be cheap. also consider staying in Motels that rent the rooms by the hour. many of them are nice and a lot cheaper than hotels.

what's the name of the book you were talking about?

thanks..

Next destinations are Zacatecas and Leon..

I'd love a copy of that book, even PDF. If anyone knows how to get ahold of him, let me know. I looked on Amazon and Google for that book but didn't find it.

Thanks all. We'll try the pharmacy approach next.

yup baja can be expensive bc is very touristy and attracts many americans. on this strip i skipped it bc i left in august and was to hot. when i went with the bike i had camp gear and there are many campsites around 10USD.

rooms in Mexico
 

YO , here I am Pat , thanks for your kind words and recommendations.
I have been rather lax ( ¨radio silence ¨if you will) in the last couple of months in checking and replying on the HUBB because I have been doing two trips in Mexico since late January. The first with -shudder ,of all things - a car and passenger down the Baja , ferry to Topo´and zigzagging through Mexico and back to Canada. Then after doing my income tax papers and some other stuff I escaped through a window of good weather on my 1100GS to RIDE all the way to Mexico where I am now just going to wander south and east and do some more research for my guide. Ontario is back in winter weather and I am in the orange blossom country.
Now as to the question how to find inexpensive hotels and my guide booklet. Basically , hotels are where you find them , but you have to develop a knack for spotting the low cost options, something which I have honed the past 28 years of trips through Mexico and Central America. Avoid the glitzy tourist zone hotels, the franchise name chain hotels and look instead in the out - of -the - way streets and the small towns for the locally owned small hotels, hotels which the local countryfolk use. They do not need to have big neon signs proclaiming their name, look for small signs with words like ¨¨Casa de Huespedes ¨ or ¨ Hospedaje¨¨¨ and they should have a secure parking area , called ¨ estacionamiento¨ or ¨parqueio¨. Failing the
availability of a parking garage most of these small local hotels will gladly let you park the bike in the lobby or some other safe spot OFF the street. If that is not possible then they may have an arrangement with a commercial, guarded parking lot nearby.Other guidebooks seem to concentrate on pointing out backpacker hotels in the popular tourist spots, the autoclub guides point you to the most expensive places you can think of and the directories for the multinational chains also give only the expensive option.
In my guidebooklet I have the locations in 328 towns for 433 hotels in all the states of Mexico,150 hotels all over Central America . I have visited all these hotels personally to ask their prices and have stayed in most of them at one time or another , often repeat stays.
I include the prices I paid or at the most recent time of inspection as converted to US dollars so that one may have a benchmark to compare relative pricing. I might add that in spite of inflation over the years the prices have shown a remarkably stable patern. This is probably because I keep choosing the hotels which the Mexicans and Central Americans use, and if they are suffering financially they cannot afford expensive hotels so the hotelliers cannot ask high prices, and the hotels don´t go overboard on fancy features, which also keeps prices affordable.As an example last night I stayed in a motel for the first time since 1992 when it cost me $18.40 and yesterday it was just $22 for which I had a neat clean room with towels,ac,TV, hot shower and toilet,a secure parking stall
My guide covers cities and small towns in all corners and includes inexpensive hotels in the famous resorts also, such as Cancun,Huatulco, Cabo San Lucas, Zihuatanejo, Acapulco, San Cristobal, Mexico City, Guatemala ,City Belize City, Panama City , and more.
I also include a section with all manner of useful information for the beginning traveller to Mexico and Central America to help get through the border formalities and explain some of the peculiarities of traffic and weather etc. you will encounter.
My guide book, titled Economical Hotels in Mexico and Central America contains 140 pages , all black and white photocopy style , stapled,
5.5 inchX8.5 inch which will easily fit any tankbag, .I have had a small batch run off at the local copy center .
I can mail them out to anyone who wants one.The price INCLUDES the cost of air-mailing from Ontario and therefor it varies with the destination .
For addresses within Canada $15 Canadian dollars
to the USA $15 US dollars
to anywhere else $17.50 US dollars
Please mail a certified cheque of the apropriate amount and currency for your region to me
Sjoerd Bakker
RR 3 Norwich
Ontario N0J 1P0
Canada.

Since I am currently on a wander tour through Mexico and will
be returning to home base after about a month I should be mailing them out in mid to late April. Depending on how this goes a later edition will probably be in the works with even more affordable hotels.

Hmm. I've been living in Mexico since July 2004, and frankly I don't believe this number.

I'd say that in my personal experience, the average increase in prices over the last 2.5 years has been more like 4% or 5% per year - some things more - and some things less.

The demonstrations in Oaxaca City ended back around the beginning of December when the PFP (Federal Police) were sent into and arrested the leaders for various crimes. It's been peaceful since then. I visited Oaxaca City the first weekend of February and it was quite pleasant in the city.

In your inflation examples, you mentioned paying 20 pesos for a beer. Maybe in the expensive gringo bars here you might pay 20 pesos - but I usually pick up a 6-pack of Tecate for 49 pesos - or better yet a liter-size guayama for 18 pesos.

economical hotels in Mexico
 

Yes Pat by all means do go ahead and post the item on Advrider . I am not very familiar with that site nor do I post there. This Horizons Unlimited site is about as
much as my computerskills can handle at the moment and I don´t feel like spending a lot of my time at the cibercafes learning a whole new routine.
I might add that my guide booklet deals with economical hotels as in low budget but not necessarily the absolute cheapest places which usually means a front door leading directly up stairs and then they have no place to securely park the bike off-street. Those are good for backpackers, but with a bike I would have to look for a locked or guarded parking service which would bump the price anyway. Also, as I explain ,the booklet is intended for the beginner in Mexico and CA who is worried about finding ANY place for the night ( I remember how nerve wracking it was when I started out doing Mexico), to give them a foundation of basic affordable hotels scattered so that travelling fom one such -listed town to the next will easily be possible in one day or less . This is meant to reduce the stress and provide them a start in developing the skills for finding hotels on their own. For example tonight in Poza Rica I have a nice room with a fan, bath,TV for $13. I splurged because without TV I could have had a room for $7.50 at another little hotel - a new listing!
Inexpensive is also a relative term as you point out. My guidebooklet provides ,for the towns that I list , the best-available rate hotels that I could find.Thus in Cabo San Lucas $30 qualifies as low price because most else is higher - often dizzyingly higher.
The KLR is at home waiting for a summer trip up north somewhere and the 1100 is giving no cause for complaint, but then I don´t beat the crap out of it by going off road- waaaay toooo heavy for that . I don´t fancy hurting myself .Besides my model has the tire -hugging front fender and 100% street tires.. Pavement and the odd bit of good dry gravel and hard packed dry dirt road is what I stick to.Plenty of choice for riding here.

Hey Tedder, welcome to the HUBB. Lots of good info above from excellent sources. How´s your luck been soo far? I found that in almost all cities in L.America, the cheapest hotels are usually found near the bus terminal, and get cleaner, safer and more expensive as you go toward the Plaza. I like being near the plaza, within a few blocks, and usually find good budget places with some sort of parking for $7-$12 per night. I´m now in Colombia and found that for the most part, lobby parking isn´t an option. Here the Parquedero´s are cheap and secure and you can usually find one across from the hotel your staying in. Enjoy Mexico and all it´s GOOD food, because it´s all downhill froim there ;)