Ruinas Chichén-Itzá Tourist Traps

There are A LOT of vendors at Chichen Itza. Some of them are selling items for a good deal, but for the most part, they are not a good price. They are likely to tell you that the items are "Casi Gratis" or "Almost Free" but that is to get you to stop at their stalls. If you are interested in the items they are selling, be sure to know how much you are willing to spend. While almost everyone is willing to bargain, there is a point where they won't go down further. Remember that this is their livelihood and you want to be respectful but at the same time you want to know what you are getting is a good price.

Unique Suggestions: The men who are carving some of the artifacts there in front of you are awesome. I would suggest buying from them because at least you know that they are selling their own stuff.

Fun Alternatives: If you can wait to buy stuff outside of Chichen Itza in a town instead of at the site then you will probably get a much better deal. The quality may be better as well.

1. Put different bills in different pockets and know exactly how much money you have in each of those pockets. This will come in handy at the final step of the process.
2. When your looking at the different items, take your time and refuse help until you decide exactly what items you want. Don't worry about establishing how much its worth, the vendor decides that and then you go from there.
3. Once your quoted a price the process begins. Lets say the vendor quotes you $60 on a wood carving. Plan on paying no more than $25, here's how: Hesitate and say that its a nice item but $60 is too much. The vendor will immediately drop to about $45 in many cases. At that point you say you weren't planning on spending that much. The vendor will either lower it again or ask how much you will pay for it. Don't walk into the trap of naming your price yet, just say its too much. What you want to do is get the vendor to go to about half off on their own...which they will almost everytime. Often to get to that point you will have to pretend to lose interest and start to leave, while looking at what his next door neighbors are offering. This will get them down to their final offer of roughly half off, or for this example $30.
4.Once the vendor says $30, you don't agree to the price but you open up your wallet and lo and behold you only have $20 in there, which you show to the vendor. The vendor will say he can't go that low so you start rummaging through a pocket and pull out $3 and then rummage through another pocket and pull out $2 bringing all you have to $25. At this point you apologize to the vendor saying this is all you have and your sorry you wasted his time and turn to leave. The vendor will ask you a few more times if you have $30 and as long as you remain firm he will give up and sell it for $25.

The best place in Cancun to do some shopping. Always bargain for the correct price. They will ask the skin out of you and if you are stupid enough to pay then it's your choice.
There are a lot of silver/gold shops, souvenirs shops

BUT THE BIGGEST TOURIST TRAP ARE THE TAXIS . The correct price fron Hotel Area to downtown is maximum 7 USD. They will ask for 50 USD :)

The tourist trap is really simple.. lots of local people selling what they call "handicrafts". In fact they are selling cheap (and ugly) reproductions and mayan masks, calendars, decorations.

Unique Suggestions: Bargain... haggle... we have seen prices drop from 250 to 40 pesos - if you can be persuasive. Still even the cheap prices are not worth the kitschy items on sale.

Some people may not mind this, but I do.

Watch for these annoying little people who will harass you to buy a cheap looking trinket from them for a dollar. I didn't buy anything, but I saw a couple who did, the seller looked like he was trying to raise the price and convince them to buy more of his stuff. Then 3 other guys started to harass the couple. Even after they had walked away, they were being followed for at least 5 minutes.

Part of the tour was supposed to include a stop to swim at a cenote, the day before and the day of our tour, the stop was cancelled. Armed guards were standing on the road to the cenote, we were never told why it was closed.

After the shopping stop, they drove us by this cenote for a photo op.

As with most bus tours, ours stopped at a craft market that is specifically geared towards bus tours. The prices are high and the merchandise is the same you can buy anywhere in the area.

Unique Suggestions: If you stop at one of these and feel compelled to buy something, be very agressive in your bargaining, goods are way overpriced!

It seems like a good idea to buy a piece of paper with you kid's name and birthday written on it in Mayan or whatever but once you get home you'll wonder why you did it.

Unique Suggestions: It is fun to listen to people bargain for trinkets. You will find this in any open market in Mexico. My brother in law is Columbian and he got hair wraps for three girls for half the price of one hair wrap that the seller was asking for at first. I am sure I was easy pickin's when the sellers saw me.