Phones - Playa Del Carmen

Local phone calls in Mexico are cheap, and some hotels will let you call locally for free. Coin-operated public phones, rapidly disappearing, also charge very little for local calls. Internal long-distance calls are best made with a phonecard. These are available from telephone offices and stores near phones that use them (especially in bus and train stations, airports and major resorts). Many newer public phones say they accept credit cards; in practice, however, they often don't.

Slightly more expensive are casetas de teléfono , phone offices where someone will make the connection for you. There are lots of them, as many Mexicans don't have phones of their own: they can be simply shops or bars with public phones, indicated by a phone sign outside, in which case you may only be allowed to make local calls, but many are specialist phone and fax places displaying a blue-and-white Larga Distancia (long-distance) sign. You're connected by an operator who presents you with a bill afterwards - once connected, the cost can usually be seen clicking up on a meter. There are scores of competing companies, and the new ones, like Computel, tend to be better; many take credit cards. Prices vary, so if you're making lots of calls it may be worth checking a few out. There are casetas at just about every bus station and airport.

Wherever you make them from, international calls are fabulously expensive - using a phonecard is probably the cheapest option, though even the highest denomination ones won't last long; next best rates are from a caseta (though costs vary more than you'd expect, so shop around); calling from a hotel is very extravagant indeed. Charges vary a great deal, but typical caseta prices are US$3 a minute to call the US, £4 a minute to the UK. If you plan to make international calls, by far the best plan is to arm yourself in advance with a charge card or calling card that can be used in Mexico; you'll be connected to an English-speaking operator and will be billed at home at a rate that is predictable (if still high). You should be able to get through to the toll-free numbers from any working public phone.

Next best is to call collect ( por cobrar ). In theory you should be able to make an international collect call from any public phone, by dialling the international operator (tel 09) or getting in touch with the person-to-person direct dial numbers we've listed, though it can be hard to get through. At a caseta there may be a charge for making the connection, even if you don't get through, and a hotel is liable to make an even bigger charge.

Faxes can be sent from (and received at) many long-distance telephone casetas: again the cost is likely to be astronomical.