Drinking Water in Mexico

Lots of folks wonder about the safety of the drinking water in Mexico.  For those of you newer to traveling in this part of the world, here's the low-down...

Tap water is good for cleaning dishes and washing your hands, but you should avoid drinking it.  Generally, people use the large, 20L water bottles for drinking, and in some cases cooking and washing fruits and vegetables (depending on how sensitive your internal plumbing is!) We use the bottled water for brushing our teeth, too, and make our ice cubes from it as well.

Our guests receive a complementary 20L bottle upon check-in, and you can buy additional bottles from the truck that comes around 1-2 times a week.

The "main" company is Ciel; it's owned by the Coca Cola company, so if you want to support them and trust them, that's the truck you want to look for. Note: Lots of other, smaller companies reuse the Ciel bottles and run their own purification systems, offering treated water at reduced prices.  Most locals drink that water; the majority of gringos and tourists stick with Ciel.

You can expect to pay about 30 pesos (or 2 bucks Canadian) for a bottle of Ciel, or 15 pesos (or $1 CAD) for the knock-offs.  There is also a bottle deposit: Once you've paid that once, you can just get replacements for free and they will take away the old bottles when they drop off the new ones.