Good and Bad Experiences of Your Vacations to Mexico (pesos, credit, attorney)

[oddstray]

Before the troubles, we used to go to San Felipe once or twice a year. (My company currently prohibits travel in to Mexico ). San Felipe as a whole is quite gringo-y but we try to stay away from that as much as we can. We stay at Playa de Laura, and though the proprietor speaks English as well as I do, he's gracious enough to tolerate our wretched Spanish. As are most of the working people in the town. And I'm delighted that they've banned off-road vehicles from the beach - it's much more civilized, and we enjoyed watching the off-road vehicles on the hills just west of town.

Cabo San Lucas could be wiped away in a tsunami with nothing much lost. I could happily retire to San Juan del Cabo, though. Or any number of Mexican towns. As long as I didn't have to live in one of the "gringo ghettos" that are springing up on the Baja California coasts.

One time my husband's company sent him to teach in Mexico City for a week, so I went along to play tourist. They put us up in the "rich" neighborhood. Three notable things:

1) Federales guarding the children's playground. How sad is that, when children need federal soldiers to guard them?

2) One of the days I wasn't feeling well, so I just stayed in. About every hour, some hotel employee would knock on my door for some reason. As the day progressed, the reasons got sillier and sillier. I finally realized that was hotel security, making sure I wasn't kidnapped from the hotel. Sheesh.

3) I wanted to see the museums in Chapultepec park. The hotel wanted to find me a taxi to drive me around. That was nonsense ... it's just across the road. The really busy road with no pedestrian crossings. I had watched the guys run across. The guys had a death wish!!! But I watched a bunch of women run across, at a sane interval. It wasn't much scarier than crossing some of the huge, fast streets in San Diego. So my plan was to cross with the women. The hotel folks totally freaked out when I told them I was going to do it. But I did it, and it was no big deal.

I had a great traveling experience to the Cancun Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico 4 to 5 years ago.

I went to some great scenic tropical beaches in that area such as Cancun, Tulum, Isle Muheres.
I stayed in a great nicely decorated hotel in Cancun's hotel zone area that is sort of separated from mainland Cancun. I visited the great ancient Mayan historical sites in Tulum, and Coba. I went on a jet skiing rainforest jungle tour through a lagoon and went snorkeling in an area with tropical coral reefs. I also went a on a jungle tour near Coba where I zip lined across a lake, kayaked on a lake, and went exploring in a really cool cave and went swimming in that cave.
I also went on to Xcaret which is a type of water park, ecological park/zoo, and aquarium.

The only complaints I have is that the nightlife and restaurants scene did not seem good there, and there were plenty of places with poverty outside the tourist zones. But overall great trip there and the pros far outweigh any of the cons.


I think the Cancun Yucatan Peninsula area of Mexico is one of the best places in Mexico and one of the best places to visit. Other areas that seem just as good in Mexico are the Mexico City metro area and the mountainous areas not far away from that city, the Central and Southern Baja Peninsula area of Mexico around Cabo San Lucas and La Paz, and also the Acapulco area of Mexico as well as the inland mountainous areas close by from Acapulco.

The worst areas of Mexico that don't seem good to visit are most of the border regions along the USA/Mexico border and cities in that area such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez. This is also true for most of the province states of Mexico close to the USA/Mexico border, and most areas of North Central Mexico in general. That area of Mexico seems like such a sharp contrast to the best areas of Mexico.

Also, Mexico seems so negatively sensationalized in the USA media. It seems like the USA media takes it too far. It should focus more on the best areas of Mexico that are also great places to visit instead of the worst areas of Mexico that are bad places to visit.

[soulpatch]

I have had so many great experiences in MX before and since I have started my family.
From fishing awesome areas with unreal catches to surfing killer waves to eating the best food ever to running on coral sand beaches or in the desert mountains overlooking the Sea of Cortez....
My babies are now seven and have been traveling to baja a few times a year since they were in-utero. Their first time on a boat was when their mommy was six months pregnant and she was yoking up fish that we sashimed up and also smoked later that day.
The worst experiences? Well, having a truck stolen and a cop telling me I planned it as insurance fraud in Rosarito. Having a marina pull a gun on us and play some macho, bull**** game with us on a lonely beach north of La Gringa outside of Bahia de Los Angles.
A HORRIBLE fishing guide name Captain Moses out of Zihau.....guy was a ****ty fisherman and I had to tell him how to put me on fish....stupid me.
Going to Ixtapa....bad idea all around! Unless you like that kind of thing.
But, we love MX and will continue our adventures there as long as things look good for us there.
Oh, the border wait? Christ, that is the worst thing ever.....

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

The worst experiences? Well, having a truck stolen and a cop telling me I planned it as insurance fraud in Rosarito. Having a marina pull a gun on us and play some macho, bull**** game with us on a lonely beach north of La Gringa outside of Bahia de Los Angles.
A HORRIBLE fishing guide name Captain Moses out of Zihau.....guy was a ****ty fisherman and I had to tell him how to put me on fish....stupid me.
Going to Ixtapa....bad idea all around! Unless you like that kind of thing.
But, we love MX and will continue our adventures there as long as things look good for us there.
Oh, the border wait? Christ, that is the worst thing ever.....

Rosarito? Bahia? Zihuatenajo? Ixtapa? No wonder you've had bad experiences. If you were a Mexican and you wanted to abuse or rip off Gringoes, where would you go?

[kixette]

I've NEVER had a bad visit to Mexico. I have been to the "tourist" places (playa, cozumel, isla, puerto vallerta) and i've been to the border towns (Matamoros, Nuevo Laredo, Tecate, Tijuana). Matamoros and NL were years ago - and yes i did have an experience of driving over the border BY MISTAKE lol and having my car gone through - no worries - didn't do anything wrong - didn't get in trouble! last year went to Tecate and TJ - LOVED Tecate - gosh what a fun little town to spend the day in, and TJ was the only place I've ever felt a little uneasy - but I had no issues and was treated well everywhere I went to spend money - and i think the worries i felt were just brough on by the propaganda. Isla was this year, Cozumel three years ago, and I have every intention of hitting Isla up as soon as hurricane season is over!
I feel so bad that all of this hooplah has cost our neighbors so much money in tourism dollars. However, every flight to Cancun out of Houston was PACKED in March. I know, because I missed my flight - and had to wait for the next four flights to go (actually the next day) before I could get on...

[Botzwana]

I went to Monster Cafe in Saltillo....WOW! This is the greatest restaurant I have ever been to. Check them out on Facebook. Monster Cafe Saltillo....Wish there was one in the states.

[jtur88]

Here's a sample of a good one. My wife and I and my 9-yo stepdaughter went to Mexico for a few days, the first time they had ever been there. We stayed in the most modest hotel in Cd. Mante, Tamps. We were inquiring in the lobby about a nice place to go out and eat, and the hotel manager suggested that my wife and I could go out for a quiet meal by ourselves, and DSD was welcome to come to his house for supper and play with his kids. We thought that was a wonderful idea, and everybody had a great time. Especially DSD, who had a chance without her parents hovering over her, to enjoy an evening, untethered, with a Mexican family that couldn't speak any English, 2,000 miles from home. To this day, that is one of her most vivid childhood travel memories, and she even pen-palled with them for a while.

If you're ever traveling with children in Mexico, just go to the central plaza in the evening, and turn your kids loose. They'll be adopted by the Mexican kids, who are all being watched from a distance by their parents, and by a casual unobtrusive police presence. Your kids will be quickly included in whatever activities are going on. It doesn't go on all night, and at about 8 or 9, the police will walk around and politely remind everybody that it's time to go home. That was still the case as recently as last year, even in "dangerous" states like Sinaloa.

It's great fun watching teenagers. The boys will form in one clot, and pretend the girls are all watching them, and the girls will sit in another cluster and pretend they're not.

[hotpa2d2]

^^^Seriously?!? You let some random man watch your 9 year old daughter...and at HIS request? Wow, that is just creepy. And nuts! So many pervs out there...I can't believe anyone in this day and age would allow that.

OK, as for my Mexican adventure...we were staying in Acapulco at the Las Brisas resort a few years back. I went out for a drive in the jeep that came with our room. Me being a young blonde American girl...I found myself driving in the mountains alone, in an obvious poor area (not too bright looking back...) Saw many run-down shacks and poverty everywhere. Even saw pigs in the streets. I somehow got lost, and while stopped I was approached by some very young kids selling pottery. I felt a bit sorry for them and was going to buy some of their items to help them out. I had my purse on my lap, and as I was holding a pot, one little brat reached in my bag and grabbed my wallet. They all ran off together laughing. It took a minute to register, but before I was able to run any of them down in my jeep, they disappeared. Little b*stards! Completely got me off guard. But thanks to them, I do not trust any Mexicans to this day. I feel they were all raised to be thieves at a young age. Sad, but true. Also, a piece of jewelry went missing from our room at the hotel as well. Live and learn.

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by hotpa2d2

^^^Seriously?!? You let some random man watch your 9 year old daughter...and at HIS request? Wow, that is just creepy. And nuts! So many pervs out there...I can't believe anyone in this day and age would allow that.
.

We drove her to his house, following him, so we could see where to go to pick her up. We met his whole family, before we left her there.

Why do you think "this day and age" is any different from any other? When I was growing up in the 40s and 50s, there were just as many pervs, if not more. If we ever encountered one, we just laughed and walked away and put him on our list of people to make fun of.

In fact, it was worse then. There was a lot more domestic violence, and a lot more incest then than there is now, and public drunkenness. There were all kinds of things going on then that would scare the hell out of you today. And if you had to worry about your kids getting polio, that didn't leave much time to waste worrying about some retard exposing himself after school.

[tijlover]

Some of my better memories stem from my driving trips thru Mexico in the mid-80's. The more Americanized Mexico has become, the less I like it.

Noise issues have always been the most negative aspect of my travels to Mexico or anywhere in Latin America, because I'm very sensitive to noise. And now with the proliferation of loud, thumping boom cars, it's only made matters worse.