Issues/Questions/Concerns/Safety Traveling to Mexico? POST HERE!

[lshaef]

I'm not sure it is the best to travel with a 5 week old but my sister will be bringing my 3 year old niece and 6 month old niece.  She is not concerned at all about flying or travelling with a newborn.  Just come prepared with enough formula, etc and they should be fine.

[HBKMensa]

Please avoid egypt and otther middle east countries right now http://www.oceantravelgroup.com

[yeya99]

I almost canceled my wedding because of all the bad Mexican press & pressure from my family expressing safety concerns in México.  I thought about it long and hard and in the end I decided to stick to my plans.  Our wedding went on and my husband and I had the time of our lives. Though not as many guests showed up as had RSVP due to the media sensation that gave Mexico really bad press, we had the wedding of our dreams. None the less our day came and went and it was MAGICAL. My father did not go but my mother did and in the end the few people that did show up really showed me that they genuinely cared and wanted to be there for our special day.  My mom was a bit antsy because we had lots of things going on for our guests.  However we made sure all hotels were close to each other and we provided transportation where ever we could.  We hosted a welcome cocktail at the Aavlon followed by a Mayan ceremony.  One of our wedding guests did have her purse stolen, as she left it unattended on the beach at night.  This happened while we were all on the beach late at night having cocktails and dancing to brazilin drums so no one heard or saw anything. So just be careful where you leave things laying around.  Luckily only a cell phone and make up were lost.    

The following day we had our Catholic ceremony at the Gran Caribe Real- Cancun.  The chapel was amazing everyone always felt safe.  It really is a great hotel. Again my mom was a bit worried as we did not host the reception on site, and she wanted everything to be in the tourist area, to feel safer.  Unfortunately I did not plan it that way. We were married in a catholic chapel on the beach but I wanted a true authentic Mexican wedding in an hacienda. We shuttled everyone just outside of Cancun to a private estate to the reception location. It was a 30 min drive. At the end of all the partying which was in the weee hours of the morning the next day( all guests were again dropped off at the door of their respective hotels drunk and hung over with swollen dancing feet.  Everyone was nice and relaxed and had a good time. The hacienda is not in the tourist area what so ever but it was a private residential estate so everyone felt equally safe.

In the end we had the wedding of our dreams, I just wish that we had not already paid for all the people that RSVP and did not show up. Many backed down too close to the wedding date so we could not get our money back as far as the catering was concerned.  We could have easily saved 4k on food alone.  None the less getting married in Cancun was the best decision we ever made.

We splurged on caviar to lobster tails, cigar rollers and fireworks to fire dancers unlimited international open bar accompanied with a variety of dishes and desserts for the dinner. We then had even more food and drinks for an after party and live band, live mariachi, it was by far the best thing we could have ever done.  We had a fairy tale Mexican wedding that we would have NEVER been able to afford in the US.  I planned the wedding of my dreams and IM GLAND that I had the support of this forum to help me stay sane and not throw all the plans I made for over a year due to everything I saw and heard in the news and from relatives.  (I was so very close) 

To sum it all up go to México and live your dream.  We were all super safe and NOW EVERY ONE THAT DID NOT GO AND after SEEING the pics of our wedding, seeing how calm and safe everything was, are kicking themselves  in the butt.  My email is inundated with apologetic emails from people expressing how much they regret not attending. They missed out on going to beautiful Cancun and having a blast!

 

1 day b4 the wedding  here are tid bits of our mayan cremony and welcome cocktail,and us arriving to the hacienda the day of the wedding.

 

 

Getting ready the BIG day and TTD session.

 

[LurkerDan]

I have no real concerns myself regarding travel to Mexico (we are thinking of a June 2012 wedding near Cancun, maybe Moon Palace). However, saying to the invitees "oh, it's safe, you shouldn't worry" is not nearly as effective as providing them with some evidence. Does anyone have any links or articles or whatever that I can use to show people that it is safe to fly to Cancun for our wedding?

[LurkerDan]

I have no real concerns myself regarding travel to Mexico (we are thinking of a June 2012 wedding near Cancun, maybe Moon Palace). However, saying to the invitees "oh, it's safe, you shouldn't worry" is not nearly as effective as providing them with some evidence. Does anyone have any links or articles or whatever that I can use to show people that it is safe to fly to Cancun for our wedding?

anyone? We're getting close to sending out our STDs, and want to include something in there about safety.

[Shanbride]

we got married some month ago in this 2011 year, we were worried about safety in Mexico, because of the same we have seen, we were going out the resort for more than 2 weeks and we just found friendly people around and any problem at all.

 

hope this helps, Shannon

[AfricanVenus]

Mexico is no more or less dangerous than any other given city we're familiar with. No matetr where you go, there are good areas and there are bad areas. Mexico, like the U.S., is comprised of states. Some of those states are problematic areas and some aren't. Treating Mexico like a monolith is like saying, there was crime in Boston, so I'm not visiting Los Angeles. Or I'm not visiting Montreal because Vancouver is getting crazy with the drug crimes. 

 

If you're staying at a resort, then the tourist police are there. Places like Cancún, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Vallarta are all major tourist ports. Tourism is really lucrative, so they spend alot of manpower protecting those areas. Sometimes good old practical info doesn't work for people however. You can't make them go if they don't want to be convinced. Whenever you travel, you should follow basic common sense guidelines. Travel in groups of 2 or more, no flashy jewelry, carrying excessive amounts of money, start offending the locals, etc. Tell your guests to register with the local embassy if they're really worried.

[Umami]

 

 

Originally Posted by LurkerDan 

 

 

anyone? We're getting close to sending out our STDs, and want to include something in there about safety.

 

A lot of my family and a lot of my husband's family were concerned and those with concerns we couldn't assuage stayed home.  The folks that did come (we got back Friday) were impressed at how far off the mark the media has been, at least with the area we were.  We stayed in Soliman Bay, Valladolid and Xpu-Ha and well, it was as we knew, beautiful, friendly and without any problems.  If you go looking for problems you will find them.  My greatest article I sent to people though, to answer folks directly was from the US government's website: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_970.html AND there are travel warnings out for Europe, but I bet if you were having a wedding in Europe no one would say anything even though there has been an increase in violence.

 

The sheer number of folks that visit Mexico versus incidents that happen is actually really low and I agree with all the folks who try and put the crime in perspective.  If a murder happened in Charlotte, NC I wouldn't be concerned about violence in my town in Waltham, MA.  If you think about it, it behooves the US Government to push US Citizens staying home and spending tourist dollars at home rather than abroad.

 

Also, since we just got back we didn't see any abnormal military movements either.  They were spot checking cars more often than the last time we were there so you may want to keep your passport on you if you're driving around.  Not for anything bad, just tell them where you are going and that you're visiting.

 

[vickib]

Anywhere we travel these days we all must be cautious whether its Mexico, Cuba or Europe.

[Krs398]

I have faith that everything will workout for our trip to Mexico and i hope it does! I love it there no matter what, but I just hope it makes a good impression on the Newbies traveling with us.  I plan to spend a lot of time at our resort, go out to PV during the day and party in our suites at night!