PSA for anyone considering a Mexican vacation

[MichaelB]

There are parts of Mexico that are not safe for locals or tourists. The same could be said for other parts of the world. There are also people that just don’t know how to travel safely and do dumb things when traveling.

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I've always hated this part of TA's rules. They prohibit any discussion of violence or criminal activity. WHY? If you were knocked down and robbed at gunpoint in the parking lot of a hotel I'm considering I think that's relevant information.

TA is a business, and to make money they need business on their side, and for that they need to suppress certain types of critical feedback. The same applies to Yelp, Amazon, and other review oriented sites.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

It wasn't the typical resort areas but in March we went to Mexico City, San Miguel Allende, Guanajuato, Aguascaleinte, and Bucerias (north of Porta Vallarta) using drivers and Uber. We were mixed in with a lot of locals except in San Miguel which was too many expats for us, but had a great time and never were suspicious of food or drink. We were south of Cancun about 7 years ago and felt sorry for the help as they all expressed such gratitude for us to have come in light of safety concerns. At the time unsafe alcohol was not a thing we knew of.

Getting a bit old for the all inclusive resorts but would definitely do the traveling around for local color. Granted, that takes some research on safe areas which our travel buddies are good at (and speak Spanish which DW and I don't).

We flew to Merida a few years ago and really enjoyed that trip. Great culture/history, intriguing architecture, delicious Mayan-inspired cuisine.

I don't drink spirits much -- mostly I stick to beer. Merida has a local brewery, Montejo, that brews a dark beer similar to Negra Modelo.

Gotta agree with the observation that many people go to all-inclusives to booze it up.

 

[ivinsfan]

Let's be blunt, these are the places where people go to drink like they're teenagers raiding daddy's liquor cabinet for a blow-out weekender.

So much booze is flowing through there's always going to be a temptation to substitute adulterated product for genuine.

Going out to a local restaurant outside of Cancun/Cozumel/etc. and having a few beers won't get you poisoned with "boosters" like methanol or ethylene glycol (a scandal affecting some European wines not too long ago)

I'm not so sure about this as I am starting to get the idea the product could be contaminated at the point of production...this gives me great pause about drinking liquor at any venue.

 

[mystang52]

This is disconcerting to me on 2 levels, although it likely won't affect me in the near future. I only drink mixed drinks (daiquiris/margaritas) so if we're at a cruise port in Mexico I'll defer getting any drink on shore. I'm not much of a drinker anyway, so this would hardly be a sacrifice for me.
The comment about Trip Advisor censoring critical commentary on such an important matter as safety bothers me more. I recognize they make money on advertising, but at some point I would hope integrity overrides greed for advertising revenue. I guess not.
It's very unlikely DW and I would go to Mexico for a land vacation. But after reading these stories, I think it's more like 100% especially when there are so many other at-least-as-nice choices in the Caribbean.

 

[COcheesehead]

Because nobody knows if the violence/criminal activity was real, or just someone with a grudge?

I would agree if the comment is a one-off, but when multiple posts are removed that is a different story.

 

[Moemg]

Not to challenge you or pick apart your post, just curious: What is it about AI resorts that we can get "too old" for?

The whole concept seems perfect for older people - everything's taken care of, you just luxuriate and enjoy. What might I be missing?

AI's are usually geared to younger people . I went to several AI's in my 40's and at that time I was in the top age group.Maybe this has changed ?

 

[audreyh1]

We flew to Merida a few years ago and really enjoyed that trip. Great culture/history, intriguing architecture, delicious Mayan-inspired cuisine.

I don't drink spirits much -- mostly I stick to beer. Merida has a local brewery, Montejo, that brews a dark beer similar to Negra Modelo.

Gotta agree with the observation that many people go to all-inclusives to booze it up.

People do often booze it up at AI resorts, but several of the reports are of individuals and even couples who only had a single drink each, and woke up in their hotel room hours later, with no idea what happened.

 

[mexexpat]

I have read the same reports as others. We lost a friend from alcohol poisoning shortly after she moved to Bali, so it is not a Mexican only thing. I personally do not worry about where we live nor when we travel within MX as it appears to have happened at resorts that cater to large numbers of tourists, often younger ones. We don't frequent resorts.

 

[COcheesehead]

I have read the same reports as others. We lost a friend from alcohol poisoning shortly after she moved to Bali, so it is not a Mexican only thing. I personally do not worry about where we live nor when we travel within MX as it appears to have happened at resorts that cater to large numbers of tourists, often younger ones. We don't frequent resorts.

Being in country, where do you think the source of the toxic booze is?

 

[Bir48die]

We are in Mexico frequently. My sister lives at least half the year in Mexico. She loves it and now has built a house inland south of Guadalajara. I have been to a couple AI's but hate them. See no reason to stay in one. Sometimes lousy booze and sometimes lousy food.

I know people like this form of a vacation as it makes it easy and you know what your basic costs are. However, we rent many properties through VRBO and take our chances. Homes and areas are extensively researched.

There are a number of cities/areas that I would not visit. It's just common sense. That being said we have never had issues down there.

 

[joeea]

I would agree if the comment is a one-off, but when multiple posts are removed that is a different story.

I personally know of some businesses (not Mexican restaurants) that were targeted with brutal fake negative reviews and it took forever to get them removed. I know of many that have received fake positive reviews from friends and family.

Happens all the time.

 

[COcheesehead]

I personally know of some businesses (not Mexican restaurants) that were targeted with brutal fake negative reviews and it took forever to get them removed. I know of many that have received fake positive reviews from friends and family.

Happens all the time.

I guess my problem is the editing that TA does, but seemingly to the benefit of the business, not the consumer. Zero trust in them.

 

[joeea]

I guess my problem is the editing that TA does, but seemingly to the benefit of the business, not the consumer. Zero trust in them.

I suppose the difference is that I never trust any of these reviews - edited or otherwise. I know that lots of them are made up.

 

[H2ODude]

Not to challenge you or pick apart your post, just curious: What is it about AI resorts that we can get "too old" for?

The whole concept seems perfect for older people - everything's taken care of, you just luxuriate and enjoy. What might I be missing?

I guess our experience was that while the venue was pleasant, the food was a tad sub par and my conclusion was that this was to facilitate paying for the copious amounts of alcohol that were consumed by others. And the middle aged ladies flashing breasts from the pool bridge; not a prude but it just seemed a little too "party on" oriented for us. Granted, it was our only all inclusive resort vacation so YMMV.

 

[H2ODude]

I suppose the difference is that I never trust any of these reviews - edited or otherwise. I know that lots of them are made up.

Just got back from wedding and week in Rhode Island where we tried to judge potential restaurants with Yelp and TA. The majority of the reviews just struck me as completely outside the scope of the kind of prose and comments a real person who visited would have used. Will continue to browse them but with more than a grain of salt.

 

[REWahoo]

This might be worth a look - if it's not fake...

https://www.fakespot.com/

"Analyze the reliability of Amazon, Yelp, or TripAdvisor or Apple App Store reviews"

 

[JoeWras]

TA is a business, and to make money they need business on their side, and for that they need to suppress certain types of critical feedback. The same applies to Yelp, Amazon, and other review oriented sites.

I do reviews for a big box retailer, and they reject reviews that mention safety issues. It is simply part of their guidelines. Their excuse is that the common consumer is no judge of a safety issue on a product. Leave that to the CPSC. All products are assumed safe with considerations of the published warnings.

Right or wrong, that's their guideline and they are very consistent on it.

 

[ivinsfan]

I do reviews for a big box retailer, and they reject reviews that mention safety issues. It is simply part of their guidelines. Their excuse is that the common consumer is no judge of a safety issue on a product. Leave that to the CPSC. All products are assumed safe with considerations of the published warnings.

Right or wrong, that's their guideline and they are very consistent on it.

It would be wrong and the actual reason is if they post a review that mentions a safety problem and someone is later injured or killed by the product they will get the crap sued out of them.

Understand it from a business perspective but it kind of negates the value of all reviews IMO.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

On the subject of Mexico, a couple of years ago, there were serious issues of people's bank accounts being emptied out from ATM usage. It got to be so bad, that folks were told to just not use any of them....anywhere. As a matter of fact, many of the machines had internal skimmers installed under the watch (and approval) of the local police folks. And yep, one of the included resorts was the Iberostar on Cozumel.

At one time, I enjoyed the AI resorts. Yes, I enjoy my drinking and it was nice to not worry about how much it would cost if I drank alot. However, the food is mediocre at best and even in the low seasons, many resorts are now giving day passes to the cruise ship patrons, who tend to overload the pool(s)/bar(s)/everything and make it quite miserable. So, we tend to do the VRBO thing now and do our own cooking. Once or twice during a trip, we will hire a local chef to come in and prepare us a fantastic meal. So, between the alcohol issues, ATM issues, cruise ship clowns issues, we will be doing the VRBO thing from here on out.

 

[joeea]

I do reviews for a big box retailer

What does "do reviews" mean in this context?

As a customer? As a paid review writer (I know of a few folks who do that)?

 

[ivinsfan]

Flyboy, do you just use your CC or take a large amount of cash on your trip? Maybe go in person to a bank branch. Curious how you avoid the ATM issue.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Flyboy, do you just use your CC or take a large amount of cash on your trip? Maybe go in person to a bank branch. Curious how you avoid the ATM issue.

We will take a decent amount of cash (will get local currency before we leave if the exchange rate is OK). We also put some money in an account that is used for travel ONLY (ATM card)...and we will only put an amount in there that we could "afford" to lose. The only time we accessed this cash while overseas, after making the withdrawl, we immediately canceled the card. We don't plan on using CCs for cash advances (too expensive) but do have a PIN as a "just in case".

 

[Dtail]

We will take a decent amount of cash (will get local currency before we leave if the exchange rate is OK). We also put some money in an account that is used for travel ONLY (ATM card)...and we will only put an amount in there that we could "afford" to lose. The only time we accessed this cash while overseas, after making the withdrawl, we immediately canceled the card. We don't plan on using CCs for cash advances (too expensive) but do have a PIN as a "just in case".

We take a decent amount of cash and use a specific CC just for travel in which the charges can easily be identified as incorrect. I try to avoid ATM's at all costs, unless BOA in the USA.

 

[Amethyst]

Gotcha. Not so much age group, as behavior expectations.

I guess our experience was that while the venue was pleasant, the food was a tad sub par and my conclusion was that this was to facilitate paying for the copious amounts of alcohol that were consumed by others. And the middle aged ladies flashing breasts from the pool bridge; not a prude but it just seemed a little too "party on" oriented for us. Granted, it was our only all inclusive resort vacation so YMMV.

 

[timo2]

There are parts of Mexico that are not safe for locals or tourists. The same could be said for other parts of the world. There are also people that just don’t know how to travel safely and do dumb things when traveling.
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Absolutely. One always needs to pay attention to their surroundings. For instance twice DW and I were followed out of different casinos (one local, on LV strip), but always observant DW noticed it and we changed our path. One time we just did a 180 and walked back into the casino. DW picked up this skill leaving shopping malls in Texas in the 1980's. Travelling to Mexico or anywhere else is no different.