PSA for anyone considering a Mexican vacation

[Nemo2]

Nairobi, ~ 30+ years ago......advised not to walk to the adjacent hotel after dark but to take a cab. Could've thrown a stone and hit the place.

 

[JoeWras]

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)?

Compensated review writer, and identified as such.

Doesn't matter. Rules are the same for everyone. Moderators don't know if I'm compensated or not. The safety rule applies to all reviews.

 

[COcheesehead]

Nairobi, ~ 30+ years ago......advised not to walk to the adjacent hotel after dark but to take a cab. Could've thrown a stone and hit the place.

Naples, Italy, a couple years ago. Advised of something similar. We walked all over the place, day and night, down back alleys. No problems. We were probably just stupid though.

 

[mystang52]

Naples, Italy, a couple years ago. Advised of something similar. We walked all over the place, day and night, down back alleys. No problems. We were probably just stupid though.

1983 Ocho Rios, Jamaica. There was an ice cream shop down the road from our hotel. I walked over there, and of course back. No problem whatsoever. As I walked into the hotel lobby, the Bell Captain was shocked that my walk was a non-incident. I suspect I was stupid too!

 

[Nemo2]

Naples, Italy, a couple years ago. Advised of something similar. We walked all over the place, day and night, down back alleys. No problems. We were probably just stupid though.

Aden, Yemen...53 years ago...lots of trouble....Jeeps, with machine guns, operated by the 48th Highlanders.......after being told a couple times not to get off the main roads, a sergeant with a broad Scottish accent said to us "Och, yer booned & determined to get yerselves killed".

Slow learners, but we stayed in the open after that.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

1983 Ocho Rios, Jamaica. There was an ice cream shop down the road from our hotel. I walked over there, and of course back. No problem whatsoever. As I walked into the hotel lobby, the Bell Captain was shocked that my walk was a non-incident. I suspect I was stupid too!

1994. Jamica. Was there doing drug interdiction flights in coordination with our buddies with the DEA. Had to have Air Force Office of Special Investigations take us to and from the hotel to the airport in an armored vehicle (different route every single trip) because of the "bounty" on service members heads. So much for tourist area, eh?

 

[USA]

2006 Washington DC. Higher end hotel Doorman gives me directions to go left after I cross the street. When I asked about right, he said there is nothing for you that direction. I did go right before my job trip had ended. Boy was he ever correct!

 

[JoeWras]

1983 Ocho Rios, Jamaica. There was an ice cream shop down the road from our hotel. I walked over there, and of course back. No problem whatsoever. As I walked into the hotel lobby, the Bell Captain was shocked that my walk was a non-incident. I suspect I was stupid too!

The band 10cc wrote a song about this. It is called "Dreadlock Holiday." It was actually about events in Barbados.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

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.

I'm familiar with the news story, and I'm not debating it's very likely that some people were drugged. But free-flowing alcohol creates an environment -- a "haze," if you will -- where such things can occur. People have drugs like GHB slipped into their drinks in the States, too ... sometimes by another patron.

BTW, the paper that broke the story, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is in a state where the population is consistently in the top three for binge drinking. So any contention that a Wisconsinite "just had one drink" causes my eyebrow to twitch. I say that as a Wisconsin resident.

 

[timo2]

Based upon the comments from the resorts and the local authorities, This seems like a widespread scam by the resort industry there. They are skimming the profits just the same as any mafia owned business would do.

 

[ivinsfan]

Based upon the comments from the resorts and the local authorities, This seems like a widespread scam by the resort industry there. They are skimming the profits just the same as any mafia owned business would do.

Certainly could be true, the resort are in Mexico and here they bill in US dollars prices keep going up and with the exchange rate they have to be making money.

The problems any or all of these scenarios could be true no way of know, so unless you are happy drinking bottled beer or beer cans yo open yourself you could end up in trouble.

 

[ncbill]

I'm familiar with the news story, and I'm not debating it's very likely that some people were drugged. But free-flowing alcohol creates an environment -- a "haze," if you will -- where such things can occur. People have drugs like GHB slipped into their drinks in the States, too ... sometimes by another patron.

BTW, the paper that broke the story, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is in a state where the population is consistently in the top three for binge drinking. So any contention that a Wisconsinite "just had one drink" causes my eyebrow to twitch. I say that as a Wisconsin resident.

Years ago I met an intake nurse for the ER.

When she asked her frequent fliers "So, how much did you have to drink?"

A typical response would be: "I only had 3 beers."

Which really meant three 6-packs.

 

[Sunset]

I never considered an issue with tainted booze in Europe. They are extremely proud of their beer and wine and other traditional alcoholic drinks. We drink mostly wine or occasionally fortified wines or Aperol. All of the places we had drinks were restaurants that served locals as well as tourists, and wine bought in grocery stores frequented by locals or in gourmet shops featuring certain specialties. Never ever heard of an issue - and locals consume a great deal of wine. Were you just thinking of this in general?

Boy I sure enjoyed my cava served at breakfast!

Overall I was not worried in Europe, and mostly it never occurred to me, when drinking wine.
But I did think about it when wanting to buy vodka.

 

[Sunset]

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

But a person with a grudge could also simply claim food poisoning , or very lousy staff, loud noises of people running through the halls. insulting staff, or walking into the room unannounced.
All sorts of things could be said.

 

[gronk]

Compensated review writer, and identified as such.



Doesn't matter. Rules are the same for everyone. Moderators don't know if I'm compensated or not. The safety rule applies to all reviews.

Best expose on online restaurant reviews, hilarious!

The Shed at Dulwich

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor

 

[Dtail]

Best expose on online restaurant reviews, hilarious!

The Shed at Dulwich

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor

Very funny. Anyone can make up anything.

 

[kcowan]

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

It is local brewers/distillers trying to increase their profits.

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.

Living for 6 months is very different than going on vacation for one or two weeks.

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.

Yes and walking around drunk at 2am is a high risk activity anywhere!

I'm familiar with the news story, and I'm not debating it's very likely that some people were drugged. But free-flowing alcohol creates an environment -- a "haze," if you will -- where such things can occur. People have drugs like GHB slipped into their drinks in the States, too ... sometimes by another patron.

BTW, the paper that broke the story, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, is in a state where the population is consistently in the top three for binge drinking. So any contention that a Wisconsinite "just had one drink" causes my eyebrow to twitch. I say that as a Wisconsin resident.

Yes and often the combination of too much booze and too much sunshine can produce symptoms that resemble poisoning. It is dehydration.

 

[athena53]

Yes and often the combination of too much booze and too much sunshine can produce symptoms that resemble poisoning. It is dehydration.

I was about to add "I'll drink to that", but...

I agree about dehydration. I've had bad episodes of dehydration a couple of times in the last year, under some extreme conditions but with no alcohol involved. The first was on a 35-mile bike ride and the second was in India, the day after I'd worked out in a gym in a glassed-in room near the pool with no ventilation/cooling other than the open doors. I'd thought I'd been careful enough about hydration and I wasn't. I looked and felt like absolute crap- even had an irregular heartbeat. Crawling into bed with 2 liters of club soda and Netflix fixed the first; the guide's supply of electrolyte powder was miraculous the second time. I now have a supply of my own.

The stories of tainted booze are still credible enough to me that I plan to exercise caution on my trip till I get on the boat, but I could believe that some of the illnesses were dehydration.

 

[haha]

I'd say go wherever you want. Myself, if I am going to get mugged, I'd prefer that it happen in the US where in many cities, at least the police may be trustworthy. Of course, YMMV.

Ha

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Again, I don't doubt that some people were drugged while in Mexico. It's a hazard anyplace where liquor is flowing freely.

 

[OldShooter]

Many people outside the US, probably the majority, think it's a dangerous place with drug lords shooting AR-15s on every street corner and killers roaming the halls of every school. Does anyone living here consider themselves to be at personal risk from this? No.

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."

At any point in time there are always a few places that should be avoided. Right now, Syria. Maybe CAR, South Sudan, and few others. But IMO many wonderful trips are avoided by people who become fearful from reading anecdotes like the many in this thread. Even State Department travel warnings at Level 3 paint with far too broad a brush.

Think "statistics" and "facts," not "anecdotes." Your biggest risk on most trips is probably from an automobile accident, just like at home.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I spent one day in Mexico on our own and hated it. They hound you on the street to buy stuff. Now we have been to Cozumel twice on a cruise which was different as we took tours through the cruise company and shopped and ate in the tourist area by the ship.

 

[Teacher Terry]

There are so many places to visit that I don’t feel the need to go anywhere that I don’t feel is safe.

 

[Scuba]

Best expose on online restaurant reviews, hilarious!

The Shed at Dulwich

https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor

Amazing! [emoji23]

 

[Bestwifeever]

I don't think we’ve ever been to an all-inclusive, but we’ve been to two hotels in Cozumel several times that we would go back to any time. As long as nobody tampers with our breakfast we should be fine! I don’t think mixed drinks are that popular in European countries vs Mexico anyway, so probably not a big issue across the pond, but I would still do a margarita or pina colada at the Cozumel hotels we know.

I know of a few people who have suffered alcohol poisoning (most not fatal) just from drinking too much alcohol. I would think it would be easier and cheaper to just water down the liquor vs adding poisonous substances to it, personally?