Mexico early Maya buildings

I'm planning  buying a 5-10 year old C Class to tour north America tour starting November 2014.

I want to start off down south, and hoping to visit Mexico (and nearly all of the USA and Canada) how sensible is it to visit Mexico?

Or should I just park in Florida and take a flight and organised tour of Mexico?

 

There have been several news reports of road travelers being robbed of their personal property and even vehicles.  Is it worth the risk?

Here's a link to a State Dept site
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_6033.html

Jerry:  You will have no problems touring Mexico. Many of your countrymen and other Europeans do it all the time. The violence is drug dealer to drug dealer. If you don't use , buy or sell drugs, do not party half the night in a drunken stupor and use common sense Mexico is as safe as any other country in N.A. You will get responses to your question that are from people who have never been to Mexico. Not very valuable. Usually begin with: my friend told me, or: I saw it on TV or: I read it on the internet. I hesitate to recommend another forum but if you go to RV.net they have a Mexico RV forum. Lots of good advice. Cheers.

Moisheh

Thanks Chaps, I will take a look at the options, it's quite a drive down to Chichen Itza, so I'll check out the offers when I'm in Miami.

The other issue is with a 5-10 year old RV I'll not want to risk a breakdown south of the border.

I will be driving up to Alaska in July 2015 so I might leave the Mexico run to the following winter, by which time I will know if my budget will run to a fly-hotel style break.

I live in So. Cal and I talk to a lot of people from Mexico.

for insurance reasons the cruise ships from Long Beach will no longer stop in many of the Mexican resorts towns.

a world traveler friend of mine was going to Mazatlan last month for a vacation, the airport bus he was on was stopped by bandits and all the tourists were robbed of their money, jewelry and luggage, He spent the next two weeks buying replacement clothes. 

it used to be that Baja California was exempt  from the crime and drug cartel problems, but no longer, the economy changed all that, even the Xpats are returning back to the U.S. now days.

Tourist are considered easy prey...rear end vehicle collisions and payouts happen a lot when they see a foreign license plates.

  Your results may vary.......... IMO....Skip Mexico.

Tony:  Those cruise ships  have returned to Mexico. The state of Sonora is building some new ports to handle the lerger ships. They are spending about a billion$$$$. The ships will be going to Puerto Penasco, Guaymas, and Cabo. Do you have a link to the story about your friend?

Moisheh

My most favorite trip a few moons ago. From Seattle to Cabo San Lucas and back.  Long trip.. Baja alone was 1000 miles each way.  Driving a neat little class B motor-home.
Unexpected hiccups:

1. Special insurance just for the trip.
2. A stop in Ensenada to get a stamp on the entry form.  I guy office, hard to find, he was asleep when we entered the office.
3. A stop at the border between NORTO and SUD Baja. They sprayed my tires with what...Water??  Cost a bit of money, if I remember correctly.
4. Great trip to Cabo, where, parked on Condo/Hotel property in downtown Cabo, the van was broken in twice in 2 days...2 broken windows. TV set ripped out and left on floor, toolkit left behind; guess they got scared off.
5. Was told that going to police station was a waste of time.. Asked if they spoke English there...NO.
....We cut our vacation short and got out of there)

6. On the way back was stopped twice by police (4) on a roadblock, asking for donations for their club ?
7. Met car off the road with 2 kids flagging me down. I stopped and tried to help. The driver in the car was a tall older guy just sitting in the car. I offered to give them some gas to get back home. Out came their 5-gallon can and a siphoning hose. It didn't work (Anti Siphon device on the van, which I didn't know I had).  I even drove the Van up an embankment (in the middle of nowhere); that didn't work either.
  (Thinking back now I ask myself "What was I thinking?"

  I suppose these are acceptable crimes and should be forgotten.  I have. Nowadays it may be better or a lot worse...I don't know.
 
  I hope you find this story funny, it is to me now but it wasn't at the time.


 

moisheh said:

Tony:  Those cruise ships  have returned to Mexico. The state of Sonora is building some new ports to handle the lerger ships. They are spending about a billion$$$$. The ships will be going to Puerto Penasco, Guaymas, and Cabo. Do you have a link to the story about your friend?

Moisheh

Click to expand...

no link to any story.......I  just talked to him when he got back home and asked him if he had fun on his vacation...He didn't.


but here is an interesting link to read...https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/9015-mazatlan-ready-for-cruise-ships-to-return.html

We no longer visit Mexico which is regrettable but tourists who are in the wrong place at the wrong time have been killed, one was a man from Los Angeles last year.  Our next door neighbor has family across the border from Douglas AZ and they no longer go across the border.  Their family meets them in Douglas instead.  The only safe way to go is in a caravan.

ArdraF

Thank you, one and all,  I'm risk adverse so I'm going to give Mexico a miss. I'll buy a nice book on the subject with the $$'s I save.