Mexico2170 Posts
On February 27 2021 00:41 food wrote: How safe would you say it is in this part of Mexico? Is going there with your family ok? Do you speak Spanish and was it necessary? Did you rent a car and would it be advisable to do so?
It's safe. Don't go to dark alleys, stay where there's lots of people, don't show flashy things on the street (expensive watches). And don't go to shady places for drugs. In general you should be as where you live.
Tourist cities in mexico are basically bilingual, to the point where me and my family whenever we go people start talking to us in english (we're white). However many things are in spanish, so knowing it or at least speaking the basics will enhace your experience in certain areas. Not mandatory though.
On February 27 2021 06:02 JoeCool wrote:Show nested quote +On February 27 2021 00:41 food wrote: How safe would you say it is in this part of Mexico? Is going there with your family ok? Do you speak Spanish and was it necessary? Did you rent a car and would it be advisable to do so? I'm not the OP but I've been to Mexico/Yucatan/Cancun two years ago, english gets you a long way and Spanis isn't really neccessary. Generally speaking most of Mexico is "safe" except for the notorious areas. You should however always keep your stuff close to your body and never cary too much money with you. I also never took my original passport with me, only a copy. A word of warning: expect to be ripped off by locals as well as policemen. Especially in the touristic areas of the country. When we were drving back from Chichén-Itzá we got stopped by the police. According to them we were driving to fast, which was definitely not the case. After some discussion they gave us back our papers but took around 150€ from us. Unforunately this is something that happens quite often. Another thing I didn't like was the fact that there are lots and lots of sights/caves/beaches/whatever that belong to some private owner. Meaning you need to pay for every entrance and it's usually not just one fee but two or three. Because the first fee is just for the entrance, the second one for walking around and the third one for actually participating in activities (swimming, diving and whatnot). You can rent a car there. Just make sure you've read the contract because I'm pretty confident you'll have some discussions about fees when returning the car. Going to Yucatan with your family is okay. Just be aware that the climate can be quite exhausting due to high temperatures and humidity.
Oh wow you were definitely ripped off
1.-You shouldn't need to pay cops anything. Obviously with some shitty ones it can get tricky as they can say you were speeding or whatever and you would need to prove you weren't. That being said, it should not happen, and if it happens don't give the bastards 150 euros. When I was caught doing something (say, speeding, or did a forbidden turn without noticing) I gave them the equivalent of 4 euros. 8 if what I did was particularly erogious. Not 150, that's crazy. Just say you spent your money and that's all you have. It shouldn't happen, but if it does, just be calm and say that you didn't do shit, you have this 10 euros that is change from whatever and you don't have any more money you already spent it and you need to go back to the hotel or whatever.
2.-Beaches in Mexico are public, and you can go to any beach you want. That being said, there are public access and private accesses. If you want to go through the property of someone (a hotel, restaurant or whatever) yeah they'll probably ask you to purchase stuff there. Look for the public access. There must be one every 1-2 kilometers, then you can walk around through the same beach. Obviously you wouldn't be able to use the chairs/tables etc of some buisness or hotel that are in the beach, but you can sit on the sand right beside and they can't tell you anything. Some beaches are particularly difficult to get to due to the geograpy, and some people might want to charge you. My advice? fuck them, just don't. There are kilometers of beaches.
3.-Cenotes (the caves with water) are a different story. Some of those are in private proverty and people do charge to get there and for extras. And BTW some highways may lead directly to some things called "ejidos", which are big land plots that belong to some people, and you may need to pay to pass through there. That's because you're passing through their property, its literally part of their home, it's just that instead of being a big house with super big yards, it¿s a small house, maybe a cenote, and a lot of jungle.
It must be said that even with those fees Mexico is relatively cheap to travel to.
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