Mexico Vacation

I know most of the problems Mexico is having are in the border towns. But I still wouldn't go anywhere inside the country until they get the drug cartels under control.

Why not go to US Virgin Islands?

I hear cancun is a very friendly child type enviroment. I am not sure what resorts unfortuantly, but It is a club med type atmosphere.

We stayed in Playa del Carmen (south of Cancun) at a Catalonia resort. Very safe & family friendly. Right on the beach with great pools for young & old. Check out Trip Advisor.

Dreams Riviera Cancun. Cant't beat it. Just got back with a 3 yr. old and 7 month old. All inclusive and very safe.

we have spent many of our vacations in mexico over the years. however, i'd really encourage you to consider a different place to go. things are VERY unsafe, yes, even in the resort areas... you are not airdropped into the resort, you are travelling from the border or the airport to your resort, and americans are a big target for the drug cartels for kidnappings/murders. i am not an alarmist type at all, but the danger is very real, and is prob very much underreported.

if you do decide to go, the palace resorts are nice.

I recommend Palace Resorts in Cancun. Moon Palace is awesome. We brought our son there when he was 23 months and we all had a great time!

I love Mexico and have been there sevaral times over the years. But I agree with some of what was said already but dangers are not just in border towns. Violence against American tourists have hit major tourist areas including Cancun, Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Acapulco and more.

I have a cousin that works for border patrol and he said a great deal isn't even covered in the news. One of my closest friends is Mexican and she reads the Mexican news daily online and she is shcoked by how little is reported here.

There are much safer places to go - the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, etc...

Good luck!

We love Mexico, but decided to go to Aruba with our son this past summer instead. I wouldn't step foot in Mexico right now!

We just went to Puerto Vallarta for Thanksgiving and spoke to our travel agent about current potential dangers, etc...they could have easily sent us somewhere else and not lost any money but we discussed how most of the dangers (drug cartel violence and border violence) are definitely north of where we were going. We flew direct from Chicago to Puerto Vallarta and were shuttled by Apple directly to our destination. We did go into town twice though and both times were greeted only by warmth, never felt threatened at all in any way. We actually go every year to a new destination in Mexico and have never once had any issues.

This trip we stayed in Dreams Puerto Vallarta. It was the most kid-friendly resort I've EVER stayed in. It was amazing. If you go, definitely spend a few extra bucks to stay in the new tower...it's leaps and bounds more updated and nicer than the old tower. Totally worth the $. They will bring you room service whenever you want...kids menu included. They have a little lounge area in the lobby with sweets, sandwiches, bottled water, wine, whatever you want, whenever you want it. All of the bars (even the pool bar) stock kid-friendly drinks as well as champagne, wine, whatever you want. The restaurants at the resort have REALLY good food (kind of rare in my experience for an all-inclusive) - only 1 restaurant there is adults only. Tons of food for the kids to eat.

They have something called the Explorer's Club...your son is probably one year too young for this, but my son had just turned 4 when we went. You can actually take them to the Explorer's Club in the morning, they do activities on the beach, do a bungee trampoline jumping activity, art, crafts (they baked Thanksgiving cookies one day), swim in the baby pool, and they do a dance for everyone at the pool at 3:00. He cried when we left the resort if that tells you anything. They will even watch the kids on the beach (they show a movie on a big screen) anytime you want from 6 PM to 10 PM if you want to go to dinner sans kids...this resort is in a private bay so no one can access the beach without going through the resort first...I've never felt safer anywhere in my life. They give you a high-tech beeper in case you need to come back early. We never left our son to go have dinner but would have if he were older...they showed Toy Story 3 on the beach one night and my FIL just went with him while we went to dinner.

Also the resort is a sea turtle conservation site, so they hatch baby sea turtles and release them into the ocean once they are ready. My son actually got to release a baby turtle into the sea. It was breathtaking.

So longwinded, sorry about that. But my husband's family has decided, and we are all in agreement since we have lots of kids in their family, that we will be going back there every single year from now on. :)