RV Tourism in Mexico

JeffersonCampervan wrote:

John & Angela wrote:


I can relate to this post although we are doing it backwards. Started with Mexico and went to other Latin countries and Europe from there. There is good and bad anywhere and an open mind is important. Europe in general is considerably more expensive and makes Canada look down right cheap. Gas is Canada right now is around 3.60 US to 4.00 US per gallon. In Europe it is well over 7 with maybe the exception of Spain. The one big thing we noticed every where in Europe was the massive amount of graffiti EVERYWHERE. Wether it was the canals of Venice or Downtown paris. The lawns along the main tourist areas in Paris probably haven't been cut in years and the garbage is everywhere. Germany is fairly clean and Spain isn't bad but really all over Europe its a problem. It would not stop us from going back as there is a lot to see and do AND LEARN. Mexico in general is cleaner, better preserved and better presented than many areas we saw in Europe. The "pueblos magicos" of Mexico are amazing and I recommend them over any beach location we went to in Mexico. We have had friends in the US tell us they wouldn't go to Mexico because of the check points and soldiers with automatic weapons. We advise them never to go to europe as this kind of thing is common there. There are 7000 pick pocket incidents PER DAY in Paris and Madrid. Meh, keep thirty bucks in your front pocket and a dummy wallet in your back pocket and somebody will cop a little feel of your hiney. :) As far as checkpoints in Mexico we have overnighted at a couple with the invitation of the commandante. As far as bad cops in Mexico I'm sure there are some, we just never ran across one in our 4 years of RV travel and we rarely sat in one place for more than a few weeks. I don't want to minimize Mexicos problems but it is what it is. I don't recommend un informed travel in Mexico (or anywhere else) as there are real security risks that need to be mitigated or reduced.
All just my humble opinion. What do I know about culture. I like padre kino wine. :)

I can't let this caricature pass without comment - you were in a different Europe than I was.

We've shipped 3 campers to Europe and left them there for years, beginning in 1992. We just brought our Rialta back to Canada after 8 years in Europe. We also have travelled a dozen times to Mexico, the last several trips in that same Rialta from 2004 to 2006, which was our last trip to Mexico. Some trip pages at our site: Our Travel Pages

If you know how to do it, using a combination of campgrounds, stellplatze, aires, France Passion and freecamping, Europe is much cheaper than over here or Mexico. Gas/Petrol is more per litre, but much less per day of travel - you seldom do long distances. I saw no graffiti epidemic & I guess we always hit Paris just after they cut the grass.:-)The checkpoint statement is remarkable - we have never encountered one. A dummy pickpocket wallet is a good idea anywhere - I always have that setup in place - the only place I've availed myself of it, though, was Patzcuaro.

Mexico we love as well - and had planned for our first RV trip back in North America to be a revisit. I still have my 2005 10 year import sticker on the Rialta windshield, next to stickers for German umwelt zones, France Passion & toll stickers for Czech Republic, Austria and Turkey.

I'm dismayed at the undercurrent tone on Mexico forums, which I just started re-frequenting this autumn. Prior to my last stint, pre-2006, the negative posts were from people who had never been to Mexico and we always dismissed them - and our own experience of Mexico & the warm Mexican people did not correspond to any of the fear-based comments we read. We were usually the ones who dispelled the pervasive-violence-&-corruption myths about Mexico. But now I see Mexico-partial names I recognize from 8 years ago expressing unease.
We are reconsidering Mexico as a destination this Christmas - & not due to cost.

Well, I would definetly defer to your experience over ours as you are definetly a well travelled fellow and much more so than us. As opposed to checkpoints I would call them control points, we noticed them at high speed rail stations in both France and Spain as well as a couple in Italy. Really wasn't a big deal. Security points don't bother us at all.

Re the grafiti though, maybe its just something you get used to. We couldn't help but notice it pretty much everywhere we went, even in high tourist areas. It shows up in a lot of our pictures. Our whole group noticed it and it was a topic of conversation more than once. Again, no big deal. Looking forward to going back. Maybe they will have cut the grass in Paris along the river this time. :) Maybe they even emptied the overflowing garbage cans. Or maybe there was a strike on and we didn't know it. Just reporting what we saw. Not trying to bash it. We enjoyed our time there. I"m sure its normally much better kept.

We do intend to go back to RV through europe after I have finished work in a few years. Right now we take winters off and work in the summer. Good to know that it can be done on a budget. There are so many areas we flagged for returning to especially in Germany, Spain and France. We will be back in Italy (the south this time) for a few weeks next year (2016) or at least thats the plan. (which seems to change daily). I would be interested in hearing if you found a way around the 90 day Schengen zone limit or do you just leave at the 90 day point. I took a quick look at your site and it looks awesome. Looking forward to exploring it in more depth. Thanks for posting.