RV Tourism in Mexico

Do it all the time. We don't live in Monterrey, we live en el campo. I know all about tienditas and abarrotes, many are ripoffs as people buy at Sam's, City Club, Costco or belong to groups such as DIA that surtir productos and they just resell them at a high mark up.

Not sure what kind of life you think I have. We have a local street market every Tuesday, people come down from the hills. I don't live in a gated community with gringos, don't even know any here. Your life isn't any more special or different than anyone else's. All experiences count, all opinions count. That's why this forum is just about dead. A group of people who used to rv in Mexico and now just complain about it.

If people aren't happy where they live, they can always pick up and move. Nothing wrong with Mexico having big cities, big box stores, universities, and living life like others do in the rest of the world. Kind of silly for a kid to go to school and then have to hang out in a small town where there's no work or he has to do some crappy job. It's 2014 not 1975.

Like many of the other people who have posted lately, ADIOS.

Qtla9111 you live in the Rolling Hills, area of Mexico. Monterrey, is to Mexico like Times Square is to Cheyenne, Wyoming. THERE ARE FEW "PROMOCIONES" of any significance out in the country. ISSSTE tiendas offer better than usual prices but a very limited selection. We are paying 14.22 pesos/liter for MAGNA. I don't give a damn how you cut it, even at an exchange rate of 13.30 to 1 THAT'S FOUR DOLLARS TEN CENTS PER GALLON for Magna, at a Pemex gasolinera. Let's not forget the pumps that have slight alterations or the bank/exchange vigorish of around 5%.

I could drive to Los Angeles to shop for food, to Houston, Texas for comistibles, and Seattle Washington for electrical power rates. But 99% of Mexico is a hell of a lot more expensive than what government AVERAGE prices lie about. How about you spending NINE HUNDRED and THIRTY THREE pesos for a 25 Kg cylinder of LPG, right at the plant? Oh sugar, the cylinder is only filled to 80% level to the liquid level bleed.

When RV'ers come to Mexico, they do not park next to the Bodega Aurrera at the beach. See all of the tens of thousands of corner Abarrotes? They are not there for the fun of it, an overwhelming majority of Mexicans walk to these tiny tiendas, and I can guarantee you these grocery markets have high prices.

I live Mexicano. I eat Mexican. My friends, my family are Mexican. I do not speak Ingles, although I write it. My friends cannot wait to go north and shop and fill with gasoline, and buy clothes, and gifts, and electronics. They marvel at the prices in the grocery stores - although for Mexicans bringing food, even canned and packaged food is difficult.

Life where vacationers go is a different universe than Mexico, or Monterrey or Zapopan. Life where most Mexicans live is the same way. Drop into the tienda the aborrotes near you and see how prices compare to Soriana, or Mega. You're going to be in for a rude shock. This is why people shop at tianguis or la mercado municipal.

Seems like all things balanced at the end when you use good judgement, just like I do in North America. When I was in Mexico, I did not find prices where any higher. Alaska and Yukon was expensive, Florida is very expensive down south, and it is very very expensive too if you get an RV site by the ocean, if you get one, just check the Florida Keys for example, 2000 to 3000 a month is common.

Again, a lot of exaggeration. Milk prices run the gamut. Check the PROFECO website under "quien es quien" which by law lists all prices for all products by state, city, and grocery chain. In Sahuayo, Michoacan milk is as low as 9.90 a liter, much less then 4.30 u.s. per gallon. Butter runs way under at $4 a pound, pan Bimbo $1.19 a loaf. Regular unleaded is $3.80 a gallon, and LP $3.90.

Like all good shoppers, you check the ads and go to the store that has the best prices. Everyone has access to internet and all supermarket chains have their sale flyers on line as well as in the store. Generic brands at HEB, Soriana, Comercial Mexicana, Sam's and Walmart.

Forget the tolls and travel the libres. Thinking the toll roads are safer is imagination. From the border to Monterrey the libres are in good if not better shape, have better scenery and more stops along the way. Hwy 57 is a toll road but super cheap. All have military and federale patrols and Green Angels.

Mexico can be what you want it to be. So much nay saying here. There are many points of view and this is mine. But heck, what do I know, I only live here.

Disclaimer: I don't have to defend Mexico. It can stand on its own. Whether people come or not doesn't stop me from rving and enjoying such a great place.

On edit: With all respect to Canadians, we spent the summer traveling in the western U.S. and Canada. I could never rv there again. Apart from high gas prices (as high as $5.80 a gallon) and outrageous food and rv park prices, it is a beautiful country. We saved a ton by flying from Ottowa to Halifax versus the fuel and park prices. Don't know how Canadians do it. I think they are all rich :)

Not cheap! Got to be worth it, especially when you have to drive 2000 miles just to get to the border.

"Help! Help! Help! I just got robbed!"

"Shhh, you wanna bring the police?"

This is a Mexican joke. About one in twenty burglaries get reported. So toss out the stat flinging and put on your smart hat and learn how to reduce the risk. This goes for security, driving, midnight strolls, ATM use, you name it.

Mexico IS NO LONGER A CHEAPSKATE'S PARADISE. It takes careful planning not to break the bank for most upper lower class and lower middle class folks, who wish to come south for the winter.

How does four dollar thirty cents per gallon milk, sound? Or seven dollar for a six pack of beer? I just priced T bone steak at 288 pesos a kilo, that's $9.75/lb, you can find VIBRAM beef cheaper, but you can't chew it. Is a dollar seventy for a loaf of bread cheap? Or seven dollars for a quart of mayo a bargain? Only twenty dollars a day for a site = 600 dollars a month. Gasoline and diesel cost more than 4.00 a gallon and so does LPG. More than a few autopistas (cuotas) charge an RV a dollar per mile. Butter? You must be joking. Five dollars thirty six cents per pound. Stupid potatoes are sixty cents per pound.

It is worth running the gauntlet to get to a favorite destination...that's the key for a lot of people. Encountering six or seven retenes de SSP or Puestos de Controles militar per day's drive also enters into the equation.

If mere bad news from a place so remote you would need a guide to find it, is your deciding factor, two things, you have a lot more money than I do, and a hell of a lot more active imagination than I will ever have. Do you nail your closet shut at night and look under the bed before getting in? Open your eyes and ears, shut down the imagination and start engaging the brain. You'll have a great time. The obstacle is high prices, not the ghosts of Pancho Villa and Hannibal Lectur.

Back in the old days, the news did not influence tourism that much I guess. All you had was talking to someone you knew to get the latest information on traveling, no internet for bad news. Bad news are the news that bring the money, focused to make money for their own benefit. I doubt there is some kind of lobbying from the tourism industries that are trying to keep the dollars in USA, scaring people every way they can. They probably succeed as many of us are scared by the flash news.

The murder rates are declining in USA, but still is one of the highest rate in the developed countries, after Mexico but probably not that far, still we travel with confidence. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/u-s-murder-rate-higher-than-nearly-all-other-developed-countries-fbi-data/.

Back in the 1990's, it was pretty scary, the murder rate was much much more than today in USA, but people still traveled a lot in those days.

I try to read the news from someone who's been there, and restrain from reading the interest based bad news from the media. This should help me decide to go further in Mexico.

Darbone.....for shame....I would never ever talk about where YOU live like that, ever! I love it here and will be celebrating 10 years here in January. Sorry you didn't like it. Glad you know how to cut and paste. If you want the real story on our massive cleanup I would be happy to tell you but you probably don't care cuz you got your mind made up. That's OK. We see new visitors everyday. Hasta la vista.

Diesel fuel, whether in the US or Mexico is too expensive - I live in Maine - 4,000 miles from where I like to camp in Sinaloa. 11mpg towing the trailer, round trip is $3,000 alone.
Maybe when we retire and can spend more time in Mexico. The last two years we motorcycled in Mexico, staying in hotels every night - It's more affordable than with an RV. I swear I pay as much at a truck stop or Pemex filling up motorcycle then I did with the truck and trailer 10 years ago.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/03/23/massacre-near-arizona-mexico-border-shines-light-in-increase-as-drug/

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/dec/19/five-killed-puerto-penasco-tourist-zone-gun-battle/

I'm not a scared little person but I was at Bella Sirena shortly before the assault by helicopters and military forces. I won't return to Puerto Penasco.

We've taken our motor home down to Nayarit and really do like it there but between the price of fuel in MX, the tolls, the road conditions and the expense of RV parks we're likely to just fly down to PV and rent an apartment