Snowbirding in Mexico

Tequila wrote:
I am posting in this section as the question is aimed at those who normally snowbird in Az.

I have been snow-birding in Mexico now for 8 years after having done it in the SW for the first couple of years. Personally, I would never go back to spending the winter in Az, but maybe that is just me. I driven all over Mexico for 5 months a year, even led caravans, and never have had, nor seen, an "incident".

I have some questions, I am contacting some tourism officials in Mexico and trying to get them to promote the RV industry a bit more, so I have some questions.

1) Are you scared to take your RV into Mexico?
2) Do you think there are no modern RV parks in Mexico?
3) Does the lack of ULSD diesel deter you?
4) Are you simply just happy with Az?
5) Are you worried about drug cartels?
6) Are you too wary to do it on your own, or with a caravan, or buddying with others who have done it before?
7) Does the language barrier deter you?
8) Have you ever considered going less than one day south, like Rocky Point, Kino Bay or San Carlos, all of which have modern RV parks?
9) Do you perceive Baja as safer?
10) Are you worried about road conditions?


Please no lectures on Mexico being a war zone, I have heard them all before.

Tequila, I'll answer your questions in the order you list them. As to our Mexican experiences, we spent the winters of 2006-07 to 2009-10 on the Pacific coast in RV parks north and south of Mazatlan. we had a great time but we were close to the violence in Maz at that time (in the last year a Canadian was shot in the RV park there and we just missed the "druggie" blockade north of Maz on the toll road) and we haven't returned since. The answers reflect our experiences.

1. See above
2. No modern parks to speak of, the only NA standard park we hit was El Mirador in San Carlos, now closed. The others had 10 to 20 amp service, water that had to be treated to be safe, power correction to bring the voltage down to 120 volts to avoid RV damage and rough conditions.
3, Yes, I won't risk the truck warranty running high Sulfur Diesel. Friends that continue to go to Mex go only as far as San Carlos to minimize use of Mexican diesel.
4. We stay in S. California and like it!
5. Yes, the activity doesn't have seemed to have stopped. Last time we checked, our out-of-country top up health insurance wouldn't cover us if we were caught and injured in a situation involving the cartels because of the Canadian government warnings.
6. Not an issue, wouldn't go back there presently by ourselves or with buddies.
7, Nope, the locals bent over backwards to help us, a few words of Spanish go a long way!
8. Based on our experiences there are no modern RV parks there unless things have changed!
9. Can't comment, haven't been there.
10. Roads are rough but it's not a show stopper.

Two other "nags" that bothered us, the 2 hr. hassle and wait to process paperwork at km. 21 with no-one there speaking English to process us non-Spanish speaking folks. The other is the inconsistently applied regulations, I got dinged 900 pesos to bring an 8 ft. inflatable boat and motor into Mexico for my own use (I took it back with me, I didn't import it!).

I feel sorry for the locals who depended on our spending to help them. It seems that Mexico only caters to the fly-in, all-inclusive crowd