I believe some of the board members have been to Cancun recently. I have a couple questions:

1. Has anyone ever been to the Blue Bay Club (all-inclusive resort)?

2. What airline did you fly? Did you book through a travel agent, directly with the airline, or with a travel website (i.e. expedia, orbitz)? The air fare for the time we're planning on going (6/7 - 6/14) seems very expensive.

I wasn't sure if this belonged in General Discussion or Plugs.

Isn't that hurricane season down there at that time?

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SideshowBob311: "Sadly enough, I think we're the "intelligent" portion of the sports radio fanbase".
"I make fun of whoever sucks, including me"- Harry 11/30/07

Good apology...

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Hurricane season is June-August.

Never been to Blue Bay.
As long as you go 5star all-inclusive, you're pretty much set.
airfare is expensive now. my vegas flight has gone up $120 since I booked it.
I flew mexican airlines or something.

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@audioidkid

Like DEP said, hurricane season is June to October with the most likely months to be September and October.

I've never been to the Blue Bay, but it appears to be located near downtown Cancun. I've been to Cancun many times and I'm just not a fan of the downtown area. There are a few good restaraunts up there (La Parilla comes to mind) but in general it's busy with a lot of street vendors (and a WAL MART!). To get back to the 'hotel zone' where most of the nighttime places are (like Senor Frogs), it will be a short cab ride back that way. Probably run you 70-80 pesos depending where you are headed. Since it's all inclusive, I'm sure you'll be spending most of the time there. If you've never been. I'd recommend a trip to Chichen-itza or at the very least one of the ruins sites.

For flights, American runs a single daily non stop flight. You could look at Apple out of Rockford for a direct flight as well, but last time I looked around that time (We have a timeshare at the Royal Sands), it was around 500 RT per person to cancun. For connectors, I do not recommend Continential - had a really bad time connecting in Houston.

oh. booked with a travel agent. don't forget you need passports now.

btw. you probably want to be on that skinny strip of land facing the gulf of mexico for hotel (not the lagoon side).
you do not want to be in the downtown area. as vince stated.

all of the "Palace" resorts are nice.

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@audioidkid

Thanks for the info, but the plan was changed a bit. We are now staying at the Crown Paradise Resort which is near the hotel zone. And now its a Friday to Friday. We also had purchased a time share but we deposited our week with RCI to get this place. Anyone with information on Crown Paradise?


I had to laugh at that comment. This isn't the apology, it's a family vacation and probably the last family vacation our oldest son will take with us since he's graduating high school next month.

As long as it's on the ocean and not the lagoon side, it should be fine.

Personally, I vastly prefer Tulum or Solimon Bay to Cancun because I like smaller, more intimate settings as opposed to what you will find at one of Cancun's all-inclusive resorts. In Tulum, Solimon Bay, or any number of smaller towns south of Cancun, you can get a beachfront hut, condo, or house for a very reasonable price. Last time I went to Mexico, I paid about 150 bucks a night for a palapa that was about twenty yards off the ocean. For the entire ten days I stayed there, I never saw more than five or six people on the pristine beach at the same time I was there. You won't get that kind of experience at an all-inclusive.

Once you're in Cancun, definitely take Hawkeye Vince's advice and check out some ruins. Chichen-Itza is nice, but Ek Balam and Koba are also fantastic and, if you're renting a car, will be much less crowded. Skip the Tulum ruins, although the beach is beautiful.

Two other musts are snorkeling by the Mesoamerican reef, the second largest in the world, and swimming and snorkeling in cenotes, sinkholes that expose the fresh water river system that lies beneath the Yucatan's limestone foundation. Snorkeling in these pools is an amazing experience--the water is calm and crystal clear and are home to some dramatic rock formations and many interesting fish and turtles. They are rarely crowded. My favorite cenotes near Cancun are Dos Ojos, which is widely considered one of the best locations in the world for scuba diving and snorkeling, and Cenote Manatee, behind Casa Cenote Hotel in Solimon Bay. Cenote Manatee is a beautiful fresh water pool that feeds into the ocean on the other side of the hotel. Definitely check out the ocean side of the cenote--swimming in the swirling, burbling pools where the river meets the ocean is a transcendent experience. Many fish also congregate at this intersection.

I love Mexico and the warmth of the Mayan people. Make sure you check out some of the really cheap and delicious street food offered by the street vendors or makeshift restaurants. The Mexican "Sinaloan"-style chicken that is slow roasted over a wood fire is particularly delicious. Have a great time!

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TM: I'll be in Cancun in December and I am planning to take the trip to Ek Balam this time. Thanks for the recommendation earlier.

I would not recommend this unless you are an experienced Mexico traveler. The last thing you need is to spend your whole trip in the bathroom because you bought some food from a vendor that contained Mexican drinking water.

When they say "Don't drink the water", they mean it.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

+1...

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SideshowBob311: "Sadly enough, I think we're the "intelligent" portion of the sports radio fanbase".
"I make fun of whoever sucks, including me"- Harry 11/30/07

I've done this everytime I've been to Mexico and have never had a problem. A modicum of commonsense is all that is required.

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so....don't drink from the lawn hose, then?

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@audioidkid

You are clearly an extraordinary person Tall Midget.

It is largely depends on your stomach. Some people can drink gallons of Mexican water and have nothing happen but others can have a reaction from having ice in your drink or even the washing of fruit. The Mexican people can drink the water because they have had it since they were born.

I did my best to avoid it but I had some general feelings of uncomfortableness just about every day I was there. It wasn't enough to ruin the trip as I had a great time but I am sure that if I had actually tried food outside my all-inclusive and the chichen itza tour that it may have been a different story.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

You do realize that most places outside the all-inclusives are very careful about how their food is prepared, don't you? All the restaurants on the Tulum strip, for instance, use bottled water to prepare their food.

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I would also advise travelers to the Yucatan to visit the locogringo and tulum.info websites. There you will find many wide-ranging discussions about eating beyond the generally mediocre all-inclusives.

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Any place that caters to tourists is fine. Most places even have signs saying so. It's the little corner shops and free stands I would steer clear, unless you have a Tall Midget stomach.....

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SideshowBob311: "Sadly enough, I think we're the "intelligent" portion of the sports radio fanbase".
"I make fun of whoever sucks, including me"- Harry 11/30/07

I do. I still don't know how trusting I would be of a street vendor. I had mixed drinks at Senor Frog's and noticed no issues beyond the minor stomach discomfort I felt intermittently in Cancun which I blame primarily on the new and different kinds of food that I was trying. I think I would do much better now.

I am sure that restaurants in the hotel zone aren't going to be around very long if they are making the average traveler sick but I would be less trusting of street vendors.

It all depends on your stomach but I would say that almost any first time traveler should use discretion until they find out how they react. It sounds as if you have been there numerous times and therefore you really aren't the one I am giving advice to.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Also, if you do get sick don't wait, find pills ASAP. It won't go away on it's own....

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SideshowBob311: "Sadly enough, I think we're the "intelligent" portion of the sports radio fanbase".
"I make fun of whoever sucks, including me"- Harry 11/30/07

Downtown Tulum is filled with "little corner shops and free stands" that are frequented by American tourists, although the stands get less traffic than the little restaurants. One of the most popular restaurants--with tourists and locals--in Tulum, for instance, is a little ramshackle place called Bronco Pollo. On the opposite side of Tulum Blvd. there is an even more decrepit Sinaloan chicken shack that also serves very good food to Americans and Mexicans. And at the far south end of the Tulum strip are a series of run down taquerias that serve some of the best tacos al pastor you will ever find--primarily to locals, but to some tourists, too. I know of many Americans who have gone to all of these places, and none of them have ever gotten sick from eating there.

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Learn a few Mexican words and phrases, too.

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avoid the hot dog vendors on Bourbon Street in NOLA.
bad news...

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@audioidkid

You must've been really, really overserved to hit one of those. To me they ususally stink over the stench that is puke on the Bourbon St. curbs.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

yeah....it was a 2:30 a.m.
"....muh...hungry....eat....."
kinda thing.

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@audioidkid

To each his own. I avoid street vendors I find suspect, like I would any other kind of place. With street vendors, though, you at least get to observe how the food is being prepared, something you can't often do as you move up the price scale. A couple of questions and a little common sense goes a long way, and the more new experiences I have, the more I tend to enjoy my trips. But I would never advise anyone to do something about which he or she feels uncomfortable.

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I too have eaten "street food" and at several restaurants in and around Playa many times. I don't think TM is all that unusual. I always see Americans doing this. For me such things are part of the charm of visiting a foreign country. I usually stay in all-inclusives (more convenient with kids) but don't always eat there. If I wanted everything to be just like home, I'd stay in Chicago. Actually, I think I've probably been to restaurants in Chicago that were less sanitary than Playa street vendors. In ten or so trips south of the border, I have been sick once. And that was about 30 years ago in a very small town in Baja when I bought a locally-made popsicle.

Cerveza es muy importante.

Yeah, I really don't think eating food from street vendors is unusual at all for Americans anymore--especially given the way Rick Bayless has popularized this kind of culinary "adventurousness" on his TV show. In certain settings--like in the plazas of Merida, for instance--you would be missing out on a great experience if you didn't get food from the vendors. Many Americans seem to understand this point because they eat there pretty frequently.

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Si mijo?

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