Is it safe to travel to Cancun? – 3 tips to enjoy Cancun | LDS Tours Cancun

For more than 30 years, Alma’s LDS Tours has operated tours in Cancun and the Peninsula of Yucatan, always with the solid purpose of providing the best experience to hundreds if not thousands of families from around the world. Since day one, our company has been committed to create wonderful memories and help our customers enjoy each minute shared with us.

As we know, Cancun is a very popular destination, and it will keep increasing its popularity not only because of the crystal clear water and its beautiful beaches but because it is becoming the favorite spot where you can enjoy the best restaurants, five-star hotels, natural attractions, and of course the Mayan ruins.

Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been a lot of misinformation regarding travel safety in Mexico. This false, negative media has spread all over creating uncertainty among travelers. Since 2017, the Mexican government has been installing more than 3,000 surveillance cameras to address security issues in Cancun, giving tourists updated and real safety information about this paradisiac destination.

Today, Alma’s LDS Tours wants to share with you a list of 3 recommendations to fully enjoy your vacations in Cancun.

Avoid online deals that are too good to be true

From the moment you start planning your vacations to Cancun and begin searching online for hotels, car rentals, tours, etc., you’ll begin to get bombarded by paid advertising that will follow you to many websites. It has become very common for many companies to promote deals that are too good to be true that often can result in a sour experience upon arriving at Cancun. For example, the most common one is the famous “$1 dollar a day car rental.” We have heard numerous stories from our customers about how they booked a car online and paid only $1 dollar per day, but when they show up to pick the car up, it turns out that after airport fees, taxes, gas, and insurance, the bill immediately skyrocketed. Or sometimes, these deals come with strings attached such as being obligated to attend to a timeshare presentation, hidden fees, or ridiculous restrictions that force you to upgrade your rental. 99% of the time our guests end up disappointed and upset, and that is no way to start a vacation in paradise.

So the best recommendation is: when a deal looks too good to be true it usually is. If you need help vetting any kind of deal before pulling the trigger, we are here to help. Please do not hesitate to give us a call and we will be more than happy to verify the information for you. We are not kidding, we want you to have a good experience.

Don’t stress over Zika

In the last ten years, there has been an outbreak of diseases carried by mosquitos that have affected several parts of the world. Some of these diseases include Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya, Malaria, just to name a few. Zika virus has been the latest outbreak that has come to the world’s attention since Fall 2015 when problems related to the virus first appeared in Brazil. The virus spread throughout the Americas and quickly became a cause for people to rethink their travel plans to Mexico. Zika virus has been found in over 20 countries, including parts of the United States.

Since 2016, the Mexican government has been taking measures to stop the spread of Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses with campaigns to eliminate or treat the areas where mosquitos breed. The first confirmed cases of Zika in Mexico were detected in 2015; in 2016 the number of cases reached a peak with 550 cases. Since 2016 the numbers have drastically dropped to fewer than a hundred cases in 2017, and less than 30 cases in 2018.

Although the Zika virus has not been fully eradicated in Mexico, it is no longer considered a large threat in the Cancun area to visitors and residents. However, we still recommend you to follow these 3 tips to avoid contracting any type of mosquito-borne disease during your vacation.

• Stay at hotels or resorts near developed cities, for example, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum.
• Bring mosquito repellant (experts recommend using repellant with Deet as the active ingredient), and reapply frequently.
• Take vitamin B1. Believe it or not, vitamin B1 has proven in numerous studies to help prevent insect bites.

Use your common sense

When people travel, we often go into “vacation mode” and immediately begin a journey to wonderland believing that everything around us is perfectly fine, and sometimes we even start to do things we would never do at home thinking there are no consequences. The key to a relaxing vacation is to enjoy, however, it is important to stay alert and always use your common sense.

Cancun is a city with over 1 million inhabitants, that is over 4 times as many people living in the Salt Lake City area. Think about it, would it be completely safe to walk alone on the streets of South Salt Lake in the middle of the night? No one can predict what would happen but there is a high probability that it won’t be a nice experience. Bad things can happen anywhere in the world, especially if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Unfortunately, when something bad happens in Mexico, news flies fast throughout the United States, sometimes even before we can find out here in Mexico. In 2018 several incidents happened near the vicinity of Cancun and the Riviera Maya, some that may have even involved tourists. The headlines immediately bash Cancun’s image creating paranoia for future travelers. However, according to the United States Department of State, 91% of the time a US citizen has been directly affected in a registered incident, has happened at late hours of the night and involved illicit activities. At this moment the US Department of State has no travel restrictions to Cancun, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and the Riviera Maya. For detailed and updated information visit: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/Mexico.html

In conclusion, Cancun in 2018 received more than 6 million visitors from all over the world. As bad or unsafe as the “media” can make it sound, there is a reason why people keep coming back! And you will only find out until you experience it for yourself…

As a Japanese proverb says :

“Fear is only as deep as the mind allows.”

Alma’s LDS Tours offers a great variety of tours where you can keep learning more about the history of this and more Mayan culture.
Here is a list of our most popular tours:

• Chichen Itza by Airplane from Cozumel Tour
• LDS Tour F. Chichen Itza Ruins and Cenote
• LDS Tour 3 . Chichen Itza, Ek Balam Ruins and Cenote Ik Kil

We’d love to help plan your next trip to Cancun.