We had a great time on our Mexico family vacation

We planned our Mexico family vacation for a year in advance and chose to do our traveling during the fall months (also due to time constraints in when we could get off work!). Our main reason for choosing this time to travel was because it was during off peak tourist season and our daughter was a little older (10 months). We traveled near the end of October. We knew this was hurricane season but we decided to take our chances. We all got flu shots before leaving for Mexico, but that was the only medication we chose. We did a lot of research into our Mexico family vacation and chose the Cancun area as being the more ideal place for our family vacation getaway destination. Many people questioned our choice of Cancun, especially since it was just after the peak of the swine flu scare. We have done some extensive traveling in third world countries and we figured the swine flu scare was over-blown, it turned out we were right.

If Mexico is your idea of a vacation destination, you need to have passports for everyone. Getting one is relatively easy, but expect it to take 4-8 weeks before you have that passport in hand. You can get it sooner, but you will pay for it. For more information on passports, go here. Depending on what country or part of the USA you are flying from, you can expect to be in the air for several hours, when flying to Mexico. We firmly believe that air travel with infants is the best time to travel, however, you must be prepared! Read more about tips on air travel with kids. During the first year of our oldest daughter's life, we did three major family vacations and trips, she was a trooper. We have encouraged the use of a pacifier during family travel because it helps our daughters fight off "ear popping" when ascending and descending elevations. Okay, enough of this, I digress.

We learned a few things about Cancun, while on our Mexico family vacation.

First: If you plan to get around, forget the stroller and go with a backpack (if your kids are young enough). We found that the sidewalks in Cancun did not generally have transitions to the roadway, thus making you have to push your stroller off about a one foot drop off, when you tried to cross the street. This may not sound like much, until you have to walk a couple miles and push the stroller off about 30-40 edges! Believe me it gets old and we are pretty fit people. Second: Don't plan to find any good deals on souvenirs or food, if you stay in the tourist areas. We found that prices for anything were slightly more expensive than what we would pay in the USA. This was greatly disappointing, until we spoke to one of the employees at our hotel. He told us to go to downtown Cancun and gave us directions to the marketplace/bazaar. He suggested we take the bus down there. We followed his advice and after a 20-30 minute ride, we got dropped off and then walked for another kilometer to the marketplace. Make sure you have a map (which you can get from the tour guide in your hotel). At the marketplace, we were able to find good deals and do some good old fashioned bargaining. Prices for souvenirs were great and we grabbed a lunch at a Cabana for only a few dollars.

Third: And this is probably the most important! Don't drink tap water or get any ice! Chances are, you will get sick! Order bottled water, soda, or drinks in a can/bottle. Ask for refrigerated drinks and tell them not to put any ice in it. We talked to several people at the hotel who said the ice was okay and most of the tap water was treated, however, they recommended we stay away from it, to be safe. Spending a Mexico family vacation in bed or on the toilet is not fun!

Fourth: Your hotel will try and sell you a timeshare. This seems to be the standard in the Caribbean and you can expect to be hit up by a sales rep, at some time during your Mexico family vacation. Timeshares are a touchy subject and I won't go into it here.

Fifth: Look for package deals when you try to do any activities in Cancun. If you purchase two activities, you can usually get a third activity thrown in free, or some variation thereof. Don't be afraid to bargain with the tour rep in your hotel. Most Americans don't know how to bargain because it goes against a lot of what we have grown up with, but it is just a matter of perspective. Remember the first time you bought a car? It is like that, never pay the asking price!

There are a host of things to do in Cancun and it is not my intention to try and touch on all of them, since we didn't go to many of them. We did go to Isla Mujares and take a catamaran ride, go snorkeling and spent a lot of time on the beach (which was a lot smaller, due to hurricane season making the water level go up and taking away about 100 feet of beach front). The highlight of our Mexico family vacation was our time spent in Chichen Itza.