Family Vacations
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Family Travel

My Vacationkids staff and I visited Mexico this past week. We visited Cancun and The Riviera Maya area. We spent Saturday in Tulum, Puerto Aventuras and the Playa Del Carmen area. We were scheduled to leave on Sunday Aug 19th long before Hurricane Dean headed for the Yucatan Peninsula. Hurricanes bring strong winds, rain and a great deal of worry for vacationers whenever they come to town. They also bring a lot of speculative news articles and dramatic TV coverage from reporters who cannot even correctly pronounce the names of the towns they are reporting on. As a travel agent who has weathered many a hurricane, I appreciate that there are many concerned travelers out there worried about their holiday plans. Please allow me to share some of my insights with you.

I've read many online reports and heard news stories describing the plight of 70,000 desperate tourists trying to flea Cancun airport on Sunday and Monday before Hurricane Dean came to town. My staff and I were amongst these 70,000 and I must say we were far from desperate. The new Cancun airport terminal was a pleasure to navigate. We experienced less hassles with check-in and security than we experienced back home in Philadelphia. The airport check-in lines on Sunday were shorter than those I experienced during a recent Cancun trip in March 2007. Due to the track of the storm, Cancun airport and hotel zone experienced only minor damage. Normal flight schedules are due to resume to Cancun airport on Wednesday. In my professional experience, this is a VERY good sign that the storm did not cause a great deal of damage in this area.

During this trip I was pleased to see that Cancun had completely recovered from wrath of Hurricane Wilma that devastated this area as a category 5 hurricane two years ago. There are a couple of major differences between hurricane Wilma and hurricane Dean. First, Hurricane Wilma's eye came further north to Cancun and the storm literally stalled over Cancun. The Cancun hotel zone experienced 4 days of battering winds and rains which led to a great deal of damage. Hurricane Dean's eye is passing over 100 miles south and it is a fast moving storm so my hope is that it will just blow thru and not create a great deal of flooding and damage. I have been watching TV weather reports from Cancun. I know first hand, most of the resort locations where these reports are being televised. When I look at these scenes, I notice that the palm trees all have their fronds blowing in the winds and the palapas or tiki huts on the beach still have their grass roofs. Palm trees and palapas did not survive hurricane Wilma but they seemed to have survived hurricane Dean.

During my hotel inspections this trip I did notice many architectural changes with re-built hotels in Cancun as well as newly built resorts further south in the Riviera Maya area. Newer resorts are far more modern and sleek by comparison to their older counterparts. There is less foliage and decorative accents. One of the resort managers explained that the hoteliers learned a great deal after weathering Hurricane Wilma. Building codes have been changed so that hotels can now withstand category 5 storms more easily. Hotels have built conference rooms that can double as safe rooms for guests during hurricanes. So if there is anything good to be said for the terrible destruction of hurricane Wilma, it could be said that now the Cancun hospitality industry can now better weather storms like hurricane Dean. For folks who are not as familiar with Cancun, the hotel zone or tourist area of Cancun is shaped like the number 7. The beaches along the vertical side of the 7 are rougher and experience stronger waves. This is simply a matter of geography. These Cancun beaches often experience a great deal of erosion. This usually occurs over time but I would expect that this storm will cause some accelerated beach damage The resorts and beaches located on the horizontal side of Cancun have gentle, mind waves because the island of Isla Mujeres lies just off shore and acts as a barrier. Often during storms, these beaches gain sandy real estate until the government dredges the sand and puts it back where it belongs on the vertical side of Cancun.

As a travel professional, another encouraging word that I heard was that areas south of Tulum received mandatory evacuation notice from the Mexican government. Again, for those folks not as familiar with the area a little geography lesson...The area known as the "Riviera Maya" is the stretch of coastline that stretches south along the highway from Cancun airport to the Belize border. On a bright sunny day this is about a 2 hour drive, around 100 miles. Most of the resorts frequented by American tourists are located south of Cancun but north of the town of Tulum. Back here in the US, think about how different the weather can be 2 hours from your home. This is a large geographic area. Again, the newer resorts are located further south. Many of these properties have the newer building codes. In speaking with friends and colleagues who live in this area this morning, so far we have not heard of any major reports of heavy structural damage to the resorts. One year, my family was vacationing in Tulum during Hurricane Ivan. We watched as the resort staff prepared for the storm. We did not receive any evacuation notices during that storm. The storm passed us over night and by the next morning, the sun was shining brightly and the resort staff had everything back in place. It was as if nothing had ever happened! If I hadn't experienced this for myself and seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed it.

Many American travelers have varied and interesting opinions about Mexico. We often see the sad results of hurricane Katrina on the news. We see the U.S. as a strong world leader and think about how fellow Americans have suffered for so long in New Orleans. We imagine that hurricane damage and recovery must be far worse in Mexico. Nothing could be farther than the truth. The Mexican government sent their army to help with recovery efforts after Hurricane Wilma. I visited Cancun 3 weeks after the October storm and admittedly the area was devastated. I saw piles of garbage and wet furniture piled three stories high next to high-rise resorts. I visited Cancun again the following February and was shocked at the transformation. By the following June, less than 8 months after a category 5 storm, Cancun looked better than ever. Friends who live there said everyone, from resort managers to housekeeping came, without pay to fix and repair resorts and get back to business. Tourism is critical to the economy of Mexico and to the economy of many working Mexican families.

Of course, we need to be patient until damages can be inspected and accessed by professionals. Yes there will be damage but I am optimistic that this storm will not upset the plans of many American families who have vacation plans in the near future to Cancun and the Riviera Maya. If you are a traveler with an eminent departure date I appreciate your anxiety. Keep an ear to the news and talk to your travel providers to keep updated on travel plans. After speaking with many of our own anxious clients this week, this is yet another PRIME example of why travelers need to protect their vacation investments and peace of mind with travel insurance. When paying for your vacation, ask yourself "can you afford to loose the amount of money you've spent on your vacation?"...if the answer is "No"...then you need to purchase travel insurance. Travel insurance usually costs between 5-7% of the total cost of your vacation. Probably the only thing I can guarantee when it comes to vacation planning is that if a hurricane comes to town during your vacation and you want to make or change your flights last minute, I guarantee it will cost you and your family more than the price of travel insurance.