Carseats for Taxis?

[avinsmomma]

We will be traveling with our 3 year old and are thinking of taking a taxi ride to a nearby beach in Grand Cayman or Cozumel. What are the carseat requirements? I of course want to be safe but I also cringe at the thought of hauling a 50 pound carseat all day for a 10 minute ride.

[manateesmom]

Have you seen the Ride Safer Travel Vest? It's small, light, packs flat, can be used in lieu of a carseat. I personally would not be comfortable with a 3 year old not riding with some kind of seat or restraint like this, even if local laws allow it.

[lanejudy]

I don't have first-hand experience, but I have heard that it is rather hit-or-miss whether taxis in the foreign ports are even equipped with seatbelts. So there is no way to secure a car seat (or the travel vest PP mentions), plus you would then need to drag it around with you. Just saying this so you are prepared to possibly wait for multiple taxis.

Enjoy your cruise!

[TLSnell1981]

Originally Posted by manateesmom

Have you seen the Ride Safer Travel Vest? It's small, light, packs flat, can be used in lieu of a carseat. I personally would not be comfortable with a 3 year old not riding with some kind of seat or restraint like this, even if local laws allow it.

But, they still require a seat belt..right? Taxis, limos and buses do not require car seats. Quite often, they do not have seats belts, so...no way to buckle up.

[RedxPanda]

Originally Posted by avinsmomma

We will be traveling with our 3 year old and are thinking of taking a taxi ride to a nearby beach in Grand Cayman or Cozumel. What are the carseat requirements? I of course want to be safe but I also cringe at the thought of hauling a 50 pound carseat all day for a 10 minute ride.

We just returned from both islands. We decided to be 'bad parents' and let our 2 year old sit in the taxi with us in Cozumel. There were 5 of us total so we had to get a van type taxi. We sat her between us and in the middle bench of the van. The ride was no longer than 10 minutes and down a fairly straight road from the cruise pier. As many have said, not all the benches even had seat belts still installed. I doubt there are laws for car seats in Mexico and if there were they don't enforce them.

A Similar ride occurred both before and after the cruise with the van to/from the offsite parking garage.

In GC, we took the shuttle bus to the turtle farm and back. No issues, but that was technically a bus, not sure about car situations.

In all cases, the drivers drove in what we considered a safe and normal fashion. We even noticed the taxi driver obeying the speed limits in Mexico.

[CanuckTraveller]

Originally Posted by avinsmomma

We will be traveling with our 3 year old and are thinking of taking a taxi ride to a nearby beach in Grand Cayman or Cozumel. What are the carseat requirements? I of course want to be safe but I also cringe at the thought of hauling a 50 pound carseat all day for a 10 minute ride.

Legally you are not required to use a car seat in Mexico.
However, you and your child will be projectiles if you are in a collision if you ride unrestrained. I have been to Cozumel and Costa Maya in Mexico with my children and used car seat/booster with seatbelts in CM, and found seatbelts rather easily in Cozumel (we didn't use the taxis, I just wanted to know if they could be found). The PP is right, not all taxis have seatbelts, but some do.
I don't know what car seat you have, but most don't weigh 50 lbs. Depending on the size of your 3yo, a Costco Scenera or Diono Radian would both be good choices for travel. The Radian folds and has a carry strap, the Costco seat is small and lightweight. I have found ways of storing my seats out of the sun and sand when arranging our beach trips, people certainly were not unfamiliar with being asked to store a seat while we used the beach.
I always suggest people consider finding out what a Mexican trauma centre looks like compared to the inconvenience of hauling a car seat around for an afternoon.
FWIW I'm a Canadian CRST, so rather conservative with my use of child restraints

[avinsmomma]

I'm particular as well which is why my son has a very heavy 5 point harness carseat made by Britax. I wouldn't want to trust a nearly $300 to be looked over by just anyone. I think we'll just plan to walk

[CanuckTraveller]

Originally Posted by avinsmomma

I'm particular as well which is why my son has a very heavy 5 point harness carseat made by Britax. I wouldn't want to trust a nearly $300 to be looked over by just anyone. I think we'll just plan to walk

FWIW we had our Britax Marathon with us when we went to the beach in Costa Maya Mexico, and ITA, I don't trust my seats to many people . I only travel with the Marathon because of the built in lock offs and good crash test results without tethering in ff, which is definitely something that can be hard to find in Mexico. It comes down to planning your excursions to be car seat friendly. Don't use the DCL excursions, do some research through Trip Advisor and the ports of call forums on cruisecritic and you'll be set. We found a day long private tour in Roatan, with seatbelts and top tethers. Honduras is way worse than Mexico for seatbelts
Walking can be a great way to see the ports safely too. We opted against bringing any seats on our last cruise (Jan, 2013), as we walked through every port. We had a great time and certainly didn't feel like we were missing out on anything.

[tvguy]

A lot of resort areas outside the U.S. they use taxis like this, no seatbelts and no sides.

[OrcaPorkka]

When we traveled to Hawaii with my daughter (a small 4 year old) I bought this on amazon http://www.bubblebum.co/us/

It folds up very tiny, but is fully tested. It has a side strap thingy to bring a should strap to the correct position, and it has side guides to hold the waist belt in position.

At home we use Britax for both kids (the 8 year old just got out of 5 point harness when she turned 7) but I have traveled once with a full-size Britax and it just sucked.

My $0.02

Also, I find the bubble bum to be super useful to squeeze into the third seat between my two kids enormous Britax seats when I have an additonal child who needs a booster occasionally.

[CanuckTraveller]

Originally Posted by tvguy

A lot of resort areas outside the U.S. they use taxis like this, no seatbelts and no sides.

This doesn't mean that they are safe for adults, never mind children. I agree that these are often offered as a mode of transportation in the Caribbean; however, I have always been able to find a taxi or other vehicle with seatbelt.
This is the choice we make for our family, and I understand that others make different choices. That doesn't mean that there are "no seatbelt in Mexico" as is often cited on this (and other) forums. It comes down to how important is it to you to use seatbelts. It is very important to me and my family, so we find ways of making it work while still enjoying our vacation.
I hate hearing people say they don't bring a car seat because they were told that it was not an option, which is not true.

[Woodmnky]

Originally Posted by CanuckTraveller

This doesn't mean that they are safe for adults, never mind children. I agree that these are often offered as a mode of transportation in the Caribbean; however, I have always been able to find a taxi or other vehicle with seatbelt.
This is the choice we make for our family, and I understand that others make different choices. That doesn't mean that there are "no seatbelt in Mexico" as is often cited on this (and other) forums. It comes down to how important is it to you to use seatbelts. It is very important to me and my family, so we find ways of making it work while still enjoying our vacation.
I hate hearing people say they don't bring a car seat because they were told that it was not an option, which is not true.

I totally agree. If you are set on finding safe carseat compatible transportation then you will. You may not be able to take the 1st taxi offered, but explain what you are looking for and transportation will be found. The carseat is the same way. If your child's safety is a priority then it is easy to find space to store the seat and ways to transport it.