How safe is Cozumel?

[DJP1201]

How safe is Cozumel? Any safety tips?

 

[dclpluto]

How safe is Cozumel? Any safety tips?

Use common sense stay in the tourist areas. Keep your money safe. Don’t drink the water or anything that has ice in it.
Don’t go flashing large amounts of cash.

 

[aggiedog]

I can't speak to wandering around the town, but we went to Paradise Beach and it was fine. It felt no more dangerous than going to Galveston for the day, but with a nicer beach and better service.

 

[ForMyBoys]

Its a touristy island, we've been twice and I've never felt unsafe. Use the same common sense tips you would use anywhere.

 

[Capt_BJ]

don't rent a moped or anything similar


take taxi to get around

 

[SteveMP]

I've been to Cozumel a few times and live to tell the tale. Great place to get cheap beer before getting back on the ship to pay 10 times as much for the same beer.

 

[phinz]

I've been to Cozumel a few times and live to tell the tale. Great place to get cheap beer before getting back on the ship to pay 10 times as much for the same beer.

And there's a fantastic craft beer joint on the roof of the building across the street from Mega called La Internacional. My favorite place to hang out in Cozumel.

 

[SteveMP]

And there's a fantastic craft beer joint on the roof of the building across the street from Mega called La Internacional. My favorite place to hang out in Cozumel.

Good to know, thanks, will be heading there next April.

 

[JimGA]

Felt like main land USA at the port, mega mall.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Heck it's safe. We vacation there three weeks every year. We don't think twice walking back away from the tourist shopping area and shop and eat where the locals do. Just use common sense like you would anywhere else. The ice and water is filtered so it is ok to drink anything with ice in it in restaurants. To make you feel better you can ask. Even the locals don't drink tap water.

 

[smacmillan83]

I felt safe but I have one word of caution, try not let your credit card out of your sight. I am normally pretty sensible about this but not when we visited a bar on the Cozumel 'main strip' (perhaps due to the free flowing margaritas!). We let our server take our card behind the bar when paying our bill. When we returned home, our bank cancelled our card due to suspicious activity like $1000 in Staples and a random home rental agency based in the US. We live in Australia so these were definitely out of the norm for us and this was the only place we used that credit card. I had experienced issues with my other credit cards when trying to pay my bill and this one was a 'back up'. A quick google told us that this was a relatively common complaint after visiting this establishment. I gave myself a lecture in common sense after that!

 

[mevelandry]

Cozumel is one of the safest places in Mexico, however, I would stick to an excursion.

 

[CinderellaDreamer]

My daughter and I went on an excursion by ourselves. We were very comfortable at the resort. When we got back to the port, the mall area was very nice, so we did a little shopping. We were moving about a block away from the ship looking in stores when my spidey sense started tingling and men started making comments to us on the street. We decided to head straight back to the ship. Was it probably nothing? Yes, but I still wouldn’t venture very far again.

 

[FSU Girl]

I went with my friend we were both 22 and both girls. Never felt unsafe while there. We did an excursion in the morning to swim with manta rays and then in the afternoon we wandered around the city going in and out of shops. It's a pretty touristy place.

 

[MUN]

I think Cozumel is very safe. When you hear about the drug war beheadings and other crimes that take place in Mexico, you don't hear about that taking place (usually) in tourist areas like Cozumel, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, or Tulum.

 

[DJP1201]

We have a dolphin excursion planned. where will we get picked up?

 

[MUN]

We have a dolphin excursion planned. where will we get picked up?

Is it a DCL excursion?

 

[mj2vacation]

We stopped in Cozumel today. My wife and daughter are in the glass bottom boat and my son, younger daughter and I are heading to Chichen Itza.

I liked it to any port or city. I was just in Manhattan a week ago. I would not flash cash or walk around clueless to my surroundings. Same here. Avoiding crimes of opportunity is fairly easy. Avoiding organized crime is more difficult, but staying on the beaten path and sticking to dcl excursions.

 

[YawningDodo]

Glad to hear all this; I'll be there as a solo female traveler in January. Got a scuba excursion booked in the afternoon via DCL, so I'll have to decide whether I want to wander and shop in the morning or just sleep in and stick to the excursion (I'll have maybe forty-five minutes between the scheduled end of the excursion and all aboard, so I'm not counting on being able to linger much afterward). I've wandered other foreign cities by myself and been fine, so.

As for money...my current plan is to go cash-only in port since I'd heard about the danger of charges getting changed or added after the fact; while my credit card comes with decent protections I'd really rather not worry about it. I've seen mentions elsewhere that a lot of places in Cozumel will take American money, but is that actually true? I don't want to exchange more money than necessary, but I want to have at least some usable cash on hand.

 

[mrswillson]

My husband and I were in Cozumel two months ago and did the discover scuba diving excursion just a few miles from port. While we were only off the ship for a grand total of four hours and only visited the excursion site and the main strip, neither of us felt unsafe at either.