Of course safety is a concern when looking into travelling somewhere. Why wouldn’t it be? It is part of the reason I stopped travelling to Mexico and the USA and came to appreciate Cuba. Look at post #7 again from Wessislander. Where do you get your information that the DR is so safe as you wrote in reply #1. ??????

Oye! Bueno, ekscrunchy, Tomas was hanging with the wrong crowd in Medellin Colombia. Staying away from the jineteras, their chulos, and the cocaina does wonders for one's health and remaining safe if visiting other countries outside of Cuba. RIP Tomas. But anywhere there's an abundance of hand guns around, one also needs to worry about getting caught in the crossfire as well. Terry

Safety concerns of anywhere we travel is a definite factor in our decision. A common problem we have heard about is the snatch and grab. This can obviously happen in Cuba too. You can meet some annoying people in Cuba but we have never witnessed any sort of violence there. Tourists are protected better than the citizens in some ways it seems.

Wess, scroll up to my #17 and give that a read - that explains it all. However, I was once at the annual carnival in Camaguey with Yudith and a few friends. On a side street off the main drag, there was a lot of women screaming, so we immediately turned our gaze in that direction. All of a sudden, 6 young Cuban guys came running out of the crowd into the main drag carrying another young guy who had been stabbed 3 or 4 times. His torso was completely covered in blood and he was unconscious too. His blood was all over his friends as well. They put him into a bici taxi and sped off to the hospital as fast as the poor guy driving the bici could peddle. The next day, we heard that the young guy had died before he even got to the hospital - he didn't make it. Apparently he had been knifed because he had been talking with some other guy's girl - a common theme. Violence Cuban on Cuban is fairly prevalent in Camaguey city - I've seen my fair share of it first hand. But Wess, it's extremely rare when it comes to foreigners in Cuba for the reasons that I already explained in my #17. Terry.

I don't think I should continue in this conversation since I've not been to Cuba..

About the DR, I've been a number times and have many friends who go often on holidays and managed to avoid gunfights. When I was small, and after my parents stopped vacationing in Cuba, we'd spend Christmas with family friends in Santo Domingo, but I'm talking a hundred years ago.. I'm sure crime happens, just as I'm also sure that there is crime in every country. Would not stop me from going, but I like Mexico more than any of the Caribbean islands I've visited.

I've been to Mexico many, many times and hope to visit again soon....even lived there, long ago....never had any issues (although did witness actual crossfire for the first and only time in my life, in Acapulco in the 1980s!) I love Mexico and would not be afraid for one second..all this takes into account that all of us have some common sense and are not going to be wandering into "bad" neighborhoods at night--whether we are in Puerto Plata, in Mazatlan or in Habana.

I'm more worried about falling down and breaking something than I am about partaking in a gunfight or being mugged. And the goes for my home city, New York too, where there might be more handguns per capita than in most cities in our world. Don't get me started on THAT issue!

RIP Tomás.

100 years ago! ekscrunchy, you are being funny. Us Cuba travellers are passionate about Cuba. Like I said before, I have never been to the DR and from what I have always heard about it, it is not for me. But what do I know?

I guess if you compare the DR to Haiti, then it would be considered safe. Maybe not so safe compared to Cuba. I have never been to Jamaica either but have always heard that it can be dangerous there off-resort as well.

I hope that you continue posting on the Cuba forum. NYC is still my favourite city in the world. Hope to return there when the current federal regime is gone.

I've also done a fair amount of Mexico travel. Merida is one of my favourite destinations in the south. I'm actually thinking about going in May. Puerto Vallarta still has it's charms, but does have way too many tourists. I've also spent about a year in Cozumel during my life time. Peaceful and charming island. You do hear about some tourists being victims of crime in Mexico. Much of that has to do with the amount of visitors. They had 45 million tourists last year. Cuba had 2.3 million.

Thanks for contributing to this thread ekscrunchy. I did not mean to bash Mexico, DR, and the USA but once I found Cuba I didn’t want to go back to the others but we still tried other Caribbean destinations once in a while. We have also done cruises in the Caribbean. Some of them departed out of New York city. Our trips to Mexico were always to resorts. My parents were robbed at the airport in Mexico many years ago. The tour operator that sold them their package actually reimbursed them part of their initial cost. I don’t think that would happen today.