Puerto Vallarta with a 5 year old and 6 month old

[mlsmn]

My daugther and son in law are taking their kids with us to Grand Mayan in Nuevo Vallarta.

We will be using cabs/vans not renting a car.
The 6 month old will have car seat which we are taking on the plane.

The question is our 5 year old
-On the plane she doesn't need a booster seat.
should we take a booster seat along for cabs/vans?
would you chance holding her in cab?

Any experiences or suggestions?

 

[mterra]

Not sure what the laws are in MX and children's restraints. We never took booster seats when our kids were that age.

Mary

 

[janapur]

We brought a car seat for our little one (9 months at the time) and no booster seat for the four year old. Neither were required, but the car seat was easy to check and I held her on the flight. If you would feel more comfortable, I would bring and check them both.

Jana

 

[Blondie]

They drive like maniacs down there, and, actually, as I recall some cabs did not even have seatbelts. Guessing the "restraint" laws are lax. We saw several open-backed trucks with 8 or so people hanging on for dear life in the truckbed through busy downtown streets with policia everywhere and it was no problemo.

 

[pittle]

Most cabs are too small for a family and car seats/booster seats - think Nissan Sentra with 3 adults and 2 car seats. 4 regular sized adults and the driver are snug, but kids can sit on laps in the back for a short drive. If you have a car seat you would have to carry it around after you got to your destination unless you hired the driver for the day.

Like Blondie said - many (actually most) do not have seat belts in the back seat as only the driver is required to wear one in Mexico.

We have taken our 9-year old grandson every year since he was 9 months old and have never taken his car seat or booster. We just held him on a lap in the cab or on the bus. We are taking a 10 month old for Thanksgiving and I already warned his mom that we will not be using the car seat in cabs. Even the stroller was a problem when we were in Puerto Vallarta - getting it in and out of the cab and restaurants. We are just going to take turns carrying Matt this year.

My kids survived with no car seats back in the 70's. When I did have one, it just hung over the back of the front seat - not nearly as safe as if I had been holding them while sitting in the back seat. Times have changed, and I use seat belts all the time now and have a car seat for the grandkids in my SUV, but we do not take car seats to Mexico because we do not rent cars when we are there. We use cabs or take the bus.