My wife and I were in Cabo six years ago and had a great time. I recommend that you be up-to-date with the vaccinations your doctor recommends for Mexico and bring along a supply of antibiotics just in case you get pouchitis or Montezuma’s Revenge. Drink only bottled water and be sure to have some with you wherever you go. Dehydration can come on unexpectedly (I learned the hard way), so be proactive and drink plenty of fluids. Enjoy your stay there!

careful about mixed drinks that may contain water/ice. A lot of the bigger resorts have their own filtration systems. I usually would stick to bottled beer just to be safe

Thanks for the tips guys.

Since it's been a while since the last response on this thread, I wanted to revive it. My boyfriend wants to go to Mexico in December. I've always been nervous about going there, hearing that it's easy to get sick from the water. Obviously I drink a lot of water all the time. I have no problem buying bottled water but am nervous that I'll end up still getting sick somehow, and since I already go to the bathroom so much I am scared of anything that could make me even worse. I realize the responses will all be anecdotal but would like to hear from anyone who's gone there and what their experience was. Thanks!

Hello, thanks for reviving the convo. When I went back in 2016 I remained healthy the whole time, did not get sick and actually felt quite well. The only touchy part was when we were traveling between Oaxaca to Mexico City the first bus we took broke down and it was a very long trip back. The TP ran out on the bus (luckily I brought some along), I ran out of water and didn't have enough food. So, I would make sure to carry a roll of extra TP if you're away from your lodging for a time,  pack extra water/hydration, and snacks with protein.  I think I remember buying a large jug and filling up a reusable bottle in addition to buying smaller bottles while traveling.

I did have antibiotics along just in case, but didn't end up needing them. Wet wipes are helpful too.  Typically you have to put TP and wipes in the garbage and can't flush them down the toilet.  Wash hands thoroughly and you may want to have hand sanitizer along too.

One more thing that I now bring everywhere I travel is ginger chews - in case I nauseous and also to help with digestion.  I especially like the Prince of Peace ginger chews or The Ginger People Gin-gins. 

I hope this helps and feel free to ask more questions. I hope you have a wonderful time if you go!

Jane

I was in Mexico in the year 2000, and was a lot younger and did some things that were unwise and I wouldn't recommend now. I didn't get sick at all, but probably wouldn't repeat some of the risky behaviors I engaged in. I was based in Cancun and stayed at the Club Med there. I booked a bus trip excursion and tour to Chichen Itza, which as I recall was around a 3 or 4 hour ride. We stopped at a village and ate lunch at some random local restaurant way, way off the beaten path. I also booked another excursion and took a Catamaran out to Isla Mujeres, which similarly involved lunch at a random restaurant on the island. While out on Isla Mujeres, I did a snorkeling trip with about 20 or so other people. The boat let us off at a location and instructed us to snorkel down current to another location where it would pick us up. I got really obsessed with looking at some of the fish, slowed down and became separated from the group by over 100 yards. At some point, as I was snorkeling, all the small colorful fishies I was looking at began swimming in a great frenzy, towards me and away from the direction in which I was swimming. Within a matter of seconds, all the fish had disappeared. It did not take more than a second for me to realize a predator was in the area. I started looking around and didn't see anything in the water around me. Strangely though, I felt like something was watching me. I immediately began thinking it was a shark, and started to get scared. After looking around for what seemed like a minute but was probably more like 10 or 15 seconds, I wheeled around slowly and saw a very large barracuda staring right at me and around 5 feet away from me. I was very startled as I hadn't seen it and it got very close to me. It was just staring at me and wasn't moving. It didn't looked scared in the least. I am guessing it was 4-5 feet long. My heart was pounding but I remained calm. I slowly backed away from the barracuda and once I was a safe distances away, I surfaced. I then swam as hard as I could to catch up to the group. I didn't separate from them again.

Throughout the trip, I didn't think too much about my own personal safety or my "digestive safety." I had a J pouch then, but I was younger and stupid. I certainly would take all reasonable precautions if I returned. And be careful to only stay in areas with good security and also be careful with eating and using bottled water judiciously. Ironically, I have a Mexican-American client who lives here In the US and he just returned to visit his family there a few days ago. He is a great guy. This thread is making me think of him.

Good luck and enjoy your trip.

I had a marvelous scuba diving trip to Cozumel a few years back. I was careful to drink water that was represented as filtered, and I didn’t get sick. The hotel had plentiful and accessible supplies of filtered water, as did the boats I was on.

It’s worth noting that Xifaxan is now recommended for the treatment of Traveler’s Diarrhea, in case that motivates you to bring some along.