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Traveling to Baha, Mexico
My wife read a book several years ago about the whales of Laguna San Ignacio in Baja California. Ever since she wanted to visit the place. Junk mail to the rescue. The FMCA and Fantasy RV Tours are offering a 37 days Baha tour and we have signed-up for the 2015 tour which takes place during February and March. It must be a popular tour because it is booked solid, now. You can go on a waiting list, though and they said the earlier you do this the more the chances to get in. Right now at 98%.
Of course, we booked this on a whim without having done our homework … Now, we may be doing this under the motto of “Live and Learn”.
There is going to be 22 rigs plus 2 staff rigs, the waggon master and the tail gunners (.50 Gatling Guns).
37 days, 114 events.
We talked Gabi’s sister and husband from Canada into going with us.
As per Fantasy RV Tours, we cannot expect the luxury of US resorts. That was to be expected. I am told this will be a mix of dry camping and stays in campgrounds along the way.
I was also told to forget about (or mostly anyways) to see 50A. The majority is 30A and some 20A mixed-in. Well, that is why we have generators I would assume.
Anyways, my question is, has anyone on this board done a tour like this or been to that area?
All information and advice will be very much appreciated.
Muchas Gracias!
Cheers,
Ronald
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7 Replies
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We took a “Fantasy Tour”, in the US, no regrets or complaints.
JIM
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Years ago some Beaver guys did one and there biggest complaint was roads. They said I 10 in Louisiana would be considered a super highway.
Common sense would make me think it’s going to be rough in spots but then you hear about all the new roads they built.
I’d say 400 hours on the generator would be about right. Have fun.Later
bv -
This was always on the bucket list. We did in 2013 with Fantasy Tour. Great tour and leaders, had the Green Angles travel with us too help with the military check points and other government affairs. We had a 38 ft Country Coach, There where no 50 amp services, 30 amp a couple of camps, 15 amp and Ginny most of the time. Very tight RV spots. The road surfaces was very good in general but very white knuckle driving, lane wigth was on the average was 9 to 91/2 feet wide, nut much wiggle room for an 81/2 ft coach. There are no shoulders, there are many areas the road surface is higher then the guard rail, so it hard to tell if it is a 2 inch drop off or. 2 ft. Many miles of. Mountain road. 5 to 10 present grades and very tight curves. There where many curves that I could not make without crossing over the center line, travel companion had a 42 footer really had problems on the curves.
We are glad we did it, but not again.
Larry and Miriam
02 XLII Vision
12 Honda CRV
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Larry, did you or others in the group pull a toad? Is it desirable or useful, or did everyone stay together with the coaches the whole time? Not that I’m planning this trip anytime soon. Just curious.
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If you wait another six months you won’t have to go because Mexico is comming to the USA!! All you have to do is ask our president for a free fuel card.
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I have done a lot of research and even joined a Baja bulletin board to educate myself as much as possible. So for those of you who would contemplate making this journey, the following information may be of interest. To start, we have decided to leave Olivia behind on the USA side of the border.
While I would not be concerned about driving on narrow roads, I am concerned about “side swipes” by which you can lose a mirror when another RV or truck passes by you. Having to drive without a mirror on the driver side would be a big PITA. Furthermore, I would be concerned about steep drop-offs on the right hand side because there are no breakdown lanes.
The most important issue and the reason for having made the decision to leave Olivia behind is power. I did obtain the itinerary of the most recent tour and checked out all of the campgrounds that were used. I also spoke to the wagonmaster, who has been responsible for this caravan tour since 2004.
He told me flat out, that (1) to forget about 50A service, it does not exist. (2) Running the generator would be upsetting to everyone else. (3) Even 30A is rare. (4) to expect 15-20A service all of the time and to bring a power meter to make sure it is all wired correctly.
He also told me that he advises all of the participants to switch off everything that is not needed to conserve battery power. That is difficult to do in an all electric coach.
We would still like to take this trip. Aside from being able to refresh my seriously deteriorated Spanish language skills, Mexico is a fascinating country and Baja is a beautiful place to see and visit.
So… we are thinking of either renting or buying a smaller RV just for this trip. We would work our way across country to be in San Diego prior to the start of the tour, put Oliva in storage and use the rented/purchased RV for this trip.
Renting an RV would cost us around $5,000 (rental, miles and insurance). As we are also thinking about going to Alaska, the thought of buying a smaller RV like a Sprinter appeals to us since we could tow it. And hopefully, we could sell it for a reasonable price, afterwards.
And, one more reason for why I have decided to not take Olivia across the border is, that we would be a neon sign wherever we would go.
Even though, I talked Gabi into getting a “vamp” wig, you really would not want to hear her sing.
Cheers,
Ronald
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Ronald,
It sounds like you have made a well researched thoughtful decision. Based on what you have presented it sounds like a sound one to me. Reminds me of something that we heard about while in Alaska. While in Watson Lake at osign post forrest the lady there suggested we take our bus and towd to dawson city and then ferry over to the top of the world highway and on to TOK…. we did some more checking emailed Gil who recently made the trip and decided no way no how…. we still wanted to go to dawson city so we took the towd from TOK and it was a good thing… the road was bad but crazy bad for the last 12 miles on the US side as they were re-building it.. several cars with the side walls shredded from the road bed… we made it but it was 5.5 hours each way that I will never repeat…. I was so upset by the advice given… I tracked the lady down and called her and informed her she should stop telling people with big rigs to make the trip. We crossed paths with another Alaska traveler in a foretravel who said there was a foretravel caravan that took the Top of the world highway and one guy got to far over and rolled his coach… trees stopped him but the rig was totalled…end of trip… The guy I talked to saw the wreck and was surprised they survived…
If you decide to go to Alaska let me know.. happy to share our expereinces with you.
Bill
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