[Caroleeeee]

Ok, i know this may sound a bit neurotic -- but I am a single mom hoping to travel with my 5 year old to Guatemala City to pick up my new little girl in the next month (PLEASE) or so. My agency says it is safe to do so but some friends/family are UP in arms about "what theyhear" and want me to leave my 5 year old home. Could anybody give me some feedback on whether they felt safe there, what they would or wouldn't do, and if they would have any concern about the safety of their 5 year old. I am looking for recommendations on hotels as well -- although my agency recommends the Marriott.

Thoughts

[pvellozo]

marriott is very safe and a good choice. the food and water are safe to eat there, or you could be careful and drink only bottled water.there is a free shuttle from the airport to the marriott.
i would feel totally safe taking my child to gc.
have a good trip.

[laura-jean]

and had no problems, zilcho.

We also were on a visist and were not allowed to eleave the hotel with the baby.

A few times DD#1 and I walked to the market alone up the street. I felt completely safe there as it was our third trip there.

The area around the Marriott is very safe. Grocery Store, Pharmacy, and a smal market, all within wlaking distance.

On a scale from 1-10 I giev the Marriott a 10. Employees, service, food, accommodations, couldn't be better. I would NEVER want to stay anywhere else personally. I even like their gym there. Pretty good for a gym at the hotel. They also have massage therapists there and the fee is ten dollars for an hour!

They have three restaurants there and a couple of stores with souvenirs, and candy, soda, snacks, etc.

Can you tell I like the Marriott?

Have a wonderful time and just bring a passport and extra photocopies of them in different places like luggage etc. in case you lose it.

It'll be great, you'll see. Have fun!

LJ

[juliegillen]

I was just at the Marriott last week for visit trip, and HIGHLY recommend it! I echo everything Laura Jean said.

Erika (our DD we visited) is our first child so I haven't taken another child to GC, but we felt very safe there. We plan to take Erika back when we adopt again.

HTH!

[csw]

We took our then 12 year old son with us on my 3rd visit trip..we stayed at the Holiday Inn in a suite..mainly because I had been there 2x before and I got a great rate!! The Marriot is wonderfull also...my son loved Antigua..and learned very quickly how to say "No, Gracias"...(trying to sell him things)..what he loved the most was probably the Internet Cafe at the hotel..

[jlinberger]

Yes, it is safe to take your child. Funny- I JUST had a conversation like this yesterday with friends who did NOT take their three other children down for pick up. Their reason was the same as yours. Everyone was freaking out about safety. They told me yesterday that they totally regretted it. They wished they had taken them and had felt totally safe when they were down there. Just giving you their experience and opinion!

Ditto on the Marriott. Its huge and you will never feel claustrophobic. Nice pool area, great breakfast buffet, tons of families for cameraderie.

[RLK913]

I just took my 1.5 year old son down a few weeks ago and felt perfectly safe.

The only thing that I would give some serious thought to though is handling two on the plane by yourself!

The Marriott is a wonderful hotel, very adoption friendly, has a wonderful pool area and you can always find many adoptive familes in the lobby. The Westin is also nice.

[momtoC&C]

We are bringing our 5 year old with on the pick up trip and staying at the Marriott (if there are rooms). He will be perfectly happy swimming in the pool and eating pizza from Champions. We are also hoping to bring my mom with as well so he does not have to go with us to the embassy and get too bored. We may go to Antigua with him if time allows, but I don't plan on walking around GC too much with the kids.

[capt911k]

OK this was before I was a perspective parent. In 1993 I went to Antigua with the Coast Guard.......I was right out of high school at the time. Maybe it was just me, but I had a good vibe about the city and the country. While I'm sure it has some rough areas I felt fine being there and I saw lots of people with small children.

I thing that going with small children is like going anywhere else ...WITH one big exception....a language barrier..... If you aproach going like you would anywhere else with the appropriate amount of concern then things should be just fine.....

[kimy]

My husband and I were having the same issues about bringing my 5year old.
I went to visit last week and my husband and son stayed home.
I stayed at the Marriot and saw many other children around my son's age. I felt totally safe and will bring my son on pick up if I can talk my husband into it.
I've hear the zoo and Antigua are totally safe too.
Kim

[treefroggy8]

I took my son who just turned 6 on the visit trip and am so glad I did. Invest in a personal DVD player and a few NEW movies of his/her favorite type....consider a Leapster if you can afford one. I am tentatively planning to bring him with me on the pick up trip as well though I am a little more nervous since we won't just be in the hotel....but I think he will be fine. We stayed at the Radisson. It was a nice stay but I think the Marriott is one step up (in price as well) with a pool and more than one restaurant. I also liked the smallness of the Radisson and Maria has been there a number of times already so I am leaning towards staying there once more. I will miss the pool but I am not sure how much time we will have to swim and doing so with two kids...well we can swim here just as easy. I don't know. I've heard it is easier if you can have someone another adult come along but I don't really have that option this time. I had someone along with me the first trip but that was more my being nervous since I've never been out of the USA. I have heard a few things that have made me decide not to leave the hotel while we are there. We will come back and visit when Maria is older though. Best of luck, I found including my son made a HUGE difference in his perception and excitement about it.
Lisa
Elliott's Mama DOB 3-9-00, gotcha 3/10/00
Maria's Mama DOB 6/7/05 gotcha in a few weeks!
waiting for GC BC

[buckeye1]

A year ago we brought our then 2-year-old DD with us when we visited and also picked up our DS. No regrets here. I think it was good for both kids that our DD was an active part of the adoption process.

We did stay one night at the Marriott, but the balance of our trips were spent at Telma's guest house. Our DD loved it there because she got to play with Telma's 3 granddaughters.

Telma's son is Jose Pineda. In addition to taking us all to the embassy, we toured Guatemala City with him and also did a day tour of Antigua. We were very comfortable w/ Jose. If you'd like info on the B&B and/or Jose's tour services, please PM me.

[sherrymom]

We just returned from picking up our 5 yr old son on 3/1. We took our 7 yr old bio son with us. We stayed at the Marriott which was great. They have a wonderful pool for the kids and there is a McDonalds only 1 block away which I felt very safe in walking to by myself with the two boys. We also took a taxi to the zoo which is very close by and felt completely safe. The Marriott is very nice and the staff very helpful and accomodating to all the adoptive families that are there. Good Luck.