How bad are the Vendors on the Beach near the pier?

[bar1986]

How bad are the vendors on the beach near the pier? Is there a location to sit down and enjoy a drink or two without being bothered consistently by vendors? Looking for an enjoyable day on the beach with a couple of drinks, some food, and maybe a massage on the beach.

 

Thanks,

[overthehillcruiser]

one about every minute or so...One of the reasons we are somewhat tiring of going..

[caribsun]

Just say No Gracias and they move, most are just trying to make a living. Sometimes we engage in small talk, they are nice people.

[NurseMarla]

We were there last year & it was constant. You'd tell then no thank you & some would move on, others would keep trying to get you to buy. Then once they did leave, the same ones were back within a few minutes trying again.... It got pretty annoying. Won't be doing that anymore.

[3dogsrule]

Hate to say it, but it was about the most high-volume vendor ports I've been to. They were all nice, and took "no gracias" well, but we didn't get more than 2-3 minutes between vendors, was hard to even hold a conversation among ourselves. Totally understand they're trying to make a living, and hated to see the look of disappointment in their eyes. One time I showed interest in something, and things only got worse. This time I'm going into Merida.

[Nadersmom]

It's bad. We had people constantly coming up to us as we were walking, sitting on the beach, everything.

 

I too understand it's how they make a living, and so it depressed the heck outa me to keep saying no to everyone, but it just didn't stop. You say no thank you and they leave. Immediately another comes up. You say no thank you and they leave. 5 minutes later, I kid you not, the same one will come up again.

 

And then the kids come up. That's really hard. Again, I totally understand why they do it. But after about 60 minutes straight, it gets to be too much and you just want to make your way back to the ship. :(

 

Our first trip we spend most of the day in Progreso, walking around, sitting at Buddy's for a little while on the beach, going to the straw market.

This year, because we had people who hadn't been there before with us, we spent about 30 minutes on the beach, went thru the straw market in about 30 minutes and high tailed it back to the ship.

 

Its a nice place. It's real Mexico, totally different than Cozumel. And charming in its own way because of that. But it just gets to be too much, and too depressing when you have them constantly coming up to you.