Car Seat in Belize and Cozumel

[walcoffwalcoff]

Hi! We are taking our 20 month old on a cruise in January. The two ports we are stopped at are Belize and Cozumel. We will be bringing a car seat with us for the flight and airport transfers. I would rather do excursions that do not require a car seat or from private companies where we could rent a car seat for the trip. I don't want to lug the car seat around with me all day and I heard that some taxis don't even have seat belts to connect the car seat. I am looking for any advice. Are there activities within walking distance or companies you know of that will transport us with a car seat. If we have to bring the car seat to the islands we will, but would much rather not! Thanks!!

[Sooner-Cruisers]

After reading many posts on here about car seats, we decided to buy a special seat for traveling. The cosco scenara is only $39 at Walmart and super light. In Cozumel we carried it off the ship and installed it in 2 different taxis. There are lines of taxis, so if one doesn't have a belt, you can go to the next one.

 

I won't lie, the drivers weren't thrilled, but with the way they drive, I was super glad we had it. We saved a ton of money using a taxi on our own versus a ship excursion. Playa mia in Cozumel was a huge hit with my barely 2 yr old, she had the best time!

 

http://www.playamiacozumel.com/gallery.php

Edited November 12, 2013 by Sooner-Cruisers

[Mom2B&Z]

We were in Belize and Cozumel 2 years ago with our boys. We did a ship based excursion to Lamanai in Belize, I wouldn't recommend it for you since it is a very long day. The transportation was a coach style bus which does not require car seats, so another tour with this type of transportation may be an option.

We walked around Cozumel, but I made a point of looking for taxis with seatbelts and found many that were easily visible. I even saw a few with top tethers :). It may not be the first cab you find, but they were available. My own personal experience in Mexico is that many cabs cut the seatbelts because customers complain about sitting on the buckle stalks when they pack too many people in the cab, but cabs with functioning seatbelts can be found.

I love using car seats with built in lock offs for these situations as some seatbelts do not have automatic locking retractors (ALR, the thing that engages when you pull the seatbelt all the way out and you hear the ratcheting sound), nor what is called LATCH in the USA. This leaves you with a locking clip install, which is not easy. Built in lock offs (in Canada they are on the TruFit and Britax seats) make this a lot easier.

I'm a former Canadian CRST, I gave up my certification last summer, but have travelled extensively with car seats and never had much difficulty finding appropriate vehicles once people realized I was not accepting any alternative.

Good luck!