If you happened to watch the news or pick up a newspaper (or even just leave the house) this past week, you probably got hit with the flood of news about escalating violence in Mexico’s drug war. CNN sent Anderson Cooper to El Paso, Texas, where he reported live in his full war-safari outfit. Larry King had the actor Edward James Olmos telling viewers “don’t go to Mexico”—not tourist towns, not megaresorts, not anywhere.

But wait a minute: One of our colleagues here at BT just spent the same week in Tulum, doing a lot of beach-bumming and generally enjoying Mexico as never before. No sooner did she return than another friend of mine set off for Tulum. And yet another just got back from five days in Playa del Carmen. None of them has reported anything out of the ordinary.

There’s a disconnect, it seems, between what the pundits are saying and what some vacationers are seeing on the ground in major tourist areas. The last thing we should do right now is belittle a very serious and tragic situation with the warring drug cartels. But what’s the reality for travelers? Is the unrest a legitimate reason not to fly to a major international resort? How much has it spread beyond border areas and cartel hotbeds like the Sinaloa state?

I recently booked a May round-trip Alaska Airlines flight to and from Cabo San Lucas for a base price of $150.00. The after-tax rate of $249 is perhaps the lowest I’ve paid for a trip to Land’s End in 20 years.

Of course if you’ve watched the news, you know that Mexico is now ruled entirely by drug lords and crooked cops. I’ll have to dodge bullets, inspect shadows for kidnappers and check my fish cooler for human heads.

But sometimes you just have to let caution fly and have some fun….

Seriously, the U.S. media, despite admirable coverage of most aspects of Mexico’s high-profile drug war, have frightened thousands into believing they face certain peril if they set foot in Mexico.

In truth, many stand at least as good a chance of becoming a murder victim in or near their own communities.

During the past three months, Acapulco and Cancún have had sporadic violence and drug-related homicides. However, as in many large U.S. cities, the violence is between gangs and law enforcement and is not in tourist areas. Tourists have not been targeted.

Thousands of spring-break visitors have poured into Cancún, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta as usual, with Mexican authorities stepping up patrols and vigilance to ensure safety in the tourist towns.

The smiling airline clerk at the Puerto Vallarta Airport check-in counter looked at the eight-foot-long tandem bicycle and raised her eyebrows. My wife, Charlotte, and I had just finished a short tandem trip in the region, and were bringing our behemoth of a bike home.

“How much did you pay in extra baggage fees to fly with that from Edmonton to Puerto Vallarta?” she asked, examining our unusual piece of luggage.

Nada. Nothing. We didn’t pay a peso. The clerk did a bit of checking and discovered to her surprise that, indeed, bikes fly free on Skyservice. It might cost $5 for a pillow in the aircraft’s cabin, but our 20-kilogram bike, stowed in the cargo hold, didn’t cost a thing.

Recently, my daughter, Pauline, tangled with a famous television talk-show host on the question of tourism to Mexico – and held her own.

If you will go to www.crooksandliars.com and search for the term “Mexico” in the upper-right-hand corner of the site, you’ll find an item asking why the cable networks are attempting to scare tourists away from Mexico. And there you can find a five-minute debate raging between my daughter, Pauline, and a famed television talk-show host who customarily hogs the entire discussion, talks endlessly and without letup, and scarcely allows his guests to utter a single word.

The subject: Whether it is safe for American students (and logically, any American of any age) to vacation in Mexico.

For the past several weeks, many cable networks have devoted segments to hyping the alleged dangers of vacationing in Mexico.

So far in March, visits by college students are down 5% to 15% in some major resort areas compared with the same period last year. And, like Doorn, they’re sticking to the beaches and spending less when they get here, officials say.

“It’s partly due to the economic crisis, but also to the violent events that are getting so much publicity in the United States,” said Oscar Rivero, president of the Puerto Vallarta Hotel Association. “(Tourism) has gone down even though the bulk of the violence is on the border, not in places like Puerto Vallarta.”

A very optimistic future is on its way for the Mexican Cruise industry with a grand infrastructure plan that includes building 13 new cruise installations in both established and newcomer destinations: Puerto Cortes, Cabo San Lucas, Loreto, Guaymas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Cozumel, Playa del Carmen and Punta Brava. Two of the installations, one in Puerto Vallarta, were inaugurated last year. Cruise ships started arriving at Guaymas’ new pier and terminal in October of 2008. Another development in Mazatlan is under construction, as well as in Manzanillo, which is in the bidding stages and a new terminal for Acapulco is also scheduled for 2009.

Miami, FL; March 12th, 2009 – The Mexico Tourism Board is proud to announce its participation in this year’s 2009 Sony Ericsson Open on March 25- April 5. Celebrating it’s 25th year, the Sony Ericsson Open returns to the Tennis Center at Crandon Park featuring the top 77 men and the top 76 women, tennis players from around the globe.

Fans will live the passion of this exciting outdoor sport and then follow the ball to the best beach destinations in Mexico .Los Cabos, Cancun, Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit, Mazatlán, Acapulco, Huatulco and Ixtapa are among the dazzling destinations that will be showcased during this year’s Sony Ericsson Tennis Open. Tennis enthusiasts will be instantly transported to Mexico’s beach destinations through a fashion show featuring the latest in fashion, music, and guests will enjoy a variety of themed Mexican cocktails.

Puerto Vallarta

• Main attraction: El Centro, Puerto Vallarta’s old town. Its cobblestone streets present excellent shopping, which leads into an area charmingly called the Romantic Zone, packed with restaurants and nightclubs. Puerto Vallarta’s other personality-plus area is the Malecon, a busy seaside promenade where everyone congregates to see who’s walking by.

These real-town touches give Puerto Vallarta a complexity not apparent in more basic tourist towns.

• The town: With an estimated 200,000-350,000 people, Puerto Vallarta is Mexico’s second biggest resort region after Cancun. Development actually stretches for 20 miles along the coast. Puerto Vallarta is well known for its nightclubs.

Who would have thought it? While Wall Street plunges, the U.S. dollar surges. And that wholly unexpected rise in the value of the dollar is the biggest news in travel. It has more of an impact on your vacation choices than any other single factor.

The extent of the rise is startling. While most of us are aware that the dollar has risen against the euro and the British pound by 20 to 30 percent, the dollar is up against other currencies by 40 to 50 percent. And it is in countries whose currencies have fallen by startling percentages that a vacation trip has become most affordable for U.S. travelers.

Mexico leads the list. A year or so ago, you received 10 pesos for one U.S. dollar. Today, you receive more than 15 pesos for a dollar. Drug-related violence in Mexico is mostly confined to cities along the U.S. border, leaving the tourist areas (Cancun, the Mayan Riviera, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas) largely untroubled, so Mexico should receive an increasing number of U.S. vacationers.