How long does it take to visit a venue?

We spent anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours in them. The longer with the venues we really liked. One day we say 4 or 5 and were done by 2pm...

Wow, how'd you manage 4 or 5 before 2 pm? Did you set up all those appointments in advance and just jet around?

About 45 minutes at most-spent about 90 minutes at the venue we finally chose.

20 minutes to an hour or so. It depends how many questions you have and how detailed you are (I liked to look at the bathrooms. One shady stall for 200+ guests was not going to cut it). As long as you have a plan ahead of time and make breaks to eat and drink, you can probably do more than 6 in a day. But they have to be scheduled ahead of time (sometimes places are busy when you want to see them) and take specific notes for each one or else they will all merge together and you will forget things.

I'm no help because I only went to one venue. But could you narrow it down some so you could tackle them all in one day?

Mostly just drove around...I think we only set up one appointment, but the others just walked in. Like I said, a couple we knew the minute we pulled in the parking lot that it was a NO but still walked into see the inside....those are the ones that we spent 20 minutes at. And trust me, they KNOW when you aren't all that interested, as the sales pitches and venue tours go by in record times.

Thank you all, that is such a relief. I imagine I need to allow some extra time as it's Mexico, people aren't necessarily as serious about appointment times, you're expected to do a lot of small talk before getting down to business, etc. But maybe it's reasonable that I could see 4-5 in a (long) day??

I have 5 that are in the city center within walking distance of each other, so I'm thinking we may be able to do all of those in one day. Then I have 4-6 in nearby neighborhoods I could maybe do in a day or two, and then several in a nearby town that I could do on the third or fourth day.

...yeah I still need to narrow these down!

We walked into a venue and after 15 minutes pretty much walked out. The customer service was terrible during our consulation!

The venue we chose took an hour plus.

We were at the first venue we checked out for almost 2 hours. It was an outdoor venue and there was snow on the ground. It was a mess and no we did not go with that venue. I also went to four other places and spent less than 20 minutes. Every other place I checked out was via the internet after that. Once you see one you will *know* if it will work or not. The venue we chose we were there for almost 2 hours as well and we have been back once sense to take photos to give to the DJ and caterer who needed to know the layout better.

We only visited one. We spent about an hour there, but had attended a wedding there a few months before that so we already knew what it looked like.

I only went to one venue, and it took maybe 15 minutes, but it was the place I wanted all along so I just needed to see it in person and I did ask a few questions. I think I may do a walk through in the next couple of weeks so I can get some details on table sizes and practice how the event would flow since it goes back and forth between 2 ship decks. I don't think that would take more than a half hour.

@Elyse -- "back and forth between 2 ship decks"?! What fun!!

I had an appt with the one we were decided to look at. The one we picked was just a walk in and they were mad I didn't make an appt but still found someone to show me around. I left there upset thinking it was way out of our price range. The GM ended up being in the parking lot as we were leaving and let me know that I was told wrong and it was actually very much within our range! To answer your question though, first one was like an 45 mins and other was about 90 mins.

I only looked at one venue, i did ALOT of research online and contacted many venues. after talking about price and availability i only made an appointment to visit one- and its the one we booked! we were there for two hours- we knew this was where we wanted to get, so we spent more time asking questions and looking around. it all depends on how much interest you have in the venue.

@Emma that's crazy! Glad it ended up working out.

Did y'all check references for venues? I'm thinking of asking for contact info of other foreign brides they may have had, to learn about how smoothly the process went for them and their guests... maybe that'll help me narrow it down?

I did all of my research online, emailed the crap out of everyone. I visited one venue and it took about 15 minutes to realize the lady was a raging bitch. Now the wedding is on a family farm (: