I live in the US. Someone put me on a list of people who retweet wikileaks tweets and I'm concerned. Our policy towards visitors and immigrants has been increasingly hostile. Citizens get it a little better, but increasingly bad too.
Minor quibble with your last sentence:
> I would not consider going to the US for a vacation. Thankfully there are five other continents to visit.
Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras all share North America with the United States. And Antarctica is a continent too (7 total, not 6).
Antarctica isn't really a hot (no pun intended) vacation area. People go there to work and conduct research, but there's no hotels or resorts.
Besides Canada, the rest on your list don't scream "freedom" or "welcoming to foreigners" to me. I'm not saying Cuba isn't an interesting place to visit, but a Cuban vacation isn't really comparable to a US vacation in terms of sight-seeing and luxury.
Though as an American, my viewpoint of Cuba might be skewed. There's a lot of unwarranted and false anti-Cuban propaganda in this country, it makes it hard to tell the truth from the lies.
At the risk of coming off as crass and vulgar, Cuba is a shithole.
The food's terrible, smog in Havana is the worst I've seen anywhere (most cars don't have mufflers and are poorly tuned), the locals try to screw you over any chance they get (Beijing Tea Room type scams are commonplace, especially in bars - just don't talk to anyone who acts friendly and tries to bring you into a shop, and NEVER EVER accept local currency or any gifts), and the whole place is so dilapidated (except for the small touristy section of town) that it's amazing the buildings are still standing (most balconies in concrete buildings have long since collapsed). I watched in Trinidad as local workers dug up part of a cobblestone road, then filled it back with plain dirt. Most of the roads people have worked on are completely washed away from the rain (the ones they haven't touched are still fine).
You can have good food and a pleasant stay if you go to a resort, but then what's the point? You could be at any resort in the world and have the same cookie-cutter experience.
Oh, and if you do go, bring a currency OTHER than USD because the Cuban government controls all currency conversion, and trades USD at a severe disadvantage compared to other currencies.
If Costa Rica doesn't scream "freedom" and "welcoming to foreigners" to you, you haven't been paying attention to your continental neighbors. Mexico is great on most counts outside the border region, too. Even Guatemala and Nicaragua and Panama are quite welcoming.
Like I mentioned, the US has some pretty anti-Latin American bias. Everything shown in the media is either Sandals Resorts, Caribbean Cruise Lines, or jungles and warlords. People all around the world only know what they're taught or what they've seen first hand. Not many Americans have seen Latin America first-hand.
I have been to Panama, came in on a boat from Mexico. The advice I received in the port was to not set foot in the port in the first place and avoid law enforcement even if I got into trouble. Of course I received the same warning on the trip back to Mexico, so...
Like the whole system or not, America and their buddies do a pretty decent job of keeping street thugs to a minimum.
> the rest on your list don't scream "freedom" or "welcoming to foreigners" to me.
I'm guessing that's because of your own ignorance, not because of the places. Costa Rica is superb in terms of freedom, and almost all of those places are more welcoming to foreigners than the US. If you want luxury, México has first-class resorts.
I've been to some resorts in Mexico. I don't know if these are the kinds you're talking about, but they're basically the US confined within large walls to keep the natives out (unless they're working there). If I go to Germany, I expect to see a German resort. If I go to France, I expect to see a French resort. When I go to Mexico, I don't expect to see a US resort on a cheap plot of beach-front property.
If you're going to list Cuba and the Dominican Republic, you shouldn't leave out Jamaica and all the Lesser Antilles - I highly recommend visits to any of them!
Minor quibble with your last sentence:
> I would not consider going to the US for a vacation. Thankfully there are five other continents to visit.
Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras all share North America with the United States. And Antarctica is a continent too (7 total, not 6).