Girlfriend and I have been thinking about taking a 1-week vacation to Puerto Vallarta in September. Any of you guys been there? What's fun there? Is it a good place to kill a week?

Any suggestions and experiences would be great. Other ideas we're kicking around include New York, Florida Keys, or maybe one of the smaller Hawaiian islands (have been to Oahu and Maui a few times so figured we'd check out some of the others).

For what's it's worth, we're in our mid-20s and moderate party people, i.e., enjoy boozing and partying, but while on vacation, I'd rather sightsee and relax rather than get hammered silly (can do that at home).

Thanks!

 

I just got back from PV 2 weeks ago.

We stayed at the Golden Crown Paradise Resort. It's an all inclusive resort so it was unlimited drinks, food and room service. We paid $600/person for hotel and air, and stayed for 4 days and 3 nights. The pool is awesome, with lots of chairs to lay around and relax. There is also a club across the street that is free cover and drinks all night long (clubs stay open until 6am in PV) as long as you are staying at the GCP resort.

You can spend a good 5-6 hours in downtown shopping alone, and the club scene was really cool. Different from the U.S. but everyone was there to have fun it seemed.

I would recommend it, but maybe for only 4-5 days. I'm not sure if I would go for a whole week.

Edit: The resort is also adult only (18+) so you don't have to worry about a bunch of kids running around. There is a another resort next door that allows kids, but you never see them and you can even go over there and eat at their 3 restaurants for free too if you want.

You can see a virtual tour of the hotel here:

http://www.signaturevacations.com/svec/App...0&ProductId=572

 

Nice, and thanks! Aside from shopping, clubs, and eating/drinking, is there anything else interesting to do? Perhaps outside the resort areas or anything? Just curious.

We'd be staying in a friend's timeshare, so we're probably not going to be able to take advantage of the benefits offered by the hotels.

 

Also, should I rent a car if I go there? Or is getting around by foot and public transportation pretty effective?

 

Oh yeah, there are plenty of tours and stuff to do there. We went on a party boat ($50 per person) that took us out into the ocean where we went snorkeling with dolphins, then served us dinner and drinks on the boat (big boat, about 75 people were on it). Then we docked and watched fireworks being shot off from the shore. (they do that every night) Another day we took a trip through the mountains and ended up eating at a restaurant on top of the mountain over looking the entire city. You can also go canoeing, horseback riding (my friend went and loved it).

And I wouldn't worry about renting a car. We walked a lot of the time, and when we did take a taxi it was DIRTY cheap. You can fit up to 4 people (same price no matter if it's 1 person or 4) and we offered 20 pesos ($2) to take us to downtown which was about a 10 minute drive. You just have to be sure to negotiate the price before you get in the Taxi or they'll charge you like $10 when they drop you off.

Go to www.puertovallarta.net for some good info on what to do there. Check out the forums there, they are very helpful.

 

Make sure that you go visit the Terminator movie set. They filmed the first one up in the moutains. It was awhile ago when I went there, but we took a jeep tour to this site and there is a waterfall to swim at there as well. It was pretty cool. Great mountain and ocean views and did I mention iguanas?

Jon

 

Never been there but my aunt, uncle and a couple of the kiddies wwent a few years ago. This post is not to deter you but they all got Montezuma's revenge. There is a antibiotic you can buy to clear it up real quick as they sell most prescriptions over-the-counter. Maybe somebody can help you out with the name or you can ask at the hotel. Just buy some first thing and keep it on hand.

My cousin ended up sitting on one of the toilets the whole flight back crapping his brains out and puking into a sweatshirt. Not pretty. I am told if you catch the bug and take the drug, it clears it up within the day as not to ruin your vacation.

Otherwise they liked it down there when they were not sick.

 

Awesome, great advice, guys.

Thanks for the tip about the nice prospect of diarrhea, I'll be sure to keep some anti-diarrheal medicine on hand, especially since I have a chronic stomach condition and not-so-great immune system in general. Last summer I went to Maui for about a week and got a fun case of Dengue fever.

The other stuff like movie site, views, and other activities sounds wonderful. Please keep the advice coming!

 

Remember to ONLY drink bottled water, even when brushing your teeth.

My 2 roommates didn't and were sick the day we got back.. I stuck to bottled water and was fine.

 

we have this resort membership that we havent used for puerto vallarta which we have to use every year but sometimes we give it to friends for a "fee" the bad thing about it is that they will ask you to spend a day in with them to try to lure you to buy a membership w/ em too. anyway i've been to PV twice i think and the deep sea fishing was fun