Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

We spent 3 nights in Puerto Vallarta during July of 2007.

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Accomodations
Snorkeling
Beaches
Dining
Activities
Shopping
Food Shopping
Friendliness
Cultural Experience
Value for Money
Would We Return

Playa Los Arcos Beach Resort

We stayed three nights at Playa Los Arcos and found the property very charming and ideally situated. The hotel is located in the "Romantica Zone", which is the southern part of downtown Puerto Vallarta. The property is located directly on Los Muertos Beach. The hotel is close to a mini market, lots of restaurants, and Internet access. We were there in July of 2007 and the place was full of Mexican tourists. This seems to be a very popular place with Mexican families while on vacation.
If you want a very "American" type place then Los Arcos is not for you. Your best bet would be to stay at one of the resorts at Nuevo Vallarta. But if you want to be close to downtown, on the beach, and experience more of a "true Mexico" experience, then Playa Los Arcos may just fit the bill.
We booked the one bedroom ocean view suite, which was the highest quality of room they had. We were in room 403 and it was fantastic! We were directly on the beach. (True Oceanfront) We had a kitchen, dining area, and then the bedroom overlooked the ocean. The bed was as hard as a rock, but other than that, we loved the room. We only paid $113 USD a night, which we thought was a steal for the room we had. We had read both positive and negative reviews on this property. It seems like the quality of room is the determining factor. So spend the few extra bucks and get one of the nicer rooms. You will be glad you did.
During the day the hotel has lounge chairs and beach towels for the hotel guests. One odd fact was that at 6 PM they kick everyone off their chair and collect them for the evening. Very strange. The picture to the right was the view from room 403.
The pool at Playa Los Arcos was nice but it was very crowded and small for the size of the property. We never used it. We opted for the beach.If you stay here, don't expect a 4 star "resort", because it isn't. But it is a nice clean hotel on the beach. We would stay here again, especially if we can get room 403 again!

A few places to eat in Puerto Vallarta

Since our trip was only for 3 nights, we didn't get to eat at a lot of places. We mainly stayed in the "Romantic Zone" and on the beach. Puerto Vallarta has a wide range of eating establishments.  We saw everything from casual beach shacks to white table cloth high end places.
Cuatas y Cuestas We had dinner one night at Cuatas y Cuestas and really liked the location and food. It is located directly on the beach next to the pier. Carroll had the camarones de ajo (garlic shrimp) and I had the Mexican platter. The food was very good, and quite inexpensive. We couldn't eat it all. We also had a few margaritas during their 2 x 1 happy hour. They were very good but a little small. We like the "muy grande" ones. :>)
	Langostinos One of our favorite beach restaurants was Langostinos. This is near the pier and next door to Playa Los Arcos and Cuatas y Cuestas.  The food was good, the beer was cheap, and your toes are in the sand on the beach. Need I say more?
Machis Bar BQ
A great little place that is off the beaten path is Machis Bar B.Q. Machis is located in a residential area on one of the main streets. We ordered lunch and wish we had split the meal. The sandwiches were HUGE. The beer was cold and cheap. (18 pesos) This is a real find. It is a very nice little place that serves good food at a great price.
Senor Frogs
During our first trip to Puerto Vallarta, in 1999, we went to Senor Frogs in downtown. During that trip Carroll learned how to make guacamole because they make it right there at your table. This trip we decided to go back and have some chips and guac for old times sake. When we walked in we were greeted by Oscar, who was the same guy that taught Carroll 8 years ago. He didn't remember us but we remembered him. Carroll is "known" for her guacamole at our family gatherings and so it was very special for us to see Oscar once again.
The picture at the left shows Carroll and Oscar in 1999. Oscar was just a "trainee" back then. The picture to the right shows them reunited 8 years later.

Malecon and Downtown

The Malecon is a walkway along the water in downtown Puerto Vallarta. It was grown since our last visit. On one side of the street are lots of shops and chain restaurants. On the ocean side of the street is a nice walkway with lots of beautiful art statues.  Be warned that if you walk along the commerce side of the street you will be barraged with timeshare salespeople. We walked the street once and probably had over 15 people try to sell us "free activities". One of the new twists is the creation of this "tequila tasting rooms". These are just timeshare people in disguise!
The statues along the Malecon are beautiful and worth the visit.
	The boy on the seahorse statue is probably the most photographed and famous of the bunch.
There is a guy on the beach that does awesome sand sculptures. He has a tip jar for tips but he wasn't real obnoxious about asking for donations. He was very talented and it did add some beauty to the beach.
Near the downtown square is a beautiful church. Probably one of the prettiest we have seen. It is about two blocks up from the Malecon.
It rained while we were there so the River Caule was very muddy indeed. We visited the flea market on the river and found that the prices weren't that much less than some of the little shops by our hotel. Plus there you have to put up with everyone saying "come into my shop amigo". We found it wasn't worth it.

Trip to Yelapa with Vallarta Adventures

We took a day trip with Vallarta Adventures to the remote village of Yelapa. It was officially a "snorkel" cruise but the main attraction is getting to go to a little Mexican village that is only accessible by boat. It rained during our excursion, but the boat has quite a bit of "sheltered space" so it wasn't too bad.
The day we booked was the ONLY day there was a cruise ship in town, so the boat was a little crowded. The vessel holds 150 people and there were 75 on board. We were on boat number 5.
This is our third booking with Vallarta Adventures, and as always, the crew was fabulous. Our "cruise director" was Jovani. He was full of energy and very entertaining.
Our first stop was Majahuitas, which was really the cove around the corner from Las Caletas. This was our snorkel stop. The water was warm but there were jellyfish everywhere! We jumped in for a few minutes and then quickly exited the water once we saw the low visibility and Carroll was stung on the arm. Almost everyone that got back on the boat was stung. (Usually numerous times)
We then went on to the village of Yelapa. We thought this place was very cool. It is a little village tucked away in a beautiful bay. We opted for the "hike to the waterfall". This meant walking through the village and up to a waterfall. Then back down to the beach where we spent the rest of the day. We spent 2 hours at Yelapa. If you didn't want to hike through town to the waterfall, the boat will drop you off directly on the beach.
The waterfall was pretty, but not flowing very rapidly. The village itself was interesting and Jovani gave a nice little "tour" as we walked along. The picture above shows the Vallarta boat docked in the bay by the beach. It was very picturesque.
At about 2:30 we boarded the boat and headed back to the Marina Terminal in Puerto Vallarta. The crew did some more fun entertaining and the drinks were flowing. We have always enjoyed the trips that Vallarta Adventures offer. This trip was a full day on the water, snorkeling, food, drinks, and entertainment for $54 a person. We think that just can't be beat. These boats do sometimes get crowded so be warned that this is not an "intimate catamaran cruise".

Carroll's PuertoVallarta Blog (2007)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

We decided to book a last minute short vacation since Dave ended up having the week off. Puerto Vallarta fit the bill. We flew out of SFO on Alaska Airlines. While we were waiting for the plane to arrive they announced first class upgrades for $100 a seat. Dave and I decided to splurge and got the last 2 first class seats. We had a very smooth flight and totally started our trip by being pampered.

We arrived in Puerto Vallarta at about 3:00 pm. We were lucky enough to get the green light and we sailed through immigration and customs. We walked through the gauntlet of timeshare people and found a teller. We then walked over to the taxi stand and paid our fares ($10 per person) to get to our hotel downtown. The ride into town from the airport takes a good 30 to 40 minutes. 

We arrived to Playa los Arcos and were able to check into our room right away. We booked a suite that overlooked the beach. We were on the 4th floor (Room 403) and had a fantastic view. The room had two double beds and a separate kitchen/dining room. The kitchen only had a microwave, coffeemaker and refrigerator but then again we really didn’t need much else. Once unpacked we walked to the grocery store and picked up some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, some water, and of course some cervesa. 

We ate dinner on the beach at Cuates y Cuetas. Dave had the Mexican Platter and I had the camarones de ajo. We also had happy hour margaritas. They were very good but very small. It was nice to have our first meal of the trip right on the beach with our toes in the sand. After dinner we returned to our room (which was about a one minute walk away) and watched the sunset.

Wednesday, July 18, 2009

We woke up early and had coffee and bagels for breakfast. We needed to get moving because we had booked a snorkel/Yelapa excursion with Vallarta Adventures. After breakfast we took a taxi to the main maritime terminal where we were to embark on our tour. The Carnival Pride was in port for the day so we got to watch her come in and dock. We ended up taking off about 30 minutes late while we were waiting for the last of the cruise people to board. We have experienced excursions with Vallarta Adventures before and we knew that this would be as enjoyable as our previous encounters. They did not disappoint. The cruise director this time out was Jovani. He was very informative and entertaining. All of the rest of the staff was efficient and helpful but Jovani really made the tour fun. 

Once we were on our way it started to rain so everyone from the top deck came down and it made the covered bottom deck much more crowded but it still was okay. We stopped at our snorkel spot. There really wasn’t much to see. Because of the warm water the jellyfish were out in force. Because of the cruise people the inexperienced snorkelers were out in force. Because of the aforementioned forces Dave and I decided not to spend much time in the water. We got back on the boat and dried off and decided to have a cervesa. 

Yelapa was our next stop. Yelapa is a tiny fishing village that you can only get to by boat. We were to spend two hours there. We decided to take the one hour hike to the waterfall and then to the beach. Jovani lead the hike and he told us many interesting things about the flora and fauna. Although they said that the hike to the waterfall was quite easy and that you could do it in flip flops, I found that at times it was a bit treacherous. We had to slog through some running water on an incline. Once my flip flops are wet on top they get quite slippery. Other than that we enjoyed the hike. Once back at the beach we were able to swim some and sit on the beach and enjoy a beer. We spent about an hour there and got back on the boat for our ride back to PV. The excursion was fun despite the cranky cruise people, the jellyfish and the rain.

Just a note about Yelapa: There is a cute independent movie that was filmed in Yelapa called Which Way Por Favor? We watched it when we got home and found it sweet and enjoyable since we had just been there.

We ate dinner on the beach again at a little place called Maritza’s Mariscos. We had fish tostadas and split an order of camarones. After dinner we walked around a bit and shopped. Since we really didn’t eat much for dinner we decided to go to Senor Frogs and get some guacamole and chips. The reason we had chosen Senor Frogs is because six years ago we had gone there and gotten chips and guacamole. They made it tableside and I use their recipe as the base for my guacamole that has dazzled my friends over the years. I told Dave that it would be good to go in and get a refresher course. Lo and behold the same waiter that made our guacamole in 2001 was there to greet us. I looked at him in astonishment and told him how he was my guacamole master. He didn’t remember me but I certainly remembered him. He was quite surprised but also glad that we had come back to remember him. If you are ever in PV be sure to go to Senor Frogs and ask for Oscar to make your guacamole. You won’t be disappointed.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

We didn’t have anything special planned for the day. We walked from our hotel up the Malecon to do some shopping. Along the way we stopped many times to admire the artwork. Since the last hurricane the city of PV has extended the Malecon over to old town so it makes it easy to walk along the waterfront. As long as we stayed on the seawall we were not hounded by timeshare people but once we crossed the street to do a little shopping we were inundated with people hawking timeshares. Once we had had our fill of those annoyances we decided to look around the stall by the Rio Cuale. We really didn’t see much that we would want to take home so we walked along the river to try to find a popular restaurant called Que Pasa? We found it no problem but unfortunately it was closed so we made our way to another highly recommended place call Machis BBQ. We each ordered a sandwich but could have easily split just one. The portions were very large and neither one of us could finish our meal. But then again nothing was particularly expensive either. I always feel bad when I waste food though. Machi’s is on the second floor so the view of the street is a great place to people watch.

After lunch we returned to our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach. The beach was full of the usual people hawking their wares. A polite no is enough to suffice and they will move on to their next potential customer. We were able to stay on the beach until around 6 when the hotel starts putting the beach chairs away. We have never been to a resort that has done this before but it seemed to be the policy at Playa los Arcos.

We ate dinner at Langostinos right next door to our hotel. This is another beach front restaurant. We had a nice table on the beach. Since we had eaten such a big lunch we split an order of fajitas. I’m glad that we did because we still had more than enough food. We lingered at our table and enjoyed a few more cervesas and then made the arduous less than one minute journey back to our room. We sat on our balcony and enjoyed our last sunset.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Today was our day to go home. Our flight wasn’t until 6 in the evening so we were going to have most of the day to enjoy and relax. We started our morning with the usual bagels and coffee. After cleaning up I packed our clothes in our two carry-ons. We then donned our suits and decided where we were going to make our home on the beach for the day. Once we checked out we left our luggage with the bellman and made our way to the beach. We secured a couple of chairs at Langostinos and were able to swim, eat and drink the afternoon away. At around 3 we changed into traveling clothes in the hotel bathroom and took a cab to the airport.

When we checked in for our flight we asked if they had any first class upgrades for the $100 price and they said that they did. What a perfect way to end a perfect trip. We were seated in the first row of first class and the 2 guys across from us were enjoying life as much as we were. Our flight attendant, Cher, was also very attentive and entertaining. We had a great time!

We got back to Dixon by 10:30 pm. The boy, Opus, was a bit miffed with us. He made sure he told us that he was unhappy that we had abandoned him for those few days…automatic food and water are not enough for any decent feline to survive. By morning he had forgiven us…life is good!