Tours - favorite - and what NOT to do again

Questions or tips on tours, excursions, ecotourism and activities.

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bgsnmky
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Tours - favorite - and what NOT to do again

Post by bgsnmky » Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:45 pm

Almost eveything I read everyone loves the excursions they take and the companies.

We will be two adults and 2 teenage boys.

I was curious on what people FAVORITES are and / or which ONES they would NOT do or recommend. I figure both of these should narrow it down.

So far I have looked at three companies:
Vallarta Adventures
Ecotours Vallarata
puerto Vallarta tours

We will probably take 3 or 4 days of tours during our 7 days there.

Also would be interested in Nighttime outtings - fiesta nights, sunste sailing, pirates outing etc that were good and/or bad.

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pvgemini
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Post by pvgemini » Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:03 am

You can find lots of advice if you search this board. I thoroughly enjoyed the Los Veranos canopy tour that we did 2 years ago. They have a website. I have been to Yelapa once and thought it was boring (just my opinion). I love spending a day in Sayulita, and I'm sure you could have a mini group surfing lesson while you are there. My 2 teenagers love just people watching along the Malecon in the evening, eating from the street vendors, and hanging out.

My teenagers also love the "Banana boat" which you can catch on Los Muertos beach any day--- 15 minute ride.

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Post by Grover » Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:33 am

We have done several excursions and loved them all. We did snorkling out at Marietas (sp?) Island and loved the jungle jeep tour into the Sierra Madres. The resort we stayed at helped us book them but you can book online in advance and take advantage of the discounts offered. We went through Vallarta Adventures and had a great time. I'm sure you will find some wonderful things to do. A lot of the excursions also offer either all day outings or shortened ones. Swimming with the dolphins was a 4 hour activity we enjoyed and I'll bet the teens will love it.You will, I'm sure, hae a great time whatever you decide to do. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying a week in PV :D

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Post by webmaster » Tue Jun 02, 2009 4:09 pm

You can also book them through this site and save, plus you support us in this critical time, check prices with us and furthermore we keep this open forum so you are sure you can complain and you can see we provide a good service (no complaints in over two years).

http://www.puertovallarta.net/tours/index.php

Kind regards

Mogens
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bgsnmky
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Post by bgsnmky » Tue Jun 02, 2009 10:35 pm

When I first wen to the cart - I couldn't tell who was the vendor.

Thanks for the link.

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katnsocal
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Post by katnsocal » Wed Jun 03, 2009 5:58 am

As Mogens said, the economic times in PV are at an all time low and the smaller businesses need all the support they can get. The big companies are much better equiped financially to weather this storm. The get alot of bookings from the Cruise ships and package tour companies. Right now Vallarta needs all the help we can give them, even if it is just buying tickets from a vendor instead of directly from the big companies. Use this site to book your tours.

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Post by davilin » Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:57 pm

We've really enjoyed a number of excursions with Vallarta Adventures (San Blas day trip, snorkle Marietas, canopy tour, Rhythms igf the Night)), Geronimo (40'catamaran to Marietas) and Eco Tours de Mexico (birdwatching). Only tour I wouldn't do again is Serape. Loud rap music with foul language (there were families on board) and they stopped for snorkling way out from Los Arcos in deep water. Snorkling is much better where you can get to the underwater rock formations and such. But that was about 6 years ago, it may be different now.

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Post by tim25 » Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:02 pm

I've been on many excursions over the years in PV, and the only one I wouldn't recommend is the Pirate Ship at night. We went on it a couple years ago and it was so crammed with people you could hardly move, it was nearly impossible to get a drink and the food was awful (the food poisoning I got didn't help either).

I did the day cruise the year before, and it was much more enjoyable. There was room on the boat, we went snorkling and stopped at a beach up the coast as well.

TIM

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Post by bradleytex77 » Mon Oct 12, 2009 9:46 pm

You have probably already taken your trip, but thought I would post this for other readers:

Just returned from a week in PV (Oct 3-11) and had an absolute blast!

I would recommend:
- Dolphin Signature Swim (through Vallarta Adventures) - probably one of the best experiences of my life. It is a bit pricy - around 150 bucks, but it is a once in a lifetime adventure.

I would not recommend:
- Con Tiki snorkeling day tour - the trip was 7 hours and we were told we would be taken to 3 stops (Los Arcos, Las Animas, Quixmoto).
First stop was los arcos which was beautiful and was very good snorkeling, however we only stayed for about 25 minutes.
Second stop was Las Animas - pretty but that’s it. The beach sand is basically gravel and all you could do there is jet ski and parasail - which we could do at the beach from our hotel much cheaper - NO SNORKELING. You can hike up to the falls which we weren’t prepared to do in our flip flops since we thought we were snorkeling. We sat on the beach for over an hour and a half.
Third stop was Quixmoto - also beautiful, but again NO SNORKELING. This time they didn’t even take us to the shore. We just anchored and looked at the shore for a good hour. By this time a good portion of the passengers were drunk and pretty obnoxious.
We then headed home directly back to the marina which took another hour while people took full advantage of the open bar. i don’t mind people drinking, but being stuck on a boat with them for hours is not fun.
- I would also not recommend the night tour of the Pirate. My sister, parents and I bought tickets for the evening show and were not very pleased. We were expecting a good pirate show, but here is what we got:

- About an hour\hour and a half of dancing and drinking people
- 30 minutes eating decent food, nothing spectacular (packaged vanilla pudding was the dessert)
- 30 minutes of contests were female passengers perform certain tasks
- A 30 minute decent pirate show - this was entertaining in a fun way, but wasn't really what we were expecting in a pirate show
- A 15 minute Mayan indian show - this was very interesting

If you are looking for a drinking club scene, this is right up your alley as it does include an open bar. I do agree that the evening tour is adult oriented (several sexual comments, etc). Our tickets were around $65 US dollars and were purchased at the pirate store off the malecon. Again, you may totally enjoy this type of environment, but wasn't really what we were looking for a $65 ticket. We were hoping for more pirate show and less drunken passengers dancing around on the ship.

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