PV trip report

[pokefan72]

Hello-
We visited PV from Sept 27th - Oct 4th.
We had a great time and did not want to come back. We stayed at the Golden Crown Paradise resort. It was nice, but kind of small compared to what we are use to.
For about two weeks before our trip, we constantly reviewed the weather forecast for PV. Each day, it said an average of 60% chance of rain. It only rained once when we were there and that was at night.
PV is great, but the timeshare people are EVERYWHERE. Once we got off of the plane and went through customs, the timeshare people surround you like ants at a picnic. I had a few of them walk right in front of me and attempt to stop me, but I just kept walking and said, "no thank you". A couple of them were pretty persistent and I almost ran them over. We were so preturbed with them, we even almost missed our shuttle rep because he was not wearing a shirt that had the resort name on it for us to recognize. We thought he was another timeshare shark calling us over to talk to him.
Once we got to our resort, we had to wait about an hour until our room was ready. Once we got to our room, it was nice. A little smaller than what we are use to but it had a great view and a private balcony.
One huge drawback about the resort, or if this is at all of the beaches in PV, is that there are vendors everywhere and they bug you all the time when you are on the beach. We even had a few of them chase us down as we were trying to get into the water to swim. They were selling things from hats to tattoos to jewelry. We did buy a couple of things near the end of our trip, and they were not so friendly when we were wanting to haggle. In fact, a couple of them became quite rude.
We went into town a couple of times, once by bus and once by taxi. I would have to say, the bus ride was the better experience. In town, we were not bothered at all and everyone was friendly. We ate at Ah Charumba, which has a wonderful view of everything PV has to offer and the food was amazing!
We took the Outdoor Adventure tour with Vallarta Adventures. It was amazing! We cannot say anything bad about it. The tour was awesome, the guides were awesome and they made you feel safe every step of the way. We took a boat ride from the marina to the other side of the bay where we then took a four wheel drive vehicle up the mountain to their base camp. From the base camp, we sat through a short discussion on what we will be expeiencing, what to look for, safety, etc. We then rode mules up the mountain, to then hike to the first zip line. The whole tour was amazing and quite the adrenalin rush! Of course, at the end, they have all of the pictures they took of you and the few packages they offer are not cheap.
We also took the Wild Dolphin snorkeling tour. This was a big let down. Basically, we met at the marina and took a very long boat ride out to a series of small islands that are inhabitable. From there, you can either snorkel, scuba dive, kayak, or go to their private beach. Many people got sick on the way out. We decided to snorkel, which was a big let down because the water was too murky to see anything. The only fish we saw were around the boat becasue people were throwing bread into the water. They provided lunch and drinks. But, it was nice to be out in the water. The only dolphins we saw were on the way back to the marina. We saw five swimming in the open water.
On our last day, we took Mike's fishing charter and caught four huge durado fish (mahi-mahi) and one 92 inch swordfish. It was a great day! As soon as we got out past the bay and into the open water, we started catching fish, but that was short lived. The tour was about nine hours long and for a little over half of that, we did nothing but float around, soaking up sun.
Overall, we had a good time. But prefer Cozumel.

[tojol57]

well i am glad that your fishing trip was a great one... sounds like some great catches... too bad you couldn't have caught them earlier and had Chef Santos prepare a dinner for you with your fish... I don't know what you expected - GCP is only 212 rooms - "smaller than you used too", and there always has been TS people all over vallarta, and both here and on TA we have discussed the shark tanks, and the places to watch out about the TS sharks trying to get you into their nets.... We have been going to the GCP for 11 yrs (our 15th vacation there will be in 48 days over thanksgiving).... Vallarta is a wonderful city, and her people are great even the beach vendors... many of them around the GCP have become good friends of ours.... Thank you for your review....

[webmaster]

Having gone snorkeling and scuba diving in Cancun and Xel-ha, I understand that Vallarta is not comparable in clarity of the waters, but it's also a different geographic location (Gulf of Mexico-Pacific) and the conditions are completely different, I enjoyed scuba in Los Arcos, some interesting species there, also Yelapa was very nice. It sounds like you took a ride to Islas Marietas, I also got sick on the way there (on the Bloodhound), I immediately jumped in the sea to feel better, what I enjoyed most of the Marieta trip was a swim to the hidden beach inside the main island through a water tunnel. My friends got on the island itself and jumped into the cove, very much like "The Beach" (the movie) in miniature.

My final comment as a biologist, the murky waters are a sign of higher productivity, that is in layman terms, a sea that is more nutritious for the species that live there, the murkier the waters, the larger the amount of species and/or size of the creatures that live there. The crystal clear waters of some gulf regions is the equivalent of a desert on land. So feel happy for the Vallartan fish at least

Greetings

Mogens

[pokefan72]

By "smaller than we are use to", I am referring to the room size.
Another thing I forgot to mention in my trip report was the amount of trash we saw. Not only around the city, on the roads, etc, but also floating out in the ocean. During our fishing trip, we saw lots of trash floating in the water. From lots and lots of empty water bottles to trash cans to an empty styrofoam insert from a refridgerator. During one of our "down" days we walked the entire length of the beach from the river to just north of GCP. We saw a refridgerator laying on the beach without a door, then about 50 feet away, half buried in the sand, we saw the door. On our third day in PV, while we were eating dinner, we saw something floating in the water, near the beach. After dinner we took a walk along the beach to find that it was another refridgerator floating in the water. It was funny to see, but also sad to see that people let their trash wash out to sea.

[tojol57]

By "smaller than we are use to", I am referring to the room size.
Another thing I forgot to mention in my trip report was the amount of trash we saw. Not only around the city, on the roads, etc, but also floating out in the ocean. During our fishing trip, we saw lots of trash floating in the water. From lots and lots of empty water bottles to trash cans to an empty styrofoam insert from a refridgerator. During one of our "down" days we walked the entire length of the beach from the river to just north of GCP. We saw a refridgerator laying on the beach without a door, then about 50 feet away, half buried in the sand, we saw the door. On our third day in PV, while we were eating dinner, we saw something floating in the water, near the beach. After dinner we took a walk along the beach to find that it was another refridgerator floating in the water. It was funny to see, but also sad to see that people let their trash wash out to sea.

thank you for the clarification and the updates... unfortunately i think with the expansion of Vallarta that she has outgrown some of her infrastructure as trash and waste disposal... extreme growing pains right now with all the new condos going up, and the price of money and easy credit that is now available to the people, we may see more of this before we see it fixed and corrected... but that is just my opinion..... thanks again...

[MartyC]

Thanks for the trip report. Beach vendors are a constant on the beaches of PV. They are people just trying to make a living. Some are more aggressive than others but most respond well to a polite "no thank you".

We too like the other side of Mexico. It is certainly different from the Pacific side. Both are beautiful and fun to visit.