Mexico Cruise-Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas

[scottmandue]

I am going on a cruise with mom, dad, brother and his daughter (celebrating ma and pa's 60th wedding anniversary).
We are stopping at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas.
Have any of you been to any of those places? (Rhetorical question, I know some of you have)
If so are there any bars/restaurants in these towns I should check out and/or avoid, I’m looking for someplace quite with good drinks and not too crazy.

Thank you for your support.

[BigChillWife]

Nice!

[LakeCleElum]

Good question. My wife retires in mid-may.....for a little present, I told her, I'd pick her up her last day of work and we're off to PV for 10 days.......Been to Hawaii a lot, Eurpope and Australia, but this is my first Mexico trip w/o a m/c....Need advice?????

[John_AZ]

Unable to suggest "nice" places but I use www.virtualtourist.com alot for suggestions.
When you get to Cabo, just smile at the Condo/timeshare selling leaches that will offer you a free lunch or toaster. Any weakness on your part will cause you unnecessary harassment.
Congratulations on your folks 60th anniversary. May the gifts of diamonds flow.

John_AZ

[Scott R]

This is easy, don't leave the ship, Puerto Vallarta is very, very old, and very poverty ridden outside the resort areas, Mazatlan is nicer due to the large amount of drug dealers with huge cash. Cabo is cold due to it being farther north, and all of the good beaches are no swim to due to pacific rip-tides.

[gr8fl4porsche]

Sunscreen - lots of sunscreen. The sun is strong in PV - you will fry in less than an hour without it.

[Yellowbird RS]

In Puerto Vallarta go to have a nice diner at cafe des artistes is a very nice place, also you can go to The River Cafe or Vista grill is a very nice place with a wonderfull sight of the town in Los Cabos one of my favorite places is El Mar nice place and great chef.

Enjoy and don't forgert you suncream

[sammyg2]

I did that cruise .... once. About 15 years ago.

PV looked like an incredible post card from the ship. Absolutely beautiful from a mile away.
Up close, it was dirty, it stunk like sewage and you couldn't walk 3 steps without some pushy lowlife trying to talk you into a timeshare "free lunch". The beach looked like a good place to get dysentery, I couldn't wait to get back on the ship.

Mazatlan was the best part of the trip, senior frogs when three different cruise ships hit all at once, was a blast. We did a conga line through the lunch buffet.
Then it was time to go surfing on the back of one of those three-wheeled golf carts after about 4 buckets of coronas, you get the picture.

Cabo was hot and STINKY!
Smelled like one of those wooden outhouses at Yellowstone park.
cabo wabo was a tourist trap and way over-hyped. The glass bottom boat thing was OK I guess, but the whole stop was pretty much boring.
Unless you have time to go deep sea fishing .........................

That trip was the last time I set foot in Mexico.

[masraum]

Near Puerto Vallarta there is an amazing restaurant, Le Kliff, but it's not actually in PV and will cost some cash to get to via taxi, but it's worth it.

[tcar]

PV, the town has really been cleaned up in the last 5 years. I was impressed. (was there 2 years ago) Nice place, clean, many good restaurants. They say even the water is OK now, but I didn't push my luck.

V. nice beaches also.

Used to be a dump.

The beaches at Cabo (except where sand has been brought in) are best described as small gravel, not sand. Uncomfortable to lay on,

[Dan in Pasadena]

Boy, nothing like raining on the guy's parade!

My girlfriend and I did this trip three years ago and had a great time. In PV yeah, stay in the touristy areas...but then again, you'll be off the ship for day time excursions anyway so not to worry. The only palces you'd go is touristy areas anyway.

I can't remember the name of it but there is a destination out of PV that was once John Huston's personal hideaway down the coast. You get a boat out of the harbor and its about a 30 minute ride if I remember correctly. They serve you a fantastic dinner under giant palapas (huge thatched roofed ..."huts" for lack of a better term) and then a production dance show. These palapas are on a jungle slope down to the beach. There are small bridges and little streams. Think a real life Disney Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse but a whole small village looking that way and you'll have the right look in mind!

When I did it the show was some kind of depiction of the natives interacting with the mountains gods. Sounds bad but it was actually very, very good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I tink you'll you'l love the trip if you don't have an "Ugly American" mentality and expect a third world country to be like America. Enjoy.

[911Rob]

Congrats on the 60 years!

Kudos to you and your brother for making the time to go with;
Have fun!

[JavaBrewer]

I'm more aligned with sammy. Mexico in general is pretty dirty and can be a shock for many Westerners and Northern Europeans. My days of backpacks and beach camps are over. In September '06 the wife and I stayed at a Mariott property, Casa Magna, for 4 days. It was an excellent trip and met/exceeded all of our expectations. The hotel is a 5 minute walk from the Marina which also has a number of good food and lively entertainment spots.

Relaxing


And Relaxing



September is if off-season meaning they get rain. Every evening it would rain but the morning and afternoons were perfect. It is butt humid there but very beautiful - I couldn't get over how nice the palm trees looked.



Skip the fine dining and keep it simple. That's what Mexico does best. Stick to resort properties if you don't enjoy the "culture". Don't drink the water.

[scottmandue]

Just wanted to thank you all for your input.
Quick review of the trip, please note I am so not a cruise type of guy... not into the luxury thing... much rather be hanging in Hawaii or central Calif. coast stuffing myself with seafood.
However never really done Mexico so it was something to see.
First stop PV, did buss ride... saw the downtown cathedral, tile factory, shopped at a tourist trap mall, then went out of town to a hacienda for tequila tasting. The cathedral and tile factory were cool, they did everything by hand at the tile factory and had some beautiful stuff. The shopping and hacienda were a joke but they did drive us through town and out into the country so got to see and get a feel for how they lived. They fed us chicken and beef soft tacos that sucked.
Matz was better, went on a bird watching boat tour... short bus ride to boat to sand bar and then trough mangrove estuary then they pulled us by flat bed and tractor through a coconut plantation then down the beach to the restaurant where we had the choice of BBQ chicken, fish, quesadilla (sp) or combo of all three. I got the fish and was severed three large breaded and fried fillets that were caught that morning with a scoop of beans and a scoop or rice, it was delicious... and the whole trip the tour guide "captain Polo" was serving us FREE soda, bottled water, AND PACIFICO BEER! He even told us at the beginning of the tour "this is family style if you want something just come up and get it you don't have to ask me". During the trip Capt. Polo spotted some forty different species of birds for us and provided a photo op (again free) with his pet pelican that joined us on the trip.
Cabo was cabo, only there for half a day and was pretty much tired of people stuffing things in my face and trying to sell me junk. Pretty harbor, had some chips and guacamole and beers and enjoyed the view, might be an interesting place to check out later just because it is close to where I live and therefor cheap to get to.

One nice thing about doing the boat/buss tours is you side step the time share pimps (I presume because I never met one)

[cl8ton]

When in Puerto Vallarta visit "Senior Frogs", free drinks to any lady's on the verge of dancing on the bar tables

Wish I had that photo of me and an Iguana Lizard wrapped around my neck after visiting that place.
Be wary of any 7 yr/old kid selling Mezcal Tequila in party cup's on every street corner for $1, it tends to sneak up on you!

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by cl8ton

When in Puerto Vallarta visit "Senior Frogs", free drinks to any lady's on the verge of dancing on the bar tables

Wish I had that photo of me and an Iguana Lizard wrapped around my neck after visiting that place.
Be wary of any 7 yr/old kid selling Mezcal Tequila in party cup's on every street corner for $1, it tends to sneak up on you!

I presume you are about thirty years younger that me...

Glad you enjoy the collage age party bar atmosphere but not my cup of tea.

Plenty places to party in S. Cal. don't see the need to go to Mexico for that... and if things go wrong.. as sometimes does when consuming alcohol... the Mexican police are the last people I want to be dealing with. YMMV