Mexico Archives - Mom's Guide To Travel

Sep 03 2014

A Video Tour Of Puerto Vallarta Mexico

Check out this YouTube video I made about Puerto Vallarta:

[Transcript]

What do you know about Puerto Vallarta?

Puerto Vallarta is a popular beach resort destination on the Pacific Ocean’s Bahia de Banderas. American writers and artists first sought Puerto Vallarta as a retreat in the early 1950’s. In 1963 John Huston filmed The Night of the Iguana in a small town just south of Puerto Vallarta, really putting it on the map for American travelers.

Today Puerto Vallarta is a thriving city, profiting well from international tourists. Its beauty can not be underestimated. Puerto Vallarta’s diverse topography allows for a variety of activities: scuba-diving, zip-lining, horseback riding, hiking, rafting, or simply relaxing on the beach.

Dining in Puerto Vallarta

Where should you eat? Just about anywhere. El Malecon boardwalk is a wonderful place to start and a must-see for visitors. Restaurants sit should to shoulder and line this colorful boardwalk overlooking the beauty of the Ocean.

If you want to see the city, learn a little of its history and eat at the same time, take a street food tour with Vallarta Food Tours: It’s easy to book and fun to explore.

Sleeping in Puerto Vallarta

Where should you stay in Puerto Vallarta? If you’re looking for great value for your dollar, consider staying at The Casa Magna Marriott in Puerto Vallarta. The resort is a short 10-minute ride from the airport, situated directly on the beach and offering dual views of the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Pacific Ocean.

The Marriott offers both European packages as well as all-inclusive packages. For a stress free experience, go for the all-inclusive and enjoy.

Family Travel in Puerto Vallarta

Traveling with Family?

Swim with Dolphins
Play with Pirates
Enjoy a day trip to Yelapa
Walk on a taco food tour
Snorkel, scuba dive, zipline, go tubing and more

When should you visit?

November to April is high season so you’ll enjoy better pricing outside of that time. Early June can be extremely warm and rainy season tends to run from mid June through October.

What have you heard about Puerto Vallarta that you want to know more about? Need help planning your trip and itinerary, let someone who’s been there before take it off your hands and do it for you!

Jun 26 2014

Puerto Vallarta Dolphin Experience At Dolphin Discovery

On my trip to Mexico earlier this month, I overcame my fears and swam with dolphins. Again. This time I did it in Puerto Vallarta at Dolphin Discovery, a place one could classify as an enrichment attraction – a marine education and amusement park.

The first time that I swam with dolphins was three years ago in Jamaica. I remember the fear I felt beforehand and then my excitement afterwards. I couldn’t wait to get home and tell my family what I had done. It had only been five months since I’d even learned how to swim.

My husband was shocked and my sister thought I was crazy. I was a new swimmer and not very fond of animals. However, dolphins are different. There’s something peaceful and magical about them. After an hour interacting with dolphins in a regulated facility like Dolphin Discovery, all fear dissipates and comfort sets in. You can tell that the dolphins are happy in their space.

Puerto Vallarta Dolphin Experience

The trainers at Dolphin Discovery are short of amazing. You may enter the pool with apprehension but by the time the experience is over, you’ve forgotten about your fears. Their care and love for the animals that they work with is apparent. They’re proud of what they do.

While our life-vest cloaked group stood chest deep in a warm salt water pool awaiting instructions, we watched two dolphins glide past us towards their trainer with calm precision. I thought to myself, this isn’t a place where I need to be afraid. The pool was the dolphins’ playground and they just wanted to have fun.

Our trainer Josè may have had trouble getting my name straight but he was on point with getting everyone relaxed and compliant with kissing, rubbing, holding and swimming with two of the facility’s dolphins. He showed us the various hand gestures we needed to use and was patient. One woman in our group refused to swim out in the pool to participate in one of the tricks. However, by the end, she was enjoying the moment in the middle of the pool with the rest of us. Jose’s methods were crafty and I quietly applauded him getting her to a relaxed place.

Marine Life Education

Before stepping into the 18-foot pool, children and adults sit down for a 10-minute talk on marine life and environmental issues. The staff reiterates the importance of our actions as humans to protect the environment. This is what I like most about Dolphin Discovery – their messaging on global responsibility to guests young and old. Their three-word mantra, “Recycle, Reuse, and Reduce” can be heard throughout the day.

Dolphin Discovery has an Environmental Education Department that goes beyond just delivering a verbal takeaway. Last week they created a fully functioning kayak made of reused plastic bottles. It took them only one week to collect all the material they needed and one week more to construct it. This enrichment tool helps to amplify the message, “Why would you throw the garbage into the Ocean?”

Spend a day at Dolphin Discovery with your kids and I’m certain that if you do the Royal Swim Experience, you will all leave informed and quite possibly changed. I gained a new appreciation for these beautiful marine mammals as well as the sea lions on the property.

Dolphin Experience Details

The Royal Swim Experience includes:

Swim with Dolphins (40 minutes)
Sea Lion Exchange & Education
Dolphin Show & Education
Water Park Access
Lunch ( a darn good one at that!), including drinks

Pricing:

$139 Adults
$79 Kids (ages 6-11)
$Free (ages 1-5)

Water Park and Show: $25

Dolphin Discovery is more than just about entertaining guests. It educates and leaves an impression on you as well.

I was a guest of the Puerto Vallarta tourism board and Dolphin Discovery on this visit. All opinions expressed here within are my own.

Jun 11 2014

This Aint Taco Bell: Puerto Vallarta Street Food Tour

Want to get up close and personal with the people of downtown Puerto Vallarta while eating your way through its’ streets? Consider exploring on a Puerto Vallarta street food tour.

On my trip to Puerto Vallarta I went on a taco tour with Vallarta Food Tours. Their motto is “Become a local in 3 hours.” We’re not locals just yet. Our tour, led by expat Ricardo “Lobo” Lopez took us on a culinary journey through two downtown neighborhoods, Emiliano Zapata and 5 de Diciembre neighborhood.

Puerto Vallarta Food Tour — Walking through the streets.

This isn’t a tour that I’d suggest doing with really young kids although Lindsay Prime, owner of Vallarta Tours says they’ve “had kids as young as 6 years old who loved the tour and trying new foods.” Just know that there’s a lot of walking involved and that your child should have a marginally adventurous foodie spirit.

Vallarta food tours has three different tours per day: a breakfast tour, lunch tour, and dinner tour. The dinner tour is the only one that’s a taco tour. For our taco food tour, we stopped at eight different locales, including street stands and brick-and-mortar restaurants. Over the course of my five days in Puerto Vallarta, I enjoyed authentic Mexican flavors everywhere, however, a few of the stands we visited downtown served up dishes with flavors that really stood out.

Cervicheria El Guero makes a crunchy, delicious fish taco best topped with the house hot sauce and cilantro-avocado paste. However, El Guero’s specialty is a fresh mahi mahi ceviche. Served on a chip, it’s light and flavorful. This restaurant started out as a taco stall back in 1989 and has since graduated to a brick and mortar restaurant on the corner of Madero And Constitución St.

At Restaurant Lolitas, I enjoyed the sope, a fried tortilla topped with red sauce, a type of Mexican ricotta cheese, diced onions, lettuce shreds, a tomato and chicken.

If you’re a sweets lover like me, be sure to check out Julio’s Churros on the corner of Uruguay and Peru. He serves piping hot churros from his stand daily from 6pm-10pm. The churros are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, rolled in cinnamon and sugar, and very inexpensive. For a bag of 5 six-to-eight inch churros, you spend less than $1USD.

The benefit of taking a tour like the one with Vallarta Food Tours is that you have a chance to not only eat simple yet bold Mexican foods, you enjoy an overall enriched experience by hearing the personal stories behind many of these stalls. For instance, Julio has been working his churros stall consistently for two decades.

Even with the low price point of his tasty desserts, he will be able to send his daughter to law school this year. Some of the stalls like Tacos Memo on 400 Basilio Badillo Street and Tacos don Juan on 400 Cardenas St have been around for decades, 28 years and 45 years, respectively. Taking a Puerto Vallarta street food tour with a local has its benefits. However, if you want to go at your own pace and would like to explore more independently, here are the eight stops we made on our tour:

Cevicheria El Guero: 291 Madero Street
Tacos Memo: 400 Basilio Badillo St.
Tacos Don Juan: 400 Cardenas St.
Patio De Mi Casa: 311 Guerrero St.
Restaurant Lolitas: 1061 Ave. Mexico
Rico Taco: Corner of Uruguay St. and Ave. Mexico
El Carboncito: 137 Honduras St.
Julio’s Churros: Corner of Uruguay and Peru

Salud!

[Tweet “Explore a foreign culture and learn about it organically through its food..”]

I was a guest of the Puerto Vallarta Tourism board and Vallarta Food Tours, however all opinions expressed within are my own.

Jun 11 2014

Good Puerto Vallarta Food: Surprising Places You’ll Find It

I’m a fan of Mexican food so one of my main tasks when I landed at Gustavo Diaz Ordaz airport, starving, was finding good Puerto Vallarta food.

Our first stop was at the check-in desk at the resort. I know that hotels tend to have decent restaurants on site but I was pleasantly surprised to taste the food coming out of the Casa Magna Marriott Puerto Vallarta.

Good food Onsite

The hotel has four restaurants and a coffee shop. Guests can choose between a European package or an all-inclusive package. Normally I’d say, don’t worry about paying ahead for your meals, venture out. However, because of the good Puerto Vallarta food coming out of the Marriott, and the fact that there are several restaurants at your immediate disposal, I’d recommend purchasing the all-inclusive option. This is especially pertinent if you’re traveling with kids.

Champs, an American sports bar creation, serves standard American bar food. This may be something that Mexicans and Europeans may find different but it’s rather commonplace for us. Estancia is where you can enjoy creative dinner creations. What you don’t want to miss is their comprehensive breakfast buffet, served daily. Items on the menu include anything from pancakes to sushi to tamales. It’s a meal worth waking up to enjoy.

My favorite restaurant was Mikado, the property’s Japanese restaurant. “Japanese in Puerto Vallarta?” Yes, Japanese food in Puerto Vallarta. A sushi master came to the property to train the local chefs in the art of sushi making and teppanyaki. After tasting the rolls and enjoying your teppanyaki meal, you wouldn’t know who prepared it if you didn’t look.

A few of us went out for sushi and were floored by the quality of the fish and the taste of the rolls. The Grilled Scallop roll is in my self-made list of “Top 3 Best Sushi Rolls Ever” along with the Bad Boy roll, a shrimp, smoked salmon, cream cheese, and avocado mix, all lightly fried.

One of the benefits of the all-inclusive plans is that you get to eat at the super casual restaurants as well as the more upscale ones as well at no extra charge.

Dining with the Dolphins

The last place where I’d think to get outstanding Puerto Vallarta food is at an amusement park. After enjoying Dolphin Discovery’s Royal Swim package with the playful dolphins and reserved sea lions, our group was treated to an amusement park lunch like no other. We were all certain that our lunch had been specially catered.

When we learned that the menu they served us was the norm, none of us could believe it! Ceviche, shrimp cocktail, fajitas, tropical drinks…who does that? I don’t know too many amusement parks in the States that do. Please let me know if you’re aware of any. Wings and pizza were also available to order but when you have good local food to dine on, why would you?

The menu at Dolphin Discovery is one that American amusement parks could take a lesson from.

My few days in Puerto Vallarta have shown me that the locals take eating seriously and that they’re not too fussy about it. You can find good Puerto Vallarta food at almost every turn. Good eats is serious business and this town manages it well.

I was a guest of the Puerto Vallarta Tourism board and the Casa Magna Marriott hotel in Puerto Vallarta. I received no compensation for my post – all opinions expressed within are my own.

Jan 16 2014

Exploring The Mexican Riviera At Palladium Hotels And Resorts

Palladium Hotel and resorts — Flamingos are just one of the resident animals you’ll find on the resort.

Flying in to sunshine and 80 degree weather from clouds and frost, the Riviera Maya is a welcomed reprieve. The slightly confusing and disorganized scene at Cancun customs is easily dismissed when you know that relaxation, a piña colada and the beach are waiting for you on the other side.

The Riviera Maya is 90km away from Cancun International Airport. No less than a dozen people will harass you, offering up their services for a ride to your destination. [Tweet “Tip: Make sure you secure your transportation BEFORE you get to Cancun. The onslaught of “Hola..” can be overwhelming.”]

Once you’re securely in your ride, you can sit back and enjoy the miles-long strip of resorts that line either side of Carretera Cancún Tulum.

Grand Palladium Kantenah

Palm trees cradle the entrance to Grand Palladium Kantenah Resort & Spa. Unfortunately, I didn’t capture the shot because I was too engrossed in my convo with fellow passenger, Raggs creator Toni Steedman. She was hyping me up about what to expect during my upcoming weekend, including most immediately, a cold drink and a stroll along the beach.

Palladium Hotels and Resorts — My gracious host Toni enjoying a glass

Fret not, I have other images to share. Just visit my Palladium photo gallery for a more visual post. You know the old saying…”a picture is worth a thousand words.” In that vain, here are my Cliffs Notes highlights of the Palladium Riviera Maya and my visit there.

Loved my junior suite room. I had it all to myself and it was LOVE-ly! From my balcony all I could see was lush foliage. The welcome basket from the resort with the accompanying fruit and cheese plate brought the tropics next to my night stand, permeating the air with a mix of sweet smells that took turns and didn’t compete.
The beach and accompanying view. How can any Riviera not be gorgeous!? I mean seriously. Still fully-clothed with my winter gear (sans coat and gloves), I walked jealously past beach goers relaxing on hammock, sand or chairs, drink in hand, while I worked, taking photos and gathering intel on the resort. Where I was able to join them is at highlight #3.
Bars, bars, and more bars. There are twenty three (that’s right, I said 23!) in total on the property. The great thing about an all-inclusive: drink as much as you want, when you want at any bar that you want. And, it doesn’t have to be alcoholic. But it’s there. Not one to pass up a piña colada, that was my first drink on the resort. My host babysat hers while I drank mine with a vengeance and with no regard to its potentially debilitating contents.
Those naughty Palladium pirates.
Nightlife – To say I was pleasantly surprised by the caliber and quality of the performances is an understatement. I was almost shocked! Come on, you’ve been to an all-inclusive and on cruise ships where you suck up the cheesiness of the show, chalking it up to the nature of the way way way off-Broadway beast. It is what it is. However, both the Raggs kids show and the nightly adult show were really good. The adult’s pirate show was the bomb. Pole dancing females and males? Right!
Smiling Faces – Although I was the only black woman, on the whole resort the 4 days that I was there, the majority of the people I met were friendly, especially the employees. They were accommodating and seemingly happy to be working there. I did encounter one ignorant guest who questioned my access to the exclusive adults-only area but I quickly let her know what time it is without having to get ugly or ruin my stay. At the end of the day you realize, people like that need to travel more.
Food was spectacular!
The food! All I can say is I ate damn well. The buffet was ridiculous and the specialty restaurants where you can dine at no extra cost, exceeded my expectations. My favorite spot: Punta Emilia Restaurant where we enjoyed delicious grilled seafood on the beach.
Antonio from Zentropia Palladium Spa – Yes, the spa facilities were nice, specifically the infinity pool and having two large saunas, but his expert hands blew all of that away. Usually, I don’t request men, but my host Toni S. gave me the inside track on Antonio so I had to see for myself. I was glad that I listened to her. He is awesome. Get. Him.

So, those were the highlights. Here are a few things that were a challenge for me:

The distance between the gym and my suite. It’s hard enough to be motivated to workout on vacation, but to be almost 1/2 a mile away? No indoor gym time for me. Best remedy: walk on the beach or take a run on any of the walking paths.
The lack of people that looked like me, ordinarily it’s not a big deal but I gotta be honest, I was surprised by it in a Mexico resort. Hopefully this write-up will encourage more people of color to go.
The lack of separation of the sexes at Zentropia spa. There were separate bathrooms but no separate locker areas or relaxation spaces when you don’t want to be in the pool.

Overall it was a fabulous experience.

Tip: The property is huge! I’d suggest purchasing the higher tier vacation package so that you can be driven around by cart wherever you want to go, when you need it. Other than that, enjoy Palladium Riviera Maya’s offerings like everyone else.

Palladium Hotels and Resorts sponsored my trip to Palladium Kantenah Resort & Spa. As always, all opinions expressed within are my own.