Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Sometimes, but not often, things work out much better than you expect. This is the case with Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, PV. I had never been on the west coast of Mexico before and have visited all the usual spots on the east coast. Playa del Carman, PDC, was so far our favorite.
How we ended up here was because of a phone call I received from a timeshare company, called the Villa Group. They had a great offer to one of their four properties and since we had to be somewhere I was able to put this on our calendar about 6 months ago. I could have gone there out of ATL but since we were going to be on the west coast around now and the airfare was half out of LA than ATL.
Their deal was for $299 and we got to stay at the resort for four nights. You could add 3 more nights for $100 per night but of course, there was a catch. That being we had to listen to a 90-minute presentation on their timeshare property. I have been through several of these in the past but did not go into this with a closed mind.
The property that we first stayed, Villa Del Palmar, was very nice one bedroom with a kitchenette and the people there were bend over backward nice. This property was near downtown and old town so we were able to get a real feel for the area. The second day we were up bright and early for our taxi ride to another section of Puerto Vallarta called, Riviera Nayarit.
It was about 20 minutes north of the airport and was not exactly sure what we were getting into. Turns out this one was much newer than the 35-year-old property and the wow factor was in full effect. I tried my best to not have my mouth hung wide open but I am sure they could tell that I was impressed. All the really fancy resorts were over here and they did not have to do much to sell me on the idea of buying points here.
Over time the timeshare business has had to adapt to the changing landscape they are now competing with. Here they even knew that Airbnb was one of their stiffest completion so instead of buying a week for the next 30 years they were selling points for the next 50. Surprisingly enough instead of the up sale, they leaned me toward the down sale.
Here you can advance your points for the next 5 years if you wanted a bigger place for friends and family and get an additional 1000 points each year if needed just by paying the maintenance fee for those points. Since I was over 60 years old they also had a special acceleration program for us old geezers, like me, that might kick the bucket soon.
They already had me at hello but our agent refused to stop throwing freebies our way. The first one was to have us move to this property the next day. Gave us all inclusive for both where we were staying and the new place the entire week. Free internet, 4 boxes of tea for Catherine and taxi fare back and forth to the old place and to the airport.
The food and beverages were amazing and once again all the staff was so very nice. There was plenty to do each day and we were able to walk many miles in either direction from the resort. I do not usually pamper myself with a massage but since my knee was still bothering me I figured it could not hurt. That was a bit pricey by my standards but Catherine was grinning from ear to ear so all was good in that regards.
After a very long walk, one day we popped back over at the spa to use the facilities for a very reasonable price and my knee was very happy for that luxury. Looking at the prices of the food everything seemed very reasonable so next time I would probably forgo the all inclusive especially since all their rooms there have full kitchens. There was a very nice grocery store only 1 mile away.
They also included a 20% off savings card and a full day city tour which included a stop at a silver jewelry shop and tequila tasting. We had to buy our own lunch but the food was once again amazing, reasonable and the setting was gorgeous up in the mountains. The tour guide pointed out and it was very easy to notice that unemployment is zero. If you want to eat you must work and there was plenty of work to go around.
They pointed out that is why it is so safe there. Everyone has a job and most are working 12 hour days so no time to get into any mischief. They are building more and more resorts for everyone visiting from the US and Canada and even the locals come to vacation there. 100% of their water is filtered and good to drink. We, however, used bottled water to brush our teeth.
We have been to a lot of different places over the last three years and can’t say that I would want to live here but for sure I will be back again and again. Needless to say, we really enjoyed our week here and can’t wait to come back next year.
Here are some of the pictures we took, not many.
Flying Jesus
The symbol of PV
On our way back to LA for two nights then on to New Zealand for two weeks. Not really looking forward to the flights there and back but it is what it is. We will visit Aukland for a few day on our own then we will meet up with one of our favorite, Marathon Tours, and Travel, associate’s, Jacquie. We are then off to Queenstown for our last half marathon for the year and our 7th Continent.