Tips on Traveling to Mexico and saving some cash when doing so.

Last year my wife and I took a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  It was an interesting experience and we had a blast.

First thing we did to save some money on airlines was had a friend at the airlines hook us up with a buddy pass.  I only reccomend using buddy passes flying out of the U.S. and I'll explain why later.

We stayed at the Riu Vallarta for 5 days and 4 nights for $249.99 each over an extended labor day weekend and this included entertainment, food at several restaurants, and all the drinks you can drink. My only complaint is that for beer all they had was Corona.  It was an all inclusive package that we bought through a travel club (not a timeshare just a travel club) When you unpack everything I highly reccomend using your hotels safe for your passports, tickets, cash and your wallet. I reccomend using a money clip and carry both USD and Peso's and your primary credit card.

There is tons to do such as wander off along the beach and check out other resorts and hotels along the beach.  You can also check out litle tents that are like a swapmeet along the beach as well.

2 things to remember when down in Mexico.

1. U.S. Dollars haggle better than peso's when we went it was 10 Peso's to 1 U.S. Dollar.
2. If you use a credit card (be sure to ask if there is a fee) it can be cheaper and easier to use credit cards down there because it can be in your favor because of the exchange rates changing it could be 10.5 Peso's to the dollar but if you exchange money with the locals they charge you a fee and give you a lower exchange rate. We saved around $10 per day by doing this.

In the tents along the beach and in town small businesses that only take cash the dollar holds more weight and you can get a better deal using our own cash.

Things to do while down in Puerto Vallarta:
Take the pirate ship morning or evening cruise. it costs about $80 per person and is worth every penny, but you can get free tickets if you are willing to get pitched on a timeshare for 2 hours (really about 4 hours on this one.)

The show is like a pirates of the caribbean and there is a morning show with breakfast and mid-day lunch and a evening show with a dinner as well. The morning one is more for families with kids where they stop for snorkeling, the evening show they have everyone participate in a action comedy. Overall its was tons of fun and next time when we go back we will go on this one again. Be sure to tip the crew members on your way after the show, and all shows that you see the castmembers generally work on tips. Also the Marina charges a $8 per person tax just to get in so be sure to keep some extra cash on you since not all large establishments take credit cards, however most do.

Take the tequila tour. I never knew that there was that much difference in tiquelas.  Even the expensive stuff in the states can't compare to the real stuff. It was very educational and the taquila was AMAZING.

If you venture out from your hotel or resort talk to the locals working at the resorts and hotels for reccomendations on inexpensive dining and have them write down instructions in english and spanish so you can get a taxi to take you for cheap.  The busses are a great way to save money going between Nuevo Vallarta (where the new nice hotels and resorts are) and Puerto Vallarta.  We accidently took the wrong bus and ended up in the bus yard and only know about 40 words of spanish.  The bus driver took us back to the main city and didn't charge us anything extra and we went to one of the dinner shows. 

When taking a taxi if its hot outside please note that some taxi's charge extra for airconditioning. Negotiate price to your destination prior to getting in.  I've learned if you slightly keep your distance when haggling on price and don't look to determined to take their cab they will drop their prices more often.

After our vacation was over we ran into a problem at the airport, our buddy passes since they are standby didn't get us on our flight.  The night before I checked online the booking status of the flight and it had about 20-30 empty seats. When we checked in 2 hours early they informed us that they had to bump us to the next flight because it was oversold.  The same thing happened on the second flight as well.  The maddening thing is that who ever checked in for the flight that wasn't on standby is coded into being on the plane, but when we bought the last 2 tickets to get back home on a different airline they said it was sold out after we bought, there was around 10 empty seats aboard.  I talked to people at the airlines and they said that they don't check the seats to see if everyone is aboard like we do in the states and europe, they go by who is checked in on the computer which they admit is almost never accurate.  And they wonder why they are a tourist attraction/third world country.

All in all it was a good trip overall and most of the people are very nice down there as well. Just remember when you travel to plan on other peoples laziness, and don't fly standby back home internationally.