We have been to Puerto Vallarta many times! We really enjoy walking along the seafront(malecon) and people watching and having a mango margarita on the beach.

On other trips we have also taken tours to the surrounding villages and hope to visit the botanical garden next time!

We are very comfortable in Mexico. Here we just got a taxi with a set official price to the nearby town of Crucecita. We walked around the square and to the church and then found another taxi to a beach I had been told had great snorkeling from the shore.

We found a taxi who drove us to the beach(La Entrega) and waited for us and drove us back to the ship for 60 pesos. La Entrega was a lovely secluded place with a great restaurant that offered food, drink and shade. We only bought one beer for about $3 and could sit as long as we liked. It was a little to wavy for me to snorkel alone but I enjoyed swimming and walking on the sand. Many people were renting snorkel equipment and a guide to help them swim out to the best spots.

DH did not want an all day tour so we booked 4 hr excursion from the ship to a lovely hacienda at the edge of Lake Nicaragua. We had a helpful guide and our time at the hacienda included watching folklorico dancers, tortilla making(and eating) lovely grounds,a little shoppoing and a visit to the town of Rivas with its church and plaza.

We booked a private tour with Gio Tours.We did this because we wanted a small group and only a half day tour Gio tours allowed us to plan this ourselves so we went to a monkey viewing area and a macaw sanctuary with a little tour of the city an were back on board by 1PM. The other tours were much too long for us and too crowded!!

I highly recommend Gio Tours! We didn't pay until we were there and they were very responsive by e mail They were waiting on the dock with a sign with my name and the guide Adonys Cruz was especially helpful and knowleadgeable!! You can reach him directly on g mail at Adonystourguide(I think) He is also on facebook.

I am very comfortable in Spanish. If you are not I recommend taking an excursion.

The only reason I put this as not excellent was because of the swarming taxi drivers who literally drove DH back to the ship! He was soo frustrated with them that I ended up visiting on my own! After trying to make a deal(unsuccessfully) with taxi drivers I finally gained some sympathy when DH left and found one willing to take me to the fort and city and stay and wait for me while I visited for a few hours.I am not sure we would have gotten this deal if DH had stayed but they dealt with me, a woman alone a bit differently!

I loved the city as it reminded me of European ones. I will say that the vendors were very pushy but they were polite when I told them I wouldn't be buying anything.Actually I used my husband as an excuse saying that he has all my money!!

Here we took a ships excursion to the Embera Village. This was an amazing highlight for me! Imagine stepping back in time to a pristine river with a village of people from 100s( or maybe 1000s ) of years ago! This was NOT a Disney production but a reall life picture of another culture , another lifestyle that is disappearing! We ate, danced, learned about food and life and shopped for gorgeous handmade goods! I HIGHLY recommend this experience to anyone who wants to learn about a way to live outside of modern life!