PUERTO VALLARTA

Welcome to Tuesday Travel reviews! I'm having so much fun re-living all my vacations :) Puerto Vallarta has a very special place in my heart- it was where we were married almost 1 year ago! We did a scouting trip to PV in June 2006 and our wedding was in February of 2007. We toured many hotels and restaurants in search of the perfect place. In June, we stayed at the Marriott Casa Magna in the marina area, and we visited the Crown Paradise, Golden Crown Paradise, Holiday Inn, Fiesta Americana and Dreams Resort. When we returned with our guests, we decided that Dreams would be prefect for us and we had a fabulous experience there.


Dreams Resort in Puerto Vallarta

I can honestly say we LOVED the awesome little town. It's not nearly as popular (or crowded) at placed like Cabo (where we went for our honeymoon) and Cancun (which can be over whelmed with the party crowd). You can see the town's colonial history in the buildings and architecture around town, and the people are incredibly friendly. Overall, we found things much more reasonably priced in PV than Cabo.

We rented a car in June and hit up all the major highlights we could fit into a long weekend.

H after our Swim with the Dolphins

We went through Vallarta Adventures to book 2 excursions in June. Neither of us had ever swam with the dolphins, so we made the drive up to Nuevo Vallarta. The swim with the dolphins was amazing, even if over priced. I'd highly recommend it to anybody, and if we ever have the opportunity to do it again (cheaply) out with wild dolphins, you can bet we will.

The other excursion we took with Vallarta Adventures was their Rhythms of the Night Cruise that included a booze boat ride to Las Caletas, where we had an intimate dinner a-la-survivor style right on the beach. The native dancing and fire show was a bit cheesy, but maybe I just hadn't drank enough. It might be neat for kids, but I think we probably should have done the Sunset Cruise with wine & Cheese.


Us at Le Kliff Wedding Island

One evening we took the BEAUTIFUL drive up the coast through Mismaloya to the world famous Le Kliff restaurant. At one point, I had my heart set on getting married on their magical island with a breathtaking back drop. I highly suggest that everybody make the trip for an unforgettable dinner. For a few reasons, including our elderly family couldn't make it down the 100+ stairs, we decided to keep looking for the perfect wedding venue.

Us at Brasil Restaurant

At the suggestion of the wedding coordinator we met up with on our scouting trip, we headed over to Brasil Restaurant in Viejo Vallarta (the old part of the town). After an amazing and extremely cheap meal, we decided it was all you could eat meat for our wedding! They would bring their grills up to our venue and serve a meal that all of our guests raved about.

We decided to have our wedding at Terra Noble Spa- a holistic, eco-friendly retreat up in the mountain overlooking Banderas Bay and the city. The hotels just weren't doing it for us, I couldn't stand the thought of all that sand or too many nosey tourists. We were able to bring in all of our food and alcohol, do anything we wanted with decorations and had the best view in the entire city. It worked out perfectly and all our guests were amazed. The pictures from our wedding day are much better than this hazy summer shot above. It was such a fun and funky place!

If you would like more details reviews or have questions about any of these businesses, please feel free to leave me a comment with your email.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: We were so lucky to have found such an amazing spot for our wedding.