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Originally Posted by mandkalexander
Questions~mainly because I'm panicing that I won't get to see and read Ken's entire TR before I leave.
I am looking for good drink recs....now that I'm really feeling like vacation is within my grasp.....I need to get armed with the smaller details! I loved when you showed via the picture, where the bathroom and towel hut was, and mentioned the hint about the Italian portion of the buffet. But now how bout some info about beverages......I'm thinking I'll be a bottled water girl during the day, with a few tropical drinks mixed in.....but what do you reccommend?Also, both my husband and I like red wine.....typically a cab, I've heard that the Chilian wine is pretty good....so we will try that with our dinner. Then night.....anything goes....I'll try almost anything.....margaritas of any flavor.....
Shopping.....did you find any great places? we have to bring home things for the kids obviously, and I'd like to get my mother jewelry (that's her pay for watching the kids), and obviously Mark and I would like to return home with some rememberances of our own. Definitely some art or pottery....suggestions accepted gratefully!
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Your room will be stocked with two large water bottles daily, but you can get smaller bottles to go throughout the day at the Festival and Snack Bar. Your room fridge has a variety of sodas in it - Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, some Sprite type pop, orange and Canada Dry, I believe. You also get cans of Dos Equis - as for more if you want more of anything. I left a note, in my own version of broken Spanish, with an empty can of the beverages I wanted on top of the TV and next to the maid's card, with a tip (I think the tip is important and well deserved). This way the staff knew what I wanted in the fridge and filled it daily. As soon as you get in your room, insert that 3rd card and CRANK the fridge so it stays cool for your trip.
Each room also has a safe that you should stash your valuables in each time you go out. Only forgot to lock it once
but nothing was ever missing from our room!
The La Bamba bar has a drink book that you can read (in several languages) and order from. Our favorites included Caribbean Reef, Mayan Riviera, Blue Scott, Margaritas, Pina Coladas, and their native tequillas. Ask for the amount of the good stuff you want them to put in and they will do it for you - tipping works well here too. The chilean Chardonnay was great and we took our red bottle home to open on our anniversary
We got some gifts at Wal Mart whose prices were not great but nor bad either. The Playacar Plaza has a shirt store that advertizes #4.99 shirts where we got several for the kids. There is also an ATM there too but if I had to do it over, I would have brought mre cash rather than incur the ATM charges.
On 5th there is a huge store called Playa Plaza or something (pics below) that had tons of gifts from shirts to maracas to jewelry.
Other posters have said the Sandos jewelry store prices (it is on the plaza at the Sandos) are as good as any. We also looked at the shops just north of the ferry pier and their prices seemed reasonable. In you walk along 5th, be prepared to be PEPPERED with "Senor - come here and see my...." or "Are you ready for a tour?" Politely ignore them unless you want to partake or spend your vacation listening to sales pitches. Also, feel free to ask prices but I personally would never accept the first price quoted to me. My canned response was "Wow that's expensive". This usually elicited a lower price or a "2 for 1" offer.
Another neat street we walked along was Juarez, and many streets have smaller shops with their wares displayed. I would have spent more time shopping farther away from 5th, in daylight, to get the good deals.