01-04-2011
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#1 (permalink) |
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Canada Dry
 Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,565
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Rincon de Guayabitos Rissask Report (Riviera Nayarit)
Hola!
Don and I did a last minute trip last week to a little town about an hour and 15 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta called Rincon de Guayabitos. We have been doing a lot of research into what places in Mexico would make good winter retirement destinations, and Guayabitos has long interested us. It is economical and very popular with ex pat Canucks in particular, as PV and the whole Riviera Nayarit is. We were both impressed and not-so-impressed with the town. More on that later! We were there December 24-31st...Christmas eve until New Year's eve. We weren't sure we wanted to go anywhere over this week-we had been to Mexico before over Christmases, and it is NUTS- and we knew Guayabitos was very popular with Mexican tourists and would therefore be PACKED. And it sure was!  Also more on THAT later.We flew with Air Transat (Vacations), a Canadian tour operator out of Quebec- we've always been really happy with them. Efficient, friendly, always on time, it was a direct flight, reasonable times, there was lots of leg room, you get two pieces of checked baggage each FREE, a hot meal, free champagne-what is not to like! We even left PV and arrived home almost a full hour early on the way home- woot!  gotta go load pics...be back soon. 
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01-05-2011
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#2 (permalink) | |
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aņejo
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,190
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Quote:
 
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01-05-2011
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#3 (permalink) |
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Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,565
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Wow, I must be a beach person, about 80% of the 120 photos I took were of area beaches.
 In case anyone was wondering about cost- we booked on www.escapes.ca and paid $1050 each with taxes for this package- AI hotel, air, and transfers. A pretty good price from here for Christmas week. The hotel is rated a 3 -3.5 star, but we have stayed at Mexican 3 stars before, and they are fine with us. We are not overly fussy people, though. We have stayed at 5 stars before and I really don't see a big difference in Mexico between the food at a 5 star AI and a 3 star- only in terms of presentation and variety. The food at our hotel was more than good. it's funny- the reviews of this hotel, the Decameron de los Cocos, are almost ALL positive. This seems to be the case with cheaper hotels a LOT. Whereas many 5 star hotels, they are usually a lot more mixed. I have my own theories about why this is  ....mainly I think it is because people who stay at 3* hotels are not overly fussy or diva-ish, finding fault with minor annoyances, to begin with. And people who choose 5 stars expect and demand more. Perhaps sometimes unreasonably so.I would NOT recommend this particular hotel to a lot of people I know, to be honest. But people have different ideas of what they want in a vacation, to be sure. For us, as long as we have a clean place to stay in a good location with a good beach, and friendly staff, I am happy. This hotel had those things, plus it had fairly comfy beds with foam toppers, it was quiet once it hit about 11 PM for sleeping, loads of hot water, everything worked, the maid cleaned our room as soon as we vacated it in the morning, and the food like I said was very good- especially the breakfasts.  anyway! onward. Bright and early on a cold (about -25C/-13 F) Christmas eve morning, we left from Saskatoon on our lovely direct flight. It's a real bonus when we snag a direct flight so that made us VERY happy. As did our seats in the last row which had only two seats and we could recline fully without irritating people behind us- sweet! (on the way home we each had a whole row to ourselves- even sweeter!) Flight was uneventful and flew by. Breezed through immigration, grabbed the bags, breezed through Customs...in Don's 21 Mexico trips and my 16 (yikes!) - neither of us have ever pressed the red light yet. There was a surprisingly high number of people headed to our hotel- about 40-so we had a bus. Asked the driver to stop for beer at an OXXO, which he graciously did. No annoying trip rep yakking the whole one hour 15 minute drive north to Rincon de Guayabitos- again, sweet! We naturally started chatting with other tourists on the bus....we were amused to find that the two couples sitting closest to us were also from Martensville. In fact, the one couple, sitting right across from us, Dean and Lisa, mentioned they had only lived there for a couple years, and the only people they really knew were Jay and Tracey *****....uh, really??, we said, laughing our asses off....they are only our best friends, who stood up for us our wedding ten years ago!  Here the guy had gone to University with Jay and he had actually introduced him to Tracey! Small freaking world! Well, more accurately- small freaking province! They were really nice people, very interesting too- she had lived in Mozambique for 5 years, she worked for the UN, etc. So we hung out all week and ended up giving them a ride home from the airport -and now we have a dinner date with the 6 of us next weekend. Don't you love meeting new friends on vacation! Seriously, don't worry, this won't be a drawn out daily report- I mostly will be posting pics from now on and explaining the area.
__________________
The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little. Mark Twain
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01-05-2011
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#5 (permalink) |
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aņejo
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,190
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Wow, I must be a beach person, about 80% of the 120 photos I took were of area beaches.
Aren't we all? In case anyone was wondering about cost- we booked on www.escapes.ca and paid $1050 each with taxes for this package- AI hotel, air, and transfers. A pretty good price from here for Christmas week. That is a great price! Bright and early on a cold (about -25C/-13 F) Christmas eve morning, we left from Saskatoon on our lovely direct flight. It's a real bonus when we snag a direct flight so that made us VERY happy. As did our seats in the last row which had only two seats and we could recline fully without irritating people behind us- sweet! (on the way home we each had a whole row to ourselves- even sweeter!) Direct flights are awesome! In fact, the one couple, sitting right across from us, Dean and Lisa, mentioned they had only lived there for a couple years, and the only people they really knew were Jay and Tracey *****....uh, really??, we said, laughing our asses off....they are only our best friends, who stood up for us our wedding ten years ago! Here the guy had gone to University with Jay and he had actually introduced him to Tracey! Small freaking world! Well, more accurately- small freaking province! Small world for sure! The wife and I frequently see people we know in Playa from previous trips. Great report! Bring on the beach pic's!
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01-05-2011
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#6 (permalink) |
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Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,565
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Okay, okay, jeez, keep your panties on.
 oh-tay! So we arrived Christmas eve, which all you Mexico afficionados know is THE big, important night where all the celebrating and partying and main holiday meal takes place. Guayabitos is VERY popular with Mexican tourists- due to close proximity to Guadalajara and the big Puerto Vallarta airport for those coming from Mexico City, etc. So our hotel and the entire town actually was about 90% national Mexican tourists, and 10% Canadians- we did not meet a single American all week! The Decameron is the only AI hotel in town, too, so most of the Canucks stay there because they are on charter deals- plus those longer stay ex-pats who were staying at the several condos and bungalows in town and in La Penita, which is also in Jaltemba Bay. Guayabitos runs into La Penita, they are separated by a river/bridge. Shortly after Christmas eve dinner, there was a procession with everyone carrying candles and it ended up in the disco...it was a mob scene...note the guy in the gold turban, standing on a chair, right side....i do believe his costume as a Wise Man doubled as Alladin for the Prince of Persia show.   There was a live action nativity scene at the hotel...and sure enough- Don found Jesus! (Finally! ) There was even goats and a donkey. All week we hear the poor thing sadly braying throughout the day. Along with many many roosters. And cowbirds GALORE! The locals would shoot at them, to no avail.   here are some photos of and around the hotel....there was five separate buildings, and we were in 'Cocos 4'. It was up on the hillside, quite a few steps, and had a restaurant 'La Bamba', where we had all of our breakfasts and a few lunches.       The mountains were still lush and GREEN- I could not believe how green they were for this time of year!  it also had the only adults only pool, which was always nice and peaceful if we wanted to escape the busy beach area- since Mexicans are really beach people, we never had a problem finding a place at the pool- but we are beach people too, so we usually would just sit by the pool in the later afternoons for an hour or so. The hotel was in the far south part of the town, and the beach here was just perfect for families- even small kids were safe- it was dead calm, every day! A little cool, although once you were in you quickly got used to it. It was warmer than the pools, they were freezing! I never went in a pool all week.    
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01-05-2011
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#7 (permalink) |
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aņejo
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
Posts: 2,358
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yay!!!!
I always wonder about the star rating of hotels, we usually do 4.5 or 5, but we truly don't require anythign fancy. Which type of people wouldn't have liked your resort?? Food is a biggie for me and a la carte frequency, as a Mom I like to be served. This is usually the deal breaker for me...........
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01-05-2011
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#9 (permalink) | |
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Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,565
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Yes- it was BRIGHT colours!
Pretty tacky, really. But fun!Quote:
Well, different tour operators have different ratings systems. But usually it is not as much about quality of things as it is about age, maintenance, size and amenities. A huge 2000 room newer hotel with 7 a la cartes might rate 5 stars but still have water issues, not-great food, crappy draft beer in teeny tiny cups, for example- plus you might have to walk a mile to get to the beach...no thanks! And yes, 3 star places compared to five stars might have some peeling paint, dings and chips here and there- but as long as it is clean, I personally don't need marble floors and a balcony jacuzzi. But again, others WANT luxury on their vacation, so there you go...vive le difference, eh? There were only two a la cartes at this hotel and the rest of the time you have to do the buffet. And the dinners were okay, but nothing spectacular- BUT I felt that way about the buffets at the 4 and 5 star resorts we stayed at too. Since we were right in town, we ended up going out to dinner 4 nights anyway.
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01-05-2011
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#10 (permalink) | |
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aņejo
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,190
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Quote:
I would insist on going out for lunch/dinner almost all of the time so you can see more than just the resort. Plus I cannot stand buffet food. |
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01-05-2011
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#11 (permalink) | |
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Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,565
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Quote:
I think those huge Bubba kegs are tacky as hell.  One of the couples at the hotel had one of the really huge golf ball like ones? Omg. He got SO drunk one day.  Yes, we were gone two days from 9-4 or so, to another beach (wait til you see those pics- we fell in love with this place!) then another day we went to La Penita for the day, one day to Los Alaya...also very nice...
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01-05-2011
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#12 (permalink) | |
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aņejo
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,190
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Quote:
"Bubba Kegs"? We call the "Resort Mugs"! Tacky but practical! The last Time I went to an AI, we brought "Bubba Kegs". Smaller than the photo. Those small cups just don't work. The drinks don't last long enough and the beer/drinks get warm too fast. |
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01-05-2011
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#15 (permalink) | |||
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Canada Dry
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,565
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Quote:
He said the next day he filled it three times....then went to sleep very very early. Quote:
I do tend to ramble. Say hi to your hubby and tell him to stop in and say hi sometime!Quote:
Where is YOUR trip report??
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