Mayan Palace Vallarta

I got three words for you.

We recently returned from a week in Puerto Vallarta (2/25-3/4). It was my wife and I and 3 other couples. We’ve been to Mexico 6 times now, and Puerto Vallarta 3 of those times (Mazatlan twice and Acapulco once) and we’re planning to take our 3 kids with us next year. The weather was absolutely perfect (it was 80-85 degrees all week with some clouds in the morning that usually burned off by midday). We are owners at the Mayan Palace and we’ve stayed twice at the Nuevo Vallarta location, the last time in 2002.

Getting out of Des Moines before the ice storm was our initial concern and so we decided to beat the storm and drive to Kansas City and rebook our flight to Denver. So we stayed overnight in Denver and we were able to reach PV at our scheduled time. It turns out it was a good decision as the storm eventually caused Des Moines to cancel all flights out Sunday and we would not have gotten to PV until sometime on Monday and basically missed out on a full day (or more) of our precious vacation.

So we get to the Mayan Palace and it’s exactly as I remember it. We checked in. We had paid for 2 2br suites. One thing I’ll never understand is how long it takes to check in/check out at the Mayan Palace. We asked for ocean view and when the guy told us there were no ocean views available, we went into a long discussion with my wife doing most of the talking and eventually ended up getting one ocean view on the 7th floor (top floor) and a garden view on the 4th floor. The garden view is very nice as you face the golf course but can look down the coast towards PV and see the lights at night, so either one is pretty nice. Nevertheless, my wife and I and one other couple took the 7th floor 2br and the other checked into their room.

One thing to make sure you do is, if you want to run different tabs, to make sure they get that straight at check in time. We had to go back later and get everyone set up because it was goofed up the first time thru.

After check in, we arranged for the men to travel to the grocery store in the nearby Paradise Village mall and get supplies. This is about a $2 cab ride as opposed to the $10-14 cab ride to Walmart. It’s a little more expensive but a great time saver.

We decided to hit our local favorite of La Laguna which is just down the road from the Mayan Palace. I don’t eat shrimp because I’m allergic, but the others enjoy the bacon wrapped shrimp and the buckets of tiny Corona’s they bring to your tableside. We enjoyed and toasted our luck of all getting to PV safe and sound and the poor folks back in Des Moines who were getting shellacked by an ice storm.

Each morning was typically followed by either a breakfast in the room (toast and PB/juice, etc) or walking down to a restaurant on the south side of the Neuvo Vallarta pier called Estudio Café. I think my wife and I and many of the others in the group ate breakfast
here as many as 3 times during the week. Mayan Palace has always had the breakfast buffet for $18/person. For that same price, we were able to get a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, French toast and a side of fruit for both myself and my wife for around that same price.

Other than two times during the week in which we had the ground beef nachos for lunch ($8) to share, my wife and I did not eat at a Mayan Palace restaurant.

Bus prices to downtown from the Mayan Palace are about $1 to Walmart and another 50 cents to the stop at the Malecon. One difference this year is that the shuttle from Mayan Palace to the bus stop is no longer available which basically translates into about a 1/3 -1/2 mile hike each time we wanted to take the bus or get to the Estudio Café. You walk by the Grand Mayan, some condos and eventually the Sea Garden buildings so the walk is normally not too bad.

Mayan Palace grounds and pool are always immaculate. Wait staff and maid staff was extremely attentive. We tip well when we are in Mexico because you can tell the difference in the service over time when you do and it’s really not a bad investment.

Most of our days were spent by the pool and walks on the beach. One of the days, one of the husbands and myself took an 3 hour ATV tour into the Sierra Madres. That was a blast.

Restaurants we ate at were:

La Laguna – great bacon wrapped shrimp and little corona’s in a bucket.
Los Arbolitos – about a $30 van ride (8 people) one way thru the tunnel. This is a favorite of our group because it’s great Mexican food and the service is always wonderful. Guacamole dip is made at the table.
El Meson Bay – in Bucerias on the beach. They have an all you can eat buffet with steak, sausage, ribs, different salads and more for like $14/head. It’s a lot of food but don’t get carried away like I always seem to and regret eating too much. It’s a great atmosphere and great scenery also as well as wonderful margaritas.
Fajita - great steak fajitas, come early or late or expect to wait although it’s easy to either sit at the bar or get a few beers and wander a bit until a table opens up.
Ce Ce’s – this happy hour bar is near the old pier in PV. Busy at sunset and decent prices. We ate after we stayed for the sunset here so I’m not exactly sure how good the food was. Not memorable but tolerable.
Mark’s Bar and Grill – in Bucerias, this was a crowd favorite although it’s likely to run a little more expensive than most places. We went here our last night and it provided a lasting memory and no one went away without having enjoyed their meal.
Pipi’s – fajitas and margaritas are their specialty. I had the Cadillac margarita and it was a doozy. One couple could order one order of the steak fajitas and be comfortable with that. Wonderful guacamole made at the table. Great atmosphere and they are always busy so plan on a bit of a wait.

We also made a visit to Andales which appears to be a gringo favorite as well. Fun environment but our party got the impression they were not putting enough or any alcohol in their drinks. I had two huge margaritas there after having 5-6 beers on the beach and that normally should make me lights out.

One additional memory that will stay with me on this vacation is that the night that we went to Pipi’s I forgot my camera in the taxi. I was very upset and we reported it to the folks in charge of getting taxis at the hotel later that night and then the next morning again. We were surprised to hear in the morning that the gentleman who drove us to Pipi’s had the camera and within a few minutes drove up with it in hand. I was so relieved as this was towards the end of our trip and I had taken quite a few pictures and it’s a very nice digital camera. I gave the taxi driver a handsome reward and reported how great that was to have him be so honest as to bring the camera back.

This was a wonderful vacation and even though we were ready to get home to our families, we will not soon forget it and will begin planning the return trip to Mexico.