1st Time to Mexcio-help
 

WE are looking into going to Mexico. I have been reading all the posts I can. Please can some of you informed travelers,help me on location.

Not an all Inclusive type of couple. Love the beach,beauty and arts. Not drinkers or night owls

My choices would be

Old Town Puerto Vallarta

or

Zihautanejo/ Ixtapa

Hello:

My suggestion is San Jose del cabo it is a pintoresc town and also great dining experiencies my favorite restaurants Baan thai, passaparola and The Chef´s Table....

Old Town in Puerto Vallarta would also be my suggestion. There's a lovely mix of locals and tourists, ammenities yet still authentic, beautiful natural setting on the Bay of Banderas surrounded by mountains and jungle, a lively restaurant, arts & gallery scene.

www.casa-andrea.com

You might try going to Oaxaca http://oaxaca-travel.com/ which is a lovely town in a beautiful setting where traditional arts and culture abound. You get a feel for village life yet there is a tourist infrastructure. There are some nice hotels and B&Bs and restaurants. You can go from there to the coast for beaches of Puerto Escondido which is a charming small fishing village
http://www.puertoescondidoinfo.com/
or to Zipolite.
http://www.tomzap.com/zipolite.html
This would be very different than staying exclusively at a beach town such as PV which is also nice.

I agree with the last post - twice we've been to Oaxaca for a week or so and then a week in Puerto Escondido. The split has been an ideal mix of culture and beach.

Either Oaxaca or Puerto Vallarta. PV is a little more touristy, but still lovely. Oaxaca (esp. Oaxaca city) is old mexico, and Puerto Escondido a beach town.
You can't really go wrong.

I love Merida and Isla Mujeres which wonderfully pair a colonial town with a great beach location. You can add Chichen Itza (ruins) and Valladolid (another colonial town) if you wish.

Puebla and Oaxaca are also great colonial cities. No beaches are too close to either of them, however.

La Paz on the Baja or Zijuatenejo on the west coast are two others that fit this description.

I've heard wonderful things about Zihuataneo, but have never been there.

We were married in Troncones, a small beach town 20 minutes or so north of Zihautenejo-very low key-Zihu. was nice too; many hotels & restaurants set around the bay.

Isla Mejeures (sp?) is a 10 minute ferry from Cancun and has an entirely different atmosphere, we loved it and kept going back during our Cancun trip. Very laid back, golf cart rentals are a great way to see the island, about 45$ a day and you can circle the island in an hour.

Cancun is probably the cheapest to reach by air for most people and is a great gateway. The public buses were 70cents, spotless and nicer than ours here. Then the central bus station in Cancun City has the "long distance" buses. It too was easy to get to, not dodgy, and the fare to Playa Carmen was around $5, 1-2 hour ride, bus had a/c and showed a movie, etc. We were very impressed.

If you go I highly recommend looking up "Mapchick" and ordering her map. It's annotated, had the bus and ferry schedules and fares for them and taxis.

We were so glad we had this information since we saved a fortune on package trips that are offered everywhere.

Avoid the timeshare folks unless you want to waste a day and get really aggravated. No one is giving you anything "free" IMO if I'm held captive for hours in exchange for a tee shirt and an admission ticket!

Oh man there are so many good places, but i have to say that one of my favourites cities is Mazatlan, i mean, have you ever imagined waking up every morning to warm ocean breeze and the sound of the surf crashing on the beach? OMG it is the best down there. Specially right now cuz there are so many good projects going on, my family just bought a condo at this new tower called Torrenza, it will be the tallest building in the whole pacific with the craziest most amazing panoramic beach front view of the sea. They´re building it right now but i can´t wait to get there and enjoy the whole thing.

So interesting. Thanks.
To narrow our choice down her is my summary.
Art,& scenery
1 Best beach/gulf or ocean side?Im confused.PV sounds wonderful,but the gulf side sounds nicer as far as beach 's
2 more of a adult hotel/resort
3 lovely rooms
4 good food
5nice pool,but we LOVE the beach!

not a Convention type atmosphere
Safe,easy to get around
Just some areas,with the name of the hotels would be appreciated

We like the Caribbean side of Mexico the best because of the wonderul beaches with that Caribbean "blue" water - we have been to Isla Mujeres, Playa del Carmen, Akumal and Tulum. If you are into beaches it is hard to beat Tulum - but there isn't much else to do within walking distance. Playa del Carmen has plenty to do, places to eat, etc. the last time we were there we were amazed at the build up - but is still is a great vacation spot. Isla was the first place we ever went in Mexico almost ten years ago and we are actually planning on a return trip this spring.

Hotels

Tulum - there are mostly Eco-friendly, generator powered, small hotels. We stayed at Zulum last year and enjoyed it very much. If you want more amenities - Ana y Jose's was right next door to Zulum and looked very nice. A great website with a very active forum is www.tulum.info

Playa del Carmen has a lot of great hotels but not many directly on the beach - but they have several beach clubs that most hotels give you day passes to. The downtown area is great - Fifth avenue (one block up from the beach) is pedestrian only in the evenings and is lined with shops, bars and restaurants - the food is great. Our absolute favorite hotel is Hotel La Tortuga - quaint hotel with a nice courtyard and a wonderful pool with a moat that offers direct access to the pool from some of the rooms. On a budget Luna Blue is a great place as is Villa Amanecer. If you want to stay on the beach we have heard good things about Playa Maya. There is a great website for Playa with an active forum - www.playa.info. They also offer some great "non-touristy" type tours.

Isla Mujeres is a little island off the coast of Cancun with a wonderful beach - Playa Norte - it has been a while since we were there but it also has a great dowtown area - similar to Playa although not nearly as large. We are looking at staying at Hotel Playa La Media Luna. Hotel Secreto looks very nice - but out of our budget range. A couple of good websites are www.isla-mujeres.net (no forum anymore) and www.myislamujeres.com which has a forum.

Another good website for the entire region is www.locogringo.com.

Enjoy Mexico - it is a great country.