We’re an early 30s couple looking for a relaxing, stress-free escape from the craziness of LA. We’re hoping to spend 5-7 days in Mexico at the end of May and have been to PV & Loreto before, (& think Cancun, Cabo, etc are too touristy.) We want an authentic Mexican spot, with a good beach, ideally surfing & snorkeling and nice local restaurants. Preferably staying in a small hotel or B&B.
I’ve been through a million vacation options and not come up with the perfect solution so would LOVE some advice before I drive myself and my hubby crazy!
Our other options are Hawaii or Kauai, but they strike me as being more expensive when you’re actually there.

Check out Troncones about 30 Kilometers North of Zihuatanejo. Great surfing. Lost of small to medium size hotels, inns & B&B's. Cafés from 30 pesos for small Mexican places to maybe 250 pesos at a high end gourmet place. Miles & Miles of nearly empty beachs. Mis Casa Si Casa is a good choice or Casa Ki another. Also checkout "Dance of the Sea" a lovely beach house a often available.

You might want to consider the Oaxaca Coast -- Puerto Escondido, Puerto Angel, Bahias de Huatulco, etc. It has most of what you're looking for. Stop off in the city of Oaxaca on the way down to sample a beautiful colonial town.

This area ranges from funky surfer hangouts to developed resorts. I'm sure you'll find something. Downside is the remoteness -- you'll need to change planes a time or two.

Hi demery. I recently went through the same process with the same requirements as you. I finally settled on the next bay area north of Puerto Vallarta called Jaltemba Bay. There are several small, authentic and less-discovered towns on the bay including Sayulita (well known in the surfing world), La Penita, Rincon de Guayabitos, Los Ayala and San Francisco (called San Pancho by the locals). We chose the latter and are staying in a wonderful casita right on the beach (found on vrbo.com) and a 10 minute walk from town. There are many very good restaurants in the area which was also important for us; as well as lots of accomodation choices.

The bonus is the proximity of PV (only one plane ride) and a 1 hour taxi or bus ride north of PV airport.

I can post some of the links I used to help in my research if you need them.

La Paz might be worth considering as well - esp. since I think you can fly there quite easily from LA.

I was thinking of La Paz, it looks lovely & still very Mexican. Do you know of any nice places to stay there? I liked the look of Club Cantamar as it's on the beach.
Thanks!!!

I personally find La Paz a lovely peaceful (as in the name)city but late May will be very very HOT! Also no beaches in La Paz proper but lovely beaches a few miles South of town & on The East Cape. Absolutely NO surfing in the Sea of Cortez. Great snorkeling, sailing etc but too calm for surfing. Also when the tide is out it is a long way to water deep enough to swim/snorkel, but makes for great shelling. La Paz has a great Malcon to stroll with a nice selection of Cafés & bars. It has a excellent small museo. I would go more often but frankly much too hot in the summer & it can be down right cold Late December through February. Spring & fall are nice.
P.S. check out todays weather. Already in the mid 90's there.

As above, La Paz was the first thing that came to mind (after Puerto Vallarta) but it doesn't fit what they say they want for a good beach (you have to drive outside of town in La Paz) or surfing. Maybe Todos Santos?

Or Sayulita north of PV about 1 hour?

Here's my best La Paz hotel tip
www.clubelmoro.com

Todos Santos looks really cute too, i'm going to check it out - thanks!
Also thinking of Playa del Carmen (too touristy?) or San Jose del Cabo.
Any thoughts?

Playa is very built up these days. It has a few good restaurants tucked away among the tourist traps. Plenty of nightlife. No surfing. Good snorkeling a few minutes away by launch. Better snorkeling available down the coast if you have a car or book a driver.

Being on the east coast you have access to Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, Tulum, Coba, and Ek Balam. If you spend a couple of days in Merida you can visit Uxmal.

"Authentic Mexico" is in short supply on the coast, abundant in the cities of Merida and Valladolid and other spots inland.

Have you considered Isla Mujeres? It's easy to get to by ferry from Cancun and has a great beach (Playa Norte). www.isla-mujeres.net has lots of ideas for places to stay.

another isla mujeres site, from the well regarded CR travel agent, Pat Hewitt.

http://www.lovecostarica.com/islamuj...a-mujeres.html

Next time you think about going to Loreto, check out The Danzante. It is a neat little place but only restaurant is theirs. Food is excellent. Goto http://www.danzante.com/

How about going a little further to Belize?

Trip report on Isla Mujeres
Isla–“economy class”

note: surfing is not part of IM.

Just returned from 10 days on Isla Mujeres. The weather was great, the water great, the beaches great. Hot, sunny days. Enjoyable trip. We have award miles on two airlines, but did not have quite enough to use them for this trip, so we paid regular price for our tickets. A bit pricy for that area and leaving from a mid-sized Midwestern town, not a gateway city. We now have enough FF miles for our next two international trips. We stayed four days at Villas Punta Sur, three at Villa Makax, and three at Cabañas Maria del Mar.
Pre-trip expenses: Air $1080. Deposit on Villa Punta Sur, $80. Deposit on Villas Makax, $150. Best Day Transfer from CUN airport to Puerto Juarez, $17+$2 tip.
Here is my report below along with prices. I may have missed a few, but not many. I also want to say that we do what we do because we enjoy it, not because we are cheap. We could spend more on this trip. We choose not to. We could go to Cancun and spend $2000 in ten days just on hotels. We do not like Cancun. It is not our thing. Nor do we go swimming with captive dolphins. We drink very little, so we do not rack up bar bills. We did not go to ruins because that was not the purpose of our trip. I hope that reports like this might help middle-class folks in these difficult times to realize that a wonderful trip to a beautiful place like Mexico doesn’t have to put them in hock for the next ten years. So, for anyone interested, here goes: (money in USD)

Day 1. Flew Delta to CUN. Arr. About 1:30. Took Best Day transfer (prepaid) to Puerto Juarez. Took boat to IM, $7. Changed money. Rate 10.60 to $1. Taxi to Villa Punta Sur near the southern tip of the island, $6. Asked driver, Roberto, to come back at 5 PM. Villa Punta Sur is not on the beach. Attractive little place–second story with big balcony, view of ocean, large room with kitchen facilities, bath, bedroom with two beds, no ‘AC’–none needed, with very nice swimming pool, walking distance to Castillo Garrafon Beach Club, restaurant “O”, etc. Walked around a bit to get feel for the place. Roberto came back at 5 PM. Went into town to Supermarcado. Got food for breakfast and lunches for four days–$25. Found Tino, their man there, and paid the remainder of our bill, $80–($40 a day). Great breeze on balcony. Roberto came at 5 and took us into town, $6. Walked around, had dinner at restaurant Gomar, corner of Hidalgo and Madero–pescado enpapelado (fish in paper–actually steamed in foil). It was Mero (grouper) with vegetables. Excellent! $25. Gomar's is not talked about much, but we have always had good food and good service there. Taxi back to VPS, $5.50. Had instant mocha coffee we had brought along, glass of wine later.

Day 2. Breakfast. Went to Castillo Garrafon Beach club, $3 pp–$6. Had nice swim, snorkel, etc. Garrafon Park much more expensive and not open due to Wilma. Returned around noon. PM took it easy, took walk, swam in property pool. Very nice. Ate supper in.

Day 3. Breakfast. Returned to Garrafon B. C. $6. Enjoyable time. Had lunch there. $12. PM. Walked some paths over to the east side of the island–found one of the world’s great hidden treasures–fantastic and beautiful cliffs, amazing sight. Walked around a kilometer, new sight every 100 or 200 feet. Spectacular. Had been to IM many times since late ‘70's. Had no idea! Great pieces of limestone the size of buildings fallen away, ancient craggy reefs, broken stones of all kinds, nature at its wildest. Ocean crashing on these beautiful cliffs. In 50 years of world travel, I have rarely seen anything so beautiful. Returned to Villa. Took swimming pool. Splurged and went to restaurant “O” for dinner. $30.

Day 4. Breakfast, as usual in Villa. Went to Castillo Garaffon Beach Club, snorkeled. Lunch in Villa. Took nap, Back to Villa. Swam in pool. Ate in. Had many books on hand to read in spare time.

Day 5. Breakfast. Took walk on path back to east side of island. Saw “Shell House”, interesting–modern house built inform of conch shell. Took path to cliff’s edge. We had gone south the day before. This day we went north around a kilometer. Great sites, shore covered with water-worn shell and reef fragments, etc. Packed. We had told Robert when we were going to next destination. He came at 12 N on the dot. Took us to Villas Macax, about half way up the island on the peninsula, west, side. Met owner, moved in. Our unit was a self-contained bungalow with one large room. Queen s. bed. kitchen facilities, AC, bath, porch w. porch chairs, etc. No pool, but beautiful beach, calm clear water. Usual gorgeous white sand of Yucatan. At both places we had a 20 liter bottle of drinking water. Got taxi to the ‘Colonia’ (support community for the town) to shop for groceries. $3 each way–$6. Had lunch in villa. Snorkeled, read, ‘vegged’, etc. Had dinner in. Mocha coffee and wine (we had bought at the super) after.

Day 6. Breakfast. Snorkeled. Walked up. PM, snorkeled and swam. For lunch we walked up the road a few hundred feet to Zamas Beach Club for lunch, $20. Fished off the near-by pier. Didn’t catch anything. Sat on beach chairs under palapa and read, etc.

Day 7. Usual. Lunch at Zamas, $20. Walked to Rolandi’s resort for evening dinner. Many wild young rich young adults, much noise, rather chaotic. Had pasta and soft drinks. Weren’t about to pay their $7 for glass of wine. Dinner $35. Food mediocre and grossly overpriced. We had arranged for four days at V. Macax, but decided we wanted to spend two full days at next stop instead of another day at Macax. Even though we had arranged for four days, the owner was very ice and had no problem with the change. We paid her the remaining part of our bill–$75 for the 3rd day. ($75 per day).

Day 8. Took swim/snorkel. Got belongings together to move. Hailed cab on road and went to Cabañas Maria del Mar on North beach where we have stayed many times before. Taxi $5. Checked in and got settled. Got room in cabañas section of CMdM–large room by the pool. No kitchen, but had refrigerator, AC. Nice patio with chairs, etc. Had lunch. Still had a few things for our meals. No way to cook breakfast, but at CMdM, you get continental breakfast: toast or sweet roll, juice, coffee. We had had eggs left from V. Macax, so we boiled them before we left there. Our routine is to have a banana which we split and one egg apiece for breakfast, + toast, juice, coffee. We were a bit short on a few things, so we went to supermarket and stocked up, bananas, apples, wine, etc. $7. Took walk around beach area to check it out–we had not been there since before Wilma. It had changed a lot. What had been a wide beach by the corner of Na Balaam was not there anymore. However, the area south of the bridge to the Avalon had changed a lot too–for the better. Went snorkeling there. It was great. Lots of fish. Water very clear. Best snorkeling we had since we were at Yal Ku Lagoon by Akumal last December. Went to Amigos for supper–Enchiladas Swizas. Very good. Changed money at casa de cambio: 10.75 to the dollar.

Day 9. Had our little pre-breakfast breakfast on the table on our patio–boiled egg, banana, etc., then went to restaurant (Buhos–part of the hotel) for our cont. breakfast. Snorkeled in the AM. Had our lunch on the patio. Lazed around. Snorkeled again. Took dip in hotel pool. Went to Angelos on Hidalgo for pizza.-- mediocre, but OK.

Day 10. Pretty much same routine–breakfast, snorkeled, swam in pool, read, vegged, etc.,
Dinner at restaurant Gomar Had the pescado enpapelado again. Very good. Changed some dollars at casa de cambio: 10.80. I have often read on line–Don’t change money at a casa de cambio–bad rate. I disagree. You can sometimes screw around with the bank and get a few points better, but I like the convenience of the CdC’s. Banks in Mexico are by design labor-intensive. You often have to go to one window to tell them what you want, then go to another window to get your money–and, of course, you have to go when they are open. On this, our last day, we picked up a Miami Herald, Cancun Edition. It said the bank rate was 10.75. We got 10.80 on the street. Paid our bill at Cabañas Maria del Mar by charge card, $297, which they ask you to do the day before your leave.

Day 11. We had breakfast, took a walk, packed up, left $3 for the maid, and left by taxi to the boat dock $3. Took the boat back to mainland, $7. Took taxi to airport, $20, including tip. Encountered huge lines at airport lobby for ticket counters. Expected a two-hour wait in line. Found Delta counter. There were only two parties ahead of us. Took all of about 10 minutes to get checked in. Had lunch in the airport, $15. Had snack later in Atlanta airport, $6. Charge for economy parking at our airport, $55.

Total cost: $2245. (Air $1080 Other, $1165 Actual out of pocket cash spent, under $400.
Hotels, $712–10 nights, av. $71.20 per night.)

Thanks for the great report. I like Isla, hope we get back there fairly soon. Wilma cancelled our last trip.

Definitely good meals and nice hotels for not too much money on the island.