How Was Your Spring Break Trip to Mexico?

We're just back from spending Easter week in Cancun and the Riviera Maya. Cancun seemed quiet to me compared to prior Easter week trips. We stayed 1-night at the Cancun Hilton, and were upgraded to an oceanfront villa. (When does that ever happen on Easter week?) There were plenty of American families there, just not as crowded as usual.

When we checked into the timeshare, the Grand Mayan was packed. So, seems like plenty of timesharers are still travelling. There was a mix of nationalities at the pool, I would guess about a 50/50 split of American families and Mexican families. When we drove down to Tulum and Akumal, we ran into lots of young Germans, French and Europeans, don't know if that's always the case or not. Exchanging Euros for pesos has got to be a real sweet exchange for them!

Friends at my daughter's high school couldn't believe she was travelling to **dangerous** Mexico for Spring Break. Please... it couldn't have been more tame. There were police posted along various topes (speed bumps) along Highway 307, and even in the Cancun hotel zone. I kept wondering, "don't these guys have anything better to do?", but I guess a visible police presence helps the tourists feel safe, I don't know.

We had great weather and lots of sun and relaxation. Unfortunately, it seemed especially windy compared to last year, so we were not able to do as much snorkeling as I would have liked. And every year the traffic on Highway 307 through Playa del Carmen gets worse and worse. (Yikes, our drive to Tulum took almost 2 hours this year!) My most dangerous moment was trying to get away from a jellyfish in a strong current near Club Med (did you see the movie "7 Pounds"?).

The people of Mexico were warm and welcoming as always, and we felt even safer there than I do here in Southern California. Ah, and the pina coladas, and Coronas with a twist of lime while you are sitting with your toes in the sand, listening to the waves crash, were as cold and refreshing as I had remembered them.

--- Rene McDaniel

Ours was great

We don't actually go for Spring Break, we call it our late winter vacation:whoopie:

We noticed that Puerto Vallarta was slightly less crowded than last time we were there, and with all the phobia in the US media, it was no surprise to us.

We have also been asked, why would you go there, it is so dangerous??
I feel much safer riding a bus in Mexico than in Seattle, or any other major city in the US.

fwiw,

Greg

We were at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta for Easter week and I think all the people that Greg didn't see waited until we got there! It was very crowded. The lazy river was bumper to bumper! But we had a wonderful time and never felt unsafe at all. Downtown Puerto Vallarta had lots of police in plain sight and everyone seemed quite at ease. The weather was perfect and so was the resort. The only bad thing was that we couldn't stay longer.

Rene: Did you fly out of San Diego or Los Angeles? What is considered a good price from either airport?

When we were in Puerto Vallarta for Presidents Week, many people were commenting on how deserted it was. That was our second trip; the first was Easter Week several years ago, and it was quite crowded then.

Hi CathyB,

We booked a nonstop Delta flight LAX to Cancun last September, and the fare was $578 roundtrip with all the taxes for a 4 hour flight. The cheapest I could find out of San Diego was about $100 higher per ticket, but the biggest showstopper being there were no non-stop flights.

We paid $350 roundtrip from LAX to Cancun the year before with Mexicana, but with a 2 hour layover in Mexico City, which made it a really, really long day. My husband was pretty adamant about not wanting to do THAT again, no matter how much money it saved.

He wants to go either back to either PV or Cabo next year, because he prefers the shorter flight times. But I was finding the flight costs to be about the same whether it's Cabo, PV, or Cancun. I just can't see spending $500 bucks apiece for airfare to PV and Cabo which are so close. Anything over the $350 it "used to cost" still feels like highway robbery to me. Oh well, guess I'll have to get over it.

-- Rene

Rene McDaniel said:

I just can't see spending $500 bucks apiece for airfare to PV and Cabo which are so close.

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Have you checked Alaska Airlines for LAX to SJD? I just looked and there are some good prices. I just plugged in next Friday for a date and there was a "hot deal" price of $91.10 each way.

Best price for PV was $308.20 round trip.

KarenG,

Sorry, I should have been more specific. We can only travel Easter week, the days between Palm Sunday (weekend) and Easter Sunday since that is the only week our high school daughter has off during the Spring. Unfortunately, the airlines almost never discount tickets during that week. When we bought our tickets in September, the flight was already half-full.

Our other week we can travel is week 52, the week after Christmas. The ticket prices to Cabo and PV are also sky-high during that week, too. Even though we own a week 52 at Pueblo Bonito Blanco, we usually end up renting it because we're not willing to spend $1800 on airfares when the weather is only "slightly" warmer than San Diego.

Just 3 more years until our youngest graduates, and then we can't wait to expand our travel to periods other than school holidays!

--- Rene

Rene McDaniel said:

We can only travel Easter week . . .
Our other week we can travel is week 52, the week after Christmas.

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Oh, I see--that DOES make a difference! But, you get to live in San Diego all year--that's worth something!

We went to the Grand Mayan Nuevo for Easter week. We hit the lazy river and the water slide a whole bunch. Grand Vic we probably saw you there. Like Rene we can also only travel at certain times as our son is 15 and a Freshman in high school, Easter week and the week after Christmas. The resort was packed probably about 90 percent Mexican Nationals for Semana Santa. They had mostly large families and their was a lot of saving of pool chairs etc. But the people were nice. The resort was crowded but we had a great time. We were offered money to give up our seats on Saturday prior to Easter for a later flight $ 400 per seat credit on a future flight by Alaska Air. They said we could catch the next flight 2 hours later. But we did not want to risk getting bumped there. We had a drive to Bakersfield and had plans for the next day so we declined.

Barbeque,

Could I ask how much you paid for your Easter Week tickets to Puerto Vallarta and when did you purchase them?

It's so hard to know which sale will be the last, or which price will be the lowest when you're talking Easter week.

Thanks,
Rene

I was at the Gran Caribel Real in February and it seemed as safe as could be at the resort. We had an awesome time.

We were at the Grand Mayan at Riviera Maya. It was great. We went into Playa del Carmen one day with no fears. It must have been pretty full because we were in the back GM rooms (bld 8). We were there the week after Easter because our friends who went with us have 3 kids in school, and that was their spring break.

We drove down to Puerto Penasco Mayan Palace for our grandson's mid-March spring break. The resort was not as crowded as it was last year when spring break was the week before Easter. We did not have any problems driving down there. We felt completely safe. We are planning to drive to Mazatlan from Phoenix to spend a month in June. Driving through Nogales is our biggest concern.

We were in Maz March 23 to April 6 staying at the PB Maz. It was much quieter the first week than it was in November when we visited. By the second week (Holy week began on April 6) we saw lots more Mexicans.

The Pool crew said it was not only slow in people but slow in business.

Maybe because we were later in March but we've been to Maz during mid March and its been a zoo.

Another thing we noticed is the bartering didn't happen much, and the standard tshirts that used to start at 120P were now 140P.

Diane

Rene McDaniel said:

Barbeque,

Could I ask how much you paid for your Easter Week tickets to Puerto Vallarta and when did you purchase them?

It's so hard to know which sale will be the last, or which price will be the lowest when you're talking Easter week.

Thanks,
Rene

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We booked them shortly after we got the exchange through Alaska Air. We had 1 full fare ticket , 1 $ 50 Companion Ticket ($ 150 Total) and 1 60K Mile ticket that I paid about $ 60 for the Taxes. We Originally booked on Oct 28th The Full fare ticket was $665. In December the airfare went down and I called Alaska and got $ 100 for a future flight. Since you are traveling holiday time I would book asap. But you have enough time to do the next step
If you dont already have one I would get a Alaska Air Visa They give you a companion ticket every year. They also give you some miles for signing up. One neat thing Alaska has is AS 50 tickets which use 15,000 miles for a half price ticket. I have never had an issue using an AS50
IF it was not holiday time I might say wait until 2 or 3 months before but since that is when it is book asap and then if fares go down by any great amount try to get a credit.