These are a few ofour own personal tips & travel opinions that we either discovered by ourselves or read about. The tips & opinions are by no means meant to say you have to follow them and they are pertinent to the time of year (Sep) that we traveled.

Airport in PV: The airport is fairly small and easy to navigate though. We learned that on our way back that if you buy water or coke (in bottles) in the secure area that you still cannot take it on the plane. Maybe this is something new but lots of people were aggravated about this. There are some decent restaurants in the airport, several past the security checkpoint, but most of them are prior to security.

Customs and beyond: Going through customs is like other Mexican airports. Press a button and if you get a green light you sail through, if the light is red you go over to a table and have everything searched. When you exit customs you are immediatly greeted (hounded!) by people who try to get out of you where you are going. They will pretend to be your ride and may swoop you off to a timeshare scam. Our best advice is to definitly make travel arrangements prior and know if someone is expecting you that they have a placard with your name or their company name on it. Those individuals are to the immediate right when you exit the customs door.

Pesos -vs- dollars: Best advice is to convert your dollars into pesos at the ATM's for best rate. Find out which banks are affiliated with your local bank and try to seek out those banks to use ATM's. We consistently read that this is the best conversion rates given. We also read consistently that it's always best to use and pay with local currency. It saves the local person time from having to stand in line to convert a few dollars and it's the courteous thing to do.

Timeshare and 'vacation club' people: I cannot say enough about these folks. They are disguised as your souvineer sales persons, restaurant waitstaff, people on the street. Our advice is to so searches on tripadvisor or google on the subject to learn how they operate because they are everywhere and honestly, our trip was degraded because of it. When you walk down the street you simply cannot look anyone in the eye. You simply cannot try to carry on a conversation with anyone in fear of it turning into a relentless timeshare pitch or a restaurant 'referrel'. One example... during shopping for local indian art the sales person was very talkative and asked us if we liked italian food. Later, when we were wrapping up our sale and the 'manager' accompanied the sales person with this, he started in on a relentless timeshare pitch but happened to mention that our salesperson had two jobs, his other job was at an italian restaurant nearby. Another example, walking on the street, one of the timeshare folks will say 'Senior, remember me?" He tries to disguise himself as someone you met or talked to at a restaurant, or bar, etc. This type of stuff happened way too many times on such a short of trip as ours.

Hotel maid tipping: We always tipped our hotel maid about 22 pesos ($2) a day. They make very very little money as maids, waitstaff, etc. Please be generous when the service is good is our advice.

Beach vendors: Again, it's one thing if a beach vendor stops by occasionally but they were as relentless as the timeshare folks. We literally had 5-8 of them within 5 minutes many times. Even if you try to nap they will try to get your attention and subtly awaken you only for you to have told them no time and time before. Again, this part really degraded our experience on the beach. You just can't truly relax without the constant bombardment of vendors. This is where staying at an all-in-one resort might be better, assuming it's confined/restricted to this stuff. If I had a dollar for every time I said "no senior"...

Our restaurant picks: The nicest breakfast we had was at Dee’s Coffee Company (located at Rodolfo Gómez 120). We enjoyed the cleanliness of the restaurant, the scrambled eggs (Mexican style) and toast with juice was very nice. Our most favorite dinner was at Cafe de Olla (located at Basilo Badillo 168). We had pork tamales for an appetizer and I had a Mexican combination plate with a variety of local food (excellent portions and taste). Another nice dinner restaurant was at the Fajita Republic (located at Pino Suárez 321). The beef, chicken, shrimp and fish fajitas were very tasty, very good but for $13-14 a plate, there could have been more food.

The Malecon: This is a "do not miss" and you can walk it nightly (7 or after) to see different vendors or art on display. It is a one mile stretch of 'boardwalk' along the ocean near central downtown. The timeshare folks didn't seem to bother us as much here for some reason.

Street food: We didn't have the opportunity to try street food but from what we've been told it is really very tasty, very inexpensive and well worth trying. Our schedule just never meshed well with being near the areas where much of the street food was (near central downtown).

Prices of things (in general): As with most places in Mexico prices are usually adjusted to American money. A margarita will cost $4-5, beer can be $4.50 or more and food is certainly priced accordingly. The only exceptions we noticed was in the big grocery stores and street food 'taco stands' where prices really did seem to be a bargain.

Nightly lightning show: We experienced it one night only but around 9pm'ish' there is usually a thunderstorm. If you're lucky enough to see one over the bay and you have an oceanfront room, it is a wonderful way to fall asleep hearing the waves and seeing the lightning show :)

Washing clothes: Lavanderia Pulpito (located at Pulpito 141) was the place we used to wash clothes. It cost $5 to wash, dry and fold one load. If you're like me and you sweat then you'll go through 2-3 shirts a day! Our advice is to take lots of shirts if you don't want to wash clothes.

Sweat rags: ok we know it's gross to even think about such things but reality is that many people, myself included, sweat like crazy when in PV. I had 'sweat napkins' that I took everywhere. If I'd though ahead I'd have brought a few sweat rags! Hey, you think it's gross, maybe... but we saw plenty of locals with them too!

Taxi cabs (in general): When you research taxi cabs on tripadvisor the word from the locas is NOT to tip them. There was some agreement that the local taxi's made but didn't keep and we read many many forum posts that said they set their own rates(high) and not to tip. We did tip minimally ($1) but only when the taxi was informative, helped us, etc. Seemed like most cab rides we took was $3 - 4$ most everywhere we went. Always always ask first how much to get to your destination.

Internet cafes: there is an abundance of internet cafes and prices for time will vary. Our only advice is to remember the one you visited that had real airconditioning! Many places are HOT when you walk inside and may have only one fan. Again, bring your sweat rag! :)

Ocean and Beach: We stayed at the Los Muertos beach area. The beach and water was 'ok' at minimal but the ocean water appeared 'muddy' and had large areas of brown foam on top. The beach sand was brown and not appealing to us at all. Perhaps this time of year there is more run off in the water, not sure. I heard there are other beaches further down (20 minute cab ride away) that are supposed to be much better. We would have gone if we had more time and if the weather was nicer than it was. We would have also gone on day excursions out of the area if we had more time. I've read and heard some really good things about the Sierra Madre jeep tour for example.

Of course this isn't all the tips and advice we could give but if you have any questions or want our advice on something please feel free to email us. We also realize this report may appear to be negative, perhaps it is

Questions/comments: pv2007comments@marklyn.us