This resort is HUGE! Miles of horticulturally designed and well lit walking paths, breathtaking views of the ocean, 280 degrees of mountains on the Bay of Bandares, inland lakes, secret hideouts, beach front swimming pools, wave pools, lazy river, water slide, quiet cabanas, beach huts and impeccable service from their staff. It’s well assumed and rumored that they have 15,000 employees on the property each day! Vidanta is very easy to get to. It’s a 10minute taxi to the resort from the airport ((about $15.00) and once your arrive at the Vidanta exit, its another 10 minutes to get back to the Vidanta property from the road.
San Antonio - Ranchette Stop
I went on a nice morning walk with Lew and Cody, the dog, through their neighborhood on the ranchette. Lew is a really good walker and tour guide through the hill country. We did some blue bonnet searching and also saw Mexican hats (orange) and Verbena (purple). The blue bonnets are really spectacular this time of year and the ones they planted along the driveway are just stunning. There is a beautiful property that we drove by on our way to lunch where they’ve planted an entire river of blue bonnets. Just beautiful!
Patty and Lew treated us to one of their favorite places called Willie's Icehouse where we had margaritas, delicious chicken fried steak, superb fried catfish and of course dessert with Parker’s ice cream. Little Grandma made a quilt for Dylan so we shipped that back to Ohio so we didn’t have to take it to Mexico with us. I just love the Ranchette so I properly took a nap in sunshine on their patio and ran my hands through the lovely smelling rosemary bushes in front of the house. We were lucky that it was Monkey Day - Patty makes the most delicious frozen mocha and banana treat to share with us! We have movie night with Boppa and Grandma Patty and Dylan chose our annual tradition of watching My cousin Vinny. SOOOOO funny!
PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO
Continuing our Spring Break at our second destination in PVR @ Vidanta. We are staying at the Grand Luxxe in a 2 bedroom unit. This time and we have a “handicap” room because Paris has a broken ankle. Our goal was to get a Tower closest to the beach, activities and pool. Before we knew it - we have a handicap suite in Tower 1. Downfall is it’s a first floor suite (next level above the lobby) and the doors all open into the open air space in the center. This means that it’s LOUD at night with the bar, lobby and music playing until 10pm. Since we go to bed around 9 (11:00pm our time) it’s pretty loud. Lucky for me, I travel with ear plugs! Also a bonus, they serve coffee down the hall each morning from 7:00am - 9:00am.
We ended up having to wait until 5pm to get the room and met up with Patty and Lew at Balche Restaurant on the water to have some fish tacos and margaritas. This was a great time to explore the property after a refreshing margarita! Remember that Happy Hour is everyday 11am - 1pm. After checking in - we relaxed in the sunshine on the balcony, read a little and shopped for some groceries at the Market. Dylan and I walked the “Golden Hour” to the beach and watched the sun set over the ocean before heading in for showers and bedtime. Paris was back in the room relaxing his broken ankle after a day full of airports and walking the property!
OLD TOWN, ZONA ROMANTICA
Started the day after a refreshing evening and sleeping in! I slept through all of texts that Lew sent me for a morning walk. We were planning on walking around the property together but he was up EARLY at 630 and I didn’t get up until 8:30 am here. Paris walked to Tower 5 where his parents are staying in a loft at the Grand Luxxe. I waited for Dylan to get out of the shower and we headed over through the beautiful walking paths on the property. Little did we know that we would be leaving from there to go downtown- Paris didn’t have his wallet and I had on no makeup but we thought - what the heck, I have my credit card - so lets go! Taxi ($700 pesos one way/ 5 people)
PUERTO VALLARTA MALECON
We were dropped beside Starbucks (Paris’s favorite) and walked across the cobblestone street to see this 12 block boardwalk offering ocean views, sculptures and restaurants. There were funky ladders with alien-like figures, larger than life chairs that all had butts on the backside (see what I did there!) and some beautiful classic figures of gods like Neptune and mermaids. We walked to the plaza where several National Guard were standing as if they were preparing for a drill of some kind. The colorful flags were strung across the plaza with a beautiful church Parroquia de Guadalupe in the background. Patty and Lew had been here before, so they knew exactly where they were going as we followed along to enjoy all of the scenery. We wandered through some back streets before arriving at our lunch spot Oscars. This was the first major walk for Paris and his broken ankle - he’s been in a soft cast for only 10 days. It was starting to hurt him walking up and down this hillside town. *Right after returning from this trip, we watched the Premier of Amazing Race 25 and they were here in PVR! They had to do some tough competitions by carrying these rocking horses through this hillside town and picking up clues on the beach beside these aerial flyers!
OSCARS
These are the most beautiful margarita cart presentation this I’ve ever seen! Fresh juices and a masterful presentation. My seafood enchiladas were delicious as well as the rest of the table dining on chicken enchiladas, Red snapper and cervesas.
Caule Island Flea Market
Beautifully bright colors everywhere for this cute walk. Luckily we came on a day when the cruise ships aren’t in port. It was fairly quiet and relaxing after our bellies were full from Oscars. We didn’t end up purchasing anything but the people down here are so nice and engaging.
FIRESHOW
We met up with Patty and Lew for the Fire Show on the lake. This only happens once each week on the lake water. The rest of the nightly fire shows are on the beach by Salum. Dylan skipped out early but we tempted him with frozen yogurt from the Market to get him out of the room to hang with us! This particular show takes place on the lake and we viewed it from a landing. It may have been better on the Beachland Bridge to look down upon the show, but it was still fascinating to see the beautiful silhouettes from our viewpoint with the sun setting in the background.
MORNING WALKS
Started some mornings with a nice walk around the property to get acclimated and see the other side of the resort. Take a walk with me at Vidanta Puerto Vallarta!
Lew and I met half-way between our buildings and made our way over to the Grand Mayan. We walked a few miles through the beautiful gardens here - it’s pretty easy to get lost! Dylan and I tried going to the gym and they said he can’t enter until 11:30a because he’s 15 - BOO. I’m sure it’s a liability thing because most teens don’t know how to use the equipment properly but he was pretty bummed. He really wanted to work out most days and do some upper body and rowing in the mornings because he is currently in volleyball season.
POOL
The Grand Mayan pool was the perfect distraction for Dylan! We met up with our neighbors, the Duerksons, and enjoyed some Happy Hour margaritas and pina coladas while we were lazy in the lazy river, Mayan slide and wave pool to get a bit of sunshine.
MAIZUL
Patty and Lew wanted to do an early dinner at 2 or 3 so we rushed back to get ready and go off property into Nuevo Vallarta. Paris couldn’t figure out his password for the ATM and didn’t bring his Debit card like he thought and we had no way of getting Pesos. He also didn’t bring cash because he was planning on having the debit card. We only have $1 bills for tipping and not enough to get back to the airport. We wanted to try Eddies but they only accept cash. Lew saw another great place when he walked into Nuevo Nayarit so we ended up there. We started with the server upselling us on the STRONG Cadillac Margaritas. The taxi (330 pesos for 5 people) took about 15 minutes. We arrived at 4 and happened on the lunch menu pricing and items. Compared to the dinner menu, it’s cheaper and the portions were already enormous! We had the red snapper, tuna tartar, shrimp and pork burrito and coconut shrimp. It was all delicious except my in-laws said they would pass on the Caesar salad next time. We had the entire restaurant to ourselves as we leisurely dined alongside the Marina. Paris’s ankle was feeling good so we walked the beach home from MAIZUL. It was a really pretty walk with a beautiful breeze off the ocean that felt great.
Pool Time
Another successful rest last night. They have aTurtle Camp Tour to see the Turtle Sanctuary just outside of the property on the beach where they teach you how it operates from a marine biologist and help in supporting the conservation of these ancient sea creatures. Scratch that - we were late and missed it - but I’m sure it was great.
We hung out at the Grand Bliss Pool where I won Mexican Lottery by pooling Stacy and Reid’s “winnings” for a 2 for 1 burger coupon. We also did a dance lesson and sat in the pool with the guys. Of course we took a couple spins around the Lazy River before heading out to the Salum area to have some snacks and see the beachside Fire show - Here are the BEST churros I’ve ever had. We walked the evening lit paths to Grand Luxxe Tower 5 to see Patty and Lew and their beautiful view of the river and night lights in Puerto Vallarta. Dylan headed back to the room by himself.
THURSDAY - Beach Day
My walk to this morning was intentional to get lost and make a video of the property before everyone is up and walking around. I was able to pray at several spots while admiring all of Gods beauty and appreciating this wonderful vacation experience. When I arrived back at the room, I had a quick mango breakfast with Dylan and Paris went to the Plaza market to try and find a sticker for this water bottle. I headed down to the beach to read my book and get some sunshine and snag a beach hut for the shade. I can’t believe I’ve only been down to the ocean once this trip! Dylan and I walked here for the sunset the first night but I just had to get into it. It’s not the prettiest water like Caribbean and it’s refreshingly cool but OUCH I burnt my toes getting the one half mile to the beach! Halfway there, I had to run back to our beach hut to get my sandals! I literally burnt my tootsies! whew, made it to the ocean by myself and bathed in the salt water before returning back to finish my book by Elin Hilderbrand - Troubles in Paradise. Totally fun beach read! Patty and Lew made their way to us on the beach and sat and chatted for a little bit and after they left, Dylan came down to have a pizza with Paris. It was a pretty good Margarita pizza!
Tinos La Laguna-
A quick taxi into Nuevo Nayarit with unassuming front entrance. We walked through to an open air restaraunt on the lagoon and our reservation got us right in for the 9 of us! Our server recommended trying their award winning house tequila with fresh pineapple juice, ginger and honey. Yum! Paris was quite interested in the style of preparation of this tequila and the server just kept raving about it. Eric joked that Paris just ordered a case to be shipped home because it was hard to understand the broken English! One of the servers came to tell Paris that the salsa he chose was very spicy after seeing him drizzle it all over the chips and salsa. It was the chili oil kind and the server kept walking behind Paris to watch him eat it - this had me scared! It was pretty funny though. We were also serendaded by the 3 piece guitar band who played any request we wanted - it was a Mexican experience for sure.We started the meal with guacamole and their hand made chips and ordered the Pescado Zarandeado fish for the entire table. Sea bass and red snapper was brought to the table for approval before cooking it “shaker style” and then presented beautifully with tortillas to make as fish tacos. The two gentlemen working to debone the fish were just wonderful! Dessert had a beautiful presentation with Bananas Flambé and ice cream served in beautifully halved coconuts, pineapple and mango. The bill was just over $400 for the 9 of us.
A quick stop at the Sanctuary for nightly entertainment before heading to bed. Oh, I forgot to mention the fun “Easter Egg” hunt on the property. Pasquale they celebrate here, and it’s a lot of family time the week after Holy Week. It’s been fun to search for all 7 of these really large eggs. I’ve got one more to find!
FRIDAY
Breakfast at Del LAGO with Lew for the timeshare presentation. Dylan and I walked to their lobby Tower 5 so I could find the last egg and Paris took the shuttle. When our private shuttle finally arrived 30 minutes late, we were shuttled back to OUR OWN LOBBY in Tower 1 where we met with Andy and walked to. La Plaza French Restaurant for a beautiful view and breakfast.
TRAVEL
Busy traveling time with all the families flying for Spring Break. On Southwest Airlines, this means TONS of family boarding after A group and a less likely chance we will all sit together. It’s quite easily half the plane that qualifies for families to board if they have at least one child under 6 years old so that they have a seat with parents. But, we found out that Paris’s broken ankle gets him pre-boarding BEFORE the flight even board!! This was a great advantage and Dylan went with him as a companion to “help”. Yay! This proved so helpful as we boarded ALL the flights going to Mexico! Dylan is 15 and that means it’s our first time being eligible to sit in an Exit row seat too!
We were separated from Patty and Lew at the airport, they went ahead of us to get the transportation because a flight attendant checked my carryon as we were boarding the plane in San Antonio. Luckily, it took awhile to get through customs and my luggage was coming off the baggage claim just as we arrived! Our transportation took a long time and so did the check-in process at Vidanta.
Paris had COVID all last week and I was in the spare bedroom, not sleeping well. Didn’t get a chance to pack until hours before our flight left - Hallalejah his quarantine is done!
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