Reply To: 400K Avios + 100K MR + 2 Companion Vouchers, no kids – what to do?!

[JDB]

zapato1060 wrote:

NorthernLass wrote:

Doing 5 nights in Mexico City then using Virgin Atlantic points to PVR where we’re doing 12 nights on the Pacific coast, then return PVR-MEX followed by MEX-LHR-MAN (in CW with the “other half” of the companion voucher).

Hoping to do this in 2025 as ive never been on Pacific Coast on MEX side. Have you been before?

The Pacific Coast is very varied and the right place depends on what you are looking for. What is has vs the Caribbean coast is many smaller resorts with human sized very good hotels or apartments where Mexicans go which means you you might not have the glitzy stuff, but you do get real restaurants and normal prices; fresh fish is arriving on small boats all day. If you want glitzy hotels, Cabo is the place but it’s now little America, very overdeveloped and horribly expensive. Puerto Vallarta / Punta Mita has got pretty developed now and has seemingly spawned Nuevo Vallarta. We don’t like these high rise, heavily built up places that are entirely geared to foreigners, but there are still nice places further north around what they now call Riviera Nayarit.

Further south, the coast between Manzanillo and Costa Careyes is really beautiful and unspoilt with some really standout places like Cuixmala and its sister hotel in the mountains near Colima, but lots of more low key places. Further south we like Troncones, very pretty and a surfer’s paradise, Zihuatanejo and Playa Blanca – lots to do beyond sitting on the beach! Some beaches aren’t good for swimming because of their orientation/openness so they have a strong undertow but there are loads of calm bays with deserted beaches if that’s what you want or organised beaches with lots of facilities. At Playa Blanca, we do swim with due care, but it’s wonderful to be able to walk along a nine mile fairly deserted beach teeming with wildlife on the beach and there’s a good prospect of seeing dolphins, whales and rays in the waves. The wildlife in the lagoons behind is amazing and it’s pretty similar all along the cost from PV southwards. We love the iguanas!

Ixtapa is horrible and the once glamorous Acapulco, seemingly now rather dangerous but still very popular with residents of CDMX as it’s an easy drive.

Further south again, Oaxaca is a fascinating state and sort of the artistic centre of Mexico. The city itself is really interesting and it’s not too long a drive to the beaches around Puerto Escondido and Santa María Huatulco but there are some readers who know these resorts better than I do who might hopefully chip in.