RIVIERA NAYARIT 2026
Now that time allows, you could say that we have become spontaneous travellers. If we spot a great deal on YVR Deals or Travel Best Bets, we can (and often do) jump on those trips, so when a friend tells us their daughter is getting married in Mexico, and tells us we should come, I'm looking online for deals before the conversation ends.
The night before we fly out, we are at the casino watching Prism and Lee Aaron rock out, then after 4 hours of sleep we are on our way to the airport. A short 4.5 hour flight from Abbotsford and we are landing in Puerto Vallarta, where it is much warmer than at home... A lot less wet too! Avoiding all the condo scams and gypsy taxi drivers we get our cab at the official taxi stand and are whisked away to our home for the week, the Hotel Riu Vallarta.
Ocean and Pool views, a towel animal, and an all you can drink mini-bar. We didn't waste any time, heading for the beach and the first of many meals and drinks. The trouble with the all-inclusive package is that you eat and DRINK way too much.
This is all going on while the Super-Bowl is being broadcast in the hotels main square and theatre area... a good place to avoid.
It wasn't hard to find our good friends Diane and Tome who were already hanging out on the beach... with drinks.
Every night there is some kind of entertainment show, followed by a local live band, a good chance to work on our dance skills.
Every day when you come back from a day at the beach or the pool, there is a new towel animal on the bed, you know it is time to go when they start repeating.
Our second day at the Riu, and Montezumas revenge is starting to hit the group. It ended up being a late start at the beach.
Our neighbours have a new place down in Puerto Vallarta, so we spent an afternoon visiting them. A beautiful place with great views over the Pacific Ocean. Turns out their friends that are staying with them are also from Williams Lake, where our friends Tom & Diane live (who we are in Mexico with)...It is a small world.
The evening festivities were all about bold coloured outfits and Moo-Moos. Not in a fancy restaurant as you might expect, but from the buffet with plastic plates, as is suiting for how we all looked.
Tom was always the first one up, and always ensured we had a nice location at the beach or at the pool. When we were at the pool a bar cart would frequently roll by, not without stopping. We would have several guests come to visit us poolside too.
Wedding day
Although there was a few hiccups with the event planning, the wedding was on a beautiful beach with the waves crashing behind them, surrounded by palm trees.The reception dinner was several hours later, so we all stripped down and jumped in the pool until it was time. Many drinks and sunburns later, we were treated to a lovely meal as the sun went down.
On our last trip to Puerto Vallarta, we all walked down the beach to the small town of Bucerias. This time everyone else was making plans to get a taxi or van, but Norine and I chose to walk the Yellow Brick Road into town. It was damn hot, but a nice walk.
We ended up back at the same Miguel Angel Restaurant-Bar that we had visited before, large drinks, tasty Mexican food, birds galore, and a musician playing all kinds of music. They haven't quite figured out how separate bills work, and we're all pretty sure they slipped a few extra drinks on to the bill, but we still had a good time.
We all popped over to a Tequila store to sample and check out their tequila liquers. We were last in line to purchase a couple tasty flavours, and when we came out of the store, everyone else was gone.
Unlike last time, we didn't drink and ride horses back to our hotel... Norine and I just walked back via the Yellow Brick Road... alone.
When we were visiting with our neighbours, they had suggested a local guy named Hector, who could coordinate whatever we wanted to do for a tour. He was very excited to help us do what we wanted, Whale Watching, Snorkeling, and a visit to Sayulita for a little shopping and lunch. Out of the group of 20 some people that were down for the wedding, there was 6 of us that split the cost and were picked up from our hotel by Hector.
The first stop was a quiet little marina, where the cats and dogs were sleeping, and the Pelicans were a plenty. This is where we met our captain... Captain Martin. We left Hector behind and headed to the boat.
We loaded up in our little boat with a cooler of beverages, and headed out to the open waters with Captain Martin. It didn't take very long and we were seeing spouts and humps of the local whales hanging out for calfing season.
I was too excited to get decent pictures, and when I was just getting serious, they stopped surfacing for a bit. The Captain took us over to the national park islands of Islas Marietas about an hour out of PV. The islands have abundant marine life populations due to being protected from fishing and hunting by the Mexican government.
The highlight of the wildlife is the blue footed Boobies, more than half the population of these colourful footed birds are in Galapagos, but they are scattered up the Mexican coast and seem to love these islands. We were told that Jacques Cousteau brought the Boobies from Galapagos to these islands, but I don't think that's true.
These two gulls also provided some humour.
Just off the coast of this Pirates of the Caribbean rock, we all jump in the water for some snorkelling. It started out a little murky but the view improved as we went. It didn't improve for Diane though, because a bee flew down her snorkel and stung her tongue... what are the odds that that could even happen?
After the excitement of snorkelling, we walked ashore onto a nice little beach, right beside where some boat had washed up on shore during a storm. Not sure how it got so far in, but it's only coming out in pieces.
We had some time to explore the beaches and caves in the area, and then had to swim back to our boat for some much needed refreshments.
Situated in a sort of open sun-drenched crater, affectionately nicknamed the "hidden beach" or "beach of love" (Playa del Amor), this spot is accessible only when the tide is low. This was created by bombs in the 1900s and the erosion afterwards.
As we are heading back, Norine spots some spouts, and we change course. She has a very good eye, and we get to spend some more time amongst a group of Whales.
Back to the marina, Hector picks us up, and it's a short journey into the small surfer town of Sayulita, a place to explore a little, and more importantly have a great lunch looking over the ocean (as it starts to rain).
It was a fun day with Hector at the wheel, and we all would highly recommend him. Sayulita was a cute town we could spend more time in, even if we did have to watch some poor girl puke her strawberry Margarita's all over the sidewalk.
Valentine's day in Paradise was spent hanging by the pool, followed up with a nice sunset, and a couples dinner at the Steak House, of the newly formed Blue Footed Boobies snorkelling club.
One more sunset, and it was time to head back to the worlds worst airport departure terminal. Long lines to drop your luggage, long lines to get through security, and four or five departure gates are all crammed into one small area making it near impossible to get to your gate. The departure was late, and when they finally announced boarding, it was "Last Call" by the time we got to the desk.
But, we made it home safe and sound, just a lot later than we expected.
A few days after we left Mexico, Puerto Vallarta is all over the news... apparently we left just in time. Luckily no-one was injured, and after a few days of people being asked to stay in their homes and hotels, things settled down. Burnt cars were cleaned up, and life in PV seems to have gone back to normal.
Three days after we left Mexico, we were in Winnipeg to celebrate Norine's aunts 101st
birthday...
from +27 to -27, that gets your blood flowing.
All-Inclusive Lessons
We're not hesitant to jump on a travel opportunity, but will have to give it a few minutes of thought before going to an All-Inclusive run by Riu that allows kids in the adult pool, and results in half of the group going home with ailments. That said, we had a great time, attended a lovely wedding, and ate and drank way too much!