Mexico trip

[UteStar]

OK, for all of you Mexico travel experts. If I were to go on a vacation with just adults and have 3-4 days down in Mexico, which of these locations would you go to and why? Lodging will be comparable between each location.

Cancun
Cozumel
Puerto Vallarta
Riviera Maya

I would like relaxing, but also do some site seeing as well. I may or may not have a car...is a car necessary or is it relatively easy to get around without a car?

[falafel]

I've only been to Cancun, but I would recommend it. Nice mix of relaxation and sight-seeing with all the ruins within a few hours drive.

[Flystripper]

OK, for all of you Mexico travel experts. If I were to go on a vacation with just adults and have 3-4 days down in Mexico, which of these locations would you go to and why? Lodging will be comparable between each location.

Cancun
Cozumel
Puerto Vallarta
Riviera Maya

I would like relaxing, but also do some site seeing as well. I may or may not have a car...is a car necessary or is it relatively easy to get around without a car?

If part of your travel includes fantastic food well above typical tourist fare go to Puerto Vallarta.

[wuapinmon]

Playa del Carmen would be my choice. It's safe, walkable, and convenient, with a car, to Tulum, Valladolid, and Chichén Itzá. If you're a road warrior, you could make the long drive to Uxmal, which is my favorite, but with only 3 to 4 days, that's probably ill advised.

Cancún is a den of thieves.

[Portland Ute]

Playa del Carmen would be my choice. It's safe, walkable, and convenient, with a car, to Tulum, Valladolid, and Chichén Itzá. If you're a road warrior, you could make the long drive to Uxmal, which is my favorite, but with only 3 to 4 days, that's probably ill advised.

Cancún is a den of thieves.

I've been to both Cancun and Playa.

Go to Playa. Better beaches, more tranquil.

If/when we go back, we'll go to Playa and skip Cancun.

[Parrot Head]

Have you considered such exotic locales as Torreon, Gomez Palacio or Tlahualilo? I would recommend them, but they're crapholes and the drug wars have made their way there now.

[UteStar]

Have you considered such exotic locales as Torreon, Gomez Palacio or Tlahualilo? I would recommend them, but they're crapholes and the drug wars have made their way there now.

Cool...sounds lovely now PH. I will check for any direct flights...or should I just stay in the cargo area of a private plane to get there?

[Scott R Nelson]

Cancun
Cozumel
Puerto Vallarta
Riviera Maya

Aren't Cancun, Cozumel, and Riviera Maya all pretty much the same place?

If you're staying in downtown Playa Del Carmen (beautiful beaches and great little town) you can catch a ferry over to Cozumel easily enough. I didn't find bus service in the area to be very easy to deal with and pretty much had to book tours to go see things. It's worth a day to go out to Chichen Itza (don't try to drive a car there on a day trip) and probably another to see Tulum (we did a combined snorkel trip with that one).

If you go to Puerto Vallarta you can get around easily on the bus system there or use a taxi in the few cases where one might be needed. The trick there is to take the bus over to Walmart, stock up on supplies for the week, then have a taxi take you back to wherever you're staying. They wait right at the doors and will unload your shopping cart into the trunk to get you back to where you're staying.

The last time I was in Puerto Vallarta, we took a bus out to Mismaloya one day to visit the zoo (my wife got to hold a lion cub for $10), then out that direction again to the end of the line where the road turns inland and caught a water taxi out to Yelapa. It's pretty cool to visit a village with no roads and no cars in it. That was a nice quiet relaxing place. There is also a pretty good zip-line place in the hills out that direction.

I've rented a car in Puerto Vallarta before and drove north to San Blas. That's a town that hasn't been spoiled by tourists yet. Sometimes it's nice to go out on your own into the countryside.

[Parrot Head]

Cool...sounds lovely now PH. I will check for any direct flights...or should I just stay in the cargo area of a private plane to get there?

The cargo hold is probably your best bet because we had to go through Monterrey to get there. But if there are great advancements, Tlahualilo may even have more than 3 phone lines now!