What excursions should you do on a Mexican Riviera cruise? — featuring Sharon at Sea Travel

0:00 hey everyone I'm Sharon this is Jamie and we are Sharon Etsy what's going on everybody hey listen if you're cruising out of the west coast and you're looking for a blowing water destination your options on where to go are pretty limited but luckily the one option you have is pretty awesome the Mexican

0:15 Riviera we're gonna tell you all about it and share some of our great tips on things to do and places to see coming right up after this all right so if you're gonna be taking a cruise out of the West Coast chances are you're gonna be heading south to the Mexican Riviera they got a couple of great ports

0:36 down there to check out porta viar-toe mazatlán and cabo san lucas we've been able to take a couple cruises down to the mexican riviera we've always had a great time and we're pretty familiar with some places so we're going to share with you some of our best tips and places to see

0:50 and check out if you're heading down the Mexican Riviera Sharon what's the first pie you want to talk about today well first I'm going to talk about part of my our time we have a few things to share with you about Puerto Vallarta and the first one is a very budget-friendly things something that everyone should do

1:07 at least once if they visit Port of our two and that is take a walk and down the malecon boardwalk now this is about 15 minutes or so from the cruise port you can take a taxi there take transportation there if you like it's you know it's about a mile long it runs along the water and you can walk along

1:26 there and see many slick sand sculptures on the beach and these are really cool they have just I guess they're kinda like sand artists there you might say that create these are really cool to look at also you'll find everything from street vendors music dancers restaurants bars and street artists then there is also

1:46 some flea markets there with lots of shopping it's a great place just to pick up some local souvenirs so you must this is all mostly all at the south end of the malecon and it's a wonderful place just to walk around if you have kids maybe they're in strollers and you need to push the strollers around it's also

2:04 fairly mobility friendly in most of the areas there's sidewalk walkways which make it a great place for everyone and we always felt really safe there the people are friendly and this is kind of funny as we even took the local bus back from there to our cruise ship and we felt really

2:25 safe now we did have a few eyes kind of looking at us as we boarded the bus with the balloon hats on our hat heads from Senor frog's that's right I think they we have stopped there for some drinks and snacks after and you know kind of ended up on the local bus back to the cruise ship

2:45 and I think they were probably just kind of looking at us thinking you know those crazy tourists again anyways check out the malecon boardwalk that is an awesome awesome day just to relax and hang out walk around Porter biotech alright so another cool thing you can do if you just want a day of relaxation you can go

3:04 spend a day with the day pass at one of the many resorts that are right down the road from from the cruise port where the cruise ship will dock within walking distance or a number of different places you can check out and you can go online and research a lot of spots we actually recommend a place called the christou

3:18 resort it's a great little spot that we stumbled on accidentally one time and then made it our business to get back there again on another cruise we took the liberty of just walking down the road to get there which is like a 10 to 13 minute walk real simple real easy to find you just keep walking till you get

3:36 to the entrance and then you walk on in there's kind of a grand entrance area and you go right to the the front lobby last time I checked it was about five bucks a person to get in very inexpensive to get in there you can make your way to the pool area they have a bar set up they have an in pool bar they

3:53 have all kinds of ala carte food you can order and so a couple dollars to get in spend a few dollars there I'll tell you what you throw a couple dollars as a tip to the person taking care of you and they will be very very attentive so that's something fun that you can do go down and check out any one of the

4:07 resorts will recommend the Crystal resort we had a blast going there spending the day and that we think you will too now let's say you're looking for an all-inclusive day-pass type of deal well for anywhere from $70 on up you can go to a couple very popular spots there's a place called now amber you can also go

4:24 to to the Hyatt again the Hyatt Ziva and or you can check out secrets which is probably name you've probably heard in a real popular spot those are the kind of places you go into and get all-inclusive I'll tell you what all-inclusive can be great sometimes but sometimes I like the ala carte that way

4:42 I make my own decisions and I don't know sometimes I find those drinks at the all-inclusive can have a little too much ice in it if you know what I'm saying so uh you make up your own mind check it out put your thing is the others you do have to take a taxi to take that into consideration you're

4:58 gonna have taxi fare getting there whereas the crystal resort you can't just walk to if you choose awesome yeah we took the lap and it wasn't too difficult so check that out and spend a day at an amazing resort in part of our - you won't regret it you'll have a great time all right one of our favorite

5:14 things to do when we're in Port of my art oh we've done this a couple times is taken excursion over to Las Colinas and this is something you can when the cruise lines are in poor there's cruise ships important you can only do this through the Cruise Line so they only offer it through the Cruise Line it's

5:29 one of the few times we'll actually look to definitely book a cruise through the cruise ship versus outside of the cruise ship right so it is a little pricey but it is well worth every penny you will board a small kind of boat and they will take you transport you over to a little

5:44 island where you will find all kinds of activities to do throughout the whole day there's water slides paddleboard snorkeling zip lines there's kid areas for all ages offering donkey rides like kid zip lines and there's also little areas where the kids can make clay models and there's just so much more

6:03 there's just so much to do for all ages of the families and don't forget that massive slide they have over there that thing is amazing yeah it is it is crazy and it goes into the water on some like water inflatables it's really cool also you can just relax on a hammock if you choose there's hammocks all over in

6:20 various locations around the little island over there you can just hang out on the beach it's a great great family day also one of the best things is the food and drinks oh my gosh the food is amazing you know when you get there they have lunch ready for you it's all laid out it's all inclusive so you have all you

6:42 all basically the drinks are like free-flowing they I mean they are non-stop the drinks are just going nonstop and and the fun doesn't stop and after you leave you hop on the boat to go back and it's like a big party they perform they do little performances for you on the ship and have music and

7:01 dancing and they're still serving you drinks I mean the dreams like I said they are free-flowing so it's a it's just an awesome day I can't even say enough about it and also another thing is if you are gonna be over there till later in the evening a lot of times you dock in port on my arms until like 10:00

7:21 at night there is something over at last Colette it's called rhythms of the night and this is the same type of thing you take the boat over there but it's something that goes on at night and it also offers just like a wonderful meal drinks and they do a really amazing cool show almost kind of like a luau type

7:38 show with the lights and the whole bit and it is really awesome and that's something that if you want to do you know in the evenings it's kind of like that right after sunset and it's a really cool thing to do as well all right so maybe you're more of an adventurer you're looking for something

7:52 a little more active and you don't want to just kick back by the pool or the beach for the day there's a lot of amazing countryside in a porta viar-toe you can hook up with an ATV tour or a jeep tour or something like that you can go out and drive through the Sierra Madres you can do horseback riding

8:08 hiking all kinds of things like that and we'll post a couple links below with some places you might want to check out to look into those excursions but you can get off the beaten path and port of Agartha and see some amazing countryside and it's a pretty safe environment out there so you don't have anything to

8:24 worry about just stay close to to your your tour guide and you know make sure you do your research beforehand and you're gonna be in good hands so get out check out some of the countryside reporter Virata you will not be sorry it's amazing it's beautiful now if you're heading down the Mexican Riviera

8:40 another place you're probably gonna be stopping is Mazatlan miles along is a nice little port you can definitely have a lot of fun there it has a little bit of reputation and in the past there have been a few times where the ships have stopped going there for some safety concerns but the

8:54 reality is as long as you don't go too far off the beaten path and you stay within the tourist area you really don't have much to worry about now the port there isn't a whole lot to look at it's a very commercial port as a matter of fact when you get off the ship you'll board a trolley that will drive through

9:09 a little bit of the commercial area and get you to the souvenir shops and kind of the entrance to the port where you'll take off into the city you know there's a lot of activity there with unloading of of commercial vehicles and all kinds of stuff going on so it's a pretty commercial port but you'll definitely be

9:24 able to make your way out to the city area what's a couple cool things to do in Mazatlan well one thing is if you just want to kind of hang out walk around do something kind of easy take a taxi over to the golden zone the hone is where you'll find all the shopping that's there shopping there there's

9:42 places to eat there's different resorts which you can maybe go in and get like a day pass if you like kind of just hang out it's just a really kind of a casual day another thing is a little tip here is if you do choose to maybe go get the day pass kind of keep your eyes peeled I guess when I say we had a little

10:03 something happen to us one time is we had someone walking around outside because there's always benders there's always people trying to sell you things there and we had someone trying to sell us a day pass saying they thought we were gonna go into one of the resorts there and trying to sell us add a

10:17 pacifier I forget maybe ten five he was like he was looking for like 20 bucks a person it's not Monsieur anyways think of us we didn't pay him to go in there because we decided just to go in and check it out on our own we went in there and actually the resort the day pass was free you just had to buy some food and

10:34 drink and you could use the facilities so basically this guy was trying to charge us something to go in there to make some money on Earth which you didn't need to pay I mean anywhere you go you're gonna run into that kind of stuff everyone trying to make a buck but uh but yeah just go on up to the place

10:47 don't listen to the people on the street trying to walk you up there or bring you in to the end resort you can go right up there yourself yeah so just be aware of those things you know if you're looking for maybe some other things to try there you like sightseeing a good kind of a cool

11:03 thing to do is go over to take an excursion a stone Island that's a really nice place to go also you can take maybe a Segway tour to the old town you know through Old Town Mazatlan so there's some sightseeing tours that go up to Lookout Mountain which has an amazing views to look down over the entire city

11:20 you know and the last couple things I might recommend is maybe like a whale watching excursion and also there is an excursion where you can swim with wild dolphins right in the ocean that's right you take a boat out and you can experience the dolphins in their own environment there that looks really cool

11:38 to do if you want to swim with dolphins and I'm not sure what the age limit is on I think you have to be a little bit older or not really small kids are allowed to do that but it looks really cool anyway so those are a few things I will put links to excursion companies that are recommended excursion companies

11:56 in the description below that do all these different kind of tours yeah it'll be companies we either use ourselves or come highly recommended on the charity familiar with from the travel industry right so check those out and there should be there's a little something for everyone there yes Mazal on you'll have

12:14 a good time give it a try all right now the third port we're gonna cover in the Mexican Riviera is probably the most popular port Cabo San Lucas Cabo is amazingly popular for for cruisers but it's also a tremendously popular kind of land vacation destination as well so you have all the best of both worlds going

12:32 to Cabo now one thing that's unique about Cabo is it's called a tender port and if you're not familiar with that what that means is that the ship cannot just pull right up to land the the water just isn't deep enough frankly and they're not able to do that so the ship will actually anchor about I don't know

12:49 a half mile to a mile off of a off of the shore and the passengers will actually debark the cruise ship and get onto these smaller tender boats or some call them water shuttles and and you'll actually take this little water shuttle they might hold about 300 people apiece and they'll take you

13:08 right up into the port where then they'll Park right up on a dock somewhere and let you get off and and do your thing we've been lucky enough to go to Cabo San Lucas a number of times and one of the things we enjoyed most was actually something we weren't really expecting we booked a sightseeing cruise

13:22 we went there with some friends of ours they hadn't been there and we wanted to let them see the sights and things like that and we're pretty familiar with the area so we put to cruise what was the name of that company well you booked it through shore excursion Ericom okay and it was an

13:36 amazing excursion it was a little just a little sightseeing excursion I like Jamie said we were very pleasantly surprised we really didn't expect much and it turned out to be probably one of the best times you've had and it was called Cabo San Lucas deluxe private highlights sightseeing excursion and it

13:53 ran us about 54 94 whew 499 actually and it's still that price to this day although that can change so it was very for what we received when I finished telling you about it it was very inexpensive and it was great deal anyways is what we started with a little boat ride we took a glass-bottom boat

14:13 out to the arch which is at the point of the peninsula it's really cool area to see beautiful water we can see some of the sea lions kind of basking in the Sun of marine life and stuff like that it was great yeah it was just gorgeous then we came back and we boarded and one great thing to my dad is it was just us

14:32 it was just our family and friends that we went with so it wasn't like a big packed boat full of people so it was really cool then we came back in to Cabo there and we boarded like an air-conditioned van and we took a little bit of a sightseeing tour we went through some areas of Cabo we visited a

14:48 glassblowing place so we watched a mix blow some glass it was really cool it was amazing the artistry that goes into that kind of stuff is like surprising like the talent that these guys have and it was pretty cool because at that point we were joined by another family of three a mom

15:05 dad and their kid and they were super nice too and so the the bunch of us just shared a really big oversized AC laden van super comfortable with a great tour guide that really talked to us as we drove through the streets pointed out some things and gave us a great explanation of where we were heading and

15:21 what we were going to see yeah and then after the glass boiling there was a little area there where you could actually purchase some souvenirs there some blown glass souvenirs which is really cool we got the hook up with a couple of things yeah we sure did then after that the van they drove out

15:37 to jose del cabo which is kind of a local town not it's not really rusty well they know Cabo is kind of like the sister city to Cabo San Lucas it's about a 20-minute ride down a little major thoroughfare there that goes along the the water line and it's one of the things where over the years Cabo San

15:58 Lucas has been built up and very commercialized so it's full of shopping restaurants and things like that just like Cabo is but everything is still kind of localized there's a nice center area like a big courtyard center of the city and they have restaurants there and shopping but you're not gonna find Gucci

16:16 and you know all that kind of stuff there it's all gonna be a lot of local stuff so it's a really cute town we had never been there weren't even really familiar with it when we headed out there and it turned out to just be beautiful and the meal we had was a amazing and the guy took us to a place

16:33 called El Toro Guerro and it had an amazing assortment of very fresh food it looked like a popular little local spot the place was packed they put us in a large table it felt like a family-style type of deal there were some pictures or drinks on the table and things to help ourselves to you know local drinks as

16:51 well as you know of course we got our kid a coke he had have a coke and and we got I think huge like quesadillas and and tacos and they had some great fish tacos and it was just fantastic so definitely a place we'd highly recommend as far as just a spot to go check out for lunch el Toro Guerro and jose del cabo and i

17:11 will say that was probably the best i would say it is the best Mexican food I have eating in my life that's saying something it is because you know you're a connoisseur of the I'm sorry piggy and I would say yeah all right and then so so after that we headed back to Cabo we had a nice ride shopping we did we

17:33 soften we did a little shopping in town and got a few little trinkets and stuff and again it was all kind of local shopping so not anything that much different than you'd see it some other ports but much different than Cabo San Lucas itself yeah so it was an amazing day I'd highly recommend that tour our

17:49 guide was awesome very knowledgeable taught us all kinds of things about Cabo and there was a little funny little ending of the story I didn't know if you want to go into this but when we got off of the bus our friend who was with us left his brand-new iPhone on the bus and only realized that when we were on the

18:08 water taxi or water shuttle back to the cruise ship about halfway there and as he freaked out luckily he was able to get a hold of the tour company they were very nice and within a few days and about two days upon arriving back home from the cruise our friend received his phone in excellent

18:25 condition and the company took great care of them and went out of their way to hook him up we did make a little video you can search through the videos and see that you know the missing iPhone video so check that one out for a good laugh but uh but that whole tour was fantastic in Cabo and we can't say

18:41 enough about it what was the name of the tour one more time it was called Cabo San Lucas deluxe slice highlight sightseeing excursion there you go through shore excursion here that's a company we use a lot they're very reliable we've had good experience with them so we'll highly recommend those guys all right now let's

18:58 say you go to Cabo and you want to spend a day on the beach cava is one of the most popular beaches called Medano beach it is a very short little water taxi ride from the port area you know where the tender but boat takes you across the way over to the beach it'll literally pull up on the

19:17 sand and with assistance you can hop right out now if you do have mobility issues this may be a concern for you and you may want to look into possibly a taxi now we actually once walked from the port to Madonna beads we didn't know was gonna be so far it was about a 30-plus minute walk and we were pretty

19:35 tired afterwards so you can do it although we may not recommend it now a little bit information about Madonna Beach first time we went there was amazing and it's still a great spot to go one of the neatest things about it is the view from the beach is looking right out at yours and whatever the cruise

19:51 ships are anchored right out of the water so the view is fantastic to one side you see the arch that we mentioned earlier which is gorgeous and very popular and then you see your cruise ships and it looks fantastic the only downside to the beach it is extremely vendor heavy and what I mean by that is

20:09 that there's no regulations to who can be on the beach and anytime you're at one of the places they're hanging out you will get a lot of people coming up selling you things now sometimes it doesn't bother people other times it'll drive you crazy and it's really a simple no thanks and they'll walk away they

20:26 just offer it you say thanks but no thanks and they go but there are a lot of people doing it now whether or not you're just hanging out on the beach at any particular spot or if you go to one of the bar restaurants there because there's a lineup of a places to go there's Billikens

20:42 the office the mango deck and these are all very popular hotspots you can get a chair a table and they'll come out and serve you drinks food all that good stuff and sometimes you can get a very Spring Break like feeling it's heavy party environment and stuff like that if you're ever there into the evening even

21:01 more so but McDonald beats its extremely popular tons of people go if you like the party and get a little crazy it's definitely a place to go if you're looking for quiet beats time I'd stay away and maybe looking some other options but if you're down with a party McDonald Beach spend a couple five bucks

21:20 a person maybe less getting over there on a water taxi and you will have a great party time alright if you're looking for our Beach this may be more secluded kind of quiet you can take a water taxi or even there are some excursions you can purchase that goal here as well and that is take a little

21:38 bone over to Lover's Beach that is kind of out towards the arch air that we spoke of and it's there's nothing really out there it is like a beach there's no facilities so make sure you plan accordingly and take everything you're going to need but you can lay there and just feel like you're in

21:56 heaven oh yeah totally organic beets experience you the water the sand the view and nothing else so uh bring a towel bring a bottle of water no laughing yes and if you need a bathroom it's all around you it's called the ocean but other than that it's an amazing time sorry to be but I want to

22:14 be blunt I want to tell you guys what to expect so that's the deal so but that's beautiful yeah it's gorgeous you're gonna be laying there and a few feet away could be a sea lion climbing up and Sun themselves on a rock and you'll see lots of boats coming in for looking and leaving again and everyone will be

22:28 jealous as they say you just camped out on the on the sand and all your glory so check it out what's it called lovers beach beach all right a couple more things I'm gonna add to our list of recommended things to do in Cabo is cobble is also a great place to take some ATV and Jeep excursions you can

22:45 kind of go out see the country a little bit there as well so I will there are many many companies that do this so I will post if that's something you're kind of into I will post in the description box below a couple links of some recommended companies that are that are great ones to use if you plan to do

23:03 this activity for sure and sure I mentioned we're gonna post some reputable companies and the links but that doesn't mean you have to use them if you want to do research on your own we spend a lot of time looking at a Trip Advisor and then we will also cross-reference what we see on

23:17 TripAdvisor with other places because you may have heard on occasion there can be inflated reviews additional reviews put in by people who may not be legitimate we're always where you're that kind of stuff so we'll look at TripAdvisor we'll read the reviews properly and try to make sure that they are real legitimate

23:33 we'll see who's posting them and try to make sure that someone who's made a number of reviews already or has been involved on the on the website and then maybe we'll cross over to Google reviews or another page like that just to see if there's a similar and the same type of feedback and make sure that everything

23:48 is on the up-and-up so take our word for it probably a good experience but if not do a little homework and you'll find some very good options it's always good to do your research yes for sure all right so no video talking about Cabo San Lucas would be complete without the most poppers the thing to do they're almost

24:04 by far sport fishing Cabo when you come into the port you go right into the marina you'll see some of the most beautiful gorgeous sport fishing boats there are and you can take time to charter a boat spend a half-day or full-day based on on how long your ship is in port you can make those arranged a head of time but

24:23 you can spend the day out on the water doing some amazing sport fishing you can land the Marlin of a lifetime you can find everything from shark grouper tuna I'm in the whole nine yards you can do bottom fishing you can go out in sport fish and troll fish you can do all kinds of things like that there's so many

24:42 places that can take you out the best thing to do is do your homework do your research again find the information on website like a Trip Advisor then go check out individual websites you can compare pricing you're going to want to look for a company that will supply you with all the equipment all the bait most

24:59 places will have a little bit of snack and drink as well make sure that they provide licensing too because you will need unique licenses for a day of fishing in Mexico there may be some certain species licensing too so make sure the company takes care of that for you and it's all gonna be within moments

25:15 of getting off the cruise ship so spend the day fishing it'll cost you a couple bucks if you go with a few friends you can split it and it'll be one of the most memorable experience that you'll ever have I love doing a little fishing and Cabo is one of the greatest places to do it so go check that out all right

25:33 so that's about gonna wrap up our video for all of our fun things to see and do and things we recommend while you're hanging out down in the Mexican Riviera at Puerto Vallarta Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas now remember anything we talked about which was specific tour guides things of that nature we're gonna put

25:49 links in the description below so make sure you scroll down there and check things out you can get a lot of information to follow up on what we were talking about with you guys well hope you enjoyed our recommendations on things to do in the Mexican Riviera next time you visit there and if you like

26:04 this video and are three give us a thumbs up please share our video to all your fellow cruiser and traveler friends and hit the subscribe button make sure that you click on that bell so you get notified when our other videos come on remember to check us out Monday nights on a little live show once you

26:21 subscribe and get notifications you'll be aware of that too it's a goofy little hour to two hours that we just spend chatting talking about cruising personal stuff having great conversation with others and makes you also check us out on Facebook at Sharon at sea cruise crew and we did it to having a little fun

26:39 there as well and listen we appreciate you watching thanks for sending some time with us and by all means make sure happy cursing [Music] [Applause]