Puerto Vallarta: What To Do
While we were staying at The Royal Suites Punta de Mita by Palladium, the hotel staff organized some really fun activities for us, both on and off-site.
If you read my last post, Puerto Vallarta: Where to Stay, then you already know about the fun activities that we enjoyed on site, but now I’ll share some of the highlights that they organized for us in and around town.
Whale Watching
The first day we woke up early for breakfast (yummy!), and then it was on to a whale watching tour. Being the big fan of Planet Earth that I am, I was pumped. The tour experience turned out to be everything that I hoped for and more.
We got really lucky, and were able to see a mother humpback whale and her baby! I’ve never been so close to such a large animal, and it was so amazing. Then our tour guide dropped a microphone into the water, so that we could listen to the whale songs, and it was so beautiful.
If you have a chance to whale watch, definitely take it! They’re incredibly majestic, and so much bigger than I imagined.
After hanging on the beach our second day, we decided to go out exploring in town for lunch. We hopped into a taxi and asked the driver to take us to his favorite restaurant. This turned out to be one of the best decisions of the entire trip.
Located a little bit outside of town, Langosta Feliz requires a drive to reach, but it’s SO worth it. I’m not even the biggest fan of seafood, but everything here was delicious. If you have a chance to go, get a little bit of everything to try, but whatever you do, don’t miss the lobster. It. Was. Incredible.
Marieta Islands Hidden Beach
Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to make it here, but the prospect of going makes me want to book a flight back to PV immediately. If you make it to PV and are hoping to go here, be sure to reserve as far in advance as you can. They only allow a very limited number of visitors into the beach each day (I believe 150), and it’s first come first serve, and weather dependent.
So, kind of the luck of the draw, but if you’re the winner it makes entering worthwhile, right? ;)
Sayulita
Our last day, we decided to visit the boho haven of Salulita. Our concierge from the Royal Suites organized a driver for us, and then we drove about 20 minutes to get there. Pretty much as soon as we hit the town, I started falling in love.
There are these colorful fiesta flags (not sure what they are actually called, so we’ll go with this) hanging between the buildings on most of the streets. They remind me of tibetan prayer flags a little, and they hang them so close together that they almost create a colorful awning over the streets.
The surf was up, so there were lots of cute surfer boys walking around (MUCH to my friend Annie’s delight, so pointed them out every two seconds lol), and there’s also great shopping and yummy food everywhere.
All of the shops in Sayulita were adorable, but my favorite by far was Evoke the Spirit. I didn’t realize it for the first few minutes that I was there, but I had followed the shop on Instagram for at least a year.
Once I saw the embellished cattle skulls on the wall, I realized that I had inadvertently stumbled into one of the stores that I had dreamed of visiting for a long time. I bought this really awesome Eye of God, and I can’t wait to hang it up in my house.
It was so hard to leave, because about halfway through my walking around and shopping experience, I realized that I just wanted to stay and live in Sayulita/Evoke the Spirit land forever. But alas, I had to go.