Honeymoon in Mexico or Costa Rica?

December 29, 2008 12:11 PM

Honeymoon filter: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico costs 1/4 what it would cost to honeymoon in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. Is there any reason we shouldn't just follow the money?

My fiance's uncle has offered us the use of his timeshare suite in Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon. Before he did this, we'd been researching Costa Rica and found a very knowledgeable travel agent to work up an itinerary. Here's the nuts and bolts:

Airfare, activities, lodging for 8 nights in Costa Rica: $X
Airfare, lodging for 6 nights in Mexico: $X/4

I know it's not quite apples-to-apples, but that's the best I've got. No matter how you slice it, Mexico is much less expensive.

So, what are the intangibles about each place that I don't know about? Is there a good reason to go with the trip to Manuel Antonio?

posted by specialnobodie to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

I need to see the real dollar figure here.

It's probably 4 or 5 stars compared to two stars for Mexico or something.

Things cost more for a reason.
posted by Zambrano at 12:19 PM on December 29, 2008

Isn't Costa Rica's currency more closely pegged to the USD? It's incredibly expensive. Nice beaches, but I think that you'd get better value for money out of Puerto Vallarta, even if the price was the same. It has more to offer for a tourist, and it's very laid back.
posted by Grrlscout at 12:37 PM on December 29, 2008

Both prices are in US dollars and lodging is(to the best of my knowledge) of equivalent star-level. That's a decent follow-up question to ask her uncle, though. Hopefully he'll have some photos of the timeshare.
posted by specialnobodie at 12:46 PM on December 29, 2008

I've been to both. Both are on the touristy side, Puerto Vallarta much more so. Manuel Antonio is the better trip all else being equal, but I don't know that it is 4 times as good. With the savings you can rent a car and drive up to Guadalajara for a day too and probably still spend less.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:02 PM on December 29, 2008

It could be the timeshare is in PVR is a shithole, or in a shithole neighborhood. Or the place the travel agent quoted is overpriced. There isn't an international standard for star levels. Google the hotel and timeshare names. You'd be surprised how many people have snaps of places on Flickr or other photo sites.

Since your algebra word problem doesn't include details like the neighborhood the PVR timeshare is in, or what the airfare difference is, what activities you're including in Costa Rica, it is hard make a proper comparison. Since the PVR itinerary is only 75% of the time you'd be in CR, that's some of the price difference right there.

PVR is a much bigger city than Manuel Antonio. PVR gets cruise ships and giant international branded hotels in addition to condos and timeshares and smaller mom+pop places (staying in the zona romantico/old town areas is much more laid back an not as big hotely). Manuel Antonio isn't as overrun with American fast food places and hotels yet and is more tranquilo. The national park is wonderful. But if your plans call for sitting under a palapa and drinking, you can do that at either.

Both are great. It really depends on the places you're talking about and what you're in the mood to do. If you can get pics of the uncle's timeshare, it might help you make up your mind.
posted by birdherder at 1:04 PM on December 29, 2008

We've been to Puerto Vallarta several times and have had lots of fun. There are some very good restaurants if you are willing to venture out, and the beaches have a great mountain backdrop.

With that said, generally the hotels in PV are a bit older, so depending on your expectations they may lack some of the more modern luxuries that you are looking for (flat screens, jacuzzi tubs, super-fancy waterfall pools, etc.) For us - clean bed, fresh food, potable water types - this was never an issue, but we have a couple of friends with upscale tastes and they were not impressed by their lodging.

If you know the name of the resort, search tripadvisor or similar review websites to see if there are dealbreakers (but understand that people on those sites have a tendency to be negative so there will surely be some gripes). Assuming there are not overwhelmingly poor reviews, I'd say go PV and put the money you saved into a fund for future vacations or new furniture or something.
posted by AgentRocket at 1:23 PM on December 29, 2008

nobodie, my wife and I went to Puerto Vallarta for our honeymoon, and I've been to Costa Rica, and while Costa Rica is an exquisite place, we had a wonderful time in Puerto Vallarta and got way more bang for our buck there.Chicago to Costa Rica is about 8 hours and includes at least one stop-over. Chicago to Puerto Vallarta is 4 hours, no stop-over, and cheaper.

Puerto Vallarta has fantastic restaurants in the downtown area -- there's an explosion of food and great chefs and they all know each other and often we'd go to one restaurant, talk to the chef, he'd mention his protege opened a place down the street, and we'd go to that place the next night for a completely different but totally amazing meal, and then hear about the chef's friend who has her own place that's up the hill and so on and so forth. Really great cooking there. Puerto Vallarta also has its own activities and such -- they're usually not as visually stunning and arresting as what you'll find in Costa Rica, but they're priced much better and truthfully just as fun. You can take a water taxi to any number of isolated and beautiful beaches on the south coast, and if you avoid the places where the tours go, you can have the beach to yourself.

I'll just put in a plug for the place we stayed at -- a b&b called Quinta Maria Cortez on the south end of old town, spacious old fashioned rooms, competitive prices, and wonderful breakfasts. The beach isn't exactly breathtaking but it has its own charm, and the pool is no bigger than your bathtub. Then again, there are only seven or eight rooms in the whole place. You feel like you're on your own adventure. We preferred it to larger hotels we've stayed at; perhaps you might too.
posted by incessant at 1:35 PM on December 29, 2008

Puerto Vallarta definitely has more of a party reputation, lots of drunken tourism. Take that into consideration, good or bad.
posted by shinynewnick at 1:48 PM on December 29, 2008

The beaches were not All That at Manuel Antonio (for instance, Cancun has way nicer beaches than the Manuel Antonio, CR area), but the rainforests were amazing. Don't know if Puerto Vallarta has rainforests. If you want to see a lot of amazing animals, birds, insects, snakes and want to hike or kayak or do a lot of nature trips, Costa Rica is paradise. Also, Manuel Antonio was the only beach area we went to - I've heard other Costa Rican beaches are much nicer.
posted by gt2 at 7:19 PM on December 29, 2008