Excursions in Cabo SL, Puerto Vallarta, and/or Mazatlan for my elderly grandparents?

Hello! If anyone has ideas on excursions my grandparents could do in these ports, I'd greatly appreciate any advice. My grandmother has rhematoid arthritis and is pretty frail. She uses a wheelchair for any distance and can't do many stairs. My grandfather also can only walk short distances and uses a wheelchair. Both can get in and out of most cars though...

Any ideas? Thanks very much in advance.

Robin

Robin,

I've travelled to Puerto Vallara twice in the past 5 years. They've made many improvement to the sidewalk, & malecon(boardwalk) but I wouldn't suggest taking a wheelchair into the downtown area. The street's a very congested and the sidewalks are very high with a steep slope at the curb. There are city tour by bus which cover a great deal of the city.

Contract your cruise line directly and ask them to provide you with a list of excursions that are suitable for passenges with mobility issues.

Bruce

We have visited all three ports. Since none are wheelchair accessible and the cruise lines have not offered accessible excursions, we hired taxis to take us on tours. Doing so not only was not only easier for my husband who can not get on a bus, but it also allowed us to tailor the tour to our interests and saved us money.

Our favorite of these ports was Mazatlan where we went out towards the Sierra Madres visting an old church, a bakery and tile and brick makers. The tours of the other two ports were nothing special - mostly hotels. In fact, in Cabo San Lucas you might want to just "walk" from the ship toward the town. There is an accessible walkway by the harbor which is very pretty and some of the shops are accessible.

Note: Cabo San Lucas is a tender port so your grandparents may have difficulty getting ashore, especially if the water is rough.

We were in Cabos San Lucas 2 yrs ago. My husband decided not to take the tender into town even though the seas were fairly smooth. I went ashore with my friends and we used the walkway into town. Once you got into the center of the town it would be tough going in a wheelchair. There is really only restaurants and shopping and most shops had steps up or down and were to small to navigate. There are many, many street vendors and children selling trinkets and begging with their parents watching. If you buy from one you will be hounded by all the others. On our tender back to the ship later in the day the seas had gotten quite high. We had a rought tender ride back and our tender ended up hitting the side of the ship when docking. About 1/2 hr after we were back on board 2 Royal Caribbean tenders crashed into each other while they were trying to dock at their ship. My husband was glad he decided to stay onboard. That being said I really like Cabo San Lucas and wouldn't hesitate to go back again.

Carol

We went all over downtown PV on our last trip. Yes, the curb cuts are VERY steep, and most shops have 2-3 steps, but with a manual chair and a little sweat we got into nearly all the shops we were interested in. Just be sure to BACK down the steep curb cuts with assistance to be on the safe side.

There is an accessible transporation/tour company in PV as well, and we used them for a tour of the area that included an accessible tequila factory, shops in the resort areas of town, and lunch in an accessible restaurant in the Old Town area. They structured the trip for us, and we had a nice driver and English speaking guide in a full-sized van with wheelchair lift and standard tie-downs. They picked us up at the pier right at the gangway. Here is their website: http://www.accesiblemexico.com/

You can walk into town in Cabo...it is about a mile and little shade, but it can be done. Most cabs are vans here so unless you can step up a couple steps I would not plan on a cab.

Thank you so much for all who responded to my post. I briefly checked the message board from the ship and found your suggestions helpful.

We felt that tendering would be too much for my grandparents in Cabo, so they spent the day relaxing on the ship.

They got off in Mazatlan. The shuttle from the ship to the area where all the taxi's and tours left from was an open-air tram. It had a ramp, so we were able to get the wheelchairs in without too much trouble, but they drove fast and the ride was very bumpy. Luckily I remembered enough Spanish to ask the driver to drive very slowly. In Mazatlan we found that there was only 1 wheelchair accessible van and it had already been reserved. However, we found a very nice taxi driver, Juan Carlos (he was with the group of drivers wearing tan shirts). He was an excellent guide. He spoke great English and was very caring and helped a lot with the wheelchairs and made sure my grandparents were comfortable. He took us all over the city and then to a couple places to shop, as my grandmother requested.

In Puerto Vallarta we just wheeled the wheelchairs across the street to the tourist shopping area near the port. My grandparents were tired and didn't want to do more than that. The streets were cobblestone downtown and the curbs did appear high, so it might not have been best for them. We would have taken a taxi van if they had been up to it.

Overall, it was a great trip. Thanks again for your input. If anyone has questions about those 3 ports or the Vision of the Seas (RCI), I would be glad to try to answer them.

Robin