Shore excursions - Cabo, Puerta Vallarta, Mazatlan

We just returned from the 11 day Mexican Riviera Cruise (Celebrity Mercury) and I wanted to report on the excursions taken at each port of call.

Cabo San Lucas -

At this port four of us hired a cab to take us to San Jose del Cabo - (I believe it was $40 for 3 hours) Very nice small town atmosphere and we enjoyed the margaritas here. The driver showed us the various huge hotels and condos as well as the view areas to and from San Jose. His English was very limited but he tried hard!

Puerto Vallarta -

We took a ship excursion - San Sebastian Cultural Encounter by Air. Although it was pricey, (would have been cheaper direct thru http://www.vallarta-adventures.com/ because we were on a cruise ship we had to book thru the cruiseline. This was a fantastic excursion to a remote small mining town in the mountains - we tasted raizilla (spelling?) which is a liquor made from the wild agave, toured a coffee plantation and tasted some home-made fruit candies, went through a hacienda and given information about the history of the mining as well as one of the descendants explained her family history and background. It included a traditional Mexican lunch - Our tour guide Marteen could not have been nicer - definitely recommend this one but seating is extremely limited. There were only 10 of us - it's a small plane.

Mazatlan -

Ten of us did a tour with Mazatlan Frank - Colonial and City Tour - it was a good 6 hours - $50 per person. The tour included the brick yards, a furniture factory, a tile factory, a bakery, as well as churches. Frank's English is wonderful so for those who are concerned about communication - this won't be a problem. He was fantastic - also highly recommend -

http://www.mazatlan-frank.com

thanks for all the info,, sounds like you had a great time

happy holidays

melissa

We just returned from the 11 day Mexican Riviera Cruise (Celebrity Mercury) and I wanted to report on the excursions taken at each port of call.

Can you tell me if "ship time" matched "local time" at each of the ports? What time did Mercury arrive in PV?

Thanks for the review, especially the PV excursion. Have thought about doing that excursion but wondered if it would be worth the price.

Thanks for the info about the San Sebastian tour. We are doing the same tour next week. We leave on the Sapphire in 6 days - Yeah!:D

We've been to PV before, so we wanted to do something new and different. San Sebastian sounded like the perfect adventure.

You will absolutely love San Sebastian. If you have Marteen for a tour guide, say hi! It stands out as our most memorable port tour ever.

Unfortunately, they would not allow us to book it direct - we had to go thru the cruise line so it was about $35 to 40 more each, but we were still glad we did it.