Carnival- Give Back with Purpose tour in Puerto Vallarta (safety/experience ?'s))

Carnival has a new Give Back with purpose excursion in Puerto Vallarta where you travel to Sayulita and San Pancho visiting local areas (restaurants, school, orphanage, and beach village). It sounds like a really neat experience. I can't find any reviews, has anyone gone on this excursion? I would love to hear any feedback on the experience.

Also, does anyone have any thoughts or concerns regarding safety in traveling to these two cities?

Carnival has a new Give Back with purpose excursion in Puerto Vallarta where you travel to Sayulita and San Pancho visiting local areas (restaurants, school, orphanage, and beach village). It sounds like a really neat experience. I can't find any reviews, has anyone gone on this excursion? I would love to hear any feedback on the experience.

 

Also, does anyone have any thoughts or concerns regarding safety in traveling to these two cities?

We cannot speak about the excursion since we do not do excursions. But we do live in PV part of the year and are quite familiar with Sayulita and less familar with San Francisco (also called San Pancho). We do not consider "safety" an issue in either of those towns...or in that part of Jalisco. Sayulita is a pretty popular town with "gringos" and is often thought of as the best surfing town in this part of Mexico. There are quite a few small shops and plenty of places to grab a snack or meal...with a few nice cafes located right on the beach/water.

Personally, we would say that if you have never visited Puerto Vallarta...save your money and just come into PV to enjoy our city. You can grab a bus (from outside the port) into town for 7.5 Pesos (about 40 cents). A shared taxi into town will only cost a few dollars a person. Puerto Vallarta is a larger city then Sayulita and has much more shopping and eating venues.

As to San Pancho, we assume they just added that to the excursion since its located along the route to Sayulita. It is a very small town with some charm. But we would not call it a popular destination for those who spend lots of time in the PV area....whereas Sayulita is actually a pretty popular day-trip. We have friends who will sometimes go out to Sayulita (from Puerto Vallarta) to simply have a day out of town.

Hank

P.S. The last time I went to Sayulita the water was so calm the only "surfing" was on paddle boards. But they do have their good surfing days and the town actually has some surf shops.

Hank, thank you so much for your reply! I believe the purpose of going to San Pancho is to meet up with a non-profit organization to do some volunteering in that community. I really appreciate your response, thank you. We are excited for the trip.

Hank, thank you so much for your reply! I believe the purpose of going to San Pancho is to meet up with a non-profit organization to do some volunteering in that community. I really appreciate your response, thank you. We are excited for the trip.

Now that is really cool. So we will share a little more about that topic. There are over 50,000 (some say 60,000) Americans and Canadians who spend time around the Bay of Bandaras (this includes PV)...and many live there year round or for many months a year (we are there 10 weeks this year). The large Ex pat community is very active with local charities, churches, etc. Ex Pats even have fund raisers for various local causes like orphanages and a home for abused children....and there are also several programs to help animals (PV is truly a town that loves dogs). So if you are helping out in the locale....bless you :). And a very Merry Christmas too.

Hank

Hank, thank you so much for your reply! I believe the purpose of going to San Pancho is to meet up with a non-profit organization to do some volunteering in that community. I really appreciate your response, thank you. We are excited for the trip.

You probably will visit the well known charity ""entre Amigos"" In San Pancho. Wonderful place, we had the pleasure of visting them a few times.

You can bring e.g. empty bottles, which they will recycle into glasses. Also clothes like T-shirts, jeans etc. are either re sold or used to make bags etc.

http://entreamigos.org.mx/

Thanks Ine for the info. I just went online and donated to the Charity. Read up on them on Trip Advisor and found out they do some great work. We spend lots of time in Puerto Vallarta and might make a trip to that area this coming winter. Sounds like they do a lot of good for the children there.:)

Wendy

Thanks Ine for the info. I just went online and donated to the Charity. Read up on them on Trip Advisor and found out they do some great work. We spend lots of time in Puerto Vallarta and might make a trip to that area this coming winter. Sounds like they do a lot of good for the children there.:)

 

Wendy

You will be so surprised to see what they do and what they can use. They also teach english, have a ""circus"course for kids etc. and a lot more. It is so amazing.

I know each Thursday there is a tour to the market in La Penita that makes a (short) stop at entre amigos and in Sayulita.