Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Have you dreamed of going to Puerto Vallarta? Follow me along on my fun day trip in PV! It was a day full of tacos, margaritas, swimming with sea lions and the BEST homemade churros I have ever had! 

This post is sponsored by Princess Cruises. All opinions are 100% my own.

Just a few days ago I filled you in on my day in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico and now I’m here to tell you all about Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! I had such an amazing day in PV I’m not sure if I liked it better than Cabo or if it’s a tie – maybe go with a tie. Why pick one when you can have both?

The day started with swimming with a sea lion then ended with ceviche, tacos, margaritas, churros and an amazing sunset. How can you beat a day like that? 

(Thank you, Julie, for letting me use this photo!)

The day started with an excursion that I had been looking forward to the WHOLE CRUISE! It was finally my time to swim with the sea lions! They have always reminded me of dog mermaids so naturally, that made me want to get into the water and hang out with them. I’m happy to report it was an amazing time and the whole group ended up having a great time. I say that because I’m pretty sure half of the people in my group were standoffish about the whole sea lion thing. BUT that cute dopey sea lion face totally won everyone ever!

Also, they are totally like dogs with fins. If I could get one for my house I would.

I snapped a picture of this little dinosaur-era relic while I was eating lunch. They were all over trying to steal people’s food. Luckily they seemed pretty docile but man are they BIG! Also, can I just say the best thing about booking an excursion through the cruise line is that you get off the boat, follow the sign for your excursion, get the bus, get out at the excursion, have fun, get back on the bus and then get back to the boat. They make it soooooo easy and stress-free! That is my vacation motto!

After our day of swimming with sea lions, we went back to the boat, showered, got changed and headed back out for a day on the town! We picked up a cab driver and for a reasonable amount of money, he drove us around for the whole day. We would tell him what we wanted and he would drive us there and wait. Not gonna lie – having a person drive is the BEST!

Naturally, we told him we were starving for good food and margaritas. We didn’t want a party/bar scene we wanted good food and drinks minus the tacky American style “let’s get wasted in Mexico” shenanigans. (I’m talking about you Señor Frog’s!)

He drove us down bumpy cobblestone streets and down a big hill that ended right at the edge of the beach. We got out and went into El Dorado Restaurant and ended up eating our weight in ceviche, tacos, margaritas (Sweet baby J SOOOO GOOD!) and dessert. We sat there for hours and the wait staff was amazing and friendly. PLUS they had fans that they positioned to blow right on us. There is nothing like sitting on the beach with the warm sun and a cool breeze from a fan. Seriously you guys – LUXURY!

After our meal (even though we were insanely stuffed) we begged the taxi driver to take us to get churros. Man OH MAN did he deliver! Fun fact: there is only ONE fresh hot churro maker in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and he knew where it was. I’m pretty much forever grateful for this guy for taking us.

We ordered 10 churros devoured them in record time. The way we were scarfing these down you would think we hadn’t eaten all day.

The funny part was when we went to pay the churro lady did not take American money and we had no pesos. So our taxi driver came to the rescue and paid for our churros. Don’t worry, we got him some churros and tipped him WELL as a giant thank you!

After we ate our churros we raced to the beach to snap a few sunset pictures. How gorgeous is that sunset? The sky was on FIRE! {Looking to plan your own Mexican adventure? Try a Mexican Rivera Cruise with Princess Cruises!}