I'm Angie, a Malaysian living in Singapore, and I love Southeast Asia so much!
Even if I have only visited 6 of the 11 countries here. Perhaps being a small-town girl transitioned into a big-city woman gave me an opportunity to experience the regional charms from natural forest to concrete jungle, and the easy access to the local food culture put me right at home no matter where I go.
Over the past few years, I had the chance to meet a few long-term travellers from beyond, touring Southeast Asia. Often they would tell me that their favourite part about the region is the less touristy places, where they could put themselves right into the local experiences. I almost get what they mean - when I was researching for a Bali trip, I was so sick of repetitive contents about the same destinations and sights that I decided to forget about it, rented a scooter, and went about with my own exploration and schedule. Best decision ever made.
Bali aside, I began to think: what about everywhere ...
+ 370 others joined this month
Comments
I'm a travel writer who will be visiting Puerto Vallarta next week with a multi-generational family.
What are the absolute must-do activities and places to see?
Which tours/places are worth avoiding?
Give me your recs please!
β’ Places in the town to check out
β’ Eco-tours
β’ Foodie experiences (including nice restaurants)
β’ Nightlife
β’ Unique local experiences
Happy to chat with tour operators too β I can interview them for my articles or even book them for family tours.
Hi Amritha,
Hope you and the family have a blast in Vallarta! I spend a lot of time further up the coast in San Pancho and Lo De Marcos, and admittedly not much time in Vallarta. But from the time I have spent there, here are some standouts:
Place to check out:
- Tierra Huichol on the malecΓ³n to view some of the local huichol bead art (believe they have some of the string art in there too, which I also adore). Then to Galeria Colectika which has in the past showcased really beautiful high end versions.
- Mercado Emiliano Zapata is small, but still a nice example of a local Mexican markets. Get some produce, fresh tortillas, etc.
Foodie:
- Find a birria taco stand in the morning to enjoy a savoury breakfast, and be sure to get the cocome.
- Assuming you're flying in, TacΓ³n de Marlin across from the airport does pescado al pastor that is so, so good. (Also other seafood burritos, but the al pastor is the star.)
- If you have a car, Restaurant Don Fernando in San Vicente has excellent pescado zarandeado, a Nayarit-style grilled fish (Nayarit being the state just on the other side of the airport)
- Should still be mago season in the area, so eat your weight's worth
Nightlife:
- Look up the week's drag shows and have a blast.
Unique local experience:
- If you can get out to Boca de Tomatlan, there's a hike from there to Playa Las Animas where you'll find a load of beach restaurants. You can then hike back or take a boat (cost sometimes covered if you've eaten at a restaurant).
- There are various boat trips, depending on time of year and what you want to do. Look into them based on your interests, budget, family needs, etc.
Hi Anne, Thank you for recommendations!!
Dear Anne,
I was really impressed with your suggestions and the effort you put into helping a fellow member, Amritha.
I wanted to show you how your tips are displayed on our new app, i-raave, which introduces a completely new approach to reviews and list sharing.
I created a "raavelist" based on your recommendations, which you can view on the public web page here:
iraave.flutterflow.app/share/raavelistDetail?raavelist=eQmCV9veDRawRyS2mMUYGMuH4JA3%7CpgQKhGngKSSIS2ivGTzt
It may take a moment to load initially, but once it does, you'll be able to explore the list functionality. If you view it in the app, you can see and wishlist the various suggestions. Weβre working on improving the link load speed and structure, but the app itself is quite fast.
As a travel writer, you might consider creating raavelists for your top tips to share with your community. Iβd love to hear your feedback.
i-raave is a unique platform that offers personally curated, structured data for micro-communities to share and learn from. For more information, please visit our website at www.iraave.com
Best regards,
Stephen
Hi Anne,
You provided such a detailed response that I wanted to close the loop.
In the end, we found that staying at the Vidanta resort, which is pretty secluded and set off from the city, made it inconvenient to go into the city and explore. And they drained us with the timeshare presentations....
The only excursion we took was to San Sebastian, and I was traveling with an entire multi-generational family... so we were restricted.
Thank you SO much for your recos. Before I went to Puerto Vallarta, I had researched boat rides and city attractions as well. This was the first trip I've taken where none of it came to life because we spent most of our time within the resort given the resort amenities.
if I put together a blog post on this, I will reach out to you or give you a shoutout!!
Thanks so much for the follow up, always appreciate hearing how things went!
Glad you made it to San Sebastian, a very lovely little town. And hopefully those resort amenities were good outside of the sales pitches... (yikes!)