I didn't find a thread like this for PV and I searched google for one and don't think one exists yet on 2p2. Anybody already down there that's been for a while?

I'm moving to PV January 10th for 3 or 4 months. Just making the thread for anyone to post of interesting things they have done there, or things they've heard of doing and haven't done yet. Also any helpful tips for people who are moving there soon or thinking of moving there. The person I'm moving there with has already been down there for a few months so that should help but any other input will be great.

I'm not totally sure where the place we're living at is but the links he sent me on Craigslist of "similar" places all said Nuevo Vallarta. I think that's some sort of neighborhood or something? Not sure if "neighborhood" is the correct term down there, just what I'm used to since I live in NYC.

I have some pretty serious/high goals set in terms of poker/money while I'm there so won't be going out a ton but also use quite a bit of balance in life and will definitely go out sometimes so any nightlife tips will also be great.

Does anyone down there know of any jiu jitsu gyms/instructors? A google search I tried earlier didn't help much. That's definitely one of my main concerns after just a normal gym which I'm pretty sure our condo/apt complex has inside of it.

Edit: Also yoga/pilates studio anywhere? Anybody that's been to one or numerous can you recommend a certain one or certain instructor on whatever schedule they have? More interested in pilates since I'll probably just do this one or two days a week while I'm there since I'll be more busy in general.

Edit #2: Also another thing I was curious on was mail service. I order stuff on Amazon quite a bit, if I do that while I'm there and have it shipped straight to PV is that the best way to go? Or should I just have stuff sent home to NY and have someone else send it to PV for me? Is there any type of service like there is in Rosarito where they give you a US address and do pickups? Obviously this is nowhere near the border so I'm assuming the answer is no...but just wondering. Also I'm getting my desktop and 2 monitors there so I need to know the best way to do that. Mail? Take on plane?

Nice, I split a house with a buddy last January in PV, just up the hill from the North end of the Malecon. If it was driving distance from Cali, I'd snap be back there for long stretches.

The weather was completely tits that time of year - highs around 80, didn't rain once all month, never got below 60, and the sunsets were pretty sick many nights.

Once nice thing is you don't have to worry about cabbies trying to rip you off everytime you want to go somewhere like many parts of Mexico. The fares are based on zones, and fixed/cheap - think it was like 60 pesos to get from the hotel zone to the Malecon (about 5 miles), and there's a surplus of cabs everywhere.

The beaches in PV itself weren't the best - did take a day trip to Sayulita (~1 hour drive) which had a much nicer beach and was a cool smaller tourist spot where you could even paddle board and surf.

The place is definitely touristy and caters to tourists, but there's more Mexican culture/normal city there, plus it grew up in part out of an art scene and has a more rounded vibe. Walked around drunk at night a number of times and never felt unsafe or saw anything iffy in the main tourist areas.

Think there's a number of 2+2'rs/lurkers who have spent time in PV, so maybe this thread will get some life.

I go several times a year, love it. Way more laid back than the other tourist traps (Cabo, Cancun, etc) with still plenty to do. Insanely beautiful.

- Nuevo is a good bit North ~25min drive from the heart of PV nightlife.

- Huge gay scene. You should be OK with this.

- Still lots of betches.

- Super safe. Never had any issues, ever.

As Gramps said, hit up Sayulita. I finally made it up there last month and needless to say, I'm heading back down in a couple of weeks. Surf, betches, cool vibe.

So, I was wrong. We're not going to Nuevo. My friend who was already there stayed at the Icon condos in PV. We're getting a 3 bedroom there starting in February if all goes according to plan. We booked a 2br place a couple blocks from there for January. This way were not stuck in a place for 3 months if we don't like it. We move in Jan 7th, I'm pretty pumped.

Well i live in Guadalajara so PV it's 4 hours driving, PV it's the principal place to go on vacation for people who live in Guadalajara, you can go to Guadalajara in you're spare time and have a great time there's tons of things to see in this city wich is the #2 in Mexico, about PV well the beaches aren't the best but you can go to a ''bucerias'' is 20 min to PV anyway the AMAZON thing there's no problem i always buy on AMAZON instead of buying in local stores the prices are way lower talking in electronics.

if you got more questions please reply I've been thousands of time in PV ooh almost forget it you can visit Mazamitla is like an Aspen without snow great place to rest it's like 2 hours from PV

Thanks Nutsh0t.

Does anyone know what an American has to do to apply for a work visa there? How hard is it to get? Is it possible for low skill jobs? I'm assuming not easy if even possible?

You're welcome to come on up to Sayulita and surf for a couple days 13-20 Jan! Drop me a PM if you end up in the area.

Ive spent some time here*, what about playing poker from PV, can an American citizen set up a rental there and grind pokerstars??

** It seemed very livable, rode that blue bus around and up into the hills and back for local color. The street soccer (football) was amazing quality. Those kids have skills and you can go out and watch the night games, really very entertaining. Good fishing too for yellowfin tuna which you can give to the locals or have a local cook prepare for you.

Does anyone know if you are allowed to actually go in the water at the beaches in PV?

I dont now but one day I went swiming there and found a coral reef just below the waves. By "found" I mean cut my legs open diving on top of some rocks. Point being, if you see some beach with no one swimming, there may be a submerged rock bed.

All day/night long.

I've been wanting to make this follow-up post for a while but haven't found time until just now.

I won't be on 2p2 much for a while so I will try to answer any questions you may have in this post, but feel free to ask below or via PM and when I am able...I will get back to you.

Plenty of tl;dr stuff below so here are Cliffs:

PV is super safe.
PV is really cool.
Live in old town. Plenty more to do than the hotel zone...trust me.
Do NOT live in the hotel zone.
Use Joe Fulmer (Vista Legre rentals) as a realtor.
If you want a super nice place: Molino De Agua condo's
If you want a decent place but not super nice, just have Joe show you a few different ones in old town. It's very easy to get moved in same day once you fly in.
Get Telmex high speed internet AND a backup service. Do NOT use Telecable as your sole internet service.
A lot of gay dudes.
About five cute women (total).
Zero hot women.
Plenty of hot dudes.
If you need a Mexico bank acct: Go to Santander next to the bridge in old town. It's near a pizza place called Bella Napoli.
I will ask another 2p2 member who's been here for a month to come post and I'm pretty sure he'll vouch for/agree with a lot of this.

I bolded what I thought to be the more important stuff.

I have been to PV 3 times now (technically 4, but left to Toronto for a week middle of 2nd time). Only went for a few weeks each time but know the city very well now and really like it.

The first time I stayed there about 2 weeks and I had a terrible experience and left telling myself I'd never go back. The reasons I didn't like it the first time were: 1) Our scumbag realtor scamming my roommate and I any chance he got, 2) lived in the North Hotel Zone, 3) First impression left bad taste in my mouth.

First trip I got there very beginning of the year in 2013. I asked my realtor explicitly more than once via e-mail if and when my place was ready and he replied "It's ready now!". So I booked my flight last second to fly out the next day and the first thing he says when I meet him is "Oh sorry the lady booked your place for new years!" (I had already paid for this place). So he made me book a different place, and pay for it, for 2 nights. Later found out he charged us twice as much as our place should have cost. Due to a couple different things, I'm literally 99.9% sure he told the owner we paid an amount similar to what it should have cost and kept the rest of the money.

I went back to PV in late-March and I was there for about a month although I left for 9 days in between to go home to NY and to Toronto. This trip I fell in love w/ the city. The main difference was that I lived in old town. The first trip was at a condo in the North Hotel Zone. The main differences to me between the two was just overall convenience. In the hotel zone you'll start to feel like you're in the middle of nowhere. You gotta walk quite far to find a decent place to eat, and even then you'll probably feel like you're eating the same food all the time. If you cook all your meals or eat at home this won't be as much of an issue, but I'm still pretty sure you'll prefer old town.

If you live in old town there are tons of places to eat within walking distance, my gym was literally a 10 second walk from my condo, sports bars nearby, and there's just way more stuff to do in general. If you live in the hotel zone, there's like nothing that's close enough to walk. You'll have an Oxxo (gas station - similar to 7-Eleven), maybe 1 random food place and like 8 other Oxxo's. If you don't mind taking cabs everywhere you go it might not be as annoying but this is nowhere near optimal and would get really annoying to almost anyone.

The condo's we stayed at in the hotel zone are pretty nice (The nicest hotel zone ones are called Icon Vallarta, Peninsula, Grand Ventian) but nowhere near what I would call Luxury. They are on the ocean and the view is cool and that's about it. Depending on the time of year you'll be paying quite a bit for a place there (Ex: 3br high season 3200-4k, low season 3br 2300-2800). In old town/centro there is a super nice complex called Molino De Agua. We never stayed there but did see a unit. Aside from a place I stayed in when I was in Melbourne for 2 weeks, this might be the nicest condo I've ever seen. It blows Icon/Peninsula/GV out of the water, and it's in Old Town so it's just way better in every way possible. As far as prices I'm not totally sure but I am confident in that I can tell you how to get the best price, and I would guess it's gonna be like 3k-4k/mo year round. The longer the lease you sign the cheaper it'll be. What I'd recommend though is just getting a decent condo in old town for way cheaper that's still pretty nice and has all the stuff around so you don't feel like you're in the middle of nowhere.

FWIW another 2p2 member I've known pretty well for a handful of years that previously lived in Vancouver has been here for the past month and he told me today that he thinks he might come back here. He had a pretty bad experience for the first 2 weeks of the trip too, so hopefully that helps say something about the city in general. It really is a pretty cool place. Also: I feel SUPER safe in PV. I lived in SoCal and Gilbert, AZ most of my life until college, Nebraska during college, and live in NYC now and have lived for at least weeks at a time in Toronto, Melbourne and Malta and I can honestly say I feel just as safe (if not more safe) in PV as I do any of those places.

Also, just as a side note: I'd hope this doesn't really matter to anybody, but a really high(er than normal) percentage of people in old town are gay. The clubs on the old-town side of the bridge (3 or 4 of them) are all gay clubs. There are clubs with less gay guys/more girls on the malecon which is also in centro/old town technically and is just a short walk from the area you'd likely be living in. You can also live on the Malecon, I'm just assuming more people than not that move to old town won't be on the malecon and will be on the other side of the bridge. These stats are for the other side of the bridge: If I had to guess, around 33-40% of the guys who live there are gay. You'll also obviously see employees that are working there and it's not as often the case with them, but still a decent % of them are.

As far as going out to clubs, etc. I'm not the person to ask because I've never gone out once in PV. I'd say just walk to the Malecon and pick one. Pretty easy at that point, they're right there and you can't miss them. I know one really big two story one is called ROO.

The condo I'm in now has a male stripper bar right out the window and you get a great view of the window to see into the VIP room where I've seen 3 blow jobs given and just about any gay stuff you can imagine. Pretty standard though, no biggie at all. And I'm probably gay too because I literally sit by the window staring for hours at 9pm when the place opens.

Another random note that's not an exaggeration of any kind at all: There's no good looking women in PV at all. I mean like, none. If you're there two weeks you might see 3 or 4 cute chicks, but I seriously doubt you'll see 1 hot one.

Taxi's are pretty cheap in general and you won't use them too often if you're living in old town anyways. You can get all the way to Walmart which is other side of town (past the hotel zone) for 70-80 pesos.

Recommendations:

Contact Joe Fulmer and Vista Legre rentals for help finding a place. He's very trustworthy and helpful. Do not deal w/ any other realtors. For more details as to why...PM me.

Get Telmex internet and ask Joe for the highest speed. Get a backup connection. Do NOT get Telecable internet as your only one. It sucks. If it's the backup, that's fine. Make sure you ask that this is possible (2 internet services) before you pay for your place. Telecable sucks in the sense that it goes out very regularly. I was using the internet to play poker but also to Skype w/ my girlfriend and use the phone, etc. and this stuff is obviously a pain in the ass when the internet goes out. It never really went out for an extended period of time so it's doable for poker and definitely okay for a backup, but definitely get Telmex.

Banking: Also, if this is your first time moving abroad and you still don't even have stars set up or need/want a Mexican bank acct for any reason....go to the Santander next to the bridge in old town. If you say that word for word to Joe or whichever realtor you're working with they should be able to guide you there. It's next to a pizza place called Bella Napoli (super awesome pizza place btw - crazy italian guys work there rocking their Edinson Cavani kits and yelling really loud throughout the day) and also very close to Anthropology male stripper bar. If you find a taxi who knows where either of those places are and they take you there you'll see Santander right there. To get an account there you need 6,000 pesos and a lease agreement or utility bill and they have an english speaking rep there during the day on weekdays.

And basically as an overall thought: Before I came here I knew that Rosarito and Playa were way more common destinations for poker players and I came here because a couple of my closer poker friends were here/coming here.

From the reviews I've read online from random tourists (not poker players) in PV vs Playa threads, Playa clearly blows PV away. But I just feel like there should be more poker players in PV in general and that the city is actually pretty cool.

I also think when you're actually living somewhere the differences stated in the Playa vs PV thread I remember reading would become minimal (cleaner water was one big one a lot of people mentioned, link below). For a vacation a random friend would be taking I'd tell them go to Playa just because of that thread, but if you're moving somewhere for a month or two to live there and play online I'd say it's more than worth a try.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic...Peninsula.html

Also forgot to add this in the long post:

Sportsbooks: If you bet sports at the sportsbooks there, they take out 4% of the profit on every ticket. So if you bet Tottenham -180 1800 pesos to win 1000 and they win, they take out 40 pesos from the 1000. So you will get back 1800 + 960. This is not like a substitution for vig, it's additional. The 4% is for the sportsbook at Peninsula Plaza and is the lowest we found. One other book was 5%. As far as I know all the books are in the hotel zone and there are none in old town, but I could be wrong about that...I only went to them a few times.

I don't think this is a law because of the fact that various sportsbooks differed in the percentage they took out. My old roommate Stephen had an idea that possibly these books are backed by someone other than the owners (basically they aren't sweating the action) and that the 4% they take from profits is their cut. So I guess they'd sort of be sweating the bets in this scenario because they'd want you to win so that they get their 40 pesos. But yeah...I dunno the reasoning for this and it's sort of tilting because it makes bets that are -110 both ways, -114.5 both ways. So probably just bet online if possible. Or just don't bet sports at all.

Moved to PV about a month ago. Really enjoying it so far and agree with pretty much everything above poster mentioned. Great place to live if you looking for a relaxed, beautiful place to be for a while. If anybody is every in town and interested in getting some food/drink shoot me a pm.

Told you:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05...usaolp00000008

But seriously, hahahahahahha at that article.

Hey guys

I'm currently living in Guadalajara but couldn't find a specific thread about it so I'm posting it here since PV is pretty close

I'm looking for a new or used screen for the time I'm staying here (until november). Can you recommend any stores I should look at? I'm from germany so I have no idea about any good US stores that might have a branch over here. I tried Amazon but the shipping and importing costs are pretty high and added ~$50 to the $100 screen I chose.

Thanks for any help

Might not be the latest and greatest, but Walmart should have a few choices.

I was at a Walmart yesterday and could only find some tv's starting from 2k pesos. Might have a look at another Walmart though. I think I saw another one at Soriana which was a bit cheaper. I don't really care about quality as long as it's working for the next few months because I can't take it with me anyway.

What about BestBuy? Are they any good+cheap?

Bestbuy should have some decent choices, not the best prices but certainly competitive. Also check out Office Depot. In general it is going to be difficult to find anything above 24in and all electronics are going to be more expensive than the state/europe.

Thanks! Had a look at the Office Depot website and they seem to have good choices! They have a store a couple blocks from here and I'll visit them tomorrow

Great thread with lots of good info. Many people still there playing poker? I've visited before and enjoy the city. I have a day job, but thinking of taking 2 months or so down there when I get some time off from work and this thread is selling it for me. I live in SoCal and was wondering if it is possible to just drive my car down? Also, for how long of a stay do I need to do anything like get a visa. I was thinking 2 months. Does that require any prior planning, or can I just go after I have a condo lined up? Final question: How long does it take to get a bank account set up, internet going, and money on Pokerstars? Should I begin this before I go down there or can i be up and running within a few days?

Thanks everyone!

Is anyone currently living there? Im looking for a a private bedroom and ideally bathroom for March and April of next year. I'll probably get my own place but if anyone has a room for rent let me know. Looking to spend around $800/mo and live near old town south PV.

not sure how a 2 year old thread is selling you on much, but yes you can drive down easily. I wouldn't get a visa, but you can for peace of mind if you wish, right after you cross the border there's a small building that does this. No planning required imo, set up a couple apts to view once you get down there - and if you are fluent in getting **** done then you could be up and running within 48 hours. Email stars beforehand and double check what all the requirements are