How Does That Save Money?
We’ve been considering taking a Mediterranean cruise this year—a shortened version of the one we had reserved in 2020 but was canceled when COVID-19 happened. When I looked at booking Virgin’s 7-Night Greek Island Glow plus a few days on each end to explore, we would easily spend around $15,000 US with airfare from Puerto Vallarta added. Even a Virgin Caribbean Cruise from San Juan, Puerto Rico, with the same criteria, wouldn’t save us much.
First Way to Save Money is Staycation Activities: We thought,
We live in Paradise! Why not take tours and dine at cruise-worthy restaurants in
the Puerto Vallarta area? We could splurge on adventures we haven’t done near
home and save money. By not flying anywhere, we could skip air travel, save
thousands of pesos, and be kind to the environment. By taking more day trips,
we could stay in our own Puerto Vallarta condominium or motorhome in Nayarit
and eliminate hotel expenses.
So, we started a Staycation List. El Dorado Beach Club was the first adventure we planned. El Dorado is one of our favorite seafood restaurants on the beach, but their dinner prices can be expensive. We decided to spend four daytime hours on their lounge chairs under an umbrella, gazing at the ocean and listening to the waves while we dined on less expensive breakfasts or lunches. It was wonderful!
Two lounge chairs can be reserved at El Dorado Beach Club from 11:00 to 3:30 for a minimum charge of 500 pesos (about $25 US, mรกs o menos, depending on the exchange rate that day) per person. Any food and drink we ordered would be applied to the 500 pesos—no problem to spend that much if we each ordered an alcoholic beverage along with our meals. We could order from the less expensive Beach Club menus rather than dinner menus and save money. El Dorado serves breakfast until noon, and then they start lunch service. We ordered orange juice and waited for lunch. It's essential to stay hydrated while on the beach!
Second Way to Save Money on Mexico Staycations: Pay in pesos, not US dollars. Look at the red box: $79.68 US means the restaurant gave an exchange rate that day of only 18.80 pesos per dollar. On that date (Jan 31, 2025), the exchange rate was 20.68 pesos per dollar (see Orange Arrow below), so our check amount of 1498 pesos divided by 20.68 would equal $72.43 US—paying in pesos saved $7.25 US! (We saved even more after we added a 20% tip in pesos.)
