You may recall my (first!) blog post from last week about our 5-day all-inclusive stay at the Crown Paradise Club Puerto Vallarta just before Christmas. While everyone was content with spending the entire 5-day stay at the resort, I wanted to do one thing off-site – swimming with dolphins, one of the many yet-to-do’s on my bucket list.
We went with the Dolphin Connection tour at Vallarta Adventures, which is a shallow-water encounter that offers a true face-to-face experience. It is perfect for families with young children. The company operates tours throughout all of Mexico, and offers regular discounts and free cancellation when you book in advance on their website. I managed to snag their incredible 2 for 1 offer a week before we were to leave for Mexico.
Travel Tip #1: While local bus transportation may save you a few dollars, it can take twice as long to get to your destination. I suggest grabbing a taxi if you have more than 3 in your party or are strapped for time. On the day of our tour, the concierge at the resort called for a taxi. The cost was 220 pesos and it was a 10-minute drive. The return trip was 240 pesos.
This tour made the top 10 funnest things we’ve ever done! The facility was clean, beautiful and the staff was very friendly. Everyone had to first sit through a 10-minute introduction about the facility and their dolphins. The trainer was very informative and super enthusiastic. We headed straight into the pool immediately after.
I knew dolphins are large mammals but until we got into that pool, I underestimated how big they really are! Evelyn, our four year old, was initially scared but calmed down after several minutes of watching our dolphin float a few feet away, waiting patiently for us to catch up.
We each got plenty of one-on-one interaction time with our assigned dolphin. Our dolphin was a playful one, gave an entertaining show including imitation a shark swimming (baby shark do-do-do-do-do). We got some amazing pictures taken by the staff. Check them out!
This was definitely one of a kind experience!
Travel Tip #2: Following your tour, you will be directed to a computer station to view the photos that were taken during the tour and the available photo packages. Don’t have a heart attack when you see the prices—some of the packages do run up to 10x the cost of the tour! If you are satisfied with strictly digital photos, do what we did. We waited several days before logging onto the Vallarta Adventures Photo Store website to purchase the smaller and less expensive digital photo package.
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