Archive for the 'Mexico' Category
Two California luxury hotels added to AAA’s 2010 Five Diamond Award list
November 6, 2009 2:45pm
Open less than a year, the Resort at Pelican Hill in Orange County like all hotels, has struggled against the tides of a beleaguered economy. But that doesn’t mean it can’t take a great compliment. The luxury coastal property is one of two California resorts that have danced into the exclusive ranks of AAA’s just-released Five Diamond Award list for 2010. [Corrected at 5:45 p.m. Nov. 6: An earlier version of this post said the Resort at Pelican Hill is south of Laguna Beach. It is north of Laguna Beach.]
California, with 20 five-diamond hotels, also added the opulent Grand del Mar in San Diego to its coffers.
The new Golden State additions join the company of some real longtimers, like the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, which has populated the list for 24 consecutive years, and the Peninsula Beverly Hills, with 17 consecutive years under its belt.
40% off Marriott and Renaissance leisure rates in Caribbean, Mexico & Costa Rica Resorts
November 2, 2009 10:55am
If you are a hotel chain snob, you’re going to want to put aside your inclinations and have a second look at this amazing deal. Marriott and Renaissance are offering 12 of their properties in the Caribbean, Mexico and Costa Rica at 40% off during high season this winter. So what? This hotel offer includes the JW Marriott Cancun Resort & Spa (pictured) a winner of the AAA Five Diamond Hotel Award for 2009. If you go to the Paradise by Marriott website, you can’t miss the sale. It has a great name that I wish other hotel and resort providers would adopt—”Life begins at 40%.”
Deal: Use promo code LLF to get 40% off leisure rates starting at:
JW Marriott Cancun Resort and Spa - $209 (usually starts at $349 without the deal)
CasaMagna Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa - $149 (usually starts at $249 without the deal)
CasaMagna Marriott Cancun Resort - $131 (usually starts at $219 without the deal)
Participating properties: St. Kitts Marriott, Frenchman’s Reef Marriott, Grand Cayman Marriott, Aruba Renaissance, Aruba Marriott, Curacao Marriott, Curacao Renaissance, San Juan Marriott, JW Marriott Cancun, Casa Magna Cancun Marriott, Puerto Vallarta Casa Magna Marriott and Los Suenos Marriott.
Dodgers cruise to the Mexican Riviera with Steve Garvey, Mariano Duncan and 2009 teammates
October 30, 2009 3:14pm
Dampen your post-season Dodger blues with a seven-day cruise on the Mexican Riviera out of Long Beach. It will feature former first-baseman Steve Garvey, first-base coach and former infielder Mariano Duncan and broadcaster Steve Lyons.
Interior staterooms start at $855 per person, but book soon: The cruise embarks Nov. 15. The trip, aboard Carnival Cruise lines, includes stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán and Cabo San Lucas. Also included are photo sessions, cocktail parties and Q&A sessions with the former ballplayers.
The ship returns to Long Beach on Nov. 22.
–Chris Erskine, Los Angeles Times deputy Travel editor
[The home runs may be over, but Dodger fans can celebrate aboard a special cruise; photo by Christina House/For The Times]
Mexico: Top-rated luxury resort in Riviera Maya offers half off and other perks
October 16, 2009 12:03pm
The consensus on Banyan Tree Mayakoba, a new-ish luxury resort on the southeast shore of Mexico’s Riviera Maya? Phenomenal, if you’re basing it on on TripAdvisor.com reviews.
The resort, which opened officially on the luxury development Mayakoba in March 2009, ranks No. 1 of 179 hotels in Playa del Carmen (Mayakoba is about six miles north of Playa del Carmen). Review descriptions include such comments as “best of the best” and “heaven on earth.”
Yes, this piece of luxury on the Caribbean coast is the kind that you pay a pretty penny for, but a stay here may have just become a little more accessible for some, with a current promotion meant to lure visitors before the holiday rush.
Deal: With the online-only special, book a three-night-minimum stay this fall and receive 50% off of the best available rate on the lowest price-level room, the “garden pool villa.” The starting rack rate on these rooms is $655 per night, pre-tax, so half off that means you pay $328 per night. The special also includes a complimentary daily breakfast buffet at the onsite Oriente restaurant for two people, and one 60-minute massage (plus 30 minutes of spa “relaxation time”) for one person. Read the rest of this entry »
Last-minute Club Med resort deal in October: Mexico, Bahamas, Caribbean
October 7, 2009 11:09am
There are still three more weeks in the month. Consider that when you hear that Club Med is offering a last-minute travel deal to Mexico, Bahamas and the Caribbean. Three-night getaways with departure dates this month start at $249 per person for its resorts at Cancun Yucatan and Ixtapa Pacific, Columbus Isle and Punta Cana, and Turkoise (adults only). But the sale is good for stays up to six nights, plus the seven-night Bahamas special.
Deal or no deal? When the sale crossed my desk, the first thing I noticed was that it was offering flights to the Bahamas for only $1 on Spirit Air. My gimmick detector went off, but I couldn’t help testing it anyway. The deal is valid on seven-night trips to Columbus Isle for flights out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., (FLL) on Oct. 24 and 31 and Nov. 7. I tested booking the trip online for a departure on Oct. 24, and the total price for the all-inclusive trip including the flight for one person came to $1,352. Note that in this deal the single supplement is being waved for select room grades.
7-day Mexican Riviera cruise for $299 from Norwegian Cruise Line ‘Deals of the Decade’ sale
October 6, 2009 8:29am
Norwegian Cruise Line is celebrating its 10-year anniversary of Freestyle Cruising with a big sale. Check out the “NCL Deals of the Decade” sale and find special offers up to 82% off the brochure price. Choose from itineraries that sail to the Bahamas and Florida, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Europe, Hawaii, Mexico and through the Panama Canal.
I had a look at Mexican Riviera cruises out of Southern California and found a seven-day cruise on the Norwegian Star with rates starting at $299 per person.
7-Day Mexican Riviera round-trip Los Angeles
This cruise aboard the Norwegian Star includes calls on Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. The departure dates that you could choose starting at $299 were Oct. 17, Oct. 24, Oct. 31, Nov. 7 and Nov. 14. Other dates were available at rates that started at $449 per person.
Cozumel dive-package deals in the off-season
September 30, 2009 5:57am
If getting a good travel deal is worth risking a rainy day, know that there are some deal-tastic dive packages to be found in Cozumel this fall. The busy season is mid-December through New Year’s, so you’ll find low rates from now until mid-November, with many incentives such as free scuba, free breakfast, evening dives, spa discounts and more.
Many of the highly rated hotels such as Hacienda San Miguel, Occidental Grand Cozumel and Cozumel Palace Resort, as well as other local hotels, have dive packages on their websites. I found an easy in-and-out package with three nights of hotel plus two days of diving for two people under $450 at the Coral Princess Hotel & Resort.
Deal: Get a three-day dive package that includes a deluxe jungle-view room, a complimentary daily American breakfast and two days of diving. Each guest will be entitled to two diving tanks per day. Packages start at $332 for a single room and $437 for a double room, taxes included. This rate is good until Nov. 19. The price goes up to $476 for a single and $582 for double occupancy Nov. 20-Dec. 17. Without a dive package, hotel rates are $75 per night plus tax for a Jungle view room and $90 per night plus tax for an Ocean View room through Nov. 19.
Four-day Baja Mexico cruise in 2010 for $154
September 25, 2009 5:56am
You could easily spend more money staying at home than hopping aboard one of Carnival’s four-night Baja cruises. These short, round-trip excursions from Long Beach stop at Catalina Island and Ensenada, Mexico — just a fun, quick and inexpensive dose of the cruising life.
Deal: On the Carnival Paradise, the trip is available to advance bookers for incredible prices, for certain dates in 2010. Book way ahead for the lowest price I’m seeing, which is for the sailing leaving Monday evening, Nov. 29, 2010 (and returning on Friday morning, Dec. 3). An interior stateroom is available for $154 per person (before taxes and fees; based on double occupancy). After taxes and fees, for two people, that’s a total of $393 — or less than $50 total, per person, per day.
Rest assured, you can still get a good deal not quite as far off. For sailings Jan. 18 and Feb. 1, 2010, pre-tax rates start at under $180 per person. Read the rest of this entry »
Normal waits reported at San Ysidro after Mexico border checkpoint reopens after shooting
September 23, 2009 10:02am
If you’re driving to or from Mexico today through the San Ysidro Port of Entry near San Diego, you can expect the usual waits of 45 minutes to an hour, not the hours of backups that plagued the checkpoint last night after a shooting incident, officials said this morning.
After the shootout involving U.S. agents and a convoy of suspected smugglers Tuesday afternoon that injured several people, all 24 northbound lanes were shut, said Angelica De Cima, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Diego. At 8 p.m., half the lanes were reopened, and at 4 a.m. today, the rest were reopened. Southbound lanes were not affected by the closures, she added.
As of 9 a.m. today, Customs and Border Protection was reporting 45-minute delays for passenger vehicles at San Ysidro, after posting hourlong delays earlier this morning, which is pretty normal there, the spokeswoman said. The agency regularly posts and updates a chart showing wait times for commercial and passenger vehicles and pedestrians at various checkpoints.
—Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor
Photo: A federal agent with a security dog watches vehicles waiting to enter the U.S. on Tuesday at the San Ysidro border crossing near San Diego. Credit: Lenny Ignelzi / Associated Press
Loreto, Mexico: Cozy up to whales, and sunset margaritas, on Sea Kayak Adventures trip
September 18, 2009 9:06am
For an up-close look at gray whales along their Pacific migratory route, you may have trouble beating a trip to Magdalena Bay, a two-hour drive from Loreto, Mexico. The protected inner coastal waterway, along the western coast of Baja California Sur, is a popular spot for whales giving birth and rearing their young.
According to Nancy Mertz, co-owner of Sea Kayak Adventures, the great creatures here readily approach skiffs, seemingly forgetting the days of whaling, when the very existence of the species was threatened.
One of the many companies offering whale-watching excursions in Baja California, Sea Kayak Adventures runs various types of tours — whale-watching and otherwise — in Mexico (and elsewhere internationally). One of its early-2010 trip types, in particular, might be of interest to those of you who don’t want to miss whale-watching season but have limited time for such an adventure. Read the rest of this entry »
