Dear Travel Journal,

My husband and I made our first foray into timeshare travel by doing an RCI exchange to the Grand Mayan in Nuevo Vallarta for a week. It proved to be an extremely happy experience and we can certainly recommend staying at this resort.

We had originally been booked into a one bedroom suite at the Mayan Palace which is located right next door, but we were offered an upgrade to the Grand Mayan if we attended a timeshare presentation the next day.

Having heard about the aggressive approach used by the timeshare people at the Mayan Resorts we initially declined the offer but then decided that since we knew we were not going to buy any timeshares in the resort anyway, we would go along to see what the presentation was like. It was a most interesting experience.

We were fascinated to see the offers improve as we declined each one. They kept offering us a better deal than the last one and we kept declining. In the end we all had breakfast together, they went on to other timeshare presentations and we went on to having a wonderful holiday at a truly lovely resort.

The Grand Mayan offered absolutely everything we could have wanted in a perfect Mexican vacation. You can read about all the amenities in your RCI directory. The resort was very clean, the staff were very polite and always helpful. Their collective objective was to make sure their guests enjoyed the best holiday the resort could provide. We were very impressed with how well the staff took care the people staying there.

Sunset in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

We also visited the restaurants and shops at the Mayan Palace and the Mayan Sea Gardens. We talked to several people staying at the Mayan Palace and they also were very happy with their resort. There were lots of planned activities at all three resorts. You could either participate in these varied activities or simply do your own thing.

There was a travel agent in the Grand Mayan who was very helpful in telling us about tours and trips that could be taken to the surrounding areas. We booked two trips through him and were very pleased with both of them. One was a city tour of Puerto Vallarta which also included lunch at a secluded restaurant in the jungle and a visit to a tequila factory along the way. We enjoyed this tour very much and the tour guide gave us lots of information about Puerto Vallarta and the surrounding area as we went along.

The second tour, and our favourite, was a day long trip to the old mining village of San Sebastian del Oeste located in the mountains about an hour's drive away from Puerto Vallarta. The village was founded in 1605 and has wonderful architecture from the colonial era. Unchanged since 1910, San Sebastian was an extremely interesting place to visit. The road to the village was like nothing we had ever travelled on before but the bus driver was in complete control and seemed unfazed by the many challenges of the road. Our tour guide, Victore, was absolutely wonderful at giving us information about the village and the history of Mexico as it related to what we saw. It was a wonderful learning experience for us.

There were interesting stops along the way which were always thoroughly explained by our friendly and very knowledgeable guide. If you want to see Mexico outside the resort area and are interested in Mexican history, this is a tour you will not want to miss. Both tours were by the TTF company and were readily booked for us in the Grand Mayan by the travel agent there. There is also a travel agent in the Mayan Palace.

All in all, we had a wonderful holiday in Mexico at the Grand Mayan. It is a great place to stay and we loved our time there. Our first RCI exchange has been a very positive experience and we are looking forward to travelling this way in the future.

- Jean McCormick