I just got back from Puerto Vallarta.   It is a resort town on Mexico`s Pacific coast.  It is known for its beaches, water sports and nightlife scene. Its cobblestone center is home to the ornate Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe church, boutique shops and a range of restaurants and bars.  El Malecon is a beachside promenade with contemporary sculptures, as well as bars, lounges and nightclubs.   

We stayed at the Riu Palace Pacifico.  A real true 5*.  It is located on the beach, 20 minutes from Puerto Vallarta International airport and 30 minutes to downtown Puerto Vallarta.  It has 445 suites, pool, infinity pool, sundeck.  They have a buffet, 4 specialty restaurants, 5 bars (including swim-up bar and sports bar). There also is a disco at the sister property the Riu Jalisco.  Also staying at this resort you have exchange privileges with the Riu Jalisco and Riu Vallarta.  The Riu Resorts also have great wedding packages.

The food is absolutely wonderful. The four restaurants are a Mexican, Japanese, Steak house,  Mediterranean,  The buffet restaurant has a wide selection from salad bars,  Mexican bar, seafood bar, pasta bar, hamburger and hot dog bar and a speciality dish  like anywhere from turkey to  roasts to ribs. 

The beach area is very big with lots of beach chairs.  Never had a problem on getting one.   If you like to stay around the pool area, you might have to get up early to reserve chairs for yourself.  A towel with a book will just about do it.

You can walk for a long time along the beach.  Not to far is a small town called Bucerias.  There is a great restaurant on the beach there called Fat Boys.  Cheap beers and great taco chips and guacamole. They also have a great market that offers a lot of different types of souvenirs. 

If you walk the other way for about 15 minutes you will reach the Riu Jalisco and Riu Vallarta which you can use their facilities.

 I would recommend it to couples, honeymooners.

Sailed on the Navigator of the Seas from Southampton on a 14 day Cruise.

I flew to London on Westjet and stayed in district called Pimlico.  The hotel that I chose was call The Sydney Hotel.  It was a quaint little hotel in a great location with lots of restaurants within walking distance.  The Victoria Station was also within walking distance.  I did a all day tour on the second day called Best of London Full-Day Tour with London Eye.  I highly recommend it. After a few nights in London I took a transfer to Southampton to board the Navigator of the Seas.

Our first stop was the Rock of Gibraltar.  The Rock of Gibraltar is a monolithic limestone promontory located in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, off the southwestern tip of Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is 426 m high.  The caves were just out of this world and the monkeys were funny too.

As we made our way across the ocean we ended up in Italy.  Italy is one of my favourite places. We docked in Civitavecchia.  You can opt to take a tour of Rome which I have been many times so I decided that I wanted to feel like I lived among the locals, so I ventured in the town and spent the day at the local Mercato (market) and had a wonderful lunch at a seaside restaurant.  Civitavecchia is a town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located 80 kilometres west-north-west of Rome, across the Mignone river.

As we cruised up the coast of Italy our next stop was Livorno (Florence).  I drove along the coast to a town called Porto Venere.  Porto Venere is a town and comune located on the Ligurian coast of Italy in the province of La Spezia. It comprises the three villages of Fezzano, Le Grazie and Porto Venere, and the three islands of Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto. I then travelled by boat along the Coast of Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is a string of centuries-old seaside villages on the rugged Italian Riviera coastline. In each of the 5 towns, colorful houses and vineyards cling to steep terraces, harbors are filled with fishing boats and trattorias turn out seafood specialties along with the Liguria region’s famous sauce, pesto. The Sentiero Azzurro cliffside hiking trail links the villages and offers sweeping sea vistas.

I then cruised to Genoa and took a boat tour to Portofino.  Portofino is a fishing village on the Italian Riviera coastline, southeast of Genoa city. Pastel-colored houses, high-end boutiques and seafood restaurants fringe its Piazzetta, a small cobbled square overlooking the harbor, which is lined with super-yachts. I had to stop for a Cappuccino and Apple Croissant at a local restaurant in the beautiful bay where the famous Andrea Bocelli did his concert. A path leads from the Piazzetta to Castello Brown, a 16th-century fortress and museum with art exhibitions and panoramic views of the town and the Ligurian Sea.

Nest stop was Malaga Spain. Málaga is a port city on southern Spain’s Costa del Sol, known for its high-rise hotels and resorts jutting up from yellow-sand beaches. Looming over that modern skyline are the city’s 2 massive hilltop citadels, the Alcazaba and ruined Gibralfaro, remnants of Moorish rule. The city's soaring Renaissance cathedral is nicknamed La Manquita ("one-armed lady") because one of its towers was curiously left unbuilt.

My last port was Lisbon.  The tour that I took was once a fishing village called Cascais and also visited the historical town of Sintra.  Cascais is a coastal town on a beautiful white sandy beach  and a municipality in Portugal, 30 kilometres west of Lisbon. It is a cosmopolitan suburb of the Portuguese capital and one of the richest municipalities in Portugal.  Sintra is a resort town in the foothills of Portugal’s Sintra Mountains, near the capital, Lisbon. A longtime royal sanctuary, its forested terrain is studded with pastel-colored villas and palaces. The Moorish- and Manueline-style Sintra National Palace is distinguished by dramatic twin chimneys and elaborate tilework. The hilltop 19th-century Pena National Palace is known for a whimsical design and sweeping views.

After the cruise I ended up staying an extra night at the Hampton Inn London Gatwick Airport Hotel.  Very convenient if you do not have a choice to fly out the same day that the cruise docks.