Romantic Puerto Vallarta

by Plaza Travel Consultant, Terri Cordes

If You�re headed to Puerto Vallarta and looking for a very special romantic dining experience, be sure to reserve your own oceanside private table for two at La Palapa Restaurant.

On The recommendation of the concierge at The Westin Regina, I had contacted La Palapa after checking out their web site. I was looking
for a romantic birthday dinner, and their web site presentation looked awesome. Lili Perez was very patient and helpful with my many e-mails back and forth asking questions!

Once we arrived in Puerto Vallarta, with the help of the concierge, I called Lili and re-confirmed our Romantic Dinner reservation for Saturday at 7:30pm. We arrived at the restaurant just before sunset and were escorted to our very own private dining "suite" at the oceans edge. Our table was lit all around us by glowing candles and flaming tiki torches. It was also protected by a white canopy-just in case Mother Nature did not cooperate! (She did-no rain!) We ordered a cocktail and watched one of Puerto Vallarta's famous sunsets....

We were then treated to a delicious four course meal-at a very slow and leisurely pace-no rushing at all. The food was scrumptiously prepared and presented beautifully. The service was top notch. After dinner we moved over to the two lounge chairs that were set up for us
several feet from our dining table. There we enjoyed sinfully rich desserts along with a glowing private bonfire-lit for us by the restaurant staff. They even had marshmallows for us to toast on the fire!

Our dining experience lasted close to four hours, with Carlos, the manager, checking on us every now and them to be sure all was okay (never being intrusive). This was by far the most romantic dinner that I have ever experienced-and was a big Birthday hit!

La Palapa offers 2 four course set menus to choose from, including a bottle of wine, or cocktails-at a very reasonable all-inclusive price. For those who don't like their choices to be limited, they will set up the ocean side table for a small fee and you can order anything that you wish from their delicious menu choices. While we were in Puerto Vallarta, we had the opportunity to visit La Palapa's sister restaurant, La Fonda, totally by accident! We found the service and the ambience there to be just as lovely. La Fonda is set up on the hill, overlooking the city and the jungle -and Ramone-the manager, was one of the friendliest people that we met during our visit to Puerto Vallarta! You can check out La Palapa at www.lapalapapv.com.

Terri Cordes