You should avoid paying in USD or other currencies and pay in Pesos. Most all places take USD and other currencies, but you’ll get more for your money in pesos. Local establishments will round down on the exchange and you will be losing money paying in USD or other currencies. Sometimes as a high as 30%. You can exchange at the airport before you go plus there are Internationally known and local bank ATM’s located within walking distance from our condo along Olas Altas. Banks like Santader, CIBanco, Banorte to name a few. There are also some exchange kiosks along Olas Altas as well. They are safe and reliable and do offer good exchange services for cash to cash exchange.
There are direct flights from major US cities on the main US airlines. American Airlines, Delta, United, Virgin, Southwest, Alaska and Frontier. There are also connecting flights on some Mexican airlines.
When you want to take a cab back to the condo, you should expect to pay around 50 – 70 pesos from nearly anywhere in Old Town/Zona Romantica. Roughly $3! Always tell the cab driver where you are going and agree to the fare before you get into the cab. To get to the airport from our condo, expect to pay 150-170 pesos, but again confirm the charge before your trip, just so there are no misunderstandings at the airport.
We’re normally generous tippers for good service. We feel like we’re already getting food and drinks at such a good price, so if the service is good we usually tip 20%. This is not required. Guidebooks quote 10% - 20% as the norm for tipping in PV. Service and quality get a higher tip.
PV water is safe, unlike other areas in Mexico. Our building has additional filtering processes on top of the cities very good filtering process, and if you’re drinking out of the refrigerator, you have yet another filtering process the water goes through. Ice at restaurants is delivered daily from a filtered source. We even use the ice at the beach from the beach clubs.