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• Birds, and birders, are on the move
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• Pioneer for a day
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• Pitch in, and your stay is cheap or free
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• Guest List/Andrew Slade's Top 5 North Shore campgrounds
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• Do It Now/Sign up for sports camp
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A room in the Zona Romantica

In a Puerto Vallarta neighborhood, B

In Mexico, few vacationing Midwesterners overlook the beach. But they may overlook something just as nice.

Mexico has beach resorts, but it also has B&Bs — lots of them. They were there long before high-rise, all-inclusive, American-style resorts brought in crowds of sun-starved Midwesterners on package tours.

And in Mexico, B&Bs tend to be self-selecting: Guests are there because they don't want to be at a resort. At least, that was true of the ones staying at Puerto Vallarta's Casa Andrea, where I had more fun hobnobbing with other travelers than I've had since I was 19 and traveling around Europe, staying in hostels.

We were all gringos — Americans, Canadians, Norwegians — but we wanted a more authentic Mexican experience, and we liked meeting other people. In the flower-filled courtyard, we traded stories and information over morning pastries and evening mojitos. Larry and Kathleen of Ottawa had just finished their fifth long driving tour of Mexico and gave us tips on renting cars and good places to stay. We told them about a good place to spend the day at the nearby beach.

Lynn of Chicago told us about a priest who built a school near a dump where children scavenge, and one day, Nancy of Spokane went with her to visit it. Darren and Tamara of Portland invited Lynn to go snorkeling with them and their young daughters. When they wanted to adopt one of the proprietor's rescue dogs, a Dalmatian-whippet mix named Polka Dot, and their airline wouldn't take it, Shannon and Aaron of San Francisco said they'd bring it for them.

Everyone had interesting travel stories to tell, and often, it was nearly noon before we ventured out of the courtyard, where you could read a book next to a gardenia bush and listen to a waterfall splash into the small pool. We also got to know Patricia, who prepared our morning eggs, quesadillas and waffles; Adan, who mixed margaritas and cared for the pool; and the owner, Andrea, who nurses abandoned "beach dogs'' back to health on her ranch outside town and, each day, brings a few to the B&B for the guests to fawn over.

Lynn Sprehe of Fox River Grove, Ill., was at Casa Andrea for the third time with her husband, Dave.

"We prefer B&Bs; you meet people, and it's more interesting,'' she said. "When we came here, we didn't want the American resort experience. We'd been to Cancun and stayed at a resort Dave's work paid for, and it was very nice, but you might as well be in the States.''

The Sprehes had come to Casa Andrea on a friend's recommendation. But like me, Larry Heide of Lanark, Ont., had seen Casa Andrea listed in a guidebook and then went to TripAdvisor to read its reviews. He started planning his trip last fall, often spending two or three hours a day on research, and he explained his techniques.

"I like to read reviews by Canadians, because we travel more than any race on Earth,'' he said. "Then I look at pictures, because if you bother to upload pictures, you must have really liked a place. I like to see what a property says about itself, and how much care they've taken on their content. So many times, you look at a picture and think, aw, that's just a snippet of a room.''

Casa Andrea, however, doesn't have the world's best web site.

"But it has rave reviews, and people always come back,'' Larry said. "And the Zona Romantica is the place to be, as far as I'm concerned. The atmosphere is more genuine, and it's in a gay neighborhood — the gay influence always gentrifies a place and makes it nicer, so I look for that. Staying in a B&B owned by a couple of gay guys always is a good bet.''

I'd also checked out Casa Andrea in person when I was in Puerto Vallarta last year. I'd wanted to stay there then, too, but Andrea and her husband, Ted, were slow to return my e-mail, so instead I reserved at Casa Isabel, a B&B that's higher-rated by TripAdvisor reviewers and has fancier rooms with panoramic views of Banderas Bay.

It was nice, but it wasn't "us.'' The wealthy Canadian owners hosted an evening barbecue with live music and drinks but otherwise rarely were seen; the Canadian manager did tours on the side and, when we weren't interested, lost interest in us. The Mexican staff didn't speak to us, as they did at Casa Andrea.

Still, it might not be for everyone. It's Mexican style, with rooms open to the outdoors. If you leave bits of food on the counter, tiny bugs will appear. It's two whole blocks from the beach.

The funny thing is, all of the 20 B&Bs listed on TripAdvisor get very good reviews, so there are plenty to pick from. The only hard part is, which one?

Last updated on April 3, 2008