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Arthur Frommer Online
Arthur Frommer Online
Arthur Frommer OnlineComments, opinion and advice from the founder of Frommer's Travel Guides
Arthur Frommer Online
Arthur Frommer Online

Nov 14, 2007

For a highly comfortable, safe, cheap and interesting vacation in Mexico, consider a condo in the heart of Puerto Vallarta or Playa del Carmen

If you're still reeling from news of the plummeting value of the U.S. dollar against the Euro and the British Pound, replenish your high spirits with thoughts of Mexico. The dollar still does quite well south of the border, and every week brings news of remarkable vacations there.

At a recent conference in Panama, I met Sarah Booth, a perky young American woman who regaled me with talk of condo vacations in the big Mexican resort cities. Condos? They rarely existed in Mexico in previous years, and developers seemingly knew nothing except hotels. But that's all changed, and futuristic, balcony-equipped, high-rise apartment houses are springing up immediately alongside the beach in the very center of key Mexican resort cities. And Sarah Booth, an American, has built a thriving business by acting as a rental agent for Americans looking for a short-term (as little as a week, but more often two-to-four weeks) vacation rental.

Her websites are three: www.stayinmexicocondos.com, www.stayinpv.com, and www.stayinpdc.com. There you'll find enticing photos of the condos she represents, all in busy seaside areas dotted with restaurants, shops -- and groceries (where you can pick up the ingredients for your own home-cooked meals). Her condos are either one or two-bedrooms, with full kitchen and living room, plus other features depending on the specific property, and rates in high season (like January through April) average $700 a week for a one-bedroom condo (that's per condo, not per person) and $1100 a week for a two-bedroom condo (large enough to house four). You book by sending an e-mail to Sarah.

A condo in Mexico is a new kind of vacation, that doesn't involve the relative solitude of a vacation home rental; you're in a large, modern apartment house with a lobby staff and numerous neighbors. And you can't beat the rates, which reflect the continued strength of the U.S. dollar against the Mexican peso.

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