Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: Living Like the Locals - In Their Homes Alex Pulaski - Washington Post
go to original October 30, 2016

The tower at Casa de la Torre in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Photo by Josef Kandoll Wepplo / Casa de la Torre

My childhood vacations relied on the same unvarnished elements: fishing poles, campfires and a cramped tent. Trout for dinner. Possibly for lunch as well.

Thus, perhaps, is explained my adult vacation penchant for ritzy resorts graced by swaying palm trees and strutting peacocks. To me, a vacation constituted a getaway from the familiar. An escape. Therefore, over the course of three decades, I stubbornly refused to consider spending precious vacation time renting anything as mundane as someone else's home.

Admittedly, the home vacation rental landscape has lapped my expectations along the way, growing into a $100 billion industry. HomeAway, the market's biggest player, lists more than 1.2 million homes among its various websites.

This spring, I decided to see what we had been missing. A year after visiting Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, we were eager to return. But this time, there would be no resorts. No swim-up bar.

In part, it was a decision of necessity: Our family of five can no longer slyly slip into a standard hotel room. In addition, some relatives wanted to join us for a few days at the week's end.

If sharing a home would keep us together, save money and simultaneously satisfy my need for getaway adventure, I was all for it. Little did we guess that besides the realized savings, we were in store for adventures and personal connections that are all but impossible to find within the boundaries of the hotel experience.

Relationships were cemented, and we dove more deeply into the country's culture and its people. As I look back now, the memories seem more vivid, more genuine than usual - particularly those that surfaced from the most humble of the homes we rented.

I designed our home-rental vacation adventure in three segments: an elegant home in Puerto Vallarta's city center, a simple beachfront cottage in an isolated village and a fantasy villa overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Some lingering trepidation haunted me, however, as we parked our rental van in front of the first of the three dwellings.

What if the toilet got clogged? Who could take the place of the hotel staff? What about meals? How would the homes measure up against a hotel stay? Would reality match the promise of the website photos?

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