My husband and I just spent 10 days at Casa Mirador in December 2005 for our honeymoon. We had a wonderful time! Lynda and Joe were really nice and very generous innkeepers. They have two great dogs: JJ, a Bassett Hound, and Marvin, who is a grey Terrier. So hopefully you're not allergic. Anyway, they were helpful in recommending things to do and places to eat while we were there. They also prepared a very nice breakfast each morning and we had a great turkey dinner with them and the other guests on Christmas Day. It was nice to get to know the other guests at the hotel too...all ages and from all different parts of the globe. I even took a day trip to Yelapa with one of the other guests while her husband and son went snorkeling and my husband relaxed at the Inn. I liked Yelapa so much I went back the next day with my husband. Great fun!

We stayed in the Sonido de las Olas room and it was exactly like it looks on their website....a very pretty, clean, comfortable room with a huge firm bed, a/c, and french doors that open up onto a semi-private terrace with uninterrupted views of the bay and steps, literally, to the ocean. I personally wouldn't recommend swimming in the ocean, however, because the water, at least in the winter, is freezing and the surf was too strong and dangerous. The beach itself isn't exactly the velvety sand you might expect from Hawaii. It's hard and pebbley and rough on your feet. But it's still lovely to listen to the sounds of the waves, especially at night. Our shower was hot but the water pressure isn't like it is here in the States. And you can't drink from the taps. They have bottled water in the room for you to use for drinking and brushing your teeth. Our room also had a mini-fridge, which was really great for stashing our leftovers, as well as a microwave, dishes, silverware, and other basic kitchen accoutrements. We even had lunch on our terrace a couple of days. I might also add that there is no TV in the room, but we liked it that way!

There are only 5 guest suites at the Inn, and I think they can only have a maximum of 12 guests at one time, which is nice. The pool was too cold for my taste but all of the terraces were a nice place to sit and relax and read a book. They all had beautiful views and were quiet for the most part. You do need to have strong legs to stay at the Inn, particularly in our room at the very bottom, because there are about 100 very steep stairs from street level to our room and we walked up and down those stairs several times a day. It's good exercise if you want it!

The Inn is about a 20 minute walk into town along the highway but it's a windy and hilly road and not as easy going as you might hope for. Bring comfortable shoes...sneakers preferred. There isn't really even a sidewalk along the side of the road so at points you have to walk along the edge of the road itself or in the dirt "gutters". Your alternatives, however, are to take the bus, which is 50 cents into town, per person each way, or to take a $4 cab ride each way. Either way, it's not too expensive and a fun adventure. The busses all travel around the whole bay so anywhere you want to go, a bus can get you there. And most of the bus and cab drivers speak English. In fact, almost all the locals in PV speak English. We managed to stay away from any time-share sellers and avoided the street vendors the best we could. The beach in town, Playa de los Muertos, is very crowded and there are tons of street vendors.

The Inn is also located next to another Hotel, the Lindomar, which has a noisy pool and hot tub area (which Casa Mirador guests can't use either) but they do have a full open-air bar and restaurant on the water's edge. They have a happy hour at the bar every night from 5pm to 6pm so be sure to stop in for a couple of cervezas and some guacamole and chips. The food at their restaurant was mediocre. Much better places to eat in town....we really enjoyed Cafe Des Artistes, la Bodega del Medio, Cafe de Olla, Kaiser Maximilians, Daiquiri Dick's, Brasil, and Boca Bento to name a few. We really enjoyed the non-mexican food in town that was great. But if you're craving Mexican, the little taquerias on the side streets are the best choices. There's also a new place that just opened up near Boca Bento called Joe Jack's Fish Shack. Joe Jack is a well known chef here in San Francisco so we wanted to eat there when we passed by but it wasn't serving food yet...they were serving excellent mojito's and sangria though and the menu looked fantastic!

All in all a great trip. The only negative feedback I would give is that i wish Linda and Joe warned us ahead of time that the week between Christmas and New Years is one of the busiest vacation times for PV. I guess we should have predicted that ourselves. The whole Bay seemed to double in size with travellers from all over the world, and tons from Mexico too. Traffic got really bad and we had a much more difficult time getting around. The buses passed us by too packed to take on any more passengers, cabs were harder to flag down, and getting reservations at most of the good restaurants during that week was close to impossible. So if you're going to be there that week, please try to book your dinners and adventures for that week in advance.