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RE: Similarities and Differences Between Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
I am currently spending the last of two months in Mazatlan. There is a HUGE difference between the Gold Zone and Old Mazatlan. There are tons of young people in Old Mazatlan, there are two colleges in the area and a music/dance school. Most of the expats are Canadian, they call the Gold Zone "little Canada". The old part of the city is way more tranquilo. There are parks with music at night and lots of local vendors selling just about anything you can imagine.
LOVE me some Mazatlan. You can take a pulmina anywhere for between 50 and 100 pesos. Good times!!
Hey @gigantomachia, thanks for the info about old Maz. We spent most of our time in the golden zone and never saw old Mazatlán. Aside from the peoples' age have you experienced any other differences between what we wrote in this post about Maz and what you've experienced?
Pulmonias are pretty cool! You should be able to get them a bit cheaper than what you're paying - the locals pay 30 pesos. Or you can take an Uber for 21.90 for short drives or a bit more for longer drives. You'll definitely save some money taking Uber if you can do without the open-air experience of Pulmonias.
Enjoy your time there! We sure did!
Hi @tangerinetravels, and yeah there are quite a few differences really. Old Maz is way more "local", though the expats that live around here do come down from time to time and there are quite a few expats living in Old Maz as well. There are no burger kings or mcdonalds in Old Maz, the food is more local as well. You can buy fresh oysters right from the dudes that just got them from the ocean on the beach for example. There is a Looney Bean as well, the coffee shop that is more American than Mexican, but otherwise Old Maz is like most Mexican cities not taken over by tourism.
The biggest difference is the "parks". At night they have bands, dancers, all kinds of fun stuff. Mostly college kids looking to both practice their arts and maybe make a little money on the side. Though they had Jazz Fest this last weekend and those were actual bands; pretty damn good too. Again, Old Maz is way more chill and laid back than the Gold Zone. The GZ reminds me of Cancun or any other resort town, though better than most for sure as your review pointed out. I drove down from the states, so I stayed in some pretty "interesting" places along the way. I have also drove to Nicaragua and back a few years ago, so I knew my way around a bit. This is like my 5th time in Mexico. LOVE Mazatlan.
As to the pulmonias, yeah I get different prices depending on whether I haggle or not, but when you are haggling over a dollar or two I usually just give them their asking price even if it's a bit high. Most drivers rent their pulmonias so they have to pay to use them, and I make okay money so I don't mind paying a bit more. And yeah, I do uber if I want to go somewhere very far, as it is cheaper and meets me at my door. But sucking in the fumes of the pulmonia is just fun, and it makes understanding why they are named after a lung disease way easier.
Rage on!
We will definitely have to stay in Old Mazatlan the next time we come to the city. You've sold us! :) Sounds like they really do have totally different characters/vibes to learn and love. We didn't notice overcrowding from tourism in the Golden Zone, but the experience in San Blas definitely made us realize we could go for even less than what was there....probably something like Old Maz! Thanks for your detailed message, we really appreciate all the information and your perspectives on things!
As far as the Pulmonias, we found that most of them tried to "gringo price" us, even if we were speaking Spanish and asking for the price in pesos, not USD. Probably something we could get past if we spent more time there.
Btw - didn't realize "pulmonia" was a lung disease. Can't imagine they did that on purpose?
Haha, pulmonia is a lung disease and they totally did it on purpose. That is one of the things I love about Mexicans, they have a great sense of humor.