In Mexico with No Luggage and No Hotel

Dear Jen and Tom,

I know the honeymoon is supposed to be one of the most magical times in a marriage, but mine made me rethink my whole relationship.

My newly wed husband usually has everything in order so when he offered to plan the honeymoon, I had no concerns. I did suggest that we book through a travel agent, but he assured me that he travels all the time for business and that planning a vacation wouldn't be nearly as difficult. Based off of our honeymoon, it's hard for me to believe he has a job, and only later did I find out that his company makes all his travel arrangements for him.

We were married on the beautiful Coronado Island in front of all of our friends and family. The ceremony along with the reception was beautiful, more than I could have ever imagined. There were elegant flowers decorating the venue, gourmet food, and incredible sounds coming out of the speakers. I thought this night would be a foreshadowing of our honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, but was I ever wrong.

My husband suggested Puerto Vallarta because he studied abroad in Mexico in college and told me that this location would be ideal. He claimed it would be better than Hawaii, but for half the price. It ended up being the exact opposite.

We flew out of San Diego the morning following our wedding and landed in Puerto Vallarta within a few short hours to find ourselves stuck in the midst of a massive thunderstorm. My husband failed to realize that Mexico does have a rainy season, and that our week long honeymoon stay was planned right in the middle of it.

After we landed, wouldn't you have guessed that our luggage got lost? Well it did. I'm not sure how since it was a direct flight, but the airline said it may have just been left at San Diego Airport. This wouldn't have been a big deal except, when the airline asked where we were staying, my husband revealed that he had not yet booked a hotel room!!!!

This immediately infuriated me. I was shocked. How could he have done something so stupid? He claimed that he wasn't sure which hotel he liked best off of the internet pictures so he wanted to see them all before he booked one. Ugh, had he just consulted a travel agent, they could have given up their valuable insight and secured us a room.

We left the airport with no bags and no hotel, but my husband assured me everything would work itself out by the end of the day. Another misleading statement.

When we went to get in a taxi, my husband who prior to this trip claimed to speak Spanish, had some serious communication issues with the taxi driver. The driver didn't understand my husbands horrible Spanish, and my husband didn't understand anything the driver was saying, including the pricing or routes the driver was suggesting for his services. It took us almost an hour to get from the airport to where the oceanfront hotels are located, and mind you by most other online accounts I read the average ride time was 15 to 20 minutes!

When we got down to the beach, I refused to let my husband make any further plans. I wanted to go with distinguished hotel brands that I knew had a good reputation worldwide. But before I could do that, we had to pay the taxi driver who wanted nearly every single dollar we had on us. It was insane how much this driver ripped us off. Good thing my husband's job doesn't involve negotiations.

There I was, running through the pouring rain and thunder into a well known American owned hotel chain, only to find out that due to a huge Mexican sports industry conference and renovations during the slow rainy season, the hotel had no available rooms for the entire duration of our honeymoon. I was horrified. I ran several blocks down to another hotel I had heard of, same story. Apparently my husband failed to do any adequate research, and as a result there we were in Mexico with no luggage, no hotel, and no real way of getting either.

Don't get me wrong, there were some hotels available, but certainly not any I had planned on spending my honeymoon in. So due to my husbands lack of planning, I spent the first night of my honeymoon in a hostel and went straight back to the airport in the morning. They still had no clue where my bag was, so I decided to cut my losses and get the first flight back home. The only problem with that was that a return ticket home was almost triple of what my round trip ticket there was. The combination of the round trip non negotiable ticket and the one way ticket home was far more expensive than round trip airfare to Hawaii. I didn't care though, I'd sell the China set we just got at the wedding if I had to. I needed to get back home.

Needless to say, my husband and I had limited communication during our travel home, but to my relief when I arrived at the front door I found a notification from FedEx letting me know that they had tried to deliver my luggage. Apparently my husband with his “expert Spanish skills” from studying abroad in college misread the lost luggage form and requested that the luggage be sent to our house in California instead of the airport in Puerto Vallarta. I was angry, but at this point I was just relieved to know someone had my personal belongings.

From now on, it's safe to say I'll leave booking arrangements to the professionals.

Sincerely,

Brenda Walters