BajaNomad - La Concha-La Paz

La Concha-La Paz

JaraHurd - 8-29-2008 at 08:33 PM

My wife and I recently stayed in the La Concha in La Paz. Our stay was six days. We had planned on staying a seventh day but Tropical Storm Julio convinced me to cancel and head north.

After staying in a somewhat pricey hotel in Loreto we opted for a 95 dollar a day room at La Concha. Our room was on the second floor. It was adequate and clean. Cable tv was nice and helped us stay connected to the Olympic results each night. The small fridge actually worked and chilled my Dr Pepper. There was a small balcony that faced the beach. The view of the SOC was spectacular. The shower (none of the hotels we stayed in had baths) warmed in a reasonable amount of time. Housekeeping was very responsive to our needs. The plumbing was good and the toilet flushed each time we used it.

The lobby had (free) coffee and (free) internet for the guests. The pool was nice as was the beach. there were a fair amount of children and families staying there as well. Although they did tend to cause a lot of noise at night, I did not mind but some might.

We ate at the restaurant one night. Good food with reasonable prices. Room service was the same.

The hotel is a few miles (3 I think???) north of La Paz. Although we mostly drove our own vehicle, we did pay the $8 taxi ride to town on the days when I could no longer tolerate the apparent absence of traffic laws in La Paz (am I the only one who sees the STOP signs??) . I take it that pedestrians do not have the right of way in Mexico???... whatever.

Just some feedback. We really enjoyed our stay at this hotel. Far from perfect but it was well worth the $95 we spent each night.

capt. mike - 8-30-2008 at 06:52 AM

i have always stayed at La Concha in la paz. it is truly a bargain for what you get there. the malecon is fun but no beach. glad to hear or read you discovered it.

lingililingili - 8-30-2008 at 08:29 AM

JaraHurd: am I the only one who sees the STOP signs??

I believe everyone sees them they just choose not to stop! This is definitely a sore spot between Steve and I. Steve says when in Mexico one must drive like the Mexicans or take a chance of getting rear ended. My response to that is "the Mexican isn't going to get the ticket"!

bajaguy - 8-30-2008 at 08:40 AM

My thougts are that you not only have to drive defensively, you have to drive offensively. When I finally get to be a "full timer" I plan on obtaining a somewhat sturdy vehicle to use for the in town forays. I was thinking about a used CalTrans snow plow truck (with the plow still attached)

vandenberg - 8-30-2008 at 09:04 AM

:lol:

Takes some getting used to, but after 20 years you will be driving like a native. :biggrin:

JaraHurd - 8-30-2008 at 12:31 PM

Lingillilli...I totally agree with you. Although it annoyed me I adjusted and drove like eveyone else. But I told my wife that sooner or later the dude driving the car with the California plates is gonna get cited. I did fall in love with intersections with 4-way stops because people were more or less forced to obey them and it was a little less chaotic! After a day or two I more or less learned about all of the one-way streets (which are oftem-surprise surpise..unmarked..), invisible stop signs, etc and drove like everyone else.

My mistake was taking a 2008 Honda Pilot to Mexico. I should have kept my 2004 Xterrra. Then I would have been less concerned with getting hit. I might follow BajaGuy's advice and buy that snow plow!!

In case anyone is wondering..I LOVED La Paz. I am just whining a bit!! Jon

JaraHurd - 8-30-2008 at 12:32 PM

Oh..I never did find any true public parking places in La Paz....truly a dog eat dog situation with the parking....

lingililingili - 8-30-2008 at 01:54 PM

JaraHurd: There are public parking lots in La Paz! There is one behind Burger King (where La Perla used to be) there is another a few doors down from Cafe Milano and another across the street from that same cafe.
You just have to know where to look!!

gnukid - 8-30-2008 at 02:31 PM

To Mike: The beach along the malecon is quite nice with shaded palapas perfect for a short break.

Stopping: La Paz has added lots of corner cops in the downtown and surrounding areas. They are putting an end to the rolling stop, seat belts are required and no cell phones while driving. If you play by those rules its pretty hard to get into trouble.

Parking: Available parking is everywhere but there are more cars then places to park, something like 600 spots in the immediate downtown and there are 1200 workers in that space alone not mention customers? They outfoxed themselves. IF you plan to shop somewhere you can pull up front and ask for a spot and they might make room for you. For example banks have lots of spots. Works great.

A planned multilevel structure is in the works in the mean time. So it makes sense to park and walk a few streets. In fact the downtown 16 de septiembre and the first few cross streets are likely to have few available spots ever. If you do find a spot make sure it is not green (reserved) white (bus) or red (restricted). IF you do get hassled insist on a ticket even if they argue they will take your plates--they will. The parking transit office os a few blocks away and you can pay right away and get your plate back for usually a few dollars.

Finally, do not ever feel fear from the threat of incarceration or "this is a very serious offense" from the police who do decide to bust you. Its best to laugh and laugh--at anything they say. There is nothing wrong with getting a ticket and paying for it, but there is something wrong with feeling coerced to pay a mordida, so don't do it and be confident that its quite simple for you to accept and pay a fine in the transit office. They are open til 9pm at night I think. My ticket for bad parking was about $3.

bajajazz - 8-30-2008 at 02:56 PM

I find it helps to regard Mexican stop signs as being the equivalent of a Gringo yield sign. I think it would instill more respect for the law if the signs here were changed accordingly.

I've been driving here (La Paz) for over 20 years now, and in the past year or so have noticed an increase in reckless driving due to the mainlanders coming here to find employment and bringing their lousy driving habits with them. La Pacenos (meaning natives) are very mellow people, not pushy, and they hardly ever use the horn.

Not so the new arrivals, they are a different breed of cat and their driving manners are lousy to non-existent. Many of them use their driving habits to express all kinds of pent-up passive/aggressive hostility. Too bad, it's changing the character of the place, something valuable is being lost.

Pedestrians?

JaraHurd - 8-30-2008 at 04:33 PM

Got it. What about pedestrians? Do they have to fend for themselves (I am talking about woman and children .....old ladies...etc..) or does the law technically say vehicles have to yield to them? I was amazed that peds were totally on their own. At times the traffic was fairly congested so some older folks were waiting awhile. Every time I allowed them to safely cross at an intersection I was honked at. Well, almost every time...Even the drivers in Europe were a tad bit better......but that was over 20 years ago.

JaraHurd - 8-30-2008 at 04:39 PM

Baja Jazz..I saw a lot of those sorts. I did like La Paz a lot. But I did not find it to be mellow. It was fun though. The malecon was great as was the food. But I am telling you man, there was no parking. Just on side streets and in front of businesses. And when it was busy...it was trying. But then again, I am not a patient person. When I asked the locals about the parking issue, they told me that the parking situation sucks.

And there were a lot of cops out on the streets. One even stopped me for drinking a cup of lo-carg Monster with ice in it. He politely told me that drinking in public was not allowed/tolerated. They cops were giving out a lot of tickets to vehicles but I am not sure what the violations were for. An apparent La Paz felony is parking your vehicle on the sea side of the street along the malecon. That was absolutely not tolerated.

capt. mike - 8-31-2008 at 06:39 AM

To Mike: The beach along the malecon is quite nice with shaded palapas perfect for a short break.

i agree, stayed many times along there, it's a totally diff ambiance.
but for the $$ i prefer a beach when i can get it. a pool with a swim up bar ain't too shabby either. one of the best ones of those was the old Castille at San Felipe. the one 3 miles south of town, i don't know what it is called now.

cajhawk - 9-11-2008 at 03:55 PM

Fiesta Inn just down the road is $95 as well. Cleaner, nice pool, nice shops around Marina. Food from room service a bit to be desired, but I like better than La Concha.

What about the Cortez Club????

JaraHurd - 9-11-2008 at 09:02 PM

Cajhawk..thanx for the input. I will consider that next time I go to La Paz which may be soon. I really enjoyed La Paz.

One of the reasons I enjoyed La Concha was it had a beach. It is also close to The Cortez Club, which would be convenient if one wanted to fish or dive.

Baja&Back - 9-11-2008 at 09:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by gnukid
Finally, do not ever feel fear from the threat of incarceration or "this is a very serious offense" from the police who do decide to bust you. Its best to laugh and laugh--at anything they say. There is nothing wrong with getting a ticket and paying for it, but there is something wrong with feeling coerced to pay a mordida, so don't do it and be confident that its quite simple for you to accept and pay a fine in the transit office. They are open til 9pm at night I think. My ticket for bad parking was about $3.

Our story:

3 car washers (the gritty rag & bucket brigade) swore up & down that we could park on the sidewalk BEHIND the red curb, because EVERYONE did it, and they would watch our truck while we went to Kiwi's on the Malecon for a drinK. Well, of course, 5 min later, a guy comes tearing into the restaurant yelling that the policia were unscrewing my license plate.

Went to the station & waited for my plate to come in so I could pay the fine. Finally told the desk sargeant that we were in a hurry to get back downtown to spend some more tourist dollars. The squad car came screaming in with siren & lights to deliver my plate.

Fine was $10.15 & the squad car escorted us back to the Malecon to find a legit parking space.
Love La Paz! :tumble:

capt. mike - 9-12-2008 at 07:20 AM

Fiesta Inn just down the road is $95 as well. Cleaner, nice pool, nice shops around Marina. Food from room service a bit to be desired, but I like better than La Concha.

interesting. i'd like to check that out. they do a 3 nite deal on behalf of Costa Brava Resort condominium sales.

msrla - 9-15-2008 at 01:39 PM

Just my two cents....we checked out Fiesta Inn when we were there in June, which is the busiest season at La Concha, btw.... the place seemed very nice from the pictures, and we are always looking for new and good places to check out in La Paz.

First of all, the place was like a ghost town... at 4pm when anyone out fishing is usually back for happy hour at least? We went to check out the non-existent beach....we thought we would have a drink/something to eat at the bar/restaurant which may have had one person in it, is set way off from the water, with no view except buildings -- we decided against eating there. (someone told us the picture of the swim up bar you see in the pretty photos is separate from the hotel and for the villa owners? correct me if I'm wrong someone, I'd be interested to know!) We had considered renting a condo there, but from this little visit, decided there was no reason to come back there again. The hotel rooms may be nicer and newer than at La Concha, but I'd prefer a smaller room (although we stay in the condos at La Concha for approx $100 /nite -- which is the way to go there) the beach, the bar,the character, the people any day over Fiesta Inn. The pictures are very deceiving -- and the way they have it laid out, WHAT were they thinking?

BTW -- the packages they offer? In my opinion, not such a bargain, especially the fishing and water sport options they are "offering".... price those out on your own and you will see what i mean, ridiculous... for what you're paying, not worth the condo presentation -- but, to each his own. :?:

capt. mike - 9-17-2008 at 07:06 AM

very good info, thx!!

cajhawk - 12-1-2008 at 05:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by capt. mike
very good info, thx!!

I'm looking at the webpage for Costa Baja. 4 nights at the Fiesta Inn, Complimentary lunch and dinner at the Marine Village Restaurants, use of the Owner's Beach Club for $299 per couple. What isn't a good deal about that?

fdt - 12-1-2008 at 08:20 PM

I have to be getting very old, this thread is taking me back to when I was in high school in La Paz and what is now La Concha was the "Hotel Escuela" a hotel school and what is now Marina Costa Baja was just a secluted beach were to go make out at night (cachumbear con las muchachas). :rolleyes:

there is an excellent trip report on BBP

capt. mike - 12-2-2008 at 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by cajhawk

Quote:

Originally posted by capt. mike
very good info, thx!!

about their stay at costa Brava.
plus this month's flying adventures mag has the Sea Lions at Los Islotes and the costa's dive package.