As you know by now, we love to travel together either as a couple or as part of a bigger group. But, we also have an annual girls or guys trip to just focus on connecting with our friends. For Mike, it’s golf. For me, it’s Rocky Point (Puerto Peñasco), Mexico!
Rocky Point is the perfect place to getaway with the girls and stay on budget. Not only is it safe and easy to get to, it also has beautiful beaches with tons of fun activities! This blog is going to go into our top place to stay, how to save money ahead of time, what to pack, and what to do once you get there.
Scroll down past the logistics if you’re just looking for the fun stuff!
The Logistics
1.Where to Stay in Rocky Point ($100/person)
I’ve stayed at multiple resorts and even an AirBnb. By far, the best place to stay in Rocky Point is Las Palomas. It’s right on Sandy Beach (the nicest beach area) with every room overlooking the ocean. On my last trip, we stayed in a 3 bedroom 2 bath condo for $105/person for 2 nights during peak season. Pro tip: try to schedule your trip to check out on a weekday rather than Sunday to avoid HOURS in line at the border crossing.
Wristbands are required to be in the resort area which means vendors and people from other hotels won’t come in and bother you. It also means you can’t just fit people in last minute. Make sure to be upfront about how many people are staying in your condo. If something changes, let the resort know ahead of time.
TIP: If you are going to Las Palomas, bring your own pool floaties and towels. The ocean is usually calm enough to float and the resort has a lazy river in addition to their huge pools! Towels are provided at the resort, but you get charged a hefty fee if you lose/damage them. We picked up $3 beach towels from Walmart that were perfect for the job.
2. Mexican Car Insurance (~$75/car)
After you’ve booked the place to stay and have the dates pinned down, this should be your next step. Without Mexican car insurance, you are breaking the law. This means if you get stopped for some reason without it during the drive, you could go to jail. The good news: you only need to pay for what you need and they do offer it to people under 21. Cost for 3 days of insurance: $75
Click here to go to the vendor we use.
3. Shop for Supplies ($450 total)
This is our TOP cost-saving tip for any time you are driving somewhere on vacation. Pick up alcohol, food, and miscellaneous items at your local Costco or Sam’s Club before you leave! This way, you can start the trip off immediately when you get there instead of having to shop upon your arrival.
Here is our shopping list for 8 girls in Mexico:
If you get everything on the list, you won’t need to buy food or alcohol while you’re there (even though we recommend getting some fun mixed drinks at the hotel). NOTE: we also brought our own tumblers, volleyball, pool floaties, and towels which aren’t listed in the download.
4. Getting to Rocky Point
One of the best parts about Rocky Point is that it’s only a 4-5 hour drive from Phoenix and Tucson. Awesome for us locals but each time I’ve been to Rocky Point, at least one person is traveling from out of Arizona. We highly recommend flying in the night before.
In this most recent trip, we had Tucson, Scottsdale, and Dallas people traveling to Mexico. We all arrived to Scottsdale the night before so that we could caravan first thing after breakfast.
Click here for directions from Scottsdale to Las Palomas (we highly recommend downloading a map of the city of Puerto Peñasco offline on Google Maps before you leave so that you can navigate with poor phone service).
You should fill up your gas tank when you leave Scottsdale and when you are in Ajo, Arizona. This is the last reliable place for gas before heading into Mexico! Gasoline in Mexico is not regulated like it is here in the US, so top off your tank even if you have enough to make it there. You’ll also want enough gas to make it back to the US.
What to do in Rocky Point
Day 1 – drinks, beaches, and pools
You will need your ID and credit card that was used to book the room in order to check into the hotel. Once we checked in, we got into the room, unpacked the food, and took a tequila shot. How else do you kick off a Mexican girls weekend? ¡Salud!
We snacked on chips and salsa then made some mixed drinks with the party supplies we brought along before heading to the beach. TIP: use a cooler bag to transport food from the US to Mexico. This can double as a beer bag when you go to the pool/beach.
We stayed at the beach until it started to cool off & headed towards the hot tub with a bag full of ice-cold beer and TRULYs. It was great to just stay at the hotel the first night and enjoy the amenities it had to offer. We love Las Palomas because you really don’t need to leave the resort unless you wanted to.
Once the sun set, we headed to the condo to make pulled pork nachos and play beer pong before heading to bed. TIP: bring ibuprofen & hydration powder like Drip Drop in case you go too hard on day 1 (like I might be guilty).
Day 2 – beach day, happy hour, and bar hopping
Beach Day
To kick off day 2, one of the girls woke us up with breakfast burritos and bagels. While another made bloody marys and mimosas. We ate and drank on the balcony overlooking the endless horizon. It really was breathtaking each morning!
We headed right to the beach with our cooler bag of booze and sunscreen after breakfast with our crew of 8. There are several lounge chairs with umbrellas on the beach that are reserved for Las Palomas guests only. Try to head down early to snag some of these. Vendors aren’t allowed to cross the roped off area, so you’ll have some privacy as you spend the day on the beach.
While on the beach, there are a ton of activities you can do available from vendors. ATVs, jet skis, hamster balls, banana boats, and more. Everything is negotiable and based on demand. To give you an idea, the prices we were offered without negotiation were:
- $10 for 15 minutes for 2 of us in the hamster ball (this was more than enough time – it’s harder than you think!)
- $50/hour for jet skis
- $5/person on the banana boats
- $80/hour for the ATVs
After working up an appetite, we all split some lunch items and happy hour drinks from the resort. We spent a total of $80 on five meals and eight blended drinks! All in all, our beach day cost us $90. Not too bad for food, drinks, and activities all day.
El Malecón
With our fresh tans (or sunburns for some of us) we headed up to the condo to get ready to explore Rocky Point’s local bars. There are two main places that I recommend going, both of which require a taxi. Wrecked at the Reef is awesome for daytime partying at the beach.
The other popular spot is El Malecón. This is Rocky Point’s boardwalk with a strip of bars and shops along the water.
Rocky Point is super casual. You can wear shorts and a casual shirt to any of the bars – do not go dressed like you’re headed out to a night club in Vegas. Las Palomas has a line of taxis waiting outside that work with the hotel. They are fairly priced and easy to get. A taxi to el malecón will cost you $10-15 at most.
Make sure to get your driver’s cell phone number before you leave so that you can get a safe ride home as well. NOTE: this ended up not working out for us (one of our drivers didn’t have a phone – the other ended his shift before we left the bars, but this does usually work). There are no Ubers/Lyfts in Rocky Point.
We headed to the first bar that had good music, Shark Bite. They had great Jell-O shots and big, very sweet mixed drinks. This is the perfect bar to watch the sunset. Make sure you bring small bills with you when you go out. Although the bars accept credit cards, this one’s machine was down while we were there. We burned through a lot of cash that was intended to get us home after the bars. At least that had an awesome way to leave the bar! Total cost: $40 (drinks & Jell-O shots for everyone).
The next bar, Boo Bar, is great if your group is looking for a cool atmosphere with rope swings as bar stools. At the time, we were looking for some high energy dancing, so we headed to Bullfrog. This bar offered us the perfect solution to a big group: $10/person for all you can drink! We paid for all of us to get wristbands and headed up to the 3rd floor for our all-inclusive alcohol. The selection was limited and the drinks were watered down, but it was truly awesome. The alcohol was only available on the 3rd floor, but the rest of the bar had fun dancing with a definite club vibe.
After having a few-too-many of those unlimited drinks, we walked across the street for some delicious Mexican food then headed home in our taxis.
All in all, we did about everything you can do in Rocky Point during our two night stay, which made it a perfect weekend away. Not to mention, we all left with amazing memories.
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