I would strongly advice you to opt on having the extra cash in your checking account, and withdraw the amount you expect to spend on incidentals, more or less, from the Banamex ATM right near the taxi exit door at the Airport- it also tends to have the best rate in PV, and a modest $1.50 svc charge, as well as being a safe ATM.

The reason I say this?
*********Traveller's checks are moderately to EXTREMELY hard to cash in PV!!********

You have at least four major problems:

-VERY FEW hotels are willing to cash them these days, and during limited hours/days at those that do that are rarely posted and usually not accurate if they are.

-You cannot accurately predict ahead of time WHICH hotel will accept them for cashing- it can be the whim of the manager or some other impossible equation, but many people have been blown off by their hotels on this issue recently. Even if your hotel tells you they do so via phone or email, that really means little on the ground- hate to say it, but the left hand/righ hand problem in rife in many tourist-oriented businesses bigger than 1/2 a dozen people in PV...

-IF you ARE at a hotel that will cash them, and especially if you cannot and end up at BanaMex et al, your Traveller's Checks must EXACTLY MATCH THE ID YOU PROVIDE- and I mean literally every capital, word, comma, period, space --EXACTLY-- before the teller will even ask the manager to OK it!

-And the lines to either exchange US $ or cash Traveller's Checks are horrendous- plan at least an hour, and as much as 3 or more to get to the front of the line for these types of transactions- and Mexican bank hours are MUCH more limited than we are used to (try and find out ahead of time what the hours are if you do bring TCs, as I do not have that information available to give you).


**This is absolutely true and I trust the source of an expat living in PV that wanted visitors to be aware:
A honeymooning couple in the last month brought all their available cash and credit of $2000 in TCs to PV, their passports had their full legal names and the TCs had a shorter version- they were told by their hotel they did not cash TCs, and when they went to a bank in town they were refused due to the mis-match/non-valid TCs as far as Mexican banking authorities were concerned...the ex-pat was in the bank at the same time and knew they were out of luck; he told them to try calling home collect and having someone either deposit money in their checking account they could withdraw via ATM or have cash wired to the local bank in PV using their exact passport name(s).**


Honestly, TCs are a dying breed these days- yes, the larger and older hotels in many countries are willing to still cater to their customers, but in places like PV with mostly TimeShare and AI Resorts with a heavy turnover they really are not concerned with the type of old-school customer service that would have them honoring the old style of doing business- many of them just haven't been around long enough for it to have EVER been something they did for guests...


I do have some questions for you:
-Is the AI in Nuevo Vallarta, or the Hotel Zone near PV?
-Is your transportation to/from the Airport already arranged/paid for?

The answers to this will determine how much your taxi costs are likely to be, and I can be somewhat helpful in estimating some of those expenses as we JUST returned ourselves.

Best,
S