As an American who has travelled and lived around the world, I must say I am embarrased by the distemper revealed in recent reviews by many of my fellow Americans. By any Real World Standard, the Barcello Puerta Vallarta is a luxury, value-driven establishment staffed, on my recent visit, by confident, capable professionals. None of them were rushing to kneel, however, so if you arrive expecting to be treated like an entitled American you can expect, at the very least, silent loathing. This quickly turns into poor service. As for the food, few people confuse buffet with haute cuisine. Preparing yards of fresh, varied, temperature-right food for hundreds of similtaneous diners does present culinary challenges. Just ask anybody who has cooked a meal for eight. If days of utter freedom, stunning scenery, endless food and air-conditioned suites are not enough to satisfy, I suspect that the problems experienced at the Barcello do not rest with the hotel. While there are many excellent places to stay in Vallarta, from the simple ethnic to the lavish elite, Barcello Puerta Vallarta will not disappoint, if you leave your perfectionism at the door.

Barcelo la Jolla de Mismaloya
Jun 14 - Jun 21, 2008
We chose this resort to celebrate our 32 anniiversary and could not have made a better choice. We spent a very romantic week . We were upgraded to a two bedroom top floor suite upon arrival. We had a great view of the beautiful and well keep grounds, the surrounding jungle, beach, and the greatest sun sets. The room was clean and the house keeping was great and NO bed bugs that I had read about in other reports. The king size bed was very comfortable. The big screen plasma TV had great reception and offered many channel choices.
Along with the room upgrade we also where given unlimited use of the ala carte restaurants. Of the three we tryed (our opinon) we found the Italian the best; great food and service. The food at the Spanish restaurant was fair (I am a picky eater and did not like many of the choices) the service was extremely slow.; it took over an hour for the meal. Maybe it was us in to big of a hurry. The Steak restaurant (open air stack bar by day) was a mixed bag. We just happen to hear from one of the other guests that they were serving lobster that night, When I reserved out spot and inquired about the the lobster I was told I would have to also reserve the lobster at a $10.00 up charge which was OK with me. The point is that other diners at the same setting that did not know they had to also reserve the lobster ahead of time where not able order it at dinner. Both the steak I ordered and the lobster my wife ordered where great but hard to enjoy. We sat next to the beach facing the setting sun and had to flight off swarms of flys. Table service was terrible we never got a refill on drinks and were never asked if we needed anythig.
We found the buffet food was very good with lots of a choices. The service was great Sat. through Wed. than the staff changed on Thurs and service went down hill with the new staff.
I know the resort offers a lot of daily activities but if you do not find the activity broad and read it you would never know anything was offered. Nothing is announced. This worked out OK for us because we came to relax and relax we did.
It may sound like I am complaining but not really. These are our observation and opinons as we spoke to others that ate at the same restaurants as we did but on other nights and their opinons on service and food where different than ours.
All in all we had great time at wonderful restort; met and got to like many new pepole. We would definitely come back again.

We just got back from Barcelo' yesterday. What I can tell you only is that we did not speak to ANYONE who did not have AT LEAST one person in their party get really sick. The first day we arrived (June 14), we met our neighbor on the balcony. He was from Michigan in a party of 8 - they had 2 rooms. Four of them were sick during the week. Vomiting and diarrhea. On Monday night, I also had the same. Worst I have been sick in 10 years. We ate only at the restaurants onsight and drank only the bottled water. We did not eat tomatoes as we were worried about the salmonella scare the prior week. I was out for 24 hours - and was advised to take a round of bactrim - on sale over the counter in the gift shop. The next day, I asked a lady on the elevator if anyone had been sick with them -- her husband had. Later on that day, we rode up in the elevator with a young family and the father had just received an IV. On Thursday, we went on a canopy tour (which was great), and there was 3 people on the bus from our hotel -- two of the three had been sick. We saw them at the airport yesterday, and the third one of them was sick at that time. As we left, I filed a incident report with Olympus Travel - who was onsight and the tour agency who booked our trip. This agent - a local - told me that there were "too many" people at the hotel getting sick. I can't tell you if it was the food, but I can tell you that I won't go back. We have stayed all over the world in first class - five star resorts. While Barcelo was "nice", it was more like a Marriott Residence Inn. The food was ok, but it was nothing to write home about.

Now, the service was fantastic, the people were really nice, genuinely, the locals on the beach were not overly obnoxious trying to sell goods, the people downtown were great too, didn't have any trouble with time share people.

I would say that if you want a 5 star resort, this ain't it, and I would ask your travel agent to inquire about the Barcelo' Bug prior to your booking. We don't usually complain -- this isn't a complaint, it's a warning.

Travel at your own risk

This hotel was beautiful, and our rooms were spacious and comfortable (each of our two rooms had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths and balcony) - the beds were comfortable too.
The weather did not cooperate but we enjoyed our stay despite several days of rain. The grounds were well maintained, and the staff friendly and helpful.
The food became boring after about the 5th day, but overall it was good. There could have been more variety, and occasionally we would have to wait for fresh fish or an omelette in the morning.
We took our girls (ages 17,21, and 24) for a 'family vacation' and there was something for everyone. The resort is on a small bay, so there is no beach walking (disappointing and something we knew in advance but still wished we had). The resort is about 15 minutes by cab tp downtown PV - $13.00 one way. The bus is better, and easy too-reliable ! Costs about 60 cents one way.
If we go back we will stay only 5 days instead of 7, which got just a little too long. Overall great place...