This was the absolute worst resort I have ever stayed in. My husband & I both stood with suitcases in hand, mouths hanging open in disbelief when we were led into our room. There was mold and the accompanying fungus gnats inside the room. It wasn't just damp, it was wet. It stunk. The toilet overflowed one morning (#2). No hot water. No cold water. The bed was almost like sleeping on concrete, Outside our front door there was a family of feral cats that lived in the shrubbery. I am not kidding. The cats screamed every night around 12pm. I was bitten by fleas several times while we were there & once even found one hopping along my arm. Besides the flea-ridden cats, there was a huge construction site behind us. Every morning we could watch the same guy come pee on the cyclone fencing before he started work. We were there for New Years and the noise level was understandable for that night but the noise level remained the same from our first nights' stay until our last. There were many children and they were not well-behaved. I didn't care for the abundancy of children/screaming at all hours.PLUS the resort's DJ played rap music (which I like) at deafening levels from 9am until 12PM every night - regardless. Our room was right off of the main pool. We couldn't get away from any noise at any time. I ate some food there from the bar but didn't dare eat at any of the restaurants. The beach was filthy. I didn't even put one toe in the ocean while at this resort. The beach/pool staff were oustanding but the rest of the staff I found to be smug and indifferent, lacking in manners. I am a heavy tipper so they didn't have a good reason to be bordering on sub-civil. The ONLY reason we stayed here for the week was because our friends booked this stay. Once we got out of that specific district and south of town, out of Puerto Vallarta, we had a lovely time. My husband & I are adventurous but also like to just veg out on the beach. If we ever go to PV again we would try & stay as far south or as far north on the bay as you can. Mid-town, where this resort is located was terribly noisy & dirty, the people weren't friendly (we are! And we speak spanish) and there wasn't much to do within walking distance unless we wanted to have traffic zooming past us. Not a good vacation. We were so glad to be home. We have been to many locations in MX and while PV's jungle area was beautiful, we would NEVER go back to this resort. Not even if it was free again.

Reading these other reviews, I relate way more to the negative ones unfortunately. I don't want to complain, I mean, how bad can a week in a beautiful location be? It is a beautiful resort and location, my favorite part was the waiters and bartnders- they work SO hard and are always so friendly.

The beach is never relaxing...there are ALWAYS people coming up to you trying to sell you new things...even when you're alseep, or trying to be asleep. I hardly went to the beach because of this.

Parasailing looks really fun, it's not bad...but I really don't think it's worth the 45 USD for 8 minutes they get out of you. Jet skiing on the other hand was awesome, 40 USD fr 30 minutes.

The staff I found to only speak minimal english. I liked this, because I was however entering their country and wished I had learned more Spanish before I left. I recommend taking a spanish class before you leave, even to learn a few helpful phrases. they love when you can speak spanish! it brightens their day.

We waited a LONG time to get checked in..and nothing was open when we got there...but we found out later in the week that we could have ordered room service, just no one told us that. So we walked to the OXXO for some crappy food at 3 in the morning.

beware: NOT ALL INCLUSIVE!!! or at least my understanding of all inclusive...they screw around with different hours that the all inclusive applies for...the club on the resort wasn't even included. a cver charge of 44 USD for an open bar night there was our only option.

I wouldn't recommend this place...it's not worth the friendly waiters, i'm sure you can find that anywhere else! I do however recommend the Occidental Grand Xcaret in the Mayan Riviera- AMAZING.

Hi my dh booked this all-inclusive Transat trip as an anniversary gift through Flight Centre so I can't comment on value for dollars but I can definitely comment on the overall experience.

The pool area is simply gorgeous. The wait staff there were very friendly and for the most part pretty quick. We stocked up on American one dollar bills before going so tipping may have had a positive effect on our service. The drinks were great but alas always served in styrofoam cups-- not a significant problem for me other than being an enviromentally unsound practice but dh prefers his beer in the bottle. The last day we saw someone drinking Modelo from a can so that seems to be an option. I also participated in the water aerobics and the stretch classes at the pool. I recm both of those activities. The activity director Manuel was super. Someone mentioned being bothered by the cruise people but there weren't many of them while we were there and they were all friendly. One suggestion for spending time at the pool is to get there on the early side to stake a spot with a umbrella if you want one as there weren't enough of them to go around when we were there. I meant to mention that at check out but I forgot.

We didn't spend much time on the beach as dh hates being pestered by vendors but we did eat lunch a few times at the beach hut . Lunch was good there. I ran on the beach several times til a disturbed man showed up. I don't think I had any reason to truly be frightened of him but all that hollering unnerved me. I only saw him that once though. There was a small outside gym with weights but no treadmill so I just did my run around the very spacious and beautifully landscaped grounds after that. So relaxing!

The restaurant was pleasant with a very nice view. We usually had breakfast at the hotel. The waffles were the best ever so yummy but the breakfast cook would cook anything. Dh vouchs for the omelettes! Although I could always find something tasty from the buffet we ate other meals out a lot as there as so many great restaurants in PV and the buffet didn't vary much. Honestly I don't think I would go all-inclusive again. It did seem a bit odd that we had to sign for meals, I can see signing a bar tab for instance at the pool but does management think staff is stealing toast? It did get a bit tiresome as you couldn't just wander in to the restaurant for a quick snack from the buffet but had to wait to for the waiter to get you a bill which wasn't always a speedy thing. This isn't a big problem for us as I mentioned we ate out alot. I see someone mentioned the great coffee in the restaurant...so true ! The pastries were lovely too. I know there were activies at the restaurant but we were only there for karioke (sp?) night coincidentally as that was the night we booked the a la carte dinner--which was good btw. There were loads of spanish speaking guests at that time in the hotel (mostly from Venezuala I think) so most of the songs were Spanish but it was fun anyways.

The room was a bit of a disappointment with a rock hard bed but it was very quiet at night and it was very large. We had a ground floor room so no balcony or view but we didn't try for another room not wanting the hassle. The room was clean but was showing some age. The chamber maids were very through and they even left us some Valentine's candy on Valentine's Day! The bathroom was a fabulous size with a huge sunken tub and a door you could close between it and the toilet room. I haven't seen that since I lived in Europe and I love it. Someone here mentioned asking for a room around the lap pool which was a very tranquil area so that was a good suggestion.

The "expensive" internet cafe is at the lap pool too. The English speaking staff there were very helpful when I couldn't find the @ to get access to my email account. Silly hey but the keyboard was slightly different to accommodate the longer Spanish alphabet. BTW press control and Q at the same time to get teh @!. I saw on a different keyboard that the @ appears on the Q key but that clue isn't on all keyboards. Anyway there were plenty of computers w/ a super fast printer and it was a very quiet area so worth it for the little extra we paid (compared to internet cafes outside the resort)

The renos at in the foyer were completed during our stay and what a difference! Much nicer. We had zero problems with anyone pushing time shares at the hotel (the airport was a very different story.)

The worst " All inclusive" I've ever seen. I was told that they became an all inclusive just one year ago. And they need some help. We arrive late on a Saturday evening and were told our first night we could not get anymore drinks because our room was over our limit. When we questioned the front desk they had no explanation. Our first room was in one of the older buildings, very dated with a rock hard bed , very old stained bedding and no balconie. We upgraded the next day to the newer building with an ocean view and balconie. Nicer room, still rock hard beds. It was only $50/night, if we had upgraded online it was $900 more. We left everynight for dinner as the food was terrible, they did not cover up the hot food - it was cold at every meal. Everytime we ate or got a drink we had to give our room number and sign a bill. One night we asked to 8 bolltles of water (there were 7 of us) they told us one per person, we explained it was for two rooms and we were not about to drag our 2 and 10 year old of bed to get their own bottle of water. The had to call a manager and eventually we got our water. The 2nd last night we told that bottle beer was not included in our package, even though we had been drinking it all week. We had a mini bar in our room, it was locked, we requested the key to put our own beer and water in it - not allowed. It seemed every staff member had a different set of rules. Check was another gong show. Check out time was 12:00. We asked about keeping our room for a few extra hours, it was possible for $50, however our "Package " ended at noon and we had to turn over our bracelets. We were welcome to use the beach but had to pay for our food and drinks. Everyother resort I have stayed at gives you a temporary pass until you leave. Howere the other family that we were with was told a different story - they paid the $50 and were allowed to keep their bracelets because we had checked in so late. We were also told at check out we had $18 worth of mini bar charges - the one we didn't have the key for. Again, every staff member has a different set of rules - I guess the game is if your not happy with first answer, ask someone else.