I recently traveled to Puerto Vallarta with my partner and our two friends and decided that Dreams was the place to stay based on many good reviews, the private beach, and the location. We've been to the Mayan before and had an amazing time there...so I have to admit our expectations may have been a bit high. It wasn't all bad, but it did not compare on many fronts.

Skyservice was our airline...not bad...better than Transat. The airport looks brand new and the check in/out process was smooth. Watch your back when you arrive...they funnel you through a few spots where there are a ton of timeshare reps posing as your vacation reps. We got talking to one guy who said he was from Signature Vacations, but quickly realized that he was trying to get us to attend a time share meeting and got the heck out of there. Our real Signature rep was waiting with open arms and quickly had us on our way to the resort.

We checked in on a Friday evening and were disappointed to find out that our king size bed was not available. Like many others who have written reviews about Dreams, we were asked to stay the first night in the old tower on the main floor. We reluctantly agreed, but overheard our friends with the next employee getting a room in the new tower, so we got right back in line to find out what was going on. Apparently the old tower was fully booked which is why they got the new room...not impressed, we pushed back a bit and eventually got one night in the new tower as well. They overbooked, so we felt we deserved some compensation. While the employee that we dealt with made a few remarks about getting into trouble by his manager, overall he was pretty accommodating. The new tower is amazing. Rooms are huge, views are brilliant, and there is a jacuzzi on every balcony. We had a great time that night, drinking on the balcony and relaxing in the jacuzzi. Next morning we moved to the old tower and finally unpacked our things. The old tower is OK...not great, but not awful. The biggest complaint I had was the noise. The walls look like concrete...but have a texture like popcorn ceilings and I'm pretty certain they're hollow. We were unfortunate to have a couple of young guys next door who decided to party every night around 3 AM, smashed a few bottles, and kept moving the furniture around which would squeal on the tile floor and reverberate into our room. The hallways were loud too. You could hear people's exact words as they walked by which was a pain in the early morning. Bathroom was clean, spacious. Water pressure sucked, but really who cares. The room service was decent and they were very good about cleaning each day when you were out of the room. I'd rate the room 3/5.

The food was OK as well. What's nice about Dreams is that there's no limit to how many restaurants you can visit. There's a nice buffet for breakfast and the restaurants were all quite nice for dinner. My favourites were Sunset Grill and Portofino. The seafood one left something to be desired. Lunch was another story. The buffet was open for a few hours and if you missed it you were out of luck. There was a small grill on the beach but after one raw hamburger we didn't go back. I'd rate the breakfast and dinner 4/5 but lunch was 2/5 at best.

There are 3 pools at Dreams but one was off limits the entire week which was a bit annoying. They kept roping it off for parties and weddings. Understanding that it was a bit remote and shaded, it made sense that they'd do this, but when they advertise 3 pools they should really ensure they're all available. The adult pool is nice...bar there is closeby and the staff were very friendly. The other pool (main pool) was busy but not to the point of crowded. The swimup bar was always crowded so you had to be prepared to wait sometimes. The beach was very private...sand was fine...but the water is murky, almost green. That's the big difference between the Mayan and PV...the water is nowhere near crystal clear. We swam once. The other days there seemed to be a lot of jellyfish out and about so we steered clear of that. One guest got stung by a stingray, but that was probably an isolated incident. There were tons of chairs, almost all shaded, and it wasn't hard to get a good seat each day. I paid about $65 for an hour on the jetski which was a lot of fun. They had kayaks too which were free.

For 4 gay guys, Dreams was fairly comfortable as far as the overall environment was concerned. The employees knew we were gay and treated us just as well as everyone else (try going to Jamaica and you won't find this to be the case). In fact, I found some of the guests to be way more intolerant than the staff. We overheard a few conversations about a male couple that had dinner together on the beach that made my blood boil, but we opted to ignore it and have a good time. You can't expect everyone to be open to everything. There were a few other groups of gay folk there too...but everyone seemed to stick with their own parties. It's not a hugely social resort...people are there to relax and that's why we went.

Day trips...we did a few. My friends did the dolphin trainer for a day which was about $295 each plus another $100 for pictures. They had a great time. Caution...they say you can't wear sunscreen because of the dolphins, but put it on your face and neck otherwise you'll get scorched. Everyone but me did the outdoor adventure with PV Adventures (rappelling etc) and again had a great time. They left around 8 and were back by 2, so it was nice that it didn't take up a whole day. I went horseback riding which was a lot of fun too. The only downside was the bus that took us there...it made several stops along the way and didn't seem to be in any hurry to get to the ranch. We caught the bus at 8:30 and didn't arrive at the ranch until about 11. There was a nice lunch afterwards with some tequila sampling...which made up for the long bus ride!

Puerto Vallarta is about 5-7 minutes away by cab. It will cost you about $5 to get there by cab. Once there, it is probably safer than a lot of towns in the US and Canada. There are tons of shops, the boardwalk is magnificent, and the Church of our Lady of Guadalupe is beautiful. The whole part of town that the tourists go (Old Town) is cobble stoned...very pretty. Be prepared to bargain and if you don't get what you want just walk away because the next store will have the same thing but cheaper. We found a few nice pieces of artwork but had to do some heavy bargaining to get them at reasonable prices. The flea market is a bit less...upscale...so be prepared to see little kids selling Chiclets and parents using them as emotional bargaining tools. There were lots of shopkeepers who would point out their kids and talk about how they relied on the money from tourists to go to school, etc. A bit heartbreaking at times. One night we went to a few clubs...Paco Paco was deserted so we went to this other place called Manana which looked like one of those Vegas clubs you see on CSI. There was a pool and a waterfall, a big stage, etc. It was a bit more lively but we were so tired by then that it was lost on us.

We also took a water taxi from Boca de Tomatlan to a remote beach called Yelapa. It cost about $18 per person and wasn't worth it. The taxi left around 1 and took almost 45 minutes to get there...and returned at 3:30. The beach was very stony and there were tons of locals selling crap...they were polite enough but would keep circling back over and over again to see if you wanted to buy something. There were a few of these folks on the resort beach at Dreams too which surprised me. They were a bit less frequent with their visits though...the resort probably let them sell on the beach only if they followed certain rules.

We didn't use a lot of the other facilities at the resort, but they had internet for a fee, a gym, tennis courts, a spa. The main bar was very nice...great views...and the staff were very friendly. I was surprised at how rude some of the guests were...particularly some of our friends down south...but the staff at Dreams took it all in stride. I was impressed with them overall...not pushy, didn't have their hands out for tips, very accommodating to our needs. They were all fluent in both Spanish and English.

Water was fine...it was all bottled. No issues there.

If you're taking kids to Mexico, go to the Mayan. Puerto Vallarta is an adult resort town...there's not a lot off the resort for kids whereas the Mayan has a lot more ecotourism type activities that would appeal to the younger crowd. My partner and I have two kids and next time we visit Mexico we're taking them...and will return to the Mayan.

Overall, we were pleased with our trip. Would I go back? Probably not...did all there was to do in PV. The resort itself was not enough to convince me another stay is in the cards.