This was our first trip to Mexico and we were really looking forward to 2 weeks of sun, sea and relaxtion. Arrival at airport was quite smooth, we were greeted outside by our Reps and given a lovely cold Corona. On arrival at Hotel, it looks very grand outside and the reception was very nice, everything at check in went smooyhly, even though there must have been at least another 100 people checking it at the same time, we were given our room keys and told our bags would arrive later. We were on the second floor room 2135. Was not overly impressed with the room, the smell of damp was overwhelming! The interior of the hotel resembles a block of flats, not what I expected. our bags arrived and we went to explore the grounds. The grounds are kept beautiful, the adult pool was a bit rowdy, so we headed for the beach, lots of people on the beach and it was difficult to find a quiet spot.
After 3 nights in the room I found difficulty in breathing during the night because of the damp smell, I am asthamtic and i really started to suffer, we asked to be moved but they said we would have to wait until Friday, a full week since we had arrived. We asked again on Friday but they only had a 6th floor available, unfortunately I dont like heights so I had to stay put. They did supply us with a humidifier which we had to keep on 24-7 to keep the smell down. I am not a moaner and have stayed in 3 star accomodation with better rooms, but when on holiday you just think oh well its just somewhere to sleep, but when you cant even get a decent sleep it really takes it toll. And the noise in the early hours when people are coming in from the club can be quite annoying too, it seems to echo everywhere.
We tried the adult pool a couple of times but it got too rowdy later in the afternoon, and the water always looked dirty, but Im not surprised with all the alchohol I saw getting spilt, and as for it being an adult pool, there were kids in it every day. We just stuck to the beach and found ourselves a spot by the trees. Not far from the bar! The food was OK but after a few days I was fed up with it, even though you have the choice of 5 restaurants they all seem to serve the same just in a different order. The bolognese tasted just the same as the Chilli! All the meat tasted the same. By the second week I was ill and was down to eating mashed potato and chips, and I wasnt the only one either, we spoke to a few people who had stomach upsets. I am certainly not fussy and have the constitution of a rat, this is the first time ever I have been ill on holiday, and it really bothered me!!
The best meal we had was in Puerto Vallarta itself, proper Mexican food, Fajhitas that looked like fajhitas and chilli with a bit of bite!! It was nice to have a few cold Coronas in the room fridge and we just phoned reception and asked for more when we had run out, which wasnt a problem. The traders who come into the hotel charge an awful lot for their goods, we saw the same stuff in vallarta for a fraction of the price, even Walmart sold the same stuff cheaper, I know they are trying to make a living but ripping off tourists is not good. And there was a guy who would come into the hotel with a young donkey and lift it up on peoples laps for a photo, he was only taking donations, but dare you take a photo without placing something in the bucket, his lady partner will nearly knock your camera out of your hand!! The poor donkey was really distressed and I saw it being manhandled when it was clearly in distress, quite cruel!! i dont think the hotel should allow this. I cant fault the staff all of them were wonderful and polite, there was a few exceptions, but I wasnt bothered by them, the waiting staff were excellent and the bar staff. Look out for Tony in the sports bar, he was one of the best and Ivan one of the waiters. We did tip and usually left between 20-40 pesos on our table. Our room was cleaned everyday and we were left towel animals on the bed.
Oh and the midnight snacks!!!! You will find them in the Sports bar, in fridge, hotdogs and hamburgers which you shove in the microwave for 45 seconds! Certainly not what we expected, thought at least there would be somewhere where they would cook them and put them on a plate!!
All in all it was an experience, Mexico itself is lovely as are the people, but if we were to go again I would definately not go all inclusive. we would probably find a nice hotel nearer Puerto Vallarta and eat at the many nice restaurants that are very reasonably priced.

Be aware all Mexico travelers...the summer months are rain season and high local tourism. We were unaware of these things and will never go back to Mexico at this time.

We will never stay here again. RIU Jalisco was a horrible experience; we lasted there for only two nights. First, when you walk into the hotel room, the smell of musky mold comes at you and never ever leaves you or your clothes. In addition the room had sand on the floor and our toilet sounded like an air horn every time it was flushed. The adult pool that was advertised is no longer there. Both pools are for everyone. The pools are not kept clean at all. Inside the pool we found cups, straws, and rocks all around. It was so dirty that you could barely see your feet because the water was so cloudy. We could not even get a drink at the bar because it was covered in children. When we approached the Apple representative Domingo, he was very unhelpful and only offered to switch our hotel if we would pay another $1500. We ended up going to hotel management to take care of the issues we had. Never again...

The Resort-
THe rooms are very clean and the shower and bathrooms are nice as well. No musty smell in room unless you leave the balcony door open all day. The grounds are pretty, lots of palm trees and flowers. The hotel itself was a nice hotel.
The Beach-
Well the waves were great. They were huge when we went due to storms. But thats all that is good about the beach. The water is very brown because of raining and the beach is a bit trashy, alot trashy. They did clean it , but it was back to gross in no time. Some people just have no respect for that stuff. Also, the beach has millions of kids running around, so it does not feel like a resort or vacation, more like a day at public beach at a lake or waterpark. This is due to The hotel renting out rooms to the locals for 16 bucks a night. Yeah pretty bad huh... That was the majority of the visitors. Annoying, they were very rude.
The pools-
Dont get in them. They look pretty pretty, but trying to move in there with all the kids, wow. Even in the adult pool, the kids didnt have to getout. The were splashing and swimming right by the pool bar, like 1 foot away they just swam right there. And sadly, it was the locals doing it, not the tourists. All the other resorts had security to keep kids out of the adult pool. The Kids pool was very warm, because kids do pee, dont get in. The adults pool, was cooler, lol, but people were drunk and flashinf their goodys at the bar tenders. Also they would throw up as well.
The Food-
The food was good. There is something for everyone. The brazillian restraunt was good. Make reservations early though if you are going to this hotel.
The Weather-
Unfortunately, we had rain and lots of it. We knew it was the raininy season but really didnt expect it to be much. It rained hard the first day were there, all day. It made it cold and not to fun. A bad start for us. it was sunny a little the second day then rained again. The third day started out raining, the sunny a little, but mostly cloudy. The Fourth day was sunnymost of the day until 5 in the evening, then it started to rain.
Tips-
Take an umbrella, jacket and sweater, money for shopping and taxis. Also if you want to take a tour, we did the kon tiki, it was fun. we went to the clear water across the bay to snokel and to a pretty beach. But there was still tons of local there too, but the water was great. I heard the Dreams Vallarta was a good place to stay also the barcello la jolla.
Overall-
We are not coming back here. My parents,sister(17), and Me(20), would rather go to the caribbean. I was dissapointed in Puerto Vallarta. Its just not a vacation to me. It was way to public and not relaxing. Just too many people. We stayed at the catalonia riveria maya, it was perfect. we loved it. I would recommend there. If you are going i hope you have fun, email me if you have questions, i would gladly answer them. have fun.

My family and I just returned from Riu Jalisco a few days ago we were there July 2- July 9. I am 15 years old and I am going to mention that right off the bat. I loved my trip there however, my parents and my sisters felt very differently about the place. When we arrived our room was not ready even though it was three o clock and that's when check in is. In one of our rooms many things did not even work and we didn't get any towels. That night at dinner Stephanie the assistant manager walked around and we told her the things wrong in our room. Within a hour the things were fixed. So if you ever have any problems she is the person to go to. Since there are 5 of us we had to get two rooms, which they told us would be separated by a door and would be conjoined. When we reached the rooms there was no door, only a few rooms in the hotel actually did have conjoining doors. This is one of the things that really bugged my parents not the fact that we had to change our arrangements and it made things more difficuilt but the fact that they didn't really tell us the truth. One of the major things the hotel must do is modernize. The safe was not digital and used a key, however, none of our stuff ever got stolen. The doors did not use cards but keys. The beds were pushed together for a king bed and were like that in every room even if you did not want them pushed together. They were very hard but that didn't really seem to bother us much. We went to bed around 12 each night and it was very noisy outside until about 3, when the club closed. You could hear everything through the walls but most of the time you were too tierd to notice. Another major dissapointment was our view we were facing the parking lot, however we could see the mountains which made it a lot better. The first few days the hotel was packed so the pool was very crowded, then it started to calm down after that. But if you wanted to find a good spot by the pool you had to come out very early to save chairs. The beach which I enjoyed but my parents not so much. It was very dirty. All on the sand there was trash and litter. The water was not clean but you can't blame that on the hotel. The entertainment at night was really good and we always had a good time at those. My parents were all in all dissapointed they felt that we paid too much and it wasn't very impressive. The year before this we stayed at Barcelo in Rivera Maya and paid the same price and it was amazing. As a teenager I would return to that place again with my friends, it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. I felt it was more of a party place than a family place however, most of the people there were families. My parents said they would never return there and not even consider staying at one of their hotels again.