Riu Vallarta

My wife and I stayed at the Rui Vallharta from January 3rd to 10th. Excellent value for the price! Our stay was after the remodel and the facility was awesome in every way. Not sure how it looked before but everything was top notch for us. We like to spend our time on the beach, so not being closer to downtown was not a negative. We made one trip downtown. There was never an issue getting chairs down at the beach and from what we could see no issues around the pools either. There are four pools plus the kids pool. We booked a "partial" Ocean View and ended up on the 8th floor of the inside ring of rooms, which pretty much felt like a "full" Ocean View. We love the view of the mountains that surround the bay as well as the fantastic sunsets. The room couldn't have been any better for the rate. The beach was fantastic with great weather, walkabiity, and views! There isn't personal bar service on the beach but they do bring out trays of drinks fairly often, so your good if you like the more popular drinks. The bar is right behind the beach and the service is good. The entertainment was a bit hit and miss but nothing worth fretting about. There was one really fantastic singer who's style was that of a "crooner" with some "opera" style songs. We could have listened to him every night. The food was more hit than miss but could have had more consistency. The Steak House and Italian Restaurant were best. The Gourmet style one was very weak. The Buffet was above average and great for Breakfasts. We arrived at the hotel around midnight with about 35 people on the bus. The check-in was quick. Everyone was pretty hungry after a long day of travel and most of us ended up at the Sports Bar, which was the only eating place open at that time. The Sports Bar at midnight was the WORST part of the trip. They had cold "hockey puck" burgers sitting in a cooler, I had to spit mine out after one bite. the Nacho chip machine and the Cheese container were empty at first. When they refilled the cheese it was completely cold. WTF One would think the hotel would want first impressions to be better, especially with 35 people, not just a random couple or two. We never did go back to the Sports Bar. All in all, this is a FOUR STAR resort at GREAT VALUE pricing. We will definitely consider it when we return to Puerto Vallharta. Pretty much everything was great with a couple minor exceptions. Oh, one last thing.......we inquired about Internet Access for our room and were told that it would b about 600 pesos for the week. We only needed to be on a few minutes each day so we didn't bother as Internet is available in the lobby. However, upon returning to our room we thought we would give the internet a try to see if we might somehow get on and sure enough we enjoyed free internet in our room throughout our stay. Sour grapes to the person at the front desk who was happy to sell us the internet for some reason. At the end of the day I would recommend this resort to everyone.

If i could rate a holiday more than 10/10 i would do. This holiday was absolutely fantastic. Ill start from the travel agent then manchester airport. We arrived at the travel agent and we wanted to book cancun or tenerife for this time of year but the tui rep said have you tried pacific side. “I know a very good hotel there and its amazing you will not be disappointed” we were brave and trusted her knowledge, which is what we pay for and she found us riu vallarta. And what a gem she found. Cancun all carribean were in the high £2000’s and she found us this hotel for £1500 each for 2 weeks. When it came to manchester we got through checkin super quick, they’re were tui reps there getting us ready to check in quickly and we were on our way. The plane was amazing and the tui cabin staff were happy to help and keep us fed and watered and entertained on a very long 12 hour flight. When we got to puerto vallarta we arrived at this very well decorated christmas hotel just intime for newyear. This hotel is amazing i cant tell you. We were greated by bell boys to take your case to your room and arrival drinks while checking in. It unbelievable. The staff work hard from start to finish of shift. Cleaners never stop all day, lads cleaning the pool in morning lads sweeping water so it doesn’t run everywhere from the pool, even the cleaner was scrubbing the door frame of our hotel door with a toothbrush one day. The riu fun lads are fantastic they have so much time for you. They get you to join in all the time. They teach you spanish they play games they make the holiday what it is the best two weeks iv ever had. Them lads. Gil, edgar, pepe, eddie, joshua, david some nicest lads iv ever met they remember your name from day 1. None is treated better. Everyone is treated the same. U que for drinks and thats fair and the trolly bar is brilliant paula and the other lads recognise and remember what you like and keep u watered. The tui girls kia are amazing iv never met nicer girls they told us so much about the hotel on day 1 and it really made us make full use from day 1 because you tend to find things out after a week u wished you knew earlier. The food wow. I have delivered meals at home and the hotel buffet is as good if not better every meal all day is of top standard and alwAys hot. They replace the food regularly and they even change the serving spoons and spatchulars regularly to avoid contamination and illness. I usually suffer bad stomachs. Not this time. The pools are clean the drinks are quality and the entertainment is brilliant. The riu lads keep the party going all day. They are ace. I met so many great nationality’s from france to hawaii. We saw no problems whatsoever. I can hand on heart say i dont have 1 single complaint with anything from the travel agent to the hotel, staff and facilities. Only problem was at vallarta airport the wait for passport is 2 hours. One problem with 1 excretion i found. Rhythm of the night is an absolute amazing show just like cirque de sol but travelling to and from is too much it was easily 1 hour and half on boat from the island after doing a drop off at puerto vallarta marina on way to vallarta adventures. Dont let this put a dampener on the holiday it was beyond my expectations and im so thankful to tui for making it so special i couldnt think of amything with the hotel i would change. Wow

My family was staying in Riu Vallarta for a few times. We had a great experience and had enjoyed our vacation every single time. Many thanks to the main operation manager Senor Raul and his team to make the visitors satisfied and happy. Senior Raul is very professional leader , spending every day on site to take care of many internal objectives. He was managing a recently finished 3 months of a Hotel renovation. Stephania (shift supervisor) had organized our mirage celebration every year on Dec 26. I would like to mention a few names such as Stephania – shift supervisor :Esael, Juan, Alma Rosa,Tanya - front desk representative; Victor, Maurisio, Maria, Alexandro, Cladia – bar tenders; Dave – entertainer . These great people work hard to keep a high quality of Riu service. Alexander M. (Riu class member) Canada