Riu Vallarta

Recently returned from a fabulous holiday. Hotel was lovely, staff work extremely hard to make your stay a holiday to remember. Lovely large room, massive bed so comfortable, spotlessly clean, lovely to well animals left on bed. Optics and beers and mixers in room replenished every other day also coffee machine what else do you need. Food was very good, tried specialists restaurants lovely change from the busy restaurant, service in main restaurant was good, food lovely especially the fish, plenty of choice. Something for everyone, loved the choc chip cookies. Understand hotel is getting a refurbishment which should satisfy the people who say its dated, personally I love it as it is..

A friend of mine and myself came down to the Riu Vallarta the first week of November for a friends Wedding. Upon check in, we had to change rooms a few times due to a mistake with the reservation company and a broken toilet. The hotel is in a “U” shape. Thus, the sides of the “U” are partial ocean view where you have to stick your head outside the balcony to see the water. I don’t know if I’d pay the extra again for that unless you are going to spend a lot of time on the balcony. It appears that only certain companies sell the rooms at the bottom of the “U” with full ocean view. We upgraded to these rooms at the hotel for about $60 USD for the week. We found that it was nice to sleep at night with the screen door open and the fan on. In the evenings at the hotel, there was music in the open courtyard which you can hear with your screen door open. It gets a little loud late at night with people having an extra good time. As for the food, we ate at the Sir George(a la carte), the buffet on the beach and the regular buffet. From our perspective, the beef isn’t the same as we wouldn’t recommend it if you are used to Canadian/American beef. We were told that it isn’t cured so it was very chewy and hard. We ate at the Sir George one evening. It’s a more high class restaurant on the resort. Men have to wear pants and there is no beach wear allowed. The service was excellent. Juan was our waiter and he was prompt with our order and drinks. You order one appetizer, one main and one dessert when you sit down. We had the salad and pumpkin/shrimp soup, two beef with potatoes and the apple tart for dessert. Basically everything was excellent except the beef. The chicken and pork options looked a million times better. In the buffet in the square, they have a lot of options including meat sections, Mexican sections, cold salad bad, fruit table, pizza/pasta table and dessert table. They also have soups and bread and different daily specials like tempura shrimp, baked chicken, etc. There are multiple fresh juices, pops and beef as well. The wait staff is attentive to get drinks or whatever you need. Ramon was absolutely amazing. I think he works in the buffet in the evening and the restaurant near the beach during lunch. I would give him personally an 11* rating for the following reasons: he’s VERY attentive to everyone and once he’s served you, he remembers your preferred drinks and has a table waiting for you the next day. He fills your drinks before they are empty and makes you feel like you’re rely on holiday without having to worry about anything. I would make an effort to get to know him. As for the pool, the pool on the left when looking at the beach is supposed to be an adult pool. It isn’t adults only even though there is a kids pool on the right. The pool is about 4’ deep at the deepest point. The pool bar is open at 10am and typically full for most of the day. Recommendation is to find Vanessa at the pool bar. She’s amazing, remembers you and what you like and recommends drinks based on what you’ve ordered in the past. She went out of her way 100% to ensure drinks were made correctly and that you were happy with what you got. The pool is a perfect place to lounge and hang out. Most people were friendly and there are booths in the pool to have a seat with your drinks and just chill out. We spoke to a lot of people while we were there just hanging out. The atmosphere near the pool is relaxing yet there are activities like water polo and water aerobics so keep you busy if you’re into that. The only complaint I would have about the pool is that people leave their towels out overnight to save chairs. Unless you come out before 9am, it’s pretty difficult to find a chair by the pool. Also, we got a lot of bug bites which I assume are by the pool. Apparently the bugs are so small you don’t see or feel them until the evening when there are a bunch of bites on your legs. Also, there are bees by the pool bar but apparently they don’t sting. I’d bring meds if you’re allergic just encase. I will post a separate review on the spa at the hotel as it’s worthy of a detailed review. Overall, I’d give the hotel a 4* for the details listed above with excellent ratings for Ramon and Vanessa.