Meliá Puerto Vallarta Trip Report.
Dates: July 22-29 2002.
First of all I want to comment on the company I used to go to Puerto Vallarta. I live in México and the company used was Magnicharters, leaving from Monterrey. This company left a very good impression with their service. The plane was new, clean, with good leg room, good food (for a charter flight!!) and open bar with top shelf liquor!!!!! (Absolut, Don Julio, and the like). This is a good company to use of you are an expat living in Mexico (or Mexican) as their service is excellent. The Magnicharters rep in Puerto Vallarta was good, very informed and resourceful. I can fully recommend this company, and I will certainly used them in any furture holidays in Mexico.
The Meliá Puerto Vallarta is a very nice hotel. It has about 370 rooms distributed in a U-shaped building. The grounds are good size, beautiful and very well kept, although smallish if compared to other Meliá properties I’ve visited (mainly in Cuba). The first impression of the hotel is very nice, the lobby is huge, open air with lots and lots of sitting room. There´s a good lobby bar with excellent views of the bay and gardens. The staff at checking in is very nice.
The rooms at the Meliá are good. The AC worked very well and it kept the room always cool. The room was very clean, all marble floors (even the balcony!) and all-marble bathroom. The rooms are mostly renovated (after Meliá bought the property from Maeva), although some of the furniture can seem a bit dated. Balcony was very nice, with full view of the gardens, the beach and bay, and the city and mountains beyond.
The pool area is very nice, it is clean, with lots of long chairs so there’s lots of available spots. Not difficult to find a good spot to lie down and relax. Saw very few ‘reserved’ spots during my stay.
The food is very good, although it can become a little repetitive at times. However, there is always a good variety, so there is always something to choose from and you don´t have to go hungry. There were lots of people at the resort, but everyone gets good service, no long lines at the buffet. Excellent breakfasts. There are three restaurants, the Quetzal, where breakfast and dinner are served; La Palapa (by the pool) were lunch is served, and the restaurant Vitrales (a gourmet restaurante) which needs reservation. It wasn’t difficult to get a reservation for the Vitrales restaurant, which has to be made the same day.
The people staying at the hotel were very varied. About 50% of all the guests were Mexican (right now is the summer vacation time for Mexicans) or other Spanish speaking tourists (Chileans, Spaniards, Argentinians, Venezuelans, etc.) and the other 50% were non-Spanish speaking, of which about 25% were American or Canadian, and the other 25% were European (English, French, Russian, some other East European) or Indian, Japanese or from other countries, so it is a very diverse lot.
The staff at the Meliá is very nice, and pretty much all of them speak English, so it is not difficult to communicate if you don´t speak Spanish. Don´t know about the room maid, since I never got a chance to talk to her or even see her, usually our room was cleaned while we were at breakfast.
This resort is kids-friendly, and there were lots of young couples with young kids. There is Club 4 (for kids up to 4 years old) and the Mini club (up to 12). The kids seemed to be having the time of their lives in these clubs.
All in all, a very nice resort. I will gladly return there as soon as I can.
Dates: July 22-29 2002.
First of all I want to comment on the company I used to go to Puerto Vallarta. I live in México and the company used was Magnicharters, leaving from Monterrey. This company left a very good impression with their service. The plane was new, clean, with good leg room, good food (for a charter flight!!) and open bar with top shelf liquor!!!!! (Absolut, Don Julio, and the like). This is a good company to use of you are an expat living in Mexico (or Mexican) as their service is excellent. The Magnicharters rep in Puerto Vallarta was good, very informed and resourceful. I can fully recommend this company, and I will certainly used them in any furture holidays in Mexico.
The Meliá Puerto Vallarta is a very nice hotel. It has about 370 rooms distributed in a U-shaped building. The grounds are good size, beautiful and very well kept, although smallish if compared to other Meliá properties I’ve visited (mainly in Cuba). The first impression of the hotel is very nice, the lobby is huge, open air with lots and lots of sitting room. There´s a good lobby bar with excellent views of the bay and gardens. The staff at checking in is very nice.
The rooms at the Meliá are good. The AC worked very well and it kept the room always cool. The room was very clean, all marble floors (even the balcony!) and all-marble bathroom. The rooms are mostly renovated (after Meliá bought the property from Maeva), although some of the furniture can seem a bit dated. Balcony was very nice, with full view of the gardens, the beach and bay, and the city and mountains beyond.
The pool area is very nice, it is clean, with lots of long chairs so there’s lots of available spots. Not difficult to find a good spot to lie down and relax. Saw very few ‘reserved’ spots during my stay.
The food is very good, although it can become a little repetitive at times. However, there is always a good variety, so there is always something to choose from and you don´t have to go hungry. There were lots of people at the resort, but everyone gets good service, no long lines at the buffet. Excellent breakfasts. There are three restaurants, the Quetzal, where breakfast and dinner are served; La Palapa (by the pool) were lunch is served, and the restaurant Vitrales (a gourmet restaurante) which needs reservation. It wasn’t difficult to get a reservation for the Vitrales restaurant, which has to be made the same day.
The people staying at the hotel were very varied. About 50% of all the guests were Mexican (right now is the summer vacation time for Mexicans) or other Spanish speaking tourists (Chileans, Spaniards, Argentinians, Venezuelans, etc.) and the other 50% were non-Spanish speaking, of which about 25% were American or Canadian, and the other 25% were European (English, French, Russian, some other East European) or Indian, Japanese or from other countries, so it is a very diverse lot.
The staff at the Meliá is very nice, and pretty much all of them speak English, so it is not difficult to communicate if you don´t speak Spanish. Don´t know about the room maid, since I never got a chance to talk to her or even see her, usually our room was cleaned while we were at breakfast.
This resort is kids-friendly, and there were lots of young couples with young kids. There is Club 4 (for kids up to 4 years old) and the Mini club (up to 12). The kids seemed to be having the time of their lives in these clubs.
All in all, a very nice resort. I will gladly return there as soon as I can.