Buenaventura Grand Hotel and Spa All-Inclusive, 5 de Diciembre

My mom and I came here last week, and our experience was horrible. Check-in took about half an hour: The front desk didn't know what they were doing, then they wanted to rip me off on the exchange rate (and I relented), and then we got to our room and it was TINY and SMELLED. The linens and other appointments were nothing like the pictures: This is really quite a basic hotel with very small windows and below average everything. We checked out the pool, and it was a pretty dirty area. The beach wasn't that great. And then my mom started talking about getting her own room because our one room was really quite small... Instead of "putting up with it" for 3 days, we left. Buenaventura required us to pay for the first night, which is pretty insulting since we came all that way and the hotel didn't match our expectations. We took a $10 taxi up to Garza Blanca and it was incredible - I am overjoyed we switched.

If your shopping around, this is worth the read! We've been to PV 3 times and this is by far the WORST hotel we've stayed at. We stayed all inclusive. The average age is 65 and you need to be up at the dawn with them to reserve your beach or pool lounge chair with a flashlight and towels from your room. No joke. HOTEL CONDITION: The hotel is old and is charming, but there is a lack of pool care and if you don't pay for an ocean-view, you will be facing the busy and noisy street. The hotel is falling apart, it is a 2 star at best for hotel condition. They fumigated the first 3 nights we were there. Wear your flip-flops in the shower as it likes to plug. HOTEL STAFF: We were not welcomed with anything special, our kids & party were on another floor and wing, even with many emails securing a room beside us before we went. The day staff is great, stay away from the night staff. AND we had to ask for bottled water everyday. Our pool waiter Eduardo was awesome!! HOTEL AMENITIES: The hotel does exchange money, but does not cash traveller's cheques. The hotel is very popular with locals and they get served first. There is no where to sit at night near the pool bar, only 20 concrete stools and the pool lounge chairs. No tables or chairs for friends to gather and have a few drinks. 2 nights they took all of the lounge chairs away @ 8pm to clean the pool deck at 3am! Dont get dooped into going to the other Buenaventura opening in Nuevo, it IS time-share. They will offer you a free ride and promise beaches, but we heard otherwise. Beach towels are rented and if they're not brought back they are $35US each. The hotel doubles in capacity on the weekends and we saw many guests sleeping in the lobby. NIGHTLY ENTERTAINMENT:The nightly entertainment consisted of only an hour of whatever is planned that day. Casino night was one table of 8; Hawaiian Night?? was 20 folding chairs to watch the show; karaoke??; and Bingo??!! DAILY ENTERTAINMENT: Same as above. One hour of volleyball, aerobics, scuba & cooking class. DINING: They advertise 5 restaurants. Go out to eat. #1 Buffet that does breakfast, lunch and dinner. (breakfast is good) #2 Beach Restaurant - serves lunch and a walk up buffet for a few hours (6 item), evenings are reservation only (made only early the morning of) It was ok. #3 Is one table of 4, reservation only and costs extra. #4 Is a beef restaurant, same as above. #5 is not a restaurant, its Sushi Wednesday nights at the buffet. Not good. Room Service is left over food, served cold. Not good. Between breakfast, lunch and dinner they shut down the restaurants for an hour or two to set up for the next meal. There is nothing to eat, not even an all-day snack bar like most resorts. We were told..."go to your room and order room service". The food was very disappointing. There is very little fresh food or vegetables to eat, mostly fatty, mystery stews, deep fried bacon and a lot of gravies. Very disappointing when you go to Mexico to eat Mexican and experience the flavors and they serve you meatloaf and mashed potatoes!!! No joke. We recommend Victor's Tacuba at the marina, Bubba Gump Shrimp or Cheeky Monkey on the Malecon, River Cafe near the market and Coexist Cafe near the big church by the Malecon. This hotel is made for someone who will sleep there ONLY. We would never recommend this hotel and if you do decide to stay, don't pay more than $800 CDN for a week of all-inclusive or $600/week for European, including your flight. Stay at the Marival in Nuevo, much nicer, clean rooms and the food is incredible! Wish we knew before we went.

The hotel was great, great service, they waited on us hand and foot, good food, great view, and a good location right in middle of the city. If you like to swim in the sea, I would not recommend any hotel near Puerto Vallarta, the water is murky and usually covered with splotches of brown foam for a few hours or the whole day.

This was our first time in Puerto Vallarta and my first time in Mexico. We researched our hotels very thoroughly and decided on the Buena Ventura because of its close locale to the downtown area. Boy, were we ever happy we did that! WE visisted some of the further hotels in Nueva Ventura and they have nothing on this place. Go all inclusive, it's worth it. Good if you just want to bum around the beach and pool or want to do expereience what PV has to offer. Only complainst was the conceierge could have been more knolwegable.

The view is beautiful, the property is secure, and the staff is extremely nice. I had a fantastic time and i would go back in a heartbeat! The only things i would say that were drawbacks was that it was a little bit far from town (not walking distance) and that the pool activities are a little bit loud if you want to sleep in. I had a room right over the pool and every morning around 8 or 9 the music would start. Other than that the property was beautiful and very well taken care of. It was over all a great experience and WELL worth the money. I plan to go back as soon as possible! - to those going- in town there is an open air taco shop with pork and pineapple street tacos, they are FANTASTIC! try one! they are the best i have ever had and the shop is open 24 hrs!

FOOD WAS GOOD SERVICE WAS GREAT RESORT WAS CLEAN. Vendors on beach could be pest but looked like they are on all the beach's we will be back

I thought the staff here was wonderful....the bell hop, cleaning staff, restaurant servers. I loved the open air dining, and being able to walk right up to the beach, and the ocean view from my room. Mexico was even more beautiful than I imagined, and I can't wait to go back!

Although the staff at the pool bar was great, there was a general unfriendly attitude about the people of the front desk and bell hop. We stayed in a "Honeymoon Suite" which was overlooking the pool and cabana bar. A 4 poster bed and a jacuzzi tub were useless to us in the heat, but the real disappointment was Friday night when a Quinceanera party out by the pool kept us awake and uncomfortable with trance/disco music that was turned up so loud our floors and walls were vibrating! It took my husband going down to the desk to get them to turn it down, but moments later the "music" was turned up again. Not one member of the staff apologized to us and when we asked to move rooms they tried to charge us the premium rate for a room with less amenities. It took a firm discussion with Julio, the rooms manager, to have our bill adjusted. We were surprised at the attitude. We had our room booked for 8 nights and 2 other rooms booked for the rest of our family for another 4 nights. I guess spending a lot of money with them didn't count for anything. I wonder how much money they made on the quinceanero party. We will never recommend this place!

The Buenaventura Grand Hotel & Spa is fantastic. I have been there twice. Once for New Years 2008, and I just returned from my wedding/honeymoon there on April 12th. I can't say enough good things about the hotel and staff. The food was delicious, the rooms immaculate (everything is brand new), the location can't be beat (3 blocks from the main promenade/strip and about 15 minutes to the airport), and the value outstanding. I spent a long time researching many different hotels in Mexico to have my wedding, but unlike all the large over-crowded resorts in Puerto Vallarta, this hotel was the only one that had an intimate setting so that all our guests could spend time together while also offering an all-inclusive option and excellent location. We checked out some of the larger resorts like the Rio and Palace hotels, but they treated weddings there like an assembly line with a bride walking down the aisle every hour!!! Thanks to Carlos Bautista, the wedding/event planner at the Buenaventura, I was able to completely customize my wedding. Carlos was amazing and made sure that every last detail that I had dreamed about for my wedding came true! All of my 30 guests could not stop talking about how wonderful the wedding was, and they were thrilled with their stay there. I highly recommend this hotel for a vacation and especially to celebrate your wedding. Make sure you ask for Carlos! Oh... and if you need a photographer Josef Kandoll W. is exceptional!

We entered the hotel and felt like we were going back to old Mexico. Wonderful character enhanced by the excellent service and good food. If you want to enjoy the city this is the place to stay, we walked to the Melacon every night. Enjoyed the culture and the nightlife. The teenage sons even got up early to make sure they enjoyed the Breakfast buffet and omelets.