Hotel Playa Conchas Chinas, El Palmar

Located outside main part of town, but an easy two mile walk into town, either along the beach or through some of Puerto Vallarta's nicest areas.

The view was spectacular from all of the rooms. The staff was very accomodating. The resturant was excellent. This hotel is very un-Americanized, very Mexican and charming, clean and comfortable. There are stairs everywhere and if you want to leave your room and go anywhere you must do the stairs. We loved it.There are no elevators so if you cant do stairs, this is not for you. One big problem was with the hotel attached to conchas chinas. My family and I mistakenly(we thought it was part of Conchas Chinas) tried to use their pool and hot tub and were escorted by 2 uniformed very rude hotel staff members. There was no sign anywhere stating the fact that the pool/hot tub was not Conchas Chinas. We (middle aged women) were made to feel like criminals in front of many other hotel guests. The same type of behavior occured again when we used the other hotel's beach chairs on the beach. Again, there were no signs indicating particular hotel property etc. Strangely, the resturant owned by the other hotel did not try and remove us, they were happy to serve us. However,the 5 of us decided to stop patronizing the resturant because of the forementioned incidents. Other than the horrible behavior of the other hotel, our stay was incredible and I am planning another trip this April. I just got back from my previous trip on March 3, 2006.

i stayed in one of the suites which had nice ocean view and a kitchen inside. the rooms are fairly large and air conditioned. the restaurants and overall service was great. franco at the front desk was very helpful. however, would opt for one of the destination type hotels if you are bringing a family.