Thanks to Suze and other Fodorites, my fears of bad weather in Sept for a quick getaway week have been lessened to the point of booking. Thank you one and all.
Now for hotels. I am drawn to the La Jolla Mismaloya, but it seems inconviently "far away" from restaurants, shopping etc. Also on my list is the Hotel Playa Los Arcos, Fiesta Americana, Hyatt, and Marriott Casamagna.
We think we don't want all inclusive as there seems to be just too many good restaurant choices in town and it would be nice to be relatively close to those choices. We like beach side hotels with good sand beaches. We intend to do many of the activities like snorkeling, golf, forest tour, etc., but like relative quiet at the hotel. Any thoughts?
Thanks again.
(I asked this at the bottom of my weather related post, but it's not good to change the subject in the middle of a post, I think. Thanks again.)

Mismaloya sets on its own beach & yes it IS a ways south from town. You'd need to take a bus or taxi any time you left the resort. Also check out current beach situation there (it was washed away almost completely a couple years back, don't know how it is now). while I used to know people who stayed there (10 years ago) I just don't hear about this resort lately, not sure why.

Casa Magna Marriott is a lovely hotel, it's a BIG one, located in The Marina, which is a closer in bus or taxi ride into El Centro, with lots of restaurants in The Marina itself as well. This is a busy location near the airport. I found the hotel itself to be quiet (it is a typical looking Marriott with a little Mexican style). GREAT pool area and narrow beach out back.

Hotel Playa Los Arcos is my favorite location of your list, on Playa Los Muertos the lively main local beach down in Old Town (southside). It is NOT a quiet hotel, by any stretch. Lots of tourist families, music piped in to the pool area. Also the least "nice" hotel on your list, I believe.

I'm not personally familiar with the Hyatt or Fiesta Americana.

Quite honestly, "beach side hotels with good sand beaches" are a bit tricky to find in Puerto Vallarta. While there's plenty of sand and plenty of hotels they aren't always together! It is not like Cancun where there's loads of upscale hotels lined up neatly on a white sand beach. That happens only way out at the newer resort development dubbed Nuevo Vallarta (which is 1 hour from town so I am not recommending you stay there, simply commenting that's probably the beach/hotel you have in mind).

You might also be interested in Molino de Agua. It is a Mexican hotel sits right on the river and the beach just over the bridge into the southside of town. I hesitate to recommend only because I heard it was for sale and I am not sure if or how that might effect services there. But it's a gorgeous property with two pools, lush gardens, a couple restaurants.

Bill,

Have you thought about the Villa Premiere? You might want to look into that too.

suze,

A side note about Molino de Agua. Because I am thinking of changing my one night from Villa Premiere to Molino, I e-mailed Vallartaonline and this is the response I got:

"We do not know if the hotel is sold, but something that I can be sure is that the Molino de Agua Hotel is not closed and not will be closed for the dates that you need in February."
FYI.
-Bill

Thanks for the Molino de Agua update. It is a truly unique and wonderful property in PV!

The other concern I had since I hadn't been there myself in the past 2 years was the Malecon extension. If they do in fact ever get that pedestrian bridge built and extend the malecon to connect with the boardwalk at Playa Los Muertos it would have to run right in front of the fabulous ocean front rooms at the Molino.

I am not meaning to raise an alarm unnecessarily but hate to rave about Molino (which I have and do) and find my info was out of date and I steered someone wrong with my posts.