gianolam

Travelling to PV in June. There are several areas to stay and we wonder about good location and nice hotel. Any ideas?

ajhart1015

My two favorite hotels in Puerto Vallarta are the Westin Regina and the CasaMagna Marriott. They are very close to each other near the marina, which is a little removed from the main part of town, but is a bit more tranquil and has plenty of nice restaurants and shops. A cab to town is very cheap from here. Both hotels have great service, modern rooms, fabulous pools, and good dining. The only drawback is that the beach isn't that great, but it is still acceptable.

loangalsal

PV, my favorite place! Depends...do you have kids with you? How important is the beach? Are you hoping for something secluded or something in the heart of town (or close to town?) Then I can give you some ideas. I have only stayed at 2 hotels in my many trips to PV, but have toured many...For sure, I recommend NOT staying all-inclusive, the best restaurants are in PV. So, what are your priorities and kids? etc...then we can help you more.

beachgirl

Look at Majahuitas and the Quinta Real on differentworld.com. My husband and I stayed at both of these resorts last Christmas when we vacationed to PV and we had a perfect vacation. Majahuitas is isolated and quiet with an absolutely gorgeous beach and the Quinta is in the marina area of PV. At Majahuitas, you can do as little or as much as you want. We spent our days lounging on the beach, swimming, snorkeling and kayaking (all equipment provided for free by the resort) - people rent boats and pay money to come to Majahuitas to snorkel, swim and kayak, it is such a great area. But they are never there for long and most of the time it is like you have the beach to yourself - it is a very small, intimate property and visitors are not allowed on resort grounds.
La Quinta is not on the beach, but they have a beautiful beach club and they loaned us brand new bikes to ride there - or they will take you via golf cart. It was on a great stretch of beach. The rooms were very pretty, with marble everywhere and the grounds were perfectly manicured. We even had a plunge pool outside our room! I would be happy to answer any specific questions.

suze

What kind of thing are you looking for? Puerto Vallarta has something for everyone from $20 budget hotels, nice mid-range Mexican places in "Old Town", hotels in the Hotel Zone, fancy resorts in The Marina and Nuevo Vallarta for $100's.

Do you want to be walking distance to El Centro (downtown)? Are you looking for peace & quite or lively pace with lots to do? What are your interests? And what is your general price range? More comfortable staying in a locally-owned 3-star hotel or an international 5-star resort?

I LOVE Puerto Vallarta and have spent 15 trips there to date. Happy to help, but give us some more clues are to what you are looking for ;-)

sweetsue

AVOID the Intercontinental. Unlike most of this chains hotels, this one is horrible. Not recommended at all.

TioGringo

One of these days, I'm gonna stay in the Casa Kimberly -- former home of Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, but now B&B inn. I've heard it's pretty reasonably priced at about $100 / night.

Anyone here ever try it??

Mark
www.tiogringo.com

dp

Though I haven't stayed there, I did take a tour in 2001 and I was kinda disappointed that it wasn't "nicer". The image I had from its history was that it would be decorated a little better and kept somewhat updated. The rooms were fairly plain and the public areas nothing special. The pool needed to be resurfaced. It was interesting to hear about the history but as for a place to stay, there's too many other choices in PV IMHO.

Travelnick

Agree with Sweetsue - for the price, all the burns in the lampshade was not a great decorative feature - but go to the beach in fromt of it, via the next door condo block - really nice and no hawkers.

Also avoid Hotel Playa Conchas Chinas unless you like truck-like noise from air con units and very smelly bathrooms (you can hang your clothes in the wardrobe just outside so you can get used to it, I guess).

JRinPV

3 other beautiful villas, where the "Night of the Iguana" people stayed, are available to rent.
Casa Bursus - Richard Burton
Casa La Luna - Ava Gardner
Casa Tabachin - John Huston
see http://vallarta-info.com/rent.html

Jamie

I agree with the others. The tour of Casa Kimberly was interesting and we liked looking through the photo albums there but I wouldn't consider it a place to stay overnight and feel comfortable.

Too old, too many levels of steps, strange place. But if you like this type of thing, go for it. You might want to make your stay no longer than 1 or 2 nights though if possible.

Try not to run into the man who's running things there, very gruff, pompous sort. Come to think of it, he alone would be enough reason NOT to stay there.

suze

If you are looking for a small, quaint, pretty, quiet place to stay, in the "Old Town" Playa Los Muertos neighborhood, I highly recommend Casa Andrea. www.casa-andrea.com

A bit larger property, beachfront, two pools, two restaurants, also very beautiful in true Mexican style is the hotel Molino de Agua which is right after the southbound bridge, south of El Centro. www.molinodeagua.com