Holiday Inn Puerto Vallarta
 

Has anyone stayed at the Holiday Inn in Puerto Vallarta? It looks like a nice place on their web site and they look to be reasonably priced so I have to ask what's wrong with this picture. If you have stayed there please give me a heads up. Thanks

We were there many years ago. I wouldn't recommend it. We stayed in the Tower.It was a junior suite. O.K. The rooms in the regular section were not impressive. The pool area was O.K. The beach was AWFUL.

Stayed there a few years ago and found it to be okay. Rooms were regular hotel rooms, although there were larger suites in the tower. Our only complaint was the food was not very good, so I would not do the A/I thing there. Too many good restaurants to miss doing A/I. We found the beach to be fine.

My wife and I (in our late 20's) stayed there last may (01) and we really enjoyed ourselves. We went with two other couples, one of which stayed at the Holiday Inn and the other stayed at the Westin Regina. The Holiday Inn was a little run down and definately not as nice as the Westin. However, after a few hours in Mexico, you get used to conditions: everything is a little run down by "American" standards. Even the Westin seemed a little run down.<BR><BR>Back to the Holiday Inn: We really enjoyed the All-Inclusive plan. We ate breakfast and lunch there every day. The food was not steller, but fine. We ate dinner thre only twice, once at their "sit down" restaurant (service was realllly slooooww), and once at their Buffet. Again, it wasn't bad, but you should really go into PV itself and eat dinner. We didn't feel too bad about "paying twice" for dinner, since the resort was so affordable. <BR>The best part were the free drinks and sitting by the pool. After a day of lounging, we showered, had our drinks and maybe a small snack at the Dinner buffet. We then would hop in a cab, pay 3 dollars to get downtown, and walk around PV and find a great restaurant. Then we found a club or bar to hang out in.<BR>All in all, it was a great vacation. We could have paid more for a nicer hotel, but I didn't think the differences were that dramatic and the all-inclusiveness of the Holiday Inn was convenient. Hope this helps!

Chris, <BR><BR>My husband and I are planning to go to Puerto Vallarta the end of August and are considering Holiday Inn. How far is the hotel from town? Also, one of the posts indiciated that the beach was awful. Is it that bad?

For Mary, that hotel is at the "north end of the hotel zone". So approx. 15 to 25 mins. depending if you take a taxi or local bus in to El Centro proper (the "real" old downtown area where the cathedral, malecon, zocolo, etc. are located).<BR><BR>The Hotel Zone places have narrow beaches out behind them. This changes each year depending on the storms and weather conditions. So it's not a matter of whether it's "that bad" it more a matter of whether it's THERE at all!! :)

I just returned from Holiday Inn-PV.It is an adequete hotel with adequete food and service. If you can get it at a very good price (as we did),go for it! It is only about 10 minutes from el Centro by cab and cost about 30 pesos or $3.50. The beach was clean and the water was very pretty. The pool area was nicely kept and food service was ok to good. My 2 negatives were very very HARD beds and pillows and CONSTANT music at the pool and beach area.A tip on not getting sick, we each took one Pepto twice a day and none of us got sick, even drinking the water offered at the hotel and drinks where the ice cubes had melted and my husband almost always gets sick! The beach vendors are constant but actually quite fun to talk to - sometimes. Hope you enjoy your vacation.

Beach area is fine. Don't know what the earlier poster was talking about it being "there". It's "there" every year when I am. Keep in mind it is the Pacific side, so you won't be getting the carribean type beaches.

I incorrectly posted above that the Holiday Inn was north/hotel zone. Looking at my map it appears it is south (down near the Camino Real, correct?).<BR><BR>My comment concerns The Marina and some 'hotel zone' hotels, which have a fairly narrow strip of beach that washes away with storms some seasons.