Puerto Vallarta Jan-March
 

My husband and I and 2 other couples are planning a trip for sometime January-March in 2010. We are considering Puerto Vallarta either the Dreams Resort or Melia. Has anyone had any experience, good or bad, with either of these resorts. Also, can you give me some tips on good places to go whether it be sight-seeing, shopping, excursions, night life, etc. Thank you!

I have been to Dreams when it was something called Camino Real, I think it has the beast beach!!! Very private since it is located in a cove. It was not all inclusive at the time, it is now. Melia is located in the Marina a nice location also I stayed next door at the Marriott which I loved. I prefer not to do all inclusive since there are so many many places to eat and drink, I like to try different places to eat every night. It is all a matter of where you want to be, the Dreams resort is about 5 minutes to town the Melia is about 20 munites to town with all the traffic. There are pros and cons on any resort you may choose go to trip advisor and read the reviews of both those resorts

They are both all-inclusive resorts. Melia is located in The Marina district, while Dreams sits on a beach of its own to the south of town. In otherwords neither are walking distance to downtown, if that's importnat. I have not stayed at either, but spend a lot of time in PV.

Puerto Vallarta offers a huge array of activities, sightseeing, shopping, excursions, nightlife. Definitely there's something for everyone to be found.

I would not want to stay at an all-inclusive in PV. There are far too many good restaurants and that is half the fun of Puerto Vallarta. I have stayed at the Marriott CasaMagna a number of times and love it. It is located by the marina but just a short taxi ride to downtown.

Let us a bit more specifics, what kinds of things you're looking for as far as restaurants, shopping, sights, and excursions. Puerto Vallarta is a fairly large sized city these days plus all the outlying areas around the Bay of Banderas. (It's a big question you ask, is my point :-)

We stayed at the Los Acros Hotel on their AI plan and really enjoyed it. The hotel is no where near as nice as the Melia or Dreams, but the location was ideal. Within walking distance to the Maceleon, shopping, additional restuarants and bars. We were told many times don't do the AI plan, but we were glad we did, so it all depends on you. We did go out a few times and didn't find anything too much better than what the hotel provided and we loved the included drinks.

Look a Vallarta Adventures and BestDay.com. We booked a snorkel/day trip to Majuaritis (I know I didn't spell that right) and Yelapa. Also did a day tour of some sites of Puerto Vallarta including tequila tasting, and the waterfalls at EL Eden and Chinos. We also booked Caletas - Rhythms of the Night. The boat ride was horrid, but the dinner and show was very nice. We also went to a bar called Andales and had the best night with all the other patrons there. We thought the shopping was pretty decent. We purchased a lot of glasware and tiles. We found the vendors and timeshare sharks worse than any other destination we've been to. We wouldn't consider returning due to that and the sub-par beaches. We much prefer the Caribbean side of Mexico better.