We will be staying at the Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta in January. Does anyone have any info, hopefully positive, about this hotel?

My wife and I were there last year. My one and only complaint, which is very small, is that you are about 5 miles outside of downtown PV, so a cab or bus ride is a must.(or rental car)We are both in our early 30's, and we were not sure that we would like staying away from downtown PV. However, after our vacation, we both decided that the Mayan gave us the best of both worlds. It is very relaxing at the resort, and when you want to spend time in PV it is convenient enough to go just for lunch, or spend the entire evening out. Aside from that, the Mayan is a beautiful resort, with one of the longest pools I have ever seen. The beach is great, very long and clean, with good water in the ocean as well. Our room was very well kept, and the staff was very helpful. I wouldn't recommend eating too many meals at the resort, because there are many, and I mean many fantastic restaurants in PV. We have been to Mazatlan, Cancun, and PV/NV, with PV/NV by far our favorite. Our weather was absolutely perfect every day, which you don't always get on the gulf side. About a block away from the resort is a small grocery store. I think it is owned by the resort, however if you are looking to stock up on drinks or snacks, the prices are much better there than ordering room service. They were working on completing a golf course last year, but I don't know if it has been finished or not. Let me know if you would like any additional info, I would be happy to share. One last thing, this is a timeshare resort, so a "salesperson" may try to talk to you sometime during your stay. We just told them we were not interested, and we were never bothered again.(Don't fall for any free meal tricks)

One more thing, the bus ride to PV was very inexpensive, maybe $2 or $3 and took about 15 min. Cabs usually cost us about $10-$15 U.S. and took about 5-10 minutes. I didn't think that was too bad either, considering we have paid far higher fares in Cancun, for much shorter distances! The cabs are also a good idea because they can drop you off where ever you want to go, which is a good feeling at night sometimes. We usually took cabs for dinner and anything later, and the bus during the day.

To Brenden: Thanks for all your valuable info. I e-mailed you, and I'm hoping that the address you gave Fodors is the right one. If not, I'll write back to you here.

Penny, my real email address is [email protected]. Sorry for the confusion, I don't usually like to give out my email. If you have more questions though, please email me, and I would be happy to share any info I have.

We stayed at Mayan Palace May 2001. Ask for a room that overlooks the pool otherwise you`ll overlook the golf course it wasn`t finished when we were there and it wasn`t very scenic. They have a lagoon that you can use there canoes to float around in. They have a fiesta show one evening on the beach. We did go to town a couple times to eat out and get food &amp; beverages. The resort has everything and the beach is hugh as well as the pool. They usually have something planned around the pool every day. There are 3 resturants and the staff was very helpful.<BR>

We are going to Mayan Palace in two weeks. Can anyone comment on the extent of damage in that area from Hurricane Kenna? What about the PV area in general? It looks like it was hit pretty hard, and we are trying to decide whether or not to cancel/reschedule our vacation. Thanks in advance for any info.

Hi Mike,<BR>I have friends staying at Nuevo and they reported very little damage - mostly salt water in the pools and that was fixed the next day. For pictures of the Malec&oacute;n clean up see.<BR>http://vallarta-info.com/kennapics.html