I have found a beautiful Hotel outside of Puerto Vallarta which has become my home away from home. I went back for my 11th time and have made many friends for life. I highly recommend this hotel which is all inclusive. Great food and drinks

The resort is beautiful, however if you're wanting to be close to town this is not the place for you. The bus is on .70 each way, fun adventure. The ocean and mountians are amazing. The food is average or even below average, same with the drinks. Beds are covered in plastic making it hard to sleep. I love the upgrade to the premium club, was able to make our own drinks. I would traved back to PV but not stay at this resort.

This is a no BS assessment of the Barcelo Puerto Vallarta. We had a wedding here from February 19th - 27th, 2013.

Let me preface by saying that my fiancé and I have been to Mexico 6 times (Puerto Vallarta 3 times) and never experienced any issues other than self induced with each trip. This was our first time at the Barcelo.

First, all the latest reviews about people getting sick because of some “mysterious virus” are absolutely true, although the hotel management will not confirm its existence. The day we arrived the IslandSun Experience (Funjet) representative called our room and stated that, “There is some type of virus going around the hotel and that if any of our party got sick they would move us to the Hilton hotel in Downtown Puerto Vallarta free of charge.” The only problem was they couldn’t guarantee that our entire party would be able to find accommodations and we would lose all the money we paid for our wedding package, so we were stuck with the Barcelo unless we wanted to take the risk which we didn’t. He also stated that the wedding party before ours had 15 out of its 20 guests get sick and almost had to cancel the ceremony. All complaining of the same symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting and extreme cramping. Sure enough my fiance’s brother (who isn’t old enough to drink), her mother, the maid of honor, and 2 other guests got sick within 2 days. Not to mention everywhere you go there was hand sanitizer being pushed in your face by the wait staff. Problem is that sometimes you actually have to wash your hands, which seems to be a real chore around this place. They tell you that they use the most strict sanitizing practices blah, blah blah, blah, but I literally saw one of the cooks in the buffet drop his spatula on the ground and wipe it off with his shirt and continue on. Really?!?!

Second, the hotel was absolutely infested with sand fleas and I don’t mean by the beach either. After the second day, I had 10 bites on both of my legs and I hadn’t been anywhere near the beach or near downtown or anything like that. I had only been in my room (Grand Master Suite) and the pool. After speaking with all of our guests, they also were experiencing flea bites and non of which had been near the beach. Absolutely terrible!!! We even brought fleas home with us in our luggage. Had to bomb the house and Frontlined the dogs. Terrible first day back home. Now the rest of our party had to bomb there houses as well and we came back to a cold weather climate. This point alone should tell you never to stay here!!!

Third, the food at the restaurants was absolutely awful. Don Quijote (Spanish Tapas) restaurant was embarrassing! I ordered the garlic shrimp. Seems easy enough. We are by the ocean, so the seafood and shellfish should be fresh. It looked like they took a dozen frozen (90-100ct per LB) tiny shrimp and put a drop of butter on it and called it a day. I’ve had better shrimp at Panda Express. They are obviously cutting corners where ever possible. The “Italian” restaurant Capri is an absolute joke. Now I know that you don’t go to Mexico for the Italian food, so my expectation were very, very low and I was still disappointed. The food had no resemblance to Italian food other than there names. The lasagna looked like soup, all watery and bland. The Alfredo was salty and tasted like old milk. The Seafood pasta had one shrimp, one scallop, and some unrecognizable fish in it which tasted like smelly catfish. I mean this place was just down right awful! None of our party even finished there dinner. We literally all walked out and went to the buffet which was a pleasant surprise. That night they had prime rib on the menu, go figure.

Fourth, the bathrooms around the pool throughout the day are never cleaned, even though the card on the back of the door says someone was just cleaning the bathroom, except they didn’t empty the garbage, fill the towels, or clean the toilets. Could be why people are still getting sick??? This isn’t rocket science.

And lastly, you don’t want to have a wedding here, unfortunately we did. The wedding coordinator, although pleasant and polite, has no idea how to guide someone through a wedding. Basically, all she did was nod her head and say yes and okay. She gave no advice or suggestions about timeframes and pre/post party activities like the reception dinner and cocktail hour. Our wedding was scheduled by her at 3:30pm which sounds like a good idea except its the hottest part of the day in direct sunlight so the whole party was sweating. Then after the ceremony the guest were suppose to have an hour of drinks and appetizers, while we shot the wedding photos. Turns out the she scheduled the cocktail hour to start at 5:30pm (an hour and half after the ceremony) and didn’t tell any of our guests so they just stood around by the pool wondering whats going on. Then dinner was late and still the coordinator was nowhere to be found. The pictures turned out amazing, but that’s because the photographers were contractors through Vallarta Adventures and not through the Barcelo!

In conclusion, I don’t care that this hotel has been awarded Diamond status for the past 5 years and 6 Golden apples or whatever. All I can say is that the current state of this hotel was very very poor and for your own safety and piece of mind stay somewhere else!!! Your wedding will be a disaster and you will waste your money!! I hope this helps, good luck!!!

Just back from PV stayed at the Barcelo from March 2 - March 9 it was wonderful. The staff is great and helpful. We booked the master suite that had the ocean & mountain view with a wrap around balcony ~ loved it, will probably always upgrade to the Premium Club they were so nice and helpful with information, easy check in & out. Lots of rest and relaxing the food is good with lots of variety. The weather was perfect the resort was quiet, there was no "sickness" going around that I knew about. I could see how "sickness" could happen eat too much, drink too much and too much sun you will get sick. At the end of the week the spring breakers were checking in so I was glad to be leaving I like the quiet area of the resort and would rather be here than in the hotel zone.