The food at Now Amber is excellent - on a par with Dreams PV (the former Camino Real). The resort is close to town (a $4 cab ride or fifty cents by bus), but fully contained with many available restaurants and activities throughout the day. Clients can use all the restaurants at Secrets (the mirror resort for adults only) after six o'clock. The best of these is Bordeaux, the French restaurant. The resort is virtually brand new so everything is in splendid condition. Only drawback - the beach is rocky.

My husband and I stayed at the NOW Amber from November 17th to the 24th. We very much enjoyed our stay.

Room: We were lucky enough to get the oceanfront swim out suite in the preferred tower. This room is amazing with your own private pool. The entire week there we never used the main pool. The waiter would come right to our terrace and bring our drinks. We had sunshine all day and could move one of the four deck chairs to a shady area on the terrace if you wanted to get out of the sun. There was also a table with seating for 4 on the terrace. This room is large. I think the bathroom was the size of some of the rooms we have had at other resorts complete with walk in closet and spa like shower. I would stay in this room over and over.

Food: The one nice thing is no reservations required, but we found they seemed to alternate which ala carte restaurants were open. We have travelled to numerous all inclusive resorts and found the buffet here to be sub par at best. Because my husband and I do not eat seafood, there was one night that we could not find a meal at the buffet and they don't do breakfast as well as most resorts. One day the women making the omelets did not seem to want to be there. My husband ended up with a omelet with a uncooked complete yoke in it. The italian and mexican restaurants were good as was the service. We never did try the japanese restaurant. There is a snack bar by the main pool that we did grab a hamburger at a couple of times. Room service is included and we used it for breakfast the last day there. The food was alright and came quickly, but was exactly what we ordered.

The lobby lounge has a beautiful view, but could really use some evening entertainment of some kind. We never went to the disco (a little to old for that I think)

Staff: Most staff at the resort are great and go well beyond in there service. We were looking for somewhere to watch CFL football and the gentleman at the desk in the preferred tower made a point to find us a place we could go and watch. He even called to make sure they were showing the game we wanted. Benny in the preferred club lounge was amazing and always made me the perfect not too sweet pina colada. He always had a smile and worked very hard. Please be polite to the staff and tip what you would at home. The lounge staff was also very good and always had a smile for you.

Cleanliness: This hotel is kept very very clean. When we arrived we found items in our room from the previous guest, so it made you wonder how well the room was cleaned between guests. The maid that did our room missed it one day, we phoned down and she was there right away. She always did a very good job. The mini bar fridge is stocked by someone else and was restocked everyday complete with chips and M&M's.

We don't have children, but it looked like the kids really enjoyed the kids club there.

Pool: As I said earlier we never used the main pool, but it seemed that you could always get a seat there if you wanted one.

Having been to Cancun a few times, we wanted to try something different in Mexico. We have stayed at 2 Secrets resorts, so we stuck with the same brand and hoped it would be comparable. It was! Overall, we were very pleased with the resort - service was excellent, room was well-appointed, lobby and other public spaces were very well designed.

Room - this was the 1st hotel room in Mexico where the A/C actually worked!! We were thrilled to find a ceiling fan as well as an adjustable thermostat that kept the room downright chilly! The bed was very comfortable. I like mine soft, hubbie likes his firm - and we were both pleased. The maid came as expected, and the mini-bar guy kept ours full. I wish there was a drain across the shower door area, but that was my only issue.
Pools- The one closest to the beach is heated! It made the whole experience that much better. Last year, in Cancun, the Silversands' pools were not heated, and we couldn't get in the pool the whole week because it was too cold. So, we could not have been happier about the heated pool even though it got crowded at times. The other pools were nice, too.
Service-From the front desk to the restaurants, the service was excellent. We were always greeted with a smile wherever we went, and they bent over backwards to please us. The Carnival hostess remembered where i liked to sit every morning for breakfast, and the pool waiters remembered what I like to drink and would refresh in a regular manner. We could tell Ramondo (hope I got his name right) at Capers really wanted us to enjoy our meal; Fernando by the pool was very gracious; and Armando at VIP services was lovely and very helpful. I can't remember all of their names, but truly, I can't say enough about the service.
Restaurants-So, some of the food is interesting by American standards, but we always found something to eat. The breakfast buffet was great - a wide variety for both Europeans and Americans. Lunch was a bit of a challenge - some of the food at the Barefoot Grill was not great, so the alternative is Castaways and the buffet, both of which require you to be in something better than a bathing suit. But, the pool waiters will bring food from Castaways right to your chair, and the chef usually does a chef special poolside every day from 2-4. Lots of places to go for dinner, some better than others. Generally, any of the steak dishes were good at all of the restaurants. We were perplexed (amused!) by some of the food descriptions on the menu, and I really wanted to offer my services to the resort in providing the English versions of the menu items. Sometimes they seemed to try to make the items really fancy when a simpler description would work.
Entertainment- we didn't participate in much of that, but there were lots of things to keep people busy. We did appreciate that they set up a blow-up screen and projector and showed American football games down by the pool in the evenings. They even provided chilled beer and soft drinks in a cooler, and had a waiter come around to get drink orders so we could enjoy the game without having to fetch our own drinks. The main lobby was fairly busy in the evenings and was a good place to watch the sunset and listen to live music (harp or saxophone, etc.). The nightclub had a great moroccan theme decoration and played good dance music if you are inclined.

As a couple with no kids, we probably would have enjoyed staying on the Secrets side, but we really enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the Now Amber side, too. If you are planning to bring kids, they will LOVE this resort.

If you aren't interested in a time-share type of presentation, you might want to skip the Unlimited Vacations presentation. Although it's not a true time-share deal, it's very similar. They said it was a "loyalty club" but... think time-share w/o the maintenance fees. I'd like to have my 2.5 hours back that morning, but it is probably a good value if you have several thousand dollars lying around.

Can't say enough about how hard everyone worked to make sure we had a good time. Puerto Vallarta felt very safe. There was a notable police presence in town, and the hotel had some good safety measures in place. I'd definitely recommend this to my friends - esp. those with kids who want to go to Mexico.

We stayed here from Dec 15-22 /2012.
We have 2 kids, ages 5 and 7 and we had a great stay. We upgraded to the preferred suites. I highly recommend you do so. The food in the tower lobby is yummy and always available. The staff are so helpful, and you get free wifi in your room. Not to mention the jacuzzi on the balcony is awesome! If we go back we would try to get a swim up room for sure.
The beds are very comfortable, and the rooms are clean. The tv's are excellent, the bathroom is huge and the shower is luxurious. The mini bar selection is all premium alcohol and they stock it often. The kids pool and explorers club are top notch. Complete with a climbing wall, harnessed trampoline, and playground etc. so awesome! The pool side service was superb--if you have a chance to ask for Miguel. He works his tail off. We tipped $20 a day and he brought us special made drinks for the kids served in guavas, chips and guacamole, and great adult drinks too! The desk staff are polite, helpful, and efficient. The food: buffet is not excellent but is ok. The restaurants are way better, specifically the tepanyaki. The beachside buffets were better than the standard buffet. Also there is NO nightlife. 9am and there is no entertainment, it all shuts down. We would probably go back as the resort is clean, and small and service is great, but the price would have to be reasonable. If you want a day away....visit the zoo! Really cool experience!