We stayed at the Riu Vallarta from October 6 - 20, 2007.

Check in was very easy through Sunquest. We were assigned a junior suite, but had stayed in those at other Riu properties, so we purchased an upgrade to an Executive Suite with indoor and outdoor jacuzzi. This was handled through Gerardo at the front desk, who was excellent. We also were helped by Horatio the next day and he was also very good. The room and the view on the 8th floor were both spectacular.

The good stuff about the property specifically:
The room and property and most of the staff are fantastic. The best of the specialty restaurants was the steakhouse on the beach, but it was not gourmet, so please do not expect that. All beverages were great, especially a morning cappacino in the sports bar.

Needs improvement:
Consistancy. One day something (like a specialty restaurant) might be good, one day something might be bad. One day the room is cleaned, another it is not. This is also the only all inclusive I have been to that tipping does not seem to improve the quality of service from the staff, so it was a waste of money here and we tip quite well.

Unacceptable:
The buffet food. It was not fresh, and what was supposed to be cold was mostly hot, and vice versa. I lived on french fries for the most part quite honestly. I found the Jalisco to have better food, but if you got a good deal on the hotel itself, you really should go into PV for lunch and dinner once in awhile, becuase the food there is delicious and cheap. I have never lost weight on vacation until now! (The food at the Riu Palace Mexico was outstanding, and although we did not expect that, we were willing to meet in the middle.)

Bad experiences that had nothing to do with the hotel itself:
1) Rude or ignorant guests: We actually witnessed a woman pick up food off the buffet, take a bite andd PUT IT BACK! Twice! My mouth was literally hanging open - I was speechless. My husband actually went up to her and told her she was a pig, which I normally would discourage, but what else do you say? That is unsanitary when that many people are eating. One day at the snack bar there was a half eaten cheeseburger sitting in the nachos, and another day there was a man who was picking the parmesem cheese out of the bowl with his fingers instead of going to find a utensil! Seriously, I just about get sick thinking about it. I was actually pushed out of the food line up by a woman with the spoon in my hand, burning a second degree burn into my hand on the food hot lamp. At least I have a huge scar on the back of my hand at least to remind me of the trip forever.
2) The drunks - People who think all inclusive means drinking contest. People who sit a the swim up bar all day and then puke randomly around the property and do not clean up after themselves. Ewww, this happened more than once!
3) The humidity - try not go until the end of October, early November - the heat and humidity is truly unbearable and hard to enjoy sitting outside, even in the evening.
4) The ocean - it is kind of gross looking compared to Hawaii or the Carribean. I might have trouble going to the area because of this again because of this, (it is smelly sometimes too) but I want to try out the Palace when it opens next year, so maybe one more time at another time of year whe it is supposed to clear up. The sand if you look closely though has little flecks of gold and is really quite pretty.
5) The large groups of Mexcians that stay here (they get really good rates apparently) can be intimidating, but not necessarily the ethnicity of the rude people you encounter.

Puerto Vallarta is a really pretty little town, try the bus, the cab drivers are scary. Time share guys pop up when you least expect it, working at restaurants and stores, etc. so be smart, do not speak to anyone offering you anything. And if you want to go to a presentation, hold out for 300 - 500 US and 2 excursions, becuase they will offer it!

The positives: The most amazing sunsets I have ever seen in my life, night after night and we met some nice people to chat to.

Anyway, email me if you want to discuss any other details.

We just got back on Sunday the 21st from the Riu Vallarta. We went with our 2 teenaged daughters (14 & 18), and another family with teens and their in-laws.
I have stayed at the Riu Palace and this definitely is a step below it. It is a very pretty hotel - decorated in a art deco theme. Our junior suite was very nice. We did ask for the foam pad on the bed which made it nice. The room had a king bed and a couch that folded out, plenty of drawer space and a decent sized bathroom with two sinks and a shower/bath. There was a balcony that overlooked the ocean. Note that all rooms face the centr courtyard and you will hear all music from shows, etc. until approximately 10:40 each night. My complaints about the room were that you had a key for the door and room safe which was a pain to bring everywhere with you. The maids did a nice job. All of our group got towel animals once but we did not get one at all and we did tip daily.
Now onto the food - like I said we have stayed at the Riu Palace and 7 other all inclusives in Cancun & one other in PV. This hotel had very basic buffets. They had a lot of food but it was the same everyday. They did not have a theme night once. We ate at Nirvana - you can skip getting up at 7:00 to make a reservation here. It was also a buffet but in a small restaurant and the food was not good. We also ate at the steak house which is above the Beach grill. Steaks were average here but watched a very nice sunset. Wednesday afternoon they had a fun beach party where they served drinks out of real coconuts and had paella and seafood stew right on the beach. This was the only variety of the week.
All the bartenders were pretty decent and worked very hard. They would make the drinks as strong as you wanted. You never had to wait long to get served. They did have Cuervo but you had to ask for it. Their mojitos were great! They muddled fresh mint and lime for every drink.
The evening entertainment usually started at 6:30 in the courtyard with singers or some show like Grease. They had shows on the main stage at 9:45 almost every night. Most were pretty corny.
The beach is Flamingo beach and is a public beach too. You can walk forever. There are no shells along the beachfront. You need to go to the left down to the Marival to find shells.
One of the best things we did was release sea turtles one night. If you go past the Riu Jalisco a bit you will see a turtle refuge on t he beach. If you see the guy who works there see when they will be releasing some newly hatched turtles to sea. He had us come back at 8:00, give a donation and everyone got to release their turtles and watch them crawl to the sea. It was amazing.
We went to Bucerias and ate at Claudios on the beach. This was our second time eating there.They are great and very nice there. A van for all 11 of us cost $14 to get there. They have a mercado there too.
A van into PV costs $34 each way.
By the way we did not experience any of the negative things that a lot of people have posted for this hotel. An all inclusive is an all inclusive, some people just do not like them, but my family does.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

I am not a very fussy person when it comes to travel, (you need to take the good with the bad as it comes), but this hotel experience was awful! The hotel itself is nice to look at from the outside, but as soon as you start to wander through it, you have to be amazed that this hotel is newer. It is not being kept up and that is particularily obvious from the stinky, moldy rooms. After paying for a jr suite (water view), we were given a room with 2 twin beds pushed together that faced the other tower. Not the room we paid for, and the hotel downright refused to move us. We could have dealt with that, but then we decided to eat. I have to say that it is a poor trip when the best thing that I can say about the food is the buffet. In the 6 other all-inclusives I have stayed in around Mexico, it is unheard of to me that you have to line up at 7am in the morning to make a reservation for one of the restaurants. I cannot recommend any of them. Nirvana, the japanese restaurant, was a buffet of greasy mystery meat. You cannot order any wine (except the 'french' restaurant), and at best, it was a boxed wine that they filtered with vinegar. In short, we went into the city for all of our meals.
No 24 hour room service, no bottled water at any of the bars (you had to get it from the front desk), the pool was a murky mess by 10am, no service at any of the pools or beach for drinks, and the 'snack bar' was situated in a dark dank smoke filled room and it consisted of hotdogs and burgers in a fridge, or bagged natcho's and sqeeze cheese (all you could find to eat after 1030pm).
The beach is nice, and when we left the resort to do many of the activities, we had a great time. Next time I will repeat a stay at the Vallarta Palace. The best part of this supposed 5 star resort was checking out.

Hi there, I stayed at the Riu Vallarta with my Aunt and friend from October 12th till October 19th of 2007. We have stayed at Riu's before, the Riu Palace Las Americas in Cancun, and the Riu Palace Cabo San Lucas, in Los Cabos. I would have to honestly say that my stay this year at the Riu Vallarta was not as memorable as the trip to Cancun I had 2 years ago. So first of all I will discuss all the positives about our stay; The hotel is beautiful!! A very eye pleasing stay I must say. The hotel is 9 storeys tall, with a great view of the ocean on one side, and a great view of the mountains on the other. So either way it is pleasing to see out your balcony. The rooms are very clean, towels are replenished every day, and they mop your floors and if you leave a tip they make you cute little towel animals :). The food was good in my opinion. There is always something to eat for everyone. Yes, the food tasted different to what most of us are used to in Canada, but it was not horrible like some of these reviews might tell you. I highly reccomend the Asian buffet restaurant, and the Steakhouse, but you have to wake up at 7am to book dinner reservations for those particular restaurants.
My negatives are as follows; First of all on our first night there we had requested adjoining rooms, but when we arrived my aunt was on the main floor, and me and my friend got put up on the seccond floor, however it all got straightened out and we were next door by the next night. Second thing which put a real damper on my vacation was the fact that I got E Coli poisoning on my third day there I was sick in the bathroom, and had a horrible upset stomach on and off till today still, 7 days later. My doctor said you can get something before you go away to help prevent it, so i Highly think that would be a good idea for you incase. The third negative comment is that I found ants in our room on our 5th night there, all over the floor, and we had not eaten in the room at all. instead of moving our rooms, they sprayed our room and opened the windows. My final negative comment is about the PHONES!!! I bought 3 calling cards over the week, costing me my usual 60$ I spend on calling home. But on our check out day they told me at the front desk I owed
100$ in connection fees to the operator!! it costs almost 4$ each time you call home ontop of your calling card!! I was so shocked that our Sunquest agent didn't tell us. So please don't forget. There is a payphone outside the hotel, however at night it is quite dark, no lights there so don't go alone, and there is no connection to call home, just a line up usually to use it as there is only one phone.

Hope this helps you make your travelling descisions