We recently visited with a large group of adult family/friends and had five partial ocean view rooms booked at Krystal Altitude. Rooms were recently renovated, clean, spacious and all had views of the ocean. Guests are provided with wrist bands for room access instead of cards. Great idea! Beds/pillows were very comfortable and ac worked well. Mini bar was restocked daily with water, beer, pop, snacks. There was a coffee maker, iron/ironing board and a large TV with lots of English and Spanish channels. Wifi worked well everywhere on the property. During the week, we were able to get chairs by the pool/beach by 8am. It got busier on the weekends, so we just went down a bit earlier. No smoking on the property whatsoever, but some people would smoke on the beach. We are all nonsmokers so made sure our chairs were closer to the pool area to avoid the drift of smoke. There were whale sightings in the bay every day. The food was plentiful and very tasty. The SeaFire buffet offers a large selection at breakfast (omelettes, waffles, bacon, sausages, fruit, yogurt, sweet rolls, Mexican favs, etc) and lunch (freshly grilled fish, shrimp, scallops, chicken, pork, beef, salads, stirfrys, soups, tortilla wraps, etc) and daily themed dinners (Asian, Italian, Mexican, International). During the afternoon, there is a pool/beachside grill for hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, onion rings, pizza, breaded fish strips, chicken wings, guacamole and chips. There is also the O’West sushi bar on the fourth floor that had good sushi and a swimming pool overlooking the bay. Great for drinks and a sushi snack at sunset. The a la carte restaurants need reservations. Guests may reserve in the morning between 8/9am (times were inconsistent, so you may have to make repeat visits to make your reservation). Italian a la carte was good. The Steak a la carte was good and located on the Hacienda side. Very zen-like spot surrounded by lush tropical greenery. Unfortunately, we had service issues with our waiter (coincidentally the same waiter who mistakenly served us full glasses of vodka instead of water the evening before in the SeaFire buffet restaurant), and one of our meals was served raw (twice!). Gotta say, that’s never ever happened before. The other server, Daniel, jumped in to try and make things better, however, and we all appreciated his sincere efforts. Dinner took two and a half hours so we opted not to return. We’re on vacation, so no worries! The hotel also offers nightly entertainment including karaoke, disco dance, Mariachi dancers and a Michael Jackson tribute performance. The hotel staff were all terrific. Shout out to Alondra who made perfect omelettes every morning, Ariadna who worked the grill, Guillermo and Felix who made sure our drinks were always full, Jose in the SeaFire buffet who was friendly and efficient, the entertainment team for fun with bingo, aqua aerobics, poolside games, and finally to Cassandra at the front desk for great customer service and the last smile as we checked out. The staff really make the difference! One side note to add, with being regular visitors to PV over the years, I was a bit nervous about the Krystal name takeover of this property. However, the intent is to make the Krystal Altitude a higher end brand experience. As such, travellers should be mindful not to confuse the Krystal PV with the Krystal Altitude. They are two completely different properties. We encountered a bit of that with taxis and had to refer to the old Hilton name to make sure they knew where to go. In closing, thank you Krystal Altitude for a terrific vacation. We will definitely return.

Check in experience was 100% cumbersome and it took three hours. The property is under new ownership and it was obvious since the 3 rooms we booked at the same day/time weren’t even available. Not going to get into the shouting match that ensued when they tried to double charge our friends a room they had already paid for… We ended up in one of the “swim out” rooms in the adults only/Hacienda side, which is a bit of a misnomer. The “pool” was more like a giant bath tub that comfortably sat 6 people. The room itself was OK, but nothing special. The side with kids on it was kind of a zoo and the beach itself is meh. The main pool on the adults only side was empty, probably because it’s not heated and pretty frigid. On the plus side, this made it super easy to get a drink and the servers (especially Emma) were excellent and friendly. We wanted strong drinks and they definitely delivered on that end. The “roof top” pool was a lot livelier, but crowded. The reservations system needed for a la carte dinner is no joke. They fill up pretty much before noon each day, but oddly enough the dining rooms felt empty. The Italian place wasn’t great— every one of our dishes was cold and while nothing tasted “bad”, it was just weird to have pasta that tasted like leftovers that sat out on the counter after being taken out of the fridge. The French place was probably the best, but the other one was so forgettable I don’t even remember what it was. The servers, again, did a great job and worked hard to get our food and drinks out quickly, so they aren’t to blame. The buffets were not great and room service apparently isn’t free like other places. I forget how much it cost (not a lot), but we found it strange. Tbh, I think the issues with this place stem from poor management. The employees who actually provided services (drinks, food, bell hops, etc) were all great and made what was an otherwise mediocre experience a fun trip with friends. That said, we won’t be returning and I would recommend staying elsewhere since the location isn’t that close to town and it got annoying taking Uber rides all the time.

Stayed at Krystal AltitudeVallarta with family for new years vacation and was not disappointed. I was concerned about going as we booked when the hotel was still a Hilton and saw reviews plummeted once the hotel was converted to Krystal. Entire family couldn’t figure out what the issue was a we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We had junior ocean front rooms and they were awesome. Unobstructed views of the ocean and the setting sun each night. Rooms were well equipped with jacuzzi tubs on deck, soaker tubs and rainfall showers, mini bars, bathrobes, in room safe and wifi. Bathrooms amenities were excellent, soaps, dental kits, shampoo, conditioner, shaving kit, body lotion and shower soap. We had a coffee maker in the room which was a type of mini Nespresso machine. Unfortunately in both rooms we couldn’t get this machine to operate properly as the water would not come through the machine but leaked through the bottom. We solved this by running to the buffet and picking up coffee to enjoy on the deck in the morning. A/C in the room worked great. Beds were very comfy. Plenty of choices for food and drinks. The only poor experience we had was at the Italian restaurant so I would not book it if I was to return. The Italian restaurant tablecloth was dirty and stained when we arrived and the food there was unappetizing. We ended up at the buffet after the Italian. Beach is great and we were always able to find chairs. What this hotel is doing right is removing towels from chairs if people haven’t shown up for an hour or two. This alleviates the issue with chairs reserved all day and left empty. I wish all resorts would do this as I have seen so often chairs reserved and no one on them until late afternoon. Rooms and mini bars were serviced daily . Excellent stay and kudos to the resort! Only things for improvement would be the Italian restaurant , in room coffee makers, and moving the games (shuffle boards etc) out of lobby. When we went to lobby bar at night to listen to performances we could not hear it over the clang of the games. Definitely recommend booking this hotel! New years at this resort if definitely a memorable one!