We stayed as a family at the Riu Vallarta from 8/7-8/14/26. I will attempt to offer some insight on various aspects of the hotel.
Appearance
The hotel is well kept for the most part. The room we stayed in was modern and up to date, and had a nice view of the beach and grounds. The lobby was immaculate, the common areas well kept, and the grounds (though small in area) were well cared for.
Check-In
Our check-in process was fairly smooth. The entire process took about 30 minutes and we were offered a cold drink while waiting in line. The part that slowed things down unnecessarily was the explanation about how the WIFI worked, and the Riu App. The app is mediocre at best, and the WIFI seemed to work well without nay issue.
Accommodations
Our room was on the 4th floor, room 4041 in the middle part of the building facing the ocean. The room itself was spacious enough, and our daughter (age 13) had a nice pull out couch in the sunken part of the room which gave her some space of her own. The bathroom was adequate, but had an odd configuration. They placed the toilet in such a way where the door to the bathroom would bump into the toilet bowl if you opened the door too far. In addition, the opening to the shower stall faced the bathroom door. SO, whenever the door was opened your naked self was on display for whomever you might be staying with. Plus, there was only a glass wall (not frosted) so there was nothing left to the imagination etc.
Hotel Layout
The hotel has some issues with structure in general. For example:
Bars/Booze Availability - There are only two bars conveniently accessible during the daytime hours. There is the swim up bar, which is entirely too small and continuously crowded with loud/obnoxious people at all hours of the afternoon, and only one other bar, where people are forced to wait in line consistently for 15-20 minutes when they are busy. If you are seated anywhere other than adjacent tot he main bar it is a walk and a long wait for a drink. if you do not have a reusable mug/thermos, you will find yourself wasting a large amount of time walking back and forth to this one main bar, or waiting in line at the one main bar.
Restrooms - There are only two restrooms easily accessible/convenient to anyone who is at the beach or in the pools. Otherwise there are no public facilities to be found.
Pools - The design and shape of the pools is totally unimaginative and lacks any real creativity or flair. Their are no curved lines and all pools are rectangles/squares. In addition, some of the pools are definitely on the small side. Most importantly, the pools all sit directly in the hot sun all day long and the water temperature routinely reaches 90 F (32 C) and above! This is NOT an exaggeration as the data on my smartwatch told me this to be consistently true day after day. Stepping into the pools there was definitely the hottest (not warm) water we have ever experienced at a resort! There is NO cool water that is pumped in to the pools (which we have seen at other resorts) or shade canopies over the pools (which we have also seen at other resorts). Otherwise the pools were in fine shape physically and there was a plethora of seating available.
Beach - The beach in in excellent shape! The sand was great, it is a real beach, and the palms are beautiful. The vendors are a constant nuisance that have free reign to roam in and amongst the chairs on the beach regardless of where you are seated. Our only real criticism was there are no palapas at all, which means you need to play the game of moving your seat/location as the sun moves across the sky to stay in the shade of the palms.
Food/Cuisine
Like most of these all-inclusive resorts the buffet was very good with lots of variety and plenty to choose from on any given day. However, because the buffet is the only option for breakfast on any given day, it is very crowded at almost any hour.
In regards to the a la carte restaurants, this is where this resort really falls down. They have a real issue with food safety at the Japanese/Asian restaurant. We read the reviews prior to going and chose not to eat there. We thankfully made the correct choice not to do so, as we spoke with two different guests who had eaten there while we there and both reported GI issues after eating there!
We did not get a chance to eat at the the Italian place or the French/modern place, because if you arrive after 8:00 they will tell you they are full for the evening and cannot accommodate any other guests. This phenomenon happened to us on multiple nights. There is NO WAY to make reservations at any restaurant other than the steakhouse through the app.
We did eat at the Steakhouse (by making reservations at 6:00 in the morning on the app) multiple times and enjoyed the experience overall. However, there are only 5 total choices of entrees to choose from, 2 appetizers and 3 desserts. The bread was tasty.
Staff
The staff at the hotel were all hard-working and generally courteous. They seem to do the best they can with what they have been given. We did have a couple of problems with housekeeping (despite leaving a tip every day) which the front desk generally took care of without issue. They neglected to empty our trash for three days, and left us without toilet paper on another...
Entertainment
The entertainment staff does a good job of trying to involve people and get them into activities. The nightly entertainment was up to par as well. I would say they are a strength of the hotel.
Overall this hotel is average. It is not a terrible place to stay, but also not a great place to stay either. if you can get a good deal, then it might be the right option for you. We had never stayed at a Riu before and we are not sure that our experience lived up to the hype we had heard about this hotel brand in general. Perhaps this was not a great choice amongst their various properties, but we definitely made note that the other two Riu properties close by had a very similar physical layout. Not sure we will give Riu another chance???
We definitely enjoyed Puerto Vallarta more broadly and would recommend it as a destination. The beaches really are great, the scenery is beautiful and the airport was super convenient.
