Garza Blanca Preserve Resort & Spa

DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY HERE. My family and I visited the Garza Blanca Resort in Puerto Vallarta in May of 2017 for my sister’s wedding. Being the Maid of Honor I was involved with the planning and I’m thankful we started planning over a year in advanced because the wedding coordinator would take weeks to get back to us, and they are VERY specific in their contract and fine print in what you can choose from and what is an extra charge, we wanted white chairs for the event, EXTRA CHARGE, napkins to match the colors of the wedding, EXTRA CHARGE, DJ not from the list they provide, BIG EXTRA CHARGE! We reserved a “block� of rooms for the guests attending the wedding because we were told that’s the BEST deal they have. I booked my room, simple junior suite, with the all inclusive plan under my sister’s wedding block she reserved. When I arrived at the resort the check in process was a NIGHTMARE, I stood in line for 30-45 minutes waiting to check in, who want to go through that when you arrive at a 5 star resort?! NOT ME!! While at check in, they gave me a piece of paper with what is included and not included and what hours they were included with my ALL INCLUSIVE PLAN. I about fell over. I’m sorry but every time I’ve booked a vacation in the past with an all inclusive plan, they usually include ALL, Everything, todo. Haha. I was pretty upset to say the least. I got extremely upset when I found out that one of my cousins who didn’t book under the wedding block got a different ALL INCLUSIVE plan, which included room service, and restaurants that were not included on my plan. I had no idea there were even different all inclusive plans!! TERRIBLE, just terrible. The upper management at this place is the WORST I have ever seen/experienced. The women are extremely rude with the exception of our hiking tour guide, she was awesome. All the women in the front desks of the lobby have a serious case of resting beach face and obviously do not want to be bothered with ANY questions from guests, they’re almost intimidating, you don’t even want to have questions, trust me, one of the girls names was Paola, SO very RUDE. I do have to say, some of the staff was amazing. The bell boys, the trolley drivers, the staff at BokaDos, like Alvaro who served us on 2 occasions and was spectacular, Rafael, the security at the beach, who was SUPER friendly, and the housekeeping person who went above and beyond to make our stay more enjoyable, Andrea. I’m only writing this review because I wish we would have read something like this and warned my sister about it. This resort is NOT meant for weddings or large groups. Upper management DO NOT have it together. SKIP! Pick another resort! Oh, the wifi is an extra $10 PER DAY, PER DEVICE & the super cool rooftop pool, NOT INCLUDED! :(

The place is very nice. We stayed in 3302A, May15th-19th 2017. Really nice room, everything worked well, except the sliding door in the master bedroom that leads to the patio would not lock. I kept forgetting to tell the front desk about it. Pros: beautiful place, very well kept and the employees are top notch. Our room was very nice, the larger section of the 3302A/B rooms. Our room maid Alma did a FANTASTIC job keeping our room clean and made up. Nice view too. Cons: AC works pretty well, but doesnt seem to dehumidify the room as well as it should. This was evident when we would climb into bed, the sheets felt as if they had been washed and not dried completely, so they felt moist-ish. Distance from the main city to the hotel is 15-20 mins depending on traffic. We had our own car, and the drive is not bad, but the speed bumps along the way really slow traffic down when a bus or 18 wheeler is ahead of you. Lots of curves, so passing the cars ahead of you can be tricky. I am an aggressive driver, so I really fit right in, I cant imagine how long it would take by bus, but a taxi would be quick, if not scary (from what I saw). WIFI: it is NOT free anywhere on the property. Its 10 bucks a day per device, and they track devices via MAC address, so you cant trick it into allowing more devices, unless you can change your devices MAC address. Restaurants on property: we only ate at Blanca Blue one time for dessert, and it took 30 mins for it to get to the table, and only then because we were walking out when they called us back to tell us that the desserts were ready. THEN, they charged us more for the desserts than the menu said. Their reason for this was that the menu had the old prices, but they couldnt find a menu that had the correct prices. So we asked them to charge us what the menu said. Well, this turned into a zoo as they had to call a manager to do it, and it took 30 more minutes to do it, but they weren't happy about it. In the USA, the restaurant would have said, "hey, we will take care of the meal". Well, not here. We spoke to other couples about the onsite restaurants, all said the same thing. Service was slow, prices were rather high and the food was not all that. One couple that also went to Blanca Blue said they were there for 2 hours and the restaurant only had 4 couples total. This couple turned out to be the ones that were next to us when we had the dessert fiasco. We did eat snacks and drinks at the pool, drinks were quick, food took a bit longer, I didnt pay attention to the response time on that. We did not have all inclusive because there are much better and cheaper choices in town, and we really dont drink enough to justify all inclusive packages. You MUST go into town and eat at Pepe's, PiPi's, El Pechugon, Pancho's Taco's and other street vendors. Just watch them cook the food if you can. None of us got sick and we hit the hot sauce pretty hard, but being hispanic, thats normal for us. The beach: we didnt go to the beach, it looks ok in the pics, but I bet there was never more than 10 people there on any given day, with 5 being the average. This water is no where near the clarity of Cozumel, Cancun or Cabo. Money conversion at hotel: if you get any money converted at hotel, watch how much they give you, and watch the use of the calculator so you know what exchange rate they are using. My wife went to convert some money, and she could see the calculator screen. They owed her 454 pesos based on the exchange rate. Well, the lady only gave her 400. My wife noticed it should have been 454 (shown on calculator), so the lady then gave her 40 more. My wife asked about the 14 pesos more, and the lady said she didnt have the smaller coins to make the rest of the amount. My wife asked if they could credit the room with the difference, and the lady huffed and went to get the difference. We wondered how many people they do that to? End result: I probably wouldnt stay here again, its further than I would like from the main town, so walking anywhere is not an option. The beach is not all that either. Driving your own car is better, but the buses, cabs and other drivers are very impatient and you MUST keep your head and eyes moving constantly, because someone WILL pull out in front of you, or you will be on a road that is just large enough for 2 cars to fit and it will be tight. You will get passed on the right or left and honked at if you go too slow. Cars and buses also stop in the road to pickup and drop off people, so 2 lanes in one direction turns into 1 lane until the vehicle moves, and sometimes the vehicle is loading or unloading product, so you have to go around, but you either wait until its absolutely clear (which doesnt happen often), or you get good at finding a small opening and punching the throttle to get moving. NEVER stop close behind a car, cause it can be stopped for a while and you wont be able to backup. Motorcycles will literally zip between the 2 lanes (that arent always marked) or go around you on either side and appear out of nowhere. Driving there is not for the timid. Oh, if you rent a vehicle and are in town and in the area where there are 2 lanes on the inside and 2 lanes on the outside going in the same direction, if you want to turn left at an intersection, you MUST turn from the inside lane of the outside pair of lanes to go left across the intersection or to make a U turn. Its weird and at night can be confusing.

I took my adult children to Garza Blanca for a vacation and to spend some quality time with them. We were so impressed the first moment we walked into the lobby. The location is amazing and the views are breathtaking! We stayed in a two bedroom panoramic suite and we could not have been more pleased. It was spacious and the views from the deck and hot tub were spectacular. The staff here is top notch. The valet who took us to our room was Philippe and we fell in love with him! He made us feel so welcome and even went out of his way to bring us an HDMI cable- The staff at the pool bar near Tower 5 were the best!!! Kudos to Miguel, Angel, Gerardo and Pedro for being THE BEST waitstaff/bartenders we could have asked for!!! We ordered room service daily and the room service staff were amazing. I booked this hotel based upon reviews on Expedia but I booked with the hotel directly. Every aspect of my experience from booking to check out was exceptional. We will be back!!!

To begin, I got roped in last year to their time share presentation and 5 margaritas later I was the proud owner of 1 week per year here at Garza Blanca. This property is spectacular overall. I will list the pros and the cons below. Pros: Very Friendly employees. From the front desk to the trolly driver- they all went above and beyond to make our stay nice. They even found and ordered tacos from a place in town to be delivered to the resort. (Netos tacos in town. 30 amazing tacos for $21 US dollars DELIVERED) The rooms were gorgeous with the comfiest hammocks on the deck overlooking the ocean. Everything was decorated very nicely as well The pool area was very clean and well kept. From the pool and deck area you have a spectacular view of the ocean. The bartenders and waiters at the pool were running around doing a fabulous job with what little help they had. I feel Garza Blanca should hire atleast one other person that way customers aren't waiting for long periods of time and waiters aren't running around tirelessly. The beach was raked daily and you are able to use their kayaks, paddle boards, and snorkeling gear. The Ceviche Mismayloa was amazing! Order it by the pool! CONS The sales reps and one of the managers really kinda ruined an entire day of our vacation by pushing us to buy more points with them. We went to an "annual members meeting" which meant they just wanted to sell us on more time at the property. The manager was very rude about it and said I need to make a decision NOW or the deal is off. I knew right then and there that I will never buy more time at a place who treats me like that! They continued to call my room for 2 days after trying to reel me in. Very annoying and very rude. The ice machine and water dispenser in the room was broken. I called the front desk 3 times and was told they would get someone up right away, but that didnt happen. I then walked down to the lobby (which isnt a quick trip!) and requested them to fix it- they said someone will be "right up". Again, nobody came. I had my 4 kids and 4 other adults with me so having to buy water for that many people was a pain in the butt and got spendy. We were drinking about 6 gallons per day between us all. It would have been really handy to just been able to get filtered water from the fridge. $35 pesos for a small bottle of water! Yikes! Long waits for drinks by the pool The pool was way over chlorinated. After being in it about an hour, my daughter was having trouble with her vision and my sons shirt had changed from navy blue to light purple. $10 US per day for wifi! Way too much! Overall its a really nice and relaxing place to stay.

Such a great spot we bought time here. Staff go above and beyond, food is great at all restaurants, rooms are great and spacious. Can't say a bad thing about the place. If you drink a bit the all inclusive option is worth it