Garza Blanca Preserve Resort & Spa

Beautiful location and the water is so clear. It was a relaxing stay to start my trip. The spa is amazing and everyone should try the Hydro Therapy at the spa! The rooms are very comfortable. I had a corner studio with a large balcony and spent time in the hammock! Lunch and dinner at Aquazul & Blanca Blue was always good. Rosa (housekeeping) was outstanding and greeted me every morning and had a warm smile. That was a great way to start each day! She took great care of the room and provided outstanding service! Thank you Rosa!!!

Extremely disappointing experience. We paid $1,900 for one night all-inclusive, only to be charged for breakfast the next morning!! Management claimed that “all-inclusive” only applies to the day of arrival, which is completely unreasonable. This felt misleading and petty. There are many beautiful resorts in Puerto Vallarta—this is not one I would recommend. Very disappointing as they try to extort you right before leaving the property!

Well the Garza is a very nice resort. Some call it a hotel but it’s much more than that. I did like our assigned room because it was large with a huge walk-in closet for our clothes and shoes. The room was tastefully decorated with earthen ochre colors. We had a nice balcony with a hammock and 2 chairs and a table overlooking Banderas Bay. They have a nice pool especially for the children because it has fountains shooting water up on the far end of the main pool, but I must add that it is a small pool for the size of the resort and there were a lot of children. I am always amazed by parents who bring their children all the way down to Mexico. This resort is literally at the base of the mountains with very few areas with fauna around. It’s squeezed between the road and the ocean. We did have the opportunity to use the pools at the Mousai Hotel and let me tell you it is NICE! It is located on the top floor and the view from up there is killer. A wonderful spot to view the sunset. The TerraLuna gardens is beautiful and well maintained and landscaped. Took many pictures there. The food was delicious at all the restaurants. Overall this place is a very good choice to vacation but very little beach. There are large boulders placed out in the water to form a small cove area and it really breaks down the rollers that come ashore but there is no strolling down the beach for a walk and that’s the only drawback. BTW we Ubered into town which I recommend because it’s 1/3 the price of a taxi and the pickup vehicles are usually nicer than the cabs.

I really wanted this to be a good experience after a couple good recommendations from my family ( albeit 10 years earlier) but I cannot say I would recommend it to anyone. I write this review 6 months later when I was asked by some friends if they should go to Garza in PVR. They said our pictures were beautiful and it looked amazing. And while this is true, I could not recommend it due to management practices I experienced. While a beautiful property yes, I warn anyone, you may not get what you booked and paid for…… and it’s clearly a business practice. My wife and I traveled with our 3 year old daughter and did research as to where on the property we wanted to stay. They have 3 beach front buildings near the main pool and lobby/restaurant complex. They have 2 additional buildings up the massive hillside only reachable by trolley which run every 10-15 min. We wanted to be down by the beach with our child for easy access around the property. I called their reservation line multiple times to confirm this and was told I would be in buildings 1-3. I booked direct with them. Great! I was weary based on some past reviews of this resorts practice of moving guests with no other option ( even off the property in high season!) but was satisfied and ready to go. Then I checked in……. I was greeted very cold by an agent of the hotel. No warm welcome. No drink ( as they clearly had in the lobby). And told I was in building 5 up the hill. I knew better due to research and told him I specifically booked a room type that was only in buildings 1-3 on the beachfront. He said they had none of those available and my room was an upgrade. I said I don’t want an upgrade because of my child and want what I booked and confirmed twice via the hotel phone line. He said there’s nothing we can do but we can see if we can move you in two days time. I demanded to see a manager. 20 minutes went by. Finally he returned and said we have one ground floor room available in building 3. Fine. It’s near the beach. Then it continued. While he was away “checking with his manager” I went on the hotel website and saw the same room type in a beachfront building available starting that day for our exact stay dates. I told him this and his response was “ OH THAT DOESNT MATTER IF SOMEONE BOOKS THAT TODAY WE WOULD JUST CHANGE THEIR ROOM TYPE”!!!!!!!!! Wow. THIS IS A MANAGEMENT PRACTICE!!! He glossed over it like it was nothing. They go through the effort of displaying specific room types in specific locations at specific prices and have no intention of honoring it. From there ….. we were in Garza jail as I like to call it. Far corner ground level room. Dead bugs on the floor. No turn down service. Nothing. So I asked to move. We were told three days later we could move to a second floor same room type. And…. That was great. Clean nice room. Turn down service. Beautiful views. No construction. This is what Garza was supposed to be. But I took a massive effort calling them out on their mal practice. I will say…. When it’s its right… this place is great. However… I cannot recommend any of my friends or family to stay here as you just don’t know what you will get and it was confirmed to me they don’t honor your booking at all. Watch out for this mischief. I would love to go back if I knew I’d get the room I booked and paid for….. but there is no way to know that. And there are other great options in PVR that can assure you of that. And don’t expect any compensation for their mal practice. Just sad given how beautiful the property is and how good the food is. Want to go back, but can’t do it and trust I’ll get what I booked and paid for. Be warned.

The service here is horrific! They just try to sell you a membership and then when you come back the service is horrible. I am at Puerto Vallarta now and have complained about a leak in our bathroom and they keep sending up a maintenance person and the leak keeps coming back and they are not giving us any resolutions and are dismissive when we ask for a resolution. If this is how they treat their paying members imagine the non paying people.