Garza Blanca Preserve Resort & Spa

This is our third trip to Garza Blanca in Puerto Vallarta. My husband and I came here the end of January/beginning of February 2026, meeting friends of ours at the resort. This is a beautiful resort and the views are fabulous. In the past, we’ve stayed in both a high-rise and also the smaller units right on the beach. This trip we stayed in Building 2 on the beach. Previously, this area was all large rocks. They’ve made barriers to make more beach area here. Very nice. We had a walk-in closet, another closet and a large dresser – way more storage than we could ever use. Housekeeping was great! Thank you Almendra for taking such good care of our room every morning and ensuring we had everything we needed. The views from the different buildings are breathtaking! Most buildings are up on the side of mountains, so you’re high up and get wonder views of the bay area. During the winter months the whales arrive – let the shows begin! There is a trolly that takes you around the resort. Please remember to make your dinner reservations prior to arriving, as you may not got the restaurant and/or time you prefer if you wait. I made our dinner reservations, for 4, towards the end of November for our January/February trip. There is a concierge here, but honestly, I’m not sure that there was a lot of value for the ‘service’. Because our friends had arrived a few days before us, they were able to make reservations for the 4 of us at the new Peruvian restaurant (which is very good). I asked the concierge to cancel the reservation I had made for that night online prior to arriving. My husband got a text message later that evening that said ‘we missed the four of you for dinner’, so obviously our reservation was not cancelled. We had a similar experience when we changed the time of one of reservations. We went ½ hour later, and later received a message that we never showed for dinner. We found that if you’re at the pool or at the beach you can have lunch delivered to you. Very convenient and it was tasty! We were also grateful that the ‘get up early and save a chair’ game isn’t played here. You could find chairs throughout the day, at the pools and the beach. We spent a lot of our days at the roof top pool in the new Sanctuary building. Our waitress there, Mariam, took great care of us. DAO, contemporary Chinese, was a very good meal. Our waiter, Alberto, was amazing, giving us excellent suggestions and providing outstanding service. The Hiroshi restaurant has been revamped a bit. It’s been relocated to the new Sanctuary building. In addition to sushi, they now also have table grills for Korean BBQ dishes. Our waiter, Andre, who also did the cooking at the table, explained how the process worked and helped us in selecting a good variety of dishes. Thank you Andre for the very special meal. Hiroshi was also serving a la carte breakfast as well – it was fantastic food. I had the Quesa Birria – it was the best ever!!! Luis and Erik, our waiters, were a pleasure. Bacados, the steak house, has very good food. They serve breakfast and dinner, with tables both inside and out. Our waiter Julian was very attentive. Blanca Blue (Mexican) has a buffet available for breakfast, which had a large variety of dishes to choose from as well as an omelet and crepe station. We thought the buffet was very good. They are also open for lunch and dinner (a la carte). I had a disappointing dinner there. In the past the meals were very good, so maybe it was just an off day for them. Our waiter, Marco, was good and had someone from the kitchen come out to speak with us. Thank you to Orlando, our waiter at NOI (Italian); you were fabulous and our meals were excellent. You will also find a nice bar outside of this Italian restaurant. The lobby bar is small, though there are some chairs and tables. Cons – My only complaint would be having to sign for your meals and drinks if you’re all inclusive. We kept forgetting that we had to sign. We’d get up to leave and the poor waiter would have to come running after us telling us we need to sign. We’ve never had to do this at any other all-inclusive resort we’ve been to. Bit of a bother, but not that bad. A bonus is they now have a sports bar in the new Sanctuary building. HUGH screens to watch! You will find live music by individual musicians throughout the resort at different places and times. It’s wonderful sitting in a lobby listening to the piano being played. We enjoyed an acoustic guitar during one dinner and the sax player at another dinner. Very nice touch if you’re able to time it right. Extra Activities to do – While this isn’t part of the resort, this excursion is a must! Even though my husband and I went here on our last trip here, we once again took a cab to Jardin Bontanico, a beautiful botanical garden. It was lovely to walk through and look at all the plants. There’s paths and buildings throughout the gardens, with peacocks, chickens, and lots of other birds to see. You can also support their efforts by going to their restaurant. We had lunch there; the food was really good and very reasonably priced. Our waiter, Armando, was fabulous. You can’t go to Puerto Vallarta without taking a cab to the Malecon and exploring the romantic zone. There is usually various entertainment as you walk along the boardwalk. People playing instruments, the Mayans on the very tall pole, spinning. There are lots of beautiful statues as well. There’s also a pier that looks like a sailboat in the distance.

The standout qualities of Garza Blanca Preserve and Resort are the stunning natural setting and the incredible service from wait staff and tour guides. The wait staff at the various restaurants at the resort provided the kind of attentive service and friendliness that has become hard to find from service professionals, at least in the U.S. We were particularly impressed with Gio and Arturo at Bocados Steak House, and Gerardo and Orlando at Noi. In addition, Tito, our garden tour guide, was incredibly knowledgeable charming and enthusiastic; and Salvador, our hiking guide was full of energy, attentive to everyone’s safety, and generally a joy to be around. The natural setting at the resort was truly spectacular. A enormous effort was made during construction to preserve the natural rainforest surrounding the buildings, which gives it a lovely Garden of Eden atmosphere. The explosion of plant life and the songs and activities of exotic birds were a joy to observe from the sizable balcony of our junior suite. Though the beach had a fair number of rocks that sometimes made walking barefoot difficult, it also seemed part of the more rugged, less groomed natural environment of the resort. In all honesty, We found the staff at the Garza Blanca front desk and concierge to be somewhat less eager to please than the other service staff. They were less warm overall and quite slow to respond when we had issues with noise in our room from the A/C, and problems with our safe. Visitors should also expect the typical pressure from concierge to attend marketing presentations for memberships, etc. Overall, we were extremely pleased with our experience at Garza Blanca. Though we usually don’t like to go back to resorts we’ve visited, I would definitely consider returning to the resort if we stayed in one of the newer towers.

The location is beautiful. We could watch whales from our 2 bedroom panoramic balcony. The room was very nice and clean (aside from the countertop stools and kitchen table chairs needing a clean) The food was above acceptable but not the best I have had at an all inclusive. I would give it an 8/10. Lunch at Blanca Blue gave 3 spoonfuls of soup in a big bread bowl. I was told i should order a second if that’s not enough. 1. I shouldn’t have to, I eat very little and that was ridiculous. 2. All inclusive is optional. They are charging people for that. We had dinner there another night and when we got to dessert, the brought the menu and a card thing advertising churros, so of course the kid and us decided churros. They were an up charge from all inclusive. Churros. Every menu had the premium, some were marked with the chef. Drinks liked to mark the category. It got extremely annoying to make sure we were still in our all inclusive as we got a few days in. They are always coming around with drink carts, not included, a tray with lobster at the pool, not included. The carousel, not included (the kids club is extremely lacking and very little for kids to do). It felt like constant squeezing and this trip was more expensive than other top tier resorts I have stayed at with better food and most if not all of those “premiums” included. The concierge is there to sell time shares. She told us if we go to the time shares presentation to help her she would help us make our vacation less bad. I was mad at the concierge by the time we had even arrived at the hotel. We had emails from them telling us we needed to hook our dinners 30 days in advance. There were 5 of us including a child which narrows down where you can go and none of the restaurant’s websites worked properly. When we had asked the concierge to help us, they go us 2 reservations. We were there 7 days. I had to struggle through it ourself. Our new concierge was told I was not impressed or happy. Her solution I guess was that we had to give up a morning of our overpriced vacation for their “vacation club” presentation for a discount for the spa. I don’t know what I was thinking. Anyway, we did it and never heard from her again. That’s all she wanted. The spa is okay. The view is beautiful and the hydrotherapy stations are all there but it was small and crowded and people were wearing their outdoor shoes in there, not spa shoes. It was okay but wouldn’t crack the top 10 of spas I have been to. (My massage was great) The kids club barely exists. There’s nothing for the kids to really do. The 4 year old on our trip was bored and tired of doing adult stuff. When you get your meals even with the all inclusive they brung a bill at the end. The prices for these meals are unrealistic, while the food was good, it is not worth that money. We have paid way less for better food. The staff other than concierge and front desk were absolutely excellent. I don’t have a bad word for any of them. Tito at the main pool was awesome. Housekeeping was awesome. The panoramic pool staff was awesome. I absolutely will not be back and have canceled my trip for April. It was booked before we decided on this trip. It’s a very nice apartment complex. It is not a great 5 star luxury all inclusive resort.

Excellent food. Beautiful resort. Very clean and friendly. Always going back. Great service by our butlers Leo and Ulises.

Garza Blanca is the best! Fourth time here and we will definitely be back. The entire resort is beautiful. Service and food are all top notch. Blanca was our room attendant and Gabriella did our turn down service every night. Both took wonderful care of us. You will not be disappointed if you choose Garza Blanca for your next vacation