Barcelo Puerto Vallarta

The swim-up bar at Barceló Puerto Vallarta is wonderful. You can ask for a cerveza, pina colada, Miami vice, shark attack, or tequila shots… or other boring drinks…or you could find Alfredo Cardonas—the most epic bartender in the place! Just ask him to surprise you…if he likes you, he might open his work bag and bust out his own personal shaker to mix you special drinks that will blow your mind and taste buds. Alfredo—the resident mixologist—made us shots we’ve never heard of, and mixed drinks that were refreshing and delicious! Some of our favourites were: 1) baby mango 2) blue kamikaze 3) Mexican candy 4) Scooby-Doo 5) “the special” 6) a magical pineapple citrus vodka tonic And, as is commonly known—but not often followed—tip your servers, waiters, and bartenders—they work hard and deserve your respect and patronage.

My husband and I were recent guests at the hotel, Barcelo Puerto Vallarta, and we had booked for a week from May 10 to the 17, 2025. We are both 85 and I have fractured discs in my spine so walking is a bit difficult for me now. My husband, Walter, has dry eye macular degeneration and has extremely limited vision so he walks very slowly and he is afraid of falling. He has already fallen twice which resulted in a broken hip with replacement and then with a fracture in his hip caused because he fell not seeing just small objects in the ground level. We had discussed taking a "final" trip and where to go. We have visited Puerto Vallarta many times over the years and have always enjoyed and had such great times in PV. We would rent a condo for a couple of weeks and just spend our time at the beach and the restaurants in the Romantica Zone. However due to our limited mobility now we decided the best thing to do would be to stay at an all-inclusive resort and decided to return to PV for one last time. I did a lot of research and ended up booking at the Barcelo Resort. We had originally booked a two bedroom family suite as we each need our own bedroom but on thinking about it and knowing this would most likely be our last trip we decided to upgrade to your Presidential suite for our last Hurrah!! So, we checked in room 1920 on Saturday the 10th and all went well until we awakened on Tuesday morning. I went to the safe to open it and get a document I had in there and also then decided to get some money out of a plastic wallet that had our passports and our money. To my surprise and horror someone had taken all of the US dollars we had there except a few dollars and one five dollar. bill. I don't know for sure how much that was but I do know I had 12 one hundred dollar bills in there plus maby 20 twenty dollar bills and some tens. So then I looked at my wallet and again, everything was taken except a few ones and fives. All of the tens and twenty were gone, estimating around $400. I then had my husband check his wallet and the same story. Only thing left was a few one dollars and one five. We had gone to dinner at 7 that Monday night and returned back to our room around 10. When we left there was a woman and a man with a cleaning cart in the room. This caused our great concern as we no longer felt safe staying at the resort so we decided to leave. We are very familiar with safes such as the one in the hotel because we have encountered the same type in our land and sea travels. The safe was not left open when we left for dinner as I did not get to it until that next morning and it was locked. We reported this to the concierge on Tuesday morning, the 13th, and a security official came over and took a report. They wanted us to go back to the room with them but we had a 10 am taxi to the airport to catch a flight and it was already past 10 when we finished with the report. I requested that they contact us either by email or phone but we never heard anything back from the hotel. We were expecting a refund for the four nights we did not stay but, as I said, no one ever contacted us after we left that day. I did put a hold on our Chase credit card with this explanation and after Chase did their investigation we did receive that refund. There is more if you wish to continue reading: As we had booked the Presidential Suite we were automatically enrolled in their “premium” status guest. If you do not know the details of that status and what that includes, I would recommend you check that out on their website. I will give examples as to how some of those extras were provided to us. However, I would not recommend any pay for this upgrade as it is not worth it. Upon check in a guest a guest is to be given “personalized” check in. We were just put in line at the check-in desk and waited our turn. Our “premium” drinks we were just served bar liquor. And, in fact, the night we were robbed we ate at Los Arcos, and I had to send back to gin tonics and then just ordered a glass of merlot. I was told that only comes in bottles and I would have to pay -- there goes the “premium” upgraded spirits and wines and, in fact I was offered a glass of their house red wine. While we were still at Los Arcos I ordered a spencer steak with a baked potato. The steak was so tough I took one bite only and the baked potato was a boiled white potato. How about the “private lounge”. This was nothing more than a room near the lobby, which was a small room with no windows except the front door and window. There were four tables with chairs set up to eat hors d’oeuvres and two sofa lounges in a step-down area of the room. Not a place to spend time when there is no view of anything at all. The La Fuente buffet restaurant has nice ocean views but we found the food to be of average or less in quality. And for Americans the food being served was more suited for a Latin American taste, not to our liking. There is one big plus and that was the Presidential Suite. It was huge and had the most extensive balcony we have ever seen with views on the interior courtyard and pools (to the side), views of the ocean as the unit is located ocean front (to the front) and views of the small village (to the side). No complaints here.

My family and I stayed here for a few days to celebrate my mother’s birthday. Check-in went smooth but to our surprise this place only has one wheelchair for the whole resort. Better bring your own or you will have to rent one to use for personal use. I had emailed the resort in advance to see if they could set up a special surprise our my room, along with another issue in the reservation. They replied about the particular issue, but never the birthday comment. When we got to the resort, nothing was planned in our room. It was only on the day of her birthday we went to the premium lounge to discuss the inconsistencies of our room. The mini bar was supposed to be filled everyday which it wasn’t after several attempts calling. The man in the premium lounge had someone refill our mini bar and also set up the room for my mother’s birthday. We used the Lovelight Studio on the resort to take pictures and they turned out AMAZING! The price was very reasonable especially compared to the US. Samuel did such a great job capturing my family on camera. Also the lovely ladies at the SPA. They did amazing. One of the best massages I’ve ever had. Shout out to the manager Yazbel and her employees Rosalinda, Julidia, and Ariana for treating us to amazing outdoor massage by the beach. The food is probably one of the worst I’ve had at any resorts I’ve visited in the past. All-inclusive food isn’t always the best but I’ve had way BETTER than this. Overrall, the resort is small. I wish it was more accessible friendly for disabilities. Not much of a nightlife. They had an adults only pool along with a family pool, but which was weird is that the swim up pool bar is on the family side instead of the adults only side. Wouldn’t it be the other way around? I did liked how the adult only side was secluded with a jacuzzi.

Went for a wedding in April 2025. The hotel is pretty, the rooms are big and clean. The food overall was very good and the staff at the restaurants and buffet was very good too. The problem is with the attendants at the gate and front desk. They were very rude, not friendly or professional at all. They charge for everything. If you lose your room key card they charge $25-30 to replace it. My aunt lost her card and had to pay for a new one. If you forget the towel at the pools you have to pay $30. I don’t know of anybody that would want to steal their towels, if you can afford to stay there. The are a few iguanas walking around which is nice but they get in the pools and poop. Their stools are big. We watched one swim across the pool and get off on the rocks by the hot tub, as it was getting out, it defecated in the pool. There were several big pieces of stool floating in the pool. Really disgusting. I reported it immediately but nothing was done. I didn’t get in the pool after that. The beach at this hotel is not the best. I also lost a pair of expensive earrings but it was my fault for not putting them in the safe.

Hotel is about 45 minutes from the airport. We ordered Grayline transportation to and from the airport, which was flawless. Check in was long- we had to wait to get into our room so were able to eat lunch and walk around the property. The hotel is much smaller than other all inclusives we've stayed at, which was nice, but also had less amenities. It is an older hotel but kept very clean. Making reservations for dinner restaurants was disastrous- long lines and not much availability- apparently premier guests can reserve a week in advance and took all the reservations, even though restaurants looked empty. We did eat at the Italian and Spanish twice and were also able to eat at the steak restaurant once, since our son was premier. The food and service in those were good. Breakfast buffet was good but the rest of the time the buffet food was pretty bad. We have been to multiple all inclusives over the past 25 years and this one was the worst in terms of food ( including other Barcelos)! Rooms were one of the biggest of all the places we've stayed. Beds comfortable. If they could've fixed our air conditioning the first time they tried, instead of 5 times over 3 days, it would've been much more comfortable! Our son's room flooded and they had to move- 2 adults and 2 babies. They lost an entire day in the process. The only thing the management did for either of us, was give us late check outs- no cash back or anything else for a lost day. We were in tower 2, which was fine. However, if there's a wedding, it can go until 11 pm, and you can hear everything in your room. We were hoping it would end at 10! We went to 2 shows- Disney and Queen. The Queen show was a lot of fun! The pools were our favorite part. Kiddie pool was awesome for our grandsons, ages 1 and 2 1/2. Never an issue finding a chair at the pool or beach. The beach is very small but nice, if you don't want big waves knocking you over. One thing to note is if you're not premier, you can get nickeled and dimed to death- if you order room service, there's a fee. If you want your minibar restocked with anything other than water, there's a fee, etc.... If this hotel could figure out the food situation, we would probably return. It'd be nice if they added a coffee shop, pasta and pizza stations at the buffet (like every other hotel we've been to has!), and a grill at the beach for lunch are just a few of our suggestions.