We are very experienced travelers. After a long 2 years of not traveling because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we decided to bite the bullet and get away. We booked this trip about a month or so in advance. We had friends going to the same resort so we could hang out a bit. We have a 7 month old daughter and this was our first trip with her. My parents joined us as well, so in total there were 4 adults and 1 infant in our group. We booked the Hotel Riu Jalisco through Sunwing Vacations. We love the Riu hotel
chain and we have booked with Sunwing many times in the past. This Riu was probably our least favorite experience of all the Riu’s we stayed at, but it still was not bad. Keep in mind I have stayed a lot of places so I have more to compare to and I am very picky. Here are some things I made note of:
CONS:
>The hotel appears to be quite outdated and could use a face lift, but it’s decent. Lots of cheap patch jobs were evident around the resort and in our room. Initial impression is WOW big and beautiful hotel, but when you get moving around you notice the wear and tear.
>We booked a “family room” so we could have a bathtub for our baby daughter. When we got our room we only had a shower. I requested a crib and a baby bath tub from the front desk. They brought the crib, but did not have a bathtub. I went to the front desk and asked if I could borrow a dish tub (the ones they use for dirty dishes) to bath my baby (they have them all over the resort in the bars and restaurants) and they told me no!!! I offered to clean it good and return it, but they would not let me have one. And they told me to go buy one. I was unimpressed that they could not accommodate such a simple request, especially at a family resort!!! And especially after they did not give us a room with a bathtub. My daughter was too pudgy to bath in the sink, so we ended up having to shower her and she hated it. That was not fun…
>When we arrived to our room the first day, our floors were FILTHY. I didn’t feel the resort was overly clean. It felt like a lot of quick, rush cleaning in the room and everywhere.
>The air conditioning did not work in our room the first night. My husband called for someone to come take a look and they said they would be there in 25 min. No one showed up at all. We were so tired and sick of waiting, so we went to bed. Before bed I made a request on the app for the A/C to be looked at. The next day after we returned from the pool/beach the A/C was working, but we had no idea if it just started working or if someone fixed it… zero communication.
>They only have a few single plug-ins/outlets in the room, so if you have a lot of devices I’d recommend taking multi-outlet plug-in.
>The A’La Carte restaurants were often harder to get into, especially the steak house and the Italian restaurants. I wish they took reservations. The long lines and late supper times aren’t ideal for families with little ones.
>There is only one set of elevators (4) in the middle of the hotel. It is a very long walk from the pool to the elevators. If your room is high up and near the pool, you have to walk all the way to the middle of the hotel and go down and then walk back to the pool. If you have a stroller or hate stairs, you may not like this… but if you love walking you might love it!
>I wish they had bacon and cheese at the burger beach bar haha! That would make those burgers even better!
>Waiter service at the pool is hit and miss. Out of the 6 full days we spent at the pool we had waiter service twice and it wasn’t great. We even tip good.
>The kids pool is very hard to get in and out of with little babies. It has no steps and you a require a second person if you have a baby that isn’t moving yet.
>Weekends are busy! The lines for food and everything were too busy for my liking. And you cannot get a cab on Friday and Saturday nights because they are so busy. Beware!
>The bars all shut down at midnight and the only thing that is open is the sports lounge.
>A lot of their fun events were canceled because of Covid, such as the foam party and white night.
>The Covid testing is a little sketch. Double check your name, birth date, etc. when you get your results back. My dad’s had my name on it by mistake, but they fixed it quick. If we hadn’t noticed it might have been a different story at the airport.
>The PV airport is a fustercluck. Try to go 4 hours early. It takes so much more time for them to check everyone in with all the extra covid paperwork. And the PV airport is super disorganized. I feel like Sunwing could have helped plan this better.
PROS:
>It is a huge resort and there’s lots of room for everyone to eat and sit at the pool. No “pool chair fighting” like at other resorts.
>The beach is really nice.
>They have a 24/7 sports lounge with iced coffee, coffees, a bar, and snacks. It is find if hidden by the lobby… it’s really good!
>The wifi was really good in the resort.
>The food was really good. It did get a little repetitive tho… I really loved the Mexican restaurant!
>The resort was very kid friendly (minus the bathtub situation I mentioned above).
>There is a great little spot on the beach, just to the right (north) of the hotel… called Julia’s massage. $25ish for an hour and they are really good!
Overall, it was a great trip, but I likely would try another hotel next time I visit PV!
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