'Fun In The Sun' Said The Doll At The Sol (Hotel Vallartasol (Puerto Vallarta, México))

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Hotel Vallartasol (Puerto Vallarta, México)
Date:	19/04/09 (214 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, lovely rooms, fab pool

Disadvantages: Not too many restaurants near by

I knew I was taking a chance by booking this hotel (2 star, Mexican, not a chain, no friend or family recommendation) but we really wanted somewhere with a kitchen, and the choices in Vallarta, a predominantly All Inclusive Hotel resort, were limited. I wanted to arrange it through a booking site, and this was the only option they were offering that had the aforementioned kitchen, so I went for it. For £38 per room per night we were not expecting too much, but this turned out to be THE best hotel I've stayed at in Latin America since leaving the UK a year ago.

The Hotel Vallartasol is located just off the main road in the resort, but is hidden behind a Blockbuster and a Subway, and is very quiet. We arrived about 12.30pm following an early flight, and were able to check-in immediately. We were offered a choice of rooms, one on the ground floor and one on the first floor, and opted for the latter.

The hotel offers 3 types of rooms, budget, standard and suites, and we had reserved the best. The difference between budget and standard rooms is that the budget ones do not have Air Con. The difference between standard rooms and suites is that the suites have kitchens and a balcony or terrace, and all have a pool view (some of the cheaper ones do too, but some have a street view). All the rooms have a distinct Mexican style to them - they shun carpets and wall paper here in favour of painted white brick walls with small patterns stencilled on, and smart tiled floors. It's really sweet, and really Mexican.

We were very impressed by the size of the room, and how well equipped it was for the money. The rooms have two double beds and sleep up to 4, though we also had a sort of chaise-lounge thing that someone could have slept on too, especially a child, if siblings were fussing about sharing a bed.
The room was spacious, and had some nice perks: plenty of coat hangers, of the kind you can remove from the rail, lots of storage space, mirrors in and outside the bathroom, lights you could switch on by the bed or by the door. We had satellite TV with a large range of channels (the best I've come across in Mexico) including over a dozen subtitled ones that were in English. Wifi is available throughout parts of the hotel, but you need to ask at reception for the password because it's a secure network. The signal varied, and sometimes I could get it in bed or on the balcony, but when it was playing up I could always get it from the small sitting area next to reception.

We had both Air Con and a ceiling fan, though we only used the latter. The room key had to be fitted into a wall holder for lights, the TV and the fan to work, and therefore they switched off when you left the room with the key, but the room cooled down quickly when you returned and plugged it back in. Keeping the curtains shut also helped keep things a nice temperature.
The bathroom had only a small window (looking out onto the corridor) and did get quite steamy, but otherwise was good. The shower was a tiled cubicle with sliding doors, and in addition to excellent water pressure, also always had hot water. This is not a given in Mexico. My first stop in hotel rooms is always the bathroom to check out the toiletries, and I was not disappointed here: we got the usual soaps and shampoo, but also a razor and two pairs of free slippers which we wore all the time we were in the room.

Despite having had the fact confirmed on check in, I was concerned when we went into the room that they had not given us a suite, since I could not see the kitchen. We soon found it, though, hiding behind the curtains and the sliding doors. A kitchen on the balcony? What a marvellous idea! The balcony was large with a roof, so there was no weather reason not to have it out there. In addition to the large dining table and 4 chairs, we had a fridge, 4 gas rings and a large sink, with more than enough crockery and cutlery and cooking utensils. Although we didn't cook much, preferring to live off bread, salad and cake for a week, if you had wanted to the on-the-balcony design would have helped keep any cooking smells out of the sleeping part of the room.

The maid service in the hotel was fantastic, if not very green. Our towels were changed daily (you could tell, because they favoured pastels over white, so we often returned to a different colour than the day before). Our sheets were changed too, though I think probably every second day. They spent ages sweeping the (tiled) floors and cleaning the bathroom - we noticed because once we went back while the maid was in there, and she didn't leave for quite a long time. The hotel staff were friendly, but didn't speak much English. However, there were a few signs they'd obviously had translated, about the room key and check out time etc, so you could survive without Spanish skills.

The hotel has more facilities than you would expect for a 2 star hotel in Mexico. They offered free cold water and hot coffee all day, every day - which saved my mother a fortune (as a hardened Mexican resident, I would just have drunk tap water). They have a small restaurant that was popular with the Mexican tourists, though we didn't try their mainly meat / fish menu. There was a tourist desk next to the vending machine and small sitting area, from where we acquired a very strange but nonetheless useful map, and politely declined offers to book a trip zip lining (been there, done that) or swimming with dolphins (ditto).

The pool was quite large and not deep. I loved the fact I could stand up all over, though it didn't stop the children (and various dads) jumping in. The depth of the pool was stated on signs, but there were no "No Diving" notices. The pool had sun loungers and tables and chairs with umbrellas. At first we though there were not really enough of these, but for some reason very few guests used the pool, going to the nearby beach instead, and those who did tended to sit at the tables in the shade except when swimming. Needless to say, reserving sun loungers with towels was not needed here. Like the rest of the hotel, the pool was immaculate - well maintained with no broken or chipped tiles, and cleaned every morning. The pool was open from 9am until 9pm, though to be honest during April the sun didn't hit it until 9.30am so we didn't miss this late start. People occasionally loitered past 9pm but by 10pm the whole place was silent - literally, as if we were the only guests in residence.

We were the only Brits in the hotel, though there was an older American couple too. Everyone else was Mexican, mainly from places like Guadalajara, the nearest large city, and many had driven down for a few days - the hotel offers limited free parking. One afternoon I was sitting on the edge of the pool reading, when a young man swam over and started with the very original chat up line "Where are you from? You're reading a book so you can't be Mexican". Funny, bur true. Reading, like walking more than a couple of blocks in the city, is something that immediately marks you out as Gringo. Another bloke thought we were Portuguese from our accents, but quite why we weren't sure since we were speaking English to each other. I spoke back to him in Spanish though, and since this went on for some time, it counted as my Spanish lesson for the week, since we were on our Easter break. This hotel is definitely a family place: I was the only childless adult female there the entire week, which I think explains the interest in my reading habits / country of origin, and the subsequent offers to "Accompany me for a walk along the promenade this fine evening". Now Mexican men are, on the whole, polite and respectful (my ex being the exception), but there was a Clive Owen spy film calling my name, so unfortunately I had to decline. Generally speaking though, the atmosphere round the pool was very pleasant, and decidedly more upmarket than some of our previous Spanish beach holiday hotels.

The place is well located in the hotel zone. It is a 45 minute walk / 25 minute bus ride to the old town, and about a 30 minute walk in the other direction to the marina. Nuevo Vallarta is about 40 minutes away on the bus, but read my previous review to know why it's not worth the time going there. We were self-catering, and so delighted to find two massive supermarkets nearby, both on the main road (turn left for Mega, right for Soriana). We went out every morning to buy breakfast from their bakeries, and it was a really nice way to start the day. To get to the beach you have to cross the main road, but it's less than 10 minutes walk in total, including navigating the shopping precinct you have to walk through, and stumbling along a bit to where the best sand is. There were not many restaurants in this part of Vallarta, but you could find Burger King, KFC, a pizza place, Subway and so on on the main road, and the shopping plazas had food courts.

I would definitely recommend this hotel. I booked through Hotelopia and got 10% cashback on Quidco, making it even better value. (NB, the rack rate for our room for 2 people was 900 pesos, or £50 per night). It was the perfect, low-key place to spend a nice relaxing week, and we really enjoyed our stay.


http://www.vallartasolhotel.com/ is the official website, in (dubious) English

Vallartasol Hotel
Niza 139
Puerto Vallarta,

Summary: A lovely place to stay at the beach