Club Regina Puerto Vallarta — Hotel in Jalisco

My husband and I stayed for a week at this resort after winning the stay from a live auction.

We got to the resort 2 hours before check-in time, expecting to wait at the bar. The front desk let us check in early without any extra cost (really nice of them) and we were given a room on the 10th floor overlooking the marina/boat area across the street.

Immediately after checking in, we were ushered to another desk where we were brought to the café by a staff member who gave us a 30-minute speech detailing the property, map, and all the times the amenities were open. This was really helpful up until she stayed we had to go to a welcome breakfast the following morning at their sister property which would last 90 minutes. She stated she would be going with us and the resort would shuttle us over. She then asked us to put down a deposit of $200 pesos for our table. We were trying to get to our room and relax, so we did give cash. We were told we would get a phone call in our room 30 minutes before it was time to leave. The staff member asked questions about how old we were, how much money we made, and our profession. It was definitely a ploy to get us into a timeshare meeting.

We got to go to our room which was on the left side of the resort and at the actual end of the 10th floor. You had to walk a TON to get to the elevators and even more to get to the room. Getting to any of the amenities or even out of the resort was not an easy thing.

We had a club suite on the 10th floor which was spacious and had a jacuzzi on the balcony. It was clean and well made up with everything we'd need. The hotel itself and the room was dated, but we knew it was an older place.

The first night we had dinner at the resort restaurant on the 1st floor. Do not bother. The food, drinks, and service were terrible.

The mini-mart is well stocked, but everything imported (coffee, sunscreen, aloe vera, etc.) is SUPER expensive. We spent $30 USD on 1 can of sunscreen because that was the only option. The ATM by the mini-mart doesn't work, we tried 3 times, and all 3 times we had to walk over to The Westin next door.

The pools are nice and has beach access. Beware of people trying to sell you stuff while at the beach cabanas. They left us alone after 3 times of saying 'no gracias' but will do it all over again if you accidentally make eye contact with them.

The lunch spot by the pool is 100 times better than their dinner opinion. They have the same drinks, but this menu has actual Mexican food and not just Americanized stuff. I will say that the servers are super nice, but service was incredibly slow. I know it's the off season, so it wasn't as busy at the resort in general, but it still took 10+ minutes to get a drink.

If you go to the beach cabanas, there will be a sign with a QR code to order from the resort bar. Ignore this, as their system does not work and you will not get your order. We waited 45 minutes and had to go up to the bar and show that we paid for it.

The resort staff was extremely pushy about using them for any excursion or service. They discourage Uber which is annoying because Uber is cheaper than taxis. The massages had to be booked through them and they quoted us $600 pesos each. The day of the massage area told us it's actually $1,700+ pesos. Cash only.

The staff did indeed call us 30 minutes before the "free breakfast" and rescheduled us for later in the week because we said we were not up to it. We talked to them at their desk and we were guilt-tripped when we declined the "invite" because "food is scarce in PV." Finally, we just had to be firm in saying we weren't going to their timeshare presentation. They were very cold to us after that and were not much help the rest of our stay. We did not get our "deposit" back.

Overall, the resort was nice enough, but I would not stay again. There are better resorts in the Marina area and in PV in general. It was okay for a certificate, but nothing about the resort would make me want to go back, let alone purchase a...

We reserved, via Expedia, a room with an ocean view, a king bed and a sofa bed, in March 2024. We are a family of four including two teenagers. I knew this hotel offered suites with kitchenettes, but a kitchenette was not mentioned in our room’s description when I reserved, so we were nicely surprise when we got there. We actually got two rooms, each with its own TV, connected together with a door with a lock, with a full kitchen, two full bathrooms, a balcony with a jacuzzi and a dining table for four. We were very happy with this. We had rooms 780 and 781.

I saw other reviewers complain about this hotel being outdated, but I disagree. This is a classic hotel with timeless folkloric Mexican charm, full of beautiful Mexican sculptures. The furniture is high-quality, classic Mexican wooden furniture; the floor is Spanish tile. The lamps were modern. The upholstered furniture could use a replacement at some point but were fine. Everything worked perfectly.

The lobby is not really luxurious, but who cares? The pool area, however, is definitely luxurious. Absolutely beautiful. There are several pools with “islands” with tall palm trees. The entire pool area is full of gorgeous palm trees and gardens. The water is heated to a lukewarm temperature. There is a swim up bar. The drinks are better than in an all-inclusive. Try the mango margarita!

The hotel is right on the beach, and its private beach is beautiful and clean.

There were plenty of unoccupied long chairs everywhere when we were there. It is very quiet; one of the pool areas has no music at all and is so relaxing. We saw a large iguana walk by the pool, which was so much fun!

The weather in March was phenomenal: 28 degrees Celsius and sunny every day.

We paid a bit extra to get the buffet breakfast everyday, and it was worth it. I think it was the best breakfast buffet I’ve ever seen. There was a large variety of fresh fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese, granola, many delicious savoury dishes (mostly typical Mexican dishes), pastries, and an egg preparation station. Coffee, several fresh juices (the green juice was my favourite), and chocolate milk were also included. Everything was delicious.

The hotel is located in the Marina, which I believe is the richest area in Puerto Vallarta. It is a short walk from the Marina boardwalk, which has beautiful shops and restaurants, although somewhat expensive, and is somewhat hard to find the first time you go. Ask for directions! We always felt safe walking there, day and night.

In case you would rather do groceries and cook your own meals in your room’s kitchenette, which is fully stocked with dishes, pots and pans, a coffee maker, etc, the hotel is a short taxi ride to a Walmart. There is also an Oxxo convenience store right in front of the hotel.

It is a half hour taxi ride from downtown, which makes for a wonderful day trip.

The hotel’s clientele when we were there were mostly senior citizens from the US.

There was a wedding one night (a Saturday) close to the restaurant and I got worried that the music would keep us up, which I had read about in other reviews, but we could not even hear it from our room when the windows were closed.

The AC worked perfectly.

I also read that the hotel pushes time shares, but no one approached us regarding this during our stay, which was a relief. (There was one lady who invited us to sit with her when we first arrived to “talk to us about the hotel”, but we declined because we were tired, and she never approached us again. She may simply have been the concierge.)

Note: The hotel provides toiletries like shampoo and lotion, but no bottled water.

Highly...

Stayed here for a week with my girlfriend for vacation. First off, if you are not a member, do not go to their free breakfast presentation if you don't want a high-pressure sales presentation trying to get you to buy into their organization. I didn't like the high pressure and immediately told them no, but they brought in another person to try and pressure you again. Then we were stuck in the place we were taken for the presentation until they arranged travel to return us back to our resort, all the time they kept whispering back and forth watching us and talking in spanosh so we couldn't understand. The resort was beautiful and had a host of amenities, very beautiful grounds, pools, and beaches, but the bathrooms were a long walk from almost every place and super inconvenient. The room was nice, but the second bathroom shower was disgusting and needed refurbishment. There is no complimentary coffee, water, or breakfast, so plan to buy some if you require it. We bought breakfast food and fixed our own every morning to save money and avoid eating out every meal. The hotub was a joke. The stopper had to be screwed into the tub and removed after to drain it instead of functioning like it should. The tub is super small, too. Service was good but plan to be hounded about tips as with any other foreign country. The pools were nice but they close relatively early as does the kitchen and bar at the pool forcing you to move to the beach which was warned for jellyfish and crocodile sightings as well as no chair service after the pool bar closed making you either go to a mini market, nighttime restaurant or bar inside the club. Staff at the pools were mostly nice and eager to serve, but on a couple occasions, we witnessed rude and just inappropriate attitude towards other patrons of the club that didn't appear to be warranted. We were called prior to arriving and offered transportation for a cost of $90 usd according to the person who called, we were called a short time later and told it would be $70usd, both times I asked if it was pesos or usd, I was told usd. I refrained due to Uber being like $5 usd. Upon leaving, we asked if they could get us to the airport and was told that they do not do transportation and they would call a taxi. I'm not sure if this was a language barrier issue or just fishy practices. Personally, we liked the property but did not like all the unscrupulous practices to nickle and dime us and sell us a membership. I will most likely not return...