Vallarta Shores — Hotel in Jalisco

I've traveled to some of the finest places on earth, and can honestly say that our experience over the holidays at Vallarta Shores has wildly surpassed any of our expectations. Patty and the entire staff are just amazing.

We traveled over the Christmas/New Years holiday with a large group of friends. And we were treated like family. The property is well designed and private, and the sky suites were just lovely. Nice if you want to share with two or three other couples or friends. My Husband and I were in our own private one-bedroom apartment on the first floor, which lacked a private pool, but since we had the hotel pool and hot tub steps away, it wasn't an issue.

The meals prepared by Ignacio and Angel were nothing short of amazing. And the highlight of my time was visiting with Victorino, who keeps an eye on the property at night. He even let me rake the sand (how Zen). We sat up many nights discussing politics and the mysteries of the universe, as well as great old Mexican songs from the '40's, '50's and '60's.

If you are looking to connect with the heart of the community in PV and immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of the community, skip the Alamar and the somewhat downscale (but still fun to visit for the drag show Blue Chairs). You can experience that anywhere.

Zona Romatica is fun, but is just like Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, lived there for ten years. Not worth flying all the way to do "been there/done that". Spend your time on property, and walk to the beautiful Zona Central - or "old downtown". Walk the Rivera del Rio, and visit the little flea market that lines either side of the water. Cross the swinging bridge and head upriver to the Babel Bar where expats play dominoes and listen to beautiful local musicians. Take a day trip up to San Sebastian if you really want to connect deeply.

Some of the best art galleries are along Ave. Guadalupe Sanchez, as is the old Cathedral and Cafe Des Artistes (which you should experience once). So many wonderful shops and small restaurants to explore, and you can connect with the vibrant heart and soul of this amazing city.

In my house, I'm the 48 year old "wild child" and my 25 year old Husband is much more conservative "the responsible one". Next door to the property is the Mantamar Beach Club, which hosts a lot of amazing eye candy from the White Party stand and model club. Great if you enjoy that sort of thing, but suggest you check the schedules of events. If you want quiet solitude, Vallarta Shores offers it in spades, my only suggestion is to plan your dates around events at the club if you don't enjoy a little bit of the wild life once in a while.

Overall, I have only positive things to say about our experience - we fell in love all over again, and fell in love with PV. We'll all be back next year I'm sure.

Brad Littlefield,...

We rented the Penthouse at Vallarta Shores in January 2025. For $1,400+ per night, we were sorely disappointed with the quality of the service we received.

1: The hotel was supposed to arrange transport for us from the airport. I communicated this with the hotel and received "confirmation" that our transport was arranged and taken care of. After waiting at the airport for nearly an hour trying to figure out where our transportation was we found out that the hotel never arranged any transportation for us and we ended up having to just grab a taxi.

2: Chef service was included in the price of the stay. Prior to our arrival we filled out a form regarding details for dinner upon our arrival but when we arrived, the dinner was nothing of what we had requested (and ultimately paid for)...

3: We had requested several items be stocked in the Penthouse for our arrival but when we finally arrived we found out that the items we had requested had either not been purchased or some other version (that wasn't actually what was requested) had been purchased instead... (Of course we still had to pay for the items that were purchased that we didn't actually want).

4: I had booked massages, manicures, and pedicures during our stay. Due to some schedule changes I asked if it would be possible to change the day of these services and the hotel said that it was no problem at all. However, when they changed the dates of the services they only booked the massages and didn't book either of the other two services that were requested.

In summary, it's a decent location and with some improvements to the services it would be a great place to stay but with the number of issues we experienced throughout the stay, it's not someplace I would return to.

We requested some form of adjustment to compensate for the issues and the owner refused to provide any compensation or adjustment unless we agreed to immediately book another 5 night stay with the hotel (at a cost of...

My husband and I have been staying at this boutique hotel every time we can take a relaxing beach vacation - once or twice a year since 2011. We made a trip in COVID-19 times, June 1-June 17 2020, and now we're back. We feel safe because we knew that the staff were taking the steps necessary to keep us and themselves safe.

We love everything about this place but most of all we love that they loooove our dogs. Our doggies feel like they go to their second home when they arrive at Vallarta Shores. This is a true dog friendly place, and our dogs love it. Dogs are always on a leash and be well behaved, of course.

The location is wonderful, it's tucked at the end of playa de los muertos, which makes it a short 15min walk to the malecon; amapas beach just over the hill about 10min walk/hike and a 10min walk to downtown. Plenty of eateries in the area: El Dorado, La Palapa, Panchos Tacos, Kaiser, Mole de Jovita are 5min walk way. Beach clubs: El Dorado, La Palapa are 5min walk, Mantamar is 1min walk.

The staff is AMAZING! Competent and super friendly. Fortunately, they know they have the best staff as they have - fortunately - retained them; we've known them for almost 10 years.

In the last few years we've seen a lot of wonderful upgrades, new pool, wall-to-wall sliding doors in every room, railing rooms changed to clear tempered glass that enhances the amazing view, updated furniture, etc.

We always stay in a one bedroom apartment #3 or #4. It's a very comfortable one bedroom with a great view from every room, a full kitchen, living room and dining room. Rooms are cleaned daily. They offer additional services: chef, massage therapist and cosmetologist - Sandy, whom I highly recommend.

I had not made a review in all these years because I wanted the place all to myself, in the past few years we've had to book a year in advance, but I now realize that sharing is caring. So if you are looking for a place to stay in PV, this...