The Grand Bliss at Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta — Hotel in Nayarit

I'm writing this review because I read so many reviews here before I went that I need to give back...||Pros - ||Landscaping|The grounds are beautiful. It's like being at a botanical garden. I loved walking the boardwalks in every direction and admiring the views. I averaged 15,000 steps a day and enjoyed every single one. I loved finding places to visit long distances so we could walk new routes. There is one tree that we counted 11 iguanas in!||Architecture|The architecture is grand. It's neat to see the latest building styles and the way they can build so open air down there. I loved looking up and admiring the height and the materials they use. It's a treat to be inside and outside these structures. Even the random bathroom is so much more regal than at home. One time my son gasped upon entering a bathroom and I got nervous there was something inside that was a problem - but he was just astounded!||Water features|The pools are great! We love the water, and the pools and activities at the Grand Mayan Pool (which you get access to at the Grand Bliss). They are amazing. The lazy river is very lazy but you see iquanas and waterfalls, and go under bridges, it's a delight. No hot tubs. Which is fine. ||Service|Service is great. Coming from the US (Seattle), it was nice to believe that the workers might enjoy serving you? They went above and beyond and I hope they are treated well. We tried to tip a lot. ||Cons||Pricey!|This place is expensive! And I'm in t an expensive part of the country (Seattle) so I know high costs but this place is more expensive than home for us. There is no low-budget place to eat period. They don't offer tap water at restaurants (and tap water is safe) so you are paying for every little thing. I spent $1500 in 5 days and we left the property 3 times. |||To give you a sense of prices:|$20 to rent a boogie board for an hour - you know they didn't pay $20 TO BUY that boogie board.|$10 well drinks|$4 tacos|$21 for a pint of Haggen Daz ice cream at their market|$120 for an hour of their Top Golf like experience||These are just examples. There is not Chipolte or easy place to grab one bite. It's all pricey on campus||The Grand Bliss lobby smells bad. My kids called it the Grand Piss. And they werent' wrong. Someone urinated in that place and they can't find it. It's baked in. There are so many place it could be. In the rocks, in the wood on the walls, in the soil around the plants. I don't know but it's awful.||Questions||Safety|The resort is very safe and they make you feel safe when you go off site in two nice ways. They call the taxi for you and tell you the number and price upfront. When you come back in on the taxi they hand you a note at the gate that says" Dear Guest, Please keep this ticket in order to locate the taxi you took in the event of any future need to follow-up" and it includes a number. It gives you peace of mind. I'm a widowed Mom of two boys and I need that peace of mind.||Getting on site|I read it's hard to leave the property here. It's not, really. You just walk or take a shuttle to the taxi stand. They call you a cab. It's pretty straightforward. It probably takes 7 minutes in the taxi to get off the property itself. It's vast! We took three visits off property and were glad for it to experience something different.|||Tips-||Bring food|Bring snacks! Like LOTS! If your kids like chips, bring them. If they like pudding, bring it. Cereal. Shelf stable milk, bring a suitcase of food stuff. Juice boxes. Bring light water bottles and some favorite juice powder to mix for beverages and save a bundle. Pack more than you think you will eat. Bagels and peanut butter. You can't bring in fruit from the airport which is too bad. We missed fruit!||Shuttle from Airport|Plan ahead and ask for a shuttle from the airport to the resorts. It's free! You have to schedule a week in advance. We paid for a taxi and it was twice what it should have been. ||Tips|I wish I had brought more small bills. Pesos or dollars work for tipping. I only had $500 pesos and $20 in dollars. They don't allow any cash payment on the property so getting smaller bills is hard. Everything is paid with your bracelet or credit card. Bring $5s & $10s!||Restaurant El Barracuda |If you walk along the beach to the end where the Sea Garden is (also a Vidanta property) and walk through that hotel you are within a few yards of a great restaurant called the Restaurant El Barracuda off site. We had an amazing meal there! The best of the trip! And it's a nice walk along the beach. ||Vallarta Adventures|We took the Caletas island adventure and my kids thought it was the best day of the trip! It really was wonderful! Highly recommend. ||Skip the Thursday Mexican Fiesta|You can watch the show from the beach nearby without paying. If you want an open bar, they have one but we weren't drinking so it was overpriced for us. It was $85 for an adult. That includes my 15 year old who wasn't drinking. Not worth it for us. Food was good but no better or worse than elsewhere on the propety. We aren't really all you can eat people. ||Overall, glad we went! Had a great time! It's a gorgeous place! Will probably fly to Southern California next year instead and save a...

I hate writing bad reviews like this because any good things are still lumped in with the bad. And for sure there were good things. Most of the staff is really friendly and helpful and the setting is beautiful. Add in that we were there for spring break with 10 other families and a good trip was essentially guaranteed. I don’t think any of the group would say they didn’t have a really fun week. Yet with extreme confidence I can say I will never return.||||Our bad experiences started, as most seem to, at check in. We were told our room was ready but we’d have to wait to get the actual room number even though they had put our wristbands on (meaning they had already programmed our room number). That was an invitation to walk the gauntlet. The first person to start pestering us was nice enough and took ‘no’ 20+ times like a champ before calling in the manager. She didn’t put up much of a fight but by then the other two families checking in at the same time were done and kind of circled the wagons to tell them how shady it all was. The biggest issue was that a family who had arrived a few hours earlier had been told they wouldn’t even be able to stay in the same building as there were termites in their room. At that point we had probably 4 of the vultures circling. None of them knew about termites and they all had different stories. It was comical but eventually we all got our rooms.||||After dinner on the first night, as I was folding down the bed for my daughter she noticed a dirty spot on the sheet. It was like someone had kneeled on the beach and then put that knee on the bed when making it. It wasn’t gross or anything but certainly nothing you expect to find. Because it was 10 and the bed was huge I told her to just sleep on the other side and went to fold it down. And there was another, smaller, spot like the first. Three phone calls and 30+ minutes later we had a new sheet. Two nights later it happened again on one side.||||Moving on, one day we did get notice that there was going to be some sort of pesticide application in the rooms the following day. That night we stopped by the front desk and told them we didn’t want that to happen and they gladly noted it. We had a 2 bedroom setup and I wondered whether I needed to note that as it covered two room numbers. Sure enough, after playing golf the next day (the Norman course is a nice enough resort course but there’s a reason -19 won this year) I was in the room when I heard a knock on the door we didn’t use. They were getting ready to come in to spray.||||The last one here is the big one. My wife had a massage one day and added on extra face and hand treatments. The spa ran through a separate charge for the extras and then one for the main massage. My wife tipped on the whole amount on the main charge. I got a printout of our charges the night before checking out and the extra services was over 150% of her receipt. They had added a 50+% tip. In addition, we had been charged for all the coffee that was in the room none of which we drank, all the water that had been in the room that we did drink (it was 2x what you could find it for at a store off site but still cheap and worth the convenience to us), and a really random ‘charity’ donation. No big deal. It will be easy to clear up in the morning. Sure enough, the coffee and donation charges are simply removed. But the spa charge is an issue. Despite me presenting receipts, the guy had to call the spa. A few minutes passed with him basically holding a phone to his ear but saying nothing. I asked why it’s an issue and he said they need to figure out what happened. Ok, I have a couple of minutes more before needing to head to the airport. And nothing happens. I said this is kind of ridiculous given the proof I have that the charge is wrong. He said it’s probably just a tip they incorrectly added but instead of doing the reputable thing and correcting it for me and then figuring it out later he made it very clear that unless he gets final word from the spa he won’t be able to correct the charge. Finally feeling pressed for time, I gave up and ate the scam charge.||||Beyond the gross experience of dealing with Vidanta, the place is really average. The unresolvable issue is that it’s a huge property set a few minutes off the main road. You can get off campus but it was a 15 minute taxi ride just to get to a restaurant or the marina on the Nuevo side which doesn’t really get you a town to walk around in. The north edge of PV is more like 20 minutes so it’s at least 30 to get to an area you would want to explore. The pool areas are nice but get crowded (and I was told we weren't even there at a really crowded time). With the theme park coming online, it's hard to imagine this place doesn't become unbearably packed...

Important things to consider BEFORE booking any accommodation at Grand Grand Bliss (or this vidante monstrosity complex).

We don’t often write reviews but felt this is really important to share and know…

None of the accommodations in this complex is on or really close to the beach The beach is uninspiring, huge, and no one seems to use it You need to walk or take a shuttle everywhere in this prison-esque complex, so be ready to walk a lot to get anywhere or wait a lot for shuttles to cart you around The rooms are nothing special, even in Grand Luxxe, which is supposed to be one of their better properties. Do not be fooled by the offer of a balcony pool. It is a small luke- warm highly clorinated receptacle we did not even bother going in that made gurgling noises the entire time we were here If you use any dishes in the unit, you need to personally clean them or get charged per dish they need to clean Food and drink are HIGHLY overpriced, even in their market. If you want freedom and better value, take a taxi to Costco for $20 (good wines, champagne, Perrier, cheeses,etc) and stock up. Additionally, there are a number of decent restaurants about 3/4 mile down the beach - El Barracuda is one good option This outfit attempts to keep you locked into their monstrosity so you don’t leave and spend all your money here. There is a road to the marina (where restaurants are that vidante prevents you from using) and they do not allow Uber into the complex to pick you up. you can walk down the beach a few properties and call for Ubers If you plan to leave the property often as we did, you need a lot of cash - eg restaurants, shops, taxis, etc. many won’t take credit (this is different than Cabo and other areas we’ve been) If you have any issues with your visit to vidante (including grand Luxxe), don’t expect any help or support. While the staff is very nice, Mgt is intentionally not empowered to offer any concessions or help - eg they held us hostage for 3hrs when we refused the timeshare pitch and they claimed they did not have a room anywhere for us. After threatening to leave the resort and file complaints, they finally and miraculously found a room and put us in grand Luxxe, which is not special. After all of this, we were exhausted and asked for free dinner - they refused 3x even with 2nd level supervisor. They do not care and are not empowered. Vidante attempts to charge for everything when you are here, including exercise classes, bottles of water, coffee pods in your rooms, cleaning of dishes- not welcoming very offputting and greedy We did not have hot water in our room for over 4days, and the water that came out was brown (more than once), and we know others had the same issue. They claim this is a luxury establishment :) They attempt to hold special events most nights - looked super depressing as we walked by, not crowded, overpriced like everything else, and would never participate in these. Pools get packed and people fight over chairs. Be ready for a hassle. Additionally they do not offer sun umbrellas for each set of chairs. Be ready to roast in the sun if you don’t get down early and stake out chairs with umbrella. (They will not find and bring you an umbrella) If you do decide to come here look over your bill closely. They automatically enter in optional charges (eg donations).

Ultimately, while some areas of the complex are pretty, this place is overwhelming, confusing, over-priced, and not welcoming and mediocre quality with unempowered staff. While we did our best to ask for help and get our issues addressed, they did not care and were not empowered.

Puerta Vallarta is beautiful and loved the area, but never in a million yrs would we ever visit another vidante property again. (Much better options within 30-40 minutes, including Four Seasons), and again, vidante is NOT even close to the same league as Four Seasons. Vidante is 3 star accommodation and 1 star service / ambiance from our experience.

Hope...