TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This is the second time my family and I booked to stay at this hotel. The first trip was uneventful. At arrival on the second trip in March 2024, the hotel demanded extra/ additional payment at check in for two kids. The exact same booking was made in 2023. This time the hotel alleged that the 2 bedroom/ 2 bathroom hotel room was booked for 2 adults and 2 infants- therefore charged another $200USD per child per night (in addition to original full pre- payment). The booking clearly stated 2 adults and 2 children-no ages specified on the booking form- but selected in the drop down on line booking form in order to complete the booking. Hotel management would not discuss this and have refused to address this at the time or subsequently. AVOID THIS CONSUMER TRAP Even the desk staff were embarrassed by this. The hotel refuses any resolution. BEWARE

We visited Barcelo from Apr 6-13, 2024 and loved it. I had read some negative reviews from others to the point I almost cancelled our trip. I am soooo glad we didn’t cancel. We had an amazing time and have only great things to say about the resort, restaurants and staff. Everyone went above and beyond to make our stay great! The resort itself is in a beautiful location between the mountains and the ocean. It is about 50 min taxi ride from the airport. The rooms all have a view of the ocean and pools. The bellmen at the lobby are so helpful and assist with getting taxis wherever you want to go. Rates are posted on the wall so no surprises when you take a taxi. When you enter the lobby it is so nice and they welcome you with a glass of champagne! We have visited a few all inclusive resorts and this one is our favourite! My favourite speciality restaurant was the Los Arco- steakhouse and a special thank you to our waiter Hose! He was awesome and even sang me happy birthday on my birthday! As others have said the wifi is not great. It is hit or miss and if you want a good signal you can always get that in the lobby. I didn’t see this as a big issue as I didn’t go on vacation to live on my phone. The rooms are very well appointed and so are the grounds. We stored our valuables in our room in the safe and no issues at all! If I had any one small complaint is that they don’t enforce the rule that you can’t save pool chairs by putting a towel on it at 7:15 am as so many guests do. Signs are up all over about it but no enforced it and it could be difficult to get a chair anywhere near the pool. That was annoying. I don’t often leave a review but based on the negative reviews I wanted to take the time to leave a very positive review! We will definitely be back!

I'll preface this with two things: First off, I've never had a trip advisor account but made this account so I could leave a review of this resort after seeing a bunch of recent negative reviews that scared the hell out of me before my trip. Secondly, I visited the Barcelo with a large family group for a reunion of sorts (as my wife's +1) and I didn't have any say in where we were visiting. I've never stayed at an all-inclusive resort but travel frequently and typically only stay in Marriotts/JWs and I'm fairly accustomed to nice-ish hotels with decent service. That said, considering the recent, kind-of-scary, negative reviews I probably wouldn't have chosen the Barcelo but I'm glad they did and would really like to return considering I visited with very low expectations and was pretty impressed with it. I'll break my review up into some categories. HOTEL/ROOM: The hotel grounds and rooms are really nice. If you look closely you can see some signs of wear but that's super common in nice older hotels - especially when they're right next to the ocean. The cleaning and maintenance staff are numerous and constantly at work to maintain the hotel's appearance. Each tower has two central elevators, plus a service elevator situated about 20-30 feet down the hall. We had the two-bedroom and were pretty happy with our room, its balcony, and the view it offered. The free minibar was restocked daily, and every evening around 6 p.m., staff would visit to offer additional things we might need, such as water, beer, or snacks. Also since a lot of recent reviews mentioned security concerns while I dont think this is worth its own category I'd note that I'm a very security conscious person and I felt extremely safe. There are guards strolling around everywhere and you need to check in/out with security at the front guard booth and they take the names of everyone in the car - including your uber driver. Guests are identified by wristbands so they know everybody whos coming in/out/walking around the complex. POOLS: The pools are awesome. There's an adult pool, an adults/kid pool (with a bar), a kids pool (with a waterslide), and a lap/volleyball pool. We came with our two small kids (almost 3 yo and 1 yo) so we spent all of our pool time in the adults/kid pool and kid pool. They loved it. We loved it. I've been back for a day and my son has been bugging me to go to the pool lol. Sorry buddy! Also really loved the pool activities and DJ sets they had during the day between 11ish and 5ish. The pool activity guys are really fun and deserve alot of credit. FOOD/DRINKS: For the most part the food is very good. I recently took a cruise with NCL and found the food from the Barcelo to be MUCH better than anything I ate on the cruise. The buffets at the Barcelo have theme nights so the menus change daily. The breakfast was VERY good especially the French toast and the omlette station. There are four "specialty" restaurants whos names I dont remember - but they're Japanese, Italian, Spanish, and a steakhouse. The best one was the Spanish by far and the best thing on the menu was the lamb. Get the lamb! The Japanese was *okay* but imo similar to all sushi places in LATAM - alot of rice, cream cheese, and not much fish. Bleh. They had a fried ball of rice with hibiscus that was pretty good though. The Italian place was not very memorable. And the steak I had at the steakhouse was just not a very good cut of meat. During the day the steakhouse is an a-la-carte restaurant/taco bar and the tacos are pretty good with tortillas being prepared fresh before your eyes. Most importantly - I DID NOT GET SICK! I have a sensitive stomach and after a few days of being cautious with what I ate and feeling fine I decided to go all-out and eat everything and felt great aside from very full. On numerous occasions we saw staff going around the buffet taking temps of the food (and pics of the temps) so I assume they corrected whatever food safety issues they may have experienced in the past. Drinks were good but the mixed drinks were a bit weak - which isnt too much of a surprise. I had a premium room and the selection of premium liquors was extensive. After I got a few very sugary/weak old fashioneds I opted to just do glenfiddich 12 or havana club 7 on rocks and was good with that. SERVICE: It was great. Right when you arrive, basically when your foot hits the ground outside of your cab, you're greeted with a glass of champagne which was really nice. Everyone was super nice, patient, and provided really top tier service whether it was at the bar, restaurants, buffet, pool, front desk, or anywhere in between. I think most staff are bilingual but some obviously have more English skills than others, and while I'm bilingual, I noticed that they exhibit a TON of patience when speaking with frustrated folks who dont speak any Spanish. Special shoutouts to Cesar at the premium lounge, Esperanza who got our rooms ready at night, and the pool gal who made me dance for getting my bingo card wet (sorry!). Random Notes: - The Barcelo is a bit far from central PV. I usually try to Uber everywhere but had some difficulties during the day getting Ubers out of the hotel to go to town. No issues going from town to the hotel. Just probably something to keep in mind when planning your activities. The folks at the front desk are very efficient at getting a cab for you though. I dont think I waited more than 3 minutes for one ever. That said, the hotel has agreed prices with the cabs and make sure your cab driver agrees to that in front of the bellhops before you get in. When I was getting a cab to go to the airport for the hotel price of $25, I confirmed with the cab driver $25 and he tried to change it to $30 but was corrected by the bellhop... Nice try. Oh and ubers were usually around $200 pesos to central PV so its probably always cheaper to try to get an uber if there are any around. - They have an on-site medical clinic. During our stay a member of our family suffered a fairly serious medical condition (totally unrelated to our stay) that had to be taken care of ASAP. We visited the onsite clinic, which is part of the Hospiten medical group, the family member was examined, and we were quickly taken to the Hospiten hospital in PV by the airport. I rode along so I could translate for the family member and was VERY impressed with the quality of service and care provided at the Barcelo Hospiten clinic and the Hospiten hospital in PV. A specialist was called in and this is a private hospital so it wasnt cheap (especially to you free healthcare having Canadians), but it got the family member stable/comfortable and after reviewing the invoice I was shocked at how little they actually charged for the quality of service provided and medical resources consumed. - As much as everyone hates people who claim beach or pool chairs with towels early in the morning/abandoning them until they feel like coming down later in the day, and the Barcelo says they enforce a policy against doing that, everybody does it and if you want to sit somewhere nice or with multiple chairs together you'll have to too. All in all. 5/5. For what you're paying this is absolutely amazing. Very impressed with the Barcelo and would love to return!

My husband and I came here for our honey spring of 2024. We were interested in the beach and all inclusive elements, and I have stayed at other hotels in the Barcelo group so I knew somewhat what to expect in terms of quality and service. It was a long travel day, and by the evening we were sort of busted and wanted to have a drink to relax. I had two stays at the Barcelo group before so we had guaranteed premium access, so we went to the premium lounge to just take a rest. I was uncertain if we had to wait to be seated or not so I asked Cesar, who was working, and he said "this is your home, who will say no?" and it was so friendly and so warm that it set the tone for the rest of the trip. It was the perfect welcome. From then on the trip was so fun and so warm, and just the break we needed. We had a great time at the restaurants, we booked a soothing massage which was so relaxing, we played in the arcade and set some high scores, we did a ton. This hotel is very large and beautiful, close enough to town to have fun, but far enough away to feel like youre getting away. We had the perfect send off, where in the premium lounge Cesar made us a special table and celebration to close out our honeymoon and laughed with us through a couple drinks, we felt like we were still celebrating with our friends. It was such a great time.

This review is for families with kids (we traveled with our 9 and 11 year old daughters) and also for people, like us, who have traveled to Barcelo's resort in the Riviera Maya and were looking for an alternative by coming to PV. We had a great time, although, our overall impression of the resort itself was mixed and I think all of us agreed in the end that we would have preferred to go back to our usual resort at the Barcelo Maya Palace in the Riviera Maya. We came here for Spring Break largely to experience the eclipse (we spent the first 3 days of our vacation in Mazatlán for the total solar eclipse) and because I've always thought PV was the most interesting resort town in Mexico (and I still do). But, for a family trip where we just want to hang out at the resort and enjoy the beach/pool, I would not return to the Barcelo Puerto Vallarta. THE GOOD: --The setting is beautiful. The resort is in a beautiful cove surrounded by green hills and clear/blue/green ocean. We enjoyed stunning sunsets each night. The drive to/from town is likewise beautiful and you really feel like you are in a world class, amazing place. Compare that to Riviera Maya, where it is flat and featureless and the resort itself offers limited views. --The view from our balcony (premium level) was unreal. Right over the cove, with the clear water/sandy beach/green hills below us. It really felt special and we loved relaxing out there. Compare that to Riviera Maya, where even the "ocean front" rooms can't even see the ocean and the in the rest of the resort, the balcony is just a place to dry your towels. --How about a separate bedroom for the kids (premium level)?! Yes! Not only that, but our kids had their own single beds. When we go to Riviera Maya, the one thing that we are happy about when we leave is getting back to sleeping normally, with everyone in their own bed and bedrooms. Not here, we all slept great. --The size of the resort was very manageable. The pool/buffet/restaurants were all within a minute or two walk of each other. Compare to Riviera Maya, where dinner often entails a 10 minute walk or bus ride. --The pools were super warm. They clearly heat them and even in the morning, before the sun was fully out, it never felt chilly to be in the water. I know that especially outside the summer months, many people complain about the pools in the Riviera Maya being chilly, because they are not heated. Our kids hate cool pools, so this was a big plus. --Hot tubs! We absolutely love hots tubs, even on warm/hot days. I know a lot of resorts in Mexico don't have them, especially in the Riviera Maya, so this was new to us. Kids are technically not allowed in (I hate that rule, BTW), but go for the hot tub hidden back near the back pool with the volley ball net, which is huge and even staff didn't care that kids were in it, serving them drinks in there, etc... Adults have their own, quiet hot tub in the adult pool area. --PV is a great town. I love the Zona Romantica and old town area. Way more interesting and pretty than other resort areas in Mexico, IMO. --Weather had it's good parts and minor downsides. Again, we were viewing things in comparison to Riviera Maya. We had bright sun and cloudless 90% of the time over 5 days. It was not humid and even the sun was manageable. Compare to our many trips to the Riviera Maya, where it seems more unusual to get cloudless skies, and we've never visited there without at least some rain. That being said, the first few nights/mornings are what some might call "cool," depending on your prospective (low 60s and breezy?), and with daytime highs in the low 80s, it was a tad chilly getting out of the pool/ocean. During the same week, in the Riviera Maya, the lows were in the low/mid 70s, and highs in the upper 80s, so true tropical warmth. In short, I think Riviera Maya is more insulated from the cooler weather during the winter/spring than is PV. I like PV weather better, but my wife likes a t-shirt and shorts 24/7 tropical vacation. --Dinner reservations were easy to secure. We went with premium (highly recommended, as it was not much more expensive) and we were able to get decent reservations each night. Compare to Riviera Maya, where it's usually been much more of a struggle. It was silly setting an alarm the first morning to get into line at the concierge desk at 8:45am (already 15 people in line), but with Premium, I was able to lock reservations for the rest of our trip right then. --We LOVED the lunch restaurant on the pool deck. It was great to have a sit down meal with food made to order for lunch -- as opposed to another buffet meal. The kids loved the pizza and we loved the ocean views and a nice little break from the pool to break up the day. --The arcade was super fun (although pricy). It was a perfect after dinner activity for the kids and the games were awesome. THE BAD: --By far our biggest complaint is the pool set-up, including the pool entertainment noise. It had a tangible, negative impact on our enjoyment of the resort and our vacation. This is broken into two parts: 1) entertainment noise, 2) pool size. Understand first that there are two primary pools: an 'adult pool' and an 'everyone is welcome pool.' They are roughly equal size. Believe me, I'm all for an adult pool option, the wife and I have taken no-kids vacations, and we loved the adult pools at the Barcelo Riviera Maya: quiet, secluded, relaxing. But, the size of the adult pools in the Riviera Maya was roughly equal to the demand for an adult-only pool -- which is to say, a lot less than an 'everyone' pool given the nature of who visits. I would say that during our visit, on average, there were 5-8 people swimming in the adult pool and 25-30 in the 'everyone' pool, which were not only families, but larger groups of adults who wanted to be louder and more rambunctious and probably didn't want to disturb the vibe at the adult pool, or who wanted the music/entertainment at the 'everyone' pool. This problem is exacerbated by placing the swim-up bar in the 'everyone' pool, which draws more adults away from the adult pool. This brings us to my two primary complaints: entertainment noise and pool size. First, the noise. The resort employs a handful of "MCs" to run the pool entertainment, which varies from bingo, to dance lessons, to pool aerobics and trivia. The MCs are undoubtedly given marching orders by the resort to "bring the energy" (the MCs all seemed like great people, and did a good job given their role, BTW). The problem is that it is LOUD and the pool area is small enough that you cannot escape it -- and I suspect that 85% of the people out there don't want the "energy" brought into their relaxing pool vacation. Personally, I did not see that the DEMAND for the entertainment made the disruption it caused for everyone worth it. Picture the MC yelling into a microphone (that is loud enough to make conversation difficult 100 feet away), that pool aerobics is starting. Two guests volunteer to join. The MC then tries to drum up interest and is cajoling guests that are walking by to join, or calling people out in the pool to join. Mind you, there is limited interest because it's a bunch of parents/kids playing together in the pool or groups of adults trying to socialize and relax together on their vacation. They don't want to do pool aerobics at 2pm. Finally the MC pressures a few more people to join. You now have 5-6 people doing pool aerobics over loud music and the MC yelling instructions into the microphone for the next 20 minutes -- making conversation/relaxation difficult for the other 100 people on the pool deck -- all so a handful of people could do pool aerobics, half of which joined only because the MC pressured them into it. Not only that, but the sound is echoing around the entire resort: we could have easily followed along with the bingo game on our 8th floor balcony. Can management not see that the math simply does not add up? Have they been out there to watch how the guests experience it and decided that it is a net-positive for the resort? I should add, however, that this occurs during only portions of the afternoon. This problem is also compounded by my second complaint: the relatively limited pool size. You look at the overhead photos of the resort and you think the pool complex is pretty significant. Like I said, however, there are two main pools and one is 'adult' and one is 'everyone" There is also a small "volleyball" pool and a toddler pool (which was super warm and had small waterslide, but was appropriate really only for kids maybe 4 and under). But, if you have elementary age kids, you are pretty much going to be in the 'everyone' pool, which is pretty modestly sized in the world of all-inclusive beach resort standards -- especially if you are sharing it with 25-30 people. I was throwing a ball to the kids and it was hard to find space where we were not going to splash other guests. Likewise, the kids like jumping off the pool deck to fetch toys off the bottom that I will toss about. These are activities where you need a little elbow room and it was at times hard to do them without interfering other guests' enjoyment of the pool -- which we were careful not to do. Compare to Riviera Maya where the main pool at the Barcelo Palace is probably 5x bigger than than the PV pool -- not to mention the full fledged water slide/park area and all sorts of bridges, waterfalls, islands, etc.. to explore within the pool. In short, the kids are always amazed and in awe of the pools in Riviera Maya and spend countless hours having a blast in the pools, but their PV experience was much more muted and honestly felt closer to the experience we could have gotten at the typical hotel pool at the local Marriot or Hilton near our house. --The food quality was decent, but will be a let down for those used to the Barcelo resort in the Riviera Maya. The buffet food was perfectly adequate, but had far fewer options than the Riviera Maya -- where the buffets are at least 2-3x larger and have more made to order items at the buffet. Likewise, the quality at the ala carte's was noticeably lower. For example, the pizza at the Capri in the Riviera Maya could easily be served at an Italian bistro in NYC, while the pizza at the Capri in PV was closer to something you'd get at a pool snack bar or bowling ally. --For elementary school aged kids, there just seemed to be less fun stuff to do. In Riviera Maya, there are 3 water slide parks, zip lining, bowling, mini-golf, massive pools, jumping off the dock, snorkeling with turtles, looking for shells, walking out to the cenotes, etc.... In PV, due to it's smaller size, there just isn't all of those options. Our kids had a great time, don't get me wrong, and we all enjoyed the relaxation and family time -- but it I kept getting the feeling like we just showed up in Cleveland after spending previous vacations in Paris, London and New York. --The beach experience was not very kid friendly. It's a pretty beach, but there is a quick/steep drop off, so that even my 9 and 11 year olds were in over their head very quickly, with heavyish waves rolling onto the shore. My kids (like most) prefer a beach with a gradual slope and slow-rolling waves. Also, the ocean water was chilly -- especially for a tropical beach vacation. It was maybe around 70-71 degrees, so we went swimming and were comfortable after the initial shock, but compare that to Riviera Maya, where the ocean is above 80 degrees even in the deepest part of the winter. --I got hit with the no-see-um bug bites, although my wife and daughters did not. A week later and I'm still itching them. We used OdoBan "No Natz" spray, and it apparently worked great with the rest of the family. BOTTOM LINE: This was a nice resort and we enjoyed a relaxing week away from home, but in the future we will go back to the Barcelo Maya Palace in the Riviera Maya for our Mexico beach vacations.