TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Our second time at Valencia and we love it, can’t wait to come back! Service and amenities are wonderful. We thoroughly enjoy sitting at Jolla Lobby Bar for pre and post dinner cocktails with Erbin and Felipe! They make the experience truly memorable.

This was our 4th time visiting Valencia and each time becomes more and more amazing. We have stayed at many all inclusive resorts and Valencia is hands down our favorite. While there are many wonderful features about this resort the staff is what sets Valencia apart. Andy the usician is one of the main reasons we come back year after year. We literally went to El Paton every night to watch him. Our only critique is that we wish we could order off the menu and not just the buffet at Patron. One evening Chef David made us Poblano Soup at our request which we loved! Carlos does a great job as the Manager of Patron and also serving late night drinks in the Lobby Bar. I want to give a shoutout to all the great bar tenders at the Lobby Bar; they did a great job and even stayed open passed closing time several of the nights. Yael and Ricardo were great servers and even did a Mexican coffee show for us. This time we traveled with my family of five which included my wife and me, our 3 sons (ages 9, 15, & 18) and my wife's parents. It is quite an amazing accomplishment for an all inclusive resort to cater so well to such a variety of ages. My boys all enjoyed playing volleyball (beach and pool) and participating in the other activities such as bingo, water activities, craft painting, and playing yard games with the entertainment staff. Enrique, Mario, Daniel, Luis and Karla all did a wonderful job. Several times the staff played 1:1 basketball, soccer and ladder ball with my 9 year old son. Watching our three sons all have the "most amazing week of their lives" at their diverse ages is amazing. Carlos and Benjamin were great Pool Captains and were always eager to help. We were also impressed by meeting Valencia's General Manager - Ignacio Yee. He spends time walking through the resort talking with and listening to guests. We rarely see the general manager at other resorts we have visited. It is clear that Ignacio's approachability and service first mindset is a part of the staff's culture at Valencia. In addition to the wonderful staff another great thing about Valencia is watching the wales right from the infinity pool. We see whales everyday right from the resort. The infinity pool is amazing as it overlooks the ocean; one of the best pools I have ever seen at a resort. We typically also do a whale watching excursion and then spend the day at the Marina, seeing The Arch and Lovers/Divorce Beach. Shout out to Cabo Escape for a great Whale Watching Breakfast Cruise. We also always make a stop at The Office for lunch.

Five stars all around! We took my parents and their friends to VLV for three days, and they had an amazing time. Every restaurant we visited offered upscale food, impeccable service, and a wonderful dining experience. A special thank you to Raul and his team at the Italian restaurant, and Pablo and Paulino at the steak restaurant, for going above and beyond with their warmth, professionalism, and outstanding hospitality. They truly made our trip memorable. We will absolutely be back and highly recommend VLV for both its exceptional dining and service

Luis, Pablo Gerardo, Abisai, and Cesar were amazing. Some of the best people I’ve ever met. UBUNTU!

I was not sure if I should give four stars or three stars. I think it’s about a 3.5. And I rounded down because of the coffee AND COFFEE and pool chairs. The resort itself is stunning—new, fresh, and impeccably clean, with a beautiful lobby. The service throughout our stay was excellent. Every staff member we encountered was immediately helpful and courteous. I particularly appreciated the thoughtful gesture of staff bringing their hand to their opposite shoulder when passing guests—a small but very nice touch. Very cool. With that said, here are the Pro’s and Con’s. Pro’s 1. Accommodations Full kitchen in my unit. I went with Dad and step-mom and they are members. As a guest with the Member, we got a 1-bedroom suite and it was glorious. Two bathrooms. (Michael Caine reference-what’s the secret to a good marriage? Two bathrooms.) I do not encourage anyone to use the ice from the freezer. Instead, take the ice bucket to the lobby bar, fill it up, and put it in the freezer. Now you got ice. 2. Dining and Food Quality Food and Service are impeccable. Both sit down restaurants serve excellent food. Steaks are thick and juicy. Salads are filled with ingredients galore. Excellent drinks. There is of course a slight dip in quality at the dinner buffet, as expected. But you should be able to find something that suits you. 3. Breakfast Buffet Breakfast buffet gets a lot of compliments on FB and Tripadvisor. As well as it should. Omelette Station has hardest working people in the resort. Tip them. I loved that they had a full salad bar at the breakfast buffet. I am a salad nut. And they had a balsamic vinaigrette reduction dressing that haunts my dreams to this day. My wife told me to stop talking about it. Enough was enough. 4. Smoothie Bar The workout room has a smoothie bar that may actually be my favorite All Inclusive perk of all time. You could get custom made protein shakes every morning, after working out (yes, my wife and I are those people, even on vacation). We couldn’t work out together because of the pool chair situation but more on that later. But we did get a protein shake with banana, chia seed, strawberries, blueberries, peanut butter, and milk (me soy, her regular). Just awesome. I easily miss this smoothie bar more than anything else. It may be my single favorite resort perk of all time. 5. Spa Experience Spa was great. We did couples massages with aromatherapy. They threw in a facial and a foot exfoliation. The facial was my first facial. (Watch the jokes). And it was super cool. Along with the massage, we got hydrotherapy. What was noteworthy here was that even though the steam room was broken (argghh), they sit you down at the end in comfy loungers and give you Chamomile tea with honey and these delicious cookies. First time I’ve seen that at hydrotherapy. Cookies were delicious. Tea was just as good. Excellent way to calm and rid all stress before leaving hydrotherapy. 6. Lazy River This was genuinely impressive—an actual flowing lazy river with current and beautiful scenery, far better than the typical slow-moving loops at other resorts. It felt serene and relaxing, even with children splashing around. Bring your own floatie. You do not need anything fancy. We bought 4-in-1 blow-up pool hammocks with the headrest and they worked perfectly. The Pool Team will blow them up for you at the Pool Team kiosk. I encourage you to bring your own as you can then go in and out of the lazy river when you want. Otherwise, to use the hotels inflatable, which sometimes they run out, you have to sign out the tube and everything. Forget that noise. 7. They have bidets in our bathroom. They have bidets in the lobby bathrooms. How cool is that? I’m sure I forgot something else. Lots of Pros. Unfortunately, Con’s too… Con’s 1. I hate hate hate that I can’t go to the bar by the pool and order a drink. All drinks must be ordered from the servers. I am borderline OCD when it comes to my drinks and how they are made. It took about 4 rounds before I knew exactly what to say to the server and the drinks came back like the way I was hoping. It is much easier if I can just walk up, be nice, and ask nicely, can you please do this and this and that. It is what it is. 2. Pool Chair Situation Here we go. The pool chairs. You have read about the nightmares. They are all true. Total nightmare. Chair games are everywhere at all resorts. I get that. Honestly, I don't even mind the chair game. But this was especially competitive. Next level. On the first morning, I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and found very few chairs available. The next day, I arrived at 5:00 a.m. and secured the spots we wanted. On our final day, however, someone had already taken our preferred location by 4:30 a.m. When I asked them about it, they confirmed they had arrived that early. About 7:15 am to 7:30 am, Benjamin or Carlos come around and ask you for your room number and type it into their iPad. I’m serious. They do this. For pool chairs. And they inform you that can only save one extra chair besides your own. So on the first day, I immediately called my Dad and told him to get down there if he wanted chairs. He comes barreling down and is freaking out because the coffee machine in the room makes “brown water.” That’s a quote. And he’s a coffee hound. He checks in with Carlos and goes to get a coffee from the coffee shop. More on that later. Now there are people there saving more chairs than just one more than themselves. I guess, if you wanted to be a real jerk, you could tell Carlos or Benjamin, and they would probably side with you and you could take their chairs. But then you have to see them at the pool all day. Super uncomfortable. So it is probably not worth it. You get one hour for breakfast. No, really. There was a line at the breakfast buffet, so we were waiting for about 20 – 30 minutes. So I had to go back across the resort, back to the Infinity pool, to tell Carlos or Benjamin to reset the timer as there was a wait at breakfast. I had to do this most days. My wife and I like to work out together at the gym. This was not an option. We had to take turns due to the chair situation. On my days, she had to get down to the pool extra early so I could go workout. She was a trooper. She never complained. I like her. I think I’ll keep her. There were days where families got to the resort that same day in the afternoon and there were literally no chairs. None. What do they do? I saw them talking to the pool concierges, but I do not know what happened. I kept walking. Chair game is insane. Everyone complains about it in the pool, out of the pool, in the lobby, while going to the bathroom, etc. Only good thing. I got to see the sunrise every morning. Great pictures. I attached a few of them. 3. Coffee Situation The coffee situation here is the pits. The room coffee maker is as my Dad said, “brown water” maker. No one in my party thought the coffee at the breakfast buffet was very good. Just ok. The best coffee is far and away at the coffee shop. But you have to pay for it. And how much is it, you ask? Well, $10. Unless you like a pump or two. Then it’s $12. Per coffee. Why oh why is this not part of All Inclusive? WHY? I know. Money. But people are crazy about their coffee. And I hope Management reads this. Coffee is so huge these days that this reason would be a defining reason why we would not return to Villa La Valencia. Coffee is that big of a deal. 4. Dinner Buffet This is so stupid to mention. I did not like that my drink came in a plastic cup at the buffet. I got a mango margarita. Like I said. Stupid complaint. Buffet food is buffet food. Prime rib on Friday was disappointing. All fat. No good meaty pieces. And they take the balsamic vinaigrette reduction salad dressing off the buffet at dinner. Why? Why? Why? -- Nuts, my wife is yelling at me to shut up about the dressing. 5. Signing For Every Meal and Drink – Service Fee I did not mind signing for every drink and every meal. But what I did not care for was the fact there was always a Service Fee attached to every transaction that was not part of all inclusive. So, when we bought a $12 coffee, there was a $1.25 Service Fee attached. And when we checked out and we had to pay for the Couples Massage, there was a $50 Service Fee. We were told it was for gratuities and "other things." Now we are tippers. I tip for every drink. I tip for every meal. And we certainly gave our masseuses a nice tip when they were done. I could have argued a little and asked for a Manager, etc., but I paid it. Just something to keep in mind. 6. Lobby Bar Lobby bar closes extra early, in my opinion. 10:30 pm at all-inclusive resort felt too early when there are no other bars open on site. There were a few nights I would have liked a drink after 10:30 pm. Side Comment 1. Pool Concierges People will snatch your chair and lie till they die about how they have been watching and you have been gone for hours. I know this because it just so happens that as my stepmom came back to the chairs after breakfast, someone had set up shop on our chairs and was removing the towels. My stepmom immediately called over Benjamin and the guy said to Benjamin he had been watching our chairs, and we had been gone for hours. Carlos looked at his fancy iPad, and I had been checking in intermittently while waiting for breakfast, so he told the guy to scoot. I tipped Benjamin for that one. Thank Gawd for the pool Concierges. Shout-Outs to Outstanding Staff: To our favorite person at Villa La Valencia – Eduardo at La Taberna. You saved our dinner. You saved our lunch. We will name our first child after you, young man. Thank you for an excellent experience at Villa La Valencia. Alma at the Infinity Pool – Our favorite server. She has four children—please tip her generously; she is fantastic. Mario Lopez with Pool Entertainment. Why do I think his name isn’t really Mario Lopez? Super charisma. Funny guy. Life of the party. Made everything fun. Thanks for all the laughs and thanks for all your good acting on Saved by The Bell. Sergio – No way I can mention my favorite All Inclusive perk of all time and not mention the Great and Talented Sergio! He is the Maestro. He made everyday start with a healthy bang! Mr. Guapo himself! Eduardo (Hydrotherapy) – He was very attentive for Hydrotherapy. Very appreciated. He brought the tea and cookies and made sure we were all so comfortable. Thank you, Eduardo. Benjamin and Carlos – Pool Concierges – That is a hard job you two have. Thanks for saving our chairs that day from the poacher. Beatriz at El Patron Breakfast – Thank you for the great conversations and for helping us practice our Spanish. Lastly, I always feel obligated to mention tipping. I know you want me to mind my own business, but I just do not understand how you can rationalize not tipping. You paid thousands to come here. Thousands. And you cannot tip a few bucks at dinner. A dollar on a drink. You tip at home. How do you rationalize not tipping here when these hard workers make so much less than they do back home? Ugh. Your choice. But if you can afford to come here, then you can afford some tips. Overall, Villa La Valencia is a beautiful property with excellent service and many memorable features. However, the intense pool chair competition and disappointing coffee situation significantly impacted our experience and led to the 3-star rating. I hope management will consider addressing these pain points, particularly the coffee and chair policies, as they would greatly enhance guest satisfaction. Thank you for the opportunity to share my feedback.