TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

My wife and I visited for our honeymoon. Everything was beautiful, taken care of, and the staff was great. We can enjoyed most of our time at one of the hotel’s pools or by the beach. Food was good, drinks better. Thank you Jesus Salazar! See you soon.

**Please note..I was unable to properly enter the date of our travel. We were at this hotel in APRIL 2022. My partner and I were somewhat forced to book at this resort as it was the end of the travel season from our departure point. I knew by the reviews that our $2500 CND trip was not going to be even close to being worth it. We booked through sunwing and travelled on a westjet carrier. Aside from me trying to change our booking to a different hotel in Nuevo Vallarta within less than 12 hours with sunwing, they informed us of their “stress free change/cancellation policy”, that they would not let us change our booking (even though their website advertised that this would not be problem, especially within less than 12 hours). Anyway, we flew out on a 737 westjet flight with 28 people on board..including the flight crew. A massive plane with 28 people on board. . Arrived in PV, Sunwing rep picked us up and I immediately asked to be transferred to a different hotel, willing to pay the difference. Nope. We spent the entire week at this place of horrors..AKA Krystal PV. I have travelled to east/west Mexico and all over east/west/south Caribbean..majority being all-inclusives, some day stops via cruise ship. I’ve stayed at the Riu, Iberostar, Club Med, Occidental, Barcelo, Secrets, Hard Rock, Sandals, El Cid…some 5+ star, some 3.5 star. I am going to focus this review in comparison to Mexican resorts only, as I find every country has a different version of what 5 star standard is. Travelling to a Mexican resort, one would expect to find mojitos and guacamole. Avocados are a local fruit grown right in Mexico!! But. Not at the Krystal Puerto Vallarta. One would expect a beautiful variety of breads in the morning at a typical Mexican buffet. Not at the Krystal PV! Prepackaged white and brown bread (think Mexican dempsters). One would expect bacon at the breakfast buffet..it WAS at the KPV, however, you had to wait on the waffle/egg lady to come and dish you up some bacon. Why is one lady working the waffle maker, frying eggs and dishing out bacon to 100’s of people? I am just kicking myself for not taking pictures of the buffet. Absolutely disgusting. At one point, I found a pasta salad at the lunch buffet that had three different pastas that they combined from previous servings, and then added (leftover) HOT DOG slices into the pasta. Good thing I paid $2500 for this trip! I desperately tried to leave this hotel during our stay, but sunwing reps in Mexico are useless. It’s Mexican locals that have a cel phone that they will call you from, but won’t give you their number. And when they call you, they block the number…go figure..?? Buffets were disgusting with food that was repeatedly put out day after day. Lots of saucy looking slop type selections. And the dessert selection was less than appealing. Walking around the resort was a real eye opener. I can only say that this resort caters to Mexican families, and the resort is about 90% Mexican people. It’s clearly a resort that is advertised to Mexican families for a family holiday. They even had a kid’s birthday party one afternoon, and these participants were just there for the day. Had I paid $1000 for this trip or had been compensated by sunwing and or westjet with their sneaky clauses due to their collaboration, I would have been fine. For $1000, I expect a low end hotel with minimal amenities. But paying $2500 (I stayed at Secrets for that!!), and having the subpar experience that we did, this hotel is 3 star at best. I am attaching pictures of the resort to show you the true Krystal PV. DO. NOT. STAY. HERE.

My husband and I stayed at this resort with our family in August of 2023. The staff was all excellent - super friendly and helpful; some honourable mentions include: Candelaria, Javier, Rogelio, Maximo, Derek, Saul, Edilbert, Leonardo, Georgina, and Jonathan just to name a few. There was a large selection of various foods with Mexican inspiration and touches, which was all delicious. The pools were just what we needed to cool down and relax with a drink in hand, and the poolside activities kept us entertained throughout. The rooms were comfortable and had nice air conditioning as well. Finally, the location was great for exploring downtown Puerto Vallarta and the Malecon. Thank you Krystal Vallarta for a wonderful stay!

Krystal's friendly staff and wonderful service made our family vacation perfect. Thank you everyone at Krystal! The food and beverages were great, our tower hotel rooms were modern and very comfortable.

The staff is generally pretty friendly. There is a handful that goes above and beyond. These few made the say 10x better. The facilities are decent. The rooms are nice and spacious. The pool areas fill up quickly and pool water gets dirty fast. The beach access is good but again limited seating. The food is okay, very hit or miss. The oriental buffet (reservations required) is very salty, I would avoid it. Italian restaurant (reservations also required) is better, overlooks the beach, and the food is good, but there is no music to the vibe isn’t great. We enjoyed the aquamarina restaurant the most. The food is decent, the vibes are good; there is usually live music. Overall the hotel vibe is very homely and the architecture is beautiful. Note: It is not a luxury resort! I would give it a 3.5 but that's not an option so 4!