TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Amazing service from the staff, everyone is so friendly!! The food at the buffet was delicious and the waiters were also very helpful. The resort is very family oriented, and as guests from Canada, we enjoyed the cheerful atmosphere of all the Mexicans around us! The only downside at this resort is the staff do not speak very much English. The beach was out-of-this-world!! Although the hotel itself is a little outdated, they keep it very tidy and clean. Highly recommend this resort!

Salvador in the Hacienda restaurant and bar was always energetic, sincere, and hardworking. It made our time at Samba Vallarta incredible. Great food. Service is awesome. Lots of drinks delivered ahead of the thirst. We will be back . Low season is the best!

Nicole at the front desk was very help full , Bernardo give us a happy birthday cake for my daughter, the food was excellent , the room was very quiet and nice the pool was clean, the ocean very nice. Everything was great. Gracias Samba We will came back next year .

Was not sure how this would go as our only experience of trips to PV over the past 18 years was the Palladium. The Samaba is a very small resort and as many people say it is in need of a reno in the rooms and some other areas as they are dated. The pool is beautiful and there is no shortage of places to get a drink. The food over 7 days was good and only one dinner where the choices were just okay. Breakfast was best and never had the lunch and there is a snack bar but never had anything from there. Would be great if they didn't put the hotdog pieces in many of the dishes as our daughter does not eat pork and they really don't need that added in. What makes this place is the people that work there. From the restaurant staff Salvatore and Carlos and many others to the people taking care of the grounds, they are always friendly and made conversation. If you are looking for fancy and awesome entertainment, etc then go somewhere else. If your looking for a clean place that had everything you need...decent food, good drinks, nice pool and beach and comfortable beds then this is how we found it.

Air Canada Vacations advertises this as a 4 star resort online, but it's a 2.5 to 3 max.  While the staff are cordial and very helpful, and the amenities inside and out (ie pool, buffet dining area, etc) are decent, the accommodations are extremely run down and dated and we had multiple issues during our stay.  Even the outside facade of the building and roofing are falling apart. If you do choose to stay here, AVOID the bottom floor rooms.  We were placed in one originally, and it was horrible.  The sliding door lock was broken and wouldn't actually lock (loose handle and latch) and stay closed.  Maintenance showed up and rigged it to close, but it could still be forced open from the outside.  You could tell humidity had ravaged this room and likely countless others in the complex.  The bathroom especially was heavily rusted over and there was black mold around the edges of the mirror.  The exposed fuse box in the bathroom made the place feel more like a Motel 6 than a resort. The grout of the room floor tiling had turned black from the ground in dirt and grime.  No matter how much the maids mopped, it wasn't going to get clean.  We couldn't even walk around barefoot in our room because the bottoms of our feet turned black. Eventually we were moved to a fouth floor room that was more clean overall, but still had the rundown look.  The walls weren't well insulated, so we could hear kids shouting from down the hall outside.  And the air gap around the door leading to the hallway just welcomed bugs to come in.  We had ants and cockroaches. At one point the flush chain in the toilet broke which required replacing.  That sort of stuff happens and it was fixed.  The issue was while the maintenance staff was there, we told them the hot water knob in the bathroom was leaking when turned on.  We showed them this leak and they acknowledged it.  But then did absolutely nothing about it.  Instead of calling them back again to take up more time from our trip, we just put a towel there to catch the water. The food at the buffet was decent most days, but on more than one occasion the AC wasn't working right so it was like a sauna in there.  The outside eating area by the pool just had simple food like hotdogs, nachos, and burgers.  Ok for what it was.  We only tried the Italian à la carte restaurant which was pretty good. One recurring hurdle we ran into during our stay was the lack of English spoken by the majority of the staff.  We understand we're in Mexico, and it's not their native language.  But you would think there would be some basic English understood.  For example, during dinner one evening my wife asked for red wine.  The server just stared at her like she was speaking Swahili.  This lack of bilingualism extended to the front desk staff.  Thank goodness for Google Translate.   On the plus side our kid did love the pirate ship and it was nice we could see him from wherever we were in the pool area.  And the greeters went above and beyond to help us. We gave a smaller resort a shot instead of going with one of the big boys such as the Riu, Iberostar, Barcelo, etc based on the reviews, and it was a mistake.  Just too many small issues that added up and took away from the overall enjoyment of our trip.