Buenaventura Grand Hotel & Great Moments - All Inclusive

“Mar. 24-Apr. 7, seventh stay”

Arrived by taxi, greeted with “Welcome Home” by Bell boy. Quickly looked after Julio at check-in. Got our favourite room with Oceanview. Just wanted to mention warm welcome from all of our old friends, Fausto, Gustavo, Eduardo, Rudy, Jorge, Oscar, Miguel, Leonardo, Francia as well as Jorge,Omar and… more

Arrived by taxi, greeted with “Welcome Home” by Bell boy. Quickly looked after Julio at check-in. Got our favourite room with Oceanview. Just wanted to mention warm welcome from all of our old friends, Fausto, Gustavo, Eduardo, Rudy, Jorge, Oscar, Miguel, Leonardo, Francia as well as Jorge,Omar and Diana at Sunset. Brekky and lunch always good, alternate between poolside, and sitting in Sunset. We did both à la cartes, as well as the buffet twice. Our favourite is to go out for dinner, to try the local dining. Enjoyed a cocktail or two at Skybar before heading to room. This was our seventh time staying here, and have rebooked for Xmas and New Years. Can’t wait to see you again friends!

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“Good value "all inclusive" resort.”

Exceptional food at the buffet. Kind, courteous and attentive staff in every area. "All inclusive" meant unlimited beer and simple drinks at the bars along with all meals. Room had uncomfortable chairs. The compact refrigerator's motor was noisy and made clanking sounds, sometimes interfering with … more

Exceptional food at the buffet. Kind, courteous and attentive staff in every area. "All inclusive" meant unlimited beer and simple drinks at the bars along with all meals. Room had uncomfortable chairs. The compact refrigerator's motor was noisy and made clanking sounds, sometimes interfering with sleep.

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“£1400 for 9 nights at a beachfront All Inclusive hotel in central Puerto Vallarta”

I shouldn’t complain, but…. I will even though I pretty much brought this upon myself. I’m done with cheap all inclusive finds on booking.com. This is driven by a combination of what you get and by the people that holiday there. I know, I know - and I include myself in there - but we’ll cover tha… more

I shouldn’t complain, but…. I will even though I pretty much brought this upon myself. I’m done with cheap all inclusive finds on booking.com. This is driven by a combination of what you get and by the people that holiday there. I know, I know - and I include myself in there - but we’ll cover that a little later and elsewhere. £1400 for 9 nights at a beachfront All Inclusive hotel in central Puerto Vallarta - cheap all-inclusive sounded brilliant… until living it. It requires some effort between meals, drinks and dozes to ensure that you get the best from it. What You Actually Get At the Buenaventura Hotel and Great Moments. Yes that's its name. You will get... Fridge in room with water, fizzy drinks and beer - which didn’t match our preferences. The loading algorithm assumes every guest prefers sugary orange sodas and lager. Luke warm food from the standard buffet presentation and basic snack food options by the pool. Tight booking system for à la carte restaurants suggests that you need to book early and quick to secure your place. Many of the cocktails were quickly made with sugar fruit juices and generic alcohol, served in plastic reuse glasses. They had all the options - Tequila Sunrise, Margaritas etc etc Not enough beds around the pools. Whilst the hotel do do some policing of the beds it’s not sufficient and there are regularly beds with just a towel (no person) on them for a few hours. A timeshare talk Navigating the best outcome Tip barmen, waiters and housekeeping. Housekeeping were quite happy to provide additional water and swap out the sugary fizzy drinks for diet equivalents. Catering for the masses - a large number of people with a variety of tastes is difficult. Avoid the buffet food and junk food by the pool by booking at the à la carte restaurants. If you do happen to do the buffet - the best approach is to eat the food that had just been put out. Hot food tastes so much better than warm food that has been sitting awhile. And avoid anything that kids can touch with their sticky fingers. We managed to book via the restaurant booking portal each night that we wanted, only eating dinner at the buffet once to ensure that we weren’t missing anything. We weren't. We did this by checking on availability during the day - grabbing it when it came up. The à la carte restaurants were never full. We also ate at the 18:30 as opposed to the 20:30 sitting which may have made a difference. The food was good and service was great. The offerings from the pool bar suits sitting and sipping in the sun, if you don’t want to get hammered. The lobby bar served better drinks at night, and it helped if the barman recognised you as someone that had tipped him earlier. Also beer is consistent and hard to screw up - that was my drink of choice. Work as a team to secure sun beds. Go on a reconnaissance lap for tactical towel deployment. Ensure that you have towels, hats or bags to secure the beds as soon as you find them. There is enough turnover that you’ll find something but will probably lose it if you then go finding your partner. We would then go for a walk around a couple of hours later until we found our perfect spot for the day. Say a firm 'no' to the timeshare talk. Whilst they promise it’s a breakfast and a tour - too many people were sitting talking the deals through. For someone living in the UK, having a timeshare in the west coast of Mexico has zero interest to us. The location is great, the service is great, the room was fine, the food could be better. Would I do it again? Of course I would - I can’t refuse a bargain.

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