Velas Vallarta Is Sweet Resort--If You Avoid Sales Gimmicks
Written: Aug 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great beach, pools, lush landscaping
Cons: Suites that aren't, ocean views that aren't, timeshare salesmen
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Puerto Vallarta |
Last December my wife's family booked us into a pair of rooms at Velas Vallarta Resort -- a beautiful resort in the Marina Vallarta district. Although the place was clean and comfortable with great amenities, it wasn't quite the perfect getaway...
Amenities
Velas Vallarta has a top-notch facility with excellent amenities including a wonderful stretch of beachfront, two restaurants, two interconnected swimming pools, tennis courts, and beautiful lushly landscaped grounds. It's arranged like a horseshoe that opens out to the ocean. Most rooms face into the horseshoe and feature large balconies with pots of pink bouganvillea flowers everywhere.
The beach is pretty nice, as far as Pacific coast beaches go. Of course I don't think any beaches compare to the Caribbean coast, but that's another epinion. The water is fairly rough, the sand a bit brown, and you can't really walk all that far before encountering rocks or other obstacles. I think the beaches are better at the other end of Puerto Vallarta -- near the Mismaloya. Still, a decent enough beach…especially for laying out and grabbing some tan action.
Lounge chairs are laid out on a platform above the beach and are an ideal place to just lay back and do some tan maintenance. You go down about 5 steps to get to the beach itself, and as soon as you do, you will probably be approached by someone selling something-maybe silver bracelets, maybe cotton blankets, maybe glass swizzle sticks. I know some people find the merchandising offensive, but I always like talking with the people, most of whom are hard-working people with families and who have little opportunities for work other than selling souvenirs to tourists. I never begrudge them the chance to earn a few pesos, and besides, many of the things they sell really are very beautiful and make much better souvenirs than yet another tacky plastic cup from yet another corporate gringo chain restaurant that happens to have a location in paradise...
The pools are great. The smaller one at the back is mostly for kids and is never more than 3 feet deep. The larger pool, closer to the ocean, is where adults hang out, where the swim-up bar is located (a large beer costs $5), and where games like water polo take place. Beware if you get into these games! Most are excuses to party and have penalty rules like you have to drink a shot of tequila if you miss a play.
The restaurants are both very good. The one at the back of the resort (near the front desk) is more formal and has an italian feel to it with wrought iron tables sitting out on the patio. The other restaurant is a pleasant open-air restaurant facing the beach. Meals are not cheap - about twice what you'll pay if you eat downtown - but are still not badly priced if you're used to American restaurant bills. Breakfast usually ran us $10 or less per person. They had a nice buffet, but we usually opted for chilaquiles and coffee, then ate a bigger lunch at mid-day when we'd be downtown or exploring other parts of the town (see my general epinion on Puerto Vallarta for more info).
There's a small convenience store that sells snacks, souvenirs, and beer and soft drinks, but the prices are astronomically high. We learned within minutes that you're better off stopping at an Oxxo store on the way back to the hotel (there's also a convenience store in the Marina district about 1/2 kilometer past the largely abandoned shopping center-beer is only absurdly expensive there, about half the cost of buying it at Velas Vallarta). There are refrigerators in all the rooms, and the bellmen didn't even blink an eye when we walked in carrying a case of beer.
Some Suites Sweeter Than Others…
Let's talk rooms.
Velas Vallarta likes to bill itself as a "grand suites" resort, or "all suites," yet the truth is that some of these "suites" are nothing of the sort. Sure, some of the rooms are suites-and pretty nice ones at that. Some of the rooms are decidedly not suites, and are pretty meager at best. The type of room you get will make a big difference in how you feel about the resort. We had 2 rooms: a junior suite and a 1-bedroom suite.
The one bedroom suite was closer to my definition of a real suite, with separate living and sleeping areas, and with a balcony looking out over the pool.
The junior suites aren't suites at all. The rooms are small and cramped and consist of a small bedroom area with a dinky kitchenette. There is no balcony or view (if we went outside our room, we could look over the construction site next door-which was sometimes interesting, especially at 8:30 in the morning when the jackhammers started up).
All I Want is a Room with a View…
The resort bills most of its rooms as "ocean view," and I suppose if you lean out over the balcony and crane your neck at an unlikely angle, you could be said to have an ocean view, but the reality is that almost all rooms have garden views. Very few actually face the ocean (and these mostly seemed to be condominiums, not rental units.)
Getting a Dollars Worth
It might be hard to judge just how much you're really paying for these rooms. The resort is mostly a timeshare property, and people pay all kinds of prices for their units and tend to trade weeks through RCI. A few units are straight-up condominiums, owned outright by individuals. A fair number are handled like hotel rooms that can be reserved through the resort, through Expedia, or that can be booked as part of a travel package through a travel agent. (The latter probably gets you the best price.)
Our own units were RCI timeshare exchanges. My wife's family snapped up a few weeks at resorts in Acapulco and Cozumel at a time when resale prices were more than typically depressed (you can always buy timeshare weeks for 30-40% of their original value-which is why they are such horrible investments, but that's another epinion...search on "timeshare" to find it).
Figuring out the room cost shouldn't be too hard if you're booking a package deal. I'd balk at the junior suites for more than about $60-70 per night, and I'd bail on any of the 1-bedrooms at much over $100 per night. You can probably do far better than this by buying an air/hotel package deal through a travel agent. I've seen Velas listed in ads from Apple Vacations (www.applevacations.com) and other operators. Shop around.
If you're a timeshare owner, Velas is a pretty nice resort and I recommend it if you're looking for a nice place to stay and you're trading a fairly valuable week to be here (trade an inexpensive, off-season week and you'll probably get a junior suite -- yeeech!)
Marina District
Velas Vallarta is located in a part of town called the Marina District. There are several hotels and trendy condos in the neighborhood surrounding a huge marina filled with privately owned sail and power boats. The district also includes a large golf course directly across the street from Velas Vallarta. Public buses will take you downtown for 3 pesos (30 cents). The Marina District is about 1 mile from the airport, although if you take an airport taxi from the airport to Velas they will gouge you for their $20 minimum fare. If you arrive during daylight hours you could just step out of the airport to the main road and catch a bus for a couple pesos, or take a city cab for about $1.
The Marina District is pretty nice overall, but the entrance area looks a bit run-down and the shopping center in the middle of it is largely abandoned.
Persistant Annoyances of Timeshare Salesmen
If you go to Velas Vallarta, prepare to be annoyed by timeshare salesmen!
As I said, Velas is primarily a timeshare property, and even (probably especially) if they know you already own a timeshare, they try to sell you more, or they try to get you to transfer your existing unit to their property.
When we first checked in, we were invited to enjoy a complimentary welcome drink with the concierge. We got our drinks, but the first thing the concierge did was try to get us to agree to come back for a free breakfast and sales pitch. Aye carumba! We agreed so that we could get rid of the concierge, then made sure to sleep through breakfast the next morning. Except for dirty looks, the concierge ignored us for the rest of the week -- it was wonderful!
Part of the spiel (which you also hear from the so-called "tour guides" downtown) is that you can get tours, sailboat trips, horseback rides, water ski sessions, fishing trips, and rental cars all at half price just for sitting through a "presentation". Do it if you want, but it was worth the extra $20-30 we had to pay for a rental car or a boat trip just to be able to enjoy my time and not spend half a day fending off sales gimmicks.
Of course timeshare salesmen are everywhere. You get them in Florida, you get them in the Caribbean -- heck, you even get 'em in Ohio -- but nowhere do you get so many of them as you do in Puerto Vallarta -- they're like ants coming out of a kicked-over mound.
Bottom Line
Velas Vallarta is a nice place to hang your hat for a week or so. Plenty to do, beautiful pools, and easy to get around town. Just get a decent room, avoid the timeshare maggots, and get out on the beach!
Recommended:
Yes
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