Barcelo Puerto Vallarta - All-Inclusive

The staff was overall very hospitable and friendly. They were constantly checking to make sure that we were happy with everything. The pool and beach area were small but nice. The resort had activities throughout the day which was nice, but it wasn't always clear where they would be. The buffet was a good place to eat and offered a lot of variety during meal times. Make sure to have money to tip the staff. Overall it was a great place for the value.

Great all inclusive get-away! Food was excellent, very friendly staff, drinks were good, room was super clean and very nice. If you are wanting a night life, this isn't the place. Its about a 20 minute cab to the downtown area. There are several restaurants within the resort (guys must wear pants for the restaurants), or you can eat at the buffet, as well as a Cantina that's open late. Your room is stocked with water, beer, juice & snacks, but if you have the premium package, you have access to a VIP lounge area for snacks, drinks, coffee, cocktails, concierge and business use, along with other perks. If you are just wanting to get away & relax, this is the place. We would definitely go back!

I think the biggest uck factor was finding a cigarette butt at the bottom of our pina colada. I assume it came from their machine at the pool and slipped in at some point, but so disgusting. The food was ok, although I got a stomach bug from something I ate. My friend was fine though. The drinks were extremely weak - I think they water down their alcohol because even getting a triple pineapple rum tasted weak. We noticed that they put an empty Bacardi Rum bottle back on the shelf as opposed to discarding it, so that led us to believe that they totally refill bottles with other stuff.

We enjoyed our stay at Barcelo. We did not have any bad experiences at all. The hotel itself is beautiful! The rooms were large & spacious! Aesthetically, this hotel is a knockout! However, some of the other parts were average. Nothing was bad & we had no real complaints about anything. But I've stayed at Sunscape in Puerto Vallarta before & I enjoyed the food, the beach & the entertainment more at Sunscape. The food at Barcelo was good - there were a few things we really liked but most meals were average. The actual beach itself is very small & sits at a very sharp angle which made it uncomfortable for me to lay out. All of the beach chairs were lined up in two straight lines, right next to each other. When we stayed at Sunscape, the beach area was much larger & the setup was more pleasant - they had two chairs accompanied by a table & umbrella for people to enjoy - these were up & down the beach so it made it like your own little private area. There was also a waiter at Sunscape that served the beach. I was actually never approached by a waiter on the beach or by the pool at Barcelo.- I always had to walk up to the bar myself to get a drink. We went to 3 shows at Barcelo. They were all fun shows (the Elvis & Michael Jackson were both spot on & very impressive). The only downside was that it didn't feel like there was a lot of variety - while there was a different theme every night, it was always singing & dancing. Our experience at Sunscape was that each night's entertainment had much more variety (we saw a fire dancer one night, comedian one night & traditional Mexican dance group another at Sunscape). Overall, this was a beautiful place & we did enjoy our stay but I did prefer our experience at Sunscape over our stay at Barcelo. On final note...we did a hike with Hannibal from Ecotours & loved it! The price was great & they were very friendly! They were not affiliated with any of the resorts - we just found them online & booked with them. The owner is American so it was easy to communicate with her when booking & our guide, Hannibal, was full of great information about the area!