What We Love
- The menus rival the vistas at Blanca Blue, which has incredible views of Banderas Bay and a 230 bottle wine list. Impressive light and flavorful contemporary fare ensures unforgettable dining.
Things to Know
- Garza Blanca Preserve Resort & Spa not only offers fine dining and a full-service spa, it's also within a few miles of the downtown area.
The beaches of Banderas Bay are known for their expansive vistas and cozy, pristine sands, and the resort's beautiful stretch is no exception. Grab a complimentary sun lounger under a shady umbrella and wait for the courteous lounger-side waiter service to cater to your every whim. The sizable infinity pool appears to disappear into the Pacific and offers a Jacuzzi as well as the same luxury amenities available at the beach, sans the sand.
On-site restaurant options leave nothing to be desired, courtesy of Blanca Blue, an exceptional gourmet experience with contemporary fare like ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese, parmesan and asparagus, served with butter sauce and real slabs of San Daniele prosciutto. Aqua Azul pleasures palettes with traditional Mexican cuisine and an assortment of ceviches.
After you've tucked in, test your tensile strength on a paddle board, train for the rowing team on a kayak or blow bubbles in the surf on a snorkeling expedition, all courtesy of Garza Blanca. For the fairway fiends in the group, Garza Blanca is a short driving distance from four gorgeous 18-hole golf courses. Take your pick from Marina Vallarta, designed by Joe Finger; Los Flamingos Country Club, designed by Percy J. Clifford; or Vista Vallarta, home to two separate courses, one designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus and the other by Tom Weiskopf.
This hotel is NOT all-inclusive. Food and drink must be purchased separately.
Property Information
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Resort Details
Dining
Amenities
Activities
General Policies & Fine Print
Check-in Policy - Hotel requires a credit/debit card authorization or cash deposit upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policy - This hotel cannot guarantee a spring break-free environment.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price. Minimum night stay restrictions may apply. Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
2425 reviews
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Mar 23, 2020Perfect
The trip to Garza blanca was absolutely amazing. The rooms are beautiful wirh a refrigerator stocked with water and soda and beer, as well as snacks. Restocked daily. Blanca Bleu, the main restaurant had gourmet dishes. Delicious. And the adjacent property Villa del palmar has outstanding dining options as well. The waiter, Hector, at the Asian restaurant,Hiroshi, was best server I have EVER had. He went the extra mile to insure our dining experience was special. The names to shout out for excellence at Garza blanca Maria, and Otikio, the pool concierges were on top of everything to make food, Drinks, chairs, umbrellas always available. Just fabulous. Isbelina, Edger, and ESPECIALLY Ivan, who was our "butler " were over the top amazing. Cant say enough good about this place. After Coronavirus is conquered, take a trip to Cancun Stay at Garza Blanca, you not regret it.
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Mar 21, 2020Wonderful but under construction.
We just returned from 10 days at GB and here are the pros and cons. My wife and I are frequent visitors to Mexico and have stayed at some of the "top 10" resorts and Garza Blanca's service, accommodations and grounds are the best we have encountered. Especially the service. So kind, friendly and warm, they make you feel at home and are willing to do just about anything make your stay enjoyable. We felt so welcome we extended our stay. As far as the food, we did not do the meal plan but thought the food was good. We preferred to go into town and explore and the help at the front desk was great. Drinks were a little too watered down and actually measured by the shot. Our greeter Jacquie was the best, she was so nice and treated us like a member of her family. Love her and would go back just to see her. Those are the pros. Here are the cons: construction noise from all sides. To the left of tower 5 there is a major construction and road project going on the goes from 7:30-5pm 6 days a week. Major league project that made us change rooms. Behind tower 4 is another tower project and that is at the first floor stage with a tower crane. Get the picture. Less noise but still was not disclosed anywhere on the web sites. FYI the next tower (yes another tower) is slated for construction this year so it will be on going for quite some time. Last is the membership pitch. We decided to see if it was for us. Nice start from Linda but when we were 3 hours in and basically said not interested, Larry the closer came in like the manager at a car dealership to try and close me. Not impressed and was taken aback that he tried to sell us a resale property. Look on line or better deals. Don't be discouraged by the cons. The service is outstanding and would go back to be pampered again, just be mindful of the noise factor. Long story but we love Garza Blanca and will explore their other properties..
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Mar 13, 2020Loud construction that we were not aware of
This is our second visit. We LOVED our first, so we came back two years later. When we booked our reservations we were not told that major construction was going on. We ended up with a beautiful two bedroom suite in tower 5 that unfortunately overlooked a massive construction site off of the master bedroom balcony. Each morning at 7am we awoke to construction noises and trucks rolling onto the property. Construction continued until 6pm. It was too loud to enjoy our lovely wrap around balcony in the am for coffee, or the early evening for drinks or a jacuzzi. Super disappointed and we feel like we were duped in a way for sure.
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Mar 12, 2020
Worst beach ever
Beautiful property. Good food but pay for all inclusive. The worst beach ever! I’ve been all over and have never had any thing so unpleasant. Stay in the pool. Lots of other choices I felt out of place and uncomfortable
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Mar 08, 2020
Returning to paradise
We have been in Garza Blanca in March 2017 and have returned this March 2020 for a 2nd visit. We found our experience in 2020 to be as good and even better than our 2017 stay at the resort. 1st, let’s talk about the construction going on that everyone has been talking about. It did not bother us one bit. Yes, you can see the construction going on when looking out from the Panoramic Suite balcony in Tower 4, 5 or even the Mousai… but that was not an issue for us. As far as construction noise goes we did ear the occasional truck road by on the main street between the upper towers and the main hotel part near the beach but that was not worse than other traffic that goes by there at normal time anyway. So if you are worried about construction (at least at the current stage) then worry not. I have to say that we stayed in a 2 bedroom panoramic suite in tower 4 facing the pool. So we had a view of the construction site. Had we been in Tower 5 with a balcony facing the hill side we might have had more of a distracting view as it would have been in our face… but again, we spend most of our time by the pool, beach or restaurant when at the Garza so again, it would have been ok for us. So how did it compare to 2017? Well, everything is pretty much exactly as we left it 3 years ago. The venues are as clean as before. Some aging is starting to show in a few places and will be in need of a refresh sooner than later. Nothing huge or big but obviously when you have a large turnaround in a suite, couches and bed mattress can start to show signs of wear. Most notably the living room lamp shades showed signs of having fallen to the ground more than once. Something the hotel might want to address with less prone to fall type of lamp for example. The pools and beach area were spotless with plenty of sun chairs and towels well folded on each every time we went by and plenty of free chairs to sit when we got there. There were the isolated reserved chairs by some inconsiderate guests (we sat beside them for more than 3 hours and no one even showed up… such behaviour should not be tolerated...) but not in too large a number. Pool service was awesome and we never had to wait very long before someone offered us a new refreshment of more food by the pool. Food choices on the menu were plentiful and of great quality. Drinks never were served with less alcohol than expected. I read some had issues with weak drinks but this never was the case for us. Room service was spot on and almost obsessive :-) We had nice little surprises left in our room by the staff every evening. The fridge water, pop and beer content was always well stocked. Mind you, we do leave good tip for room services so your mileage may vary based on tipping or not. For example, we left 100 pesos every day in the fridge and 300 pesos for the room every day we have been there. Restaurant service was awesome. We ate at the Iroshi, Bokados and Blanca Blue restaurant during our stay. Food was always good and the service was always great. We ate most of our meal at the Blanca Blue and built a great relationship with the “Maitre d’hotel” there. We have been offered the opportunity to try the new menu items for 2020 that will be offered soon to guests of the resort. It was presented to us by the “Maitre d’hotel” himself (Rigo) and his assistant (Jose). It consisted of an 8 course meal with carefully selected drinks. We were 1st offered an amazing custom drink that we called the “Sunset”. It was a tasteful blend of cucumber, tequila, and a few other alcohols I don’t remember. Perfect to drink while watching the sunset on the banderas bay and catching the Orca swimming by in the ocean. I could go on and attempt to describe the tasteful and well presented plates that followed but this would not give justice to them as they were beyond good. You will have to experience them on your own and be the judge. I am not sure if this special dining offer comes by frequently but the “Maitre d'hotel” told us it is only done a few times a week and usually to couples. This one was a bit special since we were 5 at the table (wife and I plus 3 kids ages 18, 16 and 14). The meal ended with something really special called a flaming mexican coffee. This is truly spectacular and a must have if you stay at the Garza Blanca. So overall our stay at the resort was a blast and we will be happy to return if we have the chance in the future. With the resort expansion I think things will only get better once the new towers and sections are open.