Occidental Nuevo Vallarta - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

10634 reviews

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  May 2025 Visit - Royal Level

  We had a great stay at Occidental Nuevo. We opted for the Royal Level and asked for a nonsmoking room and noted on our reservation that we were celebrating the anniversary of our first date 40 years ago. We booked through Costco Travel. Check in and check out was super fast and very easy. We liked the security bracelet for the convenience of accessing our room instead of fumbling for a room card or key. Location: The Occidental is located in Nayarit, across the street from a shopping mall, and beside the Hard Rock Hotel. Unfortunately, the farmers market was finished for the season and other than a lot of hotels, there’s not a whole lot around. We ended up taking a lot of taxis to get places. The hotel itself fronts a massive beautiful beach that was extremely walkable. Sand was freakin’ hot, so we made sure to wear sandals when going for a walk. Room: We noticed a weird odour in our room #616. We thought it might be due to being in the tropics. Our room was ok, but in need of updating. It had a great view of the regular pool and the stage. There’s lots of drawers and little cubbies to store your belongings. The bed was very comfy. In the bathroom, the shower leaked like the door was open when showering (it was not), the sink was cracked, and there was an unfinished drywall patch on the ceiling that was peeling. The clothesline in the shower was a filthy grey-black as was the plastic surrounding the shower door. The vanity mirror was rusted on the base. On the back of the bathroom door, the hook looked a Scotch picture hanger. The entire bathroom seemed like it really needed a deep clean. There was a tiny shelf in the shower to put stuff, soap fell off it was that small. It would have been great to have a place to put a razor, my own soap and shampoo and conditioner. The taps were corroded. The walls in the room were thin. We could often hear the kid next door screaming, and there was some weird tapping sound that sounded like someone was knocking quietly at the door. There was no one at the door. AC was horrible at night, it has a sensor that shuts off if it thinks no one is in the room-if you’re sleeping and you don’t move much you’ll get hot like we did. It kept the room coolish during the day if the window curtains were closed. AC stayed at around 23 to 25 degrees Celsius. Too hot for us. Housekeeping was odd. Somedays we’d get 3 or 4 towels, sometimes none-several days no one came to clean the room, despite us putting the “clean and tidy” tag on the door. Bar fridge folks were great-every single day. And the turn down service at night was nonexistent except for the night before we left. We often smelled a sewage odour in the hallway from our room to the elevator. Smoking: A few days later we figured out what the odour was in our room, it smelled like our parents’ who smoked basement. Below our room on the ground floor was a patio room with an ashtray on it and people who were smoking. This resort pegs itself as 100% nonsmoking, and it definitely is not. On each of the balcony room tables that we could see, there were ashtrays. On the sand in the Bali bed area, cigarette butts litter the beach and a group of women were lighting up as they were sunning themselves. Ironically, there was a “non fumar” (no smoking) sign just a couple of metres away from them. And people smoke at the pool. At the lobby bar, people were smoking at their table until the bartender told them to get lost. Pools: The pools are great. We loved the Royal Level pool. It seemed everyone enjoyed the Royal Level pool and hot tub. Little kids were everywhere including in the Adults only Royal hot tub. Usually there were no kids in the designated Royal kids pool so we sat in there a couple of times. There were lots of non Royal guests at the Royal pool and bar, and staff didn’t seem to mind. The towel game is alive and well at Occidental, and people have their personal speakers blaring music all day long. Bali beds were ok. Drapes are filthy and the bed we were on needed repairs. The smoking ladies ruined the experience for us so we left to go back to the pool. Food: Food at the restaurants was mostly great. Our first night we dined at the Royal restaurant and both hubby and I ordered ribeye steaks with a house salad to start. The house salad was excellent, and then the steaks arrived. They were huge and butterflied. They were horrible. Shoe leather tough and flavourless. Thankfully food got way better from there. Buffets had lots of food choices. Mexican food served at the buffets was delicious. The hot sauce and pickled jalapeños were amazing. The Japanese restaurant, Tokyo, was excellent as was the Italian restaurant, Los Olivos. The Mexican restaurant, Mariachi, is in a beautiful area of the resort with open air dining. Food there, I thought, was just ok while my hubby thought it was great. The windows at all restaurants needed cleaning. Dress Codes: Dress codes at the restaurants are….interesting. While we were dining at Los Olivos, a couple in swimming attire were turned away from the reservation podium. A few minutes later a couple was leaving the restaurant after dining, the male was wearing very baggy grey sweatpants. So baggy that he had to hold them up with one hand so they wouldn’t fall down when he was walking away. I thought that was a stretch of the “long pants” that were required for men to wear. I wish AIs would get rid of the dress codes all together. Entertainment: Well, to be honest, we didn’t watch any of the entertainment until the last night. The last night was great! We could see the stage from our room. It sounded like they had a karaoke night one night. But, overall, we felt shows were too loud-even with earplugs we could hear a woman singer screeching. Tipping: We noticed that most people didn’t tip anyone for anything. We tipped everyone-housekeeping, bar fridge folks, pool/lounge area wait people, and at each meal we had. Staff work very hard, some of them 7 days a week at the resort. Overall: We enjoyed our stay. There was no mention of our first date anniversary, but that wasn’t a big deal. The Occidental falls down in some areas, I don’t really this it’s a five star place, maybe three point five stars. Where Occidental shines is with its staff. Staff were awesome, almost always wanting to help to make your stay better. They hustle to deliver drinks, service, you name it. There were a few cranky staffers, but we figured everyone has an off day every now and then. Would we stay here again? A definite maybe.

  Jun 12, 2025
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  Lobby bar service.

  Francisco Clemente & Erick Cerna were the best. Very good service. Knows how to make good drinks. The best service in the hotel. Had a great time with them at the bar. Made the vacation fun. Never waited for a drink. Always asking what else we needed.

  Jun 11, 2025
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  Everything was great!

  Erik Cerna and Francisco Clemente is the pinnacle of customer service. The best of the best. When I walked in they were great in making sure that everything went well for me. The next day that walked through they called me by name! Would recommend!

  Jun 11, 2025
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  Mediocare Resort

  The building look tired and bathroom need refreshing. Resort is nothing that I would rave about. Bed was uncomfortable and the food was average to slightly below average. The Bar service was good but the alcohol(cocktail) will give you headache. The alcohol probably is the bottom of the barrel.

  Jun 08, 2025
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  Terrible resort. Don't waste your money here! AC and sewer issues!!!

  My spouse and I went to this resort last year to celebrate my birthday. Our bathroom flooded on our first night, so we were moved to an upgraded room on the same floor. I alerted staff that the AC was not working in the second room. They argued with me and told me that it was running and to give the AC time to cool the room down. I went down for a nap and woke up to the room temperature being over 30°. I ended up with heat stroke. Management informed us that our original room was flooded in the bathroom as the AC pipe had burst and that the seventh floor, which is the royal level, no longer had air conditioning. They then moved us to a room in another tower that had two beds. We slept there that night and then we were moved again to a room that had a king size bed. That room had issues as well. They then moved us to a junior suite. We ended up moving four times on that trip. I spent approximately four hours speaking to staff, packing and unpacking suitcases, and moving from room to room. What a waste of one day of our vacation! When I spoke to management, they apologized for the issues that they were having and promised that we would receive an upgraded room if we chose to give them a second chance and come back to this resort. We decided to give them another chance this year for my birthday trip. When we arrived, we were told that we were on floor six. I requested immediately that we be moved to the seventh floor as floors one through six in the main tower are extremely noisy due to the open air bar and atrium. I was told that the seventh floor was not available at all as it was fully booked, and that we would be moved to another tower. We had paid an upgraded amount for the royal level, so being moved to another room in a further tower was not acceptable at all! I had requested that we be moved to the the junior suite that we had been promised last year by management. We were told that that manager no longer worked there and that if we wanted that suite it would be $199 American per night, but they could offer us 25% off that price. This was not what we were promised when we spoke to management last year, so we stayed in this room. On our third night, a Mexican wedding party was celebrating in the bar on the eve of the wedding. At 11:30 PM I called the front desk and requested that they address the noise issues coming from the bar. One of the wedding party had a portable boombox with him that he was playing at a very loud level and the people in the party were extremely drunk, yelling and screaming, and hooting and hollering. I was told by the front desk that the bar was open until 1 AM and that there was nothing that they could do about the noise level. I decided to go down to the bar and speak to the other guests to request that they please stop yelling and screaming as they were disturbing the peace of the other guests. I was met by very drunk and hostile guests and at one point was threatened by one of the women. At this point security took me aside and assured me that at 1 AM the noise level would go away as the guests would go back to their rooms as the bar would be closed. At 1am, the wedding party guests then took the festivities out to the back pool deck, which faced our bedroom window. This noise level went on until 2:30 AM. Hotel staff did nothing to stop the noise level nor address the extremely intoxicated and rowdy guests. I met with the middle manager the next morning. After explaining our problems from the previous year , the promises that were made by his predecessor, and the fact that this year, this vacation was going terribly due to the noise levels, it was decided that we would be finally moved to the room that we were promised last year. Our first room had mould on the lampshades as well as on the curtains. The showers have a drainage issue, so you are standing in graywater while taking showers at this resort. The shower door in our room was broken and would not close all of the way which resulted in the floor being flooded every time we took a shower. The bed appeared to be broken as it was bowed. It was extremely uncomfortable to sleep on. The resort was also having issues with their sewer system, so at one point, the sewer cover by the royal member pool area was left open, and a hose was pumping the sewage out into some sort of trough that went around the backside of the pool. The smell emanating from this was absolutely disgusting! It was so bad that you couldn't sit on that side of the pool without breathing in sewer fumes. Well, the majority of the staff at this resort are extremely friendly and kind, the resort itself is in dire need of an upgrade to their infrastructure. Especially when it comes to their sewer and air conditioning. I will most definitely not give this resort a third try! Don't waste your money at this resort as you will regret it! Sorely disappointing!

  Jun 04, 2025