News & Blog

Puerto Vallarta Hotel Review

by Marissa Muller, AR student reporter

This past week, my best friends and I had a trip of a lifetime. My best friends, just so happen to be two girls that I met on my Abbey Road summer program in Nice two years ago. We do several meet-ups a year and earlier this summer, we went to San Francisco. But this trip was different, it was our biggest one yet. We stayed for a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at one of the coolest resorts I have ever been to in my life. So, for this blog post, I decided to do a hotel review on where we stayed- so that you can get a glimpse of the great time we had.

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We stayed at a hotel called the Grand Bliss. It was one of four hotels in a giant resort complex. The other hotels where the Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace, and Grand Luxxe. They call the resort complex, Nuevo Vallarta. Besides the hotels there are also a spa, golf course, shopping center, an entertainment hall, and pools. I wish there was a way that I could articulate the sheer size of this place, because it was massive.

Everything here was completely top-notch. They didn’t cut any corners in terms of design, service, or the quality that they provided. It was incredible. There was a whole army of golfcarts with drivers ready and waiting for you outside every destination so that you didn’t have to walk anywhere. There were around 20 restaurants, bars, and cafes all included in the compound as well. Each one varying in price so there was something for every budget.

The pools were really cool here and ranged widely in what they offered. There was a pool with a lazy river, water slide, and wave pool that was built for families and small children. Though, we did spend the majority of our trip on the lazy river ourselves. There were pools with great ocean views so you could watch the tide come in and out throughout the day. And, there were pools where half of the pool was elevated to be a tanning deck. That way you could lay down in a few inches of water to get some sun without getting overheated. Finally, there was a pool with beds with canopies for a true escape from the world.

The room that we stayed in was amazing. It could sleep two adults in a king sized bed and four children on pull out beds. But us three girls all cuddled in the king sized bed and slept comfortably because we didn’t want to be a separate rooms from each other. We had a huge bathroom with a shower and a separate tub to take a bath in. But warning, don’t add too many bubbles or the jets will get them everywhere. Seriously, we accidentally decorated the bathroom in bubbles on more than one occasion. In the living room, there was a kitchen. We used this a lot to cook our own dinners and lunches with the food we bought from the on property grocery store to save us some money. And, to test out our cooking skills. Which, none of us actually possess. Finally, we had a private balcony with a dip pool- yes an actual pool on a balcony- that looked out to the ocean. The picture for this blog is one I took from our balcony during the sunset, so you can see just how pretty it was.

Overall, we had a great vacation. It was super relaxing and the resort was just lovely. Despite getting a little sunburned- and by little, I mean that I now resemble a lobster- it was wonderful.  I can’t think of a better place to spend a week with my best friends before we head off to school. The only thing that could have topped it would be going back to Nice together. But, hey, maybe next summer?