Club Viva Vallarta
Punta de Mita, Nayarit
Viva Resorts runs a small chain of all-inclusive beach resorts located in Mexico, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic. Their newest Mexican resort is the Club Viva Vallarta which is situated on acres of ocean front land in the region just north of Puerto Vallarta called Punta de Mita. This area has long been noted for white sand beaches and clear blue-green ocean water that is far superior to what is found in Puerto Vallarta. You can view their web site at:
Here is our experience during a visit to Club Viva Vallarta in 2002:
Since our very first trip to Puerto Vallarta back in 1990, we have been told of the beautiful ocean water and white sand in the area called Punta de Mita. Several trips to PV over the years have always found us spending at least one day on the beach in Anclote, where we could take advantage of the beautiful water. Unfortunately, we always had to return to our resort back in PV at the end of the day. Recently, there have sprung up a couple of beach resorts right in Punta de Mita, the Club Viva Vallarta being one of them. We looked forward to spending a week at one of these and when the opportunity for cheap airfare popped up last May, we decided to head south once again.
Our flight was
non-stop via Funjet out of Chicago and we arrived without a hitch. Our
Avis rental car was ready and waiting for us. We were very happy with the
car, a like new only 9000 kilometer Ford KA with air conditioning, radio and CD
player. It's a cute car and was very roomy inside compared to the small
size outside. Very stylish looks and a very comfortable ride were an added
plus and all for only $152 for the week.
We arrived at Viva Vallarta at a bad time, that is, a zillion people were
checking out and the lobby was packed. We were able to talk with the
manager who could not find our reservation anywhere in the million tiny papers
spread out along the desk. I showed him my confirmation and he agreed to
give us wrist bands which allowed us to eat and drink until our room would be
ready in an hour or so. First impressions were good. A nice
beautiful open air lobby leads you to the jungle that separates the
lobby/restaurant from the hotel rooms and swimming pools. There are covered
walkways that take you down to the hotel buildings that protect you from the occasional
tropic shower. The landscaping is
immaculate and very beautiful throughout the resort. We went back for our room
assignment after eating lunch. Turns out, our name was misspelled on the confirmation, but
you would think that one transposed letter would be close enough for us to be
identified. The hotel buildings are a looong walk from the lobby. You
notice this each and every day as you trudge to the restaurant for lunch and
then back for dinner. The first room we were taken to was not an ocean view
unit. I told the bellman that this would not do and showed him the
reservation that stated "Superior Ocean View". He scurried back
to the lobby and brought us keys to a different room, a second floor with a nice
view of the Pacific. This was okay.
Since there was only my wife, myself and the grandson,
we only needed a hotel room. The room was clean, in very nice condition,
did not smell of any mildew and the air conditioning worked exceptionally
well. There were two double beds, a television set with cable, a nice
bath, one chair, a closet and an outside terrace with two plastic chairs.
There was no dresser. The closet had a small safe, but was one of the
newer kind with an electronic keyboard that opened by secret code. Water
is not purified and we were provided with one bottle of pure drinking water that
you could refill from large water jugs in the hallway. The bathroom provided a
hair dryer and soap and shampoo. There was no coffee pot or any other
cooking facility. I had no issue with the room as it was
satisfactory for our use.
There are two swimming pools, separated by one of the
hotel buildings. One pool is the family pool and the other pool, much
smaller in size, is the adults only pool. Since we had our 8 year old with
us, we spent all our time at the family pool. I was not too
impressed. This pool just seemed too small for the number of people using
it. There was always some kind of activity going on such as volleyball or
water polo that reduced the remaining pool area even more for the rest of
us. Also, the water was under a lot of stress with many large families and
lots of small children jumping in and out every two seconds making the water
appear not too clean. The beach was not too bad. There were areas of
rock and seaweed mixed in with sections of sandy bottom. But the water
looked clean and the waves were not too ferocious, so it was possible to swim
safely. Being used to the beach in Cancun, we were surprised at how hot
the sand becomes in PV, burning our poor little feet. (not a
complaint...just an observation) The ocean to the south side of the beach
had just enough of a swell to the waves to attract 15 to 20 surfers there every
morning. It was fun to sit on my patio early morning with a cup of coffee and
watch them try to stand on their boards. They get up a lot earlier than me
to do this too.
Other than my displeasure with the pools, probably the worst thing about Club Viva Vallarta has to be the food. This was the absolute worst all-inclusive food I have ever encountered anywhere. Breakfast buffet was a disgrace. The orange juice was dispensed through a machine, had no pulp and tasted like watery Tang. Every egg dish was burnt and the breakfast sausage was inedible. It was so bad, that we stopped going to breakfast and instead slept late, had coffee and bread delivered to our room every morning (free) and caught the lunch as soon as it opened. At least lunch provided a nice salad, some type of meat, potatoes or rice. Forget eating lunch at the snack bar by the pool. There are only hamburgers, hot dogs and hot dog topped pizza. I guess they think a hot dog is a sausage. Dinners were uniformly bland. There were a couple of decent meals, one was roast turkey and the other a roast beef that for a change didn't taste like shoe leather. Usually your best bet was to fill up on soup and salad. One night they had tacos el pastor, which I love. However, there was a line around the dining room and by the time I got to the front, they had run out and were substituting some beef they had scrambled together in the kitchen. Service varied from very good to very bad...and I was tipping 2 bucks at every meal. Every night I would sit at dinner looking down at whatever was on my plate and thinking of the great meal I could be eating somewhere else in PV. They do have two specialty restaurants. We tried the ocean front one called Portofino's. The meal there was not too bad. We had appetizers, a rib steak, lobster bisque, house salad and cheese cake, and all was edible and not too bad. You can only go here once per week and need a reservation.
On the second day we ran into the timeshare lady disguised as help for booking tours. I told her I was not interested in the sales room. We were offered nothing to take the tour. I don't know how they expect anyone to go? I did ask if I would be allowed to visit the timeshare villas so I could take some photos for my web site. No, absolutely not unless you take the tour. I declined. So that is why you will see no photos of the timeshares. They just wouldn't let me see them.
Would we go to Viva Vallarta again? It's not really such a bad place and would be good as a cheap hotel room. But based purely on the mandatory all-inclusive and the low quality food served, no we would not.
Here are some photos we took while visiting
Click on the thumbnail photo to see the full size version.
One afternoon, we went sightseeing and would up driving to the town and beach known as Guayabitos. This is a small Mexican town that is located on a long wide beach and is about an hour drive over the mountain and north of Punta de Mita. There seems to be quite a bit of new development here since our last visit with some really nice houses having been built. We took a couple of photos while there.
One last set of photos we took at our ABSOLUTE FAVORITE restaurant in PV. The name of the restaurant is CHICO'S PARADISE. It is a jungle restaurant located about a half hour down the highway south of Puerto Vallarta. The restaurant is perched on a cliff overlooking a jungle river that has cut a rocky valley on its way down to the sea. The views are spectacular. Even better, when done eating, you can swim in the fresh water pools below and slide off the natural waterfalls and cascades. The food? What can I say? Try the fantastic seafood platter for two pictured below. I guarantee that 2 people can't finish it! Cost is about 600 pesos but you get lobsters, shrimp, fish, rice and vegetables.
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