Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta
This was my first time I’ve traveled with the extended family and friends. I booked 4 rooms on points, with 2 rooms for 4 nights and 2 rooms for 5 nights. More on how I acquired and used those points in a future post. This post will be about the hotel only.
Arriving in Puerto Vallarta
Before my trip, I had researched on how to get from the airport to the hotel for 4 people. I had contacted the hotel, but they didn’t offer any hotel pickups (complimentary or paid). They gave me 3 vendors to contact however. The cheapest vendor I found charged $13 USD per person. I was going to pre-book that, but I had read on Flyertalk that it would probably be cheaper to just book it at the airport. So, that was the plan. When we landed and picked up our bags, after leaving customs, we walked through a pack of guys wearing white shirts. They were all asking if we needed a taxi. I was about to be fooled until my friend told me those guys were timeshare guys and that I should walk right past them. After we passed them, there were booths that said TAXI on them with girls in the booths that were WAY TOO EXCITED to be selling you taxi tickets. We were worried they were a scam too and walked right past them. We later learned that they were the right people to contact to get a taxi. They were charging 570 Pesos or ~$50 USD (the exchange rate was currently 15 Pesos to 1 USD) and so I knew they were a ripoff if I paid in USD. Luckily, I brought my Charles Schwab ATM card (they have no ATM fees and they’ll refund the foreign ATM fees too). The ATM machines were to the far right, right before you exit the airport. There were 10 people waiting for 2 working ATM machines. After getting cash, I went back and paid the 570 Pesos ($38 USD) for a 4 person taxi. Let me note here that taking a taxi from the Hyatt to the airport only costs 200 Pesos. Must be an airport tax or just a tourist tax on why you would have to pay so much more FROM the airport.
Timeshare option
While we didn’t do the timeshare option, my father-in-law did. He had to pay them $40 USD for 4 people to get to the Hyatt. To get his $40 back, he had to attend a 1 hour timeshare event during the trip. If you only have USD, you could pay them the $40 and skip out on the presentation and you’re breaking even on the taxi to the hotel. Well, he attended the presentation a couple of days later. They also gave him a free city tour (for all 8 of us even though only he went to the timeshare event) and another free boat tour (which we later passed on just because it was too early in the morning) Thus, the timeshare route isn’t the worst thing in the world if you have spare time on your vacation.
Arriving at the Hyatt
While I could describe the hotel with words, it would probably be easier if I just show you in pictures:
Our Room
There are 2 towers at the Hyatt. We were in the tower on the lobby side of the hotel. Apparently only one of the towers had been updated already. I am assuming it was ours since you’ll see below that it looks pretty new. There was nothing special about our room; just the usual stuff. The rainfall shower was nice though.
As for status, even though I was Platinum, there was no acknowledgement at checkin, and I’m not sure if I was even upgraded. All of the rooms faced the ocean I believe, so you can’t really go wrong, but the higher up, the better right?
Let me also take a minute here and explain 2 things that happened during my stay. On the 3rd morning, I woke up and found that my electronic safe wouldn’t open. You know the ones that make you enter a 4 digit pin. After entering in 4 digits, it was waiting for me to type in 2 more digits. Of course 6 digits didn’t work. I had to call the front desk, who sent a person up with a handheld device. He plugged it into a USB port underneath the safe’s door, typed in a 4 digit code and the safe opened. Nothing was missing from my safe, and so I didn’t think anything of it. I’ve probably stayed over 100 nights at hotels, and this was the first time ever that I had this problem. Anyway, 2 days later, the same thing happened. Once again, nothing happened, but you have to wonder what could cause the safe to error out like that. There is no electricity to it, so it’s not a short. If you type in too many wrong 4 digit passwords, does the safe give up and then make you enter 6 digits? It’s so strange. Maybe I should Google this.
Anyhow, when we checked out, I was sitting in the lobby when I saw 3 guests talking to what must have been the hotel manager. I didn’t know what their problem was, but they must have talked for 15 minutes. I only heard tidbits from the manager saying, “Imagine yourself from our point of view.” Then I heard one of the guests saying something to the effect of, “You can’t even comp us anything?” After more standing around and not really talking, one of the guests finally walked off and said loudly, “I lost $10,000 (not sure USD or pesos), and you can’t do a thing.” Now I don’t know if they really did lose the money, but they were in their 30’s and seemed believable, although they weren’t as angry as I would have expected someone to be if they lost that much money. I’d demand to see security footage and that housekeeper to be questioned at the very least. But if you view it from the hotel’s point of view, how does the hotel know that they actually had $10,000? It’s a tough situation to be in for both sides. If I didn’t have issues with my safe, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but now you sorta have to wonder if there’s more to this story. Moral of story – use the safe and don’t use an easy pin like 1111.
Let me mention here that they go into your room 2-3 times a day. Once to clean it and another for turndown service. One time, a guy knocked on my door, asking me if I needed my minibar restocked. I’m pretty sure that if I wasn’t in the room, he would have came in and restocked it. We also left out electronics and small change, and nothing was stolen. So, don’t be worried about theft at the hotel, but you also shouldn’t be bringing $10,000 to the hotel since it’s already all-inclusive.
Activities at the Hyatt
Every night, the hotel hosted some kind of activity at around 9PM. The night we arrived, they hosted a “fire show” that lasted about an hour. On the 2nd night, they had a karaoke setup. On the 3rd night (a Friday), they had a Mexican buffet [that was delicious] followed by a Mexican show. Then they had a “circus” show and on our last night, a “casino” night. We thought the activities were a great after-dinner entertainment option. We never ate in the city just because we thought the food was good enough at the hotel.
There are also hourly day time activities. We all went on the “jungle tour” at 9:30AM, which was more like a hike over a lot of rocks. They have yoga class on the beach, an aqua fitness class, a ping pong table, a pool table, etc. The gym was already pretty nice and open 24 hours. We did not partake in any spa activities.
Dining options at the Hyatt
There are 6 restaurants at the Hyatt Ziva. There is the buffet, Blaze (the grill), a Mexican option, an Italian option, an Asian option, and a 24 hour café. Most of the restaurants are closed for breakfast, and so we only ate at the buffet. I believe Blaze is also open for breakfast, but we never tried it. We tried the Mexican one night, but thought it wasn’t that good since 3 out of the 6 dishes we had some kind of tomato sauce on top. Plus, if you are there on Friday night, the Mexican food buffet served during the “show” was night and day better. We had Italian one night and thought it probably had the best food out of all of them. The Asian restaurant was as bad as the Mexican restaurant. The buffet was a solid option as well. Some of the restaurants had a dress code (the Italian one required jeans and no open-toed shoes for men at dinner and the Mexican required no bikinis or bikini shorts for men at dinner). While the food at the Italian restaurant was good, we ate at Blaze the most just because of all the grilled options you could get. Overall, we thought the food exceeded our low expectations.
The pools
There were 4-5 infinity pools that you could swim in. We hardly saw any kids so weren’t sure which one was “adults only.” The pools were never full; maybe 6-10 people in every pool. There was one pool that had a swim-up bar. However, the bartenders were always so busy that I never saw one of them walk down to the swim-up section. There was a basketball net in one of the pools to let you play “pool basketball.” There are also 2 hot tub pools that probably fit about a dozen people in them.
The beach
The Hyatt seems to have its own private beach. I don’t see how it’s publicly accessible, so you’ll have the entire beach to yourself. Because it’s so wide, you won’t have a hard time finding chairs or an umbrella either. The waves weren’t big, but they were pretty strong. My mom and friend’s sunglasses were taken by the sea after one big wave. The sand was soft, and the water was brown. Sorry, no blue waters here. They give free kayaking tours at 10AM if you are inclined. They also have free snorkeling gear for you to borrow, but you have to snorkel by some rocky water, and so we skipped out on doing that. Oh and a friend was also stung by a jellyfish we think. We never saw one, but she had the marks on her to prove it. Sadly, she didn’t ask anyone to pee on it for her.
The drinks
We mostly drank mojitos, margaritas, pina coladas, and daiquiris the time we were there. We realized no 2 bartenders made the drinks the same way – sometimes the mojitos were too strong, sometimes not enough alcohol, sometimes too sweet, sometimes too sour. Eventually, you’ll find a bartender that makes it the way you like it, so keep ordering your drinks from him. A drinking tip– if you want a stronger drink, just tell them. I told one bartender to make me a “real” mojito. Let’s just say he kept pouring the rum to the top, and it was delicious! The hotel is also pretty relaxed in that you can bring a drink from the pool into the restaurant or vice versa.
Tipping
During checkin, the employee told us that the hotel was fully paid for (even the minibar) and that tips were also already included. However, we did tip 20-50 pesos to the bartenders, depending on how many drinks we got. We tipped about 200 pesos at sit-down restaurants. I’d say I saw maybe 25%-33% of people tipping. I wouldn’t say that the employees were expecting tips, so don’t feel guilty if you don’t tip. We did tip our waiter Alonso after our first breakfast, and on our next trip, he proactively brought my mom a carved mango, which she had gotten the day before. So, it does pay to tip; just don’t feel obligated.
Service
We thought the service was great. Everyone spoke English pretty well. There were a couple of times we told our waiter what we wanted, and they’d have to look at the menu for the Spanish translation. The poolside wait staff also knew drinks that I had never heard of like a “Miami Vice,” which is a mix of pina colada and strawberry daiquiri (delicious by the way). I think the poolside wait staff could have better cleaned up the towels from the chairs better, especially late in the afternoons. Around 4pm, it was hard to find a chair that didn’t have a used towel on it, and so you weren’t sure if the person was still there or not. I think more people spent time by the pool than the beach just because it was quicker to get drinks by the pool. We also noticed more people on Saturday than mid-week or even on Sunday or Monday. I think 75% of people were from the US while others were visiting from either Canada or another part of Mexico.
Excursions
The main tour operator in town is Puerto Vallarta Adventures. We booked 2 trips with them – the dolphin swim experience and the outdoor adventure. My mom and cousin went on the dolphin experience and enjoyed it very much. For the excursions, you’ll want to book at least a week in advance online to get the 15-20% off. You also may want to book through http://www.puertovallartatours.net/ instead of http://www.vallarta-adventures.com/ just because they just resell the Adventures tours anyway, and the prices are a little better. I tried to book the dolphin swim from the Adventures web site with a 15% ‘early bird’ discount and my card couldn’t be processed. I eventually gave up and called them too book it. On the call, I asked them if I was getting the online discount, and she said YES and that I was getting the ‘2×1’ aka ‘2 for 1’ promo. I thought this meant I had to book 2 different tours and only pay for 1, but apparently I could book the same tour for 2 people and still get the discount. I wasn’t even aware this promo even existed on the web site, and so I saved 50% off instead of just 20% if my Barclays Arrival card had worked online.
By the way, if you love an adventure, I’d highly recommend the “Outdoor Adventure” tour from Adventures (but book through PV Tours for a cheaper rate.) It’s about 6 hours and you get to ride a speedboat, military vehicle, and a mule up a mountain. Then you zipline 5-6 times, rappel down a waterfall, freefall down a cliff, and then water slide to the end. Everyone had an AMAZING time. I’m scared of heights, and even I did the rappel down the waterfall. The tour guides were a bit rushed because I think they had a soccer game to go to, but they kept things moving, and I’d have no hesitation in recommending them to you.
Visiting the City
We also went into “old” Puerto Vallarta and “downtown.” The city is very safe, but we also didn’t go out at night. Everyone we talked to knew English, so it wasn’t a problem at all. We were dropped off at a gift shop in old town by the timeshare people, who then gave us a quick tour and walked us to downtown. Save yourself the trouble and take a taxi into the downtown area (80 pesos) and just walk around. The town is VERY SMALL. While downtown is nicer, old town is cheaper to buy souvenirs. We stopped by a random food stand for lunch and had some delicious shrimp tacos (20 pesos each.)
Conclusion
This was my first all-inclusive that I can remember. Everyone had a blast. I thought the food was good; it won’t blow your mind but it also won’t make you want to eat outside the restaurant. I love the “free-flowing” alcohol of the all-inclusive. I thought the free activities were great and kept you at the hotel. I think a 3-4 day visit would be ideal. We flew in on a Wednesday and got to the hotel for dinner. Thursday was beach day, Friday was excursion day, Saturday was city tour, and Sunday fly home was perfect. I don’t think I’ll go back to Puerto Vallarta just because I’d rather go to new places, but this now makes me want to visit the other Hyatt all-inclusives in Cabo and Cancun now.
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