Villa del Palmar Flamingos Category Gran Turismo

We have gone to Villa del Palmar for the past two years, about 6 times. We loved it so much that we bought a full ownership next door at Villa La Estancia. The people are great, the food is excellent, the rooms are awesome and it is just a great experience. I'm actually surprised at some negative comments. We've had no timeshare pressure even though we went on their tour. Some people have commented on the expensive food. What? Try a 5 star resort like that with those views and service in the US. Trust me the costs are a lot cheaper. Want cheap eats? Go into town. Otherwise let them serve you poolside while you relax and have a drink. Like I've said, we've been a lot and have nothing but good things to say. Being close to Bucerias is great. We rarely go into PV since it is a big town and we are there to relax in the Mexican style. Viva Puerto Vallarta.

Bought a 2 bedroom suite for 1 week in October for our daughter's mid winter break. When we got there, they put us in 2 single rooms. This did not work with the type of people we brought,
but we
were stuck,In a foreign country with no place to go. What do you do? We all ready paid for our whole vacation. They had us already, and they knew it. Very obvious! They did not care! Do not go here. It is a scam! kris

good hotel. a 25 min ride to town though but awesome food , if you have the wallet for it. Great hotel good place nice beach

We just got back from the Flamingos for our third straight spring break. The room and view was spectacular. The food was extremely overpriced but good except for Lobster Night which was lousy. The Mexican Fiesta was great as was the Beach Party. I highly recommend both. The service at the pool was great but almost too much as we were asked every 15 minutes if we wanted to buy another drink. Kind of made it hard to relax.
We all in all had a very nice time although it was a bummer having to get up at 6:00am to get a chair at the pool. Seems everyone comes down really early and throws a towl on several chairs to reserve them. Sometimes they wouldn't even come back until the afternoon. Some rules needed to be enforced here. IF you didn't play the game you had no lounge chair at the pool and they didn't care.
The normal activities were less than normal. New staff so they were lacking there.
We did run into an interesting situation on Friday when we checked out at 11:00am. Our flight wasn't until 4:30pm so we were told we could close our account and still buy lunch and drinks at the pool by using our credit card. Anyways, the pool bar was having trouble with the credit card machine so they told me I had to pay them in cash of which I had already given to the front desk to settle my bill that morning (I had PESOS). Well, we all of a sudden went from prefered guests to criminals. At first they wouldn't give back my credit card. Then they called security. Finally I just grabbed my card from them and yelled, I will go to the ATM at the market and get cash, which I did. The Federallies were then called off and we were special again. Only bummer was that now I had many extra PESOS that I had to bring back with me because their exchange window won't take Pecos for Greenbacks. Not a very nice experience and was handled very poorly by their staff.
Moises at the front of the resort and Victor at the pool were wonderful and each year make our stay very comfortable. A real great time and learning experience.

I'm here right now. Booked a 1 bedroom suite, but they oversold and stuck us in a studio. The compensation for the error was $50 per day in food. With the prices at this resort, that is about 2 lunches.



As we checked in, the same story and compensation was handed out to 4 other families. One of the families called ahead just last week to confirm the booking, so I have little doubt they knew of the situation. The person at the front desk later told me that this Hotel does this every peak season. The manager, Fernando, was a complete jerk. He made it clear he could not care less about our impression of the services.



Oh, and we got a 8AM wake up call this morning to see if we were interested in buying a timeshare here.....bwwwaaaahhhhhaaaa



Think twice before you book here during any peak season. If you are still thinking of booking, think a third time. If you still book.... say hi to Fernando to me because you will be talking to him.

We are Gold Card members who stayed at the Flamingos for the first time. In fact, we bought in Cabo but have never stayed there. This was our first experience in a Villa Del Palmar property. To say the least, it was a learning experience. For starter''s, you have to buy your own ice. There are no ice machines available for the guests, but fortunately, the convenience store sells ice. Take your own dishwasher soap, paper towels, coffee filters, etc. But be advised that you can purchase all of the items at the convenience store at elevated prices.

With that said, the Flamingos is a beautiful property. The facility is new and in great shape. For the most part, the staff was helpful. Towels seem to be in short supply until you raise a bit of a stink, then you get an abundance supply. The Pizza bar is fantastic. Food is great and the prices are reasonable.

We walked to Bucieres, the neighboring town. It was great. It''s about two miles by way of the beach, but be prepared, the beach is slanted and can put extra wear on your hips. But the walk is worth it.

Bus rides and cab rides are an adventure in themselves. Walmart is by far the most reasonable for buying food items and booze.

For timeshare members, be prepared to be nickeled and dimed. We own two other timeshare properties and find Villa Del Palmar on the bottom of the list. Now that we know what a chicken s*#t outfit it is, we can prepare in advance. Oh, by the way, there are no barbeque pits. But be advised that you can go all-inclusive for $70.00 per day/per person.

Doug&Molly

The Flamigos has a wonderful view from every room, as far as we could tell. They all face the pool and ocean. The beach was wonderful, and it was about a 40 minute walk on the beach to Bucerius, a small town with shops. We also saw whales and dolphins from the beach in the morning. The food was very good, but also expensive. A hamburger was about $12 and a pizza $16. It was quite a drive from Downtown. A taxi ride was around $19-$22 one way. The place was pretty quite, not a lot of children. They did have planned activities during the day around the pool, and entertainment on the beach some evenings. The Puerto Villarta airport is crawling with people trying to sell you timeshares, which is very annoying, but the hotel itself will only ask you once if you would like to go to a seminar while getting your welcome packet. Overall, we thought the rooms were very large, nice kitchen, nice view, large balconey, wonderful pool, great beach, store on-site, quite, beautiful place to stay!

We just returned from a one week vacation at Villa del Palmar Flamingos, and will go back again. We have had the opportunity to stay in many very fine hotels and resorts, and this one ranks right up there with any of them. We had a one bedroom suite with a large balcony. It was clean and well furnished. The food in the two restaurants was good, and the service was excellent. The poolside service was much better than other resorts in which we have stayed. We had actually booked our vacation in another hotel not far from Villa del Palmar, and they were overbooked and moved us here... and were we glad!

In October we made arrangements for a 2 bedroom suite for February 17th-February 24th. The amount for our trip was deducted from our credit card the next statement. The trip was paid in full.

When we arrived to the Villa Del Palmar Flamingos, they told us they did not have any 2 bedroom suites available, and that they were over booked. We paid for a 2 bedroom suite and they told us the only thing that they had was 2 studio rooms. We brought our 13 year old daughter and her friend. We had told the parents of this 13 year old friend that she would be staying with us in a suite. That was not a possibility when we got there.

Needless to say, I stayed with the girls in one room and my husband had to stay by himself in the other one. That is not a good vacation when you can’t even sleep with your husband. The rooms were not even next to each other.

After much pressure, and constant time at the front desk, we were moved to a 1 bedroom suite after staying in the studio’s for 2 nights. (The stress is not what you want when you think you are going on a relaxing vacation). The 1 bedroom suite again was not what we paid for, but at least we could be together. The compensation that the resort gave us was breakfasts for 4 at their breakfast buffet. That totaled around $400 for the week.

It was very clear that this was a bait and switch tactic and it happens all the time at this resort. We had no recourse. We were in a foreign country with no place to go. They already got our money and they obviously didn’t care. The people at the front desk told us that this happens all the time and there was nothing they could do. The management does have control as to how many reservations are booked and what rooms are needed. It was clearly a numbers game. They got us and we were trapped.

Not only was the room situation very deplorable, but the web advertising for the place is also negligent. It advertises that the resort has 2 pools and one has a water slide. There was 1 pool and no water slide. The site also stated that it had tennis courts and it even had pictures. There are no tennis courts. We chose this resort from the description of the place on the web. It was very deceiving.

It was very clear when we got there that all they wanted to do was to fill their rooms, it didn’t matter if you got what you paid for. It was also very clear that they wanted to sell condos. With their business practice, there is absolutely no way I would buy a condo from this organization. They are unethical and dishonest.

We stayed again this year and enjoyed it even more than last. The restaurant has much improved although service could still be somewhat better for a 5* hotel. The food is very good if not excactly inexpensive.

Bucerias and Pleasant Village are also nearby with great restaurants. We brought a daughter and two young grandchildren with us. They didn't want to leave.

This is a great place to stay if you evade the time share salespersons. We own time share weeks here enen then we enjoy them.