Palladium Vallarta Category 5 stars

We were at the resort the first week of January. Our first vacation in 16 years and we weren't disappointed. The grounds were beautiful, the staff very friendly. We NEVER had problems getting chairs on the beach. Would recommend water shoes as the water does have rocks. The rooms were clean and fairly spacious, usually quite quiet as well. The evening entertainment was all right. The food was fairly good, although I one of our big complaints was that the plates looked like they had only been rinsed off instead of washed. Loved the fact that the resort was on a hill and there was plenty of steps (great for burning off all that food!!!) Would definitely go back!

Just got back from our 6-day stay at the Palladium (February - weather was awesome). Check in was quick&easy; however, we got a bit concerned from the get go, hearing a guest complaining to the manager at the front desk about the ants in his room, the broken toilet seat, and the fact that he got food poisoning the first night he was there. We later heard from another guest that the staff at the hotel only allowed this guy to check out after paying $55 (USD) for the broken toilet seat that he had broken when he was clipping his toe nails on top of it.

The bell boy who took our bags to our room was friendly, so we tipped him $2 USD. Room (superior with king size bed) was nothing fancy, but it was clean, although the tub drained very slowly. We tipped our maid Veronica every day ($3-$5 USD) which resulted in always having plenty of towels, extra bottles of water&even cute swans&elephants she would make out of extra, clean towels. There is no such thing as a non-smoking room, as the people next to you can be smokers, so what's the point?

The beach was awesome - very clean&lots of chaise lounges. We were, however, very annoyed by the people who hogged the chairs all day by putting their towels down&never sitting in them or leaving the beach area for hours to go eat/visit at the resort. Very selfish&rude. The bar at the beach was great, the staff at the sports equipment shack was nice&efficient. We went out early one morning on a kayak ride in the ocean&saw dolphins swimming near us. Very nice. There are quite a bit of rocks out in the ocean, so you had to be careful where you stepped.

We never hung out at any of the two pools - one was all families/kids/teenagers with very loud music always playing in the background. The water in the other pool for adults felt too warm. The beach was definitely the place to be with a natural tide pool that ranged anywhere in depth from 3 feet to over 5 feet. Vendors on the beach were quiet - didn't bug you at all.

The resort grounds were very clean, and the public-area bathrooms are the best maintained I have ever seen in Mexico. The grounds are gorgeous with a tropical forest look. Someone was always sweeping or gardening. Reminds me of Disneyland where the staff goes around picking up garbage with their brooms&dustpans. The zoo was cute&seemed well maintained. However, there was a separate area that had deer in it near the kids' pool which smelled like poop every day. Would not want to stay in a room near that area!

Food at El Bosque, the main dining room, was absolutely horrible. We were hoping for some authentic Mexican food, but there was none! Anemic-looking chilaquiles&boring beans were about the extent. Otherwise, for breakfast you had to settle for anemic-looking pancakes, salty hash browns, mediocre sausages, chicken&beef "stews" of some sort&other strange items. Resort seemed to want to offer something to everyone (i.e. Brits, Canadians) but none of the food looked nor tasted appetizing. For the last three days of our trip, we would eat all our meals (authentic Mexican food) at a restaurant in Punta Mita, 10 minutes up the road by bus. The only decent meal we had at the resort was at the beach BBQ - awesome ribs, so tender they fell off the bone, grilled chicken&sausages.

Entertainment shows at night were actually pretty good. The entertainers tried really hard - we saw one show that featured traditional dances from different Mexican regions&the next night featured international dances. Very good.

If you want to get away from the noise in downtown Puerto Vallarta to somewhere totally remote, this is it. We would only consider returning if we upgraded to the newer section the Royal Suites&ate our meals outside the resort every day. Otherwise, it seems like a fun worthwhile place for families with kids.

Had a wonderful time the staff were superb. The best holiday we have ever had.

Just spent the week there.
Rooms are basic but clean.
Food is adequate.
Service is good and staff is very friendly.
Grounds are beautiful and well kept.
Pools are clean and one is heated to about 90 degrees.
Beach is OK but not the white sand beaches you may find elsewhere. Shore is somewhat rocky.
Nightly entertainment/shows are good.
Plenty of stairs at this resort. Built into a hill and continually up and down flights of stairs to get anywhere in the resort.
Seems to be many repeat vacationers to this resort.

We returned 4 days ago and loved every minute of our time spent at the Palladium. We were there for 7 nights.

I read all the previous reviews both good and bad and wasn't sure what to expect.

What I've realized is that people's expectations were beyond reasonable. If you want to be waited on hand and foot - hire a personal assistant!

The grounds were beautiful with tons of activities to keep both ourselves and our son occuppied. The nightly show was great dancing and there was a kids disco and dance contest each evening with medals awarded. It was a big hit with our 6 year old.

The ride from the airport is about 40 minutes but tons of scenery and the time flies.

Our check-in and check-out was speedy and a drink while we waited made it even better!

The grounds were immaculately kept and employees were seen everywhere watering, sweeping, replacing railings etc. Everything was green and lush and what wasn't is really nature's fault - not the Palladium.

The workers were friendly and helpful! Especially Cesar in the main buffet! We found that the employees responded in kind to how they were treated. We treated them kindly and with respect and they did so with us.

Our room was exactly as described. We had enough pop and water and towels were not an issue as we received new ones, if we chose, each day in our room and could replace our beach towels down at poolside as we wished. We had to phone the front desk for assistance and someone was at our door within 5 minutes.

The food at the a la cartes was really good and we had no problems getting reservations. The main buffet was huge and had tons of variety. We found something good to eat each time we went. If they were out of something we asked politely and it was filled quickly.

The pool area and beach were kept really clean and there were garbage receptacles. Clean up after yourselves - just like we tell our kids to do at home! For those who didn't - ground maintenance took care of it.

The setting is extremely picturesque with the beach, surfing, spotting whales every morning. There are rocky parts on the beach but there was plenty space to swim (they've made a natural pool area right on the beach), boogie board and explore (when the tide is out there are tons of tide pools to explore).

I would recommend water shoes for exploring and comfortable sandles for walking around the resort. The distance from building to building is not half as far as many have complained. There is a fair amount of walking but there are ramps and it only took 5 minutes form the furthest building back to the main buffet.

Its about an hour to downtown Puerto Vallarta but a cheap ride on the bus ($1 u.s.) and time flies. 20 minutes to Bucerias by bus and you could find great restaurants and tons of shopping.

I would highly recommend the signature dolphin swim with Vallarta Adventures!

All in all - the day we came back we started planning our return and can't wait to go back next year.

the BEST place in the world

This place is rated 5-star. That's very misleading!

The only thing 5-star there is the landscape and the zoo.

The "activities" (i.e., pool-side and beach sports, plus tennis courts and gym) and the entertainment may also score at 4-star level, but the equipment is worn-out or "cheap" and the quality of the daily shows (despite the efforts of the "animadores") can only make one laugh.

Food: 2 to 3 stars - terrible.

Accommodation: 3 stars at best. Not only the furniture and fixtures in the room are at the bare minimum and old, but nothing works (e.g., fan in the bathroom, hair drier, patio door...), and just 3 bath towels and one hand towel for 3 guests was highly insufficient.

Service - dismal. The low quality of the service is truly abundant. When we arrived, the "junior-suite" that we had booked and paid for in order to sleep two adults and one child didn't have any sleeping facility for the child. It took 3.5 hours and 5 phone calls to finally get this problem solved. The restaurants are seriously under-staffed, the cleaning (whether that of the rooms/bathrooms or of the dishes) is very dubious, and the reception seems to be highly skilled in not resolving anything. Not to mention that the one request for a wake-up call was totally ignored contrary to the assurances received by the shift manager at the time of the request.

The "all-inclusive" is also questionable since water bottles in the room fridge are limited to "two per day" and a drink such as "Port" doesn't exist.

The location (one hour from the airport, 30 minutes from the closest shopping area, and more than one hour to downtown Puerto Vallarta) is one additional "entry" in the long column of negatives.

The potential of this resort to be outstanding is enormous, but it appears to be managed by penny-pinchers. By the way, during a 2-week stay, I have not noticed any "top-manager" anywhere on the property...

Not at all what I would call "good value". I would not even consider returning to this place and I do not recommend it.

We were guided to go to this resort because my son was getting married in the area and the reception was taking place in one of their restaurants.
From the instant we walked in, issues started. No one help us with the luggage, the bellman was chatting with a guest and no assistance was offered. Reservations were overlooked. Because it’s an all inclusive resort, we were obligated to wear a wristband at all times (neutral to negative thought). The receptionist did not ask for wrist preference, when my wife requested to have it in the other arm, it was denied. “No, I can’t do that” after pleading with the servant, he stated if the wristband was cut off to be switched to the other arm, a $200 USD additional fee will apply.
We were guided to our room, it stayed hot and the A/C did not work. After 3 phone calls in a 5 hour period, I suggested to have another room due to the A/C malfunction. The other rooms’ A/C system did not work either and we did not sleep well at all. In the morning I realized that outside was cooler than the inside. Called again, mentioned the A/C was not working on this unit either, waited hour and half, called again. At mid afternoon A/C was still not working, went back to the lobby to complain and were moved to a room with a better working unit. Not the best, but it was at least bearable. (Note: other rooms were colder than ours) We occupied over a total of 30 rooms for this important affair.
Food was fair, not enough personnel to handle the high demand omelets/hot cakes breakfast task.
Not sufficient personnel to handle the waiter/clearing of tables.
Sneeze guard improperly installed, not doing its task.
In the “Sports Bar” room, they had 4 A/C units, but only ONE was working.
I may sound like an A/C desperate person but, the fact is, I like my room cool at night. I live in South Florida and am used to the extreme heat and spend a lot of time outdoors.
They spend a lot of time in their landscape, it looks really good and very well manicured, there are also walkways were you have the opportunity to really enjoy its beauty.
Their peacocks, monkeys, ducks, ostrich, crocodiles and other animals give a nice touch to the atmosphere.
At nighttime you can enjoy the beauty of tropical frogs and other insects if you walk in the walkways, if you are afraid of them please DON’T HURT THEM, they have the same right to live as you do.
I’ll suggest bringing sneakers to walk around the area because some of their floors are very uneven and/or slippery. (A lot of marble floors)
Be prepared to walk a lot and use uneven stairs.
Some people may find difficult to flow in the walkways since the terrain is not flat.
There is no elevator to go to the rooms.
Their pools are nice and well maintained,
Their alcohol drinks are entry level quality.
Don’t trust their handrails, aka “safety rails”, in the cliff at the lookout point tower, the top rail fell off while taking pictures for the reception.
Would I go again? I doubt it. Found a nicer, newer, cleaner, friendlier, cooler place to stay in Nuevo PV.
I sense the people at the place thought it’s a privilege to stay at the Palladium, but I just happen to disagree.
Note there is a 30 minute ride from the airport.

Just returned from a one week holiday at puerto vallarta and had a wonderful time. The highlight of my thrip would have to be the theatre always entertaining I especially enjoyed greese having watched the movie a number of times hats off to the instructer it was high energy and very well executed bravo. The food was excellent,the staff polite and professional. Unfortunately the waves were rather high so i couldnt go surfing but the beach was great again the staff there were super. The vendors who sold merchandise were polite and very nice. I loved the moonkeys at the little zoo.

We celebrated our 25th Anniversary at the Palladium Vallarta and had a wonderful time. Being our first trip without kids, we looked forward to the quietness of the designated 'Adult Pool', away from screaming kids, but it turned out to be full of noisy, drunk adults, so we spent most of our time at the beach. The beach area was not huge but it never felt overcrowded or busy. We loved the fact that this resort is a bit isolated, away from all the others. The Resort is built on a hill so no matter where you go (guest rooms, restaurant, beach, pool, etc.), it is up a hill or down. We didn't mind this at all, but some might find it a challenge. The food was great and we enjoyed the many activities and amenities from water sports to tennis to volleyball, and even an archery range! The small zoo is a nice touch and we loved the 'rainforest' feel of the place, along with all the colourful and exotic flowers. Our room was clean and comfortable. The entertainment was not near as good as we have seen at other All-Inclusives. The staff was polite and efficient, but not nearly as friendly as we have experienced at other resorts. Overall, we had a wonderful time and would likely go back.