Friendly Vallarta All Inclusive Family Resort

"This will be my second visit, and we stay for 2 weeks. The food, service,drinks, beach are great. Nothing to complain about, except the bed was a little hard( no biggie). As usual I read a lot of reviews, and at times i think some people travel to find something to complain about. If you are one of these people, go somewhere else. PV is a blast, and Downtown is a must. Its a HOLIDAY, so come and have some fun."

"I will have to agree with a previous review.....the staff was WONDERFUL! Always willing to help and VERY friendly and accommodating. The hotel was not so great. The A/C was horrible - we had to go and buy a fan on the 1st evening there. Although we switched rooms once - and it was a bit better, the new room had furry mold spores growing in the bathroom. Apparently July thru mid August is the Mexican holiday and schools are out. So, needless to say - the hotel was crowded with many native Mexicans and their many kids. The pool was always over crowded. Much of the entertainment was directed towards the Mexican holiday (which is understandable). The buffet at dinner was not good AT ALL. Lunch and breakfast buffet was tolerable. The formal dining room (only open for dinner) was wonderful!!!!! But I will say I have never experienced such wonderful staff members at a hotel. Next time - I will not be staying at the Qualton. They have no beach front at all - it was washed away from the hurricane in October,2002."

"4 star resort, 1st class service, Friendly and accomodating staff. Good selection on the buffet, drinks, snacks, also an excellent a la carte restaurant. Great spa, the pool is a little small but adequate. Fair nightly entertaiment. Only downfall is the A/C system does not work too well (but do keep in mind it is 95+ degrees there this time of year, with heat index of 105+ degrees), tried two rooms, with same reaults, HOT.... also overhear other guest had the same complaint. But, once again the staff really makes up for the lack of A/C. Over all a good experience."

"The only complaint I have about the Qualton is the weak air conditioning. The room was humid most of the time and the bathroom lacks ventilation. You need to keep the bathroom door open while showering lest you melt from the steam. Other than that, the service was ALWAYS with a smile, except for the lobby bartender. It seemed as if he didn't want to be bothered. Everyone else from the front desk to the cleaning staff were pleasant. There was a good selection and variety of food to choose from. If you like authentic Mexican breakfasts, you'll love it here. They do offer American items too, ie. donuts, cereal, pancakes. Fruit is always fresh. Alcohol is served in small plastic cups so I usually ordered two at a time to save a trip to the bar. The beach area is rather small, but the pool area is spacious and the recreation team makes you feel welcome. Make sure to play tequila volleyball and basketball in the pool. I had a blast. I would definitely go back to Qualton."

"I read a bunch of the reviews on here before we left and was a little scared because people were saying the hotel was dirty, people were rude, and the food was bad. I dont know what hotel those people went to because the Qualton we visited June 13th -June 17th 2003, was wonderful! Almost all the staff were very friendly and the food was outstanding, I guess if you were a food critic for a living you could find something wrong with it, but we loved almost everything we ate! There is a huge variety. Make sure to make reservations for the restaraunt "La Cava" (which is all-inclusive as well) it is very good and the waiters are very attentive. The shows put on by the activities staff were a little cheesy, but in a fun way! If you dont go expecting a Tony award winning performance, you'll enjoy it. My big suggestion would be to get the updated schedule of events and restaraunt times. They give you this upon arrival but it changes weekly. Ours changed half way through our vacation and we were totally confused about when things were open. There arent any clocks in the rooms, so bring a travel alarm clock if you need to get up to do tours and stuff. Taxis are cheap and the bell boy gets one for you on request. The bracelet you have to wear hurts a little, since they cut the end and its sharp, but you forget about it. All and all, this is a great hotel! We will be back as soon as possible! Thanks Gabriel for the dinner reservation at the paloma de la gonzolez (the BEST view in town and great food!)"

"We stayed at this resort from May 17th - 24th. This is a very nice resort. We have also stayed at Club Marival and found this resort more relaxing, in other words less organized activities. The beach is very small, apparantely as a result of the October Hurricane.We found the food comparable to other all inclusives. Be wary of the bartenders with the free pour hand....drinks are a little strong, although we weren't complaining.Make sure to visit Pipi's downtown for dinner, this restaurant was one of the highlights of our trip. Another must see is the Lighthouse Pub in the Marina, spectacular views.Our only complaint was that the weekends the resort was full of locals which basically took over all aspects of the resort.Mostly we enjoyed our trip, and can't wait to get back to PV!!"

"We spent 1 week at the Qualton in Feburary. I can honestly say we enjoyed every minute of it. The staff was excellent for the whole week. If you leave them a little tip every day they will bend over bacwards for you. Our room was decorated every day with different towel arangements, and was very clean. We were on the top floor and had a beautiful view. Our main complaint was the food. By the 7th day it was getting a little hard to swallow, but that is what you get when you have buffet food all the time. I would definatley recomend the Qualton to anyone going to Puerto Vallarta."

"I just returned from 7 days at the Qualton and found it to be okay...but not great. My main complaint was that the pool is not large enough to accomodate the number of guests they have booked in the hotel. I was up by 8:00 a.m every morning and other guests had already reserved all the chairs by the pool by putting a towel on them. Some of them then didn't come out to the pool until after 12:00 noon!!! The hotel have signs posted asking guests not to reserve the chairs, but that is totally ignored. I went on vacation to avoid stress and the chair/towel situation is extremely stressful. I finally gave up and just did other things!The staff is very nice. The food is okay..I've had worse. The pool bar is terrible. They serve drinks in little plastic cups and have no blender to make good cold drinks!!"

"Staying at the Qualton was a luxurious experience. When you first enter your room, you will find towels cleverly done up as a swan and the bathroom decorated in marble. Everything was immaculate and the staff was very nice. The food was pretty good even though we didnt eat all of our meals there. We did do one dinner banquet where the food was good but the entertainment was laughable and rather cheesy. You had a choice of sitting at the pool or the beach both of which was very pleasant. Curious thing though is that folks reserved pool and beach chairs by 7am by leaving their beach towels on the chairs. We did the Rhythm of the Night excursion which I would liken to a Mayan Riverdance it was stupendous. We had a wonderful taxi driver who showed us around whose name was Luis."

"I just wanted to pass on a few words of thanks and appreciation to the entire staff at the Qualton.I stayed at the Qualton the week of January 3-11, 2003. This was my first visit to Puerto Vallarta and my first time at an all-inclusive club so didnt know exactly what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. I, and Im sure my travel companions, couldnt say enough good things.We couldnt help but notice the continuous effort by the staff to make our stay comfortable and enjoyable. From the wait staffs sense of humor and endless patience as we lingered over breakfast or lunch, to the intricate towel designs left for us by housekeeping each day and the small things like constant cleaning. I was thoroughly impressed by the never-ending energy enthusiasm, friendliness of the animation team. I couldnt believe it when the staff cleared the pool deck of lounge chairs to set up the show stage on the pool deck for the evening show - dinner tables complete with table clothes and candles - then had things back to normal the next day, only to set up a complete dinner theater stage complete with table clothes and candles on the beach the next night.I was impressed by both the quality, quantity and variety of vegetarian food dishes available at the buffet. The only thing I would ask about is the use and changing of towels and bed linens on a daily basis even for long stay guests. Considering the environmental implications, (the amount of water, energy, and detergents used) Im just curious if alternatives have been discussed.If any staff member stood out over any other its only because we participated in activities led by those staff members, or because we were in the hotel when they were on shift. If any one working at the Qualton was unhappy they didnt show it. I was utterly and totally spoiled and didnt want to come home to face reality. My compliments to all the staff at the Qualton."

"My sister and I got back from the Qualton on March 15/03 after staying there for a week. We had a great time, and the hotel was better than I expected (from the reviews I read on this site). The buffet food was great with a huge assortment of food (especially desserts!). If you're going to book one of the a la carte restaurants that need a reservation (booked outside Villa Linda each morning at 9am for that same day)--Jalapenos and La Cava--skip Jalapenos and go straight to La Cava. Jalapenos neither of us liked, as it was like going to the buffet (you still have to get your own salad and dessert) but only choosing one main dish. My chicken wasn't fully cooked and the waiters barely paid any attention to us. It was another story at La Cava, where the food is completely different from the buffet, and the staff is very attentive. The 4-course meal is excellent-- the mango mousse my sister had for dessert was shaped like a butterfly with white chocolate for wings-- and the waitstaff is always around to clear your plates and fill up your drinks. The buffet breakfasts and lunches at Villa Linda were good (we loved the morning pastries) thanks in part to the great service from Felipe and Antonio who work in the restaurant: all we had to do was sit down and they'd bring us our drinks that they'd memorized (orange juice and water each).The rooms are very spacious, and we had a balcony facing the pool and ocean on the same level as the spa. The only problem we had with our room is that we had requested a non-smoking and were given a smoking, told that there were no more non-smoking rooms left. We didn't smell smoke in the room though so we were fine, as long as we didn't go out onto the balcony when our neighbours were smoking.The shows that the activities staff put on at night are great. Each night at 9pm they have a different themed performance--Broadway, International dances, Mexican Fiesta-- and they do a fantastic job. We were trying to figure out how they'd be hired for their job as they are outside all day doing pool and water activities with the guests and spend their nights entertaining. They all dance beautifully and the lifts and moves they performed were amazing. Most of the crew is pretty friendly as well, although some had more difficulty with English than others. The guys even eat their meals with the hotel guests, which is nice to see as we had the chance to chat with one of the team members. We caught the show each night (except the last when there was no announcement made that there would not be a show--we were very disappointed).Our biggest complaint would have to be the pool area. Although the pool was big enough for our swimming needs (hardly anyone seemed to swim during the day), the chairs around the pool are almost all reserved before we even have breakfast. There are reminders that you are not supposed to reserve chairs, but everyone does it and if you go to get a seat after about ten, forget it. If we were going to spend the day around the pool or on the beach, we'd have to reserve chairs with our pool towels by 9am or else we were out of luck.We would definitely recommend this hotel to others and if we should ever go back to Puerto Vallarta, I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again."