Review: Hard Rock Hotel Puerto Vallarta

When Trump was announced President Elect, Master 10’s first concern was “Does that mean we can’t go to Mexico again? How do we get over the wall.” Having just visited Puerto Vallarta his concern was quite legitimate. 

In June 2016 we were heading Stateside and wanted something to break up our US adventures.  Randomly, the Hard Rock Hotel all inclusive resort at Puerto Vallarta caught our eye.

Just a three hour flight from Los Angeles, the thought of spending a few days at an all inclusive resort in the sunshine ticked all the boxes to ease into our three week holiday.

And in Mexico ALL inclusive means just that!  Once we stepped foot on the resort, there was not a further dollar to be spent.  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, mini bar, coffee shop, pizzeria and the swim up bar - ALL INCLUDED!

The resort boasted many dining options from a traditional buffet to, of course, a Mexican eatery as well as an Italian outdoor restaurant by the beach and an Argentinian restaurant serving meat by the sword.  

And there was no going thirsty.  There was a mini-bar in the room with three bottles of liquor ready to poor, a swim up bar and a constant flow of servers ready to shake a new cocktail (or mocktail for the kids).

And if you complained that your cocktail was too weak the bar man’s response was to simply provide you with your own bottle of Vodka to top it up! What did they care! At the Italian restaurant when I ordered a glass of wine with dinner - I got the whole bottle.

The kids loved the freedom of being able to swim up to the bar and order a mocktail or head into the Mexican cafe for a bowl of guacamole and corn chips. It gave them a sense of independence and they relished in it.

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As well as food, there was also plenty of entertainment at the resort.  I can imagine at certain times of the year the resort would be quite a loud party place.  We were fortunate that there was not so much of that going on whilst we were there.  Whilst we enjoyed our afternoon cocktails and nightly sundowners we don’t exact fit into the frat party category or party people.

The resort had amazing facilities for the kids club unlike any I have seen before. However our kids preferred to wonder in and out of the unsupervised games room where they could play pool, video games and get a soda and popcorn rather than sign in to be supervised.  There was too much going on poolside with a water slide, beach soccer tournaments and poolside bingo with the entertainment staff.

The location of the resort did not allow for a stroll out the front gates to the “real” Mexico, so we needed to make a conscious effort to get out and about and not just be lured by the cocktail server and poolside lounges. 

We were given resort credit that could be used on tours so we used that as a prompt to get out and about booking day trips for zip lining and quad biking and simply took taxis to get into town and explore.

So next time you are booking a cheap return flight to LA, consider a side trip to Mexico and you won’t be disappointed by a stay at the Hard Rock Hotel Puerto Vallarta. 

You can book your stay with Agoda who have great rates.

Penny - ITCHY FEET FAMILY

ITCHY FEET FAMILY has also stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel Bali - read our review

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