Myself, my husband, my sister and brother-in-law stayed at the Velas Vallarta from 3/26/08 through 4/1/08. We absolutely loved the place. The grounds were wonderful, lush, very well kept. Most of our meals were at Le Riberia, and we all thought the food was outstanding. The staff in the restaurant was very attentive. The resort staff as a whole was very friendly, always smiling and greeting us with an "hola." The pool food/beverage service was also great. Loved that they'd bring around fresh fruit, veggies, etc., as people were lounging by the pool.

Our room was cleaned very well every day and we loved the nightly turndown service and the restocking of the fridge and snacks every day.

Our stay was so enjoyable that I'm already planning our next trip back.

What amazes me is the extreme variety in all the reviews for this place. They are clearly not consistent in their service to their customers!! I came here the week of Easter-3/21 to 3/28. While I saw staff walking around with cocktails/drinks while waiting at the check in desk, I never was approached. My two girlfriends came a couple hours later and I joined them at the check in line and again, we were never approached. We couldn't get early check in , we weren't given or approached for the "free" ride back to the airport-and we honestly forgot but they could have mentioned it. And, we were there during the time the college student was killed for defending his mom at the ATM. So when my two friends had to walk 6 blocks to the ATM the day after, and we knew nothing about the murder, but surely the staff did, do you think they offered any assistance, warnings, etc? No!! I find that really appalling. We thought the food was extremely mediocre for the price and "buffet dining" is not what we paid for. The drinks left a lot to be desired as well. The grounds were gorgeous and the beach was great and we loved our room but we didn't get nightly turn down service on any regular basis-never quite knew when that would happen and our room seemed to be the very last of them all to get cleaned daily. The nightly entertainment was extremely lame. I was also extremely disappointed with their workout room and limited equipment. They didn't even have free weights, let alone any other weight equipment. Surely they could expand this area into the ill stocked grocery store! It was very noisy late at night and the resort staff did nothing about it, although it was hours past the pool time and a staff rolled his very noisy food cart down the main path every morning at 5:15 am!!!! Hello!! we wanted an ocean room to keep doors open to hear the waves not to wake to a loud food cart at 5:00 in the morning!! We didn't find staff all that attentive, they didn't monitor who was using the canopies on the beach or the lounge chairs around the pool-lots of non-guests. We attempted 3 times to get reservations for Emiliano's but couldn't and had a lot of poor communication issues-like making reservations at Alejandro's only to find it closed the night of our reservation and our reservations transferred to Andreas-where we found their "Italian" food to be greatly lacking! When we did get to Alejandro's, it was only so-so with still a buffet salad bar and dessert bar-come on!! In all, I thought this place was way too pricey for the lower class service and food that they offered but clearly , others had different experiences. Just for record, we were three girlfriends having our once every so many years vacation so I wouldn't put this one down for that type of experience. I would not bring my family to this resort as I do not think they offerred enough-no boogie boards, kayaks, fun things to do on the beach, etc. Nothing for kids between the ages of 9-15 that would be fun and no night entertainment for the parents.

facility was Ok; 2 bdrm suite was smallest we've had in PV
restaurant food was so so and waiters indifferent; also, premier restaurant was closed " for the season", in March!!

cannot believe the all inclusive per diem price - MUCH TOO EXPENSIVE for the services (mostly food/drinks) offered; no laundry service or activity discounts

huge staff in reception and pool area but skimpy in maid service

had to wait from 11 am to 5 pm for room

overall - NOT recommended AND WOULD NOT RETURN

We just returned from a wonderful stay at Velas 3-23 to 3-30. For the most part we had a wonderful time! We had a few bad issues that kept me from giving it the full 5 star rating but I would go more like 4-4.5. We arrived early on Sunday (9am) and found the VIP lounge in the airport (hard to miss with the great big sign, even though time share guys kept insisting they were VIP). It was awesome getting a water and hoping on the van for the short ride to the resort. We were able to get our AI bracelets right away (by 10 am) but because we wanted a room in the 3rd building high up we couldn't get into our room until about 2:00, no problem though, I didn't expect to get in until 4:00 anyways! We just put on our suits and enjoyed the pool, ocean and food!

As everyone else has said, the grounds are amazing. We have been to many resorts (and many AI) and this ranks up there as one of the prettiest! The food, for the most part, was very good. At first I didn't like the small variety for breakfast (where we have stayed before has had up to 4 times the offerings) but after I thought about it, everything I woudl have actually grabbed to eat anyways was there so that was no biggie! It was nice having them bring little snacks of wings, fruit, veggies, mini-burritos etc. to you as you layed around the pool each day. It was also great that you could order anything from the pool waiters while you lounged (we consumed many club sandwiches, pizzas, burgers and hot dogs) or just got up to get it ourselves.

The rooms were very nice with a great view and balcony. I loved the water pressure in the showers! The beds/pillows were the softest I have ever slept on in Mexico. The beach is nice...not Cancun style, but I wasn't expecting that. We swam in the ocean and just hung out. We had originally planned on doing some excursions, but since we were enjoying ourselves so much there, we only left the resort one night to go the Malecon, which was a fun thing to do.

Our kids were the room service kings..we ordered it a couple of times during the day and it always came promptly and we would tip most times (even though I know they weren't expecting it) My husband and I had 2 dinners alone..one at Alejandros and the other at Emilianos (at Casa Velas)..both meals were high class, wonderful champange and even though I read bad reviews of Alejandros, I actually had my favorite meal of the trip there! Awesome steak/chicken/shrimp/mushroom skewers! I even liked it better than Emilianos.

The bad things we experienced,I believe, were due to the timing of our visit. I could tell the staff was tired from the week before Easter and it was very busy there until about the Thursday after. There were times before Thursday that we ordered coffee for our breakfast and it never came, even after multiple times asking, some nights we had to wait 15 minutes to be seated for the buffet dinner and got poor service once seated (our drinks came long after the meal was done) and one day at the pool, our waiter scolded us for ordering nachos at 12:30 and then a pizza at 1:30 (we were a family of 5) His exact words were "You should have ordered your food all together, it is so busy over there!" and he said it in a very mean tone, even after we had tipped him the first time. After that day we found Leo, who is the most absolutely fun and exciting waiter. That guy was smiling and dancing the whole time, even if it was crazy busy! My advice is to find Leo right away and you will be thrilled the rest of your trip! We gave him a big tip each day, and he deserved it! We had 2 days where we could not even get a lounge chair by the ocean pool (all were taken by 8am) but again, that is due to the time we were there. By the end of the week you could get chairs anywhere almost anytime.

I would definitely visit this resort again but never the week before or after Easter or another busy holiday. I felt the stress of the employess and didn't feel good about that. Other than that, we had a wonderful time!