My room at Villa Del Mar was acceptable, with plenty of light from an outward-facing window. I stayed at the hotel for 8 nights. My biggest complaint was the staff at the reception desk, who ran the gamut from indifferent to downright disagreeable. My biggest gripe: A friend visited me at the hotel for 20 minutes. Shortly afterward, the desk clerk told me I must pay an additional 70 pesos (US$7) for "an extra person." Absurd! There are better values in PV. The Villa del Mar is popular with guests who return repeatedly, and the staff seems to have grown very complacent.

This Hotel is used by many long time visitors to Puerto Vallarta as a long term place to stay. Many come for 3-6 months at a time. My Dad included.

I went down to visit him and check on him as he is in his 80's. I had visited him here last year but did not stay at this Hotel as I was on a cruise. This year was different and I decided to stay here.

Let me make this very clear there are 2 Villa del Mar Hotels in Puerto Vallarta. They are named slightly different. This one is about 8 blocks from the beach while the other is on the beach. This one's correct name is Tradicional Villa del Mar, Puerto Vallarta. Do a search and you will find it at the address listed on this page.

This is a traditional Mexican budget Hotel. There is nothing fancy about this hotel other than the staff. The Hotel rooms are simple with brick walls and tile floors with old style dressers. There is no air conditioning only a ceiling fan. The beds are simple double beds or double beds with a single in the room. Some rooms have balcony's. Some have only a view to the inside courtyard while others have kitchens and a balcony.
Rooms are clean and the floors washed daily. One will notice marks on curtains but it was clean and worked well.
One can not forget the towel animal on your bed.
The rooms have new TV's with about 70 channels with a few English stations. Some of the Mexican stations have English shows with Spanish sub titles.

The rooms start at about 300 Pesos a night or about $30 US and rise up from there.

There is a outside sitting area on the upper two floors with chairs and tables as well as a area to sit/lie in the sun on the roof.

The staff are very friendly and all of them said Hello to us even though we did not speak Spanish. There was no problem with the front desk and English/Spanish. I have talked to people who have wintered here for 10 years and there has never been a problem with theft from Maids or others.

While the bathroom is a bit cramped, (think cruise ship bathroom here) it works. The bathroom sinks have no hot water but the showers do.
There are large bottles outside the room in the courtyard area for one to get drinking water. There are glasses and a water jug in your room to do this.

There are many markets near by as well as bus service to just about anywhere you want to go.

If you are looking for somewhere to eat out in the area I would suggest you try the Gilmar just half a block down from the hotel on Madero on the same side as the hotel. While it may look like another Mexican restaurant, I can say it is not. Benjamin told us that his Dad started it back in the 70's as a open air restaurant and how it has changed. This place serves everything from Mexican traditional foods to Steak and Pasta. This place will not disappoint you. The Salsa is made fresh at your table, try it.

I stayed at the Villa del Mar (Madero 440) for 10 days or so and for about $20 got a great room with brick walls, wood furniture and a great little balcony. It was a really great value and very well located right in the center of the Zona Romantica close to many budget restaurants, etc. I did take a look at the non-balcony rooms--they're not so nice, spent the little extra and get a balcony. The rooms seem like they might vary quite a bit too so ask to see several if you're not happy with the first one. My one caveat was that my room was right on the Madero so it was noisy.

Note that many of the reviews listed for this hotel are actually for the Villa del Palmar .. a luxuy resort in the hotel zone nowhere near this property. Don't get confused.

We had placed our time share unit in Hawaii that has a view into Interval. We chose this property as it had tennis courts. What a mistake. Courts in BAD shape, no program to connect us with other tennis players. Rooms were outdated with No view. Couch so uncomfortable and kitchen so old that we spent NO time in the room. It was clean! We got placed in the old building since nothing was available in the one we had selected. We were greately dissappointed in the whole situaiton. We will never return there. We were constantly accousted by those trying to get us to attend time share presentations. Not fun.
B&D, WA