When you're on vacation and a bartender is adding the Cuervo 1800 to your margarita, it's always nice to hear the words "say when." Those words were often repeated at the pool/beach bar over our five night stay. So, spring for the 120 peso "golden margaritas" and you'll only have to leave the hotel for dinner at El Arrayan, Melissa's or Barcelona Tapas or to shop for original "fair traded" arts and crafts at Peyote People in the Central District.

The grounds and pools are well maintained and the beach, albeit small, is fine for sunbathing. if you want to go into the saltwater for a dip, however, i'd wait until your next trip to Hawaii. Much of the coastline along the Sea of Cortez is well populated with jelly fish and the water is not the crystal clear blue that some visitors may be looking for. In any case, poolside is fine and the lack of humidity in the tropical breezes was welcome (though I might not be saying that if it was the middle of summer).

as has been said elsewhere on trip advisor, this is a pretty good hotel with clean spacious rooms and great bay/ocean views, including night time fireworks from the main town. we kept checking the spg website for price changes and actually got a king/ocean view room for under $100. as for food, we only had pool lunches here and, sorry, the food was unremarkable in every respect. if you can keep intake to a minimum during the day, save your pennies and your appetite for the trip downtown and work with the concierge to secure reservatons at the abovementioned places.

the other thing about the westin that is important to remember, also applies to many properties at which we've stayed: some staff are more interested in, or better at, their jobs than others. without going into the specifics, do know that, if something is amiss in your accommodations, what works best at this westin is to "speak with the manager on duty." You'll notice him/her by the pale blue shirt and our several interactions (regarding late night noise from a beach wedding, terrible wireless connectivity, and one day of botched housecleaning schedule) were all dealt with quickly and to our complete satisfaction.

nonetheless, it would be nice if the first rate service that this hotel is capable of was more consistent. at the bottom line, however, if we come back to PV, we'd stay here again if the price was right.

Gorgeous pool, clean beach, spacious room overlooking pool and beach, and friendly staff. Quality and price of meals are what you would expect at a Westjn resort. It was convienent to have a mini mart across the street and a range of restaurants around the Marina which is easy walking distance. Proximity to the airport is a plus but distance to downtown is not. If you want a relaxing and quiet stay this place is for you.

We split our stay in PV between the Sheraton Buganvilias (I rated 3 stars) and the Westin. The Westin is in the Marina area closer to the airport and further from Old Town/Malecon - about 10-15min by cab and costs 100MXN (currently about $8USD). I travel a fair bit, so maybe that makes me more picky, but overall we liked this hotel a lot better, the room, bar, pools, everything were definitely a step or two above the Sheraton, and the rate was only $10/night more - well worth it. The Marina area is also a very nice place to walk around, grab drinks/meal too, more sedate than the busy town. I would definitely stay here on future PV visits, and just taxi into town when as desired.

Having ended up at the Westin Puerto Vallarta on a whim when circumstances kept us from our original plans in Costa Rica, I was extremely pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Puerto Vallarta, and the Westin hotel stay was excellent.

Shout outs to Noe (bartender) and Juan (server at breakfast) for their stellar service. These gentleman remembered details about us and our likes that went above and beyond. In fact, all the hotel employees were so friendly and seemed to genuinely care that we had a good stay. We went all-inclusive, and felt we received a very good deal. The food was above average, although we only ate dinner at the hotel one night. We did eat breakfast and many lunches there, and consumed a lot of beverages!

The town was a fairly short cab ride away; about 15 - 20 minutes but only 80 pesos (which was about 8 dollars). The restaurants in town were great! The scene gets going after midnight, so I didn't experience too much of it. There are a lot of restaurants and bars in the marina area too, so that was a nice option as well.

Overall, the Westin Puerto Vallarta exceeded my expectations and left me with a very favorable opinion of the city. And all of the locals were great too!