Just got back from a dissapointing stay at this resort. I am not one for usually giving an online review, but I am making an exception this time. The resort was like a hospital with a pool! Very limited restaurants,no balconies, no hot tub, dirty ocean water, limited help with transportation, and above all very aggresive time- share representation at this resort. We were asked if we wanted to see the improvements at the Mayan. After breakfast we were held captive for five hours with a very aggressive, rude sales team. We are not rookies when it comes to time-shares, but this was rediculous. This rresort had a nice pool and well kept grounds, although small.

So have access to a Time Share at the Sea Garden and in January we decided to use it. Our previous trip to Nuevo/Puerto Valllarta was spent at an all inclusive which we enjoyed as long as we didn't spend a lot of time in the actual room, which was small but was alright. Anyways we wanted to do the time share route as we knew that we would get a much nicer room, almost like a small apartment. Which is what we wanted as we were going for two weeks.

Anyways the hotel itself was great. Our room/rooms were excellent. Our only complaint was that even though you get a kitchen, you don't get a stove. And maybe that the actual burners take forever to get hot. Which made it very time consuming when you wanted to actually make something to eat in your room.

Compared to the rest of the Mayan resort the Sea Garden is located much closer to the actual ocean, which again is great. You can come out of the hotel and be right at the pool area/ocean. Again this is a much smaller resort in comparison to the monstrosity that is the Mayan. So as a recap, the hotel was good, pool was good, and the beach/ocean were in close proximity, which again was fantastic.

So here is some of the bad. Well maybe not bad, but kind of annoying. When you are down by the pool and all you want to do is relax and enjoy the sun, you are constantly bombarded with the activities team asking you to join their activities. Guess what, ask once, ill come and join if i feel like it. Im not a fan of being pressured into joining your activities when thats not what i want to do. And please get a stereo that works. Most of the music was skipping, and way to loud. They only seem to have two speakers for the whole pool area, which means that in certain spots it is extremely loud. Buy a better system.

The Sea Garden is part of the Mayan Resort and that allows you access to some of the features of the other hotels (for a price). The only issue is that it is a fair walk over to the Mayan. There are golf carts that will drive people around the Mayan resort but if you are at the Sea Garden to bad. Not Good. We walked over to the Mayan for a breakfast brunch (which was really good) and then wanted to get a golf cart back. Nope, so how about a golf cart to where the bus can pick us up, and we'll go into Puerto Vallarta? Sure but only after 11am. What? Nobody wants to take a golf cart somewhere before 11am? Unacceptable!! We also Won a free pass for our daughter to the Kids club (again she had a great time once there) but we all walked over to the Kids Club which is at the Mayan Palace. But then was told that our signature was not matching. Really. It hasn't been a problem for all the purchases that we have been charging to our room up to this point. Again frustrating. And as a side note, the Mayan Palace and all its Mayan sub hotel in Nuevo Vallarta are way too far from the beach and the resort itself is HUGE!!! As a family you could get lost from each other and never find one another unless you had a meeting point. This is definitely one of the reasons we like smaller resorts.

Last thing is that the Sea Garden seems to be part Time share (which we were) and part All inclusive. Which again we didn't like. The fact that we had to pay $8 for our drinks and over $20/person for the buffet is unacceptable. Those that have timeshares should have the option to pay for an all inclusive upgrade or something like that. The all inclusive guests seem to get more bang for less money!

But all in all the Sea Garden is nice, the staff is nice (although not always that bright - like telling us that it would cost 2000 pesos each for dinner, and when we asked where the towels were they said "somewhere over there". Really you can't give us directions to where the towels are?!?!). Would I go back? If it was for more then 1 week, probably as the room and the view is really quite nice. But if I was only going for a week I would definitely be looking around.

Just got back from our vacation. This hotel is a great place, the staff were very friendly and the staff work very hard for their money. Very clean. The food was very good. They have some activities during the day, but not enough entertainment at night. I would recommend this to all my friends and family. If I get the chance again, I would love to come back.

Overall, the hotel was a disappointment. The only restaurant on site served very expensive and poor quality food, the hamburgers were frozen Sam's Club patties and they charge U.S. $15. We had an issue with the quality of the food, my brother and my partner both got sick from the meal and I sent my back...thank goodness! The hotel pool area was the worst I've been to in a long time, as there was very loud music blaring day & night. The activities, were wonderful for the teenagers but, for the adults in the group, the constant blasts of announcements of games and activities made by microphone by the activities hosts was completely obnoxious. We would pack up and leave the facility everyday, until the events were finished. The rooms were also on the Holiday Inn level instead of the suites that, were are used to. The couches, that are in the rooms were not very large, and our teenagers were staying on those pull-out couches, but they had to pull the cushions on the floor because their feet were not fitting on the couches. We had a very annoying dripping noise coming from the vents, in Room 2112 that, would wake us up every night and keep us up. We made a complaint to the front desk, but nothing was ever resolved. I recommend thinking of staying at any of the other Mayan Group Hotels over this one, unless you like to be treated like you are at a Club Med type hotel, with a very loud atmosphere. Will not return to this hotel ever again.