Golden Crown Paradise - Puerto Vallarta, Mexico 

When you first walk into the lobby, you know this will be a great property. There is a cool, welcoming breeze, and they greet you with drinks. The rooms are cool and comfortable, and the staff is AMAZING! I have traveled often, and never stayed in any place with a more attentave staff or a cleaner resort. Seriously, everything is cleaned like- constantly. It is beautiful. And the staff is always there and always attending your needs. The only thing, and unfortunately, this is huge, that kept this from being the perfect vacation was the food. Honestly, even for an all inclusive, this food is HORRIBLE! Bad enough that sadly, despite everything else that is wonderful, we will never go back and cannot reccomend this resort to anyone we know. Example. The first night, we ate in the "Paradise" restaurant. Very beautiful table, overlooking the ocean. Extremely romantic and upscale looking. There is a dress code that they strictly enforce. We were expecting food to match the decor. Sadly, I ordered a wonderful sounding mushroom custard cheese appetizer and got campbells cream of mushroom soup concentrate in the shape of a custard cup. We both ordered the Mahi Mahi and were suprised to find, underneath the beautiful silver covering, Salmon! And it tasted like it had been reheated in a microwave. Even the waiters acknowledge how bad the food is. When asked if the breakfast at one restaurant was good he promplty admitted- No. One saving grace was that the let you use the family resort next door and the buffet restaurant is decent. Also, the snack bar by the pool has killer tacos, and the lunch sandwiches are decent. Overall, we had a great time, but both my husband and I lost 5 pounds on this vacation at an all inclusive- can you imagine? If you can find a great deal here and have a little extra cash to go into town and eat dinner, I would highly reccomend it.

I read the reviews before we left and I liked what I saw. We met 2 or 3 couples that have been staying at this hotel for the past several years and loved it. If we go back, I would look for someplace else. Do not stop at the information desk!!! They are trying to sell you time shares. We signed up after they promised us the world - free tours, free blankets, free bottle of tequila. The also PROMISED it was only 90 minutes. The woman swore up and down it was only 90 minutes and part of that time was breakfast. We signed up the day at 8:30 we got there for the next day. We spoke with other people who said don’t go. We changed our mind and canceled. I ran into three people in the elevator at 11:30 who said they finally walked out - 3 hours later! They left without anything they were promised just to get out of there! We had a lot of problems with food. At an all inclusive, you should not expect gourmet food for every meal, so keep that in mind. The first night we ate at the buffet at the sister hotel next door. We ate there for breakfast one other day. This was by far the worst two meals we had. The food that should have been hot was cold and vise versa. The ate at one of the two gourmet restaurants. This was very good food and very good service. Men have to be in long pants and close toed shoes. We didn’t bring any so we had to buy my husband a pair of pants first. It was worth it. We ordered room service one night. On the menu it said it would be there in 20 minutes. When I called the man said 45 minutes. After 1 ? hours we went to bed. I figured there was a communication issue since I do not speak Spanish and the person who answered had a hard time in English. About 20 minutes later there was a knock on the door! Another couple we spoke with said they did not get their meal at all. The last night we ate at the Bella vista restaurant. There were 3 other couples in there when we arrived. After about 10 minutes when no one came to any of the tables I went to the front desk. They had no waiters to work that night. They finally pulled a waiter from another restaurant to serve us. The items I was most disappointed with were the “free” non-motorized activities. There is a sign by the pool for free scuba lessons in the pool every day at 11. We went to sign up and we were told there was a cost. We also tried to use boogie boards one day when there many waves. They only had one and again we were told there was a cost. Even in the flier they gave us when we checked in said the boogie boards were free. I went to the front desk to complain and was told I had to wait until the next day when a manger was going to be in. The rooms were clean and the staff was friendly. None of the things above were enough to ruin our vacation, but was enough to make us think twice before going there again!