Travel Review: Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico

Cadence visits Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarti, Mexico!
Travel Review by Steve MacKnight, Cadence Business Travel Division

Part 2 (for Part 1, click here!)
Arrangements made by Classic Custom Vacations.

Photo Credit: The Grand Bliss

Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit – Nuevo Vallarta, Nayarit, Mexico

We spent our next six nights at the Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit, located about 20 minutes north of the PVR airport, 40 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta proper in the neighboring state of Nayarit. We’ve previously stayed in a Grand Class suite at their newer sister property in the Riviera Maya which was probably the best hotel and room we’ve ever stayed in, so expectations were very high.

Upon arrival and check-in at the beautiful open air lobby by the very friendly staff we were sure this would be as good.

Photo Credit: Grand Velas

Our Room

We were escorted to our room quickly, checking into the lead in ‘Master Suite”, with a beautiful full ocean view and nice balcony. Still, after having experienced their best suite in the Riviera Maya, it was, at first, disappointing. It was a very nice room with separate show and bathtub, the same room amenities as Secrets, an extremely comfortable bed. We also saw several other room categories, including the way over the top 2 bedroom, 3 bath Presidential Suite some friends had. This suite also had a 4th shower outdoors on the deck near the 10 person spa. Perfect place for a cocktail party or private dinner. Amazing. One note – some of the top suites are on the 9th floor. The elevator stops at 8 and you must walk up a flight of stairs to your suite.

Photo Credit: Grand Velas

Food and Beverage

Wow. All Inclusive resorts aren’t supposed to have food and service this good. I’m so glad they do.

Photo Credit: Grand Velas

Breakfasts:

Room service was beautifully presented, hot, delicious. The only breakfast restaurant – outdoor, covered, on the beach, is AZUL. It is buffet, but amazing buffet. Fresh, hot, delicious, with plenty of choices. I heard someone say ‘this is what fruit is supposed to taste like”. The made to order omelets were perfect. The fresh juices were perfect. The service was perfect – no way they were going to let you carry a plate full of food back to your table.

Lunches:
We had a lunch one day at AZUL, also buffet style, but way above average for a buffet, with plenty of fresh choices – ceviche, fruits, a great salad bar, lots of hot items (pass, I’m not generally a hot food guy in hot weather). A much better choice for us was the terrific menu around the pool, beach, pool bar. Our favorites were a couple different sushi roll platters, terrific shrimp, the taco trilogy (seafood, beef, al pastor). There are probably 20 choices from this menu and everything we tried was good or great.

Dinners:
The highlight, particularly one night. The restaurants are all classified as ‘fine dining’. From what we experienced, it’s true. Options are:

AZUL – We did not eat there for dinner- it is casual, buffet.

LUCCA – Italian. Menu looked great but we did not eat there either.

PIAF – French, night one. Outstanding, fresh, delicious, pretty food. Highlights were the sea bass , a pea and cream soup, and the desserts – a chocolate soufflé and some other decadent chocolate thing. Service was perfect, restaurant was beautiful.

FRIDA – Mexican. Certainly not the Mexican we know around here. We walked in and the first question was “Do you have any food allergies?” No. Next was “Would you like the Chef’s Tasting Menu?” Yes. Please, everyone, if you are ever asked this, say ‘yes’. From the first course – a morsel of perfectly seasoned Ahi – to the last – a liquor cart, every dish was better than the previous one. It was mostly seafood – tuna, sea bass, an out of this world shrimp bisque – and a perfect salad, and a few other tastes of things that were all perfect. The restaurant, again, was beautiful, the service impeccable. We returned to Frida a few nights later, had to order regular things from the menu. It was still excellent, but…that first night there may really have been our best meal ever.

BANQUET – We attended the Classic Custom Vacations Star Performers awards banquet on Saturday night. The salad and soup were fine dining restaurant quality, the entrée and dessert average. The room was set very nicely. Again, as with every aspect of the Gran Velas, the service was impeccable. There was a post dinner party with music and dancing that went past my bedtime.

The Rest

The three infinity pools and beach are all beautiful. There are plenty of chairs, umbrellas, etc at the pool and the beach. You could get a drink or a snack or a full lunch or a cold towel even before you know you wanted anything. At about 2:30 in the afternoon the popsicle cart guy makes his rounds. About an hour later the sunglass cleaning guy would show up. The swim-up pool bar was a lot of fun. The bar staff remembered our names and drink preferences after the first visit. Technically the pool bar closes at 7p, but they stayed open as long as there were still people there. I know I saw them open one night until nearly 8:30p.

The indoor-outdoor lobby area bar was the only bar open at night. They have nightly entertainment – guitar player early, salsa-type band late. Again, the staff knew our names and needs throughout the week.

The Spa is very nice, the staff in the gift shop and gym (yes, I went) very helpful. On our arrival day there was a group arrival of about 250 people. Two days later when our group arrived, add about 150 to that. Still, it was never crowded anywhere and at times we felt like we had a private (and big) villa to ourselves… with a really big staff!

Photo Credit: Grand Velas

The highlights – really, virtually everything. The order is service, food and beverage, accommodations. And, the piece of art we forgot in our room upon checkout arrived at our house three days later! Did I mention how good the service is? The lowlights – single sink in the bathroom, not enough electrical outlets in the room, spotty WIFI, charge for WIFI ($15/day or $64 for five days), no good place to set up a computer in the room.

I would highly recommend the Gradn Velas – to honeymooners and couples who don’t need a lot of ‘stuff’ going on at night, and groups, who can make their own parties. There were some families with small children around that seemed to have a great time. I’d say kids from 8 and up would be bored after a few days.

We also visited…

• The Marival Resort, a family oriented all inclusive a few doors down from Gran Velas. The grounds were okay, the one room they showed us was okay, it’s not right on the beach. The food at the cocktail party we attended looked good. The Tequila station was very nice. It had maybe a Miami beach vibe. Maybe too hip for me!
• The Four Seasons Punta Mita, about an hour north of the PVR airport. The beachfront setting for our cocktail party and dinner was amazing. The food and service was Four Seasons excellent, but not quite as good as Gran Velas (really). John the GM (from Ireland..last Four Seasons gig was in Bali) is a terrific guy, as I learned when he brought me to the Mezcal tasting bar. I saw a regular ocean view room and a 1 BR ocean view suite – both nice, and they will be nicer when they redo the soft goods, as they are planning to do later this year.
• Downtown Puerto Vallarta, twice. From the “Malecon” south it is all very charming and lots of fun to people watch, sit at a beach bar, swim in the ocean, buy stuff you don’t need from the hundreds of beach vendors – let the shopping come to you! An iced bucket of six beers is under $10.00. Loads of fun.
• A random restaurant a few blocks from Secrets. I was in search of a place to watch a hockey game. We were successful, and had a nice meal of chips, nice spicy salsa, guacamole, shrimp, pork, a couple of drinks each, tax, tip..all for under $50.00. I hadn’t been to Puerto Vallarta since the late 80’s. I was very impressed, and would return in a heartbeat.

All our travel arrangements were made through Classic Custom Vacations, and all arrangements were flawless.

Trips like this make me think I should return to the leisure side of our business.

Interested in spending your next getaway on the coast of Mexico?

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