We like Nuevo Vallarta (quiet and clean resort area on a wonderful beach). Many things about this hotel are good (nice property, generally good layout, clean, mostly helpful staff, range of activities available) but rooms are in need of a makeover and food is not great. Internet is overpriced (we went to Starbucks down the road).

Just got back from my 2 week stay at the
GRAND MARIVAL i have to say that they have improved once again great service great staff,animation staff is amazing,
food is great and plenty every were,
my vacation was great and we will be back next year !!!!!!!!!!!!

Great time food at buffet was horrible restaurants were elegant and food was excellent internet was way too expensive considering what you pay to stay there. Weather was the best would travel in November again.

The hotel is very clean. The staff are always friendly. The rooms are in need of a major renovation. Many things are falling apart or worn out. Food was ok. Buffet food was horrible but al a carte restaurants were ok. Would go somewhere else next time.

Our agent had to rebook us from where we were originally (The Royal Playa Del Carmen) to PVR due to the hurricane. We were under the impression that we were staying at the Marival Residences, NOT the Grand Marival. Obviously the comparison between the hotel in Playa and the Grand Marival are not comparable. It was extremely dissapointing and inconvenient when we arrived at the Grand Marival as it is a 2.5-3 stars at best. We ended up paying extra and staying at the Marival Residences, as we originally had asked. The experience at the Marival Residences was 5 star PLUS and was the best experience we had ever had at an AI. The ratings below only reflect the one night we stayed at the Grand Marival.

Spent one week (Sept 30th-Oct 7th 2011) at the Grand Marival in Nuevo Vallarta, this is not to be confused with the Marival Residences & World Spa because there is some confusion on trip advisor between the two with people writing reviews from both resorts under that name. Grand Marvial is an oceanfront resort and the other is not but they are both affiliated but two completely separate resorts. We were given an option to have a free upgrade to this other resort which is newer but it seemed as if it was some sort of timeshare and not being on the beach didn’t entice us to go there. I am still confused on the actual name of the resort because on our ticket and in the magazine they called it “Grand Marival” but on their fountain sign and in the room it is called “Marival Resort and Suites” We were pleasantly surprised to get a free upgrade to an oceanfront room, it was a decent sized room with two double beds that were very comfy and plenty of room to put away clothes ect. The room had a fridge however you were not allowed to bring food from any of the restaurants out of them. There also was never any pop or beer delivered our entire weeks stay but a large bottle of water on every other day.
Beach-you could walk for miles on the very soft fine sand. Depending on whether the tide was coming in or out decided upon how wide the beach was, when the tide was in it wasn’t very wide. There are vendors on the beach but none that were pushy and a little shop set up on the beach right beside the resort. Plenty of chairs as well to choose from. The only sports we tried was the boogie boards, the surf could get pretty big out there at times and the water was pretty churned up. I have never been in ocean water that warm but it obviously had to do with the time of year it was, literally like a warm bath.
The food was average, breakfast being the worst. They closed the main buffet while we were there which was much larger with more options after our 2nd day there and only had a smaller buffet place open. You could order off a menu but the options were slim. It seemed like more of a Mexican style breakfast, although there were cereal and fruit too. It was exactly the same thing every single day throughout our week and never any sausage, twice there was bacon. There was no egg station but the menu did have a few options to order eggs. The a la carte Mexican and Italian were both very good with most excellent service we have ever had at an all-inclusive resort. The snack bar beside the kid’s pool was ok but not great by any means. Pizza was kept under a heat lamp that never seemed to be turned on so unless you got it out of the oven it was only warm. It all seemed to depend on whether you hit it when they had fresh food out whether it was going to be good or not. The other snack place open from 5pm on had stone pizza oven and that pizza was amazing. There seemed to be many more choices there and always fresher.
Drinks were amazing, once again the best we have ever had and this is about our 10th all inclusive vacation. All drinks were made in blenders and not from machines and the mango margaritas were the best!
The children’s pool was so wonderful with two waterslides and also a toddler slide. My daughter is 3 and was at first scared of the bigger ones but within a day she was on them as well. This area is right beside a snack bar and drink bar and bathrooms. It is a nice open area with access to the other pool quite close beside. There are girls that are at the kids pool keeping watch over things for a few hours each day and they are so very nice and helpful. There wasn’t a huge amount of chairs in this area but it wasn’t a problem to find an area unless it was the weekend when all the locals came, during the week there was hardly a sole in sight. Weekends were overwhelming with the amount of people to the point there wasn’t even a spot to sit on the side of the pool and line ups coming out of the buffet. But once Sunday afternoon arrived I would say 75% of the people checked out and we basically had the place to ourselves.
There are three other pools , one is the activity pool and one is the family pool both with swim up bars, one has a neat waterfall to sit under and great for photo ops, this also has a very shallow area perfect for little ones. The 3rd pool is just up from the family pool and it is an adult pool, it does not have a swim up bar or bar at all but it is just a short walk to go to the other pool to get a drink. This is the first resort I have ever been to that has a hot tub that is actually hot! It was not used by us being the weather was in the mid 30’s and lows in the high 20’s even at night.
There is a bank machine in the lobby but it gives only American money out. The front desk will not give change in American money, they will exchange it for pesos but a much lower rate that what the bank machine gives so I would suggest unless you want to tip in $20 american bills that you bring enough small bills to last your stay. You also need your passport to get change in pesos.
Internet expenses were outrageously high!! No free Wifi, cost of $18 for a day, or an internet card at their computer for 15 minutes was about $7.
We really enjoyed the entertainment; I think it started at 9 every night.
At the front of the resort they have two large cages with parrots and lovebirds. We liked to visit the birds and talk to them and they sure talked back. Mostly they would say “hola” but one of them like to say “what” and a few other choice words or so it sounded, hahaha.
Never used the gym but it looked decent and air conditioned. There was room close to it with coin laundry machines to use. Great looking tennis courts that had an area with two showers, this is also the area you can use to freshen up after checkout if you have time you have to wait around until the bus comes for you.
Down near the kids club (we never used but looked neat) there is an area with a swing set and monkey bars and mini golf. In between some of the other buildings which all have large grassy area’s had horse shoe pits and other games to play.
Perfect view of the sun going down over the ocean, some sunsets were spectacular and others not much of anything. I think it depended on the amount of cloud around.
There are a few shops for whatever you could possibly need. They sold everything it seemed.
We really enjoyed our stay and the price was really good for what we got. We would recommend this resort to families with small children.

Great family experience

We had a nice family vacation at this hotel/resort. We travelled with our 10 year old son from March 14 to 21, 2011. The weather was beautiful as was the ocean and beach. It was very, very clean!!! In regards to activities, the activity staff is great and very entertaining. There was no issue with the boogie boards with the exception of the four days the red flags were up. There is plenty to do, mini golf and shuffle board were our son's favourite, although the equipment is well used, and the games room of course which has table soccer, xbox and pool, although we had issue where our son was able to play with us for two days and then was not allowed when they put up a sign that did not allow blue bands to play pool. Ages 13 and over are allowed to play pool and we did express our discontent at this "rule" and noted that perhaps blue bands should be allowed with a silver band (adult) supervising. The restaurants are very nice and we enjoyed all of the a la carte's except for La Palomas, we did not eat there, as we had already been to Mexican and Tex Mex night at Casa Bella. Mexican night at Casa Bella is lots of fun and our son loved the churros. The food and presentation at Amalfi and La Pergola is very nice and La Bamba for dinner had great steak. We recommend the New York for flavour and the tenderloin for a melt in your mouth steak at La Bamba. We had breakfast one morning at La Palomas and it was very good but as it is an a la carte we really preferred to have breakfast at Casa Bella and get on with our day at the beach. We really enjoyed the Pizza at La Forni and you could definitely notice a difference between this pizza and the pizza at La Bamba. The salsa and guacamole was also more to our liking as well. But, La Bamba had great burgers, hotdogs, ribs and chicken for lunch. We alternated between the two for lunch and enjoyed the sunshine. Our room was adequate, two double beds, but we did get a perfect ocean view with was great! We did need to get our towels onto our beach chairs by 0700 as they filled up quite quickly. Water is at a premium here and was never stocked in our room fridge. We had to call down each day and they allowed us two 1.5 L bottles per room per day and any extra is at a charge. One negative was the time share people. We told the gal that took care of our check in that we had stayed before, not true, tipped her and she got the time share away from us and put our bands on herself, as I understand the time share people may want to put bands on, etc. We were hit up at the airport as well by time share, a first for us, and were confused as we thought they were Sunwing directing us to our coach to take us to the hotel. Once we found our we just left. Bottom line, Sunwing people will be wearing the orange "golf" shirt with their logo on it. At the hotel, the time share people do not have a "Marival" gold name tag but carry an ID card instead and their uniforms look different. I would offer one piece of advice and that is to avoid Mexico overall during a Mexican long weekend or holiday. The weekend before we left was the start of their spring break and we can't quite put our finger on it but the "tone" changed at the hotel. They wouldn't allow use of the boogie boards even though some of the other hotels had taken the red flags down, total four days for us, they had nicer plastic cups at the swim up bars and switched to paper cups, there was no bacon for breakfast, there were no ribs for lunch, etc. It seemed to go down hill for two days and then Monday, it was back to normal? We left Monday afternoon. Please weigh your luggage. We were over by 2.6 KG and were charged for 3 at $20 per KG on the way to Mexico...frustrating. They even weighed our carry ons. We had a nice time with some minor frustrations that could be encountered on ANY trip. We had a very good family vacation. Overall, the staff at this hotel is very nice and very helpful but as with any staff you can encounter the odd person who is having a bad day...keep it in perspective and don't let it ruin your trip. Personally, we noticed the staff's attitude changed the weekend before we left as well but took it with a grain of salt...again, back to normal on Monday morning. They all work very, very hard and we did tip for good service.

Après un séjour à ce même hôtel il y a près de 10 ans, le Marival nous réservait encore une fois plusieurs agréables surprises. Rénové et amélioré, le Marival nous a offert une belle chambre avec vue sur la mer, une belle plage, une température constamment au-dessus des 30 degrés celcius, de la nourriture variée et délicieuse ainsi qu'un service impecable. Les activités offertes sont variées et nombreuses et les installations plus qu'agréables à utiliser. Nous conseillons fortement cette destination et cet hôtel pour un voyage entre amis, en amoureux ou en famille.

great hotel great food friedly staff

Overall, a good experience. However, I had two rooms, one for the adults and one for two young boys. I requested a king bed for the adults and two queen or double beds for the boys next to my room. The boys room had a king bed. Not good! Plus their room was two doors away. Not what I ordered. The hotel did not offer to fix the problem. I spent $5,000 and got poor front desk service.

nous avons aprecier notre semaine. pour se qui est de la disponilitée des chambres de courtoisie cela a été impossible d'en avoir a un prix raisonnable.nous avons connue plus de gentillesse a d'autre endroit pour nous il n'est pas question d'un retour a vallarta.

I had a great experience at the Grand Marival. The staff were amazing and went out of their way to accomodate. The beach was the best ever..fine sand! The food was good, the bars were fun! I would recommend this resort to anyone!

The hotel was beautiful! The staff was very friendly and helpful. Check in was fast and efficient, except when we got to our room it was not what we requested. We requested a King size with a pool view, and were given pool view, but a room with two double beds. When we asked to be moved, we were told that it would take 4 days (we were only there for 7) to be moved to a King room with a veiw. So we paid $40/night to upgrade to a suite - which was beautiful! However, it was not worth the extra money since our view was awful! Next time, we will just call ahead to ensure we receive the room that we request.

The food at the hotel was great! The buffet and Pizza snack bar had great selection. The steak house snack bar had awful staff and the food was not that great. The mediteranian a la carte was amazing! Great food and excellent service. We did not get a chance to try the Italian one as it books up very fast but heard excellent things about it!

The hotel grounds, pool and beach were beautiful! There is two larger pools, one that has a lot of people and games, music etc. and a quiter one. Both of these pools have swim up bars which was nice. THere is also a separate adult pool, kids pool, and small kids waterpark.

The rooms were always cleaned well, and early which was great!

We always made sure to tip the maids, bartenders, servers etc. and always had excellent service!

All in all we would definitely go back to this hotel. Our only complaint was that we didnt initially get the room we asked for (but this happens all the time at all hotels).

This is our 4th time at Marival and we will come back again. Staff are fanastic and beach is worth the price of the whole trip. Buffet has improved, and the a la cartes are great. Hotel is immaculate and the staff make it worthwhile.

The check in staff were kind enough to give our room keys to the time share vultures. We were made to sit through their mini pitch prior to being given our room keys which was tiring after a long days travel. This is deplorable and set the tone for the week. Time share people are set strategically around the hotel. While this is typical for Mexico, I have never experienced it inside my own hotel. On a positive note, the hotel has 30 bikes which they loan out free so you can explore the area. We were able to ride to Paradise Village in about 15 minutes where there is shopping/ restaurants/ bars.

The hotel was clean. The staff friendly. The food excellent. A great choice of swimming pools. Our room had a view of the ocean. We would return.

Wonderful family vacation destination! The staff are excellent - friendly, helpful and attentive. There are lots of day time activities and some very enjoyable evening entertainment as well. Great beach, clean guest rooms, lots of food choices - something for everyone, and fine dining in the restaurants.

great location, very clean hotel and wonderful staff

Nice location but the hotel is a 3 star at best not a 4 1/2 star. We had a very early arrival time 4 a.m. and when we arrived they tried to convince us to take their time share tour, we declined and told them we just wanted to sleep for a few hours...well they called and woke us at 8:00 to tell us we were late. The room and bed was ok, I prefer a cleaner setting. The food was fair, not great somethings were not edible and I am not a picky eater. The facility was nice but poorly set up...no real meeting place where you could go and have a drink and mingle with the other guests...too bad because they are sitting on prime property. The resort should be considered a family resort...way too many kids for my liking. Will go back to the area but not back to this resort.

We had a wonderful stay.

This is my 5th time here. The weather was great as usual. My stay was not as good as before because some of the fantastic staff had left this hotel. Food was good. Beach was nice. You can walk far out on a flat surface, not like the Riviera maya. Does not get deep quickly. The Italian a la carte was very good. Excellent entertainment except for the tropical show (Saturday night). Good kids club and mini-disco. Little annoyed it is far to walk to get a premium drink ie. can only get a Bailey at the lobby not at beach bars.Too many annoying Americans during Thanksgiving and quite a few mexicans during the week-end (which makes it crowded). But we'll be back.

Great set up for kids, lots of kids and lots of stuff for kids. Close to mall with amenities (walking distance), 40 minute ride to downtown, very helpful staff for excursions.

We really liked this hotel, the grounds were beautiful, the pools were nice and we had a great room. We had unlimited a la carte meals which was great - the food at Amalfi is awesome! The buffet was alright - for breakfast we went to Pergola alot cause it was more of a sit down type of meal and had some more variety than just the buffet. Shows were alot of fun. The one pool there is super busy so we spent alot of time at the adult pool which was way quieter. We really enjoyed this vacation and for the price we paid we definately got our moneys worth. The only complaint I have is those annoying TimeShare people. They try to get you at the airport then again at the hotel - just blow them off and they will leave you alone. They try to make it sound like you have to sit with them but you don't so I recommend unless you are actually interested just don't give them the time of day and you'll be okay. Overall - great hotel, beautiful beach, and a super relaxing vacation.

This hotel came recommended to us by 2 sets of friends and boy did it live up to its billing. It definately lived up to its star rating and OH those speciality restaurants.

We'd definitely go again. Great time! 2 adults and an 8 year old.The hotel is starting to show it's age but plenty of staff who enjoy their work.

This is our second time to this resort and once again it fully met our expectations. wonderful food, service with a smile and great atmosphere for families especially. the a la carte restaurants have the best food ever, buffet is so so but there is always somewhere to eat if you dont want the buffet food. I have a picky eater and there was always something for him to eat. although out of town a bit i didnt mind plus there is a local bus that will take you to the downtown area or even to wal mart.

We have stayed at the Marival 5 times and are always amazed at how the staff remembers ours names. The staff really make the Marival along with it's location and it's beaches. You can walk for miles along the beach or ride one of the Marival's bikes to Bucerias. We stayed at the Grand Tower (Block) A room 1822. Room had a King Size Bed with a Belcony. Great view of the ocean and pool. Spent most of our time on the beach or at the quiet pool (adult only) on the club side. We usually are a group a 12, ages mid 40's to early 80's. We have also stayed their as just a couple. This time we went with my sister, brother inlaw and their two kids aged 13 & 18. All had a great time. Usually spend two weeks and love every minute. The only negative thing I can say about the Marival is that once you have checked in to receive your All-Inclusive Band, you must go through a Sales Rep who will try and talk you into a presentation to sell you a condo or their Gold Membership.

My family and I just got back from a wonderful vacation at the Grand Marival in Nuevo Vallarta. The hotel was nice, very clean. Be aware of the timeshare people, they are part of the check-in process. They say they're just going to tell you about the resort but what they really want is for you to attend a presentation about the resort's timeshares. The food was good at the buffet, but got repetitive after a couple of days. The a la carte restaurants were okay, the best one was the italian place. Our room was average, cleaned every day, but wish they cleaned at the same time every day. Some days the room wasn't cleaned until we came back from dinner. There were lots of activities at the resort, contests, cooking classes, water aerobics. There was a great kids pool with two big water slides.
I would recommend this resort for families but would try something different next time.

EN FIN DE COMPTE POUR LE MÊME PRIX ON A TRANSFÉFÉ, AU RÉSIDENCES / SUITES.
UN RÊVE !!6 ÉTOILES.