I think the hotel has a lot higher opinion of itself than I do. They boast about having these amenities that "refresh the body and soul", but in my mind, I think it would be best if they focused on some very basic things first. For one, the beds are too small. My wife and I are not big people, but we were not comfortable in those small beds. Further, the beds are hard, which, night after night, takes away from whole experience. The air-conditioner makes noise. The food in the restaurants was okay, but sometimes we had to wait around for it for more than an hour. At the Nikki Beach restaurant, we waited about an hour and a half for our salads. The pools are nice, but one of them was being remodeled. So as soon as the sun comes up, you can hear the workmen banging away at it. Boy, that's relaxing! The stone floors were not the cleanest, and echo everything. The Royal Beach club, that has the happy hour and breakfast, it is okay too, but the buffet is pretty limited. .

I recently stayed at the Westin Puerto Vallarta over the 4th of July Holidays. I have high standards for the Westin and did quite a bit of research on the hotel before going. I had booked a package deal through Orbitz for a flight and hotel. It was quite a good deal putting the room below $100 including taxes! We had booked a Deluxe Room with Ocean View. If you look at the rooms online, they are quite nice and updated with flat screens...... When we arrived we were given a room that was not updated. The room smelled terrible (moldy and wet), the floor was dirty, a towel was dirty, the robe had something red on it, the headboard to the bed had what appeared to be mold, and it was just a run down room. The room number was 600 something. I called the front desk to ask if we could be changed to an updated room. I was transferred three times and then told they would check and call right back. They called back half hour later saying no, so I asked to be put on the waiting list for a new updated room. They said they would call back. After 45 minutes of no call back, I went to the front desk. They then gave me an updated room. It is a huge difference. It was clean, smelled good, and everything in the room is updated and modern. It was room number 700 something. The moral of that story is to get and updated room and if they don't give it to you originally - push to get one. There is a huge difference and it makes the hotel a lot better. I by no means expect perfection from hotel rooms, but there is such a drastic difference.

As far as location - everything is easy to get to by bus and it picks up right outside the hotel. Some people complained of music from Nikki Beach. They no longer have loud music pumping out of there and the Nikki Beach restaurant is moving relatively soon. The music is no longer a problem. We did eat dinner at the restaurant and it was very good and the service was great.

The only other thing I would avoid/suggest is to avoid the Bahia Alegre snorkle tour. It is a new tour company. You snorkle for maybe 25 minutes and don't see many fish. They then take you to a terrible beach. I would recommend the Canopy tour by Canopy Los Veranos. Great time if interested in canopy tours. You can book Canopy Los Veranos through the Westin.

I am on my 6th day at the Westin in Puerto Vallarta and cannot wait to leave tomorrow. There is construction all around and the rooms provide absolutely no protection against all the noise from neighboring cranes and jackhammers - which isn't much appreciated at 7 in the morning. Aside from the construction noise is the constant screaming by the DJ at the pool. This starts around noon and carries on throughout the day. The disco music is so loud that you cannot escape it even when in your room. The pool itself is full of families with infants who do not have the benefit of wearing diapers, so you can guess what bacteria inhabits the pool. The one "quiet" pool is closed for construction - which is part of what you hear all day. Should you go to the small, dirty beach - plenty of empty cans and bottles laying around - you can plan on being bothered by locals trying to get you to buy their junk.

I have travelled many places in the world and stayed at a variety of resorts, but this by far is the worst.

We stayed at the Westin PV from July 3rd thru the 8th. We were traveling with 2 other couples, one of which was staying with us at the westin and the other at the Marriott a few hotels down.

We flew on AA out of Phila. into Dallas and onto PV. With the help of prior post we had no problems getting thru the time share sharks and found our way to the taxi stand who wisked us away in a van for $30 for 4 of us to the westin. We were greeted by Pedro.. Wow, what a nice person. He is truly an asset to the westin.

Check-in: We arrived around 2pm so only 1 of our rooms was ready. We paid for the upgrade to Club level and stayed in room 1209. We enjoyed our room with balcony overlooking pool and bay/ocean. The bathroom is large with seperate glass shower, single person tub and seperate toilet which is not enclosed. They do supply a dehumidifier in all the rooms. They're loud but work really well. We left it on all day and turned it off at night. We did have to call engineering a few times to check our thermostat cause our room never seemed to be cool enough.

Royal Beach Club: Was well worth it. A full Hot breakfast buffet was every day from 7 till 11 and even included make your own bloody Mary's and Mimosas. Their evening happy hour was from 5 till 7pm and has a nice spread with make your own cocktails and beer. The service was outstanding. Marcella was so kind and tended to everyone's needs.

The pools were very nice. One pool was under renovation but we were never bothered by that. It is supposed to reopen July 14th but I can't see that happening. The pool bar offered happy hour daily from 5 till 6 offering 2 for 1 drinks.

The beach. As people mentioned these beaches are not best for swimming or to take long walks. The water is rough and kinda muddy but we liked the rock formations and was not bothered not being able to swim.

The Marina: across the street is where we spent most of our time since the weather was not the best and it was close. Our favorite place was Victors. $1.50 daily beers (Corona & Pacifica) and very personal service. A shot of tequilla with each drink and if your lucky enough to meet Victor, he'll do a shot with you. One day had lunch at Fajita Banana which was very good. More of a local place was Brandos for a good Margarita.

Be carefull, one place (can't remember the name) actually charged us an exchange rate for paying in US$$. We also thought they made up the price for us as we walked in. We learned to ask for the cost prior to ordering from there on out.

We went to the Malecon one day and enjoyed it. Had lunch at Daquari Dicks which was in the romantic zone. We walked thru the flea market and over the rope bridge which was kinda cool. Unfortunately this was our only day here since the weather wasn't great, I would have wanted to stay longer.

OXXO: There is one across the street of the westin. Go there to buy your bottled water, snack, beer, etc.

Sickness: 4 out of 6 of us got sick. We don't know how or what from, but they did. We drank only bottled water so it wasn't that. My friend went to the hospital when she got home and ended up with either somenella or e-coli (results will be in a day or two) The other 3 had stomach problems/diarrhea. This of course put a strain on their vacation. Just be careful of what you eat and drink. Also drink plenty of bottled water so you don't dehydrate yourself. It's hot and humid so take precautions.