Hotel Villa del Palmar: A Puerto Vallarta Family Resort

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When people think of spring break in Mexico, a family vacation might not be the first thing that comes to mind. That’s why I spent a lot of time looking at various Puerto Vallarta family resorts that would provide fun for the whole family. I was specifically looking at all-inclusive resorts, but with a family of five, that severely limited us. I was stoked when I came across the Hotel Villa del Palmar Puerto Vallarta.

Because we live in San Diego, we decided to fly out of Tijuana for the first time. We took the CBX across the border, and it was so easy. From TJ, we flew direct to Puerto Vallarta, which was about 2.5 hours.

Where is Hotel Villa del Palmar Located?

The Villa del Palmar Group has resorts in 5 locations: Cabo, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit and the Islands of Loreto. We decided to stay at the Puerto Vallarta location, which is located in the heart of the Hotel Zone of Puerto Vallarta and is a quick and easy drive from the Puerto Vallarta airport.

Hotel Villa Del Palmar Puerto Vallarta: Spacious Rooms

What drew me to the Hotel Villa del Palmar Puerto Vallarta resort initially is that it was one of the options I found that would accommodate my family of 5. Many hotels are designed for families of four or less–especially when it comes to all-inclusive resorts. Not only could this resort fit us, it offered spacious two-bedroom suites that could sleep up to six people.

My husband and I had our own bedroom, two kids shared the second bedroom (in two separate beds), and our third kid took the comfortable pull-out sofa bed in the living room.

All-Inclusive Options

For us, doing the all-inclusive option was a no brainer. It included all food and alcohol, including specialty coffees at their crepe cafe. And it didn’t cost a whole lot more than the room by itself. But you do have the option of just booking the room and not doing the all-inclusive option. And each room does have a kitchen, for those who prefer to do some of their own cooking.

Restaurants at Villa del Palmar Puerto Vallarta

The first thing everyone wants to know about all-inclusive resorts is “how is the food?” I can honestly say that I was very pleased with the food options and quality. When we first arrived, we were so hungry. We walked fast people at the pool eating nachos, plates of chips and guacamole, hamburgers, ribs, etc. I thought there was no way that was all included–but it was.

We got seats at the pool right away and ordered carne asada nachos, ribs and chicken strips just to start us off. We were pleased with all of it. The pool and beach service was our favorite, and the selections were good. After five days there, my overall consensus is that the food was always good, but you sometimes had to wait awhile to get it.

Breakfast

For breakfast, there were three options and none were quite ideal. You could go to the breakfast restaurant, where you could have the buffet or order food to the table. That was great in theory, but the breakfast line to be seated was always quite long between the hours of 8am and 10am.

You could call in room service, which had a large menu, but that also took 90 minutes from the time you ordered. Or you could go to the crepe cafe and get crepes, pastries and coffee beverages. The line there was pretty long as well and would often take 30-40 minutes.

When staying at the Hotel Villa del Palmar Puerto Vallarta, plan on getting breakfast as early as possible to avoid long waits.

Lunch

Lunch was always the easiest. Whether we were at the pool or the beach, we could constantly order food and drinks all day, from noon to 5pm. The food would come out pretty quickly, and no one had to wait in lines for anything.

Dinner

For dinner, the restaurant options would change. There was a Japanese restaurant, Mexican restaurant, sports bar, Italian restaurant and seafood restaurant on site. However, the sports bar was the only one that was open every night.

On many of the nights, there was only one other restaurant that was open, so there were long waits to be seated. Once we knew this, we would make sure to fill up at the pool so that if we didn’t eat again until after 8pm, we wouldn’t be starving. We also could order room service for dinner, so sometimes we ordered some appetizers while we were getting ready.

Overall, we definitely never went hungry. We just had to be patient. But the food quality was good, and we were very satisfied with each of our meals.

Amenities at Hotel Villa del Palmar Puerto Vallarta

There were at least four pools at the Hotel Villa del Palmar Puerto Vallarta Resort. We mostly hung out at the main pool, which had a waterslide and a grotto, and at the beach. There was an activity schedule that varied by day, but would include things such as pool or beach volleyball, ping pong, bingo, blackjack, Zumba, water aerobics, etc.

I also created this list of the best family things to do in Puerto Vallarta in case you’re looking to venture outside of the hotel a bit.

There was a full gym on site, as well as a spa. Kayaks and stand-up paddle boards were also available to use, and were included in the cost of the resort.

Other Puerto Vallarta Family Resorts

There are a handful of other Puerto Vallarta family resorts that were recommended to me and have great reviews. Each of these resorts can accommodate families of five, have all-inclusive options and are very reasonably priced. I am definitely going to make it my mission to visit each of them and share the details with you.

• Barcelo Puerto Vallarta
• Melia Puerto Vallarta
• Vamar Puerto Vallarta
• Sunscape Puerto Vallarta — A Hyatt resort: use your Hyatt points or Sapphire points to book

Check out other family-friendly spring break options, ranging from all-inclusive resorts to my favorite spring-time campgrounds.

Thinking of going to Cabo San Lucas? There are a couple of Villa del Palmar resorts there as well: Villa del Arco Beach Resort & Spa and Villa del Palmar Beach Resort & Spa Cabo San Lucas. Or check out this complete list of my favorite family resorts in Cabo San Lucas.

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