It’s so weird to go back to a place you thought you’d never visit again! Not that we dislike Puerto Vallarta by any means! It’s just that when S and I came 10 years ago, we thought we’d explore other parts of Mexico if we were to return. But, apparently, it was in the cards for us to revisit, and we ended up spending about a week in Puerto Vallarta again, from June 6th to June 12th, 2025.

This time, we came for a family vacation! S’s family was looking for a destination that would allow us to get there via direct flight in 5 hours or less. We also wanted to find an all-inclusive resort that could accommodate both older folks with limited mobility and younger kids in our party. In the end, we chose to stay at the Hilton Vallarta Riviera!

The property itself was quite nice. They boasted 12 restaurants, but we soon found out that not all of them were open every day (or even for every meal). You end up realizing that sometimes you only have two options for lunch. Some of the listed restaurants are also specifically a mojito/cocktail bar or a lobby café kiosk that’s semi-paid (if you want a Starbucks drink). Their restaurant reservation system was also strange in that you can only reserve for up to four people. We had nine in our party, so we made three groups of three when we reserved. But it also meant we couldn’t book a bigger table for our full party via the reservation system and instead had to politely ask if we could get tables close to one another on the day of. In the end, we ended up sitting separately for quite a few of the dinners.

Other than food options, they also had pools, a sectioned-off beach (with the finest sand! It was very nice), a 24/7 gym, and daily activity schedules you could participate in. The activities ranged from arts and crafts (aimed at kids, but later on I realized they were pretty cool, so I sat in for a few with the husband) to group exercise classes, cooking classes, and karaoke. They also had nightly performances that took place in the hotel lobby or by the pool! These ranged from singers to violinists to Cyr Wheel performances. A spa was on-site, but I found it too pricey for me, so we booked a spa session in town instead for one of our days in PV.

We left Vancouver at 10 AM and arrived at our resort around 4 or 5PM on July 6th. That’s where I first got pretty confused about the dining options. They mentioned the dinner buffet wasn’t open, and that we’d have to get a reservation at one of the restaurants that were open. There were four open that night, but almost all of them were fully booked—especially for our party of nine.

We ended up being taken in by La Luce, the resort’s Italian restaurant. I was hungry, but the food there was pretty meh. I think that’s my overall review of the food at our resort! A lot of it felt overly salted or otherwise mediocre. There were a few standout dishes during my stay, but for the most part, it was just okay. The carbonara we got here was almost watery and too salty. The lasagna, I’m told, was also too salty.

After dinner, we went up to check out the family lounge, El Rincon. There, you could grab snacks, as well as crepes and ice cream! It had been a long day, so we soon retired to our respective rooms to rest up.

Day 2 was a chill day. We had the breakfast buffet at Vela (their buffet restaurant), and the variety of options was great! I wish the buffet was open all the time. Perhaps I’m too used to dining options on cruises—they usually always make sure there’s at least a buffet open so people can freely grab what they want.

Continuing on with our chill day, we spent lots of time at the beach and pool. I also got bitten by a lot of mosquitoes. I was applying mosquito repellent pretty diligently, but I am always a major target for them :’ ) It also doesn’t help that when I get in and out of the water, my repellent washes off, and my blood is up for grabs for a bit.

One of these instances happened to be when S and I did the aquatic fitness board activity that was going on at the adult pool. It was pretty challenging trying not to fall into the water, but I think we did fairly well! We were among the last two people standing who didn’t fall while stretching and navigating different yoga poses.

Lunch was at Cocomar, a seafood lunch restaurant. It was one of the few lunch options available at the Hilton. I tried quite a few of the ceviche dishes, but I narrowed down my two favorite dishes here to the salmon and octopus tiradito! Although this restaurant wasn’t air-conditioned, the food they served was nice and cool, and that worked out.

After resting up and all of us doing our own thing for a bit, we reconvened to eat dinner at Maxal, the hotel’s Mexican restaurant. They started us off with tableside, freshly made guacamole. The food was ok. I liked the grilled shrimp and the guac, but you’d think the Mexican restaurant would be the best. However, the mole, tacos, and other dishes really weren’t wowing us. Maybe we’re spoiled with good Mexican food in Vancouver?

We ended the night by learning how to play Racing Demons in one of our rooms from my sister-in-law! Afterwards, S and I ordered late-night room service, which consisted of decaf coffee for him (he wanted to make an affogato in our room) and wings for me!

The next day, we once again did the breakfast buffet and then headed off to the beach again. This time, it was because our little nephews told us that there was a corner of the beach where there were lots of fish! The water was so clear you could see the yellow and blue fish swimming all around you even without goggles.

We hung out at the beach until lunch, and this time we went to the food trucks near the pool for some quick bites. I got the mushroom ceviche since it was so hot that I couldn’t stomach a burger, but it was quite disappointing.

At around 1:15 PM, S and one of my sister-in-laws took an Uber into Zona Romantica for a massage at Elite Spa PV. The spa was great: air conditioned, their staff spoke English (so it was easier to communicate what we wanted), and it had a very clean and relaxing atmosphere. We then walked around the town for a bit and got shrimp on a stick off a beachside vendor! This was S and my favorite snack from PV years ago! We also stopped by a big drugstore to pick up some snacks and soaps, and then we took an Uber back to our hotel to hang out with our family.

Dinner that night was at Auma, the steakhouse on the resort property. The filet mignon I ordered was really good, and so was the octopus. The major drawback was that this restaurant didn’t have air conditioning, so it was quite stifling to eat a bunch of meat while battling the heat.

Day four, we ate at the breakfast buffet and then did an activity they were hosting poolside: learning about Huichol bead art! We got to decorate our own wooden turtles. It was fun, and it was a neat thing to bring home. We later had lunch at Cocomar again. My standard order there became two salmon tiraditos and one octopus one. I went with one of my sister-in-laws to the gym. I mainly just walked on the treadmill to get some movement in. I had slept poorly the night prior so I needed a nap after all this.

Later at night, we went to Sunan, our resort’s Asian restaurant. There was a wide mix of Asian cuisines here, ranging from Japanese, to Thai, to Korean, to Malaysian. There were hits and misses, and again, I think a lot of their sauces were too salty. But the pad thai I got was very good! It was actually one of my favorite dishes I had at the resort. After dinner, we had a quick hangout with everyone at the family lounge, and then it was time to call it a night.

On day five, we started off with the breakfast buffet (of course), but then it was a family outing day! We all took Ubers into town to visit the boardwalk and shop around for souvenirs. We checked out the church, the various art displays, and I haggled with a variety of vendors both for myself and for our family’s purchases.

Given the heat, we headed back to the hotel after about three hours of walking under the blistering sun to rest up. That night, we dressed up for some family photos so we could have some group shots for our families back home.

We initially had reservations for the steakhouse again, but the buffet was actually open for dinner so we opted to eat there instead! They were doing an Italian night, and the food was pretty good. I ate a mountain of (overly salty) mussels. It’s so weird because even the staff seemed not to know when the buffet would be open on various nights. So it was really a hit or miss whether we’d be able to eat there most days.

At night, we went up to the family lounge and got some desserts. I had a strawberry and chocolate crepe to go so I could have it back in our room.

Day six was our last full day at the resort. S and I went out to kayak right after breakfast since we wanted to go out before the sun got too hot. Kayaking was free since it was one of the hotel’s amenities, but you had to reserve a spot. Since we got there before they opened, we were the first ones out. I had a brief moment of panic when I got into the water due to how clear it was. The depth looked scary because I felt so high up, but glad we got to paddle around on our kayaks nonetheless! And also thanks to S’s sister who took some sneaky pics of us kayaking from her balcony lol!

That afternoon, we all split up for activities. Two of S’s sisters went to the botanical gardens (which I knew I wouldn’t be able to do since it’d be super hot), and he and I opted to take an Uber out to revisit Plaza Caracol!

We initially came to this mall 10 years ago because our hotel was almost across the street from it back then. I vividly remember shopping at the grocery store here. This time, we shopped there once again and got some essentials, Mexican hot chocolate, and snacks.

We also recreated some “now-and-then” pictures around the mall too!

Since we didn’t eat lunch at the hotel, we got to eat at McDonald’s! We love checking out McDonald’s around the world to see what’s on their menu. We got the Club House burger from their Signature Menu, which tasted like a better Big Mac, but with tomatoes and two quarter-pounder (instead of hamburger) patties. They also had a limited-time Sponch McFlurry! I was excited about this because I love Sponch as a snack. It tasted great and they even had some strawberry sundae bits mixed in. I also enjoyed the apple soda drink they served there (Manzanita Sol)!

When we Uber-ed back to the resort, we ended up catching the tail end of the lunch buffet (that happened to be open that day??). So I ended up actually taking a nap when the others went to the steakhouse at 6 PM because I was a bit full and I didn’t want to deal with the lack of air conditioning. However, it was also because I knew the resort was hosting a Mexican party across the street at the Hilton Convention Center (look at the double rainbow that appeared as we were heading towards the convention center in the pic!) at 7:30 PM and there’d be a Mexican buffet there. They did not advertise this party very well because I had no idea it would be an entire dinner and show experience! It was awesome when we got to listen to a Mariachi band and then watch a Catrinas show. The food at this buffet was better than Maxal. I had Mexican street corn, birria tacos, and more! It was a lovely last dinner at the resort!

After the shows ended, we all went back to the hotel side of the property. S and I took some time to check out places we never ended up going to during our stay, such as the Mojito Lounge and the Martini Lounge (which curiously did not exist when we went up to the floor it was supposed to be on). We hung out at the sky bar for a bit too and took some pictures!

On our last day, we woke up to our last buffet breakfast. I managed to catch one more arts and crafts session, and this time it was keychain making. We made our own little iguanas!

We then ate at Cocomar one last time, and I had my regular order of salmon and octopus tiradito. Then our shuttle picked us up at about 1:20 PM to drive us back to the airport. Our flight was at 5 PM, which meant we had some time to hang out at the airport. I also ended up getting a calzone. Shoutout to Balatro on the plane because it was the only way I stayed up so I wouldn’t mess up my sleep schedule entirely during the 5-hour flight.

It was a lovely week with family, and I’m glad we got to relax a bit! Although we went during the hurricane/rainy season, we really only got caught by one thunderstorm on the night we arrived. Otherwise, our schedule and activities were pretty unaffected!