Me and my boyfriend went there Nov. 2008 and had a great time. Yeah, there could have been better food, but there is cheap, good food everywhere in Puerto Vallarta. The beds were hard, but if you have enough drinks before bed you don't even notice. For what we paid It was worth it. We are going back in 2 days and can only hope we have as much fun as we did the first time. It's an awesome location and you can walk to downtown & the malecon in minutes. Staff was friendly and fun. You get what you pay for with the Getaway and our up coming trip only cost us $1300 for the both of us, not a bad deal!!!!

Getaway - AKA the Ghetto Way

Hello all,

I am 34, single male and traveled to the Getaway alone. I read a ton of reviews and decided it was worth a try.

I will say that the people I met there made the first week awesome!! We had a blast morning, noon and night, and into the wee hours of the mornings. The second week I spent a lot of time traveling, eating off the resort, surfing in Sayulita, taking tours...

The tour I booked with the reosrt:
Zip Lines - awesome
Pirate cruise - FANTATIC
Swim with the Dolphins - pretty good
Banana Boat ride - fun
ATV's - lots of fun

I did book a fishing trip with the guys on the beach and it was great.

The Bars - Humm, well the one bar by the pools is open all day, the bar in restaurant is only open during meal hours, the main bar area is open after supper until 11pm and then they expect you to go downtown to party. The rum, tequila, vodka is very cheap stuff (labels on the bottle only say what is in it, for example, Vodka says Vodka on the bottle).
Beer, we asked for Corona the first day, the bartender told us we were S.O.L. and served us Sol, haha.

The rooms - There are two types of rooms that were open during our stay, both in the tower - Sea view, and super small rooms. The sea rooms are worth the upgrade, over looking the pools, wonderful sunsets, pretty big, and a patio.
The super small rooms are basic, small, hard to move around in, but you really shouldn't spend too much time in your room anyways, you're in Mexico.

The food - very basic buffet for lunch and suppers. Burgers at lunch are pretty good and Omelette's were awesome in the mornings. The a la Carte was only open Monday and wednesday evenings and was average.

The staff - the room cleaners were great. The front desk staff ok. The guy that books the tours was always great, even if you didn't book though him. The entertainment staff was above average and lots of fun, remember they don't have much to work with. We booked our fishing trip with the guys on the beach and it was fantastic.

Sunwing Tours - This is my third trip with them, they are still average. Our contact was never there BUT she was kool and gave us our briefing on the bus ride to the resort vs. making us get up early the next day.

Overall - You get what you pay for, it is one of the cheaper resorts, and it shows BUT I had a blast, partied hard, made some kewl friends, good memories and I don't think more expensive resorts would of been that much of a party.

** There are incredible sunsets during supper, we were also lucky enough to see the humpbacks breeching during our sunset supper on the resort.

Well i honestly dont know where to begin on this one ... my parents and i and a friend went here for a vacation and also part of a birthday thing as all our bdays are in april.
For a place that has allot of potential i dont know if i would recomend it.
There is a large outdoor stage at the pool area that is used only to play loud music during the day at the pool. This stage is in a wonderful location and would make for a great entertainment area if the hotel offered something other than karaoke at the lobby bar where there is room for maybe 40 people to sit. However, the stage is in disrepair also with lights falling off the front and it is in need of paint and other minor repairs. Right beside the stage is an outdoor buffet area that looks like it hasn't been used in quite some time, but could be a very nice setting with a little cleaning and maintaining.

The pool/beach chairs also look as though they have been purchased at that same garage sale. Most were very dirty and a lot were broken.

Food. Its probably ok the first day you get there when you have no idea that it was from the previouse day ot even week. Well, let`s just say the best thing was the omelet station in the morning. You could get fresh cooked eggs and French toast or pancakes. There was a buffet line also, but the food on the buffet never looked edible! That is the first I have ever seen hotdogs chopped up with onions and peppers served on a breakfast buffet. Not sausage, hotdogs. The positive was the fresh fruit. It was pretty good. You could get cold cereal which I suppose in hindsight was a safe option. When we are on vacation, we like to eat much better than at home, so cereal just didn't fit that bill.
Booze: well deffinatly could have been better, ur best bet would probably have to be going down the road and buying a bunch to bring back to the pool or ur room unless you dont mind waterd down liqour.
The rooms where somewhat ok but could use some work ...maybe bigger pillows and softer beds.
This place has so much potential to it the water fountains could be turned on and maybe open the swim up bar.
The staff are very nice and tried there hardest to be somwhat acomodateing. The location of the hotel is in a good area. If your into being up till 5 in the am partying then maybe this is the place for you its deffinatly not a place where ur gonna kick back and relax and have a nice sleep at night.

The worst week that I have actually paid for. The food was horrid. No selection and many days of the same stuff, and one woman spent whole vacation in hospital with food poisoning traced back to the beef they served us. And yes. they water the poor quality booze.. only the beer was full strength and it was the cheapest available. The liquor service was cut back to only in lobby, in courtyard and in buffet hut.. swim-up counter closed. The rooms were very old and in our case... smelly of alot of use and little cleaning. Our toilet kept plugging up with only tissue but no hope of repair. The bed ( kingsize..sort of ) has 2 double bed-frames of different sizes and a mattress with no springs.. a plywood board would be softer. DO NOT STAY IN THIS PLACE.. unless you eat out only and need very little sleep.. noise till 3-4 am .. btw.. only 2 robberies in the week I was there.. crooks hanging in stairwells got one guy... other in elevator.. BEWARE