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Our family stayed at the Dreams Resort Puerto Vallarta for one week during the 2023-2024 holiday season. We had a fantastic time at this all-inclusive resort. In this article, we’ll share the pros and cons that we’ve observed. We hope this will help your decision if you are contemplating this resort for an upcoming vacation.
Let’s jump in!
Why an all-inclusive resort?
Our family likes to try different types of vacations. Sometimes, we opt for all-inclusive resorts. They suit people who want to relax and not worry about anything once they reach their destination. You only need to decide which restaurant to eat at, as everything else is taken care of.
They are also a great option if traveling with a larger group or one with varied interests. Our party included 2 teens (15 and 17 years old) and 4 adults. All-inclusive resorts can please most personality types.
It’s worth noting that one of the couples in our group decided to stay at the Secrets all-inclusive resort during our vacation in Puerto Vallarta. Secrets is a sister resort to Dreams, and guests staying there are allowed to use all of the amenities at Dreams, including its restaurants. However, guests staying at Dreams cannot access Secrets for free, even if they are adults. If you want to visit Secrets, you will need to pay a daily fee of $50 per room for a pass.
Here were the criteria that were important to us when choosing a location for this vacation:
- A country and/or city we had not been to before
- Good beach
- Good food option
- Generally well-rated
We decided to book our vacation at Dreams Resort Puerto Vallarta.
Why we picked Dreams?
The decision came down to a few factors. First, it met the criteria listed above. Additionally, we all had a positive experience staying at a Dreams resort in the past.
Check out this blog post if you want to read the review of our stay at Dreams Onyx in Punta Cana.
Things to do
The resort is smaller than most resorts we’ve stayed at. Therefore activities are a bit more limited.
This wasn’t a big deal for us as we tend to mostly sit by the pool or ocean, read books, and take walks.
However, the resort does offer a good number of activities:
- 3 Pools including a kids’ pool with a slide and a lifeguard on duty
- 1 hot tub
- Poolside games and activities such as floating yoga, volleyball, water bike, casino games (which we played), and more
- Kids explorer club and Teen club
- Fitness Center (My daughter and I used it daily. It was clean and well-equipped)
- Tennis court, beach volleyball
- Free rental for things such as Kayak and bocce balls (which we had fun playing on the beach)
- Some level of evening activities (see below for more details)
During our visit to the resort in December/January, we noticed that although the pools were heated, they felt a little chilly when standing in the shade. The couple who were staying at Secrets reported that the pools at their resort were warmer. As with most all-inclusive resorts, the pools tend to get dirtier as the day progresses. However, I must mention that each morning, the staff spent a significant amount of time cleaning each pool.
The evening entertainment options at Dreams Resort Puerto Vallarta were quite distinct from what we have experienced in other all-inclusive resorts. While there was a stage for shows, we only witnessed one or two taking place and the quality didn’t seem to be up to our expectations.
Instead, guests gathered in the open-air lobby at night where entertainment often took place. We found this enjoyable.
During game show night, our family got selected to be one of the two teams playing. Our teenage daughter was horrified by this. However, we had a lot of fun, and the two staff members assigned to our team, Daphne and Edwardo, were excellent! We won the game and got a bottle of tequila as our prize.
Other notable activities they hosted in the lobby at night were karaoke and a silent disco which was more geared towards children.
Food
Our family isn’t a big fan of the buffet in most all-inclusive resorts. Therefore, we look for resorts with a good number of specialty restaurants. I’d say, the number offered by this resort was on the low end for us. However, the food was pretty good and we found that each restaurant had ample dinner options.
It was always just the four of us for dinner. We never needed to make a reservation. The longest we had to wait was about 45 minutes one night. We just took the buzzer to the lobby and enjoyed a cocktail while we waited.
Carnival
Carnival is a buffet restaurant. It is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We found that the menu didn’t really change from day to day and as expected could get boring pretty quickly.
Thankfully, our family isn’t a big breakfast family. Only my husband truly eats breakfast: I am an intermittent faster, my daughter only eats breakfast about 50% of the time, and my son doesn’t eat breakfast.
Pro tip: the bacon isn’t on display at breakfast. It is kept at the omelet station behind the counter. However, if you ask for it, they’ll happily give you a small mountain of it.
Apart from breakfast, we only ate lunch there twice. The fresh fish station is pretty good if you like fish.
Castaways
This restaurant was our favorite and served both lunch and dinner. We had lunch there five times and dinner three times. The lunch and dinner menus are completely different, with a wide variety of options available to choose from. We found all the food we ate there to be fresh and delicious.
There is no formal dress code since the restaurant is located by the beach and pool and guests often wear cover-ups over their bathing suits during lunch. At dinner, guests were slightly more dressed up.
Tamarindo
This is an authentic Mexican specialty restaurant. This is where we received the best service. The staff was amazing. The food was also delicious. We ate there twice during our stay. Although the teens chose to eat the same thing both times, my husband and I tried different things from their large menu.
The dress code for this restaurant is casual elegance and appears to be respected by guests.
Himitsu
An Asian cuisine restaurant with a regular sit-down menu option as well as a reservation-only hibachi side. We did not try the hibachi side but enjoyed one dinner at this restaurant. Personally, this was my least favorite.
The dress code for this restaurant is casual elegance and appears to be respected by guests.
Capers
Capers is an Italian restaurant that claims to be for adults only. However, we decided not to eat there because there were teenagers present, and we were disappointed to learn that when the adult couple from our group dined there, the restaurant was actually filled with children under the age of 10.
I was annoyed to learn that an adult-only restaurant at a family resort was off-limits to us, despite there being an adult-only resort next door.
Barefoot Grill
This restaurant is a casual poolside option with no tables. It is simply a window where you can grab things like tacos, burgers, and chips for lunch. My daughter enjoyed their chips every day while we were there.
Coco Cafe
This cafe offers a variety of hot drinks like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate, as well as pre-made sandwiches and pastries for a quick takeaway option.
Bars
There are two bars at the resort although I believe there is one in the preferred club section (which we were not able to book this time).
One of the bars is a swim-up bar in the main pool which you can also access from the outside of the pool. The second is the lobby bar. Both of them have waiters who can serve you where you sit (the lobby bar only has servers at night).
Although there were only 2 options, we never waited long and the staff was friendly and helpful.
We strongly recommend bringing an insulated reusable cup for drinks during the day to keep your drinks cool longer. However, don’t bring your favorite expensive Stanley mug just in case you lose it. Here is a great option that we’d recommend. You can even customize your tumbler as a fun option.
New Year’s Eve Party
If you are considering staying at Dreams Resort in Puerto Vallarta for New Year’s Eve, you should know that the resort throws an amazing event to ring in the new year. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the celebration, which we had no idea was even going to take place when we booked.
The staff transformed the entire poolside area into a fine dining area. The tables were beautifully set with gorgeous centerpieces. They installed a stage for the band and two dance floors (one elevated) for guests to party!
Upon arrival on New Year’s Eve, guests are greeted with a red carpet and seated by the hosts. The event features a large buffet with an abundance of food and attentive servers who ensure guests’ drinks are always full.
Throughout the night, there was live music from a band, staff performances, and a DJ. At midnight, a five-minute fireworks show lit up the sky.
The only downside was that there were no pool chairs during the day on New Year’s Eve. However, the staff worked diligently all night, and by the morning of January 1st, the resort was back to normal.
The resort tried to sell us $150 per person seats for the event. $600 for the night was a bit much for us so we did not. We thought this meant we could not go to the celebration. But that wasn’t the case. The $150 seats simply had sit-down food service. Everything else was exactly the same. I would have been furious to spend the money only to find out that other guests had almost the same experience for free.
Safety and cleanliness
We always felt safe at the Dreams Resort Puerto Vallarta. Vendors were allowed on the beach but they were not pushy or rude. They also never step foot off the beach and onto the property.
Additionally, each time we left or entered the resort, we were asked for our room number at the gate. The staff really keeps track of guests who leave the resort and ensures that they come back.
We left the resort twice. Once for a whale watching excursion and once to go walk around the old Puerto Vallarta. We felt safe each time and the romantic zone of Puerto Vallarta is beautiful. Be aware that although it’s super easy to get a taxi, they charge you whatever they want. We were charged $6 one day and $19 another day for the SAME route. If that bothers you, maybe consider using an Uber.
Although we felt safe most of the time, my husband left the resort to withdraw money from the bank. While there, his card was almost stolen by a local who pretended to offer help. However, my husband reacted quickly, realized what was happening, and went after the men to recover his card.
I would have preferred if the resort was cleaner. Despite leaving a tip for the room cleaner every day, their work did not seem satisfactory. The tables at the restaurants, particularly the buffet and lunch areas, often felt unclean. Although this did not spoil our trip, I cannot rate them 5 stars for cleanliness.
Other things to know
The check-in process, specifically the part where they tried to have us sign up for an info session for their time-share options was a bit frustrating. A lady spent about 15-20 minutes trying to get us to book this breakfast info session. DON’T DO IT! We saw guests who fell for this and had to spend 2-3 hours in the morning to hear about this. Unless this is something you are interested in, keep on refusing and tell them you will reach out if you change your mind.
In conclusion
Our family truly enjoyed our vacation at Dreams Resort Puerto Vallarta and would recommend it to others. We hope this review helped you assess if this resort is right for you.
Bon voyage!
Cat xx