Samba Vallarta - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

6295 reviews

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  Perfect for Young Families

  April 2025 - travelled with my wife and 1.5 year old son. We are both teachers and enjoyed this short vacation in Puerto Vallarta for the first time as we had been to the Cancun side of Mexico on the East Coast twice prior to that. Writing this review as a parent as we picked the resort mostly for its small size and accessibility for our son to have a fun time, so keep that in mind please. Food - Buffet always had lots of selection, I enjoyed when they did a taco bar with fresh fish tacos at lunch or omelets in the morning over on the far side - none of the food was undercooked which I've seen at nicer resorts so that was good, sometimes a few of the items were a bit dry but enough choice for us and the toddler that we enjoyed it. Shoutout Abigail and Salvador especially @ the buffet, great service. Another shoutout for Ricardo @ the Mexican restaurant, great service as well. Get the Shrimp Au Mezcal, it was the best meal I had all trip. Italian Restaurant was fairly average/okay. Rooms - quite dated but if you are booking a stay just for the rooms I would argue that you are missing the point of the vacation. Our son was able to nap in the afternoon for a bit to recharge his batteries as we had a third floor balcony room - my wife enjoyed sitting on the balcony during his naps and reading/etc. Only one elevator was working but no big deal as the stairs still work just fine for us and there was never really a wait if you need the elevator! Sliding door to the balcony had a small gap in the bottom corner and we had a beetle visit us one night but hey its Mexico, lots of different creatures around so you deal with it. Water worked fine, safe in the closet could have been secured to the floor in my opinion rather than the shelf as it was a bit wiggly but not the end of the world. Felt very safe as there is security cameras everywhere. Was able to do a bit later checkout to accommodate for my sons nap before we left for the airport. Pools/Beach - perfect for toddlers/young kids. So close to the rooms so if you needed a bathroom break you could head back to your own room. Pool bar very accessible, lots of drinks. It was lovely that they have a pirate ship with bigger slides for the older kids and then the small slide area for the toddlers - it kept the kids separated and my son was able to enjoy the slides without being run over by larger kids all day. Lots of activities although we opted just to sit back and watch. Beach was great, couple sellers walk by every so often but they are respectful when you don't want to purchase anything, no pressure was every applied to us. Ocean was seaweed free which was a change from Cancun so I enjoyed that, overall a solid beach area! Overall we appreciated the small size and accessibility as the prior resorts we went to were so huge you had to commit to going out for 4+ hours to make it worth packing your beach/pool stuff/etc. I can't comment on the night shows as my son went to bed around 8 pm each night so we just stayed in the room at that point but it sounded like everyone was having a fun time, especially at the fire show. We may return to PVR or we may opt to check out Cabo or even go back to Cancun but I would not hesitate to recommended this to young families wanting to try a vacation with younger kid(s).

  Apr 26, 2025
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  Week long getaway at the Samba

  The buffet has amazing food and excellent outgoing staff. Very family friendly. Provides so many activities and fun things to participate in daily. It was a joy to visit with Salvador every morning at the buffet. Shows at night are so fun to watch.

  Apr 24, 2025
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  Samba Vallarta offers old world charm with the comforts of a enjoyable vacation

  The comfortable bed truly enhanced a restful stay. Delicious food elevates the overall experience. Caring and attentive staff make you feel welcomed and valued. Salvador was a friendly face every morning offering fresh coffee, a smile and a warm laugh to brighten our day. The beach is phenomenal! All these combined created a truly memorable experience. Will definitely be back!

  Apr 24, 2025
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  The best resort for R & R

  The perfect resort for R and R! There are plenty of sun loungers at the pool and the beach, the fresh fruit at breakfast and Salvador’s friendly and attentive service at the buffet were the highlights for me! Room are and balcony are spacious (but could use some updating - specifically with the bathrooms and pool towels). Lovely spot!

  Apr 21, 2025
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  Canadians/Americans Not welcome.

  I really wanted to love this hotel. Yes it’s old, but it’s also immaculately cleaned and the servers and bartenders are friendly (although at times very short staffed). The issue I have is that it noticeably caters to Mexicans - not Canadians/Americans. This was evident when I went to the pool one morning at 9:20, and literally every single chair was reserved with towels, but no one was sitting. Zip zero zilch. Hmmm. So now what. I decided to email pics to the management team, and speak up to staff on site. 1.5 hours later, they offered to move a bag to free a chair for me. Yay. However… the mexican nationals who had “reserved” 5 chairs, came back and were upset with me. I explained you can’t reserve (in fact there’s signage everywhere), and they proceeded to make a fuss. They ended up calling me a “bit*ch pu$$y” in Spanish, and generally glaring at me. Fine. I can handle it. I went to the restaurant to get a plate of fries, and brought them to my seat. I didn’t know that you couldn’t do that. Within 60 seconds I had a security person, an activities person and another random employee standing over me angrily and asking me to go back to restaurant. No biggie, I did. However - their reaction to me and my fries was WAY beyond what was needed. Later I learned that the people who “reserved” the chairs were friends with the employees. I was respectful and kind the entire time there, I enjoyed the smaller resort. But i ended up feeling completely harassed and unwelcome. Not to mention unsafe. For this reason - I will not return and I highly advise if you are from Canada or America to not bother. Last, it was a holiday in Mexico, and it seemed like the few rooms they had were overpacked in terms of occupancy (seemed like big families would cram into one room), so the resort was bulging at the seams. No chairs, long lines and food containers at the buffet empty and not refilled frequently enough.

  Apr 19, 2025