| Fiesta Americana | Thomas ~ Canada |
August 2005
We spent 2 weeks at the Fiesta Americana with an all-inclusive package out of Canada, from 29 July to 12 August. It is a very nice, upscale Mexican hotel great for couples and families, located in the Hotel Zone (decent beaches and just north of the town – easy access via bus (45 pesos) or taxi – 5-7 USD).
Rooms are very nice, with marble floors. All rooms look out directly over the beach and have balconies (great sunset views). Rooms are adjoining, and if your neighbor is noisy, you may be bothered (this happened to us only one evening). The AC works too well – we tended to leave it on high when we went to eat downstairs and then turned it off for the night to avoid being cold, and to hear the waves at night. If your bed is still made up in the early evening, they turn it down and put out chocolates when you leave to eat – a nice touch. Beds are quite comfortable and the sheets and pillows really nice. If possible, get a room at floor 4 or above, otherwise your view of the ocean/sunsets will be blocked by the trees. Rooms with numbers above ?22 (e.g., 822-830) will give you a better view of the town and a poorer view of the sunset (at least in the summer). Probably the best rooms are ?01 (e.g., 801) – they look north, but apparently have an extra window looking directly over the town, although I heard that this may come at the cost of no minibar (not included anyway in the AI deal). The 9th floor is a higher class (and price) – apparently slightly better rooms (or apartments), and everything included including I think internet, personal concierge, etc.
The swimming pool is nice but never deeper than about 4 feet. Kids’ activities are good (FiestaKids). Food is more variable: there are buffets outside – the breakfast buffet is real good, although the evening one with theme nights (Italian, Mexican…) is less so. Or, with the AI plan you can eat in the inside restaurant in the evenings – linen table cloths and the works. The waiters (and indeed the entire staff) are attentive and friendly. Note, however, that only a subset of people at this hotel are on an AI plan, meaning that the selection is somewhat limited. We are vegetarian and the hotel told us to order what we wanted (whether on the menu or not) and they would try to accommodate. They were good at this but our food options were pretty limited (a lot of pasta over a 2-week period; sopes were made with lard, etc.).
An annoying aspect of the hotel is their administration of the AI plan, given that most guests have only breakfast plans or no food. Every time you order something (food, drinks), you need to ask for the bill, wait for it to arrive, and then sign it – a waste of time for their accounting needs. Too, water, coffee and the mini-bar in the room is not included – but you can order water bottles or drinks downstairs for free and carry them up. Given the choice of restaurants in PV, unless you get a super package deal at the Fiesta, I’d strongly suggest getting a breakfast only plan and then eat mostly elsewhere. (If you get a no food included plan, apparently the French restaurant right outside has a good continental breakfast). Too, the check-in staff, while friendly, are very slow, as their procedures are complicated. We had to wait over an hour in line (there were maybe 8 people in front of us when we arrived at 2 PM), and another 2 to 3 hours before we could get into our room.
The hotel is clearly the best in the hotel zone, with an alright and not crowded beach, and is nicely located – easy to hop on a public bus just to the north (left) of the hotel and head downtown (take the “centro” bus, or the “tunnel” bus if you only want the romantic zone) – 45 pesos only. The Gigante shopping center across the street and a half block south (to the right) has food, a large choice of tequila at least as cheap as the duty free at the airport, a cyber café and phone cards to allow you to call home. (Though from the hotel you’ll need to make a local (800) call to use them, and the hotel charges about $2 US for each call).
Finally, July and August is the national (Mexican) holiday season. In the hotel, the large majority of guests were Mexicans – often families – when we were there. (The only noisy people we saw was one small group of Americans – everyone else were very respectful of others.) This was a drawback for my 9-yr old daughter who doesn’t speak Spanish – she felt pretty isolated some days, having no one to play with.
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