I consider myself to be a savvy traveler and did a ton of research on this hotel before I booked it online. I've been to Puerto Vallarta in the past, but had always stayed at an All-Inclusive, or at a condo far north of downtown. This time around I decided to be where all the action is and stayed at El Pescador for 4 nights with 2 of my friends. We booked an ocean view room and enjoyed listening to the waves while we slept. The hotel is nothing fancy - but everything is there that you need in order to have a comfortable stay - clean pool, clean room, beach, and restaurant at the hotel, grocery store close by. The staff was very helpful and friendly. The restaurant staff even helped us cut up fresh fruit that we had purchased ourselves at the grocery store 1/2 block away. We went out every night on the Malecon and ate great food and enjoyed the fun bars (Zoo and HILO are fun dance places after midnight). We ate at some of the restaurants suggested on tripadvisor like Pipis, Le Kliff, etc. - but our favorite was "Fajita Republic" located in the Romantic Zone. The atmosphere is awesome and the food is amazing. Reasonably priced too! Many of the bars have all day happy hours which we took part in everyday.:) We did a whale watching tour, and the Canopy De Los Veranos zip line tour. Both highly recommened! When we were in PV it was cloudy everyday - but we had a fabulous time since there is so much to see, do, eat, drink, and enjoy! I will definitely stay at El Pescador again!

This well used but well cared for hotel is an excellent choice for the savvy traveler. Along with an incredible price per night, you get a perfect location, within walking distance to nearly everything and city bus stops on the corner for when you have tired feet. Clientle are quite and friendly. Good pool and one of the best beach access right off the north end of the Malecon. Rooms were adequate, but not for those who are expecting new interiors without blemishes. Ocean view room is a must with a loud surf lulling you to sleep each night. Staff is mostly friendly and helpful, though drink service is slow. Drinks were good and happy hour occurs several times during the day. Maid service is top notch and the grounds are impecabliy cared for. Bottled water avaliable on every floor with internet service in main lobby. Security is 24/7 and they are watchful for all who come and go and know their guests by name and room number. Guest tend to come back to this place year after year. We would definately do the same.

very bad hotel in my stay we had to deal with roaches and very very old rooms me and my wife are mexican and even we could not take it . we stayed at this hotel from jul 27-agust 2 and it was full of latin families that i dont mind but the pool belongs to the thousand kids they bring along. again i dont mind but sometimes u want to relax in the pool and it was packed from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm every day i was there. the front desk was not even nice to us that we are mexicans also very rude after half our stay there we asked for a diferent room and they did give us another one that was very new but there was a horrible smell from the bathroom like mold or something. the beach in front of the hotel is extremly rocky so it hurts your feet a lot, puertto has very nice beaches but not this one. the day u check in they give u a bracelet that u have to were and never take off very chaep and plastic, because of security they said ,for example that if u came in to the hotel late at night they would not let u in if u did not have it and well thats a lie i took it off the second i left the front desk and they never noticed ,one day before i left someone told if i had my bracelet and i said i did not and he said it was ok just to ask for another one free of cost and as soon as i went to the front desk one of the staff member said that he was going to charge me for it but i saw he was just trying to rip us off.
over all i spent a great time in puerto vallarta it has many tours and activities to offer great people and more tradicional than cancun but if i ever come back i will never stay in this hotel again , and dont get me wrong i have stayed in many hotels in mexico and i grew up verry broke so i have never had much but no person should go throug this i this hotel.

For perspective: My wife and I are North Americans. We are experienced world travelers and have lived as well as visited at all levels of accomodation. We are both 49 and appreciate good value but look for good neighbors and security. Our six night stay ended on July 23, 2006.
El Pescador was a fine place to stay and the staff was very nice. We do speak the language so that helped us. Check in and maid service was excellent. Our room was ocean front and the air conditioning was superior. The room fridge was not recommended to us and the advertising sign made it clear the expected cooling range was only about 50 - 60 degrees F. My only negative on the room was the same many others have said--the beds are neat and firm as concrete. We stayed six nights and stacked two bed mattresses after night number two. That worked really well, but no beds should be that hard. The on-site restaurant was nice and service was very good. We also enjoyed the convenience of on-site money exchange and internet access.
The location of the hotel is awesome. Great sight seeing, restaurants and a superior grocery store are just a few steps outside the door. The hotel is not new and you can easily nitpik the room conditions--bath is very dated and we bought and cleaned it with some Clorox on check-in. However, our hotel was very quiet and easy for sleep yet so close to the main night-life areas of town. A good value choice especially for about a two to four night stay.