My family and I have been to Costa Vida (I refuse to call it by the new name, Playa Del Sol Costa Sur) six times. We own 2 weeks. We were there once in the winter and six times in the summer. I definitely prefer the summer. In the summer the main pool and two bars are the center of activity. There is a volley ball game in the main pool at midday that my son and I look forward to.

The size of the hotel is important to me. It's not to big and not to small. There are plenty of guests to interact with and by the second day the waiters remember what you drink. The hotel can only be entered from the sixth floor. There is a guard, bellhop station and the front desk at the enterance.

Two repeated complaints from winter guests are no lounge chairs available and no morning sun. In July these problems do not exist. In July the resort is only about 60% full. Therefore, there are plenty of chairs. In July the sun comes out about 10AM. The morning shade is a welcome relief.

Be sure to be there for happy hour. The drinks are two for one and they have great tasting, free popcorn.

My wife and daughter enjoy the walking tours, crafts classes and bingo offered during the day.

My son and I enjoy their modern, air-conditioned gym.

We eat about half our meals at the resort. We enjoy going into town ($5.00 for cab fare and tip). Pepe's and La Iguna are two of our many favorites. However, some nights we are so relaxed from being at the pool all day that we order from the restaurant and eat at a patio table and listen to the Mariachi Band that plays three nights a week.

All rooms face the ocean. The walls are thick. The only background noice you hear is the ocean. We have always stayed in the north tower. It consists about 160 studio units. The south tower consists of about 40 one and two bedroom units.

Registration is interesting. Since Costa Vida's time share week begins on Thursday, several of the guests on your plane will also be at the resort. Checkin usually goes smoothly, but to make sure it does the resort provides a "hospitality table" with free rum punch and margaritas. It is very popular.

The resort's timeshare pitch takes about two hours and is extremely high pressure. The discounts provided for attending the presentation are not worth it. In fact, they are not selling Costa vida, they are selling Playa Del Sol Grand.

We love Costa Vida and will return many more times. I think my wife said it best when she said Costa Vida is to good of a vacation, because you continue to think about it for the rest of the year.

We stayed at Costa Sur from Feb 4-11 /06. We wanted to try staying at one of the resorts on the mountain side of Puerta Vallarta to see if we liked it better than where we had stayed before on the Marina. The hotel is owned by mostly timeshare owners that own a certain suite for a certain week. So everyone knows each other. They are in the process of renovating and while the old decor isn't as bad as soom it does need a facelift. The studio above ours had a problem with the toilet water hose breaking while the people were away. It was only discovered when we starting getting water coming down from our ceiling in cascades. The manager and workers fixed the studio above us but could not do much to stop the water from coming in ours. We had asked to be moved to another room and were given a dinner at their restarant with limitations on what we could order. It was a long last night as the water had not stopped pouring down even by the time we left the resort at 9 am the next day. We do not blame the resort for the mishap form happening but think they could have helped us more in relocating. The road up to the hotel by either taxi or bus is an adventure but one of those .....i have done it and now would rather not. For us the Velas on the marina is wonderful and this place could not compare. Another insight for us was that we were so looking forward to the sound of the ocean as all rooms overlook the ocean. We were on the 4th floor and the sound of the waves crashing finally drove us to keep the patio door shut and turn up the AC. Was alearning experience but for our vacation we will stay at the Velas at the marina.

We stayed here in November (3-10, a very nice time to visit PV. Not too humid- and we had no rain..)
I liked this smaller resort. First the location: it's
south of town, and a nice change of pace if you are used to the larger resorts north of town. The coastline is beautiful on the south side, a lot of small rocky coves -and this resort had a man made jetty that created what really amounted to a saltwater swimming pool off the small beach. This made for great swimming (and snorkeling right off the hotel beach) and was great for kids.

It's close to downtown and the malecon, and all the great restuarants and bars- (10 min cab ride). It's very close to one of our favorite PV restuarants --"El Set".

The staff was friendly, and NO TIMESHARE SALES PRESSURE! I was amazed at this. We traded on Interval International, and were expecting some phones calls, etc. Nothing after check in when we declined the sales presentation.

We were in a one bedroom suite, and my brother was in
a studio. Quite large rooms, both had an ocean view and some small balconies. I think all rooms and suites there have an ocean view, from the looks of the layout of the two towers. Everything seemed pretty well maintained, though I think this place was built in the early 80's. Could use some updating, but really nothing too bad to complain about.

The pool was nice, maybe a bit small. I loved the ambiance of the pool area at night, with 2 great small bars outside for the tropical evenings- we stopped there under the stars every night for a nightcap after coming back from town. A band played outside there one night, I can't recall which.

There's one on-site restaurant, the food was decent,
but the service was quite slow at times. And at breakfast they pushed their overpriced buffet a bit too much..really my only complaint with this place.

Overall, very nice if you're looking for a smaller, quieter place, with some real mexican charm.

We just spent 2 weeks (November 17 to December 1, 2005) at Playa del Sol Costa Sur (Previously known as Costa Vida). It was our second visit this year (we spent a week in January) and we enjoyed it just as much, if not more. Being located only a ten-minute bus ride to town makes this resort an excellent site to enjoy the many restaurants in the Romantic Zone. The size of the resort is just perfect, not too small, not too big. The staff is friendly and the food at the resort is excellent and well priced. We'll be back for sure next year.