Stayed at the palladium from april 21-may 4. Very glad we booked the royal suites because the regular side of this resort was full of kids at the pool and full of drunks at the adult pool! The suites has a private lobby, pool, bars, and ala cart restaurant with other great extras like free Internet and safety deposit box. All rooms have a jacuzzi tub and a fridge with beer, water and soft drinks stocked daily. There where no kids allowed on the suites side until May 1st and fourtunatly not many showed up and the ones that did were well behaved. No need for Beach towel cards, the towels were waiting for you on the lounge chairs every morning. The only down fall of the royal suites side of the resort is the beach and ocean is rocky and full of seaweed. Would recommend this resort only if you book the royal suites and are a pool person because the beach is rocky and the ocean is rough.

Just returned from Palladium May 4- May 9. The resort was beautiful. I was a little nervous after reading all of the negative reviews but in all it was a relaxing vacation.

Getting There: We booked through apple vacations and flew with American. Flight was on time, transfers were included. They put us in a Taxi. The resort is about a 50 minute ride from the airport through old Puerto Vallarta. The drivers here are CRAZY so beware of this.

Resort: Check in was easy. We arrived about 2pm and the room wasn't ready until 3pm. The gave us our armbands and we went to the bar while we waited. A bellman took us up to our room and oriented us a little to the resort. The grounds are absolutely beautiful! Beautiful plants, animals, and gorgeous views!!! LOTS of walking and stairs.

Rooms: We stayed in room 2205. This is a superior oceanview room and we had a beautiful oceanview. The room was clean. AC does not seem to work well in any of the rooms ( we met another couple and their room's AC wasn't the best). We tipped the maid $1-2 USD per day and the room was well cleaned with fresh towels and the mini fridge was stocked with 3 sodas and 3 bottles of water each day. There is a mini safe in the room that is very nice for putting extra money and passports in.

Service: Bartenders were friendly and helpful. Not everyone speaks English but the majority of the staff does.

Food: Unfortunantly we did not get to eat at any of the ala carte resturaunts because my husband did not have long pants. They would not let us in. We did not know that pants were needed. So...BRING PANTS! We were stuck eating the buffet all week and it was not all that great! We aren't picky eaters and always found something to eat but they did not have a lot of "normal" food. There is a sports bar with pool tables that has hamburgers, fries, nachoes, and hotdogs. They start serving this at 6:30 (I don't know what time they stop serving) We did not get sick during our stay but one person we met did when they ate a hamburger from the snack bar so beware of this.

Bars: There's 5 bars throughout the resort that anyone can go to. There's one on the beach, one by each pool, one by the lobby, and hemmingway's bar (an adults only bar). The drinks were so so. Try the Mohitos...they were the best!

Beach: The beach was not the best but it's what we expected after reading the reviews. It was rocky inside of the ocean but not so much on the sand, there's just a lot of seaweed, they try to rake it off each day but it keeps washing up. There is a saltwater pool within the ocean that is very nice, lots of kids are in this area.

Pools: We spent our time at the adult infinity pool. It overlooks the ocean and is very peaceful. We did go for a swim in the main pool and that was very nice also, just lots of kids.

Activities/Excursions: They offer painting lessons on the resort, you can pain animals, bowls, or plates to take home for a small fee. Boogie boarding and surf boards are provided on the beach but they make you stay in one area where there are barely any waves..where's the fun in that?
There are night shows every night, they are kind of cheesy but entertaining.
We did the Las Caletas excursion. This is a boat ride to a remote island where snorkeling, kayaking, relaxing, drinking, exploring are offered. I went because I love to snorkel, unfortantly there was awful visibility and I did not see anything! This costed $85USD. It's a little overpriced but it's a nice way to get off the resort for a day and still be able to relax.
We went shopping in the little town Bucerias, we went by cab, costed 150 pesos each way ($15 USD). You can walk out to the road and catch a bus for I think $1 USD per person. We never did make it into Puerto Vallarta, I did hear good things about shopping there though, it's a $30-40 cab ride each way though.

Other Tips: If you smoke, bring cigarettes with you or go to town to get some. They were $7 USD per pack at the resort and $2.50 off the resort for Marlboro.
Tip the bartenders, maids, and bellboys. They don't make much and they appreciate every little bit. I only tipped maybe $10 total per day.
Like I said earlier, men BRING PANTS if you want to eat in the resturaunts.
Most places accept USD, the exchange rates differ from place to place, generally it was 10pesos/1 USD but on the resort it was 9 pesos/1 USD.
If you schedule a wakeup call, don't count on it, bring an alarm of some sort.
There are payphones with phone cards you can buy on the resort to call US and Canada. Our cell phones worked on the resort..only in certain places though. We have Verizon

In all it was a relaxing vacation, the only real complaint I have is the food. I would recommend this to my friends. Keep in mind that it is quite a distance from PV. Have fun, don't go in with too high of expectations and you won't be disappointed!!

A group of us girls went to Palladium for one week. When we booked it we did not know that we had an upgrade to the Royal Suites, thank god we did. It was luxury, we had our own pool, no children, an awesome restaurant with a menu that changed everyday and a pool bar that was never busy. There were always chairs by the pool, no matter what time we went down there. We wandered around the resort one day and night and it was chaotic, the family pool and the buffet were so busy we decided we wanted to just stay on the Royal Suites side. They are a bit under staffed but we were treated exceptional. The beds were comfortable, the jacuzzi was amazing, the view from our balcony was great (besides the scorpion that fell on my finger) and very big. Room service 24 hours a day, and quiet. We loved it, had such a great girls vacation, if we ever go back it would definately be in the Royal Suites... my only complaint is how huge the resort is, we didn't even see all of it.. However, loved it!

We did go to PV and it cost 35 US each way, good deal and to Sayulita-go there, it is so gorgeous and refreshing there. We were sorry we could not have more time there.

We stayed seven nights. There were 11 people in our group. We plan on returning because of the great service and the fun we had! If you understand Spanish everything is even better...

Rooms - We had 5 different rooms in 2 buildings. They were ALL clean and everything worked fine! Who goes to Mexico to hang out in the room? Not us! The maids were great!

Food: We tried the Mexican, Italian and Bar BQ - They were all great - Get the SPECIAL coffee at the Mexican restaurant after dinner. We arrived on a Tuesday and got what we wanted for the restaurants...The Buffet and snack bar were great. Especially for those who like Chilaquiles and are used to Mexican breakfast. If you think taco bell is Mexican - yes, you will be disappointed. When we had dinner at the buffet there was always plenty and no lines. Service was EXCELLENT and we handed our tips to the waiters. They will remember and give most excellent service- regardless...

Entertainment: The Mariachis were great and if you understand Spanish, their jokes are hilarious. Ay gordo! I only saw 2 actual shows by the dance troupe but the others in my group like the ones they saw too. Again, not here for that either, but it was fine.

Zoo: Fine and check out the crocks by the entrance of the resort.

Tours: Book all your tours through Victor at the tour desk. We found his tours cheaper and easier to book rather than through our Funjet guy. He will take care of you. We did his Zipline, PV tour (included a tequila distillery) and ATV tour. They were all great.
You are 45 minutes North of PV and 25 minutes from Bucerias. The flea market was great for shopping in either town.
The bus is 12 pesos or $3 U.S. dollars for 2 people...that was an experience at least. We used the resort cabs for a couple of things and had them come back to pick us up. They were great. Cheaper cabs are outside the gate and you can bargain your fare.

We also did a couple of things without guides but it was probably easier for us who speak Spanish. The bullfights can be booked through Victor and we did. Only 4 of us went. They're going to kill the bull if you go or not so we know the culture and had a good time. It's ALL tourists. We also went to a Charreada (Mexican Rodeo) in La Cruz de Hua. and that was very fun and the music was great. We were the only tourist but we still had fun.

The bars had fast moving lines if they had any at all. The beach and pools always had open loungers in the shade and sun. The ocean was filled with seaweed but I don’t do salt water so that didn’t bother me.

With what we paid, I think we seriously got our money’s worth after considering all we ate, drank and were entertained.