Mayan Palace Vallarta

oldie, but goodie Mayan Palace

We stayed for the week of Jan 12-19, after staying the week of Jan 5-12 at the Mayan Sea Garden in Nuevo Vallarta. We booked through RCI extra vacations. We don’t own Mayan Palace weeks. But the beauty was (and was is important) that the extra vacations didn’t carry any 1 in 4 or 5 rules. That HAS changed. Now we can’t exchange or get extra vacations to a Mayan property for the next 5 years, a bummer. We have stayed at Mayans in Cancun (south), Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta (twice), and Nuevo Vallarta (twice). We love the Mayan Palaces. They are noninclusive, have good restaurants and are beautiful and spotless.

We have been to their presentations, and everything that has been written about the time and pressure is TRUE. We resisted and don’t own there. But now that I have said that, our minds may be changing. We love Mexico, and unless you are staying at an all inclusive, your choices are limited, at least through RCI. I like RCI because you get a suite, with partial kitchens in Mexico. So, I may be looking to buy a resale Mayan.

As far as our stay in the Mayan Palace in Marina Vallarta, it was excellent. It’s smaller, and older than other Mayans, but that’s all relative. It’s still a terrific property. We stayed there 4+ years ago during our first visit to Mexico. The Sea Garden across the street is gone, and a Grand Mayan is going to take its place. The Bakal buffet with a different theme every night had 2 for 1’s, which made them very reasonable with very good food. Nuevo Vallarta Mayan restaurants where we ate as well with friends who were staying there didn’t have the 2fers. My guess is there, you are isolated and therefore somewhat captive, but at the Marina, there are a variety of restaurants, and therefore competition (and 2fers). Our friends from Nuevo ate with us several times and could still charge to their rooms in Mayan Nuevo Vallarta. When we ate at their resort, we could do the same. Very convenient.

During our week at the Sea Garden, we were asked to go to a presentation, which we declined. Nobody asked during our week at the Marina. But there were lots of others touring.

My recommendation. Stay at any Mayan property, they are wonderful, and skip the presentation.