Royal Decameron Tropical Reviews

This was our first longhaul holiday. And what a holiday it was.
First the flights. On the way out there was an 8 hour delay due to a technical problem with the aircraft,better for them to fix it on the ground, but First Choice gave us vouchers to buy food and drinks ( nearly £40 in all) and what was not spent in the airport could be spent on the aircraft. It was a long flight (13 1/2 hrs) but the inflight entertainment was great, your own tv screen in the back of the chairs with a good choice of films,games,programs and music to chose from. The meal and snacks were o.k. too.
On arrival at puerto vallarta we were quickly through and onto our coach (about an hour and then a 30 minutes drive to the hotel.We arrived at about 2-3am and they had kept a snackbar open for us to go to if we wished ( there were about 40 guests arrived.)

After a good nights sleep and a good breakfast we decided to view the complex.
It is HUGE. 5 pools plus splash pools for kids. 3 buffet restaurants, 5 speciality restaurants and 2 snack bars, plenty of bars, great beach, fantastic gardens and loads more.
The rooms... We had two rooms of good size, a kingsize bed in one which is over 6 foot wide and a twin which had two double beds. Both rooms had large walk in showers,a large wardrobe,cupboards etc. a t.v. with lots of channels including american news and film channels and a balcony with table and chairs. We were in block 4 which is right near the beach, in fact its near everything except the evening entertainment and probably the best block out of the 5 or 6 .

The food.... If you want good old British food then stay in Britain. It's good food and somedays very good. Mexican food ,fish , pork, beef etc rice, potatos, pasta etc . If you go hungry you must be a fussy eater.
The snack bar serves burgers hotdogs pizza and fries from 11:00 to 17:00 . We used it some days for our youngest but its right next to one of the main buffet restaurants so we could use both and carry the food from one to the other.
Drinks .... Plenty of choice and plenty of bars to choose them from.
The hotel itself.... The hotel is great. plenty to do. Very clean. Good staff. Lovely tropical gardens to walk around with green lizards Iguanas , and geckos all freely walking around. Huge Butterflies , Pelicans , and other large birds flying around.
The pools....5 great pools ( 1 adults only) kids pools and Jacuzzies. all the pools we used ( and i think the rest too)are a max of about 4 1/2 ft deep.

Days out.... We went swimming with Dolphins.Brilliant is the only word to describe it. And we did a day out were you fly to a couple of the local villages in the mountains/jungle in a small 12 seater light aircraft .Sample real local food and learn about the area and the local people . This is a fantastic day but is expensive ( about £75 each but worth every penny).
The bad bits .... I say bad bits but they were just silly annoying things .
1. Trying to get a cup of tea/ coffee in the morning. Sometimes you have finished eating before the restaurant staff come around to ask if you want a tea or coffee. MY TIP .. sit near the staff areas.
2. Trying to get drinks in the evning. do the same as above.
Thats the bad bits , but another tip . Buy cold drink flasks , the bar staff fill these up , this keeps the drinks cold and stops the wasps getting into your drinks.
3. a fridge in the rooms would be ideal.

The weather was HOT HOT HOT . There were some fantastic thunderstorms of an evening which everybody loved to watch and some great sunsets .
Overall.... Would i recommend this hotel? YES definately.
Would i go back again ? YES
Finally score out of ten for the overall holiday 9/10..

One of the items on my list of things to do before I die was to dip my toe in the Pacific Ocean. The most practical way to do this was, I figured, a holiday to Mexico.

I booked my holiday via the Teletext web site. I initially saw an AI holiday to Puerto Vallarta for 14 nights for about £740 p.p. leaving on Easter Monday, through a company called globallatedeals.com so I gave them a call. The girl at the other end was ever so helpful, and informed me that if I left a day earler I could have 15 nights for £619 p.p.

Having never been on an AI holiday before I was a little wary as I'd noticed from brochures that the standard, and what is included, can vary greatly, so I asked if she could fax through the brochure details, which she duly did. It looked OK and though I also knew nothing about Mexico I took the plunge.

Being a late deal, booked about three weeks before departure, we were unable to book premium or leg room seats, which was a bit of a worry as Dawn takes medication before a flight due to a previous DVT, but were told if we got to the airport early we may be able to book them on the day, as they hold a few back. I didn't believe this but as it turned out we did get there early, and for an extra £25 each were able to book exit aisle leg room seats, which was well worth it. By the way, these have probably as much, if not more, leg room than the premium seats. I know the premium seats have free drinks, but at circa £200 I don't think even I could drink enough to make it cost effective.

The flight from Gatwick is the worst part of the holiday, long, very very long. Re-fuelled at Puero Plata in the Dominican, and although this stop-over was only about 1 hour (not allowed off the plane) the total time was about 16.5 hours.

Short transfer from the airport, 15 mins wait on the air-con coach and then about 20 mins to hotel.

The reception, at first, seemed a bit cattle-marketish as we were all herded together to a reception area. I was beginning to fear the worst. Far from it. We were actually herded to a grassed area with seating and cocktails and breezed through a very efficient check-in. 10 minutes later we were in our spacious room, with one of the largest double beds I have ever seen, and a balcony overlooking the pool and beach (2nd floor, or 3rd to them).

The rooms are air-conditioned, although this is quite noisy. But during the dry season when we went it is quite comfortable at night to sleep without the air-con.

I have given the hotel an excellent rating because of what I was expecting from a 3*. It far exceeded that. OK the rooms were basic but with clean bed linen and towels everyday, Sat TV with about 5 English speaking channels with movies etc (takes a while to get out of the habit of reading the Spanish sub-titles whilst trying to watch).

The Hotel has 4 A-La-Carte restaurants which have to be pre-booked, and if there are only two of you you will be seated with another couple as their are no two-seater tables. There are a couple of very good buffet style restaurants with as much choice as you could wish for. There were only two nights when I was fussing around looking for something I wanted. Dawn is a vegetarian and she was delighted with the choices available, in fact it was one of the best veggie selections I've seen. The buffets were so good we didn't even bother with the A-La-Cartes much. It is possible to eat any time most of the day from 7am to 1am. There are several bars with various opening times which between them cover the hours 10am to 3am.

There is a free disco with free bar, which is in the grounds but far enough away to not hear and a nightly theatre show, which we didn't attend but were told was good on most nights.

The hotel is literally on the beach which is clean and has plenty of loungers as do the areas surrounding the 4 pools, one of which is kid free if you want a bit of peace.

The usual hawkers patrol the beach, but as these are licensed by the hotel they are hassle free if you say ";No Gracias";.

The bay the hotel is on (Banderas Bay) is beautiful and quite dramatic as the Sierra Mardre mountains rise from it.

The sea is wonderfully warm but the currents are quite strong. I noticed that the flags were always either Yellow or Red. In fact I also noticed the flag posts didn't even have a Green flag on them. So Yellow is the calmest you are ever going to see. Because of this the water is very murky, so don't expect to snorkel here.

The staff are very friendly and most have a wicked, very English, style of humour which I loved, must tick the Americans off though. Having said that the hotel is very much an American and German free-zone, comprising mainly of Brits, Canadians and Dutch.

It's very family/couple oriented with a pleasing lack of groups of drunken revellers enjoying themselves whilst ruining everybody elses holidays, despite the extended drinking hours.

Something Dawn and I don't often do on holiday is excursions but this time we did, and how glad we were. The best ones are booked through a company called Vallarta Adventures. Whilst they are not particularly cheap they are superb value for money. The best is the Marietas Island trip on a large Catamaran. Fantastic party atmosphere throughout, unbelievable snorkelling, a secluded beach to die for and an open bar and party music on the cruise back, with a host called Giovanni, who is one of the best and funniest guys you could wish to meet. If you want something a bit more personal try the the yacht cruise roun the bay with a max of 14 plus 2 crew. Went horse riding in the foothills of the Sierra Mardre, which is another must do.

A thoroughly enjoyable holiday at an extremely well run and clean hotel. There is an army of people cleaning all day, and night, long. Oh and don't take beach towels as they are in plentiful supply and clean every day.

Can't wait to go and see the whales in December/January. We did actually see one on this holiday which is extremely rare this time of year, that with the myriad of dolphins and hundreds of pelicans formation flying sealed it as the best holiday we've ever had.