W Punta De Mita, Mexico [Master Thread]
It has its quirks and things that could be improved as any hotel under 3 years I find, but overall it really is stunning.
It is not a St.r style service / luxury feel but it certainly has a W Luxury and service that you don't find at all W's. The staff are superb and go a long way to making it what it is. The restaurants and pool area are very well looked after and very high levels of service more akin to Asia!
Still a few more days to go so will update more once stay is complete!
Transportation
You can get an uber from the airport for approx $17 (the hotel arrangement was approx $75). Though you have to walk 10min. off the airport and across a pedestrian bridge to meet the uber. Overall I was able to get ubers back to the hotel from downtown Puerto Vallarta, downtown Punta Mita, and a taxi from Sayulito. When you need a ride from the hotel you are "stuck" using their SUV service, which was $115 to downtown Puerto Vallarta, $30 to downtown Punta Mita, and $75 back to the airport.
I looked at renting a car. Gecko seemed to be the recommended service. For 5 days it was $260 for a Yaris, $300 for a Jetta. The drive wouldn't be that hard if you wanted to do that, and valet is free at the hotel.
Room
If I were to book again I'd stay in a "Jungle" room. When I was outside I was on the beach or by the pool, I didn't find myself hanging outside the room on the day bed in the "Spectacular Ocean"; so I'd take the extra room you get with the jungle. The Ocean Haven is a great room, big living space, the pool patio is nice, and it has a better bathroom.
Food
The breakfast buffet was $81 for 2, included bloodys, mimosa, and coffees - included with platinum status. This space also served dinner. The other outlet "Spice Market" had an asian flair; even on a busy weekend I didn't see many people in either at any given time. The waitstaff at the pool are good and attentive.
Spa
The spa is great with a private zen like pool, sauna and steam room. I was stunned by the design overall.
My gripe was the cost of cars getting from the hotel, but I understand you're stuck unless you have your own car - not just the cost, the distance is wayyy out there. I'm not sure why they chose that site, maybe that particular beachfront ヽ(。_°)ノ
https://vallartalifestyles.com/uber-puerto-vallarta
Regards
Last edited by Oxon Flyer; Jun 12, 2018 at 2:16 am Reason: Remove snarky side-discussion
W Punta de Mita
Km 8.5 Carretera Punta de Mita, Desarrollo Costa Banderas, Punta de Mita , MX 63734
W Punta Mita--an excellent resort with great beach, great service, and great food! (26 Photos)
W Punta de Mita
Apologies for the delay in posting this review from January 2018, but a hiatus from the SPG Forum left me unable to post this until now.
My husband and I stayed at the nearby St Regis Punta Mita in January 2018 for my birthday. Our friends joined us, but couldn't get an award room at the StR. So they took an award room at the W Punta de Mita. As these friends had joined us in Nov 2015 at the St Regis, we all had a great basis for comparison.
The W is an excellent property--one of the nicest W properties I've seen, certainly. It certainly had the feel of an exquisite "Retreat" W property despite not being labeled as such.
The lobby entrance is quite impressive and imposing with stairs leading down to the bar and oceanside pool areas:
There were so many cute niches on either side of that stairway where you could take a meal, snack, or enjoy drinks. We enjoyed a few rounds of drinks, for sure!
Walking outside, you get a great pool deck:
Another bar area adjacent to the pool:
And an amazing sunset beach view:
As you can see, the beach was wide and expansive and seemed to stretch for miles. It was a very nice soft sand, too.
Dining
We dined at Spice Market and loved it. Another restaurant space across from Spice Market looked quite inviting, too:
Spice Market was a very impressive space and an even more impressive food/beverage outlet.
We had an amazing dinner at Spice Market. The restaurant was our 2nd favorite of all those in Punta Mita, tied with Mita Mary's at the StR and just behind the StR Carolina fine dining restaurant.
The food was spectacularly good:
We were absolutely stuffed after dinner. Service was excellent and very friendly.
Our friends said the Platinum breakfast every morning was excellent. They also ordered room service breakfast one morning and they said it was great.
Our friends loved the food/beverage at the W. So did we!
Room
Our friends showed us their room. We took at buggy from the lobby to get there, a few minutes drive. Our friends said it took them 10 min or so to walk to the main lobby/pool areas from their room. It is a pretty large property.
Their room was VERY spacious, even if we aren't big fans of the decor.
Their balcony overlooked a large lagoon.
The bath area was also quite large (apologies for their mess, but they hadn't realized I would take photos!):
Plenty of closet space:
Our friends weren't thrilled with the decor, either, although we all thought the colors were true to the W vibe. Despite the decor, our friends really enjoyed their room and felt it was very comfortable, had great air con, great water pressure, and all the typical W amenities we tend to like.
We agreed. We totally could see staying here in an oceanfront room or suite.
Check In
Our friends indicated that their check in was quick and easy. They were upgraded from the entry level Spectacular Jungle Escape to a higher floor Wonderful Jungle Escape.
Service
Service for us during our visit was excellent. Our friends indicated that service during their entire stay was similarly excellent.
My husband and I arrived early and had a drink at the lobby bar while trying to look around and take photos. I ended up asking a staff member how to get to our friend's room, and within a few minutes, someone was there to try to walk us over. I was impressed. Of course, our friends appeared so that wasn't necessary.
The Spice Market restaurant aslo obliged us with a seating location we had requested.
Our friends indicated that pool service was excellent, and their cabana beach service was also excellent.
All in all, it felt like this was an excellent W service-wise.
Location
We were surprised that it was only about a 15 min taxi ride between the W and StR. The W is situated outside the Punta de Mita resort area, but it was very easy to move back and forth. Our friends taxi'd over most days of our overlapping stays to hang with us in our beachfront villa and private pool, and they were just as surprised as we were at how easy it was to go back and forth.
The beach location is truly sublime. A very nice beach, indeed. Our friends really loved it. They said it was very easy to swim.
The W is about 30 min from the Puerta Vallarta Airport.
Overall
We were quite impressed with the W. Our friends also loved it. We'd be very happy to enjoy a stay there at some point in the future--though I always will prefer the butler service and more quiet energy of the St Regis!
We have dinner reservations there one night, can you share what seating you requested and why you liked it? Thanks!
Yes, glad to finally be trying it. Glad we have a wedding that is forcing us to. My biggest hesitation was always that it was far from the Punta Mita restaurants, but we will only be there for 2 nights so I imagine we will just stay on property, and same with the st. regis, though perhaps we will do Sufi one night, which we love. Of course have a reservation at Carolina.
Does anyone know what is included in the continental? This will be our first time in Punta Mita without platinum status!
There a couple of things to bare in mind, however. On the weekend we visited, there was a 10 hour Riviera Sunsets “rave” on the property all-day on the Sunday. As the name suggests, this involved extremely loud music for hours on end. The music grew louder as it got later and we could ever hear it in our room some distance away.
On the Saturday, also, there was a DJ playing extremely loud music around the pool. It was clubby in its style, but yet there appeared to be hardly anyone in the pool enjoying the beats! Why bother with this ridiculous music? Or at least play something that everyone likes... more poppy or classic tunes?
On the Monday, everything was calm again and there was just ambient music playing in the background. The difference was astonishing and made the whole place feel a lot more special.
I realise that W appeals to a youthful and party-goer type of guest, but I also believe we should have been told before staying at the property, not so much about the Saturday event as this happens weekly, but certainly about the rave to which it was mainly out-of-hotel guests who were in attendance.
We were not the only people to complain. I heard dozens of guests with families moan about the loud music to which they were subjected to. Many received big discounts from their bill while others received goodwill points.
Of course, 20,000 points sounds like a lot.... but remember, it's still just 6,666 SPG!
From the moment you arrive at the 119 room resort, guests are welcomed by a colourful tapestry of Huichol art - a bright blue and green tiled walkway that appears to lead all the way from the front door straight into the Pacific Ocean. The colors and scenes depicted within the design are inspired by the Huichol people who are indigenous to this area of Mexico.
Guests are greeted with whimsical scenes true to Mexican culture. Mexican wrestling masks (Lucha Libre); historical figures with surfboards; mariachi instruments; sayings such as “Mexico es Amor” and “Canta y No Lllores” translating to Sing and Don’t Cry (a line from a famous local song which highlights the culture’s upbeat disposition) are artfully embedded into the hotel’s design.
The room is similarly decorated with a blast of Mexican colour from beautifully hand-stitch cushions and to stunning silver tin around the bed - giving the room a unique and charming local feel. The design is apparently inspired by that found in local churches
The walls are also quirky, decorated with the occasional figure from Mexico’s revolutionary war, although instead of carrying a rifle, they’re depicted carrying surfboards or boomboxes. The pictures are cleverly incorporated into the décor of each room repurposed vintage Mexican photographs of historical figures, such as Frida Kahlo, by Revolución Del Sueño. What a twist!
The resort has several different settings for its rooms of which I got to experience two types. The first is that of a jungle setting. Individual room are set among the foliage making for a very green and shady retreat. However, we found the room hard to reach with a small baby and so were moved to a more preferable location overlooking the ocean.
The room was differently again. Colourful and quirky only with an enormous terrace and private swimming pool. From the bed I could see the Pacific glistening away in the sunshine with a couple of palm trees swaying back and forth in the gentle breeze. Each morning I merely had to press a button to have the automatic curtains draw back to reveal the stunning vista.
The breakfast buffet is mere steps away with a superb array of offerings from fruit, meat and cheeses to other Mexican dishes such as chilaquiles (nacho chips cooked in red or green salsa) or even quesadillas (cheese and vegetables cooked in a tortilla).
Although the resort appears to vast in size, the rooms are situated around a lake or the beach. It means that the restaurant, pool and beach are all very close to one another.
During the day, I was able to pick between slumbering on my balcony with the plunge pool or sitting on a daybed by the long swimming pool. Just a few feet further and the soft sands of the beach were just moments away. The ease with which you can move between the beach and pool is definitely a plus.
On the weekend we were at the resort, it was a holiday weekend and there was a DJ by the pool on the Saturday day. It was clubby in its style, but yet there appeared to be hardly anyone in the pool enjoying the beats!
But worse was a ten-hour “rave” on the Sunday night. As the name suggests, this involved extremely loud music for hours on end. The music grew louder as it got later and we could ever hear it in our room some distance away. It made for a particularly loud few days - and there really was no way to avoid the music! In my view, this actually spoiled the ambiance of the place. The guests at the party had only come for that alone and were not staying at the hotel. I feel as though this should have been brought to our attention before coming to the hotel.
On the Monday, everything was calm again and there was just ambient music playing in the background. The difference was astonishing.
I realise that W appeals to a youthful and party-goer type of guest, but I also believe we should have been told before staying at the property, not so much about the Saturday event as this happens weekly, but certainly about the rave to which it was mainly out-of-hotel guests who were in attendance.
We were not the only people to complain. I heard dozens of guests with families moan about the loud music to which they were subjected to. Many received big discounts from their bill.
I’ve always enjoyed the W Brand of hotels, and although it is aimed at the younger end of the market, there were plenty of older people at the hotel (including those with families) who were not interested in this music. Ambient sound is one thing, but having it played all day long is exhausting!
Despite the incessant background accompaniment, it was still very relaxing to enjoy the beach, pool and perfect weather. For dinner, one night, we headed to Spice Market where the food was of an excellent quality with Asian and Indian influences. At one point there were outposts of the chain in London and New York, but now only Doha and this one remain.
One of the great benefits of staying at a resort like the W Punta de Mita is that there really is no explicit reason to have to leave the property for the entire duration of your stay. Everything is catered towards fulfilling guests needs. Room service runs 24hours if visitors don’t fancy the Asian or the Mexican restaurants on site.
Coupled with the idyllic year-round weather, it makes the transition back to reality when it is time to leave, all the more difficult - but I would definitely return, just not when it is time for an all-weekend rave!0
In terms of the food we thought Spice Market and the breakfast was exceptional… really well done. Lots of choice and beautifully set out.
Now some criticisms of the place....
What really DOES need work is the service around the pool area.
I really found this to be quite poor compared to other luxury properties in Mexico. Staff were not very attentive at all. It was hard to get their attention for drinks and food service and once food had been served, they wouldn’t come back for top ups of bottled water or to even check if we were enjoying everything. These are such simple things to correct.
I know this might sound surprising because there are a lot of staff situated around the pool area…. So you would think the entire area would be covered…. but trust me, it’s not.
It’s almost a situation where some of the staff seem to be on the lookout to help but in actual fact they are staring off into the distance and not noticing what needs to be done right in front of them.
I also found it quite nasty that empty drink cups and bottles would just be left for ages around the pool and Jacuzzi area. I know that they are plastic and not necessarily dangerous but it just looks untidy.
Some people would even eat ice cream, or whatever, and then leave the bowls at the side. It would be quite some time before they would be cleared away.
I just think the service needs to be slicker, sharper and more attentive in that regard.
The same is true at the main restaurant for dinner where we ate. The service was terribly slow and took ages for a simple tortilla soup to be delivered.
When the food did come, it arrived all at once! The staff brought a soup, fish and pizza all together! Totally ridiculous.
The fish was sent back but obviously by the time it was brought back, it was still warm but was dry. Very disappointing.
Also, we had some kind of creepy crawlies enter the room each night. About six centipedes/millipedes or caterpillars could be seen crawling around each night.
I think for a $300+/night room that there should be a greater effort made to combat such insects.
Last edited by Johnny Rocket; Nov 29, 2018 at 9:50 am