Hotel description Casa Velas All Inclusive
Renovated in 2005, the comfort hotel is only for adults and comprises 4 floors with 80 suites. Many facilities are on offer including a hairdresser, a bar, an restaurant with non-smoking area and a public Internet terminal. Those arriving by car may take advantage of the car park. Room and laundry services round off the facilities on offer.
Room description
The comfortable rooms come with an en suite bathroom with hairdryer, a direct dial telephone, an Internet connection, a minibar, air conditioning, a digital safe, coffe maker, white goose down pillows, European bath amenities and bathrobes and slippers.
Sport activities description
In the hotel grounds there is a swimming pool and a sun terrace. In addition, guests are offered the opportunity to play tennis, train in the gym and relax in the sauna. An attractive golf course is situated next to the hotel. The hotel offers numerous SPA treatments.
Meal service description
This beautiful Hotel offers a luxury All Inclusive plan. There is a restaurant that offers Mexican gourmet cuisine and golf camp view, a pool bar in the pool area, serving alternative cuisine, and a deli offering oriental specialties. Sushi and delicious cocktails are served at the ocean-front Beach Club restaurant and lounge. 24-hour Suite Service is also available.
Hotel location description Casa Velas All Inclusive
Surrounded by a beautiful Golf Camp, this attractive hotel is situated in the tourist district of Puerto Vallarta in Marina Vallarta. The beach is situated about 1000 m from the hotel and the 15 minutes away by car from Down Town. Links to the public transport network can easily be reached on foot (500 m away). The Hotel offers a Private Beach Club, just 5 minutes from the hotel. For guests a transportation to the Beach Club and Hotel Vellas Vallarta is offered in limited hours.
Description Casa Velas All Inclusive
- » Year of construction: 1979
- » Suites: 80
- » Number of floors (main building): 4
- » Last renovated: 2005
- » Total number of rooms: 80
Hotel type
- » Golf hotel
- » Charming hotel
- » City hotel
- » Design hotel
- » SPA hotel
- » Theme hotel
Methods of payment
- » Visa
- » MasterCard
Room facilities (Standard room)
- » Central air-conditioned
- » HiFi stereo system
- » Shower
- » Satellite / cable TV
- » TV
- » Hairdryer
- » Bathroom
- » Safe
- » Tea / Coffee
- » Internet access (*)
- » Direct dial telephone
- » Minibar
- » King size bed
- » Double bed
Facilities
- » Sun loungers
- » Medical Service (*)
- » Room service
- » Cloakroom
- » Money Exchange
- » Laundry service (*)
- » 24h. Reception
- » Public Internet (*)
- » 24h check-in
- » Lift-s
- » Mobile phone network
- » Restaurant - non-smoking area
- » WLAN access point (*)
- » Sauna
- » Snack / pool bar
- » Fresh water pool
- » Number of pools
- » Parasols
- » Outdoor pool
- » Steam bath
- » Car park
- » Massage (*)
- » Special SPA packages (*)
- » Gym
- » Whirlpool
- » Bar-s
- » Hairdresser
- » Conference room
- » Reception area
- » Restaurant -s
- » Shop-s
Restaurant
- » Special offers
- » All inclusive
Activities
- » Tennis
- » Golf (*)
- » Aerobics
Interest points
- » El Faro Bar: 500m
- » Centro de la Ciudad: 6km
- » Malecon de la Marina Vallarta: 500m
Distances (in meters)
- » Bar / Pub / Marina Vallarta: 500m
- » Sea: 1km
- » Town centre: 6km
- » Shopping facilities / Plaza Marina: 800m
- » Beach: 1km
- » Restaurants / Marina Vallarta: 500m
- » Next big city: 335km
- » Bus station: 3km
- » Public transport: 500m
- » Golf course / Marina Vallarta: 300m
- » PVR Airport - Puerto Vallarta: 3km
- » Disco / Club / Christine: 3km
Before describing this hotel it?s worth talking about actually getting there. Assuming that you are arriving by air then the
hotel brief you to go to the VIP service room on entering the arrivals concourse. From there they will provide a free taxi
for you. Sadly between customs and that desk you will be accosted by an army of time share touts and their feeders who will
ask you which hotel you are staying at. The pitch is that the hotel intend to charge you $30 for your ?free? taxi at the end
of your stay, whilst for $13 (pay now) and a promise to attend a time share pitch (throw in two free massages at the spar
for good luck) and you are all set to save money. Except it?s a lie! (Welcome to Mexico)
The hotel do provide free transport from the VIP desk on the right as you enter the terminal arrivals area and they are fully
aware of the time share scam but because the touts work for the same hotel group they can?t stop it.
OK, so you are taking in the sumptuous surroundings of the reception area and are impressed by the friendliness of the staff
and their greetings. As many posts suggest these are indeed genuine. However by the end of my stay I had to wonder if the
men were being administered hourly doses of laughing gas and if the women had been extra?s in the supermarket scene of the
Stepford Wives. That said, I would agree that in some areas the service is superb, whilst in others it?s still got a way to
go. On one hand I have never had an unserviceable light bulb changed so quickly but also not waited so long for a pot of coffee
that took two attempts at getting the order right. ?Coffee for two? is not that complicated to get right in over one hour!
I used to stay at this hotel years ago as the Quinta Real and it has always been an oasis of calm and the rooms are still
unique and superb. My only comment would be that for two people the clothes hanging space is very limited and is located in
the bathroom area. This makes for nuisance congestion between one dressing and one washing. Also the free WiFi is only located
in the lobby and pool area. At over $400 a night I want it in my room! I would hope that the redecoration that is planned
over the coming year (2009) will cure both these problems.
The Emiliano restaurant is excellent and the quality of the food is very good both at breakfast and dinner. However, the service
and delivery need a lot of polish to call this a true gourmet dining experience. A trend that seemed to emerge is that the
chef places completed dishes under hot lamps and by the time it gets to the table the top of the food was either crisp, dried
out or burnt. This included a cold dish of shrimp and crab wrapped in Salmon rolls!! Having delivered a nice meal the whole
thing was spoilt for me by delivering both my dessert and coffee and liquors at the same time! No, you are not supposed to
do that! This is not an Irish Bar or Ruby Tuesday?s. The coffee comes after and there is no rush for us to leave! Also, please
provide a small fork along with the dessert spoon so as not to have to chase that strawberry or last piece of chocolate around
the plate.
Various knives and forks were omitted and had to be requested several times along with a rather curious system of administering
wine by the glass and charging this to your bill rather than just allowing you to order a bottle of what you wanted. As we
were all inclusive this only served to show that the suggested tip should be larger. (Once again, Welcome to Mexico!)
On the subject of tipping you can expect a false bill to be presented after all transactions with a 100% discount applied.
You then just fill in what tip you want to add. Frankly I thought this was a good idea and certainly solved the problem of
endlessly carrying cash around all day. You can pay cash as you go and the bills are then not needed.
The hotel offers a tourist agent desk. Expect to pay $60 a head for a $25 dollar whale watching trip! In our case we had to
pay cash again at the harbour as they would not accept the hotels reservation ticket. This was resolved quickly and our cash
refunded without question. However, it might be better to just do your own thing down at the harbour.
All in all I loved returning to the hotel and I hope that the above points are taken by them as constructive criticism. If
you are used to staying in vacation hotels that have guests with more tattoos than bare skin then the Casa Vellas will transport
you to another galaxy, but if you are European with experience of four and five star hotels worldwide then expect a little
roughness around a brave attempt to be a cut above the rest. Give it a try though. It is a lovely hotel.
