PLAYA LOS ARCOS

Playa Los Arcos: an all-inclusive in the heart of the Zona Romántica

Playa Los Arcos sits at 380 Olas Altas, the most central address a beach hotel can have in Puerto Vallarta. Step out the door and the sand is in front of you, the liveliest street in old Vallarta behind you. The Los Muertos pier is two minutes away on foot, Cuale Island and its footbridges five. The hotel sells both all-inclusive and room-only, which is rare and which changes everything: you eat in on the evenings you feel like it and you sit down somewhere in the neighbourhood on the others. Built in 1979, it has around 170 rooms over four floors and it is being renovated in phases, which means two rooms side by side can belong to two different eras. Ask for a Premium category. That is the single best piece of advice an advisor can give you about this address, and it costs nothing to follow.

Is this an all-inclusive?

Yes, if you want it to be. Playa Los Arcos can be booked all-inclusive or on the European plan, meaning the room alone. That flexibility is part of the point here, in a neighbourhood where there is a table behind every door.

The all-inclusive plan covers three buffet meals, snacks, domestic house drinks with and without alcohol, Wi-Fi, loungers, umbrellas and towel service from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., pool access from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., the activity programme, live music Monday through Saturday from 7:30 p.m. to 10:40 p.m., and a seasonal kids club for ages 5 to 12. It also includes one à la carte dinner at the Agave restaurant per four nights, by reservation.

Three details the hotel states itself and that are worth knowing before you go. Included drinks are served at two bars only, the Tlaloc and La Iguana. Imported wines and spirits cost extra, with a fifty percent discount at the Mi Pueblito restaurant. And room service is not part of the plan.

If you expect to eat out more than half the time, the European plan probably makes more sense for you. An advisor can compare the two against your dates in a few minutes.

Where exactly is the hotel, and what can you reach on foot?

The Zona Romántica is old Puerto Vallarta, south of the Cuale river, and Olas Altas is its main street. The hotel fronts directly onto it. Terraces, cafés and shops start at the foot of the building, with no transport, no taxi and no shuttle involved.

The Los Muertos pier, with its recognizable white sail, is two minutes away. Cuale Island and its pedestrian bridges are five. On the far side of the island the Malecón begins, the seafront promenade lined with sculptures that runs some fifteen blocks up to the centre. Allow another ten minutes on foot to reach its start, and considerably more to walk its length. The municipal market sits at the island’s northern entrance.

One fact we would rather name, because it matters a great deal to some travellers and not at all to others: the Zona Romántica is the heart of LGBTQ+ life in Puerto Vallarta, and Olas Altas is its main street. Bars, shops and a stretch of beach cater to that clientele, on the streets immediately around the hotel. The traveller to whom this matters should know it. The traveller to whom it does not has nothing to worry about: the neighbourhood is mixed, family-friendly by day, and the hotel welcomes everyone.

How do you get there from Quebec?

Puerto Vallarta is reachable non-stop from Montreal during the winter sun season, generally from late autumn through spring. The flight takes around six hours. Outside that window you connect, usually through the United States or Mexico City. The season’s opening and closing dates shift from one year to the next, which is exactly the sort of detail an advisor checks for you before you settle on your dates.

From Licenciado Gustavo Díaz Ordaz airport, allow twenty to thirty minutes by road. An honest note: the Zona Romántica is the resort area farthest from the airport, since you cross the whole city from north to south. At rush hour the drive stretches. It is never long, but it is not the northern hotel zone, which is ten minutes out.

For the country, its regions and its other resort areas, our Mexico page covers the ground, and our Puerto Vallarta page presents the other places to stay around Banderas Bay.

Which room should you choose?

The hotel lists nine categories, which is a lot for a property this size and which the ongoing renovation explains. Two axes separate them, and you choose well by crossing the two.

The first axis is the renovation. Standard and Superior categories keep the original Mexican colonial decor, dark wood and tile. Premium categories have been redone: brighter, pale wood furniture, reworked bathroom. It is the most visible difference and the one travellers comment on most.

The second axis is the view. Saver Class and Standard Superior advertise no sea view at all. Superior Partial OceanView looks at the sea on an angle and has two double beds, which makes it the natural choice for a family of four. Superior OceanFront and Premium Oceanfront View face the Pacific head-on.

Above those, the Junior Suite adds a sitting area and a kitchenette. The Master Suite OceanFront adds a separate living room with a sofa bed, a dining area, a kitchenette and a balcony facing the sea. For a two-week stay, or for grandparents travelling with a small child, that kitchenette changes everything.

Our recommendation, in one sentence: Superior Premium is the best compromise on the list, because it combines the renovation with a balcony. If the sea view matters more than the refit, take an OceanFront. If it is the other way around, take a Premium without the view and go out onto the beach.

The beach and the pools

The stretch of sand in front of the hotel is called Playa del Sol, and it forms part of the wide arc of Playa Los Muertos, the busiest beach in Puerto Vallarta. Both names circulate and travellers use them interchangeably. Golden sand, open water onto Banderas Bay, and constant activity: vendors, beach restaurants, water taxis leaving the neighbouring pier for Yelapa and the villages to the south.

That activity is also the complaint travellers raise most often. Vendors come by frequently. Some guests find it colourful, others find it wearing. A firm and friendly no settles most of it, and it is a reality of all of Playa Los Muertos rather than a quirk of this hotel.

As for pools, the hotel has two, including a recent infinity pool reserved for adults, with a hot tub and an ocean view, plus a children’s wading pool. A second recurring complaint, this one more concrete: loungers run short around the pools at peak hours. Get up early, or settle on the beach, where towel service and umbrellas are included.

Eating and drinking

The main restaurant is Mi Pueblito, on a terrace facing the sea. That is where plan meals are served and where the live music plays, Monday through Saturday in the early evening. El Agave is the à la carte table, the one behind the dinner included once per four nights, and a reservation is required there.

Two bars round it out: the Tlaloc, under a palapa, and La Iguana, by the pool and on the beach. Those two are the only service points for included drinks.

The hotel also houses independent restaurants, at extra cost, among them Kaiser Maximilian, a well-known European address in Puerto Vallarta, Mar y Vino for seafood, Noroc, and a mixology bar. They are not part of the plan, but they are thirty seconds from your room.

Let us be straight about one thing: the hotel’s own food is decent without being the reason for the trip. The neighbourhood, on the other hand, holds one of the best dining scenes on Mexico’s coasts. That is precisely why the European plan deserves consideration here, when it would make no sense at all in an isolated resort.

The spa, the days and the evenings

Spa by Playa Los Arcos has four treatment cabins and opens daily from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Massages, facials, body treatments, reflexology, and a fish spa experience. Treatments cost extra, including for all-inclusive guests.

The day follows the rhythm of a neighbourhood hotel rather than that of a large resort: an activity programme, evening entertainment, theme dinners with a show. You will find no water park, no big production stage and no nightclub. The evening happens mostly outside, which is exactly what the regulars at this address are after.

Useful services to know about: round-the-clock front desk, daily housekeeping, babysitting on request, a doctor available at any hour, excursion booking at the concierge desk from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and a water taxi at the neighbouring pier.

Who this suits, and who it does not

It suits you if you want to walk. If the idea of heading out to dinner on foot, drifting along the Malecón at sunset, doing the market and coming home without a taxi appeals to you more than a wristband and a buffet, this address was built for you. It also suits a couple, a solo traveller, a long stay thanks to the kitchenettes in the suites, and a family willing to accept a hotel of a certain age rather than a resort with waterslides.

It does not suit you if you are looking for new. The building dates from 1979 and the renovation is advancing in phases: plumbing and water pressure are uneven from one unit to the next, air conditioning is noisy in some rooms, and room quality varies more here than elsewhere. It is also the wrong choice for a family that wants a water park, a year-round kids club or a four-bed room, and for a traveller who needs absolute quiet: you are on the liveliest street in the neighbourhood, above a very busy beach.

Two other addresses in the same bay answer related needs. Almar Resort Luxury LGBT Beach Front Experience is four hundred metres away on Amapas, adults-only and designed for LGBTQ+ travellers, with a rooftop terrace. Villa Premiere Boutique Hotel, north of the river, offers an adults-only all-inclusive in a smaller, quieter format, ten minutes from the Malecón rather than at the far end of it.

What to know before you book

The dry season runs from November to May, which lines up exactly with the Quebec winter. The rains arrive from mid-June to late October, usually as afternoon showers, with sunny mornings and heavy humidity in August and September.

On hurricanes, the truth is reassuring and verifiable: Puerto Vallarta is sheltered by the Sierra Madre and by the curve of Banderas Bay. Direct hits are extremely rare, and the last one dates from 1971. The city does sometimes catch the rain and wind of a storm passing offshore, which is not the same thing.

One advantage of this coast that Quebec travellers rarely know about: the sargassum that lands on the Riviera Maya, Cancún and Cozumel is a Caribbean and Atlantic phenomenon. The Pacific coast does not get it. If a seaweed-covered beach has disappointed you in Mexico before, it was not on this side of the country.

On paperwork, a valid Canadian passport is enough for a tourist stay, with no visa. Mexico is gradually replacing the paper card with an entry stamp showing the length of stay granted: check the number of days written on it, because an officer can grant less than you asked for. For current requirements, consult travel.gc.ca before you leave.

Booking Playa Los Arcos with an advisor

This hotel is a case where advice genuinely earns its keep. The room category changes the experience more than it does elsewhere, the choice between all-inclusive and room-only depends on how you travel, and the non-stop flight season moves from year to year. A Voyages AquaTerra advisor knows the address, knows the neighbourhood, and knows which categories have been redone.

Call 1 866 628-6241. You will reach someone who knows this address and who has time for you. We look together at what is actually free on your dates, we pick the right room, and we stay a phone call away while you are there. That is the difference between booking alone in front of a screen and leaving with someone behind you.