We booked our 2 double bed Garden View room for 3 nights with direct flights from SFO-PVR-SFO through JN Travel Deals. For a family of 4, we paid $588/per person.

We had a great family vacation at the CasaMagna Marriott in Puerto Vallarta from Friday, July 11 through Monday, July 14th.

Our 3 + hour (direct) flight got us in at 3 PM local time. The PV airport is barely 10 minutes from the CasaMagna. We opted to share a wonderfully a/c'd van with family friends. We had the "express"/elite check-in where we pulled into the lobby, and were given our room keys and room directions. We had our baggage in our comfortable room (# 1058) in 5 minutes. My wife did notice a musty smell, but we cranked up the a/c to full fan from auto and dropped the temp to 68 -- we had clean cold air the whole time afterwards.

The room was fine. Comfortable double sized beds. LG plasma tv. Big clean bathroom (an absolute must for my wifey, the RN). We were on the ground floor and in the second to last room in our section of the building. We never noticed anyone next door which was great since our kids are 13 and 7 years.

Yes, it is the rainy season and very humid. But, while we were there, we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves that Friday and Saturday -- I guess it is the off-season.

By 4 PM, we were sitting at Las Casitas restaurant watching a squall come in from the mountains behind Old Town and were sampling the mojitos, banana locas and pina coladas. The food was delicious, fresh and resort price/expensive -- as expected. This was why we chose the CasaMagna; "Thanks" to Trip Advisor.

The rest of the weekend revolved around the weather and pooltime. When it was bright and sunny, it was basically sitting around the pool. Only on Sunday afternoon did it seem that the entire grounds got "busy" or crowded. We mostly ate meals off site at either the marina or downtown just off the Malecon, except for ordering poolside from Las Casitas. These other restaurants get the thumbs-up: Mr. Cream, Victor's, Los Chilaquiles, Daquiri Dick's, Oscar's, Vitea and Mikado.

The entire staff was friendly and approachable. Their service at the restaurants and around the pool was impeccable. They were attentive without hovering around, and were quick and courteous. And, in Mexico, they don't bring you the check until you ask for one. And, even our housekeeper did a great job of anticipating when we needed extra bath towels and getting in to turn down the beds every night.

The was remodeling going on at La Estancia restaurant and up on the top floor rooms. But we never heard any construction sounds the whole time.

We did opt to stop by the L' Oxxo 's stores to stock up on cold water and munchies when we could. We didn't bother with the minibar or the Mango Deli.

The only bad we experienced was that we had to leave and that our returning TED flight was delayed. The PVR airport, well that is a nightmare. And, we will be coming back.

I've stayed at Marriott Resorts in California, Hawaii, Cancun and Aruba, and I can honestly say the CasaMagna is clearly the worse of the group. My wife and I recently spent five days there on our honeymoon.

Negatives: I knew we were in for a long week as soon as we checked in. The woman at the front desk informed us that we had an ocean view room. The excitement of that news only lasted a couple of minutes because she then said we had two double beds. Two double beds on a honeymoon was not going to work. The woman then said that we could slide the two beds together and that they will put something in the middle so that there's not a gap in between the beds. I calmly reminded the woman that I'm a faithful Marriott Platinum member and showed her our printed reservation, which said I was guaranteed a king bed. A manager came over, looked into the system and found my wife and I a room with a king bed.

--Like others have posted on here, the rooms are nothing to write home about. Our room had a musty, mildew smell. We tried spraying the room with air freshner, but that didn't work. The air conditioner never got real cold, no matter how low you set it. My wife and I both woke up in the middle of the night sweating.

--Don't think you're going to be swimming in clear, blue water in the ocean. The water looked like it was sewer water. We stayed away from the ocean and swam in the pool everyday.

--No matter if you're listening to music or reading a book, the vendors constantly try to sell you things.

Positives: There's plenty of restaurants to choose from that's either on site or a short walk away. Try Si Senor in downtown. Most places are pricey, but what do you expect? Your staying at a resort.

My wife and I won't be staying at the CasaMagna in Puerto Vallarta again. The best part of the trip was that we left Puerto Vallarta and spent seven days at the JW Marriott in Cancun. Stay at the JW in Cancun if you want to stay at a nice resort.

We had a nice stay at the Marriott (6-27 to 7-04-08).

When we arrived we found a bottle of a sparkling wine and strawberries dipped in chocolate waiting for us in the room (we were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary), so that was a nice touch.

The room was clean and comfortable even though we did not like the bed because it was too soft. We did not have any problems with the a/c, our room was always cool.

Room service was excellent. Breakfast in the room was very good.

We ate at the Campion's Bar and at the Mango's Deli and their prices are high. ($4.50 for a bagel and cream cheese!!).

On our first day we went to the Marina and found Victor's Place.
Excellent food and service, if you go to PV you have go there and have the Lobster. It was delicious! We went back a couple of times.

We also recommend the 60-70 min couples massage and facial at the Venus Spa right there at the Marina. We paid $165 plus tip for both of us. We died and went to heaven!

We did not like:
1. The timeshare people following you everywhere, specially at the Marina.
2 The humidity, it was horrible. Sweating all the time. Thank God for the nice pool at the hotel!
3. When we went to the Mariachi Loco to see the Mariachi show and were told that they were having a stripper show (for women only) that night and that the Mariachi was starting after midnight.
4. Hotel charges for internet use in the business center.

Overall we enjoyed our stay very much.

My daughter and I just returned from a five day stay at this hotel and we were quite impressed with this property. We visited PV during July, despite the fact that we knew this was the rainy season and still had a great time. It did rain most evenings while we were there (and one full day), but we did not let that put a damper on our fun. As with all vacations, there were highs and lows, as discussed below.

First, the good news:
Off-season rates at this hotel are great. Granted, as mentioned above, you do have to deal with off-season weather; however, I think it is a good trade-off. If you will only be happy sitting by the pool or lying on the beach, PV in July is not for you. On the other hand, if you want to experience the PV culture, maybe do a canopy tour (highly recommended) and enjoy the pool and beach when the sun is out, you can do so at this time of year and save a lot of money in the process. Keep in mind though, even though room rates are low in the off-season this is not a discount hotel. It is a resort and prices within the resort are not discounted and can add up rather quickly.

Some have commented about the room quality being sub-par and I must assume that they stayed in the rooms that are not yet renovated. This hotel is in the process of renovating all of its rooms. Ours was renovated and was quite nice. Flat panel tv, tile floors, and typical Marrott bedding. So, I would recommend that when booking you ask for a remodeled room. Furthermore, the houskeeping staff was incredible. They did a great job cleaning the room each day, including removing all of the water from the balcony on days after a rain.

The hotel grounds and pool area are very nice. My daughter really liked the infinity pool and the swim-up bar in the pool comes in very handy. The staff does a great job keeping up the grounds.

Food quality at this hotel is excellent. I've learned that you almost always get a better deal at Marriott properties with the breakfast-included rate and that is definitely the case here. Breakfast can be quite pricey (in the range of $45 for two), so I recommend going with the breakfast-included room rate. There is an excellent Asian restaurant, a very American sports bar with average bar food, and two other good restaurants. We also had really good luck with room service. Keep in mind, this is a 4-star resort and food prices are far from cheap. In fact, they are quite high. However, I've yet to find a high-end resort with low-priced food. So, this hotel is no different than others in that respect. On the plus side, this property has an extensive kids menu that is included at all of the hotel restaurants. That is a nice touch for families and is not always the case for resorts.

The concierge e-mailed me the week before my arrival and offered to set up transportation from the airport - a nice touch. It was also very helpful to have his warnings ahead of time about the time-share solicitations within the airport.

The people in PV are very friendly. The hotel itself is a bit removed from the area, so be sure and take a cab downtown so you can experience the true Mexican culture. I was very impressed with the people and really enjoyed the city. There are also some great restaurants in PV.

Now the negative:
Despite the help of the concierge in booking airport transportation before arrival, I did not think the concierge service was quite up to Marriott resort standards. He did book our canopy tour for us (something I would HIGHLY recommend you do while in PV), but offered very little else in the way of advice. Thankfully, I had the Fodor's guide to help me out.

I had a bit of an issue with the staff at the hotel restaurant dealing with our included breakfast. Even though they ask room number each day and should have been able to match up our room with the fact that our breakfast was inlcuded, it was not a seamless process. I think they could tweak this process a bit.

All in all, this is a great hotel and one that should allow you to enjoy your visit to PV.