It’s no secret that we love traveling throughout Mexico. If you follow us on Instagram, you’ve likely seen our adventures across the country.
My husband and I love to put our kids in touch with the culture of the region and the same traditions we got to experience growing up. For us, there is no better way to show them this than through travel.
Puerto Vallarta
While I had visited Puerto Vallarta before, this family trip was a first for Danny and the kids. Puerto Vallarta is a resort town in Jalisco.
It’s known for its beaches, lush landscape, and its downtown district that offers a range of boutique shops and flea markets. The cobblestone streets and church in the town center are especially beautiful!
Whether you are looking for relaxation or adventure, you will find it in Puerto Vallarta. The destination is also great because it appeals to many different ages.
It’s under a three-hour flight from Southern California and it’s certainly a region worth exploring, no matter where you live.
Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta
We recently had an opportunity to stay at the Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta with a partial hosted stay and it completely lived up to all of the hype we had heard about the Ziva brand.
Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta is a family-friendly all-inclusive resort. That means all food and drinks (with the exception of premium items), entertainment, and resort activities are included with your stay.
The resort has over 335 rooms and premium suites with amazing ocean views. We stayed in a suite during our stay, and we had plenty of space for our family and all of our things!
Property & Location
The resort sits on a beautiful private beach that’s surrounded by lush mountains.
The private beach makes such a difference when traveling with kids. You can relax on the loungers on the white sand beach or swim in the warm ocean water.
One of my favorite things about the Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta is the infinity pool that overlook the beach. My kids loved playing in the pool and I couldn’t get over the sunsets from the pool.
There are four pools on the property.
One pool is an adults-only section, and the other three pools are family-friendly.
Every day the entertainment team did a great job at putting on a variety of games, shows and parties to keep guests entertained.
Kids Club
One of the best things about an all-inclusive resort is the kids club!
The girls loved the kids club and the staff that worked at the Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta. Every day there was a schedule posted outside to show the different activities they’d be doing with the kids. This was very helpful in helping plan out our day and so the kids would know what time they’d need to check in for certain activities.
My kids have tried many kids clubs in the past and one of the things they would always complain about is feeling stuck. This was not the case at the Hyatt Ziva.
The friendly staff would walk the kids back to us as soon as they were ready to leave and done with their activity. This really helped the kids feel comfortable and it’s the reason why they kept wanting to go back!
Activities and Entertainment
When it comes to choosing a hotel, activities and entertainment always play a big role in our decision. We want to find places that not only are fun for the kids, but us parents need to be able to enjoy ourselves too.
The Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta has a great entertainment team that keeps guests of all ages smiling and engaged all day long.
During the day, you will find fun games and activities by the pool.
Danny participated in a football throwing challenge and even won a gift card to the spa! They also had beach volleyball, corn hole, bingo, and other games throughout the day. The team did a great job at getting guests to participate in on the fun.
One of the days, the entertainment team put on a really fun foam party (adults only) with a live DJ, dancing and more. The foam party in the pool was a lot of fun and they had a bartender serving drinks for everyone enjoying the party.
Every night, the resort had live music to entertain guest.The music was always something different and always entertaining.
They also put on a variety of different shows- from circus acts to a mariachi band.
Dining
One of the first things I begin to research before staying at an all-inclusive resort is how the food is.
Sure, everything is included with your stay, but is the food actually good?
The Hyatt Ziva has several different restaurants on site, and they were all delicious!
Our favorite may have been the breakfast buffet- it was complete with fresh smoothies, pastries, fruit and a variety of breakfast options.
We also really enjoyed our dinner at Casa Grande, which is the resort’s Mexican restaurant, and Pureza, which was an Asian fusion restaurant.
We heard amazing things from other guests about the restaurant BlaZe, but we did not get around to trying it as the kids convinced us that our last night was better spent with a night swim.
Regardless of where you dine at the Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta, you are guaranteed to find something you like.
Turtle Sanctuary
I may have possibly saved the absolute best for last, but this truly was the highlight of our trip.
From August to December, sea turtles make their way to the shore to lay their eggs on the beaches of Puerto Vallarta. It’s a bucket list thing that I think everyone should experience and I am so glad we got to take part in this!
The Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta has a Turtle Sanctuary and a biologist on site to help care for the sea turtles.
They carefully move their eggs into sanctuary to keep them safe from other animals and tourists. Once they hatch, they invite guest to participate in the sea turtle release.
It’s an amazing experience and a really great activity to plan a trip around!
When to visit
A quick google search will probably tell you the best time to visit Puerto Vallarta is during their dry season, which runs from December to April.
However, I am going to suggest the complete opposite and suggest a trip during their off season.
While I would not recommend traveling in the peak of summer as that tends to be their hurricane season. A trip in September or October is ideal. You will still experience the rainy season and likely to get scattered showers during some part of your trip, but the lush scenery makes it so beautiful.
We visited the last week of September and loved this time of year. We had a few rain storms at night, but it never impacted our plans during the day. It’s also the best time of year if you’d like to see the sea turtle release at the Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta
Looking for more?
You might be interested in a trip to Cancun or help build your trip around our guide to the best beaches in Mexico.
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