Puerto Vallarta: Hotel Villa del Mar (Hotel)

Address: Francisco i. Madero no. 440, Esq. Jacarandas , Puerto vallarta 48380, Mexico
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Lonely Planet review

This sprawling old-timer offers good-sized rooms with groovy old furniture and a patina of early 1970s decor. Kitchen apartments are available, and the rooftop affords lovely views over the romantic old town.

This one-of-a-kind budget place resembling a brick fortress came into its own in the 1970s and hasn't changed much since. Sometime along the way someone applied an awful lot of paint that is not quite orange and not quite pink but somewhere in the middle. The owners keep the hotel spick-and-span ('cleanness' it says on the business card) and the air is heavy with disinfectant. The cheapest rooms are tiny and dour with little light; you're much better off dropping the couple extra pesos for one with a terrace. On the roof are two desirable apartments with kitchenettes, a 'moon deck' and many nooks and crannies to relax with a book. The views over pretty Zona Romántica can't be beat.