The San Marino is located on a nice beach in the "Romantic Zone" of Puerto Vallarta, which is a charming area of cobblestone streets, great restaurants and shops, etc., but more like the "real" Mexico than the line of glitzy hotels, isolated far from town, where tourists usually stay. Everything we needed or wanted was close by and we never needed to take a taxi or bus anywhere during our eight day vacation. We stayed in an ocean front room at this reasonably priced hotel and I strongly urge you to spring for the extra $10 a day for oceanfront. The room and hotel were spotlessly clean.The room was big, with comfortable beds, nice bathroom, great air conditioning, big TV, wall safe and, best of all, a big balcony that overlooked the pool and the ocean. There were several small swimming pools, one of which is reserved for the use of adults. There is a restaurant. As others have noted the food is undistinguished. Kind of like cafeteria, steam table food, but not awful, just adequate. There is a good choice of entrees, usually pork, chicken and, or beef, cooked vegetables, sometimes Mexican food. The one exception was the soup, a different one served each day, always excellent. It's an all inclusive hotel so unlimited bar drinks are happily served up. (If the Margaritas seem weak, order a shot of tequila on the side. It's free, so why not?). This is a hotel frequented by middle class Mexican families and foreign tour groups, so we had an opportunity to meet many nice people from all over (including a couple of newleyweds visiting from Siberia!!) We got a fantastic deal on this hotel from Orbitz (Orbitz Tip: We googled "Orbitz Coupons" and got an additional $200 discount each). Please understand, this is a very very nice 3 star hotel. It is not luxurious, but it is comfortable and nice in every way. We will go back to the San Marino every time we go back to PV. We loved it.

We were able to get a one week all-inclusive at the San Marino for $675 Canadian and were very satisfied with the bargain. The hotel is older, but the room was nice and clean. We up-graded to an ocean view which was definately worth it. The staff is very pleasant and the meals were good, especially the breakfasts with omelettes made-to-order and lots of fresh fruit. The lunch and supper buffets were not elaborate but there was always a nice choice of entree. The beds were FIRM but we slept like logs with the sound of the ocean lulling us to sleep. The location of the San Marino is wonderful since everything is within walking distance and yet it doesn't feel like it is in a busy spot. We'd go there again at the drop of a hat.

Great location if you want to be in the heart of the action - Right on the beach in Old town (Romantic Zone). We ended up booking All Inclusive which ensured we wouldn't starve or run out of Sol, however we really only ate breakfast there and spent most of the day away from the hotel on the beach and into town for later meals. The food is basic at best, seems cleanly prepared and didnt cause either of us any woosiness (aside from the occasional glance at some of the dinner items while passing through for a pre-drink beer).

We didnt use the pools, they did look clean and were reasonably sized, just not our thing.

The beach right in front of the hotel is busy and is beside the main fishing pier where there were always local fishermen hauling in their catches - charming really. The beach can get garbagie through the day but they do a good job of raking it up in the evening. Just South a few Hotels is the infamous BlueChairs Hotel where you can people-watch while soaking in the sun and sucking down the margaritas.

The room was 4th floor, ocean view and very large. However, there were some nasty dark corners in the bathroom and cracks in walls in the closet, the a/c grill was pretty dirty, some small stains on the sheets and towels - nasty eh. All that said, still cleaned every day and aside from the marks, the sheets were clean.

Overall Borderline and I would stay in a pinch, h/e, will try a different place next time for sure.

B&D
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Our group of 2 famililies with 2 toddlers just returned from the sunny beaches of Mexico to the dreary spring weather of Calgary. We loved the location of the resort being downtown in the heart of what is Mexico. Our rooms were both on the street side so we did incur some noise the first night we were there(Saturday), but after that we had no complaints. The balconies were a great place to spend the evenings people watching while the kids were fast asleep. The restaurant hours were not great for kids. Breakfast didn't start until 8:00 so we spent many a mornings over at Dee's Coffee shop buying some of the best muffins and coffee in PV. Suppers didn't start until 6:30pm so we ate out just about every night to get the kids fed before they became too tired to be strapped into a high chair. The San Marino is old but it is clean and everything does work. The waiter service during the meals was good, however there was no drink service to speak of on the beach or by the pool. The kiddy pool was the perfect size and depth for our toddlers and we spent many, many hours in there. Overall we had a great time for the price we spent. I would stay at the San Marino again, but would likely try to get into one of the other hotels on the same strip to see if we could get better meals and more suitable rooms (seperate bedroom for the kid).