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Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

When the school year ended, we packed our suitcases and headed out on vacation! I love to travel and explore, but sometimes you simply need a vacation to rest and relax. The Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta was the perfect place to rest, relax, recharge and get out a bit for some local exploration.

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

First off, The Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta was pure luxury! I am a timeshare owner and traded my points to visit this resort. When you are searching up the many different locals of where to vacation – which hotel/resort to book – it can get a bit overwhelming. When you throw in a large family and all of their different wish lists, the search can almost become paralyzing. Trying to plan a vacation should not be so much work.

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

When I found The Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta I figured that I found the perfect fit for our family. The place has two bedroom units that sleeps ups to 10 (if you use the living space sofas) with a full size kitchen, plunge pool on the balcony and beautiful ocean views. The resort is also full of swimming pools – including a lazy river, two wave pools, water slides, adult pools, family pools, pool time activities, and pool side service of food and drinks to keep us all happy. We also loved spending time sitting under the thatched umbrellas beach side as the waiters, on their beach Segways, delivered us our margaritas. Pure vacation heaven.

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

Beach side dinning
Beach side dinning

There are plenty of restaurants on site – but you need to book dinner reservations ahead of time. For whatever reason they book up! Maybe that was because we were a group of 10. We enjoyed La Cantina, Gong, Samba, The Burger Custom Made, Café del Lago and the taco stand at the market. All of it was delicious. Plus every restaurant on site asked about food allergies when we made reservations, when we checked in, and when we ordered. This was super helpful since my stepson has many food allergies. They were extremely accommodating and helpful!

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

Gong
Gong

There is a gourmet market on site that carries groceries as well as specialized departments of pastries, chocolates, meats, alcohol, cheese, and more. this is also where you find the taco stand. Mini tacos made fresh and only $1 each. Can’t beat that!

If you want to eat off the resort, you can take a short walk along the beach towards the harbor of Nuevo Vallarta – this is a beautiful short beach walk – and you will find more restaurants some overlooking the harbor and some in town. You can also catch a water taxi here. We took a taxicab one day into Peurto Vallarta for an afternoon – we had wished we had known of the water taxi – that would have been a more enjoyable and faster way to get to town.

Another family joined us on this vacation. They were placed in another tower, there are three towers to the Grand Mayan, and meeting up was very easy. The Grand Mayan is part of a much larger resort facility and the place can get a bit overwhelming. There are paths connecting the different resorts (Grand Bliss, Grand Luxxe, Mayan Palace), but once you walk around a bit you will understand the layout of the land.

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

They have a turtle hatchery on site, and given the right season you can see a lot of baby turtles being released. We saw a few that were being dug up.

We enjoyed the evening entertainment at the Santorium – lots of music and comfortable places to sit and enjoy. There is not much night life here, other than the Santorium, and our young adults in the family were hoping for a bit more. Heading into town at night might be an option for some – but not for our kids. We preferred to keep them close.

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

There is so much to enjoy at the Grand Mayan – they have a great fitness center, a spa, and golf. We did not have time for it all. We did take part in a couple of off-resort adventures. You can read about these here. Vallarta Adventures has some excellent outings and we loved them!

The Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta was a perfect vacation for our family. In fact we loved it so much that we are planning on returning another time to one of their locations. We are thinking Cancun! While we stayed at the Grand Mayan through timeshare points, you can also find units listed on VRBO. In fact our friends were able to join us by booking their unit through VRBO. Oh, but like all places in Mexico – don’t drink the water. Even though the resort is modern, beautiful, luxurious and they filter the water, it is still not safe to drink. Stick with bottled water – or the margaritas. they are delicious!

Our Week at the Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta

(48) Comments

  1. Natalia says:

    We booked the Grand Mayan for December and are very excited. It looks like a luxurious property. I only have a question. How pricy are the meals and drinks?

    1. Stacey says:

      Hi Natalia, I remember the meal prices as being reasonable. More expensive than the offsite restaurants but no where near what one would pay say in Hawaii. We did send the kids often to the taco “stand” to fill up on the $1 tacos! They were scrumptious and cheap. They also have a store that you can buy food to stock your room with. That helped a lot with breakfast and snacks as well. What I remember was the delicious food and wonderful service!

  2. Robert says:

    Thanks for your article! We’re going in December and this is the first I heard of the Baby Turtle Release program… too bad it’s out of season, the kids would have LOVED it.

    1. Stacey says:

      Enjoy! We loved our time there! So much so, we stayed at Vidanta Riviera Maya for another family vacation. https://positivelystacey.com/2017/03/exploring-the-ancient-mayan-ruins-of-coba/

  3. The scenery and food looks amazing! I’ll planning a trip to Mexico soon and will for sure be looking into this resort (and the activities especially)!

  4. CourtneyLynne says:

    Omg awesome photos!!!! Looks like you and the family had one great trip!!! I’m all about hotels with killer pools so I will have to check this resort out!

  5. Wow!! The plunge pool looks amazing!!! I’m putting this on my places to visit and stay (: I’m glad to see you had a wonderful trip with your family!

  6. Everything about this looks great! My son would have a blast here. And the food looks awesome too!

  7. Amanda says:

    I have to go there right now!!! What a gorgeous place! Looks like a really awesome vacation spot!

  8. This makes me yearn for a vacation! Looks like it was a blast, the food looks amazing too!

  9. This is a really beautiful vacation destination. I would love to visit with my boys since they love the water and the sun.

  10. Glad you and your family had a great experience. I would like for it to have more adult entertainment for me personally but if I go with my family I am sure we would have fun too!

  11. A gorgeous place with some tasty looking food! I suppose this better go on my wishlist because I’m in love.

  12. Wow! It’s so beautiful there! I’m making my little bucket list of places i want to travel to with my husband! I’m definitely adding this!

  13. This looks like an amazing vacation! I think I could definitely use a trip like this in my life…especially as the temperatures go down in Maine…

  14. The scenery and food look amazing. Seems like you definitely had a blast and now that I’ve seen where to go it’s on my list!!! Looks like so much fun 🙂

  15. This looks so beautiful. I bet it was a really amazing trip. I can’t wait until my children are a little older and we can do some traveling. So fun!

  16. The places is stunning! I love that there’s so much that the whole family can do here! It would be fun to watch the baby turtles being released at sea.

  17. What a lovely place! It looks like ya’ll had a great time and you have a beautiful family!

  18. This is so beautiful!!! I would love to visit. The food looks amazing. It looks perfect for big fun family that needs lots of space 🙂

  19. Robin Rue says:

    Such a beautiful place to visit! I love when I go on a trip and the food and atmosphere make it even more memorable.

  20. That trip looks like it was a fantastic time. The turtle bay is super cool, there’s nothing like a good relaxing vacation.

  21. Well those cocktails caught my attention. I love the views! What a fun way to have a vacation.

  22. This looks amazing. Like it has something for everyone. The food looks great too which is super important to us.

  23. In a couple of years, when our babies are a little older, we are planning to take a big vacation! This looks like a great place for a big family!

    1. Stacey says:

      There was something for everyone – of all ages!

  24. This place looks like a dream! That pool on the balcony is just amazing. And I love the view you had.

    1. Stacey says:

      Yes, we had an amazing view! We really got lucky on that one 🙂

  25. Kimberly says:

    You guys look like you’ve had a great time! I love the idea of going away with the family for some bonding time. You had some unique experiences.

    1. Stacey says:

      We really enjoyed our time hanging out together and getting adventures together!

  26. wow this looks like absolute paradise, what a great way to spend your holidays! Sun, sand, sea and what looks like delicious food too!

    1. Stacey says:

      It was perfect!

  27. Reesa says:

    This is the vacation of a lifetime! I want to go! That beach is beautiful!

    1. Stacey says:

      It really was! the whole place was beautiful and relaxing!

  28. Lesley says:

    We stayed here as well. I loved all the pool options and off-site options were great as well. We always have a great time in Mexico but this was a memorable stay.

    1. Stacey says:

      Lesley, that is great to hear! Yes, there were so many pool options that we all loved!

  29. The turtles. Precious. I am a sucker for animals and you’ve pulled me right in. I’m always looking for new places to travel and this is uber appealing. From the pool to activities – it looked amazing.

    1. Stacey says:

      What I loves about it was the mix of adventure close by and the relaxation and ease of the resort.

  30. This looks like the perfect family vacation spot! there is truly something for everyone! My kiddos would just LOVE that turtle hatchery!

    1. Stacey says:

      There was something fore everyone – a perfect place for all ages!

  31. wow this place sounds lovely! I would love to go during the turtle release season!! Baby turtles are adorable!

    1. Stacey says:

      Oh, yes – the turtles are adorable.

  32. Debra says:

    What a beautiful place to to go on a vacation – the pictures are amazing, I’d like to go tomorrow.

    1. Stacey says:

      We are absolutely planning on a return trip one day.

  33. Living vicariously through these images of your vacation! I really want to check this out, but probably wont soon! Looks amazing…

    1. Stacey says:

      If you ever get the chance – check it out. It was spectacular!

  34. Wow, what a fun trip and what adventures! I love looking at sealife when I take a vacation like the one here. It is always more fun with people you know, too!

    1. Stacey says:

      We had such a wonderful time! And yes traveling with friends is wonderful!

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