Casitas Maraika

We were staying in Puerto Vallarta, but got a day pass to hang out on the private beach and eat at the restaurant. If you do the day pass: the uber from PV to Boca de Tomatlan is easy. It may be a bit of a challenge to find which panga boat is yours but be patient and they'll come find you. You'll be able to see whales from the restaurant, so maybe bring a pair of binoculars. The staff is incredibly nice, the music is awesome, and the food is great. There are several people who hiked to arrive, which is the only other way. If you're headed back to PV, it's not hard to find a cab. You may have to group up with strangers for the way back, but that's not too bad. Beautiful place to hang out for a day!

We stumbled onto this place while hiking and what an oasis it was! Luis served us some of the best drinks and food ever in a magically beautiful setting. It's truly the epitome of paradise at Maraika. The service was top notch and very personable and accommodating. Luis was gracious enough to give us a tour of the 'casitas' and wow wow wow! The way this place is decorated and laid out will blow your mind!! Like, how is it this awesome. We will be back for sure, to stay, to celebrate, or just to visit our old friend, Luis

Short answer: Loved the hotel in all aspects and would highly recommend to anyone looking for a very affordable and comfortable stay with photogenic amenities. Long answer: stayed two nights here with my girlfriend in January 2022 in the Guamuchil bungalow. I found this hotel through searching up the best day clubs in the Puerto Vallarta area and was intrigued by their photogenic and well manicured social media account. I was surprised and a bit suspicious that there were so few reviews for the hotel especially since there was only a handful of reviews on all travel outlets that were within a year old. But based on the price and the pictures online we decided to roll the dice. I’ll get the *slight* cons out of the way. 1.) If you don’t speak Spanish the website and FAQs will take some effort to translate especially the part about how to get to the hotel. It’s not overly apparent but to get to the hotel it’s a 50 minute drive from Puerto Vallarta and then you get picked up by the hotel’s taxi boat from the pier in Boca de Tomatlan. Getting from PV to Boca de Tomatlan is pretty easy but you need to remember to bring adequate cash! There are no ATMs once you get to Boca de Tomatlan and credit cards won’t cut it everywhere. We ran into this issue and didn’t have any spare bills at the end of the stay to pay for a taxi home which put us in an uncomfortable situation where we had to ask the taxi to stop at an ATM on the way to the airport which felt sketchy. 2.) neither myself nor my girlfriend is squeamish when it comes to bathrooms but be aware that it is Mexico and the hotel is pretty far out from metropolitan areas so the toilets are the kind where you have to throw your TP into a basket next to the toilet. Not an issue for us but I know my dramatic friends from back in the States would flip out at that. The many pros: the customer service experience was all around awesome and the hotel itself lives up to the filtered pictures on social media. After booking the stay I used What’s App to communicate with the hotel in English and would text back and forth to organize pick up from Boca de Tomatlan and to schedule a massage. Everyone was friendly and helpful and welcoming and made every effort to make us feel comfortable and ensure our stay was the best it could be despite the language barrier (our Spanish is just a step below pathetic but it wasn’t a problem). The bungalow itself was gorgeous and actually matched the pictures you see online. The bed was comfy, everything was clean, and the bar/club area was well attended. We ate dinner here two nights and one lunch and loved everything we had. Additionally, the margaritas were the best we enjoyed during our week in Puerto Vallarta. The fresh squeezed limes made all the difference. The prices were in line with what we pay for food in drinks in San Diego and Seattle ($10-12 cocktails and $10-15 food plates) where we live so it’s more expensive than other places in Puerto Vallarta but they made