Marival Armony Luxury Resort & Suites

We just returned from a great week at Rancho Banderas. We booked the trip throgh interval as a trade for our time share at the Shearton Vistana. We were four adults and decided to rent a car so we could do some exploring. The car came from Amigos Rent a Car. They were great, our plane was late but they were waiting at the airport with our car and we followed them to the airport. Check in at the resort was easy as pie. The room was a little dated and the furniture, expecially the sofa bed, needs to be replaced. But the villa was spacious and had a great view from our second floor balconey. There was no oven, but a two burner electric stove, a microwave, and the usual assortment of stuff, especially a blender that we used quite a bit.

The pool, grounds, and beach were great. One of the best laying out pools you ever want. The grounds were kept up quite nice and everything about that area were first class.

The resturant service is very good, but the food is just ok. We did a couple of nights there, including New Years Eve. The best thing I had there was the steak as the Mexican food was just so-so. Drinks are ok, but we did better mixing them ourselves in our room. One gripe was that you could not bring your own stuff down to the pool or the beach, you had to buy from the resturant.

The resort does have wireless service in most of the common areas. The pool, and you may even pick it up on your balcony. It was a little pricey, eight dollars (US) a day. They offer in villa internet service but it is dial up.

The beach, like all Mexican beaches, is not private. Rancho does rope off a section close to the villa property. But we were not bothered by vendors in that area. The Resort has plenty of security and they are very visible. But we did walk down the beach. A short walk south and you come upon an area that has food vendors, a resturant, and local wares vendors. None of them were pushy, they were all very polite, and if you did not want to buy they were on their way.

As I said we rented a car, but it was not really necessary. The trasnportation around the resort was very good. The bus stops right at the resort and you can get just about anywhere cheaply. I have read some other reviews that said the resort was somewhat isolated, but we did not feel that way. Las Cruz was just a short distance south and it is full of resturants. We ate at a street vendor that had the best Shrimp Burgers I have ever eaten (and I am from Louisiana), We also had Mexican food there that was excellent (and cheap). We also went down to Buceriaus where there is a flea market. The ladies shopped and we sat in a beach bar and enjoyed the view. There are plenty of great places to eat and the food everywhere was reasonable.

We did go north to Punta Mita one day. We went whale watching with a local fisherman, and then ate at one of the local beach resturants. Very nice day.

We did venture to Puerto Vallarta for a day. Made the big flea market there and ofcourse, ate out. We went to an oceanfront bistro, Vitea and had great quiche (yeah, in Mexico).

Back to the resort, we did do the timeshare presentation. Could not resist the free 75 minute massage. Not very pushy as far a time share presentations go, this was not our first rodeo, but he stayed close to the 90 mintues, bought us lunch, and gave us the certificate for the massages, so who could complain. By the way the massages were great. We were all adults but there were people with children, and the kids seem to be having a great time. The pool was a little on the chilly side for my taste, but children can handle it. The weather was great, 81 during the day and about 65 at night. The resort can't take credit for that, but heck lets pretend they had something to do with it.