Our review of the PV Hotel - Now Amber

This is what I posted on TripAdvisor.

Overall, we had a fabulous fun filled vacation. Our hotel was more than what we expected and we definitely plan to be back. There were a few hiccups but nothing major.

 ROOM - gorgeous 10th floor room 2061 with stunning ocean view. We booked the lowest room category but ask for a free upgrade given we went for our anniversary. I guess it never hurts to ask ;-). Our king bed was heavenly, perhaps even better than the heavenly bed at the Westin. The shower easily fits two people and had good water pressure- very important to me. and the separate jacuzzi tub was nice too. I loved the modern open design of the bathroom. Hubby loved the TV with plenty of free channels including HBO and SHOWTIME I think. The balcony was nice. We slept with the balcony door open most nights. There is nothing like falling asleep to ocean waves.

Hiccups: 1. screen on balcony door was not fully attached. We called to have it fixed but no one ever came. Luckily May is not rainy seasons so very few Mosquitos. We never got any in the room. 2. Intrusive calling - while they meant well to check how our room service etc were. It was weird to receive calls especially when we were napping.

FOOD above average although can vary a lot. Overall we love it as we quickly learned what to order and what to avoid. We love the fact none of the restaurants needed reservations except for teppanyaki. We love the convenience of 24 hr room service and stocked minibar. Our favorite a la carte restaurants were Bordeaux - French. Service was good and food came quickly. Felt like a $$$ restaurant but free ;-). French onion soup and steak with fois gras sauce were our favorite plus the trio sorbet for dessert. Himistu was a good second favorite. Being Asian, I am pretty picky about Asian food but I was pleasantly surprised. Their salads were flavorful. The salmon sashimi were the best and the eel roll was good. Teppanyaki show was also good. We never tried capers, castaway, or market cafe. Buffet breakfast and lunch were good. 6+ fresh juices in the morning and freshly made to order scrambles were my favorites. Grilled meats and seafood were very tasty for lunch and the barefoot grill was handy for pool time snacks

Dining tips: avoid hamburgers. We had it for room service first night. Horrible. Most of the sushi maki was not good and shellfish in general was not good. Shrimp was ok but prawns seemed not fresh. Avoid Tamarindo - service is slow and food was over salted. Ask for fresh cracked eggs for the made to order breakfast. Their pre- mixture and pre-made eggs always tasted funny to me

 HOTEL ENTERTAINMENT - Daytime activities were plentiful and more than expected. We kayaked, tried the water trampoline and inflatable ice berg - much harder than they looked. We did rifle shooting, archery. I also did yoga on the beach, water aerobics, Latin dancing and lessons. Hubby did water polo and music trivia. All were fun. The entertainment staff is always smiling, energetic and created a fun atmosphere. We especially loved Alejandro, Juan Carlos. Best of all, everything was included. Night time shows were just ok. We missed several. I think the best are the ones on Saturday - Caribbean night and Friday - fire show

NIGHTLIFE- We came to party since we didn't bring the kids. We like to dance, drink some and enjoy good music. We don't like techno though. There is a club on site but it was dead most nights. On Thursday we were surprised it was not dead and played some good music and had a small fun crowd. Just when we were getting into it, it shut down as it closes at 1am - bummer. Not to worry as there was plenty of nightlife on Malecon - along the downtown board walk lined at least 4-6 clubs. We had a blast on 3 different nights - Sunday at la vaquita - very casual bar with fun swings and wet Tshirt contest Sundays. Monday at Mandala - no cover and got the best seat on the balcony right in front of dance floor and Friday at Roo.

 I am including this in the hotel review because the hotel offers to bring guests to go out for nightlife every night by the entertainment staff. We had both a good and bad experience with this. The deal is $15 for cover or $40 for open bar including cover per person - both include cab fare there which is usually $6. This is a great deal on busy nights like thurs to sat especially if other people from the hotel go as it facilitates meeting other cool people in a fun way. it is more of a scam on other nights especially if you just paid cover as actually Sunday to wed there is no cover in most if not all clubs. We went with the hotel on Sunday and Friday. Friday was totally worth it as we ended up getting bottle service and had the best table in the club at Roo and partied with 10+ cool people from the hotel. Sunday turned out fun more because two other cool couples went. We were happy we ventured out on our own on Monday and Tuesday as places where entertainment team would have charged us cover or open bar, it was free to get in and we got much better liquor a la carte.

ALL INCLUSIVE - overall very worth it. Hubby got great premium liquor free and service was good. We did tip generously although we still prefer the club med experience better where no tipping is allowed. Figuring out how much to tip and bringing enough cash can get stressful. POOL AND LOBBY - our favorite pool was the one with the swim up bar. Loved the blue floating mats that we can just get on and tan in the water. We LOVED the lobby on 3rd floor - stunning grand with beautiful sunsets and awesome breeze. Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves and for the price we paid $2450 for a week at Now Amber including direct flight from SF, it was truly a luxurious vacation. ;-) We look forward to returning