We got our stay at Villa Vera through our Diamond Intl membership. It is slightly off the main street, up a hill overlooking the city and the Bay. We were upgraded and ended up with a villa, with its own swimming pool and a large area for entertaining friends. The hotel is a sprawling complex, with steep slopes and stairs. Although you can walk it, to get to the top is quite a climb. You may want to call the concierge and get someone to drive you around in a golf cart. The Casa Lisa located at the top is a fortress-like structure and has spectacular views of the city and its surrounding bay. You can well imagine why many luminaries such as Brigitte Bardot, Rita Hayworth, Elvis, Michael Jackson and others have stayed here. The resort guide gave us a tour, and showed us the huge room where Richard Nixon usually stayed.

The place has all the amenities; restaurant, tennis courts, swimming pools, fitness center, spa, etc. The staff and service are excellent; when we need something, they sent someone almost right away. We had the hotel empty the mini bar so that we could store our breakfast provisions (min. fee for renting it). Every day, our bed looked very decorative with towel animals and flowers. Everything was very clean and they even cleaned up our private pool twice during our 4 day stay. Unfortunately, the place must have a small hot water tank, thus you can’t take long hot showers. Even then it took a long time to get hot water. Also the bed was too hard for our taste.

Less than a week before we left, we decided to contact services that would transport us from the airport to the resort, and later back again. We only received one response to our e-mails. Sebastian Hernandez [--] replied promptly, and after several exchanges, we decided to use his service plus his city tour. As soon as we cleared the immigration, we were approached by many “bipede sharks” (2-legged Sharks) selling timeshares . Our tour guide, Sebastian Hernandez is very good, prompt, enthusiastic and full of energy. After the city tour, we liked him so much that we decided to sign up for 2 more tours. He was engaging, very informative and we learned a lot about Acapulco, its history and people.

The off-season is the best time to go to Acapulco, even the beaches were less crowded and the weather is mild (around mid 70’s F). We really enjoyed the peace and quiet of Villa Vera. We can’t imagine there were more than 5 families staying at the sprawling resort. However, we were told that after Dec. 24th, the place is like a "mad house" and no room to be had.

Last year we visited cancu at that time we were staing at the grand mayan palace which is a beautiful hotel that i would highly recommend but somebody in the street invited us to visit club regina where they offered us a starte membership which we decided to buy it was to visit this year villa vera in acapulco which we did and it was a real nightmare because we got there thinking that we had everything paid and knowing of course that it'll be up to us if we wanted to buy the rest of the membership or not so we were suppose to get a junior suite for up to six people reason for us to be excited because we travel with our 2 teenagers so we all needed privacy thing that was only a dream because when we got there they woke us up saying that we had to pay around 98.00 dlls per day because of our daughters because they had only made our reservation for two of course i got angry and wwanted to leave the hotel immediately but they asked me to wait till monday morning and that they were going to fix that so I waited and waited and waited because it took them almost 4 days and at the end they didn't fixed it and of course what they really wanted us to buy the rest of the membership which we didn't do because it is a total lye and at the end of the check out they told us that that we had a balance besides everything else of three hundred and some because some were taxes for the rent and some was for a donation for poor children first of all if it is a donation you give whatever amount you want to donate not what they want you to donate and about the taxes they said that was the way all the hotels worked in acapulco which was not true because at the same time my sisters and their families were staying in the copa cabana hotel and they didn't have to pay anything at the time of checkout also at my checkout iI knew this lady who was very mad because they were charching her things that she said she didn't order so she asked for the receipts that you have to sign when you order room service and the excuse was DONATIONS. "OOPS THAT REALLY WAS A BIG MISTAKE FROM THE PERSON PREPARING YOUR BALANCE I'M SO SORRY MAM" AND THE LADY TURNED HER HEAD TO ME AND SAID "IF WE DON'T CHECK THEY REALLY EAT US UP" THAT WAS MY NIGHTMARE IN ACAPULCO SO BE CAREFUL IF VISITING THAT HOTEL AND IF THEY INVITE YOU TO A COURTESY BREAKFAST THEY REALLY STILL HALF OF A DAY OF YOUR VACATIONS BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT YOYU TO GO WITHOUT BUYING A MEMBERSHIP.

Villa Vera Resort is beautiful. Our experience was good. We booked this through Diamond Resort International, our time share. We did not know what type of room we had until we arrived. We ended up with a villa with our own private pool which was wonderful. I highly recommend getting a villa. We also booked our ride from the airport ahead of time with Sebastian Hernandez (eskp_rsh@hotmail.com) which was a very good idea. He was wonderful, very trustworthy and cost less than what the hotel suggested. On the way from the airport to the resort, Sebastian stopped at Walmart so we could pick-up water and food before arriving at the resort. I highly recommend you do this because the resort charges so much more for water and snacks. Unfortunately, the rooms do not have full-size refrigerators or the ability to cook in the rooms. We had the resort empty the mini-bar at no charge so we could store our water and snacks.

The staff was all very friendly and helpful. Since June is the off season, we felt like we were the only ones at the resort. The resort is very clean and well-kept but it is a bit dated. Also, it is located on a hill so there are a lot of stairs to climb on the grounds of the resort. This resort is not for any one that is physically challenged, although the view is breathtaking because it is on the hill overlooking the bay. But you can call the front desk and request a ride to anywhere within the resort if you do not want to walk. A staff member will pick you up in a golf cart and take you to your destination. I highly recommend visiting the pool at Casa Lisa. The view is amazing.

Because the resort is located on the hill, it is a little bit of a walk to restaurants and the beach. If you don't mind walking, there are some restaurants worth going to such as La Tortuga at the bottom of hill and 100% Natural which is located a little further down on the main street. We also walked to the beach and ate at Paradise. I don't necessarily recommend this beach because we were bombarded by vendors constantly trying to sell us their goods. It became very annoying. I would recommend just going through the little market at the bottom of the hill across from Office Max. We also walked to La Galleria Diana to shop and go to the movies. We saw a first run American movie in English and the VIP theaters are very nice with individual reclining, lazy-boy chairs. Do make sure you have mexican pesos in small denominations to pay taxi drivers. We took taxis cabs a lot to go to local places. Always ask how much the cab fare is before you get in and you can negotiate drivers.

As I mentioned before, we arranged our ride ahead of time from the airport to the resort. We hired Sebastian Hernandez, (eskp_rsh@hotmail.com). He responded to my email very quickly with price and also provided a list of suggestions on what to do while in Acapulco. This was very helpful because we were able to plan our trip before we arrived in Acapulco. He picked us up on time and was very easy to communicate with. There were 5 of us in our family, so Sebastian's Suburban was very roomy and much more comfortable than the small taxis that are availlable. We liked Sebastian so much that we hired him to be our private tour guide for several outings. We took a 11/2 hour drive with Sebastian out to the Tehucalco ruins which were from the Yobi Indians that live around 400 a.d. Another day, Sebastian took us on a boat trip through the Jungle and then we had a Sunset dinner at Barra Vieja Beach which Sebastian arranged for us. The food and view were wonderful! Sebastian also took our family on a scuba and snorkeling excursion which was a lot of fun. I highly recommend Sebastian and if you want to know more or see other references for him, you can not only find him on tripadvisor but also by doing a google search under "Acapulco Sebastian Hernandez".

Overall, I would recommend Villa Vera Acapulco Resort but do some research ahead of time to make your trip more enjoyable. The resort does tend to nickel and dime you for everything so just be prepared. I bought my own coffee and cream and sugar at Walmart because the hotel charges you for theirs. Internet access is extra and does require their technician to set up the WiFi. The internet cost $200 pesos for the week or about $16.00 USD so it is not that expensive. The hotel restaurant's food is good but a little more expensive than many of the local restaurants. Although it is very convenient and the view from the restaurant is amazing, you will pay more. There is plenty to do during the day but our teenage kids were bored at night. They did not feel comfortable going into the city by themselves and there was not much to do at the resort. I would not recommend traveling during this time if you have teenagers. Because it was during the off-season, there were not many other guests at the resort for our children to hang out with. But one thing I will say is the next time we go back, we will definitely hire Sebastian again! I suggest you have your tour guide and driver set before you get to Acapulco. Please feel free to ask me any questions about Sebastian or our stay in Acapulco at the Villa Vera Hotel Spa.

We stayed at the Villa Vera a few years ago, but I remember our time there with 'crystal' clarity, due to a few unfortunate situations that occurred, none of which were the fault of the hotel:
- a 5.0 earthquake happened when we were there
- we were almost attacked right in front of the resort when walking up from dinner
[more on this later]

Hotel
The historic hotel still retains a hint of the 1950's glamour it once knew, back in the days when an Elvis movie was filmed there. The main pool is beautiful and the view is expansive. The hotel rooms are spacious and most have a sitting area just outside the room. I don't remember the food much, but, we were there in low season, so we mostly ate out.

Location
The location is about a 10-min walk from the main drag. This is both great and a drawback. Great because it affords you an excellent view, and bad because you need to take a cab everywhere. IT IS NOT SAFE TO WALK at night from 5pm onwards....yes, we were unlucky...but it seemed safe and we learned it wasn't.

Food in Acapulco
The food in Acapulco is overpriced and disappointing, much like Venice. You could easily pay $150usd for a meal out for two and receive sub-par food--and I'm not even a foodie! It's just something to be aware of..... The food at mid-range restaurants was better than the high-end choices.