Icon Vallarta

If you like waterfront and excellent beach location, Icon is your spot. The location is great and on the beach, 10min walk to grocery store, 20min walk includes close to 20 restaurants. 20 min walk gets you 2 shopping malls. 15 mins from the airport, 20 min cab ride to downtown. We have spent 30 weeks over the last 3 winters at Icon. The downside, units are getting tired, lots of units are rented. Our price for a 1 bedroom has gone from $115us/night(2022), $135us(2023&2024) and the owner wanted $165us/night for 2025. With prices increasing you are seeing less 2&3 month rentals and more short term under 30 day rentals. The weekend warriors have little regard for the rules of Icon. The renting experience for us feels like a short term Airbnb. The Icon beach loungers are very tired and many are breaking. If you like sharing the beach with loud people talking on their cell phone or talking over each other in French(there is a lot of renters from Quebec, you get arrogance and ignorance, not all, but a lot), Icon is your place. The pool area is very cliquey and busy in Feb. Being in the Hotel zone you get noise, this is your place, weddings, Karaoke, loud music you will have it all. We enjoyed our first 2 years at Icon, when the price goes up a lot, you reevaluate the importance of being on the beach. We met a lot of great people and thank them for the memories!!

We stayed for a week at iconvallarta just after Christmas and through New Years. Vacation should be a time to unwind and relax - that’s not happening at the icon! You are waiting for them to tell you of your next infraction. The condos are not set up with service in mind. Great location on the beach. Unobstructed views of amazing sunsets each night. The icon needs to figure out their core customer - is it the renters coming for 1 week to 3 months or is it the condo owners who live their full time. It’s clear there is currently a tension between both and as result short term renters end up not feeling any (to mediocre) hospitality. At check-in, we were given no house rules but somehow miraculously expected to follow them. And if you didn’t follow them - then security would rudely yell at you and admonish you. Also, the front desk ladies just glared at you coming and going - it was almost rude as one other person noted in their review. Weekly renters are given a wrist band they must purchase and wear the duration of the stay. I was ready to rip the thing off by the end of the week!! You can’t walk down the driveway. You must go down the walkway. Security and management claim there are signs everywhere- but really only 1, maybe 2. If you dare walk down the driveway, the guard will force you to walk back up the hill and come down the walkway. For an Uber driver to pick you up at the tower - in advance you must advise the front desk who will then advise the guard desk. After doing this, I stood there waiting for my Uber to come up to the tower. The guards clearly saw the car waiting for me - but never advised the driver that he could come up. I had to walk down the walkway with my suitcase even though the guards saw the Uber and knew I was at the tower waiting. The front desk lady even confirmed to me the driver was waiting down the hill (she called the guards to confirm this) for me but no one wanted to help seeing me with suitcases! The guard stand at the icon is ineffective and unhelpful and rudest welcome to the property. My sense is that the front desk ladies main purpose is to make dinner reservations for folks or recommended lake by places. I used neither service - opentable and google maps worked well for me. The segmentation at the beach is clear! Owners have beige and white striped towels beach towels. Everyone else has white towels embroidered with your tower and room number. Also - for weekly renters you must wear a color coded wrist band. This wrist band you have to pay for at checkin. In my apartment - we had blue and white beach towels - so naturally that’s what we took to the beach. On the first day while I’m enjoying my lunch and taking in the beauty around me after traveling a full day, a security guard comes up to me and tells me that after my lunch I need to change my towel to beige or white. Talk about a zen buster!!!Later on, i changed the towels and used the blue/white towel

When my mom came to visit she wanted a nice condo and a beautiful view. We wanted a central location and a big pool. We landed on the Icon Vallarta and we were not disappointed. Our unit was on the 7th floor, 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, had ample space in the kitchen and living area, patio, and a spectacular view. Our condo wasn't the most updated, but we were happy. I am sure there is a range of décor and amenities across the individually owned units. The building is secure and centrally located. There is beach access from the pool. The beach and pool area offer food and drink service. The food is okay but not terrible if you are hungry and don't feel like getting up. La Isla (shopping center) is only a 5 minute walk. You can find coffee, food, and supermarkets within easy walking distance. The Malecon is a short cab ride or a nice walk if you are up for it! Check out our video real on TikTok/IG @theforeignfiles

What an amazing place to spend some time in paradise! Our group of nine women went to celebrate a 50th birthday party. Although our condo had great reviews on VRBO, where we rented, we were a little concerned about the recent negative reviews on this site. Check-in was super fast. We experienced a friendly greeting from the concierge, our check-in info was looked up, we were outfitted with bracelets, and up the elevator we went to get a tour with our liaison with the property management company. Gabby was quick and efficient, showing us how to use the various features of the condo, how to save money on our electric bill, and which towels to take down for use at the pool and beach. About the towels. Our unit's towels were marked with the unit number. I have stayed at many properties on the beach with both pool and beach access in PV, and it is super common to have a distinctive towel in use at the property. This helps with resort safety as it is a quick visual means for security to scan the property and quickly pick out who does not belong. The reviewer who said there were different towels for owners and short-term renters - well we did not see that. Everyone had the same white towels, and nobody was treated differently based on their towel color. Pro tip: When you're down at the beach in the morning (because the sun hits there first!), look for the stack of chaise lounge cushions that get put out somewhere around 10 or 11 am. They will make your chaise so much more comfortable! Yes, the Icon card for poolside/beachside food and beverages does require you to do some math to predict what you might spend, as any balance left at the end of your stay is non-refundable. However, the card never expires, so you can save it and use it again when you return! We found it worked quite well to grab a menu and look at the prices of what you might order in a day, and put just one or two day's worth on your card. If you run short, the staff will let you know how much you need to add, and you can easily add more funds. I loved the Icon card, because it made it so I didn't need to bring payment down to the beach unless I planned on doing a little beach shopping. Side note, the food was ok, it did the job if you wanted to hang out in the sun for the day, but we preferred to go off-property to eat, or cook for ourselves in our kitchen. Yes, the chairs closest to the water are also closest to the section of beach that is public use and vendors can and do walk along the ropes and as you if you want a number of various items. Just give them a polite 'no, gracias' and they will move on. If you do want to make some purchases, try using a little bit of Spanish. You may not be fluent, but they appreciate you trying to communicate in their language. Here's what we loved: * The view cannot be beat. We stayed in tower 3 on the 26th floor with a balcony wrapping around three sides of our unit. With the AC off, you could ope