JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa

SAN ANTONIO, TX 78261 / HOTEL / VARIOUS DATES

+The front desk receptionists are exceptional. Upon checkin, Casey and the rest of the Marriott team members provided a delightful customer experience.
+River Bluff Water Park
+Spacious rooms
+Nearby groceries, restaurants, etc.

Amazing beautiful property, fun activities in winter, should be even better in summer. Lots of nickel and diming on fees though.

Wanted a retreat away from Houston and did a lot of research on Houston resorts before choosing the JW Marriott hill country. Conveniently located 20 minutes or so from San Antonio, you're away from the city but still convenient enough for dinner out if you want.

First off - there is a resort fee (which I believe is a scam as this can just easily be bundled as part of the room fee). The benefits you get is usually given to elite members anyways. Also, they cheap out on the complimentary breakfast for elite members and require you to play a supplement. It's a great breakfast, with tons of offerings, but I can get better in Asia without any "supplement". So loss of 2 stars.

The hotel itself is enormous, with a massive multi-level lobby, tons of sitting area, huge outdoor lawn + resort complex. Fire pits everywhere, and fun Christmas decorations and activities. Lots of benefits for kids. The rooms themselves are great, plenty of space, very comfortable, huge bathrooms, can definitely live their for an extended time and be comfortable. Oh yes, and huge tvs.

Staff is relatively friendly but the outdoor staff could have been much better. I needed help finding tubes and met the most unfriendly staff (didn't even offer to help me get any or show me the way). My wife also got two treatments at the spa ($600+), but I wasn't able to enjoy the spa area with her because I didn't get one myself (so we were forced to be separated for quite a few hours). Guess money can't even buy good service. Another star off.

All in all. This property is a fun stay, but still needs to work on some of the services. Will probably check out other hotels before I come back.

What a perfect place to stay. The rooms are extremely nice with a great view of San Antonio from your balcony. A nice sized gym for working out and plenty to do at this resort. Theirs a water park as well as a spa. I spent a lot of time hanging out at the bar and restaurant, both had extremely good food. I enjoyed the karaage chicken appetizer and the fried chicken sandwich for lunch. Extra crispy fried deliciousness for sure.

Definitely a stay you won't regret. There's also some beautiful trails to jog on for my outdoorsy kind of folks.

Stayed here in November 2023 for five days.

It definitely lives up to its four star rating. It's a sprawling complex with multiple restaurants, a water park, spa, golf course, game rooms, gym and shops.

Restaurants
Cibolo Moon - we ate here several times. It doesn't have an extensive lunch and dinner menu but there's enough that there's something for everyone. For breakfast, there's a buffet for $33 per person, or you can order off the ala carte menu. The buffet is worth it as you'll spend almost that much ordering a juice and breakfast dish. Reservations through opentable. Service was excellent every time we ate here.

Steakhouse - I can't comment because I didn't eat there, but they also take opentable reservations.

Spa Bistro - connected to the spa. I didn't eat there. Mostly light sandwiches and spa fare.

Sports Bar - a really nice Top Golf Swing Suite sports bar with giant televisions and a bar food menu.

Lantana Spa
I didn't book a spa appointment so I can't comment but the spa does have it's own pool and loungers.

First Floor Bar
Nice big, full-serve bar with tables and fireplaces. You can also order food here.

Rooms
The rooms are well-appointed and very clean with seperate tub/shower, single vanity, coffee maker (not pods) and coffee/tea accessories, bath robes, iron, ironing board, safe, closet, dresser, large-screen television, alarm clocks, mini-fridge, overstuffed chair and side table, and desk with a desk chair. Not all rooms have balconies, some just have juliette balconies. There are suites that you can reserve that are decorated for Christmas with Christmas trees already put up and stockings. We didn't stay in a suite, but if you're there for the holidays, it would certainly be worth looking into.

The bathrooms have shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner, mouthwash, and lotion. There is also a hairdryer and an ice bucket.

Gym
Well equipped gym with cardio and weights, towels, and even earbuds!

Water Park
It was open for limited hours in November as the temps were in the high 70s, but the slides were closed and there were no lifeguards. The water park, in which hotel guests can use for free, has children's slides and splash zone, an adults-only infinite pool, adults-only jacuzzi, snack bar, lazy river, giant pool, two slides, and a sandy beach.

Game Room
Next to the gym is a small game room with claw machines and a few arcade machines. You can load money onto a card and use the card to play the games.

Not in the game room, but on the 1st floor near the sports bar, is pool tables, shuffle board, chess, and checkers.

Other Amenities
There is a FedEx Shipping Center on site as well as a Starbucks with its own seating area (hours were 7am - 4pm), and a sundry shop with clothing, pool toys, souvenirs, candy, ice cream, snacks, toys, and jewelry, which is nice because it's quite a little drive to the nearest store if you've forgotten something.

There are also firepits spread out around the property and you can buy a s'mores kit in the shop.

Walking Trails
There are a few miles of walking trails one of which is mostly in the woods (follow the signs to Hummingbird Loop), the other direction takes you to the edge of the housing development. They're paved and we saw several deer on our morning walks. There are coyotes so we chose not to walk the trails when it was dark.

The property itself sits up on a hill and it's about a ten minute drive to the bottom. Nearby, there are some chain restaurants and a Homegoods but they aren't walking distance (unless you want to go on a really long walk and don't mind walking uphill for about a mile on your way back).

WiFi
Wifi is free if you're a Marriott Bonvoy member.

Parking
We did not rent a car so we didn't need to park, but parking is $45/day and there is valet.

Getting Around Town
We uber'd to Riverwalk which is about 30 minutes away and cost about $30 per ride. The airport was about 45 minutes away and our taxi was $60. It was about 25 minutes to Pearl Brewery (and all the cute shops and restaurants there).

Staff
The staff were all really knowlegable and friendly. We actually planned most of our dinners out based on suggestions from Devin (valet) who was a wealth of knowlege about the area.

It was beautifully decorated for Christmas while we were there, both the interior and the grounds.

Nice resort stay in Hill Country.

This is no small hotel. Grounds are massive, beautiful and well maintained. It spans 600 acres, which includes a 9-acre water park (River Bluff Water Experience). I particularly like hanging in their modern and comfortable lobby area - grab drinks and meet fun people.

Only downside for me would be that the rooms (especially the bathrooms) lean towards being dated. Yet it's not an inexpensive stay. For the price, you could stay at a higher end hotel, especially during peak season, which is when I like to come.

The tradeoffs for the dated rooms IMHO, would be the expansive grounds, particularly the water park, which is definitely fun. I mean, who doesn't love a 1000-foot lazy river? I literally spent days just lounging by the pool (I'm really good at that, lol). And there's just LOTS of different pool areas.

I really like that how self-contained the resort is. Between the restaurants, the spa, the water park, the TPC golf course and walking trails, they've got you covered for a complete vacay.

Technically, there's really no need to even go off the property, tho I did. Because you gotta visit the Alamo, the River Walk and grab some local awesome Tex-Mex food. And of course, check out some homes to keep a pulse on the local real estate scene. In fact there's a new home community under construction in Hill Country just a few miles away from the resort that are being swooped up by Californians left and right.

I had good experience with service. One day I noticed a good amount of wrinkles in the bedding (like I wasn't quite sure if it was actually changed), and housekeeping came up pretty quickly and re-did all the bedding. The housekeeper was really nice about it too.

Also very pleased with all the restaurants on property as well as room service.

Great resort. Check in process was excellent by Jonathan. Fast and efficient.

Beautiful resort. Can't wait to see the rest of the resort.

We won a one-night stay at a fundraiser and finally went during the Fourth of July week (Thurs/Fri).

Overall, loved our experience. Room was spacious and clean. Waterpark was fun and thrilling for our young kids. Weather was perfect.

Highlights:
House wine: The Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay that we ordered as our complimentary free drinks from the bar downstairs was delicious and smooth. Wish we would have started with wine instead of ordering cocktails during our entire stay.

Room service: We ordered the $11/each desserts (chocolate cake and warm apple pie)around 8pm at night while we watched Jumanji. Then the next morning we ordered chocolate chip pancakes and kids meal that came with bacon, egg, pancakes. Everything was delicious and the cherry on top of a great resort experience.

Lastly, the staff were very accommodating and quick. We asked for an extra pillow and blanket and Aidan was quick to bring it. We also paid extra for a rollaway mattress and they brought it right away. They also allowed us to checkout later.

Just left here after a quick long weekend getaway and amazed by everything. I think what we were most impressed with was the hospitality. The grounds of this resort was immaculate. It's the little things like when it starts downpouring rain outside there are complimentary umbrellas to use by the exits provided to the water bottles provided in the rooms.

Checkin was a breeze and thoroughly enjoyed Rebecca here, so shout out to Rebecca! For being so over the top kind and answering any and all of our questions. She definitely helped make our stay a memorable one.

Our room was superb more than enough space we could ask for. A very spacious balcony that was so relaxing to sip coffee out on. Large couch dining table, bar area with fridge.

Every restaurant we tried here we were impressed and pleased with.

We even ordered room service and it was right on time.

The pools here were so serene and heated! Loved that! We never got to even try out the water park - next time!

We will definitely be returning guests!

This resort is absolutely gorgeous and has views for days from probably all of their patios. We had a wonderful experience with all staff. They are dog friendly if you have a service animal like we do. Other than that no dogs. Enormous pool area with lazy river perfect for families and also an adult pool area with no kids is nice. Several restaurants. Golf lovers you will love the course. Definitely check it out for a vacation or staycation.

If I could give this resort a zero I would ALL based on the response I was provided. NO ONE reached out to me to figure out the room number or anything else. Leads me to believe it was a fake political response of Management