JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa

The best service and hotel in Texas

The hotel experience was phenomenal. This resort will be our go to for family fun. The activities the hotel had made it even more remarkable as our kids enjoyed all the activities they attended. The restaurant selection was also extraordinary and made the stay eveb better because we didn't have to leave. They also have a store and a Starbucks on site.

very lovely.

The expense of Pool Cabanas is the only thing.

This resort is beautiful on the surface, but it simply cannot handle being full of ~3,000 leisure guests. The infrastructure, staffing, and dining options are nowhere near what’s required for the rates being charged or the amount of rooms (~1,000) on property. We absolutely wanted to love this place, but it just didn’t happen which is unfortunate given it’s not a terrible drive from Dallas/Fort Worth. Front Desk & Service: Check-in was cold and unwelcoming, with no activities schedule or welcome coupons provided (welcome drink coupons and some other discounts are included as part of the high daily resort fee). Staff across the board seemed overwhelmed and disengaged. Overpriced & Few Food Options: A $9 Uncrustable was delivered soggy since it was packaged with hot French fries which my son certainly didn’t like. At the sports bar, both the burger and Cobb salad were awful. The main restaurant, Cibolo Moon, had a 1-hour wait just to be seated—with lines forming simply to get on the waitlist. For a resort of this size, three full-service restaurants aren’t nearly enough. By comparison, the Gaylord Texan (also a Marriott property) offers considerably more dining venues to handle its convention/leisure mix. Here, the result is many lines, long waits, and disappointing food. Pools & Crowds: By 9:30 a.m. every pool chair was already “saved.” Staff make no attempt to enforce the resort’s own no-saving policy. There are ways to fix this. For example, on many major cruise lines, seats get time-stamped or stickered; if left empty too long, belongings are removed and taken to guest services. Why can’t this property do the same? Instead, chairs sit empty for hours while paying guests wander around with no place to sit. The lazy river and slides are just as frustrating—guests hoard tubes despite clear signage, and staff look the other way. Over Labor Day, the pool was wall-to-wall people—chaotic and anything but relaxing. Bright Spots: The kids’ buffet was thoughtful and well done. Alexis at the sports bar was genuinely fantastic—warm and friendly. Christian at Cibolo Moon also stood out with excellent, attentive service in an otherwise overwhelming dining setup. The kids camp (I think only offered on busier weekends) was also great for our two littles — we enjoyed a quieter evening and they had a great time with the activities offered and their new friends. Bottom Line: This property cannot support a full leisure crowd. It might work if you’re here for a convention and only half the resort is occupied by families, but as a destination resort it collapses under its own weight. A gorgeous setting is ruined by long lines, overcrowding, and underwhelming food. Despite being longtime Marriott loyalist, I’ll be trying the Hyatt Regency Hill Country or Hyatt Lost Pines next time—everything I’ve heard suggests they do what this JW is trying to do, only much better.

Parking is awful. Spend 20min finding a spot to park. Everything else was great.

The hotel is very family friendly! They had a lot of family fun.

The staff was excellent and willing to make you feel comfortable and if it’s necessary to adjust your room

We are a family of four (kids age 9 and 12) from the UK who stayed for 2 weeks to explore San Antonio, New Braunfels and the Hill Country area and enjoy the hotel. The hotel is in a good location just outside the busy hustle and bustle of the city, but close enough that it's easy to drive downtown for dinner. We stayed in a 2-queen room (sharing beds) which was clean, spacious and comfortable. We found the hotel to be very good quality and all the staff to be very friendly. We loved the water park and spent several days there just relaxing. The water temperature is perfect. The hotel is certainly not cheap and you need to understand that you will be charged parking fees and resort fees during your stay and you should consider these upfront as part of the overall cost of the hotel. The prices for food and drink at the hotel and pool bar areas are also rather high ($11 for a small pot of ice cream). The breakfast buffet at Cibolo Moon is tasty but expensive, so you may want to plan on Starbucks or breakfast somewhere else if you have a long stay. Parking is not a big deal unless you have mobility problems. On a busy day you will have to park in levels 5 or 6, then you can use the escalators in the conference centre to get back to the main hotel in less than 5 minutes. If you're closer you can walk up the hill in the same amount of time. All in all we loved our stay at this hotel and would definitely recommend it for families looking to holiday in the area.