My wife and I stayed at the El Presidente the last week of February. I travel to Mexico for business often and for vacation occasionally. I have vacationed in Cancun and Cozumel , but when I desire a taste of Mexico as it truly is, I go to Ixtapa and El Presidente. The people are exceptional in their desire to please. The hotel is very clean and well maintained. There is always someone cleaning and painting. The floral designs left on your pillows by the maids are a delight to see. The hotel is in a great location, across the street from shopping and restuarants, though the latter is not needed as the hotel is all-inclusive and the food is excellent. The pools are clean and inviting and the sunsets are to die for. But above all, its the people ( from Jorge the consierge to Cleo handing me my pool towels and helping my feable attempts to learn Spanish) the staff genuinely work to make sure you enjoy your stay.

Not only would I recommend this hotel to my friends, I have; and they have made five return trips.

We just arived back from the InterContinental Presidente and we realy enjoyed. We would stay there again. It is an older property built in the 70s and in some areas it shows but it is kept clean. We stayed in a garden view suite and found it very nice and quiet and comfortable with a king size bed, good view of gardens and a fountain. Food was average to above average. pools were nice, lots going on during day. Night shows were what you would expect at a resort. Shopping is right across the street. Weather when we were there was very warm which was great. beach was clean but surf was strong and high when we were there.

This is one of the older resorts along the strip and the pictures of the rooms here are obviously a few years old, they have worn and weathered since taken, but they do closely resemble what is offered. There is a bit of a "musty odour" that comes from the A/C, the bathroom was as clean as clean could be, but the tub was showing some rust stains that they had tried to paint over, and the floor tiles were all uneven and in rough shape. The beds here in the tower rooms are hard as slate.....but festidiously cleaned and changed daily, and the maids are forever picking leaves/flower petals/greenery etc....and leaving beautiful and artistic designs with them on the pillow cases. Towels were replaced every day, even the ones we didn't use. The entire lobby and common areas are meticulously cleaned at all hours of the day, I've never seen outdoor ceramic tiles that are that old that are so spotlessy clean. There is a festival there every saturday night including various cultural shows....traditional dancing, Vaccarros...etc......very neat to see. They also have a huge open market in the courtyard saturday nights as well.....lots of local crafts and artisans peddling their wares. The pool and pool area was always clean and well maintained, The dining areas are also very clean and well kept. The food wasn't bad, but you get tired of the same fare, but there are many restaurants and bars etc.....just accross the street surrounded by more open markets and vendors, some more aggressive than others. The beach front area is very tidy as well, the lounge chairs are all in good to fair shape, and the waiters serving us on the beach area were attentive, clean, pleasant and if you didn't tip them fast enough they'd walk away without it, and without expecting it either, so we had to make sure they knew they had a tip coming.

The age group here included a wide range, but for the most part it was the 45 plus crowd, with 44 and under being about 15% of the population. There are a lot of locals who vacation at this resort as well, with their families, they're just as pleasant and friendly as anyone else you'd hope to meet on your holidays, and always willing to give you good local advice and ideas. There are several tour operators working out of the hotel as well, but they don't hound you for anything, except to say hello, and you will see many beach vendors as well peddling their crafts, carvings etc...but they don't come in to the hotels beach area, they just walk along showing you what they have, and won't come up to you unless you ask them to. They'll sell you anything from carvings to fishing trips, and hair braiding to Henna tattoos and even a copy of USA Today if you want it....

There are even ":security officers" posted all around the resorts beach areas, and pool areas. On the whole, I'd say its a great place to spend your vacation, but get a Patio Room, or a Garden room, as the high rise rooms are old, and past their prime, although they are clean.

I would go back to the Presidente again.

Bruce and Theresa
Calgary, Alberta...

when booking this resort you have the choose of either a
garden view,poole view or tower room.
do yourself a favour and book the poole view rooms because
these rooms are the best in the resort(most have ocean views).
we started out with the garden view rooms and they were nothing
short of dreadfull.(sewer smell,view of a wall.spiders,etc.
the next morning we were at the front desk early looking for a
upgrade (along with 20 other people.) once moved we really
enjoyed this resort.(try bartering for a better rate on the upgrade,
we did.)some people we met also moved out of the tower for
various reasons.
the location is perfect with everything you need right across
the street.
ixtapa is very clean and safe,and the beach was stunning.
the hotel its self was older but very well kept.the staff were
nothing short of fantastic.
having travelled to mexico nearly 20 times,i find the weather
is always more consistent on the pacific side but the ocean
is always warmer on the caribean side.enjoy.