Barcelo Hotel Resorts are and excellent way of going on vacation. The Ixtapa Barcelo is nothing less than wonderful. It is very clean, and when I say clean I mean they temperature check the food, they check the pool water. They have monthly inspections of their rooms and laundry facilities. I even saw them examining the hands of their employees making the food.

Service is wonderful. - This is an all inclusive Resort but the attention that you get is incredible. At the pool there was a waiter in my section that would come around every 20 to 30 minutes to bring us drinks and food. The bar guys never had you waite to take your order. The restaurant was excellent and reception was attentive to all our needs. Bell boys got our luggage up to our room within 5 minutes of our check in and got our vehicle parked immediatley. We also let them know when our check out was and they made sure all our luggage was down from the room and loaded back into the vehicle.

Entertainment- Ixtapa is small and doesn't have a nightlife like Acapulco, but the hotel provides nightly dinner show and it also has a nice lounge/bar that you can go to after or before dinner.

The hotel is also across the street from the shopping strip so you can go out and walk around without having to take a taxi.

My wife and I spent seven nights at the Barcelo in mid April. The hotel itself is very clean with beautiful grounds and an amazing view. The staff is very friendly and accomodating. Unlike previous posters we found the room to be very clean and recently updated. The only problem with the room was the hot water faucet which did not want to be shut off. We were on the ninth floor witha beautiful ocean view. As far as the drinks they were very good if you like margaritas or pina coladas or beer and the service at the swim up bar and at pool side is very quick. No problem with pool side chairs as they now have a strict rule about reserving chairs and then leaving. Also the number of chairs is tremendous. The Don Quixote restaurant was good, not great but the wine list is excellent and fairly priced especially the Mexican national wines, which were excellent. The breakfasts were very good with a "cook to order" station, as well as a buffet and the lunches were good as well. The only down side to the food was dinner. While plentiful, I felt it was unimaginative and did not represent Mexican cuisine as I would have liked it. There was no chili verde, chili colorado, carnitas, mole, etc. just basic buffet food. The other problem we experienced was the number of children there. This resort seems to attract a large number of Mexican families, whom we found to be very warm and friendly. But they all had children and they were not confined to the kid's pool and they also sat at the stools at the swim up bar all day. The pool bar area is posted for 18 years and over, but the staff did not enforce it. The nightly entertainment varied from amazingly good to poor depending on the theme with Fantasia being the worst and fiesta antillieano being the best. One final note is that after looking at numerous " book it yourself " web sites we settled on Apple which actually beat the prices of the others, but provides to-and-from the airport transportation included in the cost which is worth $50 or more and also meets you at the airport and has a rep. at the hotel and gave us a guaranteed upgrade to ocean view at no additional cost.

Stayed the week of March 29 - April 5/08.

This is my 3rd trip to Mexico, and my 3rd all-inclusive. Have been to Cancun and Playa Del Carmen previously.

I truly loved this area of Mexico. The sunsets are the most beautiful I have ever seen. The ocean is alot rougher than the Caribean side, but I actually enjoyed it more. The beaches are amazing. The beach at the hotel was great. Nice and wide, and very clean. Great for walks.

The resort is, for a lack of a better word, good. The pool area is excellent. I would say the best out of all the hotels I saw on the beach. Closest to the ocean! Bar service was great. My room was on the 6th floor and I loved the view! It was kept clean and I had no issues. I was not very impressed with the main buffet, but the burgers at the pool area were amazing! I really did not like how you could not get a late night snack though.

Spent a day in Zihua, and it was lots of fun.

We also went to Ixtapa Island and was VERY DISAPPOINTED! I do not recommend it at all!!!! It really is the epitomy of the term "TOURIST TRAP"!! The reason? Because you are actually trapped, as a tourist. The second we approached the dock to catch the water taxi, we were approached by, what we thought at the time someone just helping, salesmen trying to get you to their part of the island. He went on the taxi with us and constantly herded us towards his part of the beach. We tried to stop and sit down for a second and the workers for that particular restaurant come out right away and tell us we can only sit there if we are buying food or drinks! The whole island is just a bunch of different bars. There is no were else to sit. The snorkeling was terrible. We only stayed an hour or so and left.

I ate off the resort several times, usually at Franks. Very good pizza! And then, I spent the last 2 days of my trip in my room with food poisoning! I think it was from this small place I had breakfast one morning. Oh well, its the risks you take.

Oh, and defintley walk down the beach to Carlos and Charlies! It was lots of fun! Right on the beach. Great service. Cold beer!

I would go back! The weather was perfect every day! You will not regret the Barcelo Ixtapa and the area!

We stayed at the Barcelo Ixtapa from April 5 -12. We have stayed at a number of all inclusives so we were expecting the usual so-so food and service. We were very pleasantly surprised at how great our stay was. Upon arrival at the airport, we were greeted by someone trying to get us to visit another resort in exchange for a free cab ride to the Barcelo. Skip this at all costs. This is a time share scam. The cab ride from the airport to the resort was $32. This is a fixed rate for all cabs. Upon arrival, we were greeted by staff taking our luggage. Do not be intimidated by this - they are very well organized and check out may take some time so it is better off to leave your luggage with the staff. Check in was a very easy process - the staff was very quick to respond despite the line up. This is where the Barcelo excels over all other resorts that we had been to – the service was superb. We were given a welcome package which explained the amenities, 2 towel cards and 2 rooms keys. We had to take our own luggage to our rooms. The hallways were very clean but a little outdated. We were told that the last renovation was in 1997. The rooms were a good size. We had a wonderful oceanview room. The bathrooms were a little small, but normal for Mexico. We had stayed in a 5 star resort in Cancun and the bathroom was the same size. We were greeted with good quality towels, a bath robe and slippers. Only comment about the rooms is that they need a little updating, but were very clean and well maintained. The bed was a little hard, but the sheets were good quality as were the covers. The mini bar was included – but for soft drinks only. Room service was available for $13 per use. Once we settled, we headed to the main lobby for dinner. There are 4 restaurants and one bar at the resort. Breakfast is served in the Veranda (the lobby restaurant) and outside at Las Palmas. The Veranda has a better variety. There is a fruit bar, a smoothie bar, soft drink bar, salad bar, cereal counter and made to order omelet station where you can get eggs, pancakes or waffles made fresh while you wait. There were four types of meat served at every breakfast, fresh salsa, quesadillas, 2 types of potatoes and Mexican food every day. Great variety. The staff was very attentive and constantly replenished our drinks. Again, the service was excellent as was the food. The Las Palmas was a buffet as well and had deserts and different types of breads. Good food there as well, although we preferred the Veranda. Lunch was served at the Charocolas and the Las Palmas. The Charolcolas was a la carte with grilled food – burgers, fish, chicken, fries, etc. The Giant Mexican burger was an awesome steak sandwich. The salmon was also divine. Desert was great. The Las Palmas had a buffet lunch. Different types of meat, nachos, breads, Mexican food, salad and grilled hamburgers made while you wait. There was a better desert variety than the Charocolas. Dinner was available at the Veranda and Don Quiote. The Veranda had a different theme night every night. Food was excellent and the service was outstanding. Unlike other all inclusives, the alcohol was not watered down. You have access to the Don Quiote restaurant twice during a seven day stay. You have to make a reservation at 9am the day before you want to eat there. It is best to be at the reservation desk early as the restaurant fills up very quickly. Dinner was excellent – steaks, shrimp, ribs – the works. Great appetizers and deserts as well as warm bread. Only complaint - we were a little surprised that they didn’t serve lobster. The Don Quiote is closed on Wednesdays at the Barcelo is the only resort was a Fiesta night. Dinner is served outside and there is a live show. There is some audience interaction and a guy walks around with a large sombrero serving tequila. There are actually live theme shows every night at 9:00pm. The local talent was quite impressive. Get there early to find a seat as they fill up quickly.The next morning, we headed to the pool area. The pool area was very well maintained and clean. Staff were constantly serving drinks and picking up glasses shortly after they were left. One thing to note is that the resort is very busy on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays as a lot of affluent Mexican families visit for the weekend. This translated into a bit of a crowd at the pool and line ups at breakfast and dinner. We were not bothered by this at all as we spent those days at the beach. There is a swim up bar where you can get drinks at the pool. The rest of the week was very peaceful. I highly recommend the $25 one hour massage on the beach. There was parasailing, snorkeling and fishing activities that can be arranged with the activities planner. There were also the usual organized activities – aqua fitness, silly dance classes, etc. We stayed away as we found it a little cheesy. There is a lot to do for kids, a play ground, daily activities, painting classes, ping pong, an outdoor chess set, tic tac toe, pool and you can borrow board games. You may want to take a deck of cards with you – the gift shop only sells Mexican playing cards with a different deck and suites! There are two markets you can visit, once is across the street from the resort and one is in Zihuatanejo. There are vendors that come into the resort every night as well by the show theatre. We found ironically that the prices were cheaper with the vendors and market across the street than at Zihuatanejo. Over all, we had a great experience at the Barcelo Ixtapa. We were very rejunvenated. Our friends stayed at the Barcelo in the Dominican and had the same experience which leads us to believe that this is a chain wide thing. We will not only go back, but will probably stay at Barcelo resorts from now on.