We went to the Barcelo resort for a wedding & had no previous experiences in Mex. We were surprised with the great service by the entire staff. Even tho they don't speak much english, we usually got them to understand us, they tried really hard to please our whole group. (15) Food here is very good and they give you all you want & then some. Pool bar and restaurant are fine with little wait for drinks, which could be an irritant when the drinks are free. Not here tho. The all-inclusive method is the only way to go, and Apple provided a great service, meeting us at the airport, and setting up any activities we needed to do. I reccomend the 1 hr. beach massage, deep sea fishing (if you can take the boat rocking and pitching all day). The fishing is alot of fun, and the guides on the" Bloody Hook" boat worked very hard all day to try & get strikes. If you want to see the real Mexico, take a cab ride to Zihuan. It will open your eyes, and you can ride around for 25.00 with some cab drivers showing you alot of the off the beaten path sights. I noticed that there is very little news from the states and most is in Spanish, so you are really on vacation here. Not much commercialism either. It's fun to deal with the vendors, altho you need to know what stuff is worth, or you will be a loser. They are good at their craft and love any "price is no object" tourist. All in all, a fine vacation, and the price was really right!! Also, if you can, Mexicana Airlines is really great! Fly with them!!

We stayed at the Barcelo from April 26th to May 3rd, it was our first "All Inclusive" vacation, and we had an absolutely wonderful time. We would definitely go back, in fact, we wish we never had to leave.
We were one of the first ones through customs at ZIH, and instead of taking the Air Canada Vacations bus with everyone else, we spent the 320 pesos on a private taxi. When we got to the Barcelo, there was no line to check in, it took two minutes to get our room, and we were showered, in our shorts and flip flops, and on our way to the buffet before the others had even checked in. We also avoided the timeshare/tour sales people. The view from the ninth floor was incredible. The room was clean and comfortable, some things were in need of updating, like the light switches between the beds and the hair dryer, but anyone who would complain about things like that, probably wouldn't have a good time anywhere. The beer, sodas, and water in the mini-bar were AI, but everything else would be added to your bill.
The best thing about the Barcelo Ixtapa is the amazing service from all the wonderful staff. Everyone was gracious and friendly. The bar servers were outstanding, Virginia and Maritza were always so friendly, even though I think they were secretly trying to kill us with tequila. The cleaning staff were constantly keeping the entire property spotless. Luis, the line cook at the breakfast buffet was a omelet making machine. We made sure to tip 50 pesos here and there to whoever was taking care of us, as much as we could. They really do appreciate it, and they make sure you are never without a drink (which are NOT watered down).
The food was mostly good, sometimes very good, sometimes just OK. The buffet had some average cafeteria fare, good salads, and excellent authentic, traditional Mexican food. The lunch buffet burgers were awesome, the Mexican Fiesta night buffet was incredible, and the Rack of Goat (Boat) was a misprint, it was actually lamb, and it was excellent.
It's important to remember you are wearing a plastic wrist band at a Mexican all inclusive resort, some things are not going to be the same as a Las Vegas or New York hotel, and that is what makes a place like the Barcelo so great. There are lots of Mexican couples and families, and guests from all over the world. If all the chairs by the pool are taken, there are lots more on the beach. The food is good, the band is great, and the margaritas are even better.
By the way, I proposed to Teresa on the beach our first night there. She said yes.

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.