Went to the Melia Azul in Ixtapa after having good experiences at the Sol Melia Hotels in the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately this Hotel was a terrible experience for me, my wife and two children son age 10 and daughter 5. Too many rules and regulations making the overall experience lousy. Was not able to eat at the pool, take food to my room, no stock of drinks in the refrigerator, bug infestation in room, unable to wear cotton fabics in pool, had to pay for room service, use of mini golf etc. There were a lot of Mexicans staying there and it was obvious that the guests and staff alike did not like having Americans around. Shows were OK if you can stomach a sewage smell nearby. Food was OK at all the restaurants but you had to fight the flies indoors and the birds outdoors. Kids had fun at the children's pool but an adult needed to be present along with their own lifeguards. Lifeguards were nasty and showed no common sense. One yelled and treated me like a criminal when I tried to bring some french fries to my son in the room who had a headache. Because of this experience I will no longer stay at a Sol Melia Resort and will skip Mexico for at least a couple of years. I suggest you save your hard earned money and visit Beaches[Turks and Caicos] or the Dreams/ Sunscape Resorts.

I travel to Mexico at least six weeks a year, and I have never experienced anything like this past week. My son got very sick the second day we were there, but there is a doctor on staff that will give them a shot for 50 dollars. It did make it feel much better. The doctor seemed to very popular with the other families as well. We spent a great deal of time with four other families, and at least one person was sick from each family. I also saw two other people break out in some weird rash...

The pool was very dirty. It had some sort of black fungus all over the walls. It was really disgusting. Not many people were in the ocean due to the recent shark attacks. So the only option was the pool.

There seemed to be a lot of small children or local adults. I brought my two teen age sons, and it was not very fun for them. I promised to never take them back.

As for the food...... The worst I have had at an all-inclusive resort. It was the same every day at every restaurant. You were not allowed to take the food out of the area's or back to your room. No food service at the pool. The Oyster Bar and Azul were just alright. The best thing on the menu was the spanish coffee, so that I could forget how bad the food was. The manager of the Azul was the nicest person though.

The staff was very nice everywhere. I don't think there was a problem with anyone that worked there. Some did not speak any English, and most spoke very little, but you are in Mexico. If you do not speak any Spanish I would not recommend this hotel. I had my teen age boys to translate for me.

A group of six stayed at the Melia Azul Ixtapa from 5/16/08 to 5/23/08. Let me say that the Hotel was very nice. We had room 1906 with a balcony and the view was wonderful. The room was very clean and the bed was not hard at all. In fact, this was the most comfortable bed that I have slept in during all my different stays in Mexico. Our bellboy told us they had just put in new king size beds.

The food was average to say the least at all of the buffets but no one was sick. We did enjoy the Oyster Bar - in fact ate there twice. The Azul restaurant had delicious food but we had booked our reservation for after 8:00 since they advertised children were not permitted in the restaurant after 8:00. Needless to say our romantic dinner was ruined by two children at the next table. One who would not stop crying and the other one that ran around the restaurant. Rules do not apply to any of the children at this establishment. Management allows anything to go on.

I have children myself and don't mind being around kids. But this hotel allows schools to do day trips to the pools and the water park. One day we counted 48 school age children from a near by school who were there on a day trip. Needless to say you could not get in the pools, the swim up bar was taken over by them and no need to try to get something to eat - nothing was left at the buffets.

Ixtapa is very beautiful and we all enjoyed the town. We ate at Bogart's - wonderful meal, Reubens for hamburgers and at a wonderful family owned restaurant called Molina's. Excellent food, good prices and the owner even went out and bought mint to make us Mojitos.

We loved Ixtapa just not the Melia. The staff works very hard but when management allows the children the run of the place there is nothing the staff can do about it. In fact, several said they were very tired of the day trips from the various schools. Of course, they still had to serve them and of course they did not receive any tips. Next time we will stay in Ixtapa and not be bombarded by children who are not even staying at the hotel.

Just returned from Ixtapa. Due to a mix up, we ended up staying our last night at the Melia Azul. We were all very excited to try something new and it seemed so nice. The pools and play grounds for the kids were so impressive from afar. Once we started our experience it was not what was expected. Check-in took over 30 minutes. We had paid for 2 rooms for 3 adults and 2 toddlers; however they ended up with a single mini-suite with a king, a roll away and said they would send up 2 cribs. Once we got to the room, housekeeping told us that they were out of cribs. Down to the pool … took 15 minutes and a long walk to find available chairs with some shade. Can’t wait to get on the slides … I’m sitting at the top of one with my 1 ½ year old and to the left was a swarm of hundreds of yellow jacket hornets … just hanging out and no one seemed to care. Okay, time to get out and find lunch. “Cafeteria” quality food is all I can say. The rooms were clean, but there were these tiny insects all over the walls. In summary: overpriced, meals included in “all-inclusive” package were all cafeteria quality buffets, poor insect management (I got 5 mosquito bites just at breakfast and had none from my previous 7 days at another hotel), crowds, almost no employee spoke English, and the place is built like a maze. We had to travel down long corridors and take multiple elevators to get to our room. Last thing, the playground and bathrooms were dirty. I do not recommend this hotel.