Taxi ride from the airport ($29) got us at the hotel Saturday May 20th at approx. 5:30pm. We were greeted by staff who got us registered quickly and Gil, took us to our room. We were able to understand him, though we knew very little Spanish, enough to get by. Upon showing our room to us, he checked the TV, showing us the English channel, and when he found the the screen was not clear he immediately called for a repairman to check it out; he arrived within the first 15 minutes. Though the hotel is older than most in Ixtapa, it's quaint, and we enjoyed it, the living room, kitchen and a full bath was down stairs, upstairs was the bedroom with a queen size bed, dressing area and again another full bath. There was a balcony on the first floor, and two upstairs, one had a jucuzzy (sp), which we filled with cold water and enjoyed it throughout the week. My hair dryer and electric curler did not work in the plug socket, which I reported and they immediately brought me an adapter. When we discovered the shower head splashed out over the curtain, they again immediately responded to repair it. What we didn't report at the beginning of our stay was the airconditioner near the bed dripped, we were afraid that if they started working on it, it would stop working, so we put a towel, under the drip, and the maid changed it daily, so she was aware of it. Speaking of the maid, she kept the place clean and bed made and we always had fresh towel, Like on a cruise, she'd make towel animals, which we took quite a few pictures of. The larger of the 3 pools is the one we used the most, it has a swim up bar with at waterfall, that they only started running about Wednesday after our Saturday arrival, it was nice but the water splashed up on the bar, which is why I believe they didn't have it on all the time. The other two pools, one for the kids, and the other somewhat smaller then the bigger one, were great; we didn't go to the water park next door, but had we brought our kids they would have loved it, we did take a peek at it. We liked the fact that at this time of the year we didn't have to fight for lounge chairs anywhere around the pools. Actually, the place wasn't crowded at all, maybe it was the time of year. One of the staff upon greeting us told us he was surpirsed to see Americans in the hotel this time of the year, that usually Americans and Canadians came around November through February, and that normally they only have Mexican families come during this time of the year. No matter we enjoyed ourselves and everyone we encountered even if we didin't understand each other everyone was nice. Like earlier reviews the beach is about a block & a half away, but for those like us, we enjoy walking and everything was in walking distance. Great places to eat, we'd recommend El Chef Josse, new Senior Frogs, they had great food, try the Chicken Parmeasan or Chicken Fijata. Watch out for all the street salesmen trying to get you to go and check out hotels in the area, offering you free tickets. We did take them up on visiting the Barcenlo Hotel, which was nice, however the $17K cost to buy into this time share was more than we wanted to spend, and did not add anything to what we already have., however we were treated to a free trip to Ixtapa Island; there you can spend $15 per person and snorkel, or just relax. This trip included lunch and drink. Besure to take your towels, and sunscreen, as it was very hot out there. We just kicked back and relaxed, taking a swim when we got to hot, don't worry the guides can speak English. We did take the bus to the next little town, but it was to hot and we only spent a short time there to buy a duffle bag., other than that the flea markets in Ixtapa had everything we wanted and more. We'd go back but only during cooler months. Actually, we though Ixtapa was nicer than Porta Vallarta, the streets were cleaner and we felt safer here walking the back streets.
We'd recommend this hotel, and have already checked out larger rooms, in the event we bring family or friends. Check out was on Saturday the 27th, they say that you must leave by Noon, however, they let us stay in our room until 2pm, since our flight wasn't until 5pm, which was great we were able to leave for breakfast, then come back and relax around the pool, before going back to our room to shower, and finishing packing for our home flight..