We were there over the week of Christmas. My wife and three kids (7,5,4) had two interconnecting room in Laguna (234.235)

First, the positives...

1.) The GO's were absolutely awesome with the kids, they had the time of thier lives. In fact our 7 year old said "This is kid paradise". Your kids will absolutely love it!

Unfortunately thats the end of the positives. SO... Moving on..

1.) The rooms were very old, mold in the showers and ants most everywhere. We had two rooms both with 2 beds (though we had reseverd a King and a double). Beds were extremely uncomfortable, my wife and I got little sleep.

2.) Smell of efluent was everywhere outside, this is probably because of the Laguna near the trapeze, but the smell was awful. It was like having a sewer outside your door.

3.) No life jackets at the beach for kids, no floaties for sale at the store. This was the only thing I complained about as I felt this was a safety issue. To their credit Hammer (head of the village) had water wings delivered to our room within the hour. If you have new swimmers, BRING YOUR OWN FLOATIES OR LIFEJACKETS

4.) 3 o fthe 5 of us now have horrible stomach problems. I went to the doctor today and was diagnosed with Ecoli. Eat no fresh fruit or vegetables.

5.) All the dining was buffet style. I am American, but this was the epitomy of large americans, musciling their way in to get too much food that they don't need. The entire dining scene was miserable.

We would not return.

We just returned from a week at Club Med Ixtapa over Thanksgiving. We had a group of 18, including 7 kids, ages 3 to 11. We have been to Club Med Sandpiper in Florida several times, but chose Mexico this time to ensure warmer weather and the weather was picture perfect. Everyone had a great time, and particularly speaking for my family of 5, it was one of our best vacations ever.

You can surely notice that many reviewers have been very dissatisfied. Keep just a few things in mind, and you will truly enjoy your vacation. First, if you don't like the heat-don't go to Mexico in the summer! Second, if you aren't traveling with kids, choose a different property. Third, you are not choosing this resort due to its 5-star luxury status. It is not a perfect, wow-you hotel. You are here for the location and the programs-don't come if you won't be taking advantage of them. Finally, Ixtapa is in Mexico. You are in a tropical, foreign country. If you want the Four Seasons, by all means, go there. But they don't have a circus!

THE AWESOME STUFF

beautiful, well-maintained, lush grounds
fabulous beach with perfect size waves
few low-key beach peddlers
great GO's and wonderful mini-camp
huge variety of food, nicely presented and tasty
dolphin excursion

THE REALLY GOOD STUFF

A/C-leave on hi all the time and be fine
shows
included drinks easily accessible (needed lots of soda/water)
covered open-air dining (wires keep birds out)
property so large, that even busy holiday week felt uncrowded
activities-sailing, archery, mini-golf, trapeze
easy transfers-even the buses and Ixtapa airport nice
we ate/drank whatever we wanted and only very minor 'turista,' not affecting our activities

BAD STUFF

horseback riding excursion-so bad our family not charged
having to beg my 9 year old to leave camp to spend time with cousins, aunts and uncles!!
property so large-less ambulatory grandparents found it hard to get around

The beach is very large with plenty of chairs available. It is a public beach, but you will mostly see fellow club med folks. we spent hours each afternoon in the water and playing in the sand with all the kids. Waves were big enough to be fun, but small enough to be able to keep kids safe (in Cancun I would never even take my kids in the ocean-too rough always). Having us all out there together day after day is what we were there for. Our rooms were in the Punta building, and we could step out to the beach in moments. Lovely hearing the ocean all the time also.

My kids LOVED mini club. They did circus every morning. Can try trapeze from ages 4 and up-done very safely and what a thrill. also trampoline and tightrope. The GO's were just so great. They got my 2 non-joiner kids all excited to be in the shows. As much as they wanted to join us at the beach, they insisted on not leaving till after rehearsals. They really got a nice sense of independence. Several nites, the 8 and 9 year olds chose to have dinner with the camp also. even my 4 year old wanted to go a couple nites.

As for the rooms-they are the only drawback. the showers are quite small and the tile I preferred not to think about too much. Everything else was quite clean and housekeeping was great. We did find bugs on the floor-but nothing major-small centipedes or ants.

bring mosquito repellant for nites. hadn't thought of this, and got bitten at the shows or just standing outside for a few moments talking. one of my sisters brought board games and cards-great. We played at empty tables in the dining room after lunch to stay out of that mid-day sun.

As I said at the start, if you want a great, unique, family experience with something for everyone, this is your place. Have an open mind and ENJOY!

if anyone is comparing to Sandpiper-here are my thoughts. note i was always at Sandpiper during presidents week and last time a few years ago. Sandpiper is compact and much easier to navigate. on the other hand, i always felt that property was stuffed to the gills. always found sandpiper's pool to be too cool for the adults to spend much time in and the river not too fun. so aside from short pool time and some sand time, never found much to do with the kids there. not necessarily bad-the kids were younger and we were happy to have them at camp mostly. but at ixtapa, we all just had so much we could all do together (beach, archery, pool and more) that it was more of a family place. i do think the food was a bit nicer at sandpiper. the ixtapa property is far nicer-the grounds are so beautiful.

We were there from August 12 - 19 and had the worst time. It was way too hot to be outside and not in the water. The pool was hot (90 degrees) and stunk like urine. The GOs were not so happy to be there and complained to my husband and I at dinner. There were birds, flies, and bees in the food and at the pool at all times. A lot of the food was recycled from past meals. DO NOT ATTEND THIS CLUB MED IF YOU DON'T HAVE CHILDREN. It's one big nursery with screaming kids everywhere. Our room was reminiscent of a Thai prison and smelled like old fish. There was garbage left everywhere and all types of bugs in our room. We couldn't wait to leave and will never go back.

Swimming with the dolphins was an awesome experience and the only highlight to our trip.

We went from Aug 19 - Sept 2 and had the BEST time of our lives. I had read a number of bad reviews due to weather, etc. before going and was nervous. Thankfully we had balmy weather, with offshore breezes most days and not the kind of heat those other reviewers had in July. I called a couple of the people who wrote bad reviews and they told me it was mostly due to heat that they had a bad time.

Having our three kids in camps during the day gave us so much time together. It was both a romantic vacation for us as a couple and a really fun family vacation. We laid on the beach and by the pool and in our room during the day sans kids. Then we played for hours in the late afternoon/evening with the kids. Staying up late in the pool is great fun. The shows are hilarious and definitely worth attending. The GOs are awesome - Pedro, Jenny, Elise, Ryan, etc. The food was delicous - duck a'la orange, quail with raisins, sengalese chicken, amazing mexican faire, incredible breads in the morning, fresh orange juice. delicious deserts, lots of fresh fruit, etc. (Although others drank the water served from the tap, I always bought bottled water to be safe).

The pool is right on the beach. The water in the ocean is a perfect temperature.

This is definitely an amazing way to do a family vacation. We cannot wait until our next Club Med vacation.