Barcelo Ixtapa - All-Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

10134 reviews

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  Very good choice in Ixtapa

  We stayed here a whole week of a longer stay in Ixtapa. By the end of the week we were kind of bored of the food at the buffet. While they have a lot of food choices compared to the other all inclusives we stayed at in Ixtapa, they don't vary much daily. Some evenings they did have a theme for the buffet so there would be a few other different choices. A couple things to note is that at breakfast the indoor buffet has made to order crepes, which we thoroughly enjoyed and both the indoor and outdoor buffets have made to order omelets. One of my favorites at the snack bar was the Tuna Tostada and my son rally liked the cheesesteak and the seafood burrito. We really appreciated that the bracelets they gave us also served as our room keys, so we didn't have to remember a key card. We did have several maintenance issues with the lights that they had to fix during our stay, but by the last day we also noticed there was water leaking out of the light over the sink, which also may be why we had other light issues they had to fix, they must have a plumbing issue somewhere that is leaking. Staff did make us cute towel animals for our oceanside room, ironically the teens were in a "garden" room and not once did they make them any towel animals. The drinks were decent, but wish they had a sign with drink ideas like the Holiday Inn down the road does. We don't drink often so we struggled to figured out different things to try. I also wish they had a big sign that said the daily activities rather than having to stand in front of a screen and wait for all the activities to scroll across. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained. We did go on the morning bike tour and that was well worth the 11 miles. You don't stop to see much anything on the way to the nature preserve and national park. There is a much short afternoon bike trip to the marina but we were always too hot by 4pm to go. It would be helpful if you can speak some Spanish, as many of the staff do not, although they did seem to have more people who could than some of the other places. We arranged our airport transfer in advance through Ixtapa Transfers and that went smoothly. The resort is 15-20 minutes from the airport. FYI - you only get 1 dinner reservation for every 3 days and sign up starts at 9am that day, but people start getting lined up at 8:30am. And the places for reservations are not the same as it shows on the screen, both days I lined up they were different. We ended up doing Italian both days and really enjoyed it. We would have liked to try something else, but we couldn't plan for it since the screen didn't match. We did participate in archery and bingo and you can win Barcelo branded merchandise at them. We went to several shows and even though I have older teens they liked the kids ones best because of the non-official (similar, but not quite) costumes they had. The kids show is a half hour before the adult show, which is an hour. Both shows are dance based shows and they will sing in the adult one as well. The adult shows were nice, they made a lot of costume changes and kept it interesting. I read about people having trouble getting chairs and was worried since we were there during spring break, but every day we were able to find 2-3 chairs together at 8:30am. We were flexible about where we were willing to sit, so I suppose if you only want to be around a specific pool it might be tough. The rooms have mini fridges in them and they did a good job of keeping it stocked daily. Since we don't like beer or peanuts we would ask them for more soda and chips instead and they were accomodating. We got massages at beach huts and they ranges between 400-500 pesos for an hour depending upon which one you go to. There are lots of shops and restaurants across the street.

  Mar 19, 2026
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  22nd stay

  location, weather in February / March are perfect. Like going to our second home, as the staff continually tell us

  Mar 18, 2026
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  Charged a Cancellation Penalty After Extending My Stay

  Very disappointing experience with Barceló Ixtapa. I called the hotel simply to extend my stay by one additional night and even agreed to pay more for a Premium upgrade. Instead of modifying my original reservation (7342SF148841), the call center agent created a new reservation (7342SG208246) and left the previous one active. Because of this internal mistake, the hotel is now trying to charge me a 50% cancellation penalty for a reservation I never asked to cancel. This situation was caused by the hotel’s own operational error, yet they are attempting to penalize the customer. I hope management reviews this case seriously and improves both their reservation process and customer service.

  Mar 17, 2026
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  Honest - Must Read

  I have been to a few all-inclusive resorts in Mexico. Food: The buffet food was similar to any other all-inclusive buffet. The food was warm and there was always something I enjoyed at every meal. The snack bar isn’t gourmet — burgers and fries are basic — but after a few margaritas it hits the spot. Wings: avoid them. They were cold, dried out, and not worth the effort of ordering. Rooms: The rooms were clean and the beds were surprisingly comfortable. In our first room, the roof started leaking badly over the sink. The staff quickly upgraded us to a higher floor, although that room had a shower that wouldn’t drain properly. I have stayed in far worse places, and I wouldn’t avoid this resort because of the rooms. When we reported the issues, the staff responded urgently and moved us without hesitation. Pool Area: This is where the real problems were. Many guests leave books and resort towels on loungers to reserve them for their entire stay. As other reviews have mentioned, we discovered some loungers were still being “reserved” by guests who had left days before we even arrived. One elderly couple was reserving four loungers for the two of them — two in the sun and two in the shade. The resort has a policy that everything must be removed from loungers at the end of each day, but it was not being enforced at all. One night, a friend and I set an alarm in the middle of the night and executed what we jokingly called “Project Reset.” We removed all belongings (towels, books, shirts, pool toys) from the loungers and placed them in a few large piles for staff to address. I did notice staff later collected the towels, which cost guests $20 USD each if they go missing — you’re welcome for the extra income, Barcelo (approximately $1,000 USD). Another guest in our group, who had no idea what we had done, went to the front desk first thing in the morning to thank them for clearing the chairs. The front desk actually took responsibility and said it wasn’t easy to do. However, when guests whose items went missing asked about it, they were told another guest had done it. Barcelo — shame on you. Either take responsibility or deny it, but you can’t have it both ways. After that night, some guests seemed nervous about leaving their belongings out overnight, which partially solved the issue. A few days later I also noticed the resort actually started enforcing the policy. For those who had to pay extra for missing towels or were inconvenienced — good. Those chairs are not yours to reserve indefinitely. If you stay there and this becomes an issue again, remember that sometimes guests have to take the policy into their own hands and reset expectations.

  Mar 15, 2026
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  Lovely hotel and staff!

  This hotel was lovely. The family suite had a view of the ocean and was spacious with separate rooms and beds. The food was amazing. The kids enjoyed the pools and waves in the ocean. The hotel arranged transportation to and from the airport, which was convenient.

  Mar 14, 2026