Ixtapa Palace Resort

This old Mexican-style hotel is run well by management, and there are lots of excellent restaurants just a five-minute walk away. The staff are wonderful, friendly, helpful, and always smiling. The seafood restaurant is excellent and has live music many nights. There are three pools, and they were never crowded. The gym is fully equipped, with aerobic classes every morning. Pack your cross trainers and spandex!

The rooms were clean and well kept, and the two remaining pools were clean too. The full kitchen was promised, though we had to push to get a hot plate. I'd avoid a ground-floor room because the water had trouble draining at times. The restaurant rents space in the building; the food is good when the loud techno is turned down. This resort may have been beautiful years ago, but don't be fooled. A local gym rents a big open-air floor area and plays booming techno through most waking hours. The whole water park section is closed. I hope someone puts a lot of money into fixing the place up, because it needs it.

I really did love this place, and I'll definitely stay again. Gino was super helpful whenever I needed to find something. The reason for three stars is that renovations are underway and the rooms still need updating.

The room cost us 3,800 pesos for one night, which felt like a complete rip-off. The beds were hard as rocks, the hotel smelled bad and wasn't very clean, and everything felt very outdated. The TV didn't work, and we couldn't find its remote. There was no way to adjust the air conditioning either. I'm glad we were only there one night before heading to the airport the next day. Never again!