Well wheree do I begin I really loved my stay at the Barcelo. Really sad to come back to reality.

Me and a friend stayed all inclusive it was the first time for both of us and we couldn't fault it. The hotel was always spotless there was always someone cleaning around.

There is seaweed on the beach but there is always somebody out there raking it up but its a beach at the end of the day so where do people expect seaweed to be ??

The food was delicious there is a Mexican a Spanish a seafood and an buffet style resteraunt also there was a self service bar on level one which always had hot dog's and snacks 24/7, You could also order room service once a day , the location is about 5-10 minutes from the "party zone" but there are buses running every 2 minutes just outside the hotel, or you can get a taxi for around 10 dollar's or 100 pesos.

The only thing I would fault is the entertainment at night not much for two 20 somethings to do at night and we went out most nights also the hotel staff couldn't be more helpful.

We were shown 4 rooms on arrival, every room was filthy and in need of redecorating.

The beech is small and dirty too. We had to que every day to book a table in the resturants but they were always fully booked.

The hotel is not 4 star. We were eventually moved to another hotel which was fantastic however we had to demand this as the "FIRST CHOICE" rep was not intrested.

I would`nt go back to the Barcelo Cancun if you paid me. I will be happy to send photos of our filthy stinking room on request.

Well what can I say apart from FANTASTIC we are going to book for next May.

This time we will book with FIRST CHOICE, my travel is okay if your bottom measures 17 and half inches wide and you are a 24 inch waist. The hotel was great, clean and friendly; the food was excellent, you could eat steak every night if you wanted there was plenty of choice and the waiters were great especially at breakfast time. We tipped 20 pesos which is about a pound every morning and the extra attention you got was out of this world, if you did not tip most of the waiters were still very nice.

Lying by the pool or beach a waitress came around about every 15 mins to take your order for drinks it was great as you did not have to move, if you can, take a mattress lilo as the sun beds are uncomfortable. The lobby entertainment was a couple and they were on every night except a Sunday, they were on from 8pm to 9pm and then 10pm to 11pm the girl was great but the guy mmmmm well you can make your own judgement if you go.

The pool entertainment was on every night and was okay,this was on from 9pm to 10pm it was repeated every week. Drink all the cocktails you can for free they are all included in your AI and they do have Smirnoff vodka and some other well know brands of drinks to, it was great.

The bus stops in both directions were both near the hotel and took you every place you wanted to go. Market 28 well that is something else, if you like being pressured whilst you shop then this is the place to go. La Isla is your designer shopping arcade but also has a few cheap souvenir shops, if you go make sure you go to the shop called DEL SOL everything they sell changes colour in the sun, nail polish, t shirts, hair clips and even their carrier bags its great especially for kids.

Don

We (hubby, me & 4yrs old son) went to Costa real in Cancun for two weeks in June. We loved it. The staffs were very pleasant and helpful. The girls at the kids club were absolutely fantastic.

The food was delicious and selection changed daily in the buffet restaurant. The Mexican restaurant was very nice, friendly etc and the food excellent. My husband highly recommends the trout starter. There

We stayed in the Gran Costa Real for a week and it was one of the best holidays ever.

The room, beach, pool and facilities were perfect. The staff were so friendly and waited on us hand and foot. The atmosphere was fantastic and we made some good friends with the staff and other guests.

They have a bus which collects guests from the hotel and takes them to the nightclubs, which we thought was great because the town centre where the nightclubs are got really busy. It was really convenient and easy because the entertainers from the hotel took us on the bus and got us straight into the nightclubs.

All in all, We couldn't of had a better time, we have some great memories of Cancun and we'll definitely be returning to the Gran Costa Real.

Honeymoon from Hell!! We turned up at the hotel and from the outside it looks fab, until we got to the reception and they told us we could not have our free upgrade as they had not been informed of our marriage. I don't know how considering the holiday was booked one year prior to departure. They then managed to organise us an upgraded room however we had the noisy neighbours from hell so we were on the move again. Unfortunately every room was noisy as their was an infant school party in full of American children who had obviously never been on holiday alone before.

I have travelled the world as a backpacker and been on several 18-30 holidays in my time and never seen such animals and irritating behaviour. The American children were rude, noisy and took over the place and had all the staff pampering to their every need. It clearly stated that you could not have food brought into the hotel from outside however the pizza guy pulled up every five minutes delivering pizzas. When we informed the manager he just shrugged his shoulders. We tried to watch England in the world cup (a game they actually won), however were told to leave the hotel as not to disturb the Americans! On our return the match had actually been on, I was really annoyed after having to run for 3 miles in the rain to TGI Fridays where we were the only two people in there!

I was then confronted by used condoms in the corridor. No sunbeds to use when the sun actually came out.

All the daytime entertainment was aimed at the American children. The evening entertainment didn't exist, a large screen with seats around showing movement shows?? That's not entertainment, then the daytime guy came around to get everyone into Cancun to party but charged large prices for the pleasure, this was the only time we could get sleep between 11pm and 1 am before the poor shandy drinking children came home and made a racket. We thought well if you can't beat them join them! The Thomas cook club nights were fab, went to several bars and clubbing weel good! Tried to do it ourselves and we found we had to pay to get into every bar and you could not do a crawl, no variation!

Food in the hotel was bog standard, specialised restaurants were dull ended up living off buffet restaurant. The only good point was the Caribbean night on the beach this was good food was nice, next day was the left overs!! Met an American couple who reassured us that the hotel was not normally like this, it was because the hurricane had blown away the cheap hotels and left the better hotels to rehouse the student holidays.

If we had known their was another kids holiday period other than spring break we would not have had our honeymoon there!

We arrived in Cancun on Christmas day 2005, the resort looked like a war zone, obviously not as described by First Choice the week before we departed. The whole holiday we were plagued by construction work & noise, awoken by drilling at 4am on 3 occasions.

Yes the staff were good, but we got fed up by the end of the first week.

The entertainment was poor, most of the shops and bars were still destroyed by the hurricane.

The First Choice reps are useless, the morning after we arrived I told her we wanted a flight home, or move to a different resort. We got neither. We were stuck in a hell hole for 2 weeks. The most annoying part was we had checked numerous times with First Choice in the weeks leading up to departure and told all was OK.

A very disappointing holiday.

This hotel was fantastic!! A definite must!!

The hotel staff were all extremely accommodating, nothing was ever too much for them.

It was a very lively hotel. All the bars close at 12 however there is then a self service area on level 2 until morning.

Cleanliness: Excellent, could not fault it. I saw a couple of cocroachs(sp?)on ground floor but these were dying so they must have something around to kill them off quickly.

Food: Similar foods everyday on the buffet restaurant, but the waiters here are very nice...will help you with whatever you want.Only tried the other restaurant once...meals too big for children, I asked for 1/2 portions and still got whole T-Bones. Vegetables are quite raw but if you want them cooked a little longer they will willing cook it extra for you. Nachos and cheese are normally upstairs above the lobby in 24hour snack room..this is the only "real" mexican food I came across, but like I said, I did not go into the other restaurants, only once and I had steak.

Location: Costa Real is situated at the End of the hotel zone. It is lovely and quite and a taxi ride is 10USD (approx 100pesos) to the centre of everything. But, because it is right at the end of the hotel zone, everything here is much more expensive...If you are looking for a bargain go into town more where there are more shops or go to one of the shopping malls...La Isla is good for designer names as well as a good mexican bazaar with nik-naks for souvenirs..Flamigo Plaza is a little more like an indoor market.Be warned..If anyone offers you a free trip to the sister hotel in playa del carmen they take you to a jewlers in the middle of nowhere first where there is a bloke outside with a gun and guard dog and the rings are somewhere in the range of 3000pounds..thats about 5000USD.

Staff: Brilliant. The waiters are good, and if you just tip them a couple of dollors twice a week they will do everything for you..they also thankyou when you are leaving for helping them out with tips. I had a 10 year old, 4 year old and 18month old baby with me and the staff are fantastic with them..they could not of done enough for them. The reception were very friendly too. One thing .. Do not accept rooms 223/224/225..these are beautiful rooms but are right next door to the 24hour snack room where all you hear all night is the air hockey banging against the metal and people who are extremely drunk and shouting as loud as the can..If that is not enough it is all open plan so you hear the chairs scrapping across the floor in the lobby aswell where the maids are cleaning. Take these rooms only if you plan to sleep all day and out all night.

Entertainment: If you are english and have children, go to spain. This is not a resort for children..we had 4 kids in total with us, ages 12/10/4 and 18 months old and there was not a kids disco, no childrens entertainment or nothing. There is a small playground outside the kids club (the pictures you find on the internet of the kids club are not the ones of this hotel..the one here is tiny)and the only children you find in the club are the ones where the parents get rid of them from 10am to 6pm. The activities in the kids club are average, spanish lessons, swimming in the pool and video games for 1 hour. I would go back to Cancun, even this hotel but not with children, although the staff are lovley toward them there is nothing for them to do. At approx 9pm every night you either get a show of some sort or karaoke where the only ones who sing are the entertainment team. There is nothing before 9pm and nothing after.During the day there is Bingo, Beach football, volleyball and tequila volleyball in the pool and water aerobics. Sometimes there is sand art.

All in all Cancun is a fantastic place to go and I would certainly go back..I would go back to this hotel, but I would probably use the sister hotel Caribe Real which is much more relaxed and the beach/pools are better if you have children.

The Costa Real was fantastic, all the staff were extremely helpful and the rooms were spotless.

Maids cleaned everyday.

There was a great variety of food, I think you have to treat buffet style restaurants as a normal restaurant to not get bored with it. For example just pick steak or chicken and not have both on your plate!! The a la carte restaurant was great as well and the waiters would bring you food and drink on the hotels private beach or even round the pool.

The daytime entertainment was ok but night time stuff could get pretty boring. The hotel do offer a free bus run service to a different nightlife place each night though so you can't fault them there, also room service was fantastic - the amount of food you got was unbelievable.

I would most definitely go back to this hotel it was great.