My family and I stayed here from Sept. 2 - 9. Our kids are 2 and 4 months.

Where do I start?

The rooms stink. When we first got there we thought it was just our room, but after running around and viewing (literally) 10+ different rooms at the resort, we only found ONE room that did not have some kind of sewer/wet paint/humidity smell to it. What's worse is no one else seemed to be bothered by the smell except us. I think the staff thought we were crazy, but there was definitely a stench to the rooms that was later blamed on the humidity.

The A/C in the rooms is almost non-existent. It's there and you can put all the way down, but it doesn't matter because they set it up so you can only cool the room so much. We still felt pretty warm in our room and it was only mildly cooler than outside. If you want A/C, go to the time share presentations where they have the A/C blasted to cool.

Melia is part of a time share company, so you will be asked constantly to participate in a presentation. The good news is that it's not really a hard sell so you don't feel too pressured. My husband and I did it for the free stuff --- free city & jungle tour for the family, they gave my daughter a Melia Flintstone shirt and internet credit for a week. As long as you don't mind spending the 2-3 hours with the sales person, it can be worth the "free" stuff.

The internet is not part of the all-inclusive and you have to pay for it. It's not even that great in the rooms, it's best downstairs in the lobby or restaurants.

The elevator was broken for 4 of the 7 days we were there, so the building we were in only had one working elevator.

The wait staff was GREAT. We tipped the waiters for ever y meal - 20-50 pesos depending on service that evening. I don't think anyone else did, but we did and they really appreciated as we appreciated their help.

The entire staff is very English friendly. I've been to many countries around the world, and I will say that Mexico (at least in the resort areas) has been the best so far at English. Very impressed from our tour guide to the front desk to the wait staff.

We went during their off peak season so I would say about 85% of the hotel guests are locals.

The food was surprisingly not bad. I had read the reviews here earlier and people were complaining about how bad it was but for the most part I liked the buffet choices. There are about 4 restaurants plus a grill and the restaurants are either "buffet" or "table service" each night. They ask you to make reservations for the sit down dinners, but we didn't always have one and since they weren't too busy the host would always accommodate is. The thing that I was turned off about was that not everything on the menu is "all-inclusive." If you order Lobster, etc., there is an additional charge. Why not just pad the price of the per night stay and truly make it an all-inclusive meal plan? Room service was also an additional charge. Food was not 24 hours, so if you get hungry in the middle of the night, you're out of luck.

I liked the fact there was a 24 hour resort doctor. My daughter got sick half way through the trip and we were thankful to have a Dr. on site. We paid about 60 USD for the first visit and she came back 1 other time for a follow up visit for free.

Walmart is about a 6 USD cab ride which was useful.

We didn't really venture outside the resort because it was just too humid and hot when we were there, but we heard it is within walking distance to some local restaurants.

The pool was nice and big, but there were many tiles that were broken and became a hazard. My daughter loved the pool because it was only about 1-2 feet deep in a lot of spots. They have a swim up bar, but we didn't use it. They also have some one come around for drink orders.

The grill next to the pool served hamburgers, hotdogs and nachos. The self serve soda fountain was swarming with bees. The birds flock to the grill and try to get what they can, so I can see all this being a health concern.

The kids area was ok, but my daughter didn't really get to play since it was so hot and humid. They have some kind of day care, etc, but we didn't use it.

There is a little part of the beach that no one uses. The area is rocky and the water is pretty choppy. Take a few pictures and go back to the pool.

The grounds are pretty well kept, nothing fancy, but taken care of. When you enter, the lobby is an open air space which feels resort-like and someone greets you immediately. This is also the time-share person who will pressure you to taking the presentation.

The resort is a quick and cheap cab ride to the airport.

All in all, the resort was ok, but nothing spectacular and we had a few hiccups that did not make our stay that pleasant. I didn't ramble on and on about the room issues we were having but you get the picture.

We just returned home from a 1 week stay at the Melia. We were a group of 14 with some teenagers and 5 couples. We had an awesome time here, the service was excellent (particularly Angel at the pool where we spent a lot of time!!)
The buffet was excellent, had all breakfasts there and some suppers. The one a la carte we went to was not the best - we had a 9:30 booking and it looked like they wanted to close when we got there. But otherwise the food was very good, Mexican night was awesome! (tequila galore)
The service at all times was very good. Whenever any of our group turned up at the lobby bar, they had chairs and tables put together in no time cuz they knew more were coming.
There were lots of families at this resort but we were never bothered by too many kids in the pool or any other issues.
If you go, be sure to ask for Freddy at the beach to take you paragliding - 8 of us went and had a fantastic time! (extra minutes for big group). The vendors were a bit annoying but for the most part they jjust came and asked and then left you alone.
All in all, I would highly recommend this resort. We will definitely go back again!!

Close to the airport, short trip to the resort. Easy to ignore the constant badgering about the timeshares - pretend you are single, they think you dont have money (why else would you be staying on a low dime). Clean, great views, lots of activities especially for kids. Staff fantastic, very accommodating and remember all your little special requests (food and drinks) without prompting. Small beach areas with the typical tour agents and vendors, security does a good job of keeping them on the beach area.

Great location! Take a taxi from the airport $18, rather than wait 45 minutes for the bus. It's a 10 minute drive. The only downside is the "time share" hassle at the airport. Make a beeline for the exterior doors and don't look back!! Smooth check in and quick bag drop at the room. We had a garden view room and could still see the ocean. Comfortable, air conditioned and clean. The buffet was good, we favored the Mexican restaurant over the Italian and seafood. It's worth the few extra dollars to buy a nice bottle of Mexican wine off their wine list. Clean pools, great lobby bar and wonderful kids club. The only downsides were the constant pressure to join the Melia club. It was hard to walk through the lobby! The nightly entertainment went late and you could hear it from your room. Tough with an infant. Free wireless would've been a bonus but it was complimentary in the lobby. Staff was extremely attentive and friendly.
Would reccomend it and definitely go back