Beutiful resort, great food and friendly staff

Was not impressed with the no name brand alcohol and wine. Mixed drinks tasted like non-alcoholic. Wine at the a la cart restaurants was much better, but found the time allocated for eating was too rushed. Food was amazing.

Good Resort

We had a nice, clean room with an ocean view. Loved that we could make reservations for all of the restaurants at the same time as check in. The staff were friendly and very helpful. We really enjoyed the adult pool.

Everything you could ask for

Beautiful small resort has everything you could ask for. Staff really makes a huge effort to please. Nightly entertainment was very good and always different. Make your purchases from the local shops at there is very little at the airport duty free.

Sublime! What you see is what you get.

March 2017 was our 3rd visit to the Barcelo in Huatulco. On each return to this paradise, we have been accompanied by a greater number of friends & family. The superlative weather & location are matched by incredible staff, dining and recreational opportunities. The ambiance created through the warmth, integrity and industrious nature of the Mexican people is THE BEST.

Great place

Resort is older but refurbished and very clean. Service was excellent. Food was very good. Great location, close to the airport, town and right on a great beach. Lots of beach activities. We enjoyed our vacation here and would return.

Great Resort

My husband and I traveled with our 4 month old and we were very happy with this resort. The grounds were kept very clean and tidy - we constantly saw staff sweeping, trimming bushes, and doing maintenance. One evening after dinner several staff members were hand washing all of the loungers around the pools. The pools - adult only and children's - were both kept clean. The food was way better than I've experienced at any resort. There are 4 a la carte options - Mexican, Spanish, Italian, a [... read more]nd Japanese. There are no limits to the number of a la carte reservations you can make. We tried all of them and really enjoyed them all. The japanese (sushi) was really great and is a tiny place that won't take reservations and is first come first serve. There are two buffet options for breakfast and lunch and then one buffet option for dinner each night. Loads of options for everyone. I'm a vegetarian and found the buffets to be heavily stocked with meat but still found plenty of yummy options for myself. We didn't get in to the theatre for any of the shows that were put on each night because we had the baby with us (and most of our dinners were later) but there was also musical entertainment each evening outside in the pool/courtyard area. By the pool during the day they had lots of organized water sports/games going on. There also seemed to be lots of things for kids like face painting, the kids club, water slides, etc. There wasn't any rainy days so we didn't spend much time inside but there is also a games room with board games, pool table, ping pong, etc. The majority of the staff was really great but there were some that weren't as friendly and gave slower service. It was really either hit or miss and nothing in between. 90% of staff were amazing so it's too bad there was a handful that weren't. Our room was fine - comfortable clean beds, balcony overlooking the pool/beach, fridge stocked daily (we left a tip for the individual who filled our fridge each day with a note of what we wanted in our fridge ie. bottled water, beer, chips, etc), we were given a pack n play for our baby to sleep in, bathroom was fine. We did see some teeny tiny little bugs in the room either crawling on the bathroom wall or on the dresser for instance. Maybe only a handful and they seemed harmless but worth mentioning. We left a tip for the maid as well each day but some days our room was cleaned impeccably and we had towels and flowers shaped liked an animal left in the room and other days it was as if they half cleaned the room then just left without giving us fresh towels or finishing the cleaning job. So again, hit or miss. Overall I'd give the resort an 8 out of 10 and would recommend to others. My family definitely plans to return to Barcelo Huatulco and would likely book 2 weeks next time because 1 week was just to short!

Great Family Holiday

We just arrived home on Feb 21st from a week long stay at Barcelona beach Huatulco. We travelled with our 2 children ages 5 & 7. We upgraded to premium which was worth it we just wish it was included but offered a beautiful ocean view and no reservations needed for the a la carte restaurants and premium drinks. We also had beach gifts on arrival for the kids and sparkling wine in the room and many more options. We felt extremely safe and loved the very authentic experience. The resort was small [... read more] but perfect for families. Weather was HOT and consistent every single day. You need a hat everyday. Bring your Bubbas as your drinks will get warm fast. Service was amazing and the staff were truly exceptional and so attentive to us..I cannot say a bad thing. Orlando on the beach and his two boys treated us so well on our boat tour...highly recommend it. Only thing I would caution is the beach tide changes and it can have a dangerous undertow..be careful. We can't wait to return.

Awesome resort

The resort as well as the grounds are very well maintained. The employees do a fantastic job and work extremely hard to ensure everything is in pristine condition. Staff are courteous, friendly and bend over backwards for their guests.

Fantastic resort

We loved everything about this resort! First the people are such wonderful people to talk to and they are so very helpful! They don't expect anything from you, which makes you want leave tips! Beautiful grounds and very clean place in every area! My only complaint would be not enough bottle water available for us! We will definitely go back! Great job everyone!

Lovely staff and beautiful resort

We felt our two week stay was amazing. The staff was exceptional in every department. Management was also over looking the departments to make sure top quality service was provided. The food was very good. The rooms great but a/c never went below 21.5c. The beach clean and ocean awesome. The adult pool was great when guests followed the rules about not letting kids play in area. The life guards tried there best to control it. More signs needed around pool stating No Kids. One should be placed at [... read more] shallow end off pool where you walk into pool. This would help as the one on island of brush is hard to see, obviously from certain angles. Ricardo the manager we saw the most was wonderful. The only other improvement would be to have specific smoking areas by the pool. For those of us with health issues it would be a great comfort to know that smoking is in specific areas so we could avoid them. Free internet at resort would be an added bonus as all restaurants across the street provide this service. For as much as we pay for this resort it should be included in our package. The weather was unbeatable. Every day was sunny and hot. We loved our two holiday and will be back. The restaurants across the street had amazing food and great service. A nice break from the resort.

Beautiful Location

The resort is lower end to what we are used to, but even so, they do it very well. The location is great. The weather can't be beat. There is ample shade at pool. There is a great selection of foods. Sometimes a little cold. It would be nice if they had more than one grill station in the main buffet. This is a drawback to a small resort. The rooms were nice. Shower only in room. No tub. The room was clean and always made up nicely. It is an idyllic spot. The market vendors are kind  [... read more]and not aggressive. You will feel safe in most spots. There is a homey, relaxing energy to the space. There are a number of excursions you can take and it is easy to hire a private boat off the beach. All in all it was very enjoyable and we will likely go back.

Disapointed

Had booked a room with a king bed and a view. What we got was a ground floor with double beds. When asked to upgrade we were told that it would cost $60.00 U.S per night. The staff was great, hotel itself was fairly small, the beach was good and the weather was also great. Don't know if I would go back just for the fact that when booking we didn't get what we expected.

Excellent resort at a great price, except for the alright food

We spent a week at the Barcelo Huatulco (13-20 Dec. 2016) just before prices rose for Christmas. Overall we very much liked the resort: for everything but the food I’d rate it as a 4.5 star; for regular eaters I’d rate it as maybe 4 stars and, for those with special diets (e.g. vegetarians), a 2 to at most a 3 star. Things we liked. Resort. Like most resorts in the area, this one was built maybe 30+ years back and so it is not the most modern. That said, it is compact, well designed,  [... read more]easy to use, with nice gardens and large palm trees, and the views over the beach and ocean from the lobby and many rooms are beautiful. There are two adjacent pools – one for children and the other (with a bar) for adults. Water levels are never deep – this is not a place to do laps. There is a well equipped gym, tennis courts, a mini-golf area, a games room (pool and ping pong tables…) and I believe that the use of all including equipment (not verified for tennis rackets) is free. There is the main buffet and four restaurants which are not always open every night (Italian, Spanish, Mexican and a small sushi restaurant that did not require reservations). There are a lot of places to lay down around the pool and overlooking the ocean but, despite that, at the end of our stay just before Christmas the idiotic towel game – people getting up at 7AM to “reserve” chairs - was in full swing. Beach The beach is one of the largest in the area. Facing the beach, at the far left past Dreams, is an area where there are many fish – take some bread to feed them. The beach goes down fast to the water and then beyond – the water gets deep fast. When we were there waves were moderate, other beaches in the area have much more violent surf (Chahue) or less so (Santa Cruz and Entrega), but you will need to take taxis to go there. The hotel has some equipment for water sports (small sail catamarans, plastic kayaks…) that they can show you how to use, and water skidoos you can rent for a I think $60US per half hour. Entertainment Every evening there is music in the lobby bar (pretty good musicians and singers), followed by a show in the theater (varied and better than most I’ve seen in AI resorts), and mostly Mexican dance music starting around 11PM or so in the bar across from the Japanese Sushi restaurant. Clients were over half Mexican, with a lot of Canadians, a few Americans and a handful of other nationalities. Rooms have been recently renovated and are nice. If you pay considerably more for premium status, you get an ocean front room (plus better food and drinks); otherwise you get an ocean view or garden view room (like us). Higher rooms give better views (rooms on the inside of the U shaped buildings have views of the pool area and sea). The beach and resort face almost directly south. Rooms with odd numbers give you better sunrise views while those with even numbers have the afternoon sun. Staff As is often the case in Huatulco, the local staff are wonderful. A suggestion to guests: tip the staff well – they do their jobs very well and their salaries are not high; the area is not well-off. Excursions We went twice to the small town of la Crucecita (fixed price taxi 43 pesos) – a pleasant place, with good jewelry and clothes shops including one behind weaves being used to make local tablecloths. They have ice cream at one corner of the zocalo (central square) – you choose the ingredients that are combined and then “fried” in an extremely cold pan in front of you – neat. Two places to hang out for snacks, pizzas and drinks are on the second floors overlooking the square – one above the ice cream place (only open in the evening) and the other diagonally across the square (open all day long). Prices are good and they are great places for people watching. Santa Cruz (fixed price taxi 43 pesos) is a smaller town with a marina, with a real nice small organic open market the 1st and 3rd Saturday mornings of every month. There is a fair sized tourist souvenir area (hats, tee-shirts, etc.) and elsewhere some good stores and restaurants (including a few right along the waterfront where you can eat guacamole and have a margarita with your feet in the sand). One day we took a taxi outside of our hotel (excellent safe driver who speaks very good English and knows the area very well – Fernando, taxi 045, phone 958-109-5001 – spent 1200 pesos for the day plus a tip of 150 and we bought him lunch too) to travel first to the Santa Cruz organic market, and then onto the turtle center in Mazunte (a 75 minute drive up the coast), and the lagoons in Ventanilla (huge iguana, crocodiles…), and finally to drive through other nearby beach towns on the way back. It was an excellent day and cost less than half that of a regular tour for the four of us. Another half day we went snorkeling with Hurricane Divers (located in Santa Cruz) – saw some fantastic fish and paid somewhat less for the experience than a tour bought in the hotel. Worth the experience. Now the less good – the food. The food was of variable quality, and we most liked breakfasts (and the omelette ladies who often also could cook small quesadillas with added mushrooms…). Loads of fruit, juices and breakfast food. Coffee was pretty good (and we are picky). For lunch (buffets) and dinner in the main buffet, there was an overwhelming number of choices of generally low-quality meats (pork slices, fish fingers, hamburgers…). There was a good number of salads, a few vegetable side dishes, and some good natural fruit drinks too. But for people wanting to avoid eating much meat, other options were often very scarce. We only tried the Italian and Mexican restaurants. The Italian one was quite good but had a pretty limited menu (as they were often out of some items, like green salad) but their entrées (hors d’oeuvres, salads…) were pretty tasty and well presented, as was the pasta. The pizzas, however, were lousy. It had the best reputation of all a la carte restaurants and from our experience we agree. That restaurant is located outside beside the pools, and so they allow men to wear shorts and sandals – in the other a la carte restaurants you need long pants and shoes. The Mexican restaurant was hit-or-miss – excellent poblano soup, just acceptable mushroom soup, quite good cheese chili rellenos (a special order), just alright tlayudas, etc. Service (as always) however was excellent. There were vegetarians in our group and, despite really liking the resort, their problems were such that we may not return. A resort that offers maybe 40 meat and seafood main dinner dishes in the buffets can make an effort to have a couple main dish veggie options for those who prefer to eat otherwise. They often use chicken stock in soups and rice, lard in beans… and this is not marked, making it real hard to know what a vegetarian can eat. This was a problem even in the a la carte restaurants, with the exception of the very good Italian one. Luckily for us there was no limit on the number of times we could eat there – we ate dinner there 4 nights out of 7. (That said, this is our second trip to the Huatulco area and our general impression is that, unlike some other resort destinations, most restaurants and resorts in Huatulco make little effort to accommodate vegetarians...) Finally, we were drawn to this resort in part because of the advertised $500 bonus coupons being offered. These were moderate reductions for expensive room upgrades and for spa treatments – things we never used. So don’t count on these being all that useful when you make your resort choices…

Amazing place

This place is a hidden secret. Staff very friendly from housekeeping to reception and everyone in between. Rooms alway clean and bar fridge always full. Beach very clean (no seaweed ) . Went to buffet and restaurants both had very good choices and tasty food.

Amazing resort!

Amanda Garlough, thank you for another wonderful trip! Hotel was very clean, awesome food & service. Beautiful beach & we were able to swim in the ocean. Entertainment in lobby bar in early evening, nightly shows! Weather was awesome! Would return to this resort. Amanda, we will be contacting you for the next trip! Thank you & yes we would love to win trip to Jamaica!

Relaxation Achieved

The hotel was very nice, close to local shops and modern coffee shop (Ice Caps!) ALL staff were friendly and nice, saying hola to you and meaning it. 4 a la carte restaurants plus a buffet with a different themed night of dining were great and offered numerous options from the feint of heart to the adventurous.

Loud

We loved the room,always clean Thought the bottle of Champagne was a great touch. Great view, Food was really good. Staff was great. Pool was always really busy and loud. Could have used more staff in lobby bar in the evening.

Second Time Even Better!

Hotel was very nice, food was excellent. All staff were always smiling and worked very hard to please. House keeping staff kept the room very clean and came in at night and turned down our sheets and left chocolates on our beds. Nice touch!

Nice trip

Older, smaller hotel that makes a big effort too make it's guest feel welcome. Weather was nice and hot. 2 good days on the beach. Drop off is very steep into the ocean. Would stay in the pools if you aren't a strong swimmer.

Mexico's Hidden Jewel

Hotel Just a nice size, not too big. Noticed Barcelo a great Family Resort Rooms All updated and very clean. Modern bathrooms, toiletries & hairdryers available along with ironing boards and irons. Stocked bar fridges in room with water, soft drinks and beer and peanuts. Beds usually 2 queens in a room and very comfortable!! Staff Excellent! Go out of their way to please you. Ask and you will receive! Hotel Doctor Excellent. Food 3 restaurants for dinner Mexican, Spanish & Italian. Plus the buff [... read more]et for all meals. Hats off to Edgar for helping our daughter with her gluten free allergy made special food for her!! Great selection of food. Hot dogs, hamburgers & ice cream cones for the kids. Activities & Money Kayaking, catamaran sailing and sea doo's free of charge. Excursions available at a price or take a cab into town. 40 peco's for 4 of us to share a cab. $1 U.S. = 15 peco's I coke = 8 peco's. Very safe to take a cab and walk around town. Pool bar, adult pool and children's pool. Kept ver clean. Beach, steps away from hotel on site. Long beautiful beach. Just watch for under tow. You can't beat this place for the money! Great staff great weather! Hats off to Barcelo!!