Las Brisas Ixtapa

Las Brisas, Ixtapa Mexico My husband and I came to Las Brisas 25 yrs. ago for our honeymoon. The hotel was well kept then. My husband decided to book the same hotel but requested the master Fiesta suite 1834. What a gorgeous 1 bedroom and a separate living room suite with one bathroom and a half suite for two. We have our own private pool and the patio was big with 2 big lounge chairs, patio umbrella, a teak wood end table, 2 arm chairs and a white hammock. The suite was kept clean everyday and the pool boy came to clean our private pool everyday too. We like to travel to all inclusive resorts. We had to call concierge service everyday to remind them to replenish our refrigerator with beverages. The rest of the hotel desperately needs repairs and fresh paint. We stayed for 9 days /8 nights. The beach is very private, no vendors at all to bother you, VERY quiet and secluded. They have 3 a la carte restaurants. Don’t go to the Mexican restaurant. My husband and I didn’t like it at all. Las Brisas II was the best restaurant overlooking the ocean, great dining, go after 7 PM to see the sundown. What a romantic delightful night with your other half. The Italian restaurant “Portofino� was great too. Great variety of wine selection. The buffet breakfast at Bellavista and the Mexican needs to have more variety of food or change it every other day. My husband and I were not to crazy about it. The Solarium buffet style lunch was ok. My husband didn’t like the burgers at all. There was NO entertainment at night? No shows at all. The Lobby bar was open from 4 PM to midnight. We didn’t used the hotel pools because the bottom tiles were loose and many tiles are missing. A Canadian lady cut her bottom foot in half due to the bottom tiles of the pool. They need to redo all 4 pools, hallway corridors needs some tile replacement and the stairs tiles are falling apart. Where is the maintenance crew? Luckily we had our own private pool in our suite. We always wear wet shoes. Some top tiles needs some maintenance so far. Overall Las Brisas, Ixtapa Mexico, is long overdue for complete hotel general maintenance and updates. We like the architecture of the hotel. It is certainly unique. Kudos to Ricardo Legorreta for a great hotel architecture and unique design. This hotel is one of a kind in Mexico. If they make all the upgrades and maintenance desperately needed this hotel can easy become a 5 star hotel.

Las Brisas Ixtapa offered a lovely all-inclusive beach getaway vacation for my family with teens. All staff on site at Las Brisas Ixtapa were exceptionally hospitable and offered consistently excellent customer service. Room and facilities met expectations. Many nice spaces although more concrete than we like in our personal aesthetic. Everything was kept very clean. Food was very mediocre resort food - offering variety but too often bland and unnecessarily calorie rich. We liked the private beach with great beach side service, and the new spa - fantastic massages with hot rocks. For Easter weekend, it was too crowded, but to be expected. The package I accepted via Booking.com on my iPhone App did not disclose key details (we had 1 hotel room for 4 when I understood I reserved a suite). Neither booking.com nor Las Brisas were willing to adjust my reservation based on inadequate and misleading promo. While Hotel room was a bit bigger than average, I do not expect to use Booking.com nor return to Las Brisas based on this very unpleasant reservation experience. Lots of similar offerings I look forward to exploring when I return to Ixtapa.

Overall the resort is good, the beach and views are outstanding. 1) The beach is fantastic. It is beautiful, private, has plenty of shaded lounging areas and is completely protected from any beach vendors 2) The pools are good. There are a few all are all in the same compound. There is a separate adult pool, a larger family pool and then a kids pool. They do a good job of enforcing the adult only area. 3) the hotel and its facilities: in general I’d say they are 3 star at best, they are a bit unrefined and out of date/style. Day to day work is being done on maintenance and the day to day cleaning is happening constantly. Where Las Brisas pales in comparison to what is typical in a resort is the lack of a central lounge area where you can meet and socialize with other guests and a bar or multiple bars where you can order a cocktail and (important to me) see what is being put in your drink. There really are no public bar areas save one I found in the very lower level that was only accessible with a dinner reservation, not centrally located or accessible. 4) Food: We had the all inclusive package. In general this was good, not great, but not horrible. We were entitled to one restaurant reservation coupon for every two nights we stayed. For dinners these were a much better option for us than the buffet. I’d rate the breakfast buffet as very good, lunch good, dinner buffet - not so good. Hint: the buffet meal offerings were the same each day, the offerings were fairly limited. Room service had two menus: one was a traditional menu where as all inclusive you were charge 50% of the posted rates - these meals were very good. The 2nd room service menu was a pizza menu, this we had to pay full rates for. The pizza was undercooked, we found no way to explain the problem to the room service staff with our limited Spanish - avoid the pizza. 5) Drinks: I covered the lack of bar(s) and lounges in food, but drinks can be had by waiter in the pool area, beach and all eating areas as well as the “lobby bar� (which really isn’t a bar) during a happy out in the evening. The beers are beer and pretty typical Mexican varieties. The mixed drinks are mostly fruit and a little ? Don’t get be wrong after a few they’re effective and flavorful, but whether rum is rum or any brown liquor is not tequila is probably very debatable. 6) The Staff was absolutely fantastic. In every instance they were attentive, helpful, understanding and kind. We did tip frequently to reflect our appreciation. 7) Technology: The WiFi was included and worked well. Our daughter was able to stream Netflix in the evenings which was helpful because there were very restricted English television offerings. 8) the Beach Club: we paid very little for the “upgrade� but saw very little value in it. There was a beach club room, but it was available for very limited use each day a couple ours in the morning and one hour in the evening. **** Each room has a fantastic view of the pacific which was appreciated. In general we enjoyed the stay, but there just a few issues that kept Las Brisas from being very good. Most resorts have some type of daily communication to help you understand the facility and what is offered. We looked and asked, but Las Brisas didn’t seem to have this, it probably would have helped us.

We stayed over Holy Week for 7 days. Overall, we liked the hotel. Checking in was extremely slow. Over a half hour waiting in line for about 5 groups ahead of us. But our own check in took less than 5 minutes so I’m not sure what the problems were with three people manning the front desk. The room was fine. There’s a sofa of sorts that will readily sleep someone to avoid a rollaway for groups of three. Or five if you’re sharing double beds. Furnishings are typical Mexican resort hotel with a touch of old colonialism. Dark wood and such. Some updating in the bathroom and the chairs in the sitting area would be good. But no ones in the room much here anyway. All have balconies overlooking the ocean. Great views. AC needs updating; bearable but got a little warm at the end of the day even while on high all day. WiFi is weak in the rooms and your device will likely lose the signal a lot moving around the hotel with all the concrete. But when you have it, it was good enough to send photos and such. The hotel needs a bit of maintenance. Things like missing tiles in the pools, some floor tiles, etc. But i did see people working on it so with a big hotel I’m sure it’s always ongoing. The lack of easy public access to the beach keeps out vendors. The beach is nice. Big waves- the red flags were up every day. Lots of palapas for shade. On Good Friday it was packed and they brought out beach umbrellas with the palapas all taken early. The pools had many umbrellas too and it was nice to have a kiddie pool, kids pool, and adult pool. Also there are lots of stairs given the geography. There are elevators if you’re lazy or tired. Or on vacation. I liked the winding paths to the beach and pool. The service was excellent. The best I’ve had in any resort hotel. Waiters always circulating on the beach, pools, and restaurants. You can go all inclusive or not. Beers at 45, breakfast buffet at 250 pesos can give you an idea if you want to go AI. Three specialty restaurants along with one at the pool and the main one at the hotel. (Also outdoor buffet nights). Even the main one has a menu to order off if you prefer that. You could also request things like espresso coffee and bacon if you wanted. You get one specialty restaurant/two days. Most of the guests were Mexican so the buffet had lots of Mexican items. But plenty other for breakfast. Cereal, omelets, rolls etc. Good fruit too like papaya. If you don’t go AI, note you are a taxi ride into town. Overall, I’d put it a bit above average food for AI. Dress code is a bit tiresome at specialty restaurants. They said pants collared shirt and closed shoes for men but at the first one outside I saw sandals T-shirts and shorts. Not knowing I sweated throughout dinner. Then at the Mexican I dressed down but had to go back to the room for pants. Inside was a guy eating in a T-shirt that said “drunk skunk�. So I’d say the dress code amounts to wear pants inside men. You need reservations for all. About 1/4-1/3 of menu items at specialty restaurants required a premium of half the listed price if on the AI plan. That was mostly shellfish. So while not perfect we enjoyed our stay a lot. The service is the best.

Over the past 10 years, we have returned to Las Brisas every time we go to this part of Mexico (6 times now). This is predominantly because of the great staff and service, particularly Sergio, Klein, Margarito, Pedro, Arturo, Victor, and Cirillo, to name a few. It's amazing to us that they always welcome us by name, considering the amount of people they meet in a year, and the fact that we do not go every consecutive year. The ocean view rooms with hammocks, the private beach, the amazing views, the breathtaking sunsets, and the good food and drinks never disappoint. Yes, there have been some changes over the years, in terms of what is no longer offered in the all-inclusive plan, but at the end of the day, it's still worth the money - if the goal is a relaxing vacation. I am sure we will return to Las Brisas, when we go back to Ixtapa!