Hotel and surroundings excellent. Can highly recommend Roberto Alarcon for his very prompt pickup service. Also took us out on a city tour and a firstclass view and lunch of the Cliff Divers. Excellent arrangements. Our first visit to Acapulco and reservation made through RCI. A short taxi ride to Walmart for supplies was most convenient. Great holiday.

We just returned from a June 20-27, 2008 RCI vacation at the Grand Mayan Acapulco. The resort was excellent and Roberto Alacron (email: robertoalrey@yahoo.com.mx) was even better. As promised, Roberto was waiting at the airport with a big Mexican smile. He provided all of our concierge services, which, in addition to airport transportation, included an excellent city tour highlighted by the famous Acapulco cliff divers; a snorkeling/scuba excersion; and a lagoon tour followed by dinner at a great restaurant on the beach. The red snapper and shrimp was the finest I have ever eaten. We had our own palapa at the edge of the surf. As an added bonus, Roberto delivered four boogie boards for my children's use during the week and unlimited shots of the finest Mexican tequila throughout our excursions. The shots make the horrific downtown Acapulco traffic much more tolerable.

THE GOOD:
1) The Grand Mayan is mostly excellent. Contrary to other reviews, I believe the resort opened in the early '90's. Nevertheless, it is well maintained. The grand master suite is quite nice, the pool area is large and very nice, and the beach is excellent. There is a bit of a riptide, but it was manageable for my 12-year old daughter and challenging enough for my 17-year old son.
2) My wife took a 1-hour tennis lesson on a clay court for $35USD. If you play tennis, you will recognize this as a great value for a tennis lesson.

THE NOT SO GOOD:
1)My wife and I did attend a sales presentation. We were promised 90 minutes maximum following breakfast for the family. Three hours and four salespeople later, we escaped. My only real complaint is their exaggeration about the Grand Mayan pool size. The salesman insisted that it is 1.25 miles long. By my estimation, it is no more than 1/4 mile long. Come on guys!
2) My "free" round of golf for being a RCI guest cost me $120USD total: $55 for the cart, $38 for club rental, and the balance for used balls and a collared shirt rental. The "free" golf was not worth it! The course is not that great.
3) My three teen boys had their unattended flip flops stolen at the beach.

OVERALL:
I'd go back to the Grand Mayan and leave the driving up to Roberto Alacron. Next time I'll skip the sales presentation and skip the golf.

The Royal Mayan Acapulco is a beautiful resort but needs updating in a few areas. The grounds are simply magnificent. My friends and I stayed in an ocean view (though the first floor - more palm tree view) 1 bedroom suite in the main hotel. The rooms are decorated beautifully however, the beds and pillows are very, very hard (no pillow top or even padding for that matter). The room towels felt like we were toweling our bodies with card board.

All of the restaurants throughout the resort, including the pool area bars had excellent food. We never had a bad meal.

The staff was warm, welcoming, and very, very helpful. The majority of the hotel staff were fluent in English or knew enough to assist with any questions.

The good: beautiful, great pools, great food, great drinks.

The bad: check-in took over 5 hours, hard beds and pillows, rough towels, too many sand fleas on the beach.

Overall, I would recommend this hotel for families and newlyweds. The hotel is quite a distance from the downtown area, however, the hotel has enough to offer if you're not comfortable leaving the grounds.

As recommended by other people on trip advisor, we contacted Roberto Alarcon. Lovely gentleman, however, Roberto and his staff were not allowed to drive into the hotel property after dropping us off from the airport. We were told that they would pick us up outside of the gates. We did not use Roberto for an Acapulco city tour (we used another lovely driver named Mario) and upon speaking with Roberto and finding out that we would have to have hotel bell staff bring our luggage outside of the gates to return to the airport, we opted to use the hotel's airport shuttle (very, very, very reasonable - I recommend this form of transportation).

As is evident from the reviews of many others, no trip to Acapulco is complete without the expert guidance of Roberto Alarcon (robertoalrey@yahoo.com.mx). He was always prompt to take us where we wanted to go. His tours are interesting, informative and entertaining. His restaurant recommendations were perfect. He lent us a mobile phone (for which we purchased prepaid minutes) so that we could call him or call back to the US for a reasonable price. He always surprised us with something unexpected, such as a stop at a sea-turtle farm, where we released baby sea turtles into the ocean. I think we could have asked for anything and he would have happily complied.

Our suite was fabulous: two large bedrooms and bathrooms, and one large living/dining/kitchen area. Everything was new and clean. The staff were all very friendly. The grounds, pool, etc., were expertly maintained.

It was very refreshing to not have to pay for an "all inclusive" plan. We were afraid that the resort's food prices would be outrageous, but they were very reasonable. The breakfast buffet that would cost $40 in the US was only US$18. You could easily order a breakfast entree for US$10 and have plenty to eat. The lunches and dinners and drinks were reasonably priced. Drinks at the pool were a little high, but there are 2-for-1 happy hours at noon and 4:00 p.m. The food is all very good, but you will be glad you have the flexibility to spend your dining dollars at local restaurants where you can experience the real local culture.

You will be charged for using the internet (at the business center; no in-room internet), the exercise equipment, sauna and steam room, and the water park (which is built for little children; teenagers and adults won't enjoy it unless they enjoy watching the little kids play in it), but the charges are reasonable. These charges are a small price to pay to avoid the enormous mandatory "all inclusive" fees that other resorts charge.