My wife and I stayed there from 4/9 - 4/11. We were in the Sun Tower on the 6th floor overlooking the pool area and ocean. The room and view of the ocean was fabulous. Food was very good and the service impeccable. The grounds were very well kept and the hotel was very clean. The only downfall is the Vacation Club people at the beginnng of the stay and there was no beach. Unfortunately the area we were staying had very little beach to the left or right of the hotel. I would recommend this hotel in a heart beat to anyone looking for a great spot to vacation.

My hubby and I were given an opportunity to escape for a few days without kids. Cancun fit the bill--non-stop flight from Boston, great deal on Expedia, and warm. After reading many reviews, I decided to stay at the Condessa. During the shuttle ride from the airport, my first impression of Cancun was "Las Vegas meets the Carribean" (minus the gambling). Big long hotel strip, and a party reputation. However, the Condessa was at the "quiet end" of the hotel strip. There weren't many children or "heavy party-ers."

What struck my hubby and I during our 4 day stay was how hard-working the staff was. They really take great care of the property. All the staff was super friendly. Alejandra, the Concierge, was beyond helpful and friendly. We very much enjoyed the breakfast buffet. From years of travel, I feel that was probably one of the best breakfast buffets I've encountered (and the make-your-own mimosa was a FAB touch!).

Our hotel room was a very nice size. It was on the lagoon/garden side, and had a king bed. The bathroom seemed too small for me. And my hubby noticed that there was no art work in the room, but I thought it was OK due to the dark wood off-setting the paint/walls.

The lack of beach was a disappointment, but the pool was very nice (HUGE!).

I can highly recommend these restaurants in Cancun--La Habichuela (very romantic, great service)...but take a cab, not the bus. And La Casa De Margarita at La Isla Plaza. Hubby and I went downtown for some shopping, and a co-worker recommended El Perillo for lunch (a 10 min. walk from Market 28). OMG! What fantastic food. I wanted enchiladas, but they had just set up a buffet. I saw Grandma cooking in the kitchen, handmaking tortillas. I couldn't pass it up, and glad I didn't. We ate some **DELICIOUS** home-made authentic Mexican food. Yummo!

We also decided to take a catamaran ride to Isla Mujares. It was an all-day booze cruise. It was ok, not great. The host Edwin was a hoot. But our snorkeling was cancelled due to rough waters. Oh well. I got a nice tan on the boat and did some great shopping.

Overall, a very nice trip....mainly because of the hotel (and all the yummy food!). I saw Cancun, but can't say I'd go back. But I'd definitely recommend the Condessa.

My family (wife and two kids, ages 2 and 9) just returned from a week at the Fiesta Americana Condesa (the trip was April 3 through April 10). I think most reviews of this hotel are accurate: very nice lobby area, professional and courteous staff, well maintained grounds, nice pool, average rooms, good food with reasonable prices, etc. I'll try to expand on a few key issues that I think would be helpful to prospective visitors.

BEACH: If you must have a beach, and playing in the ocean is your definition of a good vacation, then this is not the right hotel for you at this particular time. Like much of the Cancun hotel zone, this hotel suffers from extremely poor beach conditions due to the hurricanes over the last few years. If you happen to have calm weather and low winds during your trip, then you may have a small but usable beach. We had strong winds for several days coming off the ocean and the surf completely ate up the beach. It was so bad that much of the deck area right by the water was closed off because the soil and sand caved in and was sucked out to sea. It took them a few days to repair the sink hole damage. For 80% of our trip, there was absolutely no beach. The waves were crashing into the concrete at the edge of the property. Just a few weeks before we left I saw a review from a woman who jogged a few miles on the beach each morning. That would not have been an option during our stay. It all depends on the weather.

TIME SHARE: I didn't find the time share representatives (or vacation club, as they call it) to be very aggressive. I read some reviews where some folks felt harassed. I didn't feel that way, although I do have some complaints about the system itself. Since our family wanted to go to Xcarat, we decided that going to the time share presentation was worth the time invested. Some would choose not to do this, which I can understand. However, this was going to save us more than $400 off the cost of admission at Xcarat, so we bit the bullet. The presentation was just as expected. They say it will take 90 minutes, but it is an easy two hours no matter how many times you tell the sales rep you aren't interested. My biggest issue was that they told us that we would get a discount for Xcarat, as well as any other activities we wanted to do the rest of the week. What they don't tell you is that in order to book any activities later in the week, you have to take a cab or taxi back to the presentation center and you have to book the activities there...you can't do it from the Fiesta Americana Condesa. It makes it an inconvenience and I feel they do this to deliberately make it less convenient for you to get what they previously promised.

ACTIVITIES: I recommend that you talk to the other hotel guests to see what they've done and base your decisions on their recommendations. We booked our activities in a variety of different ways. We booked Xcarat, Chichen Itza (or Chicken Pizza as my culturally challenged father said all week), and swimming with dolphins through the time share folks. We booked waverunners directly through Aqua World, which is a 5 minute walk from the hotel. The only "bad" activity we booked was a "Fun Day" trip to Isla Mujeres through the on site travel agency, Best Day. The hotel has a desk for Best Day travel, and they proclaim themselves as the best travel agency in Mexico. We wanted to go somewhere for a day with a real beach since the beach was nonexistent all week at the hotel. The travel agent rep highly recommended the "Fun Day" trip to Isla Mujeres. Oh my gosh, was it a nightmare. They pack you into a ferry and take you to a tiny little beachfront property with a junky beach. The "beach" is surrounded by docks and walkways. The water slide must be about 30 years old. All of the "unlimited activities" they offer must be booked during the ferry ride in 45 minute increments (they don't mention anything about this when you first book the trip). The "kayaking" was a small enclosed area of about 50 ft by 100 ft where you could enjoy paddling in circles. Just a low class excursion all the way around. By noon we couldn't take it anymore and packed oursevles into a taxi and got the heck out of there. We took a ferry back to Cancun and enjoyed the rest of the day back at the Fiesta Americana by the pool.

In summary, the hotel itself is a very nice place to stay in my opinion. As mentioned before, I think the majority of the reviews have it right. You will surely get some people who will have a bad experience with a particular room or a particular staff member. We feel that the hotel itself was worth the price. We booked through Orbitz and got a great price. (I did a quick web search for coupons and found one that gave us $400 off our final price, which was a nice little bonus.) Everyone raves about the breakfast buffet. It is as advertised - very diverse and with very good quality. Our only complaints were not about the hotel itself, but rather about some things that the hotel can't always control (such as beach conditions, the time share folks, and the travel agency). Some could argue that the last two are under their control, but I look at them as separate from the hotel itself. If Cancun attempts another beach reclamation project, we would certainly consider the Fiesta Americana Condesa again in the future.

Overall, the hotel is very nice and is a good fit for families. The 'hotel' (lobby, restaurants, lounge, landscaping, etc) was extremely clean and well maintained. The room was just average and seemed a little more used. The pool seemed dirty but I wasn't sure if it was from all the sand being brought in by the swimmers or not. As the previous comment noted, there is NO beach in front of the hotel due to Wilma in 2005. This was rather disappointing to our kids but I were able to find an area that was safe not too far north of us. [Safe meaning not too many rocks or coral.] We got the breakfast included, which I would highly recommend. The food at all the restaurants, including the buffet, was excellent. We ate at 2 other hotels/resorts and the Fiesta Americana had the best food of the 3. We stayed the week prior to Easter (classic spring break) and there were many kids at other hotels around us but I saw few if any at our here. The typical guest was primarily family's with elementary or middle school aged kids from the US, Mexico, and Europe. When you check in make sure you talk with the Hospitality desk about getting a Fiesta Key card since it will save you 10%-15% at the hotel on food.