First-timer to Mexico/Cancun... was beyond impressed with the FA Condesa from top to bottom. The staff was unbelievable, some of the nicest people I've ever met. Spent a LOT of time down by the amazing pool. This pool is fantastic, nice and warm, huge, a seperate area just for families, very shallow areas for sunbathing, and the waiters were all so friendly and warm - felt like we had all become friends by the end of the week. Read a lot of reviews about the lack of a beach and to some degree they are true, there is not an expansive beach in front of the hotel for sunbathing, however, there is a beach so don't be fooled by the reviews. The beach is great for walking along and if you want to lay out and swim, you can simply walk about 50-100 feet to the next hotel on the strip where there is more of a beach, even a volleyball court set up. All of the beaches are public so you can feel free to wander along as you please. The hotel room itself was very nice, any shortcomings, like a fairly-small bathroom were more than made up for with the spectacular view of the grounds and ocean from the large balcony (Ocean Front Room). The beds were nice and firm, which I loved, nice linens and what not. I had initialy thought that the hotel was a bit closer to "The Forum", which is where a lot of the restaraunts and nightclubs are centered, but was pleased to find that we were far enough removed to be out of all the hoopla, but close enough to hop on the bus and be there in five minutes. I would strongly recommend taking the bus as much as possible. It's easy, cheap and they literally come about every 30 seconds during the day (and about every 15 minutes overnight, running 24/7). I'm a cheap-eats kind of gal, so don't have a ton of comments regarding the hotel's restaraunts, but the breakfast-buffet that came with our room was fantastic, one of the best breakfast spreads I've ever seen... and the pool bar had great casual eats too - consumed ridiculous amounts of chips and salsa and surprisingly had some of the best thin-crust pizza that I've had in my entire life - who knew? This is not a hipster hotel, so if that's what you're looking for you might want to head up the strip a bit, but if you want an amazingly beautiful hotel with a wonderful staff and a nice and relaxing atmosphere to just chill in, this is your place!

I stayed with my husband for a quick get away without the kids. Was there April 5-9th.

We had a Junior Suite in the Sea Tower on the 7th floor. PERFECT view! I watched the sun come up over the ocean evey morning. We thought the room was excellent, two baths that were totally up to date. We had 2 balconies, the one off the bedroom had 2 chairs & lots of room. We thought the bed was fine - not hard & we have a Temper-pedic @ home.

The pool was georgous! It is so spacious. We did have some trouble with getting a prime chair (sun & option of shade), so you might need to do that early. (But we went Easter break) They had some pool activities in the afternoon.

I really liked where this hotel was located. We checked out the FA Grand Coral Beach & Dreams. I have to say I would still pick the Condesa. Although we did not see the rooms at either place, the grounds & pool area at those hotels were unimpressive. It really felt like a concrete jungle where those hotels are located. The Condesa has a really great tropical feel. I love to be surrounded by native foliage & flowers. That's what the Condesa had.

The food was really good. All mexican - which I like. But we had dinners at La Dolce Vita (good, walking distance), Lorenzillo's (great atmosphere), and Laguna Grill (walking distance & EXCELLENT food & great atmosphere!). I happened to not like the margaritas at the hotel - too mixy? Not sure what the problem was but I just had strawberry daqs & they were great. We ate the salsa & pico de gallo & had no issues.

This place is SUPER clean. We always saw somebody cleaning something.

The spa was great - had 2 massages. However the "spa maid" - not sure what to call her because I was not used to it - was directing you on where to go, like sauna first, then steam room, then jacuzzi - but I happend to like that since it turned out to be so relaxing using the facilities in that order, before a massage. I am more used to the American way & doing whatever you want to in a spa - I am sure you could, but didn't test it ...

The beach - this is such a hot topic. It is a real shame that they have no beach. We had NO beach the first 2 days, then the winds changed & we had some beach. Hubby was able to go swimming. (too many rocks for me as I am not a great swimmer) The water was beautiful, the color amazing. I hope no more hurricanes come & swipe more beach away but you can't prevent it - it's not their fault. The hotel worked real hard when the winds changed to get people down to the beach. You can see where the stairs are to the beach that the ocean washed away about 4 feet of sand! Imaging that - the sand was 4 feet higher then where it is now - crazy! Families were still having a great time playing along the beach we had. (There was more beach at GCB & Dreams but the waves were huge - no swimming! And the sand was dirty with seaweed & such.)

We went to Walmart and felt totally fine. Once the bus stops for Walmart you still have to walk about a block to get to it. I was impressed how nobody bothered us. We saw NO homeless people, no one asked us for money. I really thought we would see that. On our way back from Walmart, we were the only Americans on the bus with standing room only, I thought we would get this weird vibe, but didn't . Mexicans in Cancun are great & go about their business. It's not like other places where the natives don't like you.

Caution about the bus - they seem to try & beat each other to the next stop. They seem to go sooo fast then slam on the breaks for the next stop - It would make me sick! And I don't get motion sickness! (but I do on a Cancun bus!!) They also start to go as soon as the last person steps on the bus - even before they pay!! So please - if you are traveling with little ones make sure you hold on to them, and brace yourself.

We just went to relax for a few days, no night life for us, just nice dinners. The lobby lounge is nice too - (sometimes they have a DJ) but just played good music when we were there. It is def. not a party hotel, which we liked.

We can't wait to go back with & without the kids!

Just returned from Fiesta Americana, stayed April 12-17 with kids ages 10 and 13. We got a great deal by booking through Continental Vacations, which included round trip air, hotel, transfers to and from the airport, free buffet breakfast, and kids eat free. ($2,500 for 4 people).

The hotel-so/so. Rooms were plain, beds hard, bathroom small, minibar expensive, room service limited choices. Design of hotel makes it very hard to get from one area to another quickly. Palapas are beautiful, especially in the lobby.

The grounds: gorgeous and very well maintained.

The beach: non existent while we were there, but all of the hotels seemed to have the same problem. We were there 1 year ago and there was a great beach...we were told that 3 weeks before there was a beach...thank goodness that our hotel had fantastic pools, hot tubs, swim up bar, and pool vollyball...our kids didn't miss the ocean that much.

The food: Pretty good, affordable, drinks very reasonably priced. You have to ask for the kids menu, they don't just bring it out. Breakfast buffet was really great! Everyone can find something they like and get as much as they want. We are vegetarians and there was plenty of choices every day. They have an omlette station and french toast and waffles and pancakes everyday that are fantastic. Milkshakes and fresh juices for the kids, mimosas and screwdrivers for adults...very nice. Otherwise, the restaurants are ok-but there are so many choices outside of the hotel that we just had the breakfast buffet and went out for dinner every night. There is a great italian restaurant called la Dolce Vita that is within walking distance of the hotel-its affordable and nice and right on the lagoon-alligators can be seen from the outside deck.

The staff: service all around was very good, the staff tries hard to get you what you want, great pool side servers. The best experiences we had were with the concierges that we consulted daily on all kinds of things, restaurants, directions, where to shop, what to see. They are very good, they will give you maps and directions. They have all of the menus of the local restaurants in their desk and will let you browse them. In case you want to change money ( which I highly recommend because the dollar is very strong against the peso right now) the hotel posts the daily rates at the front desk and they will change money for you with no fees. I have read many people doubting this is true, but I can assure you that its all legit and you can change as much or as little as you want and they will give you a receipt.

There is a excursion representative stationed in the lobby that can help you book activities. We thought about Xel-ha or Xcaret, but they are so expensive and all we really wanted was to snorkle. We ended up booking the snorkleing adventure full day- which I cannot begin to tell you how wonderful it was! Much cheaper, food and drinks and transport included. You get to see 2 dive sites, come back to the beach club for lunch and drinks, and then there's an option to go back out for one more dive or you can stay on the beach and relax.

We spent our last day in Isla Mujeres, and it was amazing!!! Highly highly recomend the Sunset Grill on the North Beach... wish I was there right now drinking a Hurricane!

Overall the hotel was very nice and by the end of the trip it felt like home to us. Honestly, I just wouldn't chose it again because I know there are much nicer hotels in Cancun and when you are on vacation, you want to stay somewhere that makes you feel pampered...

We spend 11 nights at the Fiesta Americana Condesa March 19-30 with our 18-year-old son. We were looking for a great deal to Mexico and we found it with Orbitz. I knew from reading some of the reviews that most of thethe beach was rocky and small but I figured my son could walk down the beach until he could find a place to swim.

Check in was quick and fast. We had booked a standard room and were upgraded. Room was a typical hotel room but it was nice that the sink was separate from the rest of the bathroom. I thought the beds were pretty comfortable for Mexico. We got the free breakfast buffet like the other reviewers mentioned. It was very good -- made to order omelets, potatoes, chilaquiles, eggs, french toast, waffles, breads, yogurt, cereal, fruit and juice. There was also always a bottle of champagne/vodka/tequila with mixes if you so desired.

I usually didn't eat lunch but my husband and son did. The beach restaurant was pretty good. They loved their burgers -- they were huge! Other food that we had were quesadillas, tortilla soup, chicken sandwich, pizza, chicken fingers and chicken wings. The only thing I didn't like were the nachos -- they didn't use chihuahua cheese but some orange Cheese-Whiz type cheese. Sometimes we ate in the restaurant, but usually would eat on the pool deck. We would order a round of drinks and then bring our own down from the room. A previous reviewer said they were stopped one night when they were returning to the hotel with outside food/beverages and told that was a no-no. Every night we would stop at the OXXO store across the street and bring back water, pop, chips and beer. The first night we even bought a styrofoam cooler to keep it in and we were never stopped and told we couldn't do that.

Javier is the activity guy -- he tried to get you to do things but wasn't pushy about it. The activities were pretty low-key and music was just loud enough. I noticed that they were very diligent about not letting outside people who were walking the beach come onto the hotel grounds.

About the beach -- we were there for 12 days. The first several days there was a small beach, water was very calm, hardly any waves. Yes, there are rocks in front of the hotel but when I would walk up and down the beach, so did almost every hotel. There was a spot nearby that you could go in without worrying about the rocks. My son would usually go down by the Marriott or next door to the Oasis; they had no rocks in front. For the first 7 days, I was able to walk or jog on the beach; then it got very windy and the tide came in and as the previous reviewer said, there was no beach at all. The waves were coming right up to the seawall and they had the stairs roped off so you couldn't even go down to the beach. So I think it depends on when you come what the beach is like. If you have small children, you probably would want to stay at the top of the "7" where the beaches are bigger and calmer. But my husband and son love the big waves, so that's why we stayed where we did.

We rode the bus every night into downtown Cancun City where we had fantastic dinners, a lot cheaper than the hotel zone. Most meals were $30-$50 for three of us, including drinks.

My son brought his lap-top and bought internet time for about $3/hour or you could go to their computer center. He also used their fitness center which was about $5/day. If you bought more days, it was cheaper

Overall, we had a very relaxing trip and if we returned to Cancun, I wouldn't hesitate to stay at the Fiesta Americana Condesa.