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Trying to decide...
This year will be our third trip to Mexico and an all inclusive. We chose Sandos Playacar for a family vacation for 2005 & enjoyed it so much we returned in 2006. My son was 9 the first year and he said it was more fun than Disney on our second day.
For this year's vacation I wanted to go somewhere new because I love the research and anticipation of exploring a new destination and I struggled a bit to make up my mind between the IB Lindo and the Barcelo. I really loved the onsite snorkeling and beach at the Barcelo and our top priorities were a great beach and a family oriented resort. I chose the IB Lindo but I truly think both are great resorts. I chose the Lindo because it has amazing pools for my son, a/c ala carte restaurants for each night of your stay and because it is closer to the airport, i.e. you start your vacation earlier (Lindo is approximately 25 minutes from the Cancun airport, Barcelo is over an hour.) Another deciding factor was I am fair skinned and need shade for the majority of the day and during my research I discovered that the Barcelo does not have shade cabanas on the beach. I understand they have them at the pool but not the beach so since I love the ocean, that was important to me.
As for the kid's clubs, I agree that 11 is too old to be involved in the kids club, my son wasn't at all interested at age 9 but since it is a family vacation we were happy to enjoy his company and he found a few boys to play with in the pool and at the beach.
I can't wait to visit the Lindo, it looks totally awesome. I enjoyed reading reviews and viewing candid photos but I don't base my decisions on reviews. I think some people just like to complain or they blame the resort for things like weather or security (i.e. the safe is there for a purpose, don't leave digital cameras or ipods out!)
I really think you'll enjoy either resort, goodluck!
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