Barceló Huatulco All-Inclusive Review

The Barceló Huatulco all-inclusive hotel is a 5-star luxury beachfront resort located on stunning Tangolunda Bay along the southern Oaxaca coast in Mexico. Set against the backdrop of the Sierra Madre mountains, the resort’s picturesque beach and lush surroundings perfectly complement its upscale atmosphere. Guests can enjoy a variety of all-inclusive amenities, from themed restaurants and lively bars to pools and family-friendly activities.

We loved our stay at Barceló Huatulco and are excited to share our experiences with you!

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Description of the Barceló Huatulco Resort

As you step into the grand open-air lobby of the Barceló Huatulco, the elegance and charm of this 5-star beachfront resort immediately set the tone for your stay. The high ceilings, inviting open spaces, and local Oaxacan artwork provide a warm and sophisticated welcome. Meanwhile, the enticing views of Tangolunda Bay just beyond the entrance hint at the natural beauty that surrounds this family-friendly all-inclusive resort.

The stunning landscapes of Huatulco’s Pacific coast are a major draw for visitors to this region of Mexico. Guests at Barceló Huatulco are treated to panoramic views of the bay, with the Sierra Madre mountains providing a lush, green backdrop. The resort itself perfectly reflects this beauty, with perfectly maintained tropical gardens, swaying palm trees, and colorful flowers weaving through the property.

At Barceló Huatulco, you’ll have your pick of diverse dining experiences, with both buffet and three à la carte restaurants offering everything from international flavors to authentic Mexican cuisine. A variety of bars, daily entertainment, and activities for both adults and kids ensure there’s something for everyone, whether you’re looking for relaxation or adventure.

Barceló Huatulco Location

The Barceló Huatulco Resort sits on a stunning stretch of beachfront property along Tangolunda Bay. Facing the Pacific, you’ll enjoy breathtaking views of the ocean and surrounding Sierra Madre mountains as you relax on the golden sand beach.

Barceló Huatulco Room Amenities

The Barceló Huatulco Resort features 351 rooms, each designed to provide guests with comfort and convenience.

In-room amenities available in every room include:

• Air Conditioning: Central air conditioning to maintain a comfortable room temperature.
• Bathroom Amenities: Private bathroom equipped with a shower, hairdryer, and complimentary toiletries.
• Minibar: Stocked daily with bottled water, soft drinks, and local beers.
• Coffee Maker: In-room coffee maker with supplies for preparing coffee or tea.
• Flat-Screen TV: Television with satellite channels for entertainment.
• In-Room Safe: Electronic safe to secure personal belongings.
• Iron and Ironing Board: Available in-room for guests’ convenience.
• Balcony or Terrace: Each room features a private balcony or terrace, offering views of the gardens or the bay.

Barceló Huatulco Room Types

There are six types of hotel rooms available for guests of the Barceló Huatulco. Two of the room types are standard rooms, while the other four belong to the Premium Level:

Deluxe Rooms

This is the standard hotel room at Barceló Huatulco. With a single king-size bed or two double beds, the Deluxe room is a comfortable and practical option for couples or small families visiting the resort.

The Deluxe Rooms offer views of Barceló Huatulco’s beautifully maintained gardens, providing a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. As the most affordable room category at the resort, the views may not be as expansive as those from higher-tier rooms. However, with the stunning scenery of Tangolunda Bay visible from many of the resort’s restaurants, pools, and beach areas, you likely won’t miss having an ocean view from your room.

Deluxe Rooms with Sea Views

The Deluxe Room with Sea View at Barceló Huatulco offers all the same comforts and amenities as the standard Deluxe Room, but with the added bonus of stunning views of Tangolunda Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

Guests can enjoy the beauty of the coastline from the privacy of their own balcony or terrace, making sunrise or sunset moments even more special. This room is perfect for those who want to soak in the ocean atmosphere throughout their stay, adding a touch of luxury and tranquility that the garden-facing Deluxe Rooms don’t provide.

It’s important to note, that sea views doesn’t necessarily mean ocean-front views.

Premium Level Rooms

Guests staying in Premium Level rooms at Barceló Huatulco enjoy a range of exclusive perks designed to enhance their experience:

• Preferential Room Locations: Premium Level rooms are situated in prime locations with ocean views, offering guests stunning vistas of Tangolunda Bay.
• Access to the Premium Level Lounge: This private lounge provides a comfortable space for relaxation, personalized check-in and check-out services, and access to premium beverages and snacks.
• Premium Beverages: Guests have access to top-shelf spirits and premium beverages in all bars and dining establishments throughout the resort.
• Unlimited Reservations at Specialty Restaurants: Premium Level guests can enjoy unlimited access to the resort’s à la carte restaurants, ensuring a diverse culinary experience.
• 24-Hour Room Service: Complimentary room service is available around the clock, providing added convenience for dining in the comfort of your room.
• Enhanced In-Room Amenities: Rooms include upgraded minibars stocked with premium brands, bathrobes, slippers, and nightly turndown service, adding extra comfort to your stay.
• Express Laundry Service: An expedited laundry service is available, allowing for same-day delivery at standard rates.
• Discounts on Spa Services: Guests receive special discounts on treatments at the resort’s spa, offering opportunities for relaxation and rejuvenation.

These exclusive benefits are designed to provide Premium Level guests with an elevated and personalized experience during their stay at Barceló Huatulco.

Deluxe Premium Level Rooms

The Deluxe Premium Level rooms at Barceló Huatulco offer several enhancements over standard Deluxe rooms. In addition to all the Premium Level perks described above, the Deluxe Premium Level rooms are situated in privileged areas of the resort, offering superior ocean views vs. the regular deluxe sea view rooms.

Deluxe Sea Front View Premium Level Room

These rooms are strategically located to provide guests with direct, unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean, allowing for a more immersive seaside experience.

Deluxe Suite Ocean Front View Premium Level

This suite features a separate living room and a private hot tub on the balcony. These amenities provide guests with luxurious spaces to relax while enjoying the stunning ocean views.

Presidential Suite Premium Level

The Presidential Suite Premium Level at Barceló Huatulco offers an unparalleled level of luxury and exclusivity within the resort. Spanning over 2,000 square feet, the top-floor Presidential Suite provides an exceptionally spacious environment and stunning panoramas of the Pacific Ocean.

Are Premium Level Rooms Worth it at the Barceló Huatulco?

As a family who traditionally doesn’t spend much time in our hotel rooms when we travel, we usually try to find a nice, clean affordable hotel in a good location. That said, when we stay at a family-friendly all-inclusive resort, we typically don’t leave the resort much, so we are happy to pay up for a better room and experience.

During our stay at the Barceló Huatulco, we paid up for a Premium Level room and we are very happy that we did. We stayed in a “Deluxe Sea Front View Premium Level Room”, which was awesome.

Our room was as close to the ocean as you can get. With so many people hoarding the lounge chairs near the pool and beach, we were very happy to go up to our larger than expected balcony each day and relax, soaking in our epic Pacific Ocean views without the crowds.

Barceló Huatulco Beach

Barceló Huatulco is nestled along the golden sands of Tangolunda Bay, one of Huatulco’s most picturesque beaches. The beach is in a protected bay, ensuring the waves are typically gentle and a fun size for kids to play in. The sand is soft and not too fine, making it easy to clean off after a day of playing near the ocean.

Beach walking is one of our family’s favorite activities. From end-to-end, Tangolunda Bay Beach stretches nearly 1km (0.6 miles), which allowed us to go for nice family walks every morning after breakfast.

There are many rocks near the shore, which are a haven for colorful fish, making it an ideal place to try snorkeling. Guests can also enjoy a variety of water activities, including sailing and boogie boarding, taking advantage of the clear, calm waters.

The Barceló resort provides complimentary sun loungers and umbrellas for guests to relax and soak up the sun. Unlike some tourist beaches, Tangolunda Bay maintains a serene atmosphere with minimal vendor interruptions, allowing for a peaceful beach experience. There are many jet skis and banana boat operators operating from the beach, which does impact the peace somewhat.

The resort’s east-facing beachfront orientation ensures that guests can enjoy stunning sunrises over the ocean each morning, beautiful ocean views throughout the day, with the sun setting behind, providing comfortable lighting for beach activities and relaxation.

Barceló Huatulco’s prime location on Tangolunda Bay offers guests a wonderful blend of natural beauty and modern amenities, making it an ideal destination for sun-seekers and beach lovers alike.

5 Barceló Huatulco Restaurants

One of the primary reasons we enjoying staying at Mexican all-inclusive resorts is the food. We love Mexican food, so the prospect of unlimited quantities of Mexican food is always enticing for us.

Here are your 5 dining options at the Barceló Huatulco Resort:

1. Doña Rosa Buffet Restaurant

The Doña Rosa Buffet Restaurant is the main buffet restaurant at the Barceló Huatulco hotel. This restaurant is where guests will enjoy the breakfast buffet, a mid-afternoon lunch, and also their dinner buffet. Guests will enjoy dining within an airy main indoor dining room, with an option for outdoor dining for the dinner buffet.

Breakfast Buffet

We enjoyed our morning breakfasts at the Doña Rosa Buffet Restaurant. There was a wide variety of popular breakfast foods on offer, including fresh fruit, yogurt, deli meat and cheese, cereal and pastries. There’s a sizeable selection of American breakfast favorites, as well as a selection of local Mexican breakfast dishes to try. Most mornings I visited the made to order omelette station (where they make quesadillas too!).

Breakfast is served at the Doña Rosa Restaurant from 7:00 to noon each day.

Late Lunch Buffet

The mid-afternoon lunch buffet at the Doña Rosa Restaurant starts at 2PM. We’re early risers, so we eat breakfast early, so we ended up at the La Tortuga Restaurant for lunch each day.

That said, we did visit the self-service soft ice cream machine in the Doña Rosa Restaurant every day for an afternoon treat. The buffet lunch on offer looked largely the same as that on offer at the La Tortuga Restaurant.

Lunch is served at the Doña Rosa Restaurant daily between 14:00 and 16:30.

Dinner Buffet

Diners at the dinner buffet will enjoy the wide selection of international foods on offer at the Doña Rosa Restaurant. In addition to American favorites, diners will enjoy Mexican dishes, along with a selection of seafood, fruits, salads, deli meats and vegetables. Parents of picky eaters will be happy to know they have a sizeable selection of kid-friendly food with chicken nuggets, fries, etc.

Normally the desserts at all-inclusive resorts leave something to be desired, but the desserts at the Doña Rosa Restaurant were above average. I still wouldn’t describe them as excellent, but many of the single-serving desserts (cakes, pastries, etc.) were quite good.

Dinner is served at the Doña Rosa Restaurant from 18:30 to 22:30 each night.

2. La Tortuga Buffet Restaurant

With a beautiful beach and pool-side location, we enjoyed our family meals at the open-air La Tortuga Restaurant. Ambience-wise, this was our favorite restaurant at the Barceló Huatulco 5-star resort.

Breakfast Buffet

As early risers, we ate all of our breakfasts at the Doña Rosa Restaurant, but if your family has a later schedule, you may enjoy eating your breakfast in the more scenic location of the La Tortuga buffet restaurant.

Breakfast is served at La Tortuga from 09:00 to 11:00 each day.

Lunch Buffet

We ate all of our family lunches at the open-air La Tortuga restaurant. While enjoying the fresh sea air and ocean views, we enjoyed many good buffet meals. Most days we made heaping piles of nachos, with fresh tortilla chips, cheese, salsa and other freshly cut toppings.

In addition, there is a decent selection of American favorites (hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.), as well as a local favorites too. We love filling up on big plates of fresh fruit at lunch – it’s a good way to get some nutrition and hydration at the same time!

Lunch is served at the La Tortuga Restaurant from 12:00 to 17:00

Snacks

Snacks are on offer from 17:00 to 18:30.

Dinner Buffet

Again, due to our earlier schedule, we ate our buffet dinners at the Doña Rosa Buffet Restaurant. But, if you don’t mind some later dining for your family, the open-air beachside setting at La Tortuga buffet restaurant will be very enjoyable.

3. Restaurante Agave (À La Carte)

Of all the à la carte restaurants at the Barceló Huatulco, we were most excited to eat at the Restaurante Agave, which features authentic Oaxacan cuisine. We were thrilled to obtain a highly sought after reservation here for one of our nights here.

For an appetizer, Celine had a very tasty Agave Salad, while I enjoyed guacamole with salsa and grasshopper sauce. That likely sounds more gross than it actually is – grasshopper is a local delicacy in Oaxaca, and the sauce is just like a salsa. It was a fun way to gross out the kids, while enjoying authentic Oaxacan cuisine!

Oaxaca is known for its amazing chocolate-based mole sauces, so Celine and both couldn’t resist ordering the Mole Trilogy. Previously, we had only tried dark mole sauces, but this innovative dish offered green, red and orange mole sauces. It was amazing!

For dessert, we devoured our Oaxacan chocolate cake, served with ice cream. Our son opted for the seasonal fruit Mexican sorbet trilogy, and was thrilled with the huge serving size!

We were worried about finding kid-friendly options at the Agave Restaurant, but we needn’t have worried – they had a separate kids menu with plenty of kid-friendly dishes to choose from. Our son had chicken fingers, while our daughter enjoyed a cheese quesadilla.

Our dinner at the Agave Oaxacan Restaurant was one of our culinary highlights of our family stay at the Barceló Huatulco resort.

4. Kyoto Sushi Bar (À La Carte)

When we complained about not getting enough à la carte restaurant reservations with our Premium Level room, the hotel managed to squeak us into the Kyoto Sushi Bar.

I can now see why it’s so hard to get a reservation for the à la carte sushi restaurant – it’s tiny! There were only 7 tables in the entire place!

Our family loves sushi, so we were very excited to get a reservation at Kyoto. The menu is somewhat limited, but they had enough of our family favorites that we left absolutely stuffed.

My only recommendation is to keep in mind you are in Mexico, and the quality of the sushi isn’t quite what we enjoy at home. It was an enjoyable meal, but don’t expect the same quality sushi as you enjoy back home.

5. La Fontana Restaurant (À La Carte)

The La Fontana Italian à la carte restaurant was the only one we were unable to try during our family vacation at the Barceló Huatulco. We looked down on it from the window in the Kyoto sushi restaurant – it was really nice with a Tuscany-inspired theme, complete with a grand piano in the middle. It was much larger than the sushi restaurant, so hopefully you’ll have a better chance of getting in here.

Dining at the À La Carte Restaurants

Space is very limited at the à la carte restaurants at the Barceló Huatulco hotel. To manage this, guests are restricted to 1 à la carte reservation for every 3 nights they stay at the resort (to a maximum of 3 reservations). Conversely, Premium Level guests enjoy the ability to make unlimited à la carte restaurant reservations.

As mentioned, we stayed in a Premium Level room and even we had difficulty to make à la carte reservations. Upon check-in, we were only able to make 1 reservation in a time-frame which worked for our kids sleep schedule. After expressing my displeasure with spending extra money for this privilege, they came back with a second reservation for us about an hour later.

I paid attention while we dined in the à la carte restaurants at the Barceló Huatulco resort and I didn’t see a single non-Premium Level wristband anywhere. While this wasn’t exhaustive research, it does go to show than non-Premium Level guests may struggle to have access to the à la carte restaurants.

Granted, our family stayed at the Barceló Huatulco resort over New Years Eve, so the hotel was completely full. Our experiences may not be repeatable during times when they are not at maximum capacity.

If dining at the à la carte restaurants is important to your family, I’d recommend taking a close look at one of the Premium Level rooms.

Note, that the hotel has a formal dress code for dinner at the à la carte restaurants. Essentially, men must wear long pants, closed toed shoes and a shirt with sleeves for dinner. Women are able to wear open-toe sandals. This policy also applies to children.

Activities at the Resort

Barceló Huatulco offers plenty of activities to enhance your stay:

A fitness centre equipped with modern cardio machines, free weights, and strength-training equipment, the gym is available for guests aged 16 and older.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of the resort property are three well-kept tennis courts. There’s also an additional court with soccer nets and basketball nets.

For some action in the sand, keep your eyes open for a beach volleyball game at the beach volleyball court, located near the water sports facility.

The Barceló Huatulco resort also provides complimentary access to boogie boards, kayaks, small sailboats, and other non-motorized water sports, allowing Barceló Huatulco guests to explore the pristine waters of Tangolunda Bay.

Entertainment at the Huatulco Barceló Resort

Throughout the day, the area closest to the all-ages pool is buzzing with entertainment activity, with Barceló staff leading many fun activities.

Guests who stay at the Huatulco Barceló all-inclusive resort are welcome to enjoy nightly entertainment shows at the Teatro Oaxaca. Each night the hotel entertainment staff put on a musical extravaganza, fun for guests of all ages. Shows vary each night and may feature a Mexican show, Latin music, rock favorites and more.

Excursions from the Barceló Huatulco Resort

One of the great things about staying at a family-friendly all-inclusive resort is that you never have to leave if you don’t want to – all your needs are taken care of. However, if you are like us, you start to get a little antsy if you stay in one place too long.

If you want to take a break from resort life, there are many excursions you can take from the Barceló, which includes being picked up and dropped off right at the lobby.

Sunrise Kayak Tour

The one excursion we enjoyed in the area was a sunrise kayak tour. It involved getting up dreadfully early, but wow, it was worth it! Watching the sunrise over the ocean is always a thrilling, and somewhat primal experience, but watching it come up while you are also on the water is an experience you won’t soon forget.

The tour company provided two-man kayaks for our sunrise kayak tour, so our kids could sit up front and relax and soak in the scenery. It was a pretty easy outing, with many first-time kayakers enjoying the sunrise too.

Another benefit of staying at the Barceló Huatulco with kids is the kid-friendly beach. The hotel is situated deep inside a bay, which helps shelter the beach from the naturally rough Pacific Ocean.

The waves ranged from tranquil to medium-sized during our stay at the Barceló and we were comfortable with our kids playing in the waves. The sand is soft, both inside and outside the water, and is a great consistency for making sand castles (you can use the plastic cups from the buffet if you forget your beach toys).

As a family-friendly all-inclusive resort, the Barceló Huatulco has a kids club, which offers a variety of supervised activities throughout the day. Just drop by their little club house for a schedule of daily activities.

Another excellent amenity for kids at the Barceló Huatulco is their super-cool games room. Filled with fun games like ping pong, arcade games and more, older kids will love hanging out in here!

My son’s favorite activity during our stay at the Barceló was the life-sized chess set. Located in-between the La Tortuga restaurant and the all-ages pool, we played many games of chess each day. He was able to make some new friends, when other kids came up and asked if they could play.

Finally, the resort has a 10-hole mini golf course near the tennis courts. We attempted to play one morning, but the resort only had one set of clubs and it was already on loan to another family.

Barceló Huatulco All-Inclusive Review Summary

Our family had an excellent time during our stay at the Barceló Huatulco all-inclusive resort in Oaxaca, Mexico. This is an especially beautiful region of Mexico, and the setting for the Barceló Huatulco captures the best of it – Tangolunda Bay is very beautiful.

Two very important elements for a family-friendly all-inclusive resort are the quality of the food and the beach. Although it was hard to get reservations for the à la carte restaurants, we really enjoyed our meals and the the quality of the food was good.

Our daily family walks along the soft sand beach on Tangolunda Bay were among our favorite memories. And our kids really enjoyed playing in the kid-friendly swimming pools, especially the water slides.