Gran Festivall All Inclusive Resort

We chose this resort because it was a great deal. There were so many negative reviews we really didn't know what we were going to encounter. We loved it! Definitely tired but there was visible evidence of renovation work going on. Pools and tennis courts were in very good condition. Renovated rooms were comfortable and spacious. Common areas were always clean. Food was good. Drinks were cold. Service was exceptional. Many local vacationers added to the Mexican experience.... We enjoyed this atmosphere. Adult pool was fabulous. Bartenders Juan and Isaias were awesome. Spoke good english. Front desk staff was fantastic as well. Fabulous sand walking beach. Nice big waves. #1 bus East gets you into town for 7 pesos. We took a bus 1 hr North to Barra de Navidad. (48 pesos/1 way). Worth a visit for beach, shopping and bars/restaurants. Lots of expats.

This is the worst resort I have ever visited. We flew direct via Sunwing, which wasn't direct, it still had a stop in Saskatchewan, but since we got to sit on the Tarmac in the plane for 2 hours, it's considered direct "Via Regina" anyways..... The hotel was so run down, it is a bunch of villas that used to be a Club Med, but haven't been maintained in over a decade, probably two. There is only one restaurant and 2 snack bars and one a la carte. Everything else is closed or broken. At most 5 staff members there spoke enough English to make a sentence - all activities are in Spanish. The rooms were scary, outdated, and repainting seems to be their only form of maintenance. There is no wifi (although they tell you there is in the lobby, which does not work) There are no operational phones in the rooms, so if you want anything you have to walk to the front desk and hope someone is there that understands you. And they do not provide blankets....at all. They will bring you an extra sheet if you complain enough - so plan to sleep with your towels for warmth and wear half your wardrobe. The A/C does not work, it's either on or off, no heat or cooling that you can control. They do not provide bottled water but will bring a big jug to your room if you can figure out how to ask for it. Our tv worked, but only 2 stations were in English, all entertainment is in Spanish - so it's fend-for-yourself every night to find something to do. The staff that did speak English asked us why we were there, only Mexicans, usually from The Guardalajara area, stay here. That was the hardest pill to swallow I think. No swim up bars, no bars for adults, the disco didn't even open on any nights we were there. Truth be told this trip - YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR -

We went with another couple for a two week vacation from February 22 - March 8, 2017 Sunwing first had us booked in a room way up on the hill which proved to be a challenge from the minute we got there, winding steep pathways, proved to be to much. We asked to move on the second day and had to wait for a couple of more days before being moved, once we were moved, it was a great location! next to the pool where it is next to all of the services the hotel offers. The Adult pool was a lovely retreat and we spent most afternoons meeting up with and visiting our new friends, and Juan the bartender there was very obliging and spoke perfect English. There was only one buffet restaurant opened while we were there which was a bit of a disappointment but, wow the food that place put out was impressive! The wait staff was always prompt and very friendly! Hola to Fransisco, Moises and Patricia Sadly, we only got to go to the Italian restaurant, the one al a carte operating while we were there, once. We did enjoy the Italian bar a couple of times and Francisco the bartender was a pleasure to talk with. We took advantage of the Zip line as well as the waterslides and had a fantastic time. The photo shop on premises was always doing a fantastic job and we did purchase quite a few of their photos of us, which to my surprise, they ended up posting on facebook and of course I shared from there, cool idea. The sports bar with Marucio was always fun after dinner, a game of pool is always good, and Marucio was always attentive and professional, and spoke fairly good english. The disco is open until about 2 am most nights and only made it there 3 or 4 times and it was great fun. The beach was fun, but needed to bring or buy a paddle board to be able to ride the waves as they were high almost the whole time we were there. The beach was amazing though, firstly, there is gold flecks throughout the sand, I'm told foolsgold, The sand is easy to walk on and you can go for miles! Beach restaurant was only ok, a bit of a disappointment as there wasn't many options. The beach bartenders were always attentive and working steady. Would I recommend this hotel, yes. The staff make the resort! They are always doing the best they can. Trips into Manzanillo are easy to obtain by going across the street and catching the #1 Bus as it drives all the way into the old historic center where there are many shops and restaurants. This was only 7 pesos per person! Remember this is a large resort, the staff are doing their best and if you are unhappy, talk pleasantly and you will get treated accordingly.

We enjoyed two weeks in February. We have traveled to many many all inclusive resorts in Mexico and Cuba. The food at the Gran Festival was some of the best food that I have had at a all inclusive. The grounds are the best in Mexico, love all the palm trees. The beach even with the short walk over the bridge is worth it. Great waves and sand. The staff are the best part of the resort. Even the grounds people would say hi and smile when walking past you. The front desk were very helpful we changed rooms after the first night to get a fridge and have my sister in the same room. The buffet staff always greeted us and were quick to bring drinks or clear away dishes. Our rooms were cleaned properly every day before noon. Yaun the pool bartender, good bartender nice guy. JB works outside the resort selling time shares to the Mexican people was very helpful giving us direction and information and advise.The best staff person is Fernando- the sport bartender. A good ,honest ,friendly , helpful all around great man. They are working on improving the rooms and someday this will be a 5 star resort. And yes there are a lot of Mexican family but remember it is there country and we are the guest. We met many nice people from Canada and from Mexico. I would go back to the resort again. Every year I look for a deal and the was one of the best.

*Pros* Price Learn Español Food was good when you can get it Decent beach *Cons* No english, service was geared to locals, the ants and bugs in the rooms were unbearable, no a/c, no fridge, no shower curtains, horrible smell in rooms, no room service, no pool bar, no food unless its breakfast lunch or dinner. If you're late you wait in line forever. Horrible liquor, instant coffee, no wifi, pictures are false advertising everything is old. And unkept. If I was in the mindset i was going to a dive, I would have been more prepared. Even the disco was all geared to locals. This is more of a mexican experienced opposed to a family get away.. I'd never go back even if i won a trip there.

This was a fantastic resort. Rooms were clean and spacious. Food was great. Service was awesome.... no they didn't speak much english or french but remember you chose to go to Mexico. There were enough workers that were fluent in english if you needed. The pools were enormous and clean. They had a great adult only pool if you wanted. It was across the road from the beach but they had a walkway over the road. The beach was beautiful. There were more activities than was possible to do in a week. They had zip lining(at the resort, no need for an expensive tour), archery, tennis, volleyball, basketball , table tennis, soccer, waterslides. Suites had two air conditioners. The 200 rooms are central to everything. If you don't want to walk or do stairs you may want to be in the 100's though they are close to everything and could be noisy. Would go back again. Loved it.

This all inclusive hotel was quite ok for the cheap price it offers. Food was average food, service ok, the installations were not in their best shape (old, partly unrenovated). Specially the pool for kids had the floor in stone (not painted and it was very rough for the skin). If you are up for a good 10 min walk to the sea each morning from your room, it's quite ok. Not sure if we would come back next time..

My wife and I, Just got back last night from 1 week at the Gran Festivall Manzanillo. We were very disappointed. We had read a number of reviews on trip advisor before we went. However there are a number of them that conflict and are very confusing. I think this is in turn because this hotel sells off rooms at a considerable discount when it cannot fill the hotel. Also depending where you are staying at the hotel. The Villa's will be renovated or not renovated. We stayed in the "Not renovated" As with most of this resort is no renovated and all the foreigners we placed here! After we got home and I started looking at the pictures of the resort. There are none that show how bad this place is. So I will upload them as I did a walk around the property before we left. I will say this, The original villa we stayed in had the entire kitchen ceiling falling down to garbage cans in catch the water leaking down like a stream. We did see cockroaches on the property. However not in the food area or villas. I am going to upload a picture of a salt shaker in the restaurant. The black things in the salt are dead ants. (Thank god we found this on the last day!). Food was poor at this resort. Disappointing as we read some reviews that it was quite good. You could always find something. Restaurant staff looked down at us a few times. (First time I had ever seen this). A number of other people that were on our plane rated this resort as a 1 star and we would have to agree. (Depending if in renovated villa's or not, But hey don't take my word for it. Check out my pictures of the villas!). The locals do come in on the week. Plan accordingly. Beach and pools will fill up fast. So go down there right away or plan something else. We did reach that it was a major walk down to the ocean. My wife and I did not find this. It is a bit of a walk but nothing major. We read on how big the property was and thought. Wow that thing is huge we can't go wrong! Boy were we both wrong! While we were down there our lock on our room broke. Took them 3 hours to try and get in. In the end they broke in through a Window so we could get our stuff. They moved us to another room for the rest of our stay. All the people on our airplane that stayed at this resort. Referred to the area we stayed in as "Gangland" or the Ghetto. Please note: That we know of at lest three people that got room changes while we were down there. (Black mold, Ac not working,). None of them were moved to the newly renovated units! Some people spoke of how great this place was back in the day with fond memories. That's why they came back. (18 years ago). Toronto had this place discounted at around the $600.00 marker. Western Canada was paying around the $900 - $1000 marker. One other note: When we first showed up our room was dirty and they had to page the maid last at night. As the place had been trashed from the last people. Not a great welcome for a place. -PRO's: -You can hail a Bus right out front of the resort. 7 pesos to get you to Santiago and Manzanillo. - There is a Walmart in Santiago. Cheap duty free booze and stuff - Beach that this resort sits on is the best one down there! Just awesome! - Big Pools! - Maids were good - Lifeguards on beach some days. - Shower water pressure was very good. Never ran out of hot water. - Check in was fast and smooth/ So was check out. - CON's: - Very few staff spoke anything but Spanish, Including the front desk - Non - renovated villa's! Just brutal. See pictures! and they are still booking people for the night in them! - Cockroaches seen running around the property - Ants in the salt shaker in the restaurant! Brutal! (Again see pictures!) - NOT at Three Star resort. 2 star at best. 1 star in some areas! - Ran out of some drink mixes and did not refill them. - Sheets on bed were not the correct size. (Two double sheets for a queen) - Restaurant staff seem to snub there nose at you for some reason.( You were never offed that second cup of coffee in the morning) - Black mold in a number of rooms. - Some rooms missing light bulbs. - One Jug of water when you check in. If you want more you have to go to one of the bars and get it refilled. They do not bring anymore. -DO NOT BOOK THIS RESORT! HORRIBLE!! (Uploading pictures for everyone to see! For shame!)

As most people know with my reviews I am not one whom believes the world owes me anything and that I am special because I pay X amount of dollars for my travel, I am an avg guy who enjoys the simplest of things when I travel whether its business or pleasure. As we usually do as a family we like to celebrate New Years on a different Caribbean or tropical destination over the last 7 years with our 3 kids 25,22,and 21 so not babies and been taught to enjoy the simplest things in life. So this year we decided to go to Manzanillo Mexico and stay at the Gran Festival. We read the reviews prior and as usual that never sways us because we make our own fun and opinions. 1st of the resort itself is great lots to do and for the most part the grounds are well kept, the resort and rooms (good chunk of them) could really use a coat of paint and some refurbishing but definitely not the worst I have seen. The food was ok some good some bad but something for everyone. The adult pool was amazing the large resort pool has a big hornet problem and is busy busy busy. The beach is very local and we loved it because it was very local oriented. It is not your common tourist style beach like a Cancun or Riviera Maya. The New Years Party was one of the best we have ever done on a resort and staff deserve top marks for the event they put on from the band to the fireworks show this was our favourite time all week. Now the negative, this is now (recently) a Sunwing property and the fact that your front desk staff and majority of the staff whom do not speak English or even have the time to try and work with you to try and understand instead of basically dismissing you because they don't have time to try. outside of the very odd handful of scattered waiters or bar staff that can speak English also or at least care enough to try, blows my mind. The resort guests are predominately Spanish speaking people with maybe a quarter of the people being English for the most part. Now understand we loved the fact we felt we were in a local setting and enjoyed trying to learn and communicate the language but if Gran Festivall and Sunwing are to move forward as a great spot for tourists whether Canadian or American or wherever they really need to strategically place some bilingual people in the most important areas (front desk, info desk, management etc that questions can be answered as it was extremely frustrating to ask for the simplest of things. The entertainment looked fantastic but not once did the staff they try and tell you what was happening or going on in English, geez at least say hello here is our show Welcome. Lastly if you need any sort of internet for the ability to stay in contact outside of Manzanillo or because millennials need their social life forget it the internet here will frustrate you and perhaps annoy your trip, wasn't a factor for our family but could see it for some families as well as business people. All in all we had a fun time and enjoyed the local feel and fun, would I go back perhaps if Sunwing and Gran festival made more of an effort to put some people that would love their job an opportunity to work with guests from all over not just Spanish speaking people. Life is what you make of it don't avoid this place its worth the money, Sunwing and Gran Festivall you have a diamond in the rough do something with it and you will reap the rewards