I had read every review for this hotel before we went. There are many positive reviews and some negative which I suppose you'll find anywhere you go. I thought the Sea Garden was perfect for us. We went down to get some sun and relaxation and we definitely found it. The weather was perfect the whole week, the staff very friendly. The rooms and grounds were very clean. We did not do the timeshare presentation and from what I hear, I'm glad we didn't. We did take a dip in the Mayan Palace Pool and felt it was very crowded and the water was cold. We actually preferred the pool at the Sea Garden!

There aren't that many places to eat in that area, so you do have to get a taxi to take you into the city for great restaurants. I recommend Benjamin Alarcon. He was always prompt and very good company. We would call him and tell him what type of food we were interested in and he made the reservations and we were never disappointed. Every restaurant he took us to treated us like royalty. I HIGHLY recommend Su Casa. You can't beat the food and the beautiful view. We also used him for the City tour and thought he did a wonderful job. I believe Benjamin is the reason we had such a wonderful time [--]

We had perfect weather for our trip to Acapulco-the Mayan Sea Garden was a nice place with clean rooms(they clean every day). The beach was across the street -nice sandy beach w/an umbrella and chairs per room. There was a pool on the beach and also a nice hotel pool on the well-kept property. We took a shuttle down to the Grand Mayan and endured the arm twisting-Grand Mayan is also beautiful-but I'm not sure worth the beach pass for the time share talk. Great bar at the Grand Mayan w/band at nite, the shuttle was most appreciated to go back and forth. 2 grocery stores nearby to get groceries-kitchenette was great. We were fortunate to acquire the services of a Hector Arredondo-he drove us all over Acapulco in his mini-van-great bars, excellent restaurants, shopping, etc.etc. Look Hector up if you're at the Sea Garden-he knows the best places! Would I go back? Certainly-beautiful beach area-great vacation.

Depending on what you are looking for, the Mayan Sea Garden could be perfect. I wanted to read on the beach and swim a lot in the ocean. I didn't want to deal with huge crowds, harried beach sellers or poor swimming conditions. After a day at the Acapulco Bay where most tourists go and deal with those issues, I decided that the Pacific Beach access and the Mayan Sea Garden were great for me (this is south of the town/bay of Acapulco).

My friend and I stayed in a one bedroom suite. The kitchen was fine, the bed hard, but we were rarely in our room. Instead, we walked across the street and spent hours on the beach, reading, swimming, and soaking in the sun. The hotel provided umbrellas and great beach chairs. We ordered food and drinks served to us on the beach itself. The Pacific Ocean was terrific - the temperature, cleanliness, and ease of getting in and out. I really liked my overall experience. It is definitely kid friendly. We rented boogie boards. We also spent a day at the hotel pool which was indeed a nice experience as well.

The one trade-off of staying here is the lack of access to restaurants, shops, and Acapulco night life. It is a 25 min-75 min. cab ride depending on the traffic to access a more authentic Mexican beach town experience. However, in the end, the trade off was well worth it. We shopped at WalMart, made our own food, and enjoyed the beach for hours on end. The staff was very friendly and helpful.

We have traveled to Mexico once or twice a year for 15- 20 years. This year my parents gave us a timeshare week. We deposited a Gold Crown room for 8 last year and RCI claimed this was a comperable room. In all my years going to Mexico, this 2 bedroom room that was suposed to sleep 8 was the worst room we have ever had! 5 of us went. We found things like 4 of the eight were suposed to sleep on the wornout and yucky couch in the living/dining/kitchen area.(Two in pull out drawers under the couch that were just foam covered with the couch material.) The table sat 4, and there was suposed to be a kitchen, (the web site showed a beautiful dining room that the table sat 6 to 8 and had lovely art above it and the kitchen was a regular sized kitchen and had a full sized refrig and a bar/island) HA! It was a short counter with two small burners that never heated enough to boil water and the pans were one small pan, suited to heat a can of beans or something and one the size of one you would boil noodles. We had planned to cook for 5, but that proved to be very challenging. We called to the front desk to ask for a skillet, and after one person after the next told us that was not possible, later the house keeper brought one. The burners were small so the one pan covered both burners. The master suite had a king size bed, but the second bedroom had two singles and then all four in the living room slept seperate of course. When I asked about a bed both my husband and I could sleep in in the second room they said those singles were called "Mexican Queens" and that was normal. (In all my years to mexico I have never before met a "Mexican queen". And that had to be one small king and queen to sleep together in that bed! We are normal size people who workout and we did sleep in it, but you could only "spoon" and turn over and spoon the other direction or fall out.)

The sewer was a regular problem in this room and water stood in each sink and the toilets plugged several times while we were there with not even paper in them and someone would come and plunge all of them.
As other reviews have metioned, the beach is a blackish sand, and there was a yellow something that was on the water, so a yellow bubble ring laid where the last wave had just rolled in.

We used Juan Carlos as a driver, and he was the best! He charged us 15 dollars to go to the marina several days, and we had paid as much as 50 dollars with other drivers. You have to be careful, if you call a driver and he is not there yet when you come out to go, the other drivers would tell us that he had to go and they worked for the same company and would take care of us. The last day this happened and a gentleman that called himself "Hector the Protector" took us to the airport suposedly for Juan. It is two miles. Juan told us the ride would be ten dollars but Hector charged us 25! Never forget to negotiate the ride BEFORE you get in the car! (We were with newby's that kept doing this!)

We deep sea fished with Jesus "Chuy" Osorio, and it was wonderful. He can be emailed thru his web site at bluewatersportfishing.com I read extensively before going to Acapulco on everything and everywhere we were going to go and Jesus came best reccemended for fishing and he proved to be worth every cent.

To sum up our experience, just know before you go that the Sea garden is not very nice. (Read numerous reviews and see) and then you will not be disappointed.

(One more thing, if you are not going on a timeshare week, the Fiesta Americana was excellent. We stayed there the first few days in Aca and it was clean and well maintained and in the middle of all the activity downtown. (No taxi rides to do anything downtown.)

Contact me if you want more info on anything. It is the reason I wrote, so you would know before you go. mparkerjohnson@qwest.net