We are planning a holiday with a group to the Mayan side of Mexico for late January, early February. We are looking for recommendations/comments on all inclusive resorts that are child friendly, have a fine sandy beach and water and warm is very calm for children. Your suggestions are appreciated.

X caret in playa de carma

the Riu Hotels have the childrens club. But if you are looking for really calm water that kids can go out in, good luck. Beach is amazing.

Many of the hotels are great for kids but the Mayan side can be calm or quite windy. You might want to check out Huatulco.

Go south of cancun and play del carmen down to Akumal or Tulum. The waters are calmer, I think Grand Bahia/Bahia Prinicpe has about 4 or more family resorts in that area. This is where most of the snorkeling excursion and swimming with turtles excursions take place.

Jill, that is where we stayed, and the flags were up several times due to wind. I do like the Akumal area though, it is great for families (north of the Bahia Principe resorts)

Yeah, same thing happened to me in playa del carmen last year with windy beach conditions. It's hit and miss in that region.

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Hotel_Review-g663501-d295766...
TRIPADVISOR.COM
Mayan Palace Riviera Maya

Barcelo Maya resort has a nice beach with calm waters for the most part...and many things for kids.

Akumal resort and spa in awesome. Beautiful white sand, fantastic snorkelling and turtles everywhere. Water was very calm and great for swimming too.

Grand x caret , royal club , beautiful beach very calm. Royal club is extra but worth every penny. I found cancun beaches not very child friendly. Aukumal will be my second choice.

You can't beat the waters of Akumal ... Not to mention swimming with the turtles ... The reef breaks the waves nicely and it's shallow for along ways out

We stay at Bahia principe tulum with our kids
Water was great
But weather the week before us made ocean impossible to swim
You really take your chances
We were there mid to late January.
Kids club was fine
Big resort
Way more than we needed
But good location
Close to a lot of beautiful natural attractions and lots of variety
My agent is amazing if you want a hook up

We were at Sandos Playacar in April. It's in a double gated community. It was our first time in the Riviera Maya area. We absolutely loved the beach (sand never gets hot). Lots of seaweed, but that's at most places. They clean it up as best they can. Several good pools as well, but we never used them. If you rent a hacienda rather than just a room, there's a pool and hot tub for each house/complex. People with small kids tend to rent them so they don't have to go to the beach all the time, but they are farther from the beach. They are bigger (two beds & a pull out). We found the food & restaurants had a good variety. Very close to the town of Playa Del Carmen where you can do some good shopping.

The Barcelo Maya is an amazing resort that meets what you want

Xcaret has a man made beach

Dream resort in the Mayan. First class the whole way!! Has a nice beach that is sheltered ( cove ). Really nice and its kid friendly to a fault!!

I'm doing the exact same thing and time of year! Resort recommendations for akumal? Thanks

I second huatulco... Las brisas or the other hotel on the same Bay.. Water was perfect you could snorkel off the beach at our hotel. There was a kids club as well as a seperate pool just for kids.

We loved the Akumal section of the Bahia Principe resort. Pay a bit extra for the gold class level its worth it.

Bahia Principe

Grand Bahia Principe Akumal! Be sure to upgrade to gold won't regret it.

Grand Bahai Principe

Anton B
ditto for Barcelo Maya resort... we were there in December with extended family including 5 kids under 4 years old. They all loved it (adults included). The resort has a great beach, great pools, VERY kid friendly service at the restaurants... they truly like kids and go out of their way to help!
The only recommendation I made to the resort is that their restaurant hours are not ideal for kids; ie. 7am-11am, 6:30pm-11pm(?). For us the kids want to eat breakfast at 6am and dinner starting about 5pm, so shifting the resort restaurant hours by 1hr would have really helped.
note: we've also stayed at Grand Bahia Principe and its nice, but Barcelo is even better!

Our family (6 year old twins and 8 year old) stayed at gran Bahia principe Coba in Mayan riviera in dec. loved it! It is attached to gran Bahia principe akumal and talum. You can use all their beaches! One beach is sandbagged so the ocean is a lagoon wo waves and only 4 feet deep really. Crystal clear water

We stayed at el cid in puerto Morelos and they had the most amazing kids club! I couldn't drag my kids from it! It ran early in the mornings till late at night! We even left our youngest there who was 5 at the time so the other 4 of us could go on a snorkelling tour which was super cheap through the resort! There is a reef just off the shore! The beach and water are good!! The rooms weren't the best we have stayed in but it was awesome for the kids!! I would take my family back to this place time and again!! The trip was super reasonable too!

And your kids will probably not like the salty water anyway! (Mine did not) the pool are there was also awesome for the kids!!