Club Med Cancun Or Club Med Ixtapa: Which Is Better For Kids?

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Can’t decide between Club Med Cancun and Club Med Ixtapa for your next family vacation?

If you’ve got kids, chances are you’ve come across Club Med resorts in your search for an all-inclusive family vacation. We’ve been to both Club Med Cancun and Club Med Ixtapa resorts over the years, starting when our kids were babies and continuing into their pre-teen years. Time and time again, Club Med has delivered.

The Club Med brand continues to maintain its reputation as one of the best resort options for families with children.

While both Club Med Cancun and Club Med Ixtapa have wonderful features, they each bring something a little different to the table.

Here’s a comparison to help you decide which Club Med Mexico all-inclusive resort is best for your kids and family.

Club Med Cancun vs Club Med Ixtapa For Kids

☀️ Location & Weather

🌴 Club Med Cancun

It’s located on the southeastern coast of Mexico, just a short 15-minute drive from the Cancun International Airport. The location is convenient, especially for shorter trips or travelling with young kids.

That said, the weather in this region can be a little unpredictable in winter. During our December stay, we had a few rainy, overcast days, which meant less time on the beach.

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa

It’s located on the other side of Mexico, on the Pacific coast, near the town of Zihuatanejo. It’s a bit of a longer ride from the airport, about 40 minutes.

What really sets Club Med Ixtapa apart is its perfect winter weather. January and February brought us sunshine every single day, along with temperatures in the high 80s and not a single cloud in the sky. It was hot (sometimes too hot!), but absolutely reliable weather.

🏆 Resort Winner For Guaranteed Warm Winter Weather:  Club Med Ixtapa

🗺️ Resort Size

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa

If you’re traveling with toddlers or little ones, Club Med Ixtapa’s smaller footprint makes everything easier. The resort has an intimate feel, which made our children feel especially comfortable when they were younger. No golf carts or long walks to dinner required.

The smaller layout and green open spaces were perfect for our young kids to explore safely.

🌴 Club Med Cancun

On the other hand, Club Med Cancun is a larger, more spread-out resort with various zones. There’s a family section (Aquamarina), an Exclusive Collection Space, and lots of areas to explore. While that may sound intimidating for parents of little ones, Cancun’s size and layout actually became a highlight for our tweens.

It was a great introduction for them to bigger resorts, with more people, more variety and more places to hang out. And when they didn’t feel like walking, they loved hopping on the golf cart resort shuttle.

🏆Resort Size Winner For Younger Kids: Club Med Ixtapa

🏆Resort Size Winner For Older Kids: Club Med Cancun

🛏️ Rooms

One of the reasons we’ve chosen Club Med resorts over the years is that their room layouts are designed with families in mind. When your kids are young, separate rooms can feel too distant. On the other hand, squeezing everyone into one room can feel too squishy.

Club Med room layouts offer two connected spaces within a single room, making it easy to keep an eye on your kids while still enjoying some privacy as parents.

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa

We stayed in Ixtapa’s Superior Family Rooms, which are are especially well designed. They have two semi-separate sleeping areas with a folding door in between, ample space for parents and kids (you can fit a family of 5), and a shared bathroom accessible from both sides.

The rooms aren’t super modern, but they work incredibly well for families with babies and younger children who still nap.

🌴 Club Med Cancun

We stayed in the Family Oasis Superior Room (located in the Aquamarina family section) which is sleeker, and the parents’ side of the room had an amazing ocean view and lots of room for our belongings.

There is a separate bedroom for the kids with two twin beds but it felt a bit tight. Great for kids who want their own room and TV but less ideal if you’re still dealing with strollers and pack-and-plays.

I would consider upgrading next time to the larger Family Oasis Superior Deluxe Room in the Aquamarina section, or to the Exclusive Collection Space (luxury rooms), which have larger footprints and an additional bathroom.

🏆 Resort Room Winner: Although not as modern, the Club Med Ixtapa family rooms seemed to have a better layout for the entire family.

👶 Baby Club For Kids 4 to 23 Months

The other main reason parents choose Club Med is for the amazing baby and kids clubs. I have yet to see another resort chain match the same high standards and quality as Club Med.

The Baby Club at Club Med Ixtapa blew us away when we visited with our 11-month-old. The staff was warm, the location near the pool was convenient, and we loved being close enough to relax without worry. There’s also baby food, strollers, and other gear available, which lightens the packing load.

NEW! Club Med Cancun has recently opened a Baby Club so I can’t comment yet on the experience. If it’s anything like the quality of the Ixtapa experience, parents with little ones should be excited for this incredible option.

➡️ EXTRA CHARGE – Club Med at both resorts charges extra for the Baby and Petite Clubs for children up to age 4. You can choose to sign up for the full week when booking. When we visited, we opted to pay only for the days we used, as we weren’t sure in advance how often we’d need it. Check to see if this option is still available.

🧸 Kids Club

The Kids Club at both resorts offer plenty of activities and creative programming, including sports, cooking, art and a big draw for the kids – the trapeze/circus school.  Whatever resort you choose, the trapeze will be the highlight activity for your kids (and adults can try it too!).

Staff at Ixtapa were very engaging but I can’t comment on Cancun staff as our kids only went for specific activities they were interested in during the day but staff seemed attentive.  

NEW! Club Med Cancun has recently renovated the kids club. Previously, it was located in a more isolated area of the resort but now is located right near the Aquamarina family section, which makes way more sense.

🏆 Resort Winner For Baby & Kids Clubs (for now) – Club Med Ixtapa but with Cancun’s new Baby Club & renovated Kids Club, Club Med Cancun may surpass Ixtapa soon.

🏀 Older Kids & Teens

Both resorts have teen clubs, which I think can be hit or miss. There is definitely more for older kids & teens to do at Club Med Cancun than at Club Med Ixtapa—more places to hang out and more activities to join.

🏆 Resort Winner For Teens: Club Med Cancun

💦 Splash Pad, Mini Pool and Waterpark

🌴 Club Med Cancun recently opened a new Splash Pad, mini pool and waterpark in the Aquamarina section, which no doubt will be a huge draw for families. The splash park is catered to kids so teens will be too old/tall for the waterpark.

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa has a small wading pool in the kids club area but sadly, no waterpark.

🏖️ Beach & Ocean

Club Med resorts have a knack for finding the best spot on the beach in each of their locations. Both resorts have excellent beach setups but for different reasons:

🌴 Club Med Cancun

The resort’s beach is surprisingly swimmable, thanks to a natural rock barrier that protects it from the seaweed that plagues much of Cancun’s Hotel Zone.

We could actually swim in the ocean without dealing with Cancun’s notorious murky seaweed, ride some waves, and take long walks on the beach.

Our family loves to ride ocean waves but they can be a little rough at times, so keep that in mind when entering with young kids.

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa

The resort’s beach is in a private bay, which means calm, gentler waves and no crowds from nearby resorts. It’s not as long for extended walks, but it’s still large enough for everyone to find a spot on the beach and perfect for kayaking, paddleboarding, or just playing in the water.

We even saw sea turtles drop by for a visit on the beach, a special memory for the kids. And did I mention the unbelievable beach sunsets? Absolutely gorgeous!

🏆 Resort Beach Winner: Tied – Cancun wins for seaweed-free, clear water, while Ixtapa wins for calmness and privacy. I can’t ignore the fact that Club Med Cancun may be one of the only resorts in the Cancun Hotel Zone where you can actually go into the ocean without dealing with seaweed. That makes it an equally attractive choice.

🎉 Activities & Entertainment

Both resorts offer typical resort activities (like pickleball, exercise classes, ceramic painting, a gym), but here are the highlights:

🌴 Club Med Cancun

If your family thrives on options and energy, Cancun wins on variety. Whether it’s snorkeling at the second-largest coral reef in the world (right off the beach), foam parties, beach volleyball, ocean aquafit, pickleball, live music on the beach, inflatable bull-riding or fireworks to celebrate the holidays, there’s always something going on for the entire family to enjoy.

Generally, it seems there are more activities run by staff at this resort overall than at Ixtapa.

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa

The view here is slower-paced and more of a community vibe. Daily afternoon events for families to take part included tie-dying, scavenger hunts and piñata parties.

Older kids can go sailing with G.O. staff (G.O. stands for Gentle Organizer – the resort staff who lead activities) and the water at this resort is calm enough for kayaking.

The evening shows are simple and repeated weekly so if you visit more than once, it can be tiresome. But the highlight for us was always the kids club performances and seeing your own kids on stage. 

🏆 Resort Winner For Activities & Entertainment: Club Med Cancun

🏊‍♀️ Pools

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa

The resort has a main pool and a smaller kids’ pool. While the pools aren’t flashy, you could always find a seat poolside. We spent many afternoons there and even took part in some aquafit classes.

Older kids and teens may get a little bored with only one main pool area but it’s great for younger kids. Only downside? The shallow end of the main pool is pretty deep, making it difficult for kids to stand unless they are over 5 feet tall.

🌴 Club Med Cancun

The resort has two main pool areas and I was excited that there was a pool next to our Aquamarina building in the family section, so we didn’t have to travel far if we wanted to take a dip.

But it was disappointing that the water was very cold in December. Our kids are immune to swimming in cold water but if your vacation hinges on daily pool time and the weather isn’t so hot, it could put a damper on your vacation.

🍽️ Food & Restaurants

Club Med is consistently excellent and top of their industry when it comes to resort food. No sad, soggy buffets here.

Whichever Club Med resort you visit, you can’t leave without trying their famous white chocolate bread. We even took some home, it’s that good!

🌴 Club Med Cancun

In Cancun, we had more variety at the resort, with multiple restaurants (steak and tacos), snack bars and a creperie. We didn’t love the open-air meal spots (open-air dining while fighting the birds isn’t my favorite combo) and ate most of our meals at the main buffet.

The buffet offers creative and flavorful dishes that you actually want to eat and there was always something available for everyone to enjoy. We also appreciated that there are places open later in the day where our kids could get a pre-dinner snack.

🌅 Club Med Ixtapa

Ixtapa’s food selection is smaller with only two restaurants, but still excellent. We loved our outdoor breakfasts overlooking the ocean and the rotating theme nights at the buffet.

The White Night Dinner is a standout – sunset dining at tables set up on the lawn, live music, and everyone dressed in white. It felt special and celebratory in a way most all-inclusives don’t.   

 🏆 Resort Winner For Variety Of Food Options: Club Med Cancun

Savvy Summary – Club Med Cancun Or Club Med Ixtapa For Your Kids?

Whether you choose Club Med Ixtapa for its calm, community vibe and daily sunshine, or Club Med Cancun for its larger variety of activities and exciting new water park, you’re in for a memorable, all-inclusive vacation.

If you have young kids and are looking for a smaller, more intimate resort with guaranteed warm winter weather, Club Med Ixtapa is the clear choice.

If your kids are a little older or you’re traveling with teenagers, Club Med Cancun offers a larger resort scene with more to keep everyone busy, and a swimmable section of Cancun’s Hotel Zone beach.

We’ve loved visiting both resorts at different stages of our kids’ lives, and each offered something unique and special for our family.

Still can’t decide? Check out my full resort reviews for Club Med Cancun and Club Med Ixtapa.