Sandos Playacar Family Activities

This is where the Sandos Playacar Beach Resort shines. With a supervised Kids' Club and Teens' Club, plus poolside activities that children can participate in throughout the day, kids of all ages are entertained morning to night.

The Kids' Club, with its own freestanding clubhouse operates from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. and is complimentary to all guests. Children are grouped by age: 4 to 7 years and 8 to 12 years. Register your child between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. and, if you like, reserve lunch or dinner with the group at that time, as well.

Children can stay at the Kids' Club all day, enjoying different age-appropriate activities such as tye-dyeing T-shirts, building sand castles, painting, puzzles, cooking lessons and relay races. The schedule is posted clearly outside the clubhouse, so you can also drop your children off solely for specific activities. (Just be sure to fill out a proper registration form prior to 11 a.m. that day, or your child can only stay for one activity hour, and cannot eat lunch or dinner with the group.)

The clubhouse features a small water-play area for youngest participants, with a slide into a two-foot-deep pool. Bigger kids splash around a large pool loaded with lots of water toys and boogie boards, but it's also shallow: two feet, two inches. There is a playset and sandbox with lots of sand toys, but it is only available to children enrolled in the Kids' Club.

One special activity for children is participating is Monday night's "Disney Show." This is part of the included nighttime entertainment, which is typically performed by adults and held in the 800-seat indoor theatre. But with the Disney production, young children rehearse all afternoon, then don costumes to get on stage to perform scenes from Disney musicals. Other nighttime fun includes a pinata party, face-painting, fashion show and mini disco. Cool!

Teens have their own recreation space in an open-air palapa next to the Kids' Club clubhouse with foosball and pool tables. Teens can also meet up with activities staff here at 10 a.m. to begin a day of events like beach volleyball, water-balloon fights and a kayak race. The resort's disco is open just for teens three nights a week between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Baby Club is offered to 2- and 3-year-olds from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., and then again from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. Children these ages can stay in the Baby Club for a maximum of three hours a day, but you can split those hours up, one hour in the morning, two hours in the afternoon. This child care takes place at the Kids' Club clubhouse. Children do not have to be potty-trained to participate in the Baby Club or Kids' Club, but you must provide diapers (or Pull-ups), swim diapers and wipes.

The activity pool in the Beach section of the resort is hopping all day long, with staff leading scheduled water aerobics, dart tournaments, water polo, belly-flop contests, bingo and more. If kids want to participate, they'll accommodate youngsters in just about everything but the Ironman Olympics (one of the events involves chugging alcohol) or the poolside beer-drinking contests (dads only, please).

Other kid-friendly activities that are included in the price of your all-inclusive room rate: Ping-Pong, giant chessboard, giant Connect Four game, tennis with kid-sized racquets and tennis balls to borrow, ocean kayaks and one catamaran (an adult must sail it). There are more than two dozens bicycles for guests to borrow, including many kid-sized bikes, and you can simply check them out (with helmets) to explore the Playacar area on your own. Guide-led bike tours are also held several mornings a week.

The activity pool in the Beach section of the resort is hopping all day long, with activities staff leading scheduled water aerobics, dart tournaments, water polo, belly-flop contests, bingo and more. If kids want to participate, they'll accommodate youngsters in just about everything but the Ironman Olympics (one of the events involves chugging alcohol) or the poolside beer-drinking contests (dads only, please).

Other kid-friendly activities that are included in the price of your all-inclusive room rate: Ping Pong, giant chessboard, giant Connect Four game, tennis with kid-sized racquets and tennis balls to borrow, ocean kayaks and one catamaran (an adult must sail it). There are more than two dozens bicycles for guests to borrow, including many kid-sized bikes, and you can simply check them out (with helmets) to explore the Playacar area on your own. Guide-led bike tours are also held several mornings a week.

The activity pool in the Beach section is generally four feet deep, but can accommodate younger swimmers with wide step entries and two-foot-deep ledges around the pool. There is a separate, adjacent kiddie pool (1.5-foot deep) as well.

The swimming pool in the Riviera section is generally quiet, although children are welcome. It is also four feet deep. The adults-only pool on the property is strangely located right next to another kiddie pool in the Riviera section.

If kids need a break from the sun, they can play complimentary Playstation games in a small video-game room. Pottery painting by the pool is another option; prices vary depending on the size of the object your child chooses to paint, from about $8 and up.

Kids also love holding the iguana or toucan that the on-site photographer totes around the property. Of course, you can't snap a picture of your kid holding the animals; you need to purchase the $12 professional photos.