I'm a fan of Goenka retreats, I've done 4, I like them a lot. I haven't had any other retreat experiences yet. Here are my thoughts on Goenkas:
• they promote a strong work ethic. the atmosphere, which is re-emphasised several times a day, is that you will only make progress based on your own efforts, that capital E liberation is possible and it depends entirely on you. plus the retreats are done in silence, so even if you are surrounded by lousy meditators, you're never going to communicate with them at all until the final day after the retreats are over. though, returning goenka students are often known for their rigid disciplined sitting regimes (and also often rigid narrow thinking).
• first three days they focus on shamatha, next 7 days on vipassana, last day metta (you suggested in another thread that you wanted to have better metta practice - i know lots of people don't like goenka's metta, it is very much worth doing as long as, like any meditation, you don't have expectations about what to experience ((ie. i want to feel love and bliss)).)
• price is totally free, except travel fees. you can give a donation afterwards if you feel so inclined, but you aren't forced to. and you shouldn't feel like a douche for not doing so, it's not an informal way of paying your ticket, the whole ethos they have going is that the dhamma should be freely given from ones dana, which means from the point of view of the volunteers, they are giving you this retreat environment and food out of goodwill and if they harboured any secret desire to get paid back then they wouldn't be freely giving and it would inhibit their own dana. having said that, the retreats wouldn't be possible without the donations, but most of these centers are really well off because lots of people genuinely feel they want to give because they had great experiences.
• total retreat time is 12 days, 10 days of meditation plus the day of arrival and the day of departure.
• there is no formal teacher training system, so teachers can be a mixed bag, you have the voluntary option of having a quick 2--10 minute interview with the teacher each day and discuss practice, and who knows if they are into maps or models, etc. it is to be expected however that they are into goenkas own maps and models which probably don't line up perfectly with ones own, but that is rare to find anyway, and that doesn't mean your teacher isn't an advanced practitioner in their own right. they do have controls and processes for choosing teachers, which i've heard anecdotal evidence for but don't know what is exactly (anecdotally: measurements on their equanimity and metta abilities and things like that)
• goenka can be quite funny and gives an interesting/funny dhamma talk at the end of each day which have funny stories and lots of parables and metaphors for understanding practice. whether you like the talks or not, listening to them can still be a good way to practice noting ones judgments/reactions/etc as well as giving you some space to analyze, think about theory, etc
• food is often good, but of course varies immensely from centre to centre, country to country.
• centres are usually in the countryside away from noise, cities, busy life, etc.
some downsides:
• goenka seems to believe that vipassana isn't practiced outside of his own tradition and sometimes this leads to an unhelpful attitude of "we're the only ones doing real practice, everyone else is doing ritual". though he does say that anyone who is trying to understand impermanence and develop equanimity is doing vipassana, even if by another name, he does unfortunately still claim sometimes that his tradition is the only place where vipassana has been preserved in the world. doh
• some people don't like the chanting audio tapes which are played at the beginning of some meditation sessions.
• sometimes rigid attitudes towards practice and theory, though definitely skewed to the side of effort than the side of do-nothing
my opinion on retreats:
i think they are invaluable, it's like a gym, perfectly designed and equipped to training certain faculties, and very useful for people who want to develop those specific things. obviously daily life practice is crucial, but retreat time offers an opportunity for practice unlike any other. incidentally straight and clear is the way i felt after all my 10 day retreats, many times the straightest and clearest i had ever felt in my entire life.
dhamma.org - S.N. Goenka Vipassana Course website