The Grand Bahia Principe Akumal is an all inclusive resort hotel and it is fantastic. It has two sister hotels in the area and they all are acceptionally nice and fun to live in. Each resort has their own pools and all together have a massive ammount of beach space. There are many bars and refreshment stands located all around the premises and are sponsored by Coka Cola. The car ride from the Cancun airport can be a nucense but once you see the hotel lobby you instantly know that you have come to the right place. Every single staff member of the hotel has a good personality and is nice to everybody that treats them nicely. They are very funny and have a good sense of humor. The food is decent and I found that the food in the buffet got boring after a while, so I suggest that visitors book a reservation for the different resturants. For me (a 15 year old) it got boring after 10:30p.m there was nothing that would be going on and everything but the 24 hour snack bar would be open. I was too young to have a colored band which would allow me to get into the "discoteca" and i was too old for the kids activities and to go to bed at 10 p.m. I would suggest that people who have kids my age should bring one of their friends, and they would have a better time. Im not going to complain because i had a wonderful time, and at night i would sit on the beach and watch the stars on the beautiful beach of mexico, and wait for my brother to get back from the discotec. I will defenitly be going back next year!

This was my third trip to GBA, we do a girls week in November and my Husband and I go for 2 weeks every spring. We have been to Jamaica, puerto plata(Bahai Principe Rio San Juan great) punta cana,puerto Vallarta, But this is the best place, good food, try Mikado japanaese rest. Steakhouse, and Italian rest. Wonderful staff. Take the golf carts to the hacienda and walk to the road pay 3$ to go to Playa del carmen or any sightseeing. Xel-ha is great snorkling, dolphins, tubing, cliff jumping , spend the day $79.00 including food and drink. Buy oneway ferry tickets to go from playa del carmen to Cozumelas they change ferry co. and your return ticket is no good. The staff is the greatest say Hi to Ulysis and Arturo from the crazy old ladies from Canada that taught them to dirty dance. Try this hotel you wont be disappointed.

Our Travel Agent, Leisure Quest Travel, did a great job in recommending this place to us. For $220/night, we got to stay at GBP Akumal during High Season! Our purpose was to go and rest and sit on the beach or drink by the pool. GBP Akumal delivered on all accounts.

Since you are on an all inclusive resort, you'll find the cultural aspect of the hotel is sanitized for the huge amounts of European, Canadian, and American tourists ($20 for 12 oz of sunscreen!!!) that they serve. This does spill into the food. The food was ok and is your typical buffet type food (pizza, fried stuff, fish, etc). We did go to four of the al la carte restaurants and found them to be passable. I wouldn't pay extra to go to them, but since they were included in our package, we didn't mind trying them out (Frutas del Mar was the best of all that we tried).

Keep in mind, the al la carte restaurants require pants (no shorts) for men, and no bikini tops for ladies (must wear an over shirt). Capri’s for ladies were allowed at the restaurants.

The best beach is at the Tulum Resort. But we liked the pools at Akumal. I was under the impression all guests have access to all resorts (we did, anyhow). So, it didn't matter to us where our hotel was since they have trams that go between the other resorts every 10 min or so.

One small detail that I liked about our stay is that we checked out at 12 noon but our transfer back to the Airport in CAN wasn't until 1pm. They do not cut off your wrist band, and so you can eat a small lunch at the buffet when it opens at 12:30 pm or continue to enjoy beverages until your ride arrives. Overall, GBP Akumal was a class act.

My boyfriend and I stayed at the GBP Akumal from Dec 4-Dec 11. I cannot begin to describe how wonderful the resort was. Everything was near perfect and we're already looking forward to coming back in the future.

I want to begin by warning travellers about the time share pressures you'll be greeted with when you arrive at the airport. Be careful of people trying to con you into joining "free" buffet breakfasts. They seem very trust worthy and legitimate, however, if you join these breakfasts, you'll most likely spend the whole day at a different resort, which will end up being a waste of a day. They lure you in by claiming they'll offer you discounted prices for activities. They usually ask you for a deposit of $20 per person so they can "reserve" you a seat at the "free" breakfast. Don't fall for this and just politely say "no thank you."

Upon leaving the airport, it took close to 2 hours to finally arrive at the resort. I would say that this is the only downside of staying at GBP. However, I believe if you plan to stay specifically in the Mayan Riviera, it would take the same amount of time to get to any resort in this area from Cancun.

Once we arrived to the resort, we were greeted with a welcome drink and taken by shuttle to our room. The resort is very large and spread out, so they do have shuttles running regularly to and from the lobby. You can also visit the Coba and Tulum lobbies and eat at their buffets/restaurants.

Our room was beautiful. I was weary because of previous reviewers complaining about the hard beds, however, my boyfriend and I didn't find the beds that hard at all. We slept very soundly and comfortably on all nights. I suppose it depends on what kinds of beds you're used to sleeping in. In anycase, the rooms are very clean and spacious with marble floors. I recommend leaving $2-3 a night for the people who clean the rooms. They do such a wonderful job at keeping the rooms well kept, that they deserve a good tip. I believe they will also take extra care if you tip them.

The food at the resort was satisfactory. We didn't expect too much because we were aware that catering to hundreds or thousands of guests can be very demanding. Most of the time we ate at the buffets and we were allowed to have 3 a la carte dinners. The buffet food was nothing special, but we weren't picky and always found something that we liked. The buffets do offer a variety of different ethnic foods ranging from french, italien, chinese and even japanese. There's always fresh vegetables and fruits available and a large variety of desserts. Pizza, burgers, pasta, fries, any fast food you can think of was usually served at the buffets. The Coba, Tulum and Akumal buffets all serve pretty much the same thing. However, my boyfriend and I found that the service at the Akumal side was superior to the others. I recommend tipping the servers at the buffets as well because they do work so hard and they do an excellent job at giving high quality service. We were both very impressed. As for the a la carte dinners, they were all very good. If you go to the PR people, they have menus of all the restaurants in a small binder that you can look at and see what appeals to you.

The grounds of the resort were IMMACULATE. I cannot stress this enough. Everything was beautifully kept. My boyfriend and I were in awe at how pristine everything looked. The pools are big and they never get too busy. There's bars by the pools and swing bars near the beaches. Snack bars can also be found near the beach areas. If you like, there are also smaller pools which are much quieter. The beach at the resort was gorgeous. I prefer the beach on the akumal side, however, the tulum beach is nice as well. Be sure to bring water shoes because it does get fairly rocky when you enter the water. However, after you pass a certain point, it's not as rocky anymore. You can snorkle at the beach, there's TONS of fish near the docks. Absolutely beautiful. In addition, it was never too difficult to find chairs at the beach, however, it did sometimes get busy around noon. So if you want to be guaranteed a chair, I would recommend going to the beach at around 11 or even 10 if you can, There are also hammocks that you can lie down on.

All in all, this was a wonderful trip and I can guarantee that if you choose to stay at GBP Akumal, you'll have a fantastic time as well.