My hubby and I booked the Gran Bahia Principe Coba - Royal Club Golden through our travel agent (a TRANSAT Holidays vacation) for our honeymoon from June 6 to June 13th, 2008. We selected this hotel because of its excellent pricing and multiple amenities, as well as encouragement from other travelers who have enjoyed this location. This was our first experience with an all-inclusive holiday (excellent option for budget travellers).

THE PROPERTY
First of all, I'd like to say that the Gran Bahia Principe was BEAUTIFUL! There are 3 sections to this resort. Tulum is located on the beach and is the oldest of the 3 sections. It is more secluded from the other sections of the resort, but closest to the Hacienda Dona Isabel (location of the Disco & resort shopping). Akumal was the 2nd established section of the resort and is also located beachfront. This section is a short trolley ride away from the Hacienda. Coba is the newest section of the resort. It is not located beachfront, but features newer and larger suites.

Not to worry, there is a trolley system worked out to transport guests from one section of the resort to another. You can walk (which is really not as far as some guests say), or you can wait for a trolley which make their circuit once every 5 to 10 minutes. The trolley ride from the Coba section to the beach is only about 5 minutes.

The resort, although quite large, was very well kept. There was never a moment during our stay that we did not see a staff member hard at work maintaining the grounds. We never saw garbage on the ground, or cigarette butts anywhere. The gardens were always well maintained. One day during our stay, it was raining. The staff got right to work cleaning up (mopping, laying out dry rugs, etc) the steps and walkways so that no guests would slip. They were very very prompt and it seemed like they were proud of their work. Lovely!

THE BEACH
Although some traveler reviews called for water shoes on account of the beaches being rocky, I did not find this problem. There was one area of the beach that was rocky (fragments of coral, and shells) near the reef. However, only steps away on the left, adjacent to the Tulum section of the resort, was beautiful sandy soft beach. Also, to the right of this problem section, near the Akumal section, was also a lovely stretch of beach.

I would recommend the Tulum section for anyone wanting to play in the sand, walk on the beach, splash in the water etc because this section is in it's natural state. I would receommend the section of beach near Akumal to travellers wishing to lounge on the beach or swim in calmer water because this section has sand bars to keep the coral, rocks, and waves to a minimum. We found the Akumal section (where the swing bar is located) to be very quiet and peaceful.

During our stay at the resort, it was a slower season, so finding beach/pool chairs was NEVER an issue, and pools were always enjoyable (not too crowded). Our room was right behind the Iguana bar Jacuzzi pool, and we could always get a jacuzzi to ourselves.

THE FOOD
We enjoyed the dining options at the Gran Bahia. We tried the buffets at both Akumal and Coba, but found that we enjoyed better service and a quieter environment at the Kukulcan buffet (Coba). The buffets featured a large variety of foods with certain staple foods alternated throughout the week. Besides traditional Mexican foods, we also enjoyed some English, Italian and Vegetarian recipes, as well as some foods that we cook at home.

Since I work as a server at home, I did notice that restaurant service in Mexico is quite different than the service that we offer at home in Canada. The restaurant staff will allow you to take your time, and they serve at a more leisurely pace. They assume that you are also enjoying a leisurely pace, since you are on holiday. If you were in a hurry (to get to a show or activity), you need only indicate that to your server, and the service will change.

As a part of our Royal Club Golden reservation, we received 4 a la carte dining experiences. We selected the Tequila Restaurant (Mexican), El Pescador (Seafood), Mikado (Japanese) and Don Pablo (Gourmet). They were all excellent choices.

At the Tequila Restaurant, we not only got to taste some excellent traditional Mexican foods, but we experienced the best service on the resort, as well as pictures with sombreros and mexican music for entertainment.

At El Pescador, I enjoyed some excellent seafood dishes. My husband, who does not typically eat seafood, very much enjoyed his swordfish steak. If you are not an adventurous eater, this restaurant is not for you. This was the busiest restaurant that we went to, possibly on account of the time frame that we chose (around 7pm... all of our other reservations were 8:30 or later).

The Mikado is an experience not to miss. The interactive cooking show was very entertaining, and the dining arrangements (guests seated at a U-shaped table) made for a unique dining experience. The food was fabulous (except the fish soup - ick). And the service was flawless - my drink was always full, and my plates were promptly cleared.

Finally, Don Pablo was also an extraordinary experience. This restaurant served amazing (really, absolutely wonderful) gourmet meals, and the service was to a "fine dining" standard. We loved that this restaurant was air conditioned (most areas of the resort are not). Do Not Miss This One!!! :D

ON THE RESORT
We loved the nightly live music at the Coba lobby. We also enjoyed a variety of nightly shows at the Akumal and Coba theatres. We saw Broadway (scenes from Grease and other famour musicals), Cats, a Circus, and Michael Jackson Tribute. The Michael Jackson show is definitely worth checking out. Very entertaining! The activity pool at Coba had a bunch of planned activities throughout the day - merigue lessons, towel art, aerobics, etc. We loved the Bahia Spa and had available to us a $40 credit toward massages (NOTE: Prices that you see in the Spa are in PESOS - not dollars. We thought it was very expensive until we realized that). We had a great time snorkeling on Tulum beach and seeing all of the tropical fish and rays that were swimming there.

OFF THE RESORT
We booked all of our tours through Vidal (a very well informed trilingual representative on site at the resort) on the lower level of the Akumal Lobby. The excursions were reasonably priced and very well organized.

We took our first tour in Playa Del Carmen. We were escorted to the 5th Avenue shopping area and enjoyed an unescorted afternoon of shopping for souvenirs and interacting with locals. There is also a beach there, near the ferry to Cozumel. This was a nice place for a walk. When we rejoined our tour guide, we were offered beverages and popcorn at a local bar before returning to the resort. This was a half-day tour.

Our second tour was called Aventura a Caballo. It was a jungle horseback riding tour with a swim in a recently discovered cenote (freshwater underground cave systems found throughout Mexico). Excellent tour guides. Tons of fun! Only warning, bring industrial strength mosquito repellent for the horseback ride there. Once you swim in the cenote, the mosquitos will leave you alone because of the natural repellent in the mineral water. This was a half-day tour.

Our third and final excursion was to the famous pyramids at Chichen Itza. Our first stop was at another beautiful cenote (this one, however, had been modified for tourism, whereas the first cenote was in its natural form) for a short swim. Our second stop was for lunch at a local restaurant (good food and tribal dancers for entertainment). Then we arrived at Chichen Itza where we were familiarized with some Mayan history by a trilingual guide (French, English, Spanish). When the tour was concluded, we were allowed to roam freely throughout the Mayan ruins (a few square kilometres of ruins), and shop for souvenirs from local vendors. If you are taking this tour, buy your souvenirs here! The prices from the locals (instead of 5th Avenue vendors, or the resort shopping centre), are much more reasonable ($1 US will buy you almost anything you can imagine), and quite often, they have made the goods themselves. This was a very good tour... well worth the money we paid for it. Only downside is that Chichen Itza is located about 2 hours from the resort... so we spent a good chunk of the day in the coach (with free beer, juice, water, and pastries. mmm!). This was a full day tour.

BEST ADVICE
A tip goes a long way. Make sure to tip your bartenders, waiters, and maid. These are the staff that make your stay the most enjoyable... so make sure to let them know you appreciate their efforts.

SUMMARY
Overall, the Gran Bahia Principe Coba Royal Club Golden was an EXTRAORDINARY holiday. Royal Club Golden gave us awesome perks (room service, mini-bar, extra a la cartes, slipers, spa credit, bathrobes, etc, etc, etc) that were the icing on the cake to make this resort honeymoon-friendly. Highly recommended!

Well where do i start this hotel was brilliant.
We went on our honeymoon and cant fault anything; i found trip advisor really helpful up to our trip so i thought id write a review on how we found things;

rooms; the rooms were massive and found the previous reviews on the beds been hard un true we slept fine, the rooms were cleaned everyday and had our mini fridge stocked everyday, if you put a $1 inside the fridge a day you would get so much more put in like double the bags of chips etc, our room was block 2 which was perfect.
we were 2 minutes walk to the premier pool, 24 hrs snack bar and a good 5 bars and main lobby.

Pools; on our first day we went round all pools and beach just to get a feel for the complex but really liked the atmosphere in the coba main pool as bar staff were fantastic there, all pools were nice and no matter what time of day it was we always got sunloungers and towels without problems, which we thought was brill.

Beach; were not really beach lovers but fair enjoyed the beach here, the bars are open all day and easy to get to, always got a lounger and the sea was really calm and red hot, we found the sea near the swing bar had less coral so you could go in without watershoes, we didnt take any and found we would have propobaly wasted money if we had bought them prior to our trip, we really enjoyed sittin on the sand dunes watching all the fish under us.

Food; we only had one hitch while we were in Coba, on our 1st day we booked all al cartes for the 14nts our last al carte was the mexican a few days before returning home, as we got to the restaurant it was in total darkness and closed, we went to public relations in tulum lobby as this was the nearest, they found it funny and laughed in our faces which in a 5star i didnt expect to get this treatment, i headed over to coba lobby explained the situation and they couldnt help enough, they got us in another al carte straight away, had a bottle of tequila and basket of fruit in our room and gave us our saftey deposit box for free on check out, so we didnt mind at all. All the food in every restaurant was fantastic, plenty of choice and top notch service, even the buffets were brilliant never had any problems. our favourite that everyone should try is Mikado (japanesse) we went twice and loved it both times the entertainment value is amazing.

If you are wanting to go out and about in Riviera maya it is extemely safe we always jumped on the little buses at the entrance of hotel for $2 each anywhere you wanted, we got taxis to xel-ha to do dolphin swimming as it was only $10 and much quicker than waiting for the bus to fill up, but going to playa del carmen and tulum ruins we always used the buses, they run allday like every 10mins

All i can say is i cant wait to go back in the near future, All staff and facilities were fantastic!

Please beware of this hotel. It is not a 5 star or even close.

First of all, Gran Bahia Coba was a huge disappointment. The hospitality was the worst I think we've ever encountered!
When researching this hotel we found almost nothing but positive reviews and the few bad reviews. We didn't listen to the negative reviews when we should have. When in actuality they were right to complain. What a mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I read the reviews of others and for anyone who had been there in the last few months I was shocked to hear positive things. Personally I think that all those positive reviews are written by “mysterious supporters” of Grand Bahia rather then by true vacationers.
Please read this Important information about Gran Bahia Coba
The Gran Bahia Coba offers terrible, noisy and gasoline smell FRONT HIGHWAY location; awful, overcrowding rocky beach; water down drinks served in dirty plastic caps; basic, repetitive food and horrible, and I really mean HORRIBLE, unfriendly service. It was DISGUSTING!!!!!!!! I cannot stress that enough.
The staff are more on vacation than the guests – very slow was the fastest speed possible for the of the staff. They were more interested in talking to each other rather then serving. The staff made it very evident that they did not want to work I have never seen such a miserable looking, lazy bunch of people on any of the holidays we have been on.
We were very disappointed in the quality of this resort. Overall, we were astonished that with the unresponsive and RUDE staff, average quality of food and drink, and bad LOCATION that this resort has a five star rating. This hotel really should be a 0.5 STAR resort
Please think twice if going to this hotel. If you don't mind inhospitable and unhelpful staff, then you might find this hotel satisfactory. Other then that, saves yourself the aggravation and DO NOT STAY HERE. If you have an upcoming trip booked here, CANCEL immediately.
I would rather trap my fingers in a drawer and shove pins in my eyes than ever holiday at the Gran Bahia Coba again.
I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS 'RESORT" TO MY WORST ENEMY!

My fiancée and I stayed in this resort from the 26th Apr to the 9th May.

We had read many of the reviews on TripAdvisor to get a feel for each of the 3 areas within GBP, and felt that there were pros and cons to each of them so decided to leave it up to fate to decide where we ended up!

As it happens, we were extremely pleased with the room we were allocated with in Coba. We think that requesting a 'King size bed' may have had something to do with it, but we were pleasantly surprised with the size and the quality of our room. Our request for an upstairs room was also granted which we were pleased about.

The whole resort is immaculate, with 'Disney Land' attention to the grounds which are constantly watered and tended to.
Despite what the less active members of this website may claim, it is perfectly possible to walk from Coba to Tulum within about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, they don't make it too easy for pedestrians as the only paths you can walk along are flooded with environment polluting, noisy tourist karts. However, we enjoyed the walk most days and since the karts make lenthy stops at each resort entrance you can inevitably beat the kart travellers to their destination by quite some time!

Anyways, that’s enough waffling – onto the good stuff:

Beach:

The far end of Tulum is by far the best beach. It’s a bit of a walk, but a good way to burn off all those calories you’re picking up from the holiday food! As the other reviews suggest, it is difficult getting in because of the Coral, so water shoes are useful. I didn’t have any and did stub my toe at one point :(

Bars:

Lobby Bar Daiquiri (HGBP COBA) – Best bar on the resort! And we’re not just bias because it was the closest bar to our room! Served the best pina coladas, had great live music most evenings and has a lovely outside seating area for a nice drink after the beach.

The other bars are lovely too – don’t get me wrong! Also, check out the Bar El Mar (HGBP Akumal) for the novelty of being on a swing whilst you drink your drink!

Food:

Echoing what everyone else says, Mikado is the best by a MILE. The other a la cartes were to be honest, a bit disappointing. The ‘gourmet’ ones were all trying too hard, with two different waiters announcing that ‘they would be our waiter for the evening’. As for the others, I don’t know about you but they shouldn’t be called ‘a la cartes’ if you have to fetch two of the courses yourself from the buffet in the corner!

The buffets were serving perfectly nice food, although we found the best food to be the local stuff – i.e. fajitas etc. – Yummy! Local food provided on the excursions was also the best experienced during the holiday.

Wine – forget it! Drink red if you have too, but don’t ever do white. Why the Mexicans find it impossible to import a decent wine I really don’t know, but they just can’t! Drink the beer – it’s a far nicer experience :)

Excursions:

Coba Mayan Village ($95pp) – The tallest pyramid in the Yucatan Peninsula, and unlike Chichen Itza, you can still climb up it. Scary, but worth it for the view! Great lunch, nice dip in the Cenote, could do without the tourist setup that was the ‘Mayan Village’ but overall a good trip.

Chichen Itza Deluxe ($99pp) – Amazing Cenote you can jump into from a cliff! Guide tries to sell you tourist tat on the bus, but Chichen Itza is a sight to behold and worth putting up with the long journey for. Great lunch too!

Xel-Ha All Inclusive & Tulum ($139pp) – Good snorkelling, although the water is brackish, so it distorts your vision :( The rest of the part is another tourist setup, but if you’re heading off to

Tulum at lunchtime, there’s just enough time to see everything then you’re off. Tulum is great too, and next to a lovely beach – take swimwear!!

I hope you find this review as useful as we found the others!

Mike