We traveled to GBPLA begining of May with 2 younge children. I have traveled to Mexico for about 20 years of my life growing up and on my own as an adult. This resort by far has the best staff I have ever come across. Extremely friendly and willing to help you with your questions even if it wasn't there department they worked in. We were in awe of one of the wait staff Lidia Viviana Xool Castillo she gave each of of kids a beautiful name display. And my 11 month old daughter just loved to interact with her. She learned how to say HI there with her! Thank you for that! We also enjoyed interacting with Francesca and there was also a man there that was very attentive. They all knew what we were drinking and kept them coming. Even filled bottles for us with milk and water. It was a great feeling to know they would take care of us. We hope you are all well and to return someday soon!…
I was scheduled to fly out today, however I have unfortunately tested positive for Covid. I was meeting my sisters and mom at the resort for a bachelorette week for my sister who is getting married. Being responsible I canceled my flights with Aeromexico who graciously provided me with a voucher to be used at a later date. I then tried to contact this resort over 20 times via phone calls over a 5 hour span and followed that up with 2 emails. To be clear I’m not asking for a refund, I was asking for a voucher so I can stay at a later date when I’m healthy again. Here is what I have learned, all the 1-800 numbers disconnect you when you call after taking you through a whole slew of options. No call back, just disconnect. You can send multiple emails begging for acknowledgment but it all goes unanswered. It’s like there is no one that wants to acknowledge people who have fully paid for their visit until after so they can claim you didn’t reach out soon enough. This is very stressful, especially when I’m experiencing a severe case and was trying to prevent the infection of other guests on the airline and hotel. I have heard nothing. I have received no acknowledgment. Save your money. Book elsewhere. This is not a place I would recommend.…
Another lovely holiday at the Bahia. 10 years ago we stayed in Tulum, this time in luxury Akumal. I must admit I thought the rooms were very tired and due for an update. We did pop over to Tulum a couple of times and the whole complex has been updated. The outside of the new rooms look amazing, very up-to-date, and we could see into a couple of the rooms and they looked amazing inside too. We only ventured over to Cobra to visit the à la cart restaurants we did see the pools, from the golf caddies, they look great for kids. But we didn’t walk around the complex. We used to snack bars in Tulum they were great where you could order your food on a computer screen, various screens in the Truck, but only one screen in the Andale Burger place, definitely need at least another screen because it did get queued at times. Both snack bars were great. There was a snack bar in Akumal, that wasn’t too impressive the hot food was always cold. The main buffet restaurant was great for breakfast, good selection. Lunchtimes and dinner times there wasn’t really much of a selection in salads. Which really surprised me because they had lots of salads there for breakfast time, where you could have sandwiches made up, if you were going out. I prefer just to have a salad lunchtime. I only visited the buffet restaurant twice in the evening again good selection. Well the à la cart restaurants… wow wow wow. We downloaded the app and booked all the restaurants on the app. The restaurants are amazing, The staff were amazing… so friendly they couldn’t do enough for you. Our favourite was the Italian in Coba, I think it was called Cozumel. OMG… the chocolate ice cream dessert with nuts was so nice, Our waiter was probably the most friendliest waiter we had in the whole of Bahia. Even like I mentioned all the staff were great friendly and helpful. We really enjoyed the Hindu restaurant we went there twice. The Mediterranean was really nice, and we went to the Japanese restaurant, I had a lovely vegetable stirfry and we had really nice deep fried ice cream. Dolce Vita - Akumal, very nice, The only restaurant I wasn’t impressed with was the Mexican Tequila,in Tulum. I was on crutches it was quite a walk, on the way back we ask could they get the golf cart to come and collect us and was told that they don’t come out that far….. so I had to struggle to walk back to reception to get the buggie back to Akumal. The following day we had another restaurant over at Tulum, and we are actually asked if we wanted a lift to Tequila. This proved that they did go there, showed the lady on the door obviously didn’t want to help us. And we weren’t so impressed with a Brazilian restaurant at to Tulum. I’m not a meat lover, my husband is, he was happy with all the meats. I just wanted some of the chargrilled vegetables. I asked three times and still didn’t get them, so to be honest we just left. We love this hotel, the pools were lovely. Shame the river pools are the noisy pools now, can’t just swim or float, as always games being played, where q0 years ago the pool by the snack bar was the noisy busy pool. We had a great time, and hopefully if we do get back the rooms are updated too.…
Just got back from my wifes 50th surprise Birthday vacation. And to say she had a wonderful trip would be an understatement. This resort did not disappoint. We traveled with 13 of us.Eight adults and five young adult children.And we all loved our experience.The pools are amazing especially the adult only infinity pool. The staff and bar service was terrific. The sports bar was our Favourite place to meet. Beautiful building with lots of hockey to watch .A la Cartes were delicious as we tried seven different ones. Evening entertainment was top notch! Enjoyed our evenings outside the pool deck watching live music and entertainment.Met a lovely couple from England there our first night. That at weeks end we can now call Friends.The rooms could use an upgrade. But for amount of time we were in them. It didn't bother us.They were clean and good size.Thanks Bahia Principe Akumal.Amazing vacation!!!…
Bahia principe luxury animal exceeded all my expectations. The food was incredible, the service went above and beyond every day. My partner and I have food allergies and every where we went was more accommodating than I have ever experienced ANYWHERE. Gluten free bread with every meal, asked about allergies everywhere we went. All the staff are incredibly nice and do the most to make you have the best experience. Beach is beautiful with plenty of chairs and places to lay out, pool is gorgeous. Drinks are great. Make reservations at Frutos Del Mar and Le Gourmet you won’t regret it. Pedro, Jesus, Martin, Miguel all made our trip amazing. Can’t rate it more highly. No complaints, only praise. Will be coming back.
Back for our 4th visit, a bit nervous that standards might have slipped, but generally thought that overall they have improved! Despite what some other reviews have said in recent months, we found the staff to be as friendly and helpful as ever, the grounds to be as beautiful as ever, the buffet food to be even better than previous visits, and generally most things to be fantastic for a hotel in this ‘range’. Of course nothing is ever perfect, so we did have a few little gripes, but I’ll mention those later. RESORT SIZE / LAYOUT: This is one of the main factors that continues to draw us back – the fact that, as an Akumal guest, you can freely visit Tulum, Coba, and Sian Kaan, meaning 4 different hotels and grounds, all with different atmospheres, pool set-ups, surroundings, restaurants, evening shows etc, means that we feel as though we have so much variety here, you get to make choices about each day and evening, and that feels good and also seems to make the holiday last longer as no 2 days are the same unless you want them to be. GROUNDS: These remain well-kept and beautiful throughout – not just grass and trees, but real effort taken to manage and sculpt them, for example the white pebbles round the base of many of the plants / trees in Akumal really make them ‘pop’, they look even better now than before. STAFF: I’ve seen people say that staff nowadays are less happy and/or less ‘capable’. We certainly never saw that – of course you’ll get the odd person having a bad day, don’t we all, but 99% of our interactions were with smiling friendly staff eager and capable to help, even for any awkward food or drink requests (i.e. anything requested by my fiancée… lol). There were a good number of people who managed every day to combine smiles and banter with great attention to detail when creating your drinks – a good example was Aldair (usually on the Akumal bar near the pool – perfect Scotch Negronis every time!) – we remarked several times that he is excellent at his job, as are many others. FOOD - BUFFETS: Throughout the complex we found the buffet food exceptional, even better than in previous visits. I just don’t know what anyone who says otherwise must eat. Many live-cooked options as well as ‘trays’, we enjoyed many incredible items from both. I particularly enjoyed being able to have freshly cooked salmon for lunch on many occasions. We racked our brains trying to think of something people might like to eat but isn’t there, and we couldn’t really think of anything. And everything tasted good – it was incredibly rare for us to take something to try and not enjoy it. FOOD - A LA CARTES: These have had ups and downs for us since our last visit. Last time, Alux was our winner, with its brave and obscure combinations bursting with flavour. This year in both visits we found Alux to be tame, flavours too bland and boring for our taste (not to mention inexplicably unbearably hot inside the restaurant – far more so than other a la cartes). Rising a few places to be our new number one this year was Arlequin – similar style to Alux, but we just thought the food and service were the best here this time round. Honourable mentions go to Thali – having Indian food was a nice addition, something very different to the other restaurants – and Los Corales, which has finally given us the rib-eye steak option that the whole resort has always missed, and delicious it was too. 😊 Generally we thought the a la cartes had gone down a little – more safe / bland, bit like Cuban resort a la cartes – but still provide a nice alternative atmosphere and ‘glitz’ for the evening, so we still booked them for most nights (12 of our 14 nights). ENTERTAINMENT: This does appear to have been trimmed somewhat. All lovely people, but when we were here previously there were far more different shows – now the show schedule is more limited, and on a one-week rotation, so each show will basically be on 4 times each week (once each in the 4 resorts), then the same the following week. We preferred our last visit when there were many more shows and more variety, but it’s not a deal-breaker for us. Live music was also available most nights, and is a nice different option around the shows. Our favourite band was ‘Amber Acoustic Band’ – easily the best we heard on our holiday. There were also some terrible ones that could barely sing! :/ NOTE TO HOTEL: Please invest a bit more in better quality bands with less predictable songlists. This is 2022 and Akumal is meant to be a luxury hotel – surely no one wants to hear 4 different bands doing YMCA – it’s not a 20th century wedding party! 😊 Then one other request – please employ some more evening entertainers! We had karaoke indoors for our first 2 nights, then not for the other 12, apparently because some entertainers left and were not replaced! It only takes one or max two to run something like that, so I’m not sure why they couldn’t have offered overtime to others or something like that, but this was a shame – to go without a particular evening entertainment for 12 days in a hotel of this size just because the entertainment team is one person short is a bit silly. GUESTS: Generally nice and well-behaved people here throughout, certainly more so than whenever we go to Cuba, and more so than Akumal 4 years ago. You do of course get the odd person who shouts a lot, or inexplicably thinks it’s ok to subject others to their music around the pool (astonishingly selfish, and something I think luxury hotels will crack down on at some point, as it seems to cause a lot of complaints / arguments…) etc, but generally most people were nice – no big groups of aggressive drunken idiots anywhere or anything like that. When we were there I’d estimate our resort was maybe 30% Canadian, 20% US, 25% UK, 10% Polish, 5% Mexican, 10% other – though I could be miles off. IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED – AIR-CON: Just one key issue that had numerous impacts / manifestations – air-con desperately needs attention throughout. A few examples: - It was damn near impossible to sleep in our room. My thermometer said 27 degrees celsius with the air-con on all day and night. I called for maintenance to take a look, he stuck some device in the panel, spoke to the lady on reception, she said it’s 21 degrees. I explained that the dial clicks on about 26.5 – she said ignore those dials, they’re always broken (!). I explained that my own thermometer said 26.5 – she said the maintenance guy said it was 21 at the panel – but we don’t sleep up there in the panel! I don’t think there is anything she or he could have done there and then, but the whole system desperately needs an overhaul, as I’ve been plenty of other Mexican hotels that manage to cool their rooms effectively. - The new sports bar is also boiling hot, as it has the full panel windows open (!) We asked why, we were told that the air-con is broken and they need to wait a few weeks for it to be fixed. That is insane – that sports bar is only a couple of years old, it should have state-of-the-art air-con, and if something goes wrong with it then there should be contractors paid to work through the night to fix it asap. It’s not impossible – the Coba sports bar (a cheaper hotel you may note) is absolutely beautifully freezing cold all day, despite normally having a door open at both the front and the back! So it is achievable. For us this made the sports bar a big disappointment, it was never the cooling oasis we had anticipated. In addition, having the windows open meant that there could not be loud music in there, so any evening entertainment like karaoke or live bands in there were no longer possible after the first 3 days of our 14. ☹ - As mentioned earlier, Alux, formerly to us the best restaurant in the whole complex, is now a far less pleasant experience because it’s boiling hot in there. It never was in previous years so I’m not sure what happened. So, basically Grand Bahia PLEASE FIX THE AIR-CON THROUGHOUT THE RESORT! Thanks. 😊 Then one more ‘improvement’ – it would be nice if reception were more helpful for matters outside of their control. For example, our transfer home didn’t turn up. All we wanted the reception to do was to sign a piece of paper to confirm that we had been waiting there at the right time, yet they refused to do so. Why, what on earth difference would it make for them? It would have been useful to us to reclaim our taxi from the holiday company, and there would be no liability for Grand Bahia, we were simply asking them to confirm we were there, which they knew we had been, yet they flat refused to write or sign anything at all, and simple continued to say “It’s not our problem” – poor attitude, and they should be trained to try to think more roundly in such situations, as giving us that piece of paper would have cost them nothing yet would have avoided me writing this criticism here. (PS and don’t rely on TUI, utterly useless with anything we asked of them, they might as well just have a chatbot automatically replying ‘this is probably due to covid’ for any issue you want to raise, even if it is very obviously nothing whatsoever to do with covid. They appear now to be just using that carte blanche as an excuse for anything). So, other than those two things, is it otherwise perfect? Of course not if you’re really picky, of course a few things are below 5-star here and there – rooms are a bit dated, not that we care much about that; sometimes you order a drink and it never comes; sometimes your mains in the a la cartes have a ‘big reveal’ which is comical as they often have the dishes the wrong way round (haha) – etc. But AT THIS PRICE POINT it would be stupid to expect perfection, and we don’t need it, we’re very happy with what we get for what we pay here, it’s great value. Right, that’s me done. Will we be back for a 5th visit? Absolutely we will - mainly because we think the quality of food, and variety of… well… everything… is better than we can get for a similar price anywhere else. We had another wonderful holiday here and hope to have more. 😊…
Couldn't fault this hotel! Very impressed with the level of service and great facilities. Returned from this hotel today and had an amazing time. My only slight gripe is with the room service. Expect to wait around an hour. Having said this is, a hotel with 2400 rooms expect to wait. Didn't detract from amazing staff.
We had been planning a 2 week trip to Mexico for a long time. We decided to go to two resorts,one week each, and chose ones we had visited before but many years ago. This time we booked oceanfront superior suite in building 47. The view was incredible. The rooms need a little facelift but they were quite adequate for our needs. We were able to go to all four resorts on the property and the trolley was great. Did you know the next one will come in 3 minutes? Seriously! 😂. They even picked us up when we weren’t sure where we wanted to go and we had an adventure. The time of year meant that there was sargassum on the beach. This area was hit hard but it didn’t stop us from our long walks, snorkelling and the odd swim. Water shoes are a must. No matter what type of vacation you are looking for the Bahia properties have a spot for you. Loud, quiet etc. depending on our mood for the day we found a perfect venue for it. There is a Dolphinarium on site and I fulfilled a lifelong dream and had a dolphin swim. It brought me so much joy! They talked a lot about the environment and these sweet creatures. Very educational too. The restaurants were easy to reserve on the BP app and we were happy with all our choices. Our ultimate favourites were the Tequila Mexican restaurant and the Gran Tortuga (Brazilian rodizio). Outstanding! We also ate at Le Gourmet, Arlequin and the Italian one (the name escapes me) Happy with our food each time. They have a welcome cocktail as well and there is an option to purchase a bottle of wine if you wish. We are super happy with our week there. All staff was great, and very pleased to help and make sure your stay was good. I recommend!…
The Resort and grounds are very nice and clean, this resort is very large, it’s a long walk to the lobby from your rooms, they do have golf cart shuttles to different places in the resort though. You can also go to 3 other resorts next to this, owned by the same company by golf cart shuttles, and use their pools and eat and drink there, that was nice cause you get more variety, and makes this resort HUGE. It felt like you didn’t need to leave, cause there were so many places to go and see. We stayed in the Adult only building, which is the farthest from the lobby. In my opinion the extra cost for this was not worth it, the room and decor was very outdated and needs updating. Our balcony was facing a wall with no view of anything. The AC in the room was not working well, the first night we needed someone to fix the noise from the AC, then it seemed like the AC was hardly on at all, there was a ceiling fan which helped. food in Buffet was pretty good, though not a lot of variety from day to day, same food everyday. The ala-carte Restaurants were all very good, very good service in all, and the food was delicious. You can book 1 ala-carte per day, but seemed like if you didn’t book when you first arrived at the resort, that you wouldn’t get a choice of anything. Using their the app was hit and miss, worked for the most part, but trying to change a reservation time just doesn’t work. You have to delete your reservation before rebooking or being able to see what other times are available. So you will prob be out of luck for that day and lose it. Go to the concierge desk to book, they can give you the specific times available. The staff in the resort are all very friendly, though because the resort is very big, you may not see the same staff from day to day or get to know them as much, from my experience anyway. Pools were very good, though they could use some more people serving drinks at the pools. Also more umbrellas are needed, the pool beside the seafood restaurant had 3 or 4 for the whole pool, and 1 person serving drinks and no bar by the pool. It seems like this pool has been forgotten by the resort, and totally neglected, never was offered a drink at this pool. There is a few issues at this resort: - there is a huge problem with people saving chairs by the pool and beach. Early every morning I would see all the prime spots beside the pool or under umbrellas or shade saved by towels and a bag or something for hours, with nobody sitting there, like they went for breakfast and came back in the afternoon. Nobody from the resort was monitoring this, I’ve been other resorts where the staff would put a sign on the seat if they saw it unused for a certain amount of time, and if no one came back they would move the belongings. - AC, for some reason this resort did not want to turn on the Air conditioning in the restaurants and inside spaces, or it just dosent work very well. totally unacceptable for a 5 star resort. It was just as hot inside as outside, 30 Degrees Celsius feels like 44 Degrees and only fans running inside. People from colder climates are not used to this heat, we need Air Conditioning please!!! It’s just so uncomfortable eating at a ala-carte restaurant and sweating through your nice clothes…… - signage and communication at the resort was confusing, the app isn’t very good about telling you about entertainment, usually no description about what’s happening. Times for bars and restaurants opening and closing times very hard to find or inaccurate. Maps in App and around the resort not very good, for such a large resort, more info in rooms and signage about where to go. Overall it was a nice experience, except for the issues noted, the restaurants were 5 star quality, the room was maybe 4-4.5 star.…
Awesome place! We stayed at the Bahia Principe in La Romana and Akumal met their standards plus more. There is always someone there when needed. Antonio at the front check in area is an amazing person and a Great help. He helped us secure a new room with a king bed when we were given a double bed room. Lidia Viviana Xool Castillo is a server in the buffet area and she was so sweet and caring! She remembered us after one time and knew what we wanted to drink and even set up our table with a beautiful display on our last night. This by far was one of the best locations ever. The town of Tulum one way and Akumal the other. Thank you, Brad & Kristin
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