Gran Bahia Principe Akumal

We arrived at the BPA on Monday 9th May for a 2 week stay. This was our second time at the BPA we came last June and enjoyed it soo much we went back there again.

We previously emailed asking for an ocean view in either block 47 or 48 and when we arrived they had given us room 4826 which had the most amazing view of the carribean sea and was close to everything, lobby, beach, both pools, snack bar etc.. so our room was perfect so this kick started an amazing vacation for us !!

We never found there to be a problem getting a sunbed on the beach but we did get up around 6.30 - 7.00 but even so there were still beds available up to around 9.00.

Even if you are not usually an early riser you just have to get up at least once to see the sun coming up over the carribean sea its just amazing, its also nice as the place is dead theres hardly a soul around.

We used reef shoes for the sea and i would reccomend these very strongly ( they are not readliy available in the UK but if you go on Ebay you can pick them up for around 8 gbp) it means you dont have to worry about kicking the reef while you are enjoying the sea.

Also you gota try the snokeling on the Akumal side (especailly near the ropes which tie up the Bahia Divers boats) theres plenty of Marine life to see, we tended to snorkel around 17.00 as the water was not that busy at that time.

Food wise you cannot go wrong i am a very fussy eater and even i was satisfied (the marinated chicken was just superb), i did think though the food and service in the Tulum sides buffet was slightly better than the Akumal side, but also the Akumal side has a better 24 hour snack bar you definatley get more food and of a better quality we thought.

Ive seen reviews on here slagging off the shows at night and to be honest thats rubbish the Animation Team work very hard day and night entertaining us all and also finding time to practice there shows which were very energetic and were superb, i thing some people want a broadway show every night.

As far as tipping goes you get the same service if you do or dont tip, we tended to tip our maid every now and again as he was excellent (Damien his name is), but as far as service goes if you cannot afford to tip dont worry you will get just as good service as somone who does tip.

We had some painters around our block and i gave them some coke out of my mini bar (which get filled up every day anyway) and the guy really really appreciated it.

Like i said the mini bar gets filled up every day with Beer, Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Water and the most amazing crisps (chips to you americans).

I was a little dissapoited as last year we also had chocolate in the mini bar everyday but that now only happens on a Saturday.

The grounds are just amazing they always seem to be working on them none stop to make them look the very best they can.

We quite often took the long walk up to the Hacienda which i would reccommend as it works off a little of the food you eat and also you can see some great wildlife (so take your camera with you) we even saw monkeys climbing trees but they were to fast for us to get a picture.

We took to trips out and they were both fantastic, the first we did was the speedboat jungle tour which goes from Cancun and you get to drive your own speedboat which was out of this world to a snorkelling area which to be honest was not up to much but i think the bulk of people on the trip went to play on the speedboats anyway.

The second trip we did was the Catermaran trip with Kimba the snorkelling dog !! this trip was just the best i could do and would do it more than once next time we go back.

There is some building work going on but you could hardly hear anything from them even when walking past the site, its also amazing how fast they work !!

The only complaint i could think of was that i thought charging 5 dollars a days to use the safe was a bit cheeky and and some of the Europeans (french, spanish and italians) were a bit arrogant especially around the buffet they quite liked just pushing in !!

There are also some topless sunbathers around the beach and the pool and oh yes i think they should ban skin tight brief like trunks for men an age and size its just NOT nice !!

Any questions i will be more than happy to answer any just email me at michael.parr3@ntlworld.com .

Oh one last thing the Airport is an absolute nightmare.

Second time for us in GBP Akumal and that is our oppinion:

The Resort:

The resort is MASSIVE., in 2004 at our 1st visit Coba didn't exist... This time stayed in villa 47 (4711) in a Jr. Suite with ocean room, this is the best villa to stay because is on the beach and 1 minute walk to pool and lobby...

But all the grounds are immaculate and absolutely stunning.

It really is a tropical paradise.

Everywhere you look someone is maintaining the grounds or cleaning or coming around and picking up cups on the beach.

I was super impressed with how clean it was. And considering the number of smokers on the resort you rarely find a cigarette butt anywhere.

There are "bus stops" all throughout the resort, for those you're distante from the beach and want to go to Tulum or Hacienda.

The Food:

There are several "a la carte"restaurants on the resort.

There is also the main buffet on the Akumal side and the main buffet on the Tulum Side. Guests on the Akumal side of the resort can eat at the Tulum buffet, but Akumal is far best... trust me!

Now I know people had tons of bad things to say about the food but it is not bad at all. There is no shortage of food anywhere throughout the resort.

You are bound to find something you like. If you go hungry at this place then there's a problem with you.

The food itself ranged from good to quite tasty. The a la cartes were easy to book. I booked the Italian, Mexican and Sea Food... all were 5 stars!

Advise: Book your a la cartes as soon as you arrive!

The Rooms:

The rooms are not identical regardless of which section you stay in. 90% of the Akumal is Jr. suites and 10% standarts rooms.

Both are just fine, the jr. suites have most space and jacuzzi in the tub and 2 robes. safe is 50 pesos a night, i advise you to rent it... just in case... i did it...

The beach:

There are palapas set up everywhere to provide shade from the sun. There is one 24h buffet style snack bar that serve things like chicken, sandwich meats, pasta, veggies, fruits, etc. Not bad at all!

And the animation team is always conducting exercises or salsa lessons on the beach. Tons of fun!

Again, there's always someone coming by to pick up empty cups so the beach is never dirty.

Don't forget thais is white sand beach, but with a lot of rocks rock... ok? Not like Punta Cana style...

Others:

The disco was kind of lame but it all depends on what you make it. We had fun!

You can shop at the Hacienda, but prices are way to high because of the lack of guests...

This time i went to Coba ruins and i recommend it...

This is an AMAZING resort!

I loved every minute of it from start to finish. In a heartbeat I would recommend this place to anyone. If you have anything bad to say about this place, like I said, you cannot be pleased at all.

It's so totally worth it!

So, go, go, go... what're you waiting for?

The staff was wonderful and very attentive, the room was always cleaned daily. The snorkeling we did at the hotel was incredible. A big part of the reef is right behind the hotel and we saw some wonderful creatures! We saw squid, a barracuda, a sea horse, a baby sea turtle, a needle fish, sting ray, balloon fish, lots of sea urchins and sea stars. VERY COOL!!! We all loved it, especially the kids. Many of the fish we saw were in 3-4ft of water. We had a great time!! The hotel and property was quite large but they had the golf cart type trams that would come through every 15 minutes or so to pick people up to take them to other places on the property.

when we arrived only a third of the hotel was open due to the lack of guests over the swine flu problems,we stayed in the Akumal hotel as the other two was closed, our rep was very honest and kept us informed as to what was happening. Only three of the resturants were open along with the buffet resturant which was a bit disapointing but couldnt be helped, the French resturant was absolutely amazing and we visited a couple of times.

The rooms were kept very clean and the mini bar was filled every couple of days.

The beach was lovely and clean as was all the pool areas.

The entertainment wasn't very good but everything else out weighed that.

If you're looking a long, relaxing, break from the stresses at home, complete, with excellent and varied food, and idilic setting, then this hotel if for you.

The one and only negative is the rather long journey to get to the resort, with around 5 drop-offs at hotels along the strip, if you're on a coach. The hotel seams to be right at the end of this strip but when you get in to the vast complex you really do appreciate the scale and beauty and the distance only adds to the feeling.

On arrival you will be allocated one of the 3 sister-hotels which you will be staying in: we got Akumal. However these where all on the same complex and everyone had access to each facility, pool and restaurant of all the hotels. Also regular little "buggies" was a fun experience to travel between each.

After the 2 weeks i concluded that if i had to choose which i would stay in, it would be Coba, simply because it was that little big newer and also, the rooms appeared to be a little bigger.

Overall, the staff were friendly, the beaches were gorgeous *with tropical fish near to the shore* and white hammocks speckled along it, the rooms where very nice (with a few American channels, and sky news for the English), the grounds were a spectacle and immaculately kept and the food was delicious.

You get to choose which 3 (per week) of the many (9 i think) speciality restaurants. I would recommend the Gourmet, Japanese (both located in Coba) and the grille (Tulumn).

An excellent holiday overall, with only minor problems which can easily be avoided. We did experience a few mosquito bites on the first day , but with plenty of repellent we ensured that this was the only incident.

Recommendable!

We arrived here with mixed feelings, we knew the hotel was only partly open so were ready for the worst. We shouldn't have worried because it was fantastic, there were certain things lacking - only 3 resturants and 1 buffet, one show a night and only 4 bars open on a night but we were happy with what we had.

The hotel was so quiet when we were there with hundreds of sunbeds empty and no waiting at the bars or buffets, this made up for the lack of entertainment and choice of bars though it would have been better with a few more people about although we still made a few new friends. We also booked 7 resuraunt meals various times during the fortnight without a problem.

The food was great with decent quality and loads of choice, there was always chicken, pork chops, fish and lots of vegetables, potatoes and salads in the buffet, we enjoyed the 3 resturants with the Arlequin being our favorite, the snack bar was basic, but was open late and the staff were all excellent.

We went on the $50 snorkel trip from the hotel and thourght it was brilliant to see the turtles and the reef, we even saw a ray and some squid.

The bay between the wooden jettys was brilliant and the fish that would swim around you in 3ft of water was amazing.

There was nothing to worry about with the quality and quantity of the food and drink, it was great. The rooms were large, we had new bedding and towels every day and the fridge man kept our fridge full (as long as we left a dollar in it), we left a note asking for 2 bags of chips (crisps) and we got them every day.

I don't know if we would be disappointed if we went back when it was fully operational, as there would be more waiting for drinks and food, also less choice of sunbeds, but we may be tempted to go back as it was a really beautiful place

We went down the week of May 7-14th 2009. We had the beach,Restuarants and pools all to ourselves. We had a great time!!!

We took my mom and Dad who are both in their 70's. My Dad is in a Wheelchair. We had no problem or concerns regarding the Swine Flu. This resort is immaculate and clean. The Rooms huge and comfortbable . The food is good. We had wonderful service the whole time we were there .

So if your concern about the Flu, my suggestion would be . practice good Hygiene . I took Handiwipes with me and washed my hands frequently , Wiped the armrest on the plane and all the Door handles;

Phone and TV remote in my room. It was very sad to see the devastation the Flu scare and Global Economy has had on these hardworking people. If you have plans to go dont worry you will be fine. ENJOY !!!!!

DON’T WORRY – BE HAPPY

Travelers, if you are allowed to fly, it is A-OK to go to Riviera Maya Mexico and especially to the GBP. It was ALWAYS OK.

Our 3rd trip to the GBP during the week of 5-16 through 5-23-09 was both wonderful and bittersweet. Sure it was nice to find Lounge Chairs & Palapas in prime locations at ANY time of day, but so sad to witness the severe impact on Mexico’s tourism personnel caused by a global media blitz about a flu that is yet to be proven any worse than typical yearly influenzas. (Yes that is an OPINION). Needless layoffs, cutbacks, closures, … and hardships for many many hard working people. OK, off the soapbox and on to a quick Review.

There are numerous Reviews describing the details and attributes of this great resort complex so we will comment on the current situation of only the Akumal resort and the Hacienda being open. FOLKS . . . WE HAD A GREAT TIME.

It’s the same sun, sand, surf, sounds, shows, suds (cerveza), snacks, and SMILING faces as before. Wonderful meals, drinks, entertainment, and excellent service. They were rotating servers from the Akumal, Tulum and Coba hotels through the Akumal resort which provided at least some work for many employees (alternating with many days off - at no pay). Seems to be a fair plan by GBP management considering the tough circumstances and so many employees. On the weekends there were many people from Mexico enjoying the resort along with us. Hopefully they were offering good deals for people within Mexico.

We were thankful and very happy to see some of our excellent server friends such as Ursula, Valia, Juana, Fernando, and others. Nicki helped in getting us a nice room and an extra A La Carte meal. Our maid did a fantastic job everyday including making a new towel ‘creature’ each day. We had fun with the Animation Team. Water volleyball, water polo, water aerobics, bingo, dancing, and a BEER DRINKING contest with Chico, Arlene, Aaron, BabyFace… I was quickly named ‘Sexy Mustachio’ and, once labeled, Chico would find me all week and get me (and my wife) involved in the fun. Arlene even came back to party with a bunch of us at the Hacienda one night ‘off-the-clock’!

Weather was great – only about an hour of heavy rain one afternoon and a little again one night. Virtually everything at the Akumal resort was open. Loved the Arlequin restaurant, liked the Dolce Vita, and for us the seafood one was just OK. Fun and music if you wanted at the ‘Activities Pool’, a Show every night, some karaoke, videos during the day, a 3-piece Band in the evening, another high-energy band at the Hacienda followed by an outdoor Disco/DJ. Met some nice people from Mexico, and NJ, MI, IN, IL, CA, CO….…

Turn OFF the mainstream News - turn ON the Fun at GBP.

Cheers,

Bob ‘Sexy Mustachio’ & Cheryl in CT (USA)

We were booked at Gran Bahia Principe Akumal from Apr 24 to May 8, 2009. Unfortunately ,we had to come home 3 days early, but more on that later. Our tour company was Transat Holidays and we booked the Royal Golden plan which is worth every cent. This is the cleanest and best keep resort we have ever been to. We didn't find that there was really any language barrier. Everyone that we interacted with would do all that they could to help you in any way that they were able to. We ate at 2 of the buffet restaurants and 6 of the a la carte restaurants and found them all very good. Service at the a la carte's was exceptional. Our favorites were the Gourmet & Japanese. I would have to say that the weak point of this resort would be the beach area with not very good sand. Because we like the pools more than the beach, this was not a very big concern for us. The beach area was red flagged 10 of the 11 days we were there. There was lots of nightly entertainment but we didn't go very much. There were endless things to do if you so choose. We shopped at the Hacienda Dona Isabel but it is very expensive. We went to Playa del Carmen once and the prices are much better. And yes take the Collecto buses whenever you go off the resort. Cheap, safe & fast. We had a junior suite and it was fine, cleaned every day & the fridge restocked every other day. We wanted to go to one of the ruins but the Mexican gov't closed them down before we got to go because of the flu scare. Now about our missed 3 days. Transat made the decision to bring all Canadians home and then called it an act of God so they could get out of reimbursing anyone for their lost vacation days. We can't do anything about this but it shows what this company thinks of their customers, so when you book your vacation think very hard before booking with this company.

Went to GBPA in April 15th-21 st weather was great, If I were to give any advice it would be.Do your homework read the reviews on Trip Advisor about this resort you will have all your answers the good and bad that is how we came by booking our vacation . We booked with E-Travel in Co. FunJet Vacation. Lomas Travel picked us up from airport ,And we booked all our trips through them, great prices To bad about the bad press on the Swine Flu. The staff goes out of there way to make your trip good. yes there english isn't that great but they try. We are already making plans for next year to see all the things we didn't see this time

just got back on saturday. very nice resort! Due to this flu, the resort was VERY dead. This is very sad, you can just see what this "epidemic" , with a little help from the media has done to this region when it comes to damaging the tourism and its economy.

The employees were very friendly and would go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. Would go back in a hearbeat! Already planning our trip for next year!

If you go, make sure you go to the French restaurant and get the Filet Mignon, EXCELLENT!

Fabulous hotel, food and staff. Berst holiday ever. Total honesty and a desire to please, they really know hospitality. Will return again in November. Just loved it.

My husband and I stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe resort in Akumal just this past April. We enjoyed the resort very much. The staff are very friendly and always willing to help you. The rooms were clean and the air conditioning worked very well. The beds were a little firm but nothing too uncomfortable. The food was surprisingly very good. You could always find something at the buffets to enjoy and the a la carte restaurants were fabulous. We ate at the following restaurants for our a la carte nights: Frutos de Mar, Porto Fino, and Mikado. Our favourite was the Japanese restaurant, Mikado. The chef put on quite a show at the grill where you are seated. The quality of the food was spectacular and we left stuffed.

It was very nice how you could get around at the resort very easily by taking the shuttles. They ran so often that you never really had to wait very long for one to come along. There was so much to experience here that one week was not enough. I wish we had stayed for at least 10 days. The only negative thing I have to say about this resort is that it was sometimes hard to find a chair at the pool as people would reserve very early by putting down their towels, even though there are signs everywhere that clearly state you cannot reserve chairs.

I don't understand why very few people tipped as the service was excellent. These people work very hard to make your stay enjoyable and you can bet they are not making very much in wages.

We will definitely return here again...hopefully sooner rather than later.

This is a perfect place for singles, families and couples and I would go back. We went with another couple and their daughter and our daughter for their senior trip. It was the best trip all of us have been on. None of us wanted to leave! The food and drinks were fabulous, the grounds were immaculate and the rooms were very clean. The beds were hard, but actually, I never woke up to a sore neck and slept better! The girls stayed out late into the night,but really didn't have to worry as the resort was very safe! They had golf carts that would take you anywhere within the resort until 3 a.m. We rented bikes for an hour and had a great ride around the resort. The bartendar at the swing bar made the best drinks. The best part at the Akumal was the beach because you could swim anytime without the worries of the red flags (high surf) It's hot so bring lots of suntan screen. I'm a redhead and I used 30 and still got a little burn, but not bad. There is so much to do here you actually don't need to leave the resort. The local stores to shop are not $$ at all, infact I found the items to be cheaper. The is the first time we have done an all inclusive and I would do it again at this resort.

Few resorts in Mexico and the Caribbean provide the experience you would expect from a 5 star resort. Gran Bahia Principe is the exception!

From the moment we checked in (on a premier plan through Apple) the service, cleanliness and quality of the resort were readily apparent.

The Room- Large and immaculately clean. A bowl of fruit left for us on check-in. Towel animals daily on the bed. Fridge with sodas, beer as well as chips and candy bars was refilled each day.

The Food- One major hassle is working with the girls who book your a la carte restaurants. We had a group of about 20 to book for 3 meals over 8 days. We were flexible about dining times. This was simply too much to handle for these women and the eye-rolling and convenient language barriers caused me to leave the booking to my wife and two of the other women. Fortunately we met Gustavo. If I were to do this again. simply wait for Gustavo. He will either book your meals for you or find a "Helpful" customer service person to help you. He even took tow of the couple on a tour of the resort (it's huge) just so that we could get our bearings. This was incredibly helpful so that we had a global impression of the place. He also gave us the tip that "the Premier Club buffet" was the best kept secret in the resort. It was.

The food was the best by far we have encountered at an all-inclusive. We dined at the Arlequin Gourmet (excellent Filet Mignon, appetizers and Mayan Coffee), The Mikado Japanese steakhouse (good main course and presentation) and El Pescador seafood (better fish menu). The buffets are huge and filled with an international variety of options. We ate large breakfasts, excellent dinners (try each of the buffets, they all have unique options) and went for guacamole and chips or tacitos, chicken nuggets or hamburgers at the snack bar near the Akumal activity pool for lunch.

There are a ton of poolside activities along with workout facilities under the main dining room at each of the three huge resorts that make up the complex. This is also a great place to run.

Take the $3 "Collectivo" ride to Playa Del Carmen. It is unbelievably cheap for a 40 minute ride. Playa is great. The main strip is shop after shop with restaurants and boutique hotels interspersed. Great!

This place is enormous so learn to use the transportation provided. Avoid the Mexican Festival at the Hacienda. They charge $15 and it is put on by an outside group. The Michael Jackson show at the Tulum Resort is quite good.

We went with a group of 6 families and their respective HS seniors from Michigan. MSU was playing in the NCAA Tournament and one of the main customer service people, Cesar, made arrangements for one of the games to be played in the main theater at our resort and then had them put the finals up on the screen at the disco. He was invaluable.

I could say more. This is without a doubt the finest All-Inclusive we have encountered. There is so much here you will leave wanting to come back. We will certainly be back.

My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing, fun and pampered week April 4 - 11, 2009. The weather was perfect and we just had one day where it rained a little for 10 minutes. We were in Villa 64 of the Golden Section Akumal (closest to the beach) and the little extra we paid was soooooooooooo worth it! I recommend the upgrade highly as everything is right there. This also gives you 4 a la carte restaurants rather than 3. We were impressed with all 4 of our choices but our #1 pick is the "Mikado". The chef certainly kept us entertained as he cooked our great meal. The grounds were beautiful and very well kept. The service was great and we especially want to say a special thank you to Edgar at the swim up bar. He introduced my hubby to an "Iceberg" which is beer topped with Frozen Margarita. This was a turning point for my Beer Baby! He really enjoyed them and it kept his beer so cold. We noticed that a number of guests had brought insulated mugs/glasses with them and would get them filled with their drink of choice. We will definitely do that next trip! Rather than go on and on ... we'll simply say that you'll be very pleased should you choose this resort with the upgrade mentioned previously.

Just came back this week and couldnt have been happier! The hotel is very large but fun to get around by trolley. The beaches, pool and food were great. There is so much to do for everyone. We traveled with our 3 children (10, 5 and 3). We stayed at the Club Golden in Akumal with adjoining suites. Lots of room for a family of 5. I originally booked Coba section and cancelled at the last minute for the Akumal. I think I would have been happy at either one. Each of the 3 sections (Akumal, Tulum and Coba) have a something different about each. I think Coba had the best buffet, restaurants, and pool. (barb-q, and lobster - paella poolside was fun) It isn't on the beach (only a 2 minute trolley to the beach - which is connected to Akumal and Tulum on each side). Akumal Golden had a really fun pool and very energetic staff. Fun to play volleyball, water polo and great music. An amazing "swing" bar on the beach too. So cool, to swing and drink my margueritas.. Theres lots of beautiful fish to see here too while snorkeling..there are these amazing huge rock formation with moss on them that we all just sat on and would get washed away by the waves that the kids thought was the best ever... After I wiped out in the first half hour I was done! but so much fun! Everyone does it.. Make sure you get a massage on the beach.. really relaxing!!!!

I didnt spend much time in Tulum. We werent crazy about the buffet here and it was a little further than where we were located. The shows are really great too. The Cirus was amazing!!! and dont miss the Disney spectacular for the kids.. Every night from 8 - 9pm they have a kids mini disco. they go on stage, sing, dance and play games for prizes.. then at 9:00 the shows start. The kids club was great. All three of my girls loved it! They regretted not trying it earlier in the vacation. They have a page of email addresses from everyone they met from all over. They taught them spanish dances, did beach and pool activities, and great lunches in the restaurant. Its a nice break for everyone. I only let them do it 3 hours in the afternoon. I wanted to spend time with them too! The staff was amazing though with the kids! Very attentitive.

Restauraunts: Mikado, Arlequin, Dolce Vita, and El Pescadore (we ate at these alacarte's and all the meals were very good. But I have to say, the buffets were all very good as well. I never liked a buffet before, but have to say there was so much to offer that I couldnt be disappointed. Akumal and Coba were very good for buffet breakfast and dinner. Great drinks and "tequilla!" go for a shot before dinner and all is good :-)

The rooms are different from what we were used to. We usually stay at more hotel style resorts when we are on vacation so wasnt sure I would like the 3 story villa style..but have to say, it was just as nice! the ground are so clean and well-kept, as well as the room being very clean.. Occasionally we would have a gecko sneak in but left quickly.. kids loved it.. At first I was freaked, but they are harmless...

Be sure to try out the pottery in the hut on the beach at Akumal (main pool area). The woman there is truly a sweetheart and she has a table and paints set up to paint pottery. Then she adds finishing touches to each piece and glazes it to be picked up the next day. We painted so many beautiful pieces (great souveniers to bring home too)! I painted several myself and it was great to get out of the sun for an hour or so.

There is alot of getting used to when you first get there, so be patient and you will get it in the first couple of days (trolleys, beaches, and pools) after a while everything started to look the same that we werent sure if we were in Akumal or Coba! Just ask alot of questions at the front desk so you dont miss any activities. Everyone is very friendly. I would say a handful of people that I met last week were 3rd and 4th timers here. That says alot to want to come back again and again.. We know we will be returning a 2nd time next year and cannot wait! email me if you have any questions :-)

My girlfriend and I just spent the most amazing week at The Gran Bahia Principe Akumal. We left April 7th and returned April 14th. We did not want to come home. I have been to many places, paid a pretty penny to visit some very lavish and luxurious hot spots around the world and after this trip to Akumal, I feel that it is probably the most fun I have had, especially if you consider the price is soooooo right!! This resort has it all. Literally. It is comprised of 3 separate resorts which are all connected to each other by a great system of golf-cart type trains that get you where ever you want to go, in a short amount of time. There is the Coba resort, which is set a bit behind everything else, a little further from the beaches of Akumal, but is a great area if traveling with kids. All the same things everywhere else in the resort, just not right in the heart of all the action. Then there is the Tulum area, which I found to be the busiest of the 3, lots of younger crowds, a huge wet bar, lots of activities and action going on all day. And then there is the Akumal area, where we stayed. I found this area to be the best for what we wanted out of our vacation. Its right on the beach, and if you upgrade to the Golden area you will be situated in villas that are literally right on the beach. If thats not a big deal to you, then the rest of the villas are no more than a 5-7 min walk away from the main lobby, pools, beaches, 24hour snack bar, gym, restaurants.....the list goes on. Of course there is always the trains to take you where ever you want, which come in handy after a few too many cervezas in the sun :)

Where do I begin? I'll start with our room. Very clean upon arrival, cozy, mexican style rooms with a large comfortable king size bed, sitting area, good sized balcony, jacuzzi tub, mini bar. One thing that impressed me about this place was the constant replacing of fresh, cold filtered drinking water. I had friends stay at other high class resorts, and got 2 bottles upon arrival and nothing else after. Each day we received 3 large bottles of water. 2 in the fridge and one on the counter. This was important to me, as I have heard many horrible stories about montezumas revenge ruining many travelers vacations. My girlfriend and I tipped 2 dollars per day in our room. One on the bed and one under an empty can of ceveza next to our mini bar. We also left little notes asking for more of this, less of that, and the staff responded without hesitation, even making a different animal out of towels for every day of our stay. Overall, the housekeeping staff was phenomenal, friendly, courteous.....amazing. If I had one negative thing to say it would be that the remote control for the tv stopped working alot, but was fixed promptly.

Pools and Beaches - Beautiful!! We were so impressed with how clean the grounds were kept, 24/7. Finding a spot with a palapa at the beach was no problem for us up till around 1130am. Then it starts to fill up. As for the pool side chairs, they filled up a bit quicker, by around 9am. So keeping those times in mind, you should have no problem getting a seat to where you want to be for the day. We usually started out at the beach in the morning, and then found that moving to the pool around 330pm was best because thats when chairs starting becoming available from the guests who had been at the pool all day. We stayed near the wet bar in the lobby pool where the best bartender in the world works. His name is Edgar, and he is simply amazing! Please tip your bartender, or server, especially when they give outstanding service. These people rely on theirs tips as their daily wage is quite small, I think around 6-8 dollars a day. I won't spoil anything else for you about Edgar, but if you choose this resort you will find yourself coming back to him time and time again. Pool temperature was always refreshing. Never too warm or too cold, and always clean. The beach was also excellent! in the areas where the "whales" kept the rough surf from coming in, the waters were clean, 90% free of rock and coral, and again, amazing!! Lots of fish swimming around there too, so if you aren't one of those people who do day trips to see some real tropical fish, you can still get a small taste of the fish right in the beaches of Akumal. There is also a bar right on the beach, just steps from the water, and it ha swings for seats!! So you can sit back on a big swing with a cold drink and relax as you take in the beauty of the Caribbean Sea. This bar is a great perk for this resort, I loved it.

Bar's and Restaurants - So many different places to eat and drink at, I found that this also is a great perk to the resort. You are not limited to stay at your area, you can freely roam around the Coba and Tulum resorts, eating and drinking for free. We mostly ate buffet, simply because we found that we didn't want to be constrained to meeting reservation times for dinners at one of the many beautiful restaurants they have here. But we never heard a bad thing about any of the a-la-carte restaurants, and were told great things about Mikados, a Japanese restaurant that has chefs preparing food right in front of you on your own private grills. If buffet is your thing, than you'll love it! Just try to get in within the first 45 mins of the buffet opening. The food is freshest and most delicious at those times!

I really could go on and on about this place, but in closing I will just say that if you have been pulling hair out, trying to decide on a place to go in the mayan ( I know cuz that was me for about 3 weeks prior to booking!! ) then stress no more, and go the Gran Bahia Principe. Ignore any extremely negative remarks that may be on this site, they can't be farther from the truth. I will return to this resort again and again. Oh and if yer into a full day excursion, I recommend the Mayan Adventure package. It takes you to real mayan villages, you get to see mayan pyramids, rappel into and swim in a secluded, sacred cenote, hike through the mayan jungle, zipline across a beautiful lagoon, kayak the lagoon, and eat a delicious meal at the end. All for 118USD. Totally worth it, and a good way to spend one day doing many things that other excursions only do one or two of. Enjoy Mexico!! I know you will have the time of your life if you choose this resort.

We just got back on April 11 - 09 from our first trip to Riviera Maya , we always travel 5 stars and must admit this one will be hard to beat ( Viva Gran Bahia Principe Akumal ) , the staff was great the set up was beautiful , for a slight premium go for the Golden Service which will give you a more personalized service , you will not regret this choice of Destination

( Numero Uno !!! ) Lucie + Nino

As former flight attendant my husband and I travel alot.

This place is the best one ever, the only one we have returned to over again.

Do not get overwhelmed by its size. It isn't that difficult to figure out the trollies, pay attention to the roof colours on each, to know where you want to go.

The evening shows are top notch. And the staff are very friendly.

The staff at the activities pool get involved with you and you never have to look for something to do. They are great.

We thought the place was empty and found out there were over 5000 guest there with us...never would have thought so,,, when walking through the resort it was nice to meet another couple and just say hi in passing,,,,not bumping into people every step.

I won't bore you with all the details,,,it is all great.

The shopping trip to Playa Del Carman was worth it and one specific jewellery store operator remembered exactly what I had bought the year before!!!

Just go and enjoy yourself

We stayed at the GBPA for two whole weeks. We were impressed from the moment we got off our bus. The staff is wonderful and very hard working. The grounds of the resort are immaculate. There were 6 of us on this trip, ranging from 3-65. There was something for everyone. The resort itself is HUGE, but there are trams running all through it. They will take you anywhere you want to go and they run every 10 minutes until 3am.

Our rooms were very spacious and clean. The beds are a little hard, but after a couple of days, we got used to them. The pillows are hard as well. The rooms are cleaned daily and each day we got a different towel creature left for us. The room was always cleaned well. I would recommend leaving $1 US a day for your cleaning staff. If you do, you will be surprised at the little extras that will be left for you. You can even designate a time that you would like your room cleaned if you are a late sleeper.

The food is fantastic. We never had a bad meal. All of the buffets were great. The one disappointment we had was the a la carte restaurants. Our fave was Mikado, the Japanese one. Dolce Vita (Italian) was disgusting. Frutos del Mar (Seafood) was okay, but nothing to rave about. We didn't bother booking any others since we were happy enough with the buffets. You can eat at any of the buffet restaurants (Akumal, Coba and Tulum) we found Akumal to be our fave. The bars all around the resort are staffed by very friendly bartenders. You can get a drink of pretty much anything you desire. The swim up bar is always busy, but the bartender is quick to serve, so don't let the people hanging around stop you from swimming up for a drink.

The beach is BEAUTIFUL! There are two areas to it. One is shallow and calm and great for looking at the tropical fish and letting the kids play. The other area is a little more rocky with tidal pools and the crashing waves. Both areas are fun to check out. The pool is massive and very clean. The "party" activity pool is a lot of fun to hang out at, but if you want peace and quiet, I wouldn't recommend getting chairs near there. Our biggest complaint was with other resort guests. There are signs EVERYWHERE that you are not to reserve lounge chairs. Well....no one listened to that rule and unless you are up at 6am to reserve your seats, you won't find one (let alone 4-6) anytime after 9am. The same goes for the chairs on the beach. There are many, many chairs but they all seemed to be reserved. So after a week, we started moving people's towels and claiming chairs. No one ever caught us and if they did, we just would have pointed to the many signs that were posted. The other complaint was the "topless" sunbathers. I am no prude, but when there are small children around I don't think it is appropriate. Many cultures find topless sunbathing exceptable, but Mexico does not. Many people frown on this practice, especially around the main pool. So if you feel like getting an all over tan, try and find a private place on the beach away from the crowd. Just a warning. We saw one topless woman getted yelled at by another lady for showing her "stuff".

The shows at all of the resorts are a lot of fun to watch. You have to see the Michael Jackson show. We also enjoyed the Lipsing show. The kid's club and mini disco is a lot of fun for the kids. Make use of it, especially if you have older kids. Our son is 9 and he had a blast. There is tons of entertainment around all of the resorts. Never a dull moment.

Excursions that we would recommend: Xcaret is a must! Aktun Chen is right across the highway, and a wonderful day trip. They have a pet monkey there named Chappy who loves to get his picture taken. Peurto Aventuras is about 20 minutes away from GBPA and it is a wonderful little area to swim with dolphins, manatees, sea lions, go deep sea fishing (Captain Rick's) and do a little shopping. We also went to Chichen Itza. While we are glad that we experienced it and saw the ruins, we would not go back. It is a LONG day and really not all that exciting. It is also very hot so bring lots of bottled water if you go. Playa Del Carmen is 30 minutes by collectivo from the resort. Do ALL your shopping there!!! The prices are great and there is SOOOOO much to see and do. You can make a full day out of Playa Del Carmen easily. And if you are looking for good deals.....that is where you need to go. There is a Hacienda on the resort that has shopping as well, but the prices in Playa are almost half of what they are at the Hacienda. No kidding. Save your shopping for Playa!!!

We had a wonderful two week stay at GBPA and will definately go back. The Akumal is closest to the beach, but don't try to get oceanview rooms, there is only about 15 out of 1500 rooms that have oceanview and they are reserved for Gold or Premier Guests. (Costs more, but you don't get much more than a regular guest except for robes, towels and VIP check in.) The whole resort is gorgeous anyway. There are iguanas everywhere and even gheckos! We were very happy that we chose to stay at the GBPA and would recommend it to anyone.

The resort is huge!!!!! The Bahia is made up of three resort: Akumal, Coba and Tulum. The Akumal is well maintained resort and the staff is wonderful. I found the food to be good and getting better on our second stay there. But the beach is a little rocky when entering the water. You can try the Tulum side of the beach which can be accessed by the hotel trolly bus. As guest you, can travel between the beaches and dine at some restaurants of the three resorts and visit the Hacienda for shopping

We stay at this hotel which is located in a big complex including as well the Coba and the Tulum part. It was great. Very clean and planty of good food. Buffets were various and A la carte were also very good ! Mikado (japanese) and Arlequin (French) were our favorites. Grand bahia is family and couple oriented. It is not a place for spring breakers since there is no big discoteque on the complex. The night shows are good, but the best one was Michael Jackson. There are different beaches. Some with waves, with coral reefs and a nice one for snorkling. There are enough fishes to have fun without going too far or too deep. Bring your own gear if you can. Just one lats thing, if you want to go to Tulum or Playa del Carmen, take the collectivo (white Econoline taxi) at the entrance of the complex. It would cost you 30 pesos (3$) one way instead of 30$ cab ride. We would definitely go back there. If

This was our second visit to GBP Akumal, and we had a great time! As a repeat visitor, they held a special reception for those guests returning, and although the number was small who turned up after the invite, it was great to compare stories and meet 2 fine young men who work very hard to ensure everyone has a great time!

Ceasar and Gustavo were anxious to assist any guest and take back suggestions on how to make GBP a better place...and we appreciated the effort! We heard numerous reports on how these 2 men assisted guests...going out of their way to ensure a great and satisfiying time! They really deserve some days off!

We were put in Villa 66, which is right on the Ocean...third floor, allowing us to sleep listening to the sound of waves. How great is that?

Food? I agree with others who post here....if you don't like the food here then you'll really never be satisfied...because the selection is wonderful! We just plain loved the buffet...that's all there is too it! Room Service was great...our little fridge was refilled with Pop and snacks every day (that's all we wanted). Pauline cleaned our room very nicely every day as well!

Hard matress? My wife and I prefer that, so again no problem...but as you will see in other posts, there is a fix for that if you need one. And the rooms are very attractive, colorful...

Simply put, this place was paradise on earth. We wish our kids could have come to enjoy it with us!!

We recommend GBP Akumal to anyone wanting to experince pampering at its best!! Try this place...you won't regret it!

The trip only took us 1 1/2 hours to get there from the airport. Playa del Carmen slows you down with the speed bumps, this would be the place to shop. Convert your currency to Peso's at the right exchange rate and pay for goods in Peso's when off the resort. If you go off the resort use a $3.00 collectivo or taxi to travel. You will save a bundle. The resort is magnifiscent. It is large with an awesome shuttle system. It took us about 3 days to get to know the grounds. We liked to explore so we enjoyed seeing so much of this resort. You wil eat a lot, but you will walk a lot, so you hopefully will burn it off by beeing very active from all the walking. We thought that the extra cost for the Royal Golden was worth it for the proximity to the beach and internet access. You had a few other perks that made you feel like you were special guests. If you like to snorkel bring your own gear to the resort so you can go at any time. It is free for an hour but we regretted not having brought our own. Also bring aqua sox, some areas have rocks. Do not try to think you can out eat the buffet. You will lose as I did. The food as a whole had a general bland taste to it. You will always find a few favorites and things you will like. We liked the Gran Tortoga and the Mikasa as the two best ala carte's. The highlights for us were the pools and beaches. So many activites or just relax - your choice. You can enjoy exploring and feeling safe at this resort. We met many people from all over and I felt it was great for my 10 and 13 year old daughters. They would interact on the shuttles and all over the resort. We will come back to the Gran Bahia Akumel!

After agonizing over our choice, we fell in love with GBP at first site. The grounds of the resort are immaculate and stunningly beautiful. The pride that the staff shows in their work impressed us. They always had a smile and "Hola" for us. After learning the ropes of the shuttle system, navigating the huge complex is really not that difficult. The food was very tasty and well presented. We found that hitting the buffet an hour before it closed was the best way to avoid the crowd. The one hour plus airport transfer is well worth it and you are still close to Cenotes, Tulum ruins, and shopping at Playa del Carmen. We hated to leave and will definitely return.

We stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Akumal on June 14-18, 2009. We booked through Apple Vacations back in March at a very good price for Grand Bahia Principe Coba. As I had read on Tripadvisor prior to the trip, the Coba resort was closed so I was not surprised we ended up in the Akumal resort. Apparently, the Tulum resort had just reopened. (This hotel complex is made up of three sections: Coba, Akumal and Tulum; it is a very large complex.) In the end I was happy we stayed at Akumal as our rooms were close to the beach, the pools, and the main buffet. We were in buildings 48 and 49. I would guess that occupancy rate was about 30% because of the swine flu scare, the economy and the start of the rainy season. (It rained most days, but generally didn't stay long.) Some days it almost felt like we had the hotel to ourselves. Here are the positives and the negatives:

Positives:

- The staff are friendly, helpful and always wanting to please.

- The rooms were large, quiet, clean, and the AC worked great.

- The in-room safe is free.

- The grounds are immaculate.

- Plenty of places to sit/lay by the pools/beach

- Beach sand was some of the softest I've encountered.

- a la carte restaurants were available every night (no limit).

- The pools were warm, maintained well, and had interesting designs.

- Even the buffet had cloth table top coverings and napkins; upscale restaurant settings.

- Drinks were good. Self-serve Mimosas and bloody Marys available for breakfast if you want to start imbibing early.

- Beds are hard (I like them that way) but a topper is available (just ask).

- Snorkeling is good right in front of the hotel. Lots of fish. Clear water. Even saw a Caribbbean reef squid. (On Google Earth, there appears to be a small lagoon just to the south of the complex. Unfortunately, I didn't hike over there but for the adventurous snorkeler, I would suggest checking it out.)

Negatives:

- The red flag was posted everyday at the beach although the water was not that rough. Consequently, snorkeling gear and kayaks were apparently not available. (We brought our own snorkeling gear.) If you get out past the bouys, you might encounter an slight undertow. I believe there is always a slight current heading north. The red flag may have just a been a ruse to keep costs down.

- One room had minimal hot water and one room had a slight sewer smell to it. Absolutely no issues with the third room. Occupants in the first two rooms are not fussy and dealt with it. Management was notified after the fact so I can only assume these problems are alread fixed.

- Buffet food was so-so. I would have liked more variety day to day. As always, breakfast is the best of the buffet meals. All of us said that the fruit was some of the best we've tasted.

- We ate at three a la cartes: Frutos Del Mar (seafood, Akumal) - shrimp less than tasty; Arlequin (French, Akumal) - the filet was devine!; and La Gran Tortuga (Brazilian, Tulum) - the salad bar was so good, we didn't even need the 8-9 varieties of meat that were presented.

- The 90-120 minute ride from the airport was too long, but you are close to the Tulum ruins and Xel-Ha (an ecological water park) and the highway is better than many we have in the US. We took an excursion to these two locations. It was an all day trip, pickup at hotel and cost $126 USD per person. You may find it for a better price. Xel-Ha has snorkeling, tubing, bicycles, all you can eat/drink, etc with optional dolphin interaction. You could spend an entire day here.

- The hotel complex is huge! My mind struggles with the thought of full occupancy at all three resorts.

All in all, it was good value for the money. But there are equivalent hotels along Riviera Maya. This area relies almost exclusively on tourism and it's really too bad they are getting hit so hard with the current economic/health scare issues. I hope that the situation improves for them soon.

Just returned from a great vacation(06/07 to 06/14)week filled with plenty of sunshine and no rain. The transfer from the airport to the resort was 2 hours, to long for our liking but the scenery along the way was interesting. Check in was easy and the staff was very helpful and friendly. The rooms were roomy and cleaned everyday along with the mini-bar. We were on the 3rd floor so the view from our balcony was spectacular. The beds are hard so before you go E-Mail the resort and tell them you want a mattress cover on the bed. We had no problems sleeping. We only had 3 a la cart restaurants to choose from because the Coba and Tulum were closed because of the swine flu scare. The food was good but seemed to the same at the buffet everyday, they need some sort of variety. We didn' t see or hear of the flu scare so don't be scared off because of it. There was plenty of Palapas to choose from because of the flu scare. Beach chairs were also plentiful to take to the water.

We had a wonderful vacation despite the media scare of the swine flu. We wouldn't hesitate to go back tomorrow if work would permit it!

We just returned from our trip the week of 6/13 - 6/19. Good news...both Akumal and Tulum resorts were open, however, Coba was still closed. We traveled w/ two small kids and had a great time. Not many people there, which made things great. No fight for beach or pool chairs, no lines for food, drinks, etc. and the service was excellent.

In my opinion, the only real negative was the buffet food. It's not very good, but luckily all of the other restaurants were excellent. We ate buffet breakfast only, the poolside snackbar for lunch, and then the variety of restaurants at night.

The beach was awesome and we live in San Diego so we know a little about beaches. There is a nice little lagoon style section with crystal clear water and fish swimming around. We pulled the chairs into the edge of the water and enjoyed the drinks and view.

The resort is a little over 1 hour south of the airport so keep that in mind. The good news is that it is close to Xel-Ha, Playa del Carmen, Coba ruins, Tulum, etc. We booked w/ Apple Vacations and had our own private van to and from the airport. We then rented a car for our excursions to Coba and Tulum. Both spots were empty when we visited.

If you are looking for a relaxing vacation I'd recommend this resort. I never heard a major complaint from anyone while we were there.

We just got back from a week long visit to Gran Bahia and we stayed in the Akumal resort. Overall, we liked the resort very much. Beautiful grounds, big rooms (we stayed in a Jr. Suite), good food, beautiful beaches and lots of palapas for shade. I'll share some of the negatives just to give you some things to keep an eye out for.

We were convince to upgrade (for $400 extra) to the Akumal Golden package, but didn't see what value we got for that extra money. We never used the 'private' lobby (didn't even know about it until our last day. We did have direct shuttles both ways which was nice, but otherwise, I don't think it's worth $400 extra.

We had a very nice room, but requested to change to an ocean front. They told us it would be $10 per night per adult, but then told us that the ocean front villas were all closed. Turns out that wasn't true, as we met friends in building 65 which is ocean front. this was the second time we weren't told the truth by the resort. The first time was a week before arrival, when I called Gran Bahia USA to inquire if the Tulum and Coba resorts were open. We were told they were, but they weren't.

This caused us problems as the dive shop is located in the Tulum resort and getting the shuttles there and back was a hassle. Also, we had a bit of a crunch every morning when we had to drop off our kids at 9am in Akumal's kids club and b at the dive shop at 9am in Tulum resort.

Usually, we'd ony wait about 10 minutes for he shuttle but one day it was about 20-25 minute wait.

Kids camp was great. Our kids didn't want to leave every day! They had terrific counselors and they made great friends from Canada, California and all over. We loved visiting at this time of year, since it was quiet but not dead.

The beach was terrific and we snorkled every afternoon at the resort with our kids and loved it. White sand beaches, plenty of palapas for shade and easy entry into the water. Look just beyond the ropes and you'll see some baracuda out there. We saw lots of tutles when diving, but didn't see any snorkling.

Although there's plenty to do at the resort, we rented a car twice during our visit. Once to go to the ruins at Tulum. There, I recommend getting a private guide. You'll need pesos for admissions to the ruins. We got so much more out of the trip by learning for the well-spoken guide. My husband didn't hire the first guy he was approached by, because he found him hard to understand. The other day, we went snorkling in the Akumal Bay and had dinner on the beach at the Beach Bar. We also ate one night at La Buena Vida which was fabulous!

I could go on and on. If you have questions, feel free to contact me as I'd be happy to share more! We will definitely go back, but won't bother with the Golden upgrade.

I had originally booked this hotel for my wedding because of it's large size, and variety of restaurants and activities, so it was a bummer that the Coba and Tulum portions of the hotel were closed. Even with 2/3's of the hotel closed however, it still wasn't very crowded, so it is understandable that it was necessary to close these areas.

Our room was great! We were located very close to the Akumal lobby, the restaurants, pools and pretty close to the beach. We were fortunate because our room stayed VERY cool, but I know that many of our guests rooms were not as cool (there were 25 people staying here for our wedding, so we saw many rooms). The bed is definitely very hard, even with the extra pad. The hotel is too nice to skimp on cheap mattresses, so I wonder if that is normal throughout Mexico? When we arrived there, there were two large bottles of water and our mini fridge was full....but they never refilled these items unless we called and asked them to, and then it would take a couple of hours! This was irritating to us, we tried leaving notes for housekeeping in Spanish (with a tip), but it didn't work (although they did take the tip). Maybe this is one way they were cutting costs, I don't know.

The pools were wonderful at this hotel. Clean, beautiful, large. We also enjoyed the beach a lot. Some areas of the beach are very rocky, and it helps to have some sort of footwear, but the main area we relaxed (right in front of the Akumal lobby), it was very sandy and not rocky at all. Another nice place for laying out is on the beach near the swing bar. I was very hot and humid when we were there, which we aren't used to, and there was a nice breeze in this area to cool you off.

The food.....we just didn't like it very much, but we just are NOT buffet people. We rarely like buffets (including really nice ones, like the Bellagio in Las Vegas). Also, this is the first all inclusive vacation we have taken, so I can't compare it to anything else. There was plenty of variety at the buffet, and they had a few different items each night. The restaurants were also just OK. We ate at the Arlequin, Frutas del Mar and Dolce Vita. Dolce Vita(Italian) was by far the best, and we were really glad that we chose this restaurant for our wedding dinner. The Acuario snack bar was gross, we only went there once to eat, then a couple more times to feed the stray cat that hangs out there. Drinks are not good here either. Bar Pakal and the activity room bar have the best drinks.

If you want to use the internet here, you should take your laptop. They sell internet cards at the gift shop right across from the Akumal buffet (we paid $11 USD for 12 hours). Some of the staff will not tell you about this option, and they will only tell you about the laptops you can rent at the front desk ($10/hour).

The location of the hotel could be good and bad I guess. If you are planning on leaving the hotel to do a lot of activities, you may not want to stay this far south. Transportation can be expensive, but at minimum it is a pain. We rented a car and drove to the hotel, and due to the very low speed limit it took about an hour and a half. We did a canopy tour with Selvatica, which is towards Cancun and they provided transportation. Since we were so far away, we were the first of five stops to pick people up so we were in the van about two hours, same thing on the way back. I think most shuttles from the airport would be like this too, because they would have to drop a lot of people off along the way. Driving in Mexico wasn't hard, but it is scary. The policia are extortionists that target tourists. We were pulled over once, fortunately the cop was nice and let us go without us bribing him (although I speak Spanish, I pretended like I did not, I don't know if that helped at all, he spoke some English). My cousin got pulled over, and they held her husbands license telling them they had to pay $200 to get it back (some of the policia carry large rifles, it's scary!). Eventually they accepted the $40 that my cousin had and let them go. The location is fine if you aren't planning on leaving the resort much.

Our wedding....was amazing! I was really sort of nervous about how things would go, because email communication with the wedding coordinator was not good at all. Once we got there though, everything was taken care of. We met with Yuritzia the day after we arrived at the resort in order to confirm our choices on wedding location, flowers, cake, food, etc. She showed us the location (we were on the 'activities beach' which was a beautiful location), and all of that took about an hour or so. She is very experienced, and she had everything all worked out on how to transport everyone down to the beach. We had a list of questions when we met with her, but due to her experience she answered all of them before we even asked. They were also able to accomodate our vegan guests. Everything went so smoothly, and we did not have to do anything or worry about anything. It was beautiful, wonderful, and unforgettable!

We hadn't planned on using the professional photographer (Conrado) that works with this resort, but due to the financial problems they seem to be having, Conrado offered to take pictures at no charge, and we would be able to purchase as many, or as few photos as we wanted...and we ended up buying all of them! Conrado and his assistant Jorge were wonderful to work with, and will always be one of our fondest memories of Mexico (plus the female side of my family is in love with Jorge).

If you are thinking about getting married here, I highly recommend it and I would be happy to answer any questions that you have is you email me. I would also recommend using the photographer here, we loved our photos!

An amazing resort. True to most the reviews here. However, Tulum and Coba were closed when we got there and only 2 of the 3 restaurants were open at Akumal. The third restaurant at Akumal opened our last night. If you book, don’t book through Expedia. When I complained that they should have informed us that two of the three resorts were closed and the amenities were not available as others who booked through different agencies did, they blamed it on the resort and offered me a $25.00 coupon. They also refused to refund the extra $22.00 we had to pay for the transportation to the resort that was supposed to be included in the price. Defiantly book this resort, just not with Expedia.

Some things to expect. Rock hard beds. The second day I asked for a mattress pad. This was on the bed that day when we returned from the beach. It was very thick and really helped. The rooms don’t compare to the Hilton, however, they are spacious, and our was very clean. Need an extra beer in the refrigerator? Extra towels? Not a problem, we just asked and it was there. The maid service could not have been better. We did have trouble with the air conditioning two nights but it was repaired promptly. Don’t expect it to be super cold. The pools; fantastic, however, would recommend moving the ‘kid’ pool further from the swim-up bar area for reasons that those there at the same time will understand. The beach also very nice; rocky to the north and sandy to the south. I was disappointed that the ocean was red flagged our entire 8 day stay so not much snorkeling here. Take a taxi to Akumal Bay; 5 minutes away. Swam with turtles of all sizes, a lot of fish out by the reef, and even saw a giant Manta Ray. Food: the buffet was average and again could not take advantage of Coba or Tulum’s. Eating area was not air conditioned so warm. Good service most of the time. They did have theme nights but the food seemed always the same. The restaurants at the resort however I would rate as excellent. You could not get a better meal here in the states. Just too bad Coba and Tulum were not open so we could have taken advantage of the restaurants, pools and BBQ’s usually offered there. So we gave up the amenities at the other resorts; however, there were so many empty chairs on the beach and at the pools that your biggest concern was just picking which one and this was at any time of the day. They did have a nice theater and the nightly shows were pretty good. Also, huge a bar area adjacent with a local group. Neither was air conditioned so if you’re going this time of year, expect it to be very warm in the buildings. I would expect the night life at the Hacienda in the middle of the three resorts to be really fun. However, because of the economy here and that dumb flu, no one there. We went to the disco one night and we saw maybe 10 people. Too bad.

Regardless, I think we’ll be back. We meet some great people and it’s truly a fantastic resort. I love to experience it when Tulum and Coba are open.

The staff to guest ratio was probably 3:1 right now. I felt like I had my own beach and bartender. Try the outdoor massage, it was great, they use some essential oils called 'mayan blend'. The guys at the dive shop were great, their photographer is practically giving his work away. It is turtle nesting season and there is a boat ride to 'turtle reef' for snorkeling and seeing huge sea turtles eating in the shallow water of Akumal Bay. Wow! And this is all thru the Bahia: massage about $75, dive $60 or packages, snorkeling with turtles $50.

The flu scare and the American financial crisis notwithstanding, we purchased our vacation which included access to all 3 resorts (Coba, Tulum, and Akumal) and their pools, bars and restaurants. When we arrived, two of the resorts were closed (Tulum and Coba), and we were all herded into Akumal. Completely understandable considering the reservations were off significantly. However we paid full price, and lost access to restaurants, pools, bars and facilities. Pointing this out to staff only resulted in explanations why they did it (understandable), but no relief or remedy to those who paid the price and didn't get what they paid for.

Don't get me wrong. The lack of lineups and ease of getting into the two available restaurants and buffet was great. No problems with pool chair availability, or seats for shows. But we paid for more, and didn't get what we paid for. Management would have done well to acknowledge what had been done, and provided vouchers for VIP service on the next visit as compensation. If customers never returned, then no problem. If they did, they would have been given a perk for loyalty. Win - win.

I won't go back. My consumer conscience says ripoff no matter how I play it back.

We just got back from vacation. The service and food were terrific. Disappointed that the restaurants were closed due to lack of guests. Also, the full range of amenities were not ever described and no one could tell us what choices we had. DO NOT USE EUROPCAR to rent a vehicle. They gave us a poorly maintained vehicle with almost bald tires. When the tire when flat they charged us over $200 dollars for a tire!!! TOTAL RIP OFF!!!! The pool was great, the view fantastic, the beach, not so much. Rather rocky. If you can, visit the beach at the Tulum ruins. The most beautiful beach ever and we have been to Hawaii, Jamaica, St. Lucia, etc.

My husband and I stayed at GBP from 5/16 thru 5/23. We were booked at Coba but got upgraded to Akumal as both Coba and Tulum were closed. This review will be most applicable for people who plan to go in the next few weeks when the occupancy may still be low. We were told there were only 240 guests when we were there. Here are pluses and minuses:

Pluses:

- We had the entire beach and pool area to ourselves pretty much the whole vacation. There were never more than 20 people on the beach and we had our pick of whereever we wanted to sit. I had the whirlpool for myself every time I was in there.

- An extremely quiet and relaxing vacation with no crowd and no line.

- The grounds are beautiful and all the staff were very attentive to our needs.

- Perfect for newly weds and couples who just want a quiet, relaxing and romantic vacation.

- We got to go to the specialty restaurants 4 times by asking as they were not crowded. The Gourmet restaurant has the best food. Both the filet and surf and turf are excellent. The seafood restaurant is fine for a change. I'd recommend skipping the Italian.

Minuses:

- Same food at the buffet pretty much everyday. For those of you who had been to the RIU Palaces and regular RIU's, the bufffet is much worse here.

- If you are looking for having a fun time with lots of activities, you will most likely be disappointed. We were told the disco was closed and nightly entertainment was only half an hour long. Also, this is not the place nor right time for singles to meet other singles.

- No outside eating area and the buffet restaurant can be very hot when there is no breeze.

- The beach has very shallow water; water is most of the time knee level unless you go off the roped in area.

- I would rate this, overall, to be below a RIU Palace but better than a regular RIU.

Tips :

- I was told by the bar tender that they will close Akumal and open Tulum in June, not sure whether this is true but thought I will pass this on.

We just came back from staying at Bahia Akumal for 5 days - and what a great trip!!!! We had tried to book on-line and for some reason could not, so we called the hotel and they told us to come by any way....and they gave us the internet price, which was a total surprise to us! Saved us about $300!!! A word to the wise though, book on-line if you can, and save yourself some money. If you are taking a taxi to the Cancun airport it will cost you $80 one way....a little pricey if you ask me. The "day trips" to snorkel with the turtles, ride ATV's, etc are also expensive, so bring plenty of money.

The hotel staff was very friendly and accomodating. The villa we stayed in was awesome; however, the bed was a little too hard for us, but it didn't really matter. There was plenty of food to eat too! The variety of food served was abundant.......a little "different" for me (very picky eater), but I still managed to get plenty to eat, and drink....lol. Plenty of activities to do too, except I would advise you to bring your own snorkeling gear because the hotel will not let you snorkel in the ocean if the red flags are flying....they wouldn't even give us the gear so we could snorkel in the pool. Oh yeah, you only get the gear for an hour too, so bring your own! Since they do not have an internet cafe, you can rent a laptop from the front desk, but it costs $10 an hour.

It sounds like I am complaining, but believe me I am just trying to tell you about our stay. It was fabulous, and I do recommend you stay here. I just wanted to make you aware of the things that kind of took us by surprise. This is our first-time staying in an all-inclusive, and we will definitely return to this resort!!!!

For those of you that are afraid to travel to Mexico, there is no sign of the swine flu anywhere in this area. It is such a shame that they are closing down the other properties temporarily. If you have a trip planned here, GO!!!! You will not regret it. Have fun!!!!

We stayed there in March and it was extremely beautiful and relaxing. The people were so nice. HOWEVER, my camera came up missing, luckily it was broken and then magically was returned, YET they removed my memory card. So please, use your safe and don't think for one minute you can trust them. After a month of talking with the hotel managers, they assured me my camera and memory card were found. Once they finally got UPS pick-up (which by the way, was a complete mess up with the manager who lied about the services, then emailed to tell me he could email my pictures to me one by one, but the memory card just magically disappeared with all my memories and still cost me 52.00 to have it shipped). Other than the possible stealing, the resort was gorgeous.

I have traveled through Apple Vacations many many times,and had been to the Rivera Maya several times. I typically stay at a 6 golden apple, and am pretty easy to please. I tend to disregard most reviews because I feel like people are overly critical and like to complain. Hopefully this review will be helpful to some as I think it is an honest and fair review. I booked the resort because my brother was getting married there and we had a group traveling with us.

The hotel fits a 5 apple. It has the potential to be a 6 but it has some work to do. Despite this, it is a very nice place and we all had a great time.

The grounds are huge and very very pretty. I was nervous about the size, but the trams came very frequently and we never had to wait more than a minute or two to get transportation. We pretty much stuck to the Akumal resort but traveled to a few other places in the resort. The staff works incredibly hard to make sure that the grounds are pretty and well kept, and they were. I will say that that we found the Akumal to be the better of the 3. Coba was nice, but not on the beach. Tulum is just......well, we didn't like it. I was more of a motel and did not have the grounds that the Akumal had. It was more of a motel-like setting.

I arrived Easter Weekend and I don't think the resort was able to handle the crowd. Our room was not ready, which was fine. We went to the pool and hung out for a few hours and returned at 3:00. Our room was ready, but my parents room was not. After they complained, all of a sudden their room was available. We both requested rooms near the beach and they accommodated us, so we were all fine with the wait. Definately ask for that b/c some of the rooms are quite a hike. The bell boy told us to go to our room and are bags would be there shortly. I waited 2 hours and no bags. I walked back to the lobby and grabbed my own bag and took it to my room.

my parents did not have the same issue. Their bags were promptly delivered.

the rooms are pretty -- standard hotel room. A safe and mini bar in each room. I had booked 2 double beds, and instead, I had a room with a king. The hotel offered to move me to a room far from the beach or they would bring in a cot. We elected for the cot, which was more like a double bed. It was nice and comfortable and was brought to the room promptly.

the hotel really catered to everybody's nacionality. We had US news clippings in our room, and on our last day, a personal note from the hotel in English with a basket of muffins. They had fruit in the room when we arrived. They really went out of their way to make sure that everybody was happy.

The first day was a bit of an issue b/c i was with somebody who was only staying 3 days, while I was staying a full 7. The hotel was quite confused about that, and there seemed to be more of a language barrier than most of the hotels I stayed in Mexico. Apple screwed up as well and had me returning early too. I ended up having to waste a few hours of my time working it out. It was frustrating, but ultimately it worked out fine. The hotel has Public Relations people that work with guests for any issues that they have. I highly recommend using them. they were great and took care of the issue promplty. Apple on the other hand was rude about the situation -- I blame apple for most of the confusion and not the hotel. I had also booked transportation back to the airport, but Apple did not have me booked, so most of the issues were with Apple, not the hotel.

The first few days there were long waits for the buffet. Tables were not cleaned and we ended up having to wonder the dining room for a table. the service in the buffet was less than adequate. We usually ended up just walking up to a waiter and asking for beverages and there were many times that weekend where a waiter never even came to our table. Again, I think many of the issues were the crowd because after Easter, things got much better.

After the weekend past, things improved significantly. We never waited for another table and service was much better in the buffet.

Its definately a kid friendly place. The pool was huge and refreshing. Unlike many other resorts, there were plenty of chairs and shade both on the beach and the pool. We did not have kids with us, but there seemed to be food for the kids, and many kid activities. If I did have kids, its a place I would return, definately.

The food in the buffet was ok, but not great. I have had better buffets, but I have had worse as well. There was usually something for everybody. But they had the same thing pretty much every day.

We didn't really participate in any activities, but there were pools that were loud and active, with volleyball and water polo, etc going on. We wanted more quiet and chose a quieter pool.

The beach was very pretty and the water was clear. There were some rocky areas in the water, but it was not bad like some on here have complained about. once you got past ankle level, it was totally fine.

The restaurants were quite nice and the service was great. Our last meal was at the Dolce for a wedding reception and it was fantastic. The food was great, and the service was great. Drinks, dssert, everything. It was a great way to end our trip.

I was nervous about checking out given the issues that I had with check-in, but it went smoothly.

All and all it was an above average place. They had somebody for everybody and if you wanted quiet, you can get quiet. If you want loud and party atmosphere, you can have that too. The akumal could be a 6 apple, if they improved the service and food in the buffet. That was really the only thing that I can see where improvement needs to be made.

Once last thing is.....I know on vacation, internet is something that shouldn't be important. But they said that they had an internet cafe. It was closed. The front desk said that they would rent laptops and charge your credit card $600.00. So, if you are somebody who needs that, bring your own laptop.

Stayed at this hotel end of January 2009 with friends.

First thing - it's a pretty good drive from the airport, so if you book via package might consider getting your own taxi ride, since stopping along the way adds much time to the ride! This resort is approx 20-30 minutes south of Playa del Carmen.

Arrival at 2pm and check in were very easy and quick. Room was ready. Bags were delivered along with a ride to the room.

This resort is fairly spread out - buildings are well separated, so there are walks involved depending on where your building is. Ours was close enough to main lobby/pool so no big deal. Check the map where your building is when you get there!

Rooms were colorful and comfortable, although the beds were too hard for some - call and the maid will put a pillow top over your mattress. Although maid service did NOT change towels on 2 days and we had to call to get new ones. (and I tipped well to start so it wasn't because of that!) From there on it was hit or miss with the maid service.

Food was good, but not as good as others I've stayed at. Overall quality was good, variety was good as well. Something for everyone, and I find if I don't see what I want, I can usually make something from all the items being served - sort of a "make your own" meal!

Grounds were well kept. Beach was rocky, so definitely bring water shoes if going into ocean!

Pool water temp was WAYYYY too cool, but, of course - we were there in Jan - so wasn't unexpected! Besides - were having too much fun to care!

Pool chairs were reserved by 10am - so set out your towels early (even though the signs say not to!) They could have used more pool area/chairs for people. But overall was a good setup. Can always use more bartenders at all bars (except swim up was usually not busy - see remarks about pool water temperature!). I would recommend bringing a large to medium size insulated mug for your drinks, as the cup sizes provided were very small.

Daytime activities were limited, but there if you wanted to. Some were fun to watch. Others we weren't interested in, but that's personal taste. The pool areas could always use more music or something to liven them up - even near the activity pool.

Shopping area included a few shops with items priced higher than you would find in town. But was good enough for 2-3 hours of looking. Getting there was always interesting - waiting for what we called the "circus bus" was always fun, then getting a seat wasn't always guaranteed.

All the resorts could use more entertainment in the evenings/at the bars. Simple things such as dart boards in bars, games to play, etc would work wonders and help fill in some of the quiet times. Simple dance music, slow and fast, would make most of the lounges more entertaining. This one does have a disco (opens at 11pm or 12am) in the shopping area that the younger crowd might like with VERY loud music.

Transportation in and around the resort was ok, sometimes had to wait for a tram ride a bit, other times they were right there. Just timing I suppose.

Since this resort complex is really 3 different hotels, we visited each at different times. We found the Tulum lobby bar to be the most interesting. I've found it very useful to tip well, and you'll be rewarded with outstanding service. The Tulum bar was the ideal spot for this. Albino (pronounced "Albeenyo") the bartender there was outstanding! He would occasionally pour new drinks for us to try which were usually great! Other times, when we were having our usual, we never found our glasses empty. He offered outstanding service, and was extremely entertaining! They apparently switch assignments, so you may find him elsewhere. But when you find him - tip him well, and you'll find it's worth it.

I've stayed at 5 different resorts in Mexico and would rate them (overall) as follows:

Moon Palace - Family Resort

El Dorado Royale Suites (not main rooms) Romance - (adults only)

Gran Bahia Principe - Family Resort

Iberostar Maya - Family Resort

Iberostar Paraiso Beach - Family Resort

I have read probably over a hundred reviews of GBP Akumal, many with good tips about tipping, trolleys, bringing own drint tumblers, etc. so I will try not to be repetitive and just offer somer perspective from a family of 4 (2 adults - mid 40's, 2 girls 9 and 13) from the USA.

We went during school Spring Break just before Easter in the US, so we expected a larger crowd than usual.

Best of GBP Akumal

- The grounds and pools are immaculate, amazing for such a large resort; also very clean and the architecture is interesting. Just looks top-drawer - including overall atmostphere - but not stuffy or snobby

- Really fresh fruits (pineapple!!!), salads and seafood at buffets; you really can do all-you-can eat here very healthy; seafood (ceviche etc.).

- Staff is very friendly (not perfect but 99% were very nice); simply saying "hola" and trying to speak Spanish makes them try that much harder to help you

- Arlequin a la carte restaurant had excellent food and service (hit and miss with these see below); El Pescador was OK (excellent coconut shrimp)

- Snorkeling (for kids) off the docks in the Akumal beach area; lots of fish in about 3 ft of water

- My wife enjoyed getting a 25-minute massage at the beach (not much cheaper than USA prices though)

- Stocked mini-bar (included); having 2 large bottles of water, 4-6 soft drinks, 2 juices, candy bars, chips etc stocked in your fridge every day was great (we took them on our trips outside the resort)

- Good location overall to get to Tulum, Coba, XCaret, Xelha, Play del Carmen, and many many cenotes for swimming, snorkeling, etc.

Worst of GBP Akumal

- The beds are hard as rock, even with the optional pad you can request. I have slept on firm foam mattresses before, but this was like sleeping on a carpeted floor. In my mind keeps this from really being a 5-start resort and rating (compered to say a Westin and their "heavenly bed").

- Compared to Half-moon Bay, or Akumal Bay - which are *gorgeous*, or probably some of the better hotel beaches, the beaches here are pretty mediocre (rocky, small); they really have to "manufacture" a safe area. If beach is your #1 priority, read reviews for other locations.

- During our one week stay, the phone would randomly ring once, sometimes very late at night (computer glitch? other guests misdialling?); also we were in building #80 near a parking lot where we could hear a car alarm go off 3-4 times daily, sometimes late at night.

- Some of the guests at the hotel (ALL nationalities) were just plain rude or bumbling drunk idiots; cutting in line, acting like "stupid" drunks (in contrast to "happy" drunk which is innocuous and funny), disrectful of hotel staff trying to help, banging on doors and yelling at 2 or 3 am in the morning because someone locks them out of their rooms. I guess you stay with 3,000 - 5,000 guests, you expect that.

- Very disappointed in service and food at Don Pablo's a la carte restaurant; was supposed to be "gourmet Mexican" and it was neither. When my 9 year old said she did not want the kids menu,they took away her silverware and plate altogether (WTF?)

What I would do again....

- For a first time family trip to Mexico, and not speaking much Spanish, and wanting to minimize hassle, all-inclusive was the way to go and GBP Akumal is really top-notch overall.

- Arranged flights on my own but booked room through BP USA Travel from the Gran Bahia web site - http://www.bahia-principe.com/bp/usa/home-usa.html

Got a good rate and it was the *only* online site that allowed me to book just one room (mini-suite) for the 4 of us. Also, their rate included round trip transfer with Sol Tours (worth $150) who did a great job. Also we did not have to pay for use of the safe-lock in our room ($5 / day?).

What I would do differently...

- As much as we loved GBP Akumal, somewhat regret not staying in a condo in Akumal town proper, now that I am comfortable with the restaurants, mini-markets and really tremendous beaches in Akumal town. You can get by on minimal English. Lots of English speaking folks there also. Damn, probably going to let the secret out on this beautiful little town. For return trip this is more likely what I would do.

Misc Tips and Recommendations...

- Even a little Spanish goes a lonnnng way; learn simple phrases ("I would like...", "I want to go to ...."), how to count, etc. I picked up about 50-100 words before went and it helped a lot.

- Definitely go to Akumal town. Lucy's taqueira in Akumal town served us the *best* meal of our whole trip (fish and srhimp tacos and quesedilla, home made ice cream), all for $25.

- At GBP Akumal, Amelie O'Neill (French-Canadian) tour expert in the tour booking area - 1st desk on left; excellent advice whether booking a tour or just on how to do something on your own; she was more like a concierge than the "Guest Relations" staff.

- Coba Mayan Adventure tour with Altournative (Rasheed was our excellent guide); Coba ruins with guide (climb the pyramid!), ziplining over crocodiles, rapelling into a cenote, traditional Mayan meal at Pac-Chen; just AWESOME (for gosh sakes *tip your guides* properly - one quy tried to tip $1 for a trip costing over $100 per person - the guide walked away disgusted).

- If your time or funds are limited and you don't want to go to both XCaret and Xelha, consider Xcaret and Yal-ku lagoon north of Akumal as a Xelha alternative (lot's of fish, not a whole day commitment)

- Tulum ruins were beautiful and relatively cheap; you will get your prettiest post-card like vacation photos here; go early or later to avoid crowds.

Well, make sure you read other reviews for more details. Don't want to write a novel here.

If you listen to one tip only it's - **** don't spend your whole vacation on site just because it's an all inclusive. Get out and enjoy the rest of the area!!!!!! You will have possibly the vacation of a lifetime with your family here ****.

This resort was in my mind just a fun place. Had a lot of fun things to do to always keep entertained. I went on Valentines day this year with a group of over 20 people.

Cleanliness- Very clean. Cleaners everywhere during the day to keep the place up to shape. It was just stunning how beautiful it was.

Food- Amazing. Word of advice though... for buffet, since all the tourist go to the beach, the buffet tends to get busy. I recommend for the lunch and breakfast, to take a trolley to Coba because not only better service but food is too. For gourmet restaurants.. two really struck me: The Japanese and the Brazilian restaurant. Both were spectacular. Take my word though.. do not have buffet every night.

Service- the service was the only thing not up to 5 star. We had situations where bars had no bartenders and we'd be waiting to be served drinks at restaurants for 10 minutes. My dad wasn't too happy by the end of the week but I didn't mind. For keeping the landscape good, they did amazing. They were almost too good. The rooms were nice and cleaned to perfection. The beach was kept cleaned and good. Weddings look like they're well kept there and beautiful. We saw at least 2 a day there and it was right down on the water.

Excursion- I did the Tulum extreme where we went zip lining, ancient cave snorkeling and visited Tulum. The zip lining was awesome and at Tulum, they have the best beach I have ever seen... no joke. Bring a suit and towel for there because you just want to get into the water once you see it. Only questionable thing was snorkeling... If you're a snorkeler, not too great. About a 10 minute look around of an old cave of fresh water. Cool rocks and all... just so short and really no fish.

Activities at resort- There are tons of things to do at the resort. From laying on the beach to partying at a disco. The snorkeling is amazing there. When a guy with a whistle is out watching the waters, don't pass the rope line... but when he's gone, go. It is spectacular. I recommend bringing bread and putting in front of your face. Kayaking is pretty cool there cause you can go very far out. The pool always has fun things on so check it out. There is only one show worth checking and that's the Micheal Jackson show. That was cool when I saw it.

Overall, mainly what I said in the title, it is great except the service. I completely recommend giving this spot a try because it is so beautiful.

GBP Akumal is a beautiful, well-operated resort. There were a couple of initial, small annoyances with our room that seemed to get things off to a dubious start - the bathroom had a jacuzzi bath, but the water was quite rusty brown at first. This cleared up after running it for a time, and after the fouled tub was cleaned by the maid the next day, all was well after that. Also, the dead-bolt lock on the door was broken, but it was fixed the next day. With these items dealt with, we ABSOLUTELY, THOROUGHLY enjoyed GBPA for the remainder of our week-long stay. Since Akumal is co-owned, co-located with two other GBP resorts, Tulum and Coba, you benefit from being able to make use of all the shared facilities, i.e. more beach front, all the pools, restaurants, etc. The staff were excellent, very friendly, helpful and attentive. The whole waterfront (beach and pools) scene was superb. The facilities were very clean and well kept. And the food ranged from Good to (as a pleasant, unexpected surprise) Outstanding, with the Restaurante Gourmet Don Pablo being one of the best fine dining experiences that we have had anywhere, and Restaurante Le Gourmet serving one of the best filet mignon that we have ever had. We also did the half-day tour to the Mayan ruins at Tulum just 25 minutes south of Akumal - well worth it. Note that from Cancun airport to this resort is an approx. 2-hour bus ride. GBP Akumal is an excellent resort - definitely recommend it.

We stayed at the hotel from 3/17/-3/24 and had a great time! We enjoyed our vacation partly because we had reasonable expectations based on Trip Advisor reviews and the price we were paying. The property, pool, and beaches are lovely. The staff works very hard and is friendly and generally attentive. Many of the previous positive reviews are quite accurate. I would recommend this resort if you are looking for a pleasant vacation at an affordable price. A few comments and suggestions:

-This was our first time at an AI and we were disappointed that you could not request a room near the ocean room for an add'l fee. It seems only a lucky few get rooms near the ocean, most are garden view. Also, we asked to upgrade and pay more for Club Golden, but were told that there was no availability. That seemed strange, but ended it up working out okay because our villa was near the lobby and pool. The rooms are okay, but very clean, the lack of view is a bummer. People do reserve chairs on the beach and pool very early, starting at 7 am. My kids loved the mini-disco each evening at 8. This is a great hotel for families, good activities, and lots of items for kids at the buffets. Take advantage of the free bike rental near the Hacienda.

-The food is quite good for an AI, your satisfaction depends on the choices you make. If you go to the right stations at the buffet, you can have a great meal. Generally, the made-to-order stations or stations where there was someone preparing and plating fresh items is the way to go. I avoided most of the items in steel trays in the middle as they were pretty much cafeteria food. At breakfast, take advantage of wonderful fresh fruit, fresh juices (watermelon, papaya, melon, pineapple and more--SO GOOD), the made of order omelets, fresh pancakes and French toast. At lunch and dinner, there is always made to order pasta, freshly made pizza, a few carving stations, and of course, Mexican. The Mexican station is GREAT and always has fresh items (there was a rotation of quesadillas, tacos, tostadas, tortas), chips, beans, many different salsas and tasty guacamole. Also, good cheeses, fresh salad bar and soups, like gazpacho. The desserts while they looked good, were not tasty at all. Some buffets have someone making fresh churros, take advantage of these.

A la cartes

-Book your a la carte dinners immediately upon arrival (the hotel was busy in March). Even then, you probably will be told everything is full and will be offered not so great seating times towards the end of your trip. But if you are persistent with the guest relations person, she may find cancellations. Also, after you make your initial reservations, go back in a few hours or the next day to see if anything opened up.

Arlequin – good food, well presented, recommend the ceviche appetizer and steak; enjoy the specialty cocktail they first serve you.

Tequilla – yes, the items on the menu are bland (the waiter even told us), but the appetizer buffet has some great items like fresh steak tacos and some really spicy salsas. Add some of the great salsas to your entrée.

Mikado – ask to be seated at the hibachi to watch the meal preparation. The food is relatively basic, grilled meats, veggies and fried rice. Good desserts, wish I ordered two.

Hello from "The Yank and The Brit"!

I spent ALOT of time looking for a great vacation for me and my hardworking boyfriend. After hours of online research on multiple websites and ultimately, the reviews on this site, we decided upon the Gran Bahia Prinicipe Akumal based upon the high ratio of positive to negative reviews compared to other hotels including the Riu. We we're very happy with our vacation, but since this is our first experience in the Mexican Caribbean we have no other hotels to compare it to, so I have broken down my overall feedback and tips based on our entire travel process below: -

Booking: We used Bookit.com, I subscribe to Travel Zoo, Hotwire Ticker and Kayak and they often post great package deals from Bookit. Once I had decided on a vacation, I compared it to those on Expedia, Travelocity etc. and Bookit by far beat them pricewise. Beware that the deals advertised don't include additional taxes and fees so "$369 for 3 nights all-inclusive", means add on up to $150. They give you optional "add-on" options, but sometimes you can find better deals on your own and on other websites.

Airport Transportation: This was at least $75 shared round trip per person everywhere I looked from Cancun airport to the Akumal/Maya Riviera area as it is 1.5 hours away. However, I found cancuntransfers.com offered private transportation for $130 for 1-2 people and then it's just $150 for 4 people and that's private and round trip...deal!

Hotel: The hotel was beautiful and had 3 resorts in one Tulum, Coba and Akumal that guests from each hotel had access to, so that's like 3-in-1 which was nice and they have free shuttles regularly available to take you to each one with specific stops such as at the restaurants and Hacienda which is by the entrance of the resort as you first arrive and the nightclub area. You just need to ask the guys out front where you want to go and they will tell you where to wait for which shuttle. Check-in was quick and easy, make sure you have your voucher/print out of your booking with you, they whiz by drinks as you are at the desk. As we waited for the strange guest next to us complaining about wanting a street view (which I didn't understand because we were on a resort and I wasn't sure which "street" she was referring to?) and not happy with a garden view otherwise she was going back home to Canada unsatisfied of her trip, the trying to be pleasing, but blunt lady at reception winked at us and she handed us the keys to are "very good room" so the halo effect worked and we got hooked up. The room had a mini-bar which was all-inclusive, but there was only beer, soda and juice, 2 Hershey biscuit bars and 1 pack of potato chips (crisps), no fancy liquors and snacks, BUT I didn't mind as they had food at the restaurants and I didn't need to stuff myself in my room.

Rooms: Were spacious, clean and nice, I personally had an odd experience, when I arrived there were robes and a bamboo tray of extra amenities such as a shave kit, make up pads, later that evening after going out for a short while, my robes and amenities disappeared! I tipped the housekeeping the next day, but found they hadn't replaced the once there items after inquiring about this mysterious experience, I was told that they had made a mistake as the room was prepared for their frequent guests...ooh that was a hit to my self esteem...like when you are on a plane and forbidden to use the 1st class cabin restrooms for fear of public announcement and humiliation over the intercom, but...I got over it and didn't let it spoil my trip!

Restaurants: Apparently, you are to reserve A La Carte as soon as you arrive, but the bland and non customer caring French girl that booked for us told us everything was full so we were left with the leftovers and all I can say is don't settle for the Pescador...what a horrible experience! The Don Pablo is good, but honestly the buffets are great, I am vegetarian and the A La Carte restaurants have hardly any choice, the buffets a pretty much the same in all 3 hotels, but there is plenty of food and you still receive excellent waiting service and plenty of food to eat with no wait time! I was disappointed in the 24 hour dining as it was all fatty, greasy meat and the one at Akumal was going under construction so they had a couple of tables set outside and well my boyfriend was happy, I just waited for the buffet to open.

Amenities: The beach was right there on the Akumal resort which is why I chose it, but as mentioned in the previous reviews forget getting a lounge chair, there seems to be a weird competition amongst guests to "reserve" theirs at 7AM although signs kindly request people not to reserve the chairs. Again, I didn't let that spoil my plans, I live in LA where you can lay on a beach towel at the beach and they give you towel cards when you check in to get your beach towels by the main pool, but don't lose them they charge you $50 apparently if you do!

Activities: I was excited to use the "free" activities and didn't have time to snorkel, I even brought my own! I did use a kayak, you get one hour and you must wear a t shirt for hygiene purposes to take one out. They require you to take a course to use the Catamaran for $35 if you never have used one before. We are PADI certified and used their dive center, we had to take a refresher course and it came to $105 each including a dive which wasn't bad, unfortunately the reef didn't compare to our trip to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but we were happy just to refresh our scuba skills. Also, when you use your credit card they charge 5% but we didn't mind using dollars and credit card for convenience who cares is you can save a buck or two by taking out pesos, the service and people are worth it. I would recommend the Aqua Aerobics and other activities by the main pool as a way to have fun and meet other people. They also have nightly shows in their lovely theater such as Broadway and Cats, I wouldn't expect Times Square broadway quality, but very good, fun hotel resort quality for sure!

Tours: We wanted to see the ruins, but it was too far to go to the Chitzen Itza pyramids so we took a Collectivo (white van) from the entrance of the resort for $3 each way to the Tulum ruins near by. There is a $5 entrance fee and well worth it, take a bottle of water and bring your swimmers in case you want a dip at the gorgeous little beach there also! You can book other tours at the hotel or online during your booking if you want, but we didn't have time to do too much since we wanted to relax.

Tipping: Although I am British, I firmly believe in tipping, I have worked in the service industry and highly recommend taking a bunch of $1 bills and tipping the bellboys $1-2, housekeeping at least $2 a day, $1-2 for "buffet" restaurants and $1+ depending on how much you like to drink at the various bars. I found many people so cheap, you don't get service like you do from Mexican hospitality anywhere! I don't understand why people tip those rude-don't-even-give-you-eye-contact-big-fake boob bartender chicks in LA (well actually I do) and get cheap when they actually get excellent service from hardworking deserving folk...so do it tip, you're on holiday people be kind and you will get kind back :)

Well I hope my review was helpful and real and helps you on your choice as you have tons of choice, but word of mouth goes a long way.

Bon Voyage!

"The Brit"

My family and I just returned today from our stay at the Gran Bahia Principe Akumal, May 28-June 3. As others have noted, the resort was very dead during most of our stay. A large group of locals arrived at the resort for the weekend on Friday evening and partied at the activities pool until dark on Saturday. This was the only time during our stay the activities pool bar was open. All other times we were forced to walk the 100 yards or so from the pool to the bar at the beach snack restaurant for each drink run. The drinks we were served at the beach snack bar were not very good. The drinks served in the resaurants were better.

During check in, we were assigned two connecting rooms in villa 50 having only a jungle view. When I inquired about an ocean view room, I was told none were available. I was told the Club Golden section of the resort was closed and those villas were not available, even for an additional fee. My wife and I later walked through the Club Golden section and it indeed appeared to be deserted. The private facility for check-in/out this section enjoys was also clearly closed. How many villas were actually open for business I do not know for sure, but we were able to confirm 47-57 were occupied. This would be consistent with the 300 or so visitors I was told were staying at the resort. We walked through the Tulum section and it was also completely deserted except for the iguanas. We didn't check out the Coba section.

The rooms themselves were unremarkable in size or quality in comparison with other similar rated resorts we have visited, though I will say the service staff did an excellent job keeping our rooms clean and mini-bars stocked. Many thanks to Elena for the very nice towel art. The a/c in one of our rooms was very poor and was never improved during our stay despite our requests. The VERY hard beds were adequately improved by the addition of a foam mattress pad by the service staff at our request. There is no room service available.

We found the buffet food to be pretty good, especially for breakfast. We made reservations at all three ala carte restaurants, but had our reservation at the seafood restaurant cancelled by the hotel because they were closing it for unspecified reasons. Maybe another cost-cutting measure due to the very low occupancy. The food at Arlequin (gourmet) was not to our (or our children’s!) tastes as the portion sizes were tiny and the seasoning bland. The entire dinner took an excruciating two (2) hours. The Italian restaurant was good, with buffet salad and wonderful appetizers available immediately. The brick oven pizza was very tasty. The gorgonzola steak was very good. I would not recommend the lasagna, though.

The resort grounds were very well kept and beautifully landscaped. Beach swimming at this resort is great for families with young children as the large lagoon is both shallow and very calm. Lots of fish to be seen by snorkeling around the dock. The beach was sparsely populated during our stay, but still some topless sunbathing.

The pools were great and well maintained. The pool depth was listed at 4.4 feet, perfect for our kids to have fun and be safe. The activities pool staff did a great job trying to create a fun atmosphere despite the low occupancy. We never had a problem finding a palapa at the activities pool where we spent most of our pool time.

Having stayed at other, nicer resorts on the Riviera Maya, we were not overly impressed with this resort. Of course, some of this may be attributed to the temporary downsizing of the resort. The average quality and size of the rooms we stayed in cannot be blamed on this condition, however. We will look elsewhere for our next stay on the Mayan Riviera.

I was unbelievably lucky and thrilled to win a 1 week holiday at the Gran Bahia Principe Akumal. As my husband and I had been talking about taking a trip to the Mayan Riviera in the near future, we were extremely excited to be going and planned to see a lot there, so we paid for an extra week ourselves as we didn't feel a week would be enough time for us to do all that we wanted to do and see. It is an absolutely gorgeous and huge place, with beautiful landscaping and immaculately kept.. We had a great villa, with our only complaint being the extremely hard beds in our room, even though they supplied us with an extra pad. The tram system is very good; they run continuously from one resort to the other as well as drop you off by your villa, if you like. Everything else from the food to activities,etc. was quite good ,but why we would never go again is the incredible over-abundance of children. We have no problem at all with children being around, but this place is inundated. We could never find a place in any of the restaurants or any pool where we weren't constantly surrounded by kids, and a lot of them screaming or being rambunctious, much to the oblivion of the parents. If there's lots of children; fine; but there should be l restaurant and pool that has 1 or 2 hours of adults only time, so those who don't have kids with them can have a little peace and quiet on their holiday in such a lovely setting. An absolutely perfect place if you bring children, but not otherwise, and our so-called dream vacation that we won at this resort, turned out to be anything but, as far as the hotel was concerned.

After the 1 hour and 45 minute road trip to get there, after 3pm i might add our room was not ready.Check in was really bad, Staff at front desk didn't seem to really care.We were told to go to Buffet and our room would be ready when we returned that was our first mistake the food not so good, I would give the food at the resort on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst a 9!!!!

We then returned to the front desk to get our room key no instruction where to go basically find yourself, thankfully a nice another guest told us where to get the shuttle for our room which by the way does not run every 15 minutes and normally drives by you even when you are waiting at the many shuttle stops around the resort.

Get to the room which was so clean, great view and on the 3rd floor.

We decided to go to the lobby and noticed all other guests wearing wrist bands, not us.Back to the front desk for wrist bands, the front desk manager looked at us like we had 10 heads.

Safes in the bedroom $4.00 a day, no cards for the towels, yes you guessed it back to the lobby and yet another look of "really" you didn't get cards either.

The resort is very very beautiful.

I am going back to the Occidental xcaret next year where i know the Staff are 10 times more customer service friendly, the food is fantastic and i think the overall i care attitude is remarkably visible.

Be prepared for a 2 hour bus ride from the airport to the hotel! Medeocre AC in your room so don't take a room on 3d floor! The desk staff will not accommodate you until you throw a screaming fit--being nice DOES NOT work! We had to scream to get another room where the AC worked. After making a scene they finally got the point! Ask for a mattress pad because you have never felt a bed as hard as these. You think you're sleeping on the marble floors they're so hard! If the maid takes your beach towel you're screwed! After spending the whole trip w/o a beach towel my husband dripped from the pool thru the lobby, made a scene, demanded a towel, and they finally relented and gave us one! If you don't mind rot gut alcohol you'll do ok. Restaurants are good/buffet just ok. Ice is extremely limited and drinks are warm. Frozen drinks separate almost immediately. Beach is rocky. Pools beautiful, but outlying pools were dirty upon arrival. Resort is beautiful but the staff is not about to accommodate you in any way and you would think they would do whatever they could to please since they are at 50% capacity and to drum up business. Not so!! We won't be back--there are too manh hotels/resorts in Cozumel to come back here! All we were looking for was 4 days of relaxation and all we got was 4 days of high blood pressure and aggravation!

We stayed here for a week at the end of March. Overall it was a decent holiday but we would not stay at this resort again and there are much better choices in the region for the same price.

Our main issue with this resort was that it is just way too large. It is not just one resort but many combined together (Akumal, Coba, Tulum, etc). Instead of acting like separate resorts, they all act as one giant mega-establishment. The problem with that is that you don't have all the stuff you'd want in your own resort area. So for instance, in order to do any water sports, you had to take a shuttle to Gran Bahia Principe Tulum because Akumal doesn't have any. So forget trying windsurfing or sailing unless you're willing to spend 15 minutes getting to the other resort. The same went for a lot of other things like spa, good swimming pool, pool activities (which were only in Coba), and tennis/basketball courts (at the Hacienda 15 minutes away). At the end of the day we felt kind of cheated by that.

Another massive problem with Akumal is lack of internet access. In this day and age every hotel should have internet access, even I have to pay for it. This hotel is completely without ANY internet access. The guests who stay at Akumal Gold next door do have a business center with internet but at Akumal there is not and using the Gold business center is strictly forbidden. We had a bit of an emergency and needed internet and the hotel would not yield and let us use it. We actually had a guest services person tell us that the people staying at Akumal Gold are more special then us. They were completely oblivious to the fact that internet access is not industry standard and should be there, especially in a 5 star resort.

To be fair, there was an intenet cafe at the Hacienda, shopping area 15 minutes by shuttle away, but their internet access was not operational for weeks at the time when we were there and nothing was being done to fix it.

Another slight disappointment was the beach. It's not terrible but it's not that spectacular either. It's got a lot of rocky parts and is not the best for swimming. The sand is nice and I guess overall it's a pretty average beach.

Everything else about the resort was great. The food is fantastic, probably some of the best ever we've experienced in a resort. The rooms are clean and comfortable. The check in and check out was very easy. The service is average. The entertainment at night is cheesy and horrible but that's par for the course for all resorts.

Overall, I would not recommend Gran Bahia Principe. There are much better choices in the region for the same price. Keep looking.

We flew in May 6 for 5 days to celebrate a 60th birthday and Mother's Day. Our plan was to snorkel (free), scuba dive (some free), sail Hobie Cats (free) and visit Chitzen Itza ($100/person). We had our original reservations made 1.5 months ago at the Gran Bahai Principe Coba resort which includes lots of fun restaurants (our advance choice was for the Mikado at Coba for Japanese Kobe style service/cuisine and sushi, which we cannot get anywhere close by home) and amenities. We are not sunbathers or heavy drinkers. We 'received' an unofficial last minute notice (hours before we got on the plane) that we were being UPGRADED to the Akumal. When I queried what this "upgrade" included, they did not respond. Our room at the Akumal was 60 square feet less space for one part of the "upgrade" we could measure and no corner jacuzzi tub.

So, we show up and get non-English speaking concierges (or barely speaking). They hand us our room key and give us no tips or information on what is available or not. This "all-inclusive" package is undefined when you get there, but defined in the travel brochures and web sites. They will basically give you whatever they choose when you arrive, with no details and no description, nevermind what was promised when they demanded advance payment. So, you are on your own to figure anything out. We had not eaten for 11 hours, so we wanted to eat. They failed to tell us that despite the fact we arrived 45 minutes before they closed the grand lunch buffet, by the time we got past the front desk (no lines due to lack of guests) and the Apple rep who only wanted to sell us tours, the buffet had closed. Since the arrival day was my birthday, and I am starving, I ask the front desk where we can get food. They direct us to the sleazy snack bar where flies and dripping drink dispensers are located and where our best choice there is for stale chicken nuggets! I go ballistic, of course and ask what this great upgrade we got thrown into is!??!

Over the course of our stay, we find out several things by smoozing up to the hired help. First of all one of the selling points of this resort complex is that the all-inclusive includes everything at all 3 resorts which are within short walking distance. Because of the lack of people flying into Mexico due to the over-hpye about the swine flu scare, the resort arbitrarily decides to shut down the Coba and the Tulum resorts just prior to our arrival (another local guest on May 1 got the full 3 resort treatment/amenities). This means the only amenities we have available are the 3 ala carte restaurants at the Akumal and single buffet area, and not the total of 15 dining choices of buffets and ala cartes at all 3 resorts we had promised to us when we paid for this package!

To add insult to injury, we had planned on doing ocean/surf based activities. I found that they had posted a "red flag" on the beach so that no swimming or usage of their free amenities, like snorkeling gear, Hobie Cats, surfing or any activity would be allowed for the entire time we were there. This meant we could not do activities we had planned for 4 of the 5 days we were there and were faced with the only choice left which was to sit and bake in the sun and get drunk on the all-inclusive drinks or watch Spanish TV in our room (we don't speak any Spanish). I have skin cancer problems, so sitting in the sun for 4 days without any activity is insane, of course. I found out from the Bahia diving staff that the resort put up the red flag for the enire time and even before we arrived so that the resort(s) would not have to pay for all the necessary life guards along the beach. Their easy way to eliminate that expense was to simply put up a red flag no matter what the conditions were at their beach and thus no guests would be able to utilize their "free" beach amenities and gear!! Outrageous, but true. I am from San Diego and the surf was not dangerous at all (which is exactly what the dive staff agreed - Americans also). Rolling 2 foot surf is almost calm, so the red flag posted was bogus. We found out later from guests at other resort complexes that they had no such red flag and were able to do any of the activities they wanted at their resort which was within a couple of miles of ours, with exactly the same beach contours and reefs!!

So, if you trip is to just bake in the sun at the pool and not go into the Caribbean and you don't bring your own snorkeling and scuba gear, and your favorite activity is to drink yourself into a stupor, then this may be an okay choice. But really you can do that almost anywhere in the world and for a lot less money.

This resort complax made the secret money saving decision to not tell their incoming guests of their cost saving choices to reduce staff and close most of the advertised amenities. The remaining service staff is nice, but when you pay for certain amenities and the hotel closes them all without giving you any recourse, then this is fraud, plain and simple.

Their offer to attempt to calm my outrage with a bottle of basic champagne and fruit was ludicrous. There was free (some places self-service) booze everywhere including the basic champagne and huge self-service fruit baskets at every lobby table!

Stay away or get written money back guarantees if you risk staying at the Gran Bahia Principe Akumal, Coba, or Tulum.

Upgrade my rear-end!

The hour and a half drive from the Cancun airport is not worth getting to this resort. By the way they tell you you have to get to the airport in Cancun 3 hours in advance. This is baloney as we had people on our airplane that just arrived at the airport 45 minutes before takeoff. The 3 hours is their scam to get you to waste 3 hours shopping and eating in the airport! Adjust your arrival at the airport to the numbers of people you see at the resorts. Our stay was one in which a thousand beach chairs had maybe 20 people in them!