Bahia Principe Explore Akumal

The rooms were great and the property, pools, etc were nice and well maintained. But nothing about the experience felt premium. It felt like they were trying to provide an inclusive experience for the least cost possible. The cups were small and felt like cheap plastic. They rationed you to two towels when you were at the pool. They only had two types of beer, and all the bars had advertisements where you could pay for premium beers. The food overall was poor in quality, and they kept running out of items at the buffet. Ending on a positive: One advantage of staying at the Akmul is that you can choose among any of the restaurants and facilities of the Bahai Principe Resorts. We went over to the Bahai Principe Tulum, and we found their buffet to be much nicer. We found it to had some really great kids' facilities.

I first visited this hotel 15 years ago, I have been to other hotels since, supposedly more up market ones, but we now have kids and wanted to return to this hotel as we loved it the first time. I joined a Facebook group after booking ànd after reading lots of negative reviews nearly cancelled. Thank god I didn’t!!!! Staring at the beginning, Cancun airport is not quick at unloading bags but once we retrieved this we got in our private transfer. As you’re an hour and a half from the airport ànd after a 10 hour flight with 2 kids I felt it worth the money. We arrived at the hotel and was greeted by lovely staff and a drink. We were offered a swim up room in block 50 and when we got there, were blown away! It’s gorgeous ànd immaculate with all the toiletries you need. À minibar ànd towels galore. We opted for room Service as were knackered and the kids didn’t want to leave the pool to get ready to go out to eat. Came quickly ànd was nice. The whole hotel is beautiful, clean, the gardens are immaculate. The only Thing that lets it done is the beach at the moment. Seaweed is a real issue, the staff work hard to get it cleared at Akumel so there is a nice beach area but the nicer beach (in my opinion) at Tulum is unusable. I’m not a beach person so this didn’t bother me at all but if you are this may be an issue for you. There are so many pools all with their own pros. My kids loved the coba one as there were more kids there to play with, Small splash park and the entertainment team were lovely. Antonio ànd Ronaldo were fab. Some lovely cocktails at the bar too ànd again lovely staff. For kids with younger children there is also a nice splash park and park at Tulum. I’ve got to say the temporary tattoo Guy at coba is fab as well. My daughter got one on her hand that was beautiful! We ate at all the buffets and did not have a problem with choice on any occasion. Didn’t manage to eat at all the à la carte’s but the ones we did were nice. We did 2 day trips, Xel Ha ànd X Plor. Xel ha was 400 peso in à taxi ànd Xplor 850 and the staff at the main door will order these for you . Both days out are amazing! We did a taxi to get there for opening as they are full days ànd still struggle to fit it all in. The buggy’s around the resort are frequent so there’s no problem getting around. The main thing I love about this hotel is the feel of the place. There’s just a happy vibe, everyone is lovely! Reception, maintenance, Entertainment team, chefs, restaurant staff, cleaners….literally everyone works so hard to make the place what it is ànd we loved it! We were so sad to leave! I understand some people have been returning for years and there’s been cut backs on loyalty perks or whatever but honestly I couldn’t find a thing to complain about. No the hotel isnt running at full capacity at the moment but I loved it being quieter! Waking up in that beautiful hotel in that stunning country amongst all its nature was a blessing! So thank you Gran Bahia for the best 2 weeks! We really hope to be back soon!

On one of our first nights at the resort (Sunday, August 27th at 8:30pm), we had 8 of our friends and family together for dinner, but only 7 of us were able to make a reservation for dinner at the Katok steakhouse in Akumal. So we asked the concierge if it would be possible to add him to our party and he said if we just bring him with us, they should allow him if we buy a bottle of wine, which aligns with what I've read online about reservations. We said no problem at all, we can do that. So we show up to the restaurant and immediately the hostess said it's not possible to add our friend at all. So we mention what the concierge said, and then the hostess consults the manager and after some discussion, she comes back and says "Okay fine we can add him if you buy a bottle of wine" and hands us a wine menu and walks away while we choose. A lot of us are not big wine drinkers so we just choose one that was not too expensive (~$35), but not the cheapest either. She comes back and we tell her which wine we would buy, and she looks at it, thinks a second and says "You'll have to choose one of the more expensive ones". We thought that was strange because no one mentioned anything about a price minimum, and at this point we start to feel like this manager is trying to squeeze more money out of us. However since we had no choice because we weren't going to have a single friend of ours not eat with our party, we ask which wine would "qualify." She shows us a selection of wines that have a sign that say they're on sale for 20% off and a price of 900 pesos (about $53 USD). We reluctantly agree, and finally sit down to enjoy dinner. As soon as we're done eating, the manager walks up with a digital check and asks us to sign this authorization for the charge and shows us the screen to sign, but the screen she's presenting doesn't have any dollar amount on it as it's on the final acceptance screen. We ask if she can go back a screen just so we can see the charge amount, and she hesitates very strangely and acts like she doesn't know how to go back even though the "Back" button is clearly on the screen. So we ask her to click the back button and she finally does after hesitating, and when it goes back to the charge amount, it shows $1,200 pesos. We immediately question her and she stumbles a response saying "It's okay it will be adjusted automatically before you get charged at check out." We're super suspicious at this point but we don't want to make a scene or be upset with our friends there so we just agree and leave the restaurant. Fast forward to the end of our trip. As we're checking out, the front desk lady [Note: We were actually staying at Escape Tequila, so this is at the front desk at Tequila] lets us know the total for charges, and unsurprisingly, the charge amount billed? $1,200 pesos. At this point we're so frustrated at how hard they're attempting to over charge us that we simply ask them to fix the charge so we can leave as our shuttle is waiting for us. The front desk lady says she can't adjust the overcharge unless the manager is here, and that will take about 30 minutes, which conveniently is too much time for us to wait, so at that point we just tell them we're going to have to chargeback with our bank because that is not what we agreed on paying. As soon as we mentioned the chargeback, the front desk lady suddenly and conveniently says she can just call the manager on her radio and adjust the price herself, showing that she lied about the 30 minute wait because she knew our shuttle was waiting and that we wouldn't be able to wait for it and would just pay it. So as soon as she admitted the "mistake" I asked her, "Okay so after all these attempts to overcharge us, do we at least get some kind of courtesy discount as an apology?" The lady didn't even look up from her computer as she simply responded "No." No apology, no sympathetic tone, just a simple "No." All our friends and family were so shocked and me and my fiancé were so embarrassed that we spoke so highly of this place and to see the employees treat us like that was so upsetting, especially considering the resort has so many other great employees. Chris the concierge was amazing, as was Eric as the pool entertainer, as well as many other employees. Overall, everything else at the resort was great. It was just the Katok restaurant manager and the Tequila front desk clerk that single handedly ruined the experience over such a trivial amount of money. My fiancé and I are repeat customers of Bahia Principe. The first time we visited, we stayed at the Grand Coba. We loved it so much that we came back again and upgraded to Sian Kaan. We loved that even more so that we decided that we have to bring our family and friends the next time to share the experience with us when Escape Tequila opened. This time, it would be for a very special occasion. Not only were we going for my 40th birthday, but I would propose to my girlfriend this trip. I asked her to marry me on your very own beach on the 29th in front of Akumal since this resort was so special to us. We had heard rumors that things had changed when Hyatt took over Bahia Principe, but my fiancé and I chose to go anyways hoping the changes wouldn't be noticeable or detrimental. During the week we were there, the changes were mostly not noticeable, except for this incident. A single restaurant manager and the handling of this situation afterwards really upset us to the point of questioning if we should ever come back, which is so heartbreaking because after our engagement, we fully intended on having our destination wedding on the very same beach I proposed to her on. But the last thing I want is my friends and family being scammed by the employees here during a wedding of mine, like we were planning earlier. Now we are researching different resorts for our wedding that won't try those selling techniques over the smallest amount of money. We never wanted to be treated like royalty as repeat customers, but we definitely didn't think we would be treated like this.

We came to Bahía Príncipe Akumal from the 27 July to the 14 August 2026. (Sorry for delay in posting this review) We came back here for our 30th Wedding Anniversary, we have had the best time. The location was on the beach,, pool bar, swimming pools just top notch. TUI had requested close to amenities as I have mobility issues and our room could have been place better. We had a room on the ground floor that had been recently renovated and was beautiful. We ate at nearly all the restaurants on site and love all of them apart from the smoke as the beef had arteries in it yuk. The everyday restaurants at Akumal and Tulum were great. The food was a bit touch and go at the beginning but a few days in it was good. The staff were amazing and so helpful, Nathaneal on from reception, Guest Service Victoria, Laura and Italia and Guadeloupe I could just keep going . We did our best to speak Spanish and everyone taught us a little bit more each day. What a beautiful place we really didn’t want to come home after 17 nights. Thank you everyone 😁

Been here on 3 previous occasions, this is why we booked again for this year, I have been to Mexico on 14 occasions at different hotels and I can honestly say this is now the worst holiday experience I have experienced in Mexico. The 14 Restaurants advertised only 3 open a time, international drinks advertised but not available. Bars closed they even ran out of Fanta for the kids, no pool towels the buffet food was shocking empty trays not being replenished juice bar never open, no Fries for the kids, cheap food to fill the spaces 6 trays of scrambled eggs for breakfast but no bacon, butter replaced with margarine, no tomato sauce, 20 minute wait for yogurt, our family lasted 4 days here and we then paid £3700 to move hotels, we went to the Gand Serenis a lovely hotel what the Akumal used to be like. If you are booked in to the Baha Príncipe resort, I would recommend you read reviews and look elsewhere you will be disappointed.