Bahia Principe Explore Akumal

We had a swim up room in block 50 it was very central. We used the pool daily. The guest relations team in akumel were excellent especially Victoria she booked all are alcart resurants for us . She was very helpful at answering and dealing with any queries we had . I would really recommend her.Also Marco was very helpful and Laura. The entertainment team were very good doing aquafit in pools, bingo ,trivia and music pool etc.A great team making special efforts to included all nationalities. Thanks for the fun time Marianne, Alex,nemo,Oscar and all the others. The bar man in wet bar Jesus from Mexico City spoke fantastic English made great drinks and service. The reception supervisor Giovannie was very helpful at getting a good room near main building.

Title : Poor We came to Bahia Principe for a close friend's wedding, so expectations were high. It was our first time in Mexico, and the wedding itself was genuinely beautiful — but once I zoomed out from that one day, the rest of the stay was one disappointment after another, and at one point a genuinely frightening health scare that the hotel handled appallingly. Room and noise: We'd specifically booked the adult-only section to avoid being around screaming kids all day. What we didn't realise is that this section sits right at the far end of what is a genuinely huge complex, a 10-15 minute walk or drive from everything else, in what looked like the oldest building on site. The room had a damp smell from the moment we walked in, and it never really went away. We tried airing it out, opened the balcony, turned the aircon on and off, nothing worked. The mirror would steam up at random, as if someone had just showered, even though we hadn't (and we have cold showers), the sheets and pillows felt damp to the touch the whole stay, and by the time we got home, our clothes had actually picked up the dampness, they were noticeably wet when we unpacked. It was that bad. We were too exhausted from a long flight and a nearly two-hour transfer to care much at first, but the second we turned the lights off, the noise started. The walls and doors are so thin you can hear everything from one end of the corridor to the other, every arriving guest, every conversation, every door. On top of that, partway through our stay the resort started demolition work on villas near our building, so we also had construction noise and dust to deal with during the day. For an adult-only section people pay a premium for peace and quiet in, this was a real letdown. Food poisoning This is the part that matters most. On our second night, at around midnight, my partner and I were both violently ill within minutes of each other, vomiting and diarrhoea, taking turns through the night. By morning we were both in serious pain, feverish, sweating, and unable to tolerate even being touched. I hadn't been ill in ten years; there was no ambiguity about what had caused this. The only thing we'd done since arriving was eat at the hotel's restaurant. When someone from the hotel called our room the next morning, the response was bewildering. I explained I hadn't been ill in ten years and that this was clearly the food, and asked directly for charcoal to treat ourselves. Instead of just helping with that, the staff member ran through a string of generic, standard tick-box questions that had nothing to do with what I was actually asking, and never really listened to what I needed. I've asked her to let me know about refunding some days if we will be able to change our flights. She said she'd call back in ten minutes. She never did. I later dragged myself, barely able to walk, to the guest experience desk in the main building to try again in person. They were at least trying to help, they offered to order charcoal from an outside pharmacy, but wanted $80-90 for it, which I wasn't willing to pay on top of everything else, so I turned it down. Repeated food safety and labelling problems This wasn't a one-off. From day one, food at the buffets was frequently missing labels or labelled incorrectly. This became more than a minor annoyance: on two separate occasions, tuna was mislabelled as something else, and I ended up eating it without realising, which would have made my partner, who reacts badly to it, seriously unwell if he'd eaten it instead. The first time, I flagged it directly to a chef. It happened again later in the trip; that time I photographed the mislabelled dish and reported it in person to guest experience, who asked for the photo as proof. For a resort serving this many people, some with genuine allergies or intolerances, mislabelled food isn't a small thing, it's a real safety issue. Not to mention when you ask the person serving it, at the "special dish of the day area", they have to go and ask or just point you at the label (ref language barrier). Beach, pool, and general buffet experience The beach was heavily covered in seaweed for the entire stay, with staff constantly out with a tractor trying (and largely failing) to clear it. A coconut we ordered poolside tasted off, with spotty flesh, and the staff member we raised it with didn't speak enough English to really address the concern. Small things kept adding up too, one day there was a dark bread we liked on display, and after that we had to specifically ask for it, which meant waiting around 20 minutes each time while staff brought out baguettes and every other bread except the one we meant. This went on for about four days before anyone finally understood which bread we were asking for. Simple refills like watermelon could also take a long time to arrive. A la carte restaurants: near-impossible to book Before we even arrived, we tried to reserve spots at the resort's a la carte restaurants through their online system, which simply didn't work. We emailed support, and did get replies, but only after a long wait, and with no real solution. We weren't the only ones running into this either; it seemed to be a wider issue. Once on site, we had to queue in person to get on a waitlist, and it took us most of our two-week stay to get into two restaurants. The Mexican restaurant was genuinely excellent, the best meal we had all trip (the one next to the main hotel restaurant). The Italian restaurant, which we waited until 9-9.30pm for, was a real low point: we ordered parmigiana and lasagne, both of which should be oven-baked, and what arrived clearly wasn't, it was just pasta on a large plate with sauce poured over the top. We tasted it, gave feedback to our server explaining that this wasn't how the dish should be made, and left after dinner without finishing it (didn't take pictures unfortunately). Excursions and pricing Excursions booked through the resort were significantly overpriced relative to what you actually get. We were quoted around $90 for a "swim with turtles" trip; a local we met pointed us to the same general spot the locals use, where we paid roughly $20 total (I tipped on top). What we found was open water with almost no visible sea life — two turtles and a stingray. Paying $90 for that would have been a poor deal by any measure. We'd also pre-booked a dolphin encounter before the trip for around $500, sold to us as including hugging the dolphins — which, on arrival, they no longer offered. When we contacted the company afterwards, we were ignored. Even a seven-minute taxi ride from the hotel cost £20. Customer service after the fact I left my contact details with the guest relations team so someone could follow up on the illness and the compensation request once we were more able to talk it through. No one ever did. Once you've checked out, it seems nobody follows up. What was good The wedding itself was lovely (different area of the complex). One member of the pool entertainment team, a tall guy who was fantastic with the crowd, Ramon, deserves a specific mention as the best part of the resort experience itself. Overall Between the two of us, we spent around £6,000 to be there. For that kind of money, I'd expect a working booking system, responsive staff who can resolve a health emergency, food that's labelled accurately, and a beach that isn't buried in seaweed. Cancun as an area is really just one long strip of hotels, and this one didn't stand out for the right reasons. I wouldn't choose to stay here again, and given what happened with the food poisoning and how it was handled, I'd think carefully before recommending it to others, wedding venue or not. (I have some videos of the construction work around our accommodation but am unable to upload them here.)

Food and restaurant staff need to be updated. Will never go back.

This was a lovely hotel, it was very clean a little tired in some public areas. Check in staff were very helpful and friendly as was all other members of staff who work there. The food was plentiful, but I was a little bit disappointed with the breakfast menu but you have to remember they cater for mostly mexican/Spanish food in other words don't expect the baked beans your used to but you get used to it, they do like their surgery food everything has sugar in it so expect to put a bit of weight on. The pools were lovely but we didn't go much on the infinity pool and it was deeper but you need to make up your own mind on that one and it's adult only. Next to Tulum family hotel is the hacienda, the Sian Karn is a adult only and smaller and quieter but the Japanese restaurant was lovely then you have the Cobra and Tequila 2 minutes from the Akumal, if you want something with a mexican feel then the Tequila is for you and the newest hotel it's adult only and the party place although we loved the Akumal it lacked the mexican feel but it was quite at night time so you could get some sleep As we booked this hotel we were aloud to visit and eat at all of the sister hotels, we booked 6/7 al a cart restaurants and most of them were small portions but very tasty but as we understand you will be limited to only 3 per week come November. We booked 4 trips with TUI chichen itza (very early start) which is better but a long day (we recommend), escaret park another early start but recommend, Garrafon park for the dolphins ( recommend) and the last one was the monkey sanctuary and quad bikes, we arrived at this one only to be refused entry as they said we had only paid for one double buggy instead of two, we had paid for two but the way TUI had printed the receipt the office staff at the sanctuary refused to acknowledge it even though we had tried to explain the wording, we did speak to the rep but didn't get any joy with him so will be taking it further now we're back in the UK, we believe it was down to the language barrier, we're just so disappointed we didn't get to do the trip. Over all we enjoyed Mexico and if we get the chance we would go again.

Not what it use to be Overall, our third visit to Bahia Principe Akumal and its sister resorts was okay—not terrible, but just okay. It used to be amazing and was once our go-to destination. Unfortunately, inconsistent service across the different resorts, declining food quality and availability, aggressive sales tactics, and lower-quality drinks changed our opinion of the property. Combined with what felt like less attention to detail and a shift toward a more basic, tiered resort experience, this visit did not live up to our previous stays. I also want to clarify that staying at Akumal gives guests access to the other Bahia Principe resorts and their buffets. Some information online may be inaccurate or outdated, so guests should confirm the current access policies directly with the resort. The room upgrades are a nice feature, but the bed in our room was extremely hard for our liking. Our first five days were excellent, when occupancy appeared to be relatively low. However, as occupancy increased, management seemed unprepared to provide adequate staff coverage. The swim-up bartenders were being overworked, and the staff-to-guest ratio clearly was not adjusted to meet the increased demand. Many employees, particularly those working in the restaurants, remained hardworking and exceptional. At the same time, the level of service was inconsistent. For example, at Cenote in Sian Ka’an, the staff appeared extremely overworked, even though the restaurant was not full. The wait was much longer than what we experienced during previous visits. Although this was only one experience, it reflected our broader impression that service levels varied considerably depending on the venue and the day. Food quality and availability also seemed inconsistent. Some items we had previously enjoyed were no longer available. They used to serve mashed potatoes made with real potatoes, but they now appear to be using boxed potatoes. The chocolate milk also used to taste like real chocolate milk; now, I honestly do not know what it is. Ku’uk was excellent when we visited one day. However, when we returned later that week, both the food and service were extremely disappointing. The difference was significant enough to make it feel like an entirely different restaurant. Several buffets have also been replaced by à la carte restaurants serving relatively basic food. We cannot say for certain why these changes were made, but they felt more like cost-cutting measures than improvements to the guest experience. We are also concerned that the Hyatt partnership may be moving Bahia toward a more tiered model, potentially undermining the inclusive atmosphere and value that originally appealed to us. We truly appreciate the employees who continued to work hard and treat guests well. However, based on our personal experiences and observations, the resort’s consistency and attention to detail have deteriorated since our earlier visits. We genuinely wish this stay had impressed us as much as our previous visits, but sadly, it did not. Despite our fond memories of Bahia, we left feeling like we had missed out on the experience we expected for the price we paid. We respect that everyone’s experiences and preferences are different, and others may disagree. However, we will not be rushing back to Bahia as we once would have. This was simply our experience. If you are planning to visit, I still encourage you to go and form your own opinion—it is just no longer what it used to be for us.