I just got back from Gran Bahia Principe Akumal last night and it was so good, I had to write about it right away today, which is a first for me. The nine people in our party represented a variety of lifestyles - a single guy, a married couple without kids, a young family of four with a three and four year old and senior citizens - and we all had a great time! I read in Budget Travel that the key to family vacations is finding a place where there's lots of things you CAN do, but very few things you HAVE to do....well, Akumal is that place.
Service - The staff here is great! I was especially impressed with our rep Joel - from Traffic Tours. He hooked our group up with Chichen Itza and deep sea fishing excursions and always smiled and asked what we were up to in the lobby. I'm in sales, so I was impressed by his ease, friendliness and helpfulness. And the activities staff - especially Joaquin - were so fantastic! Joaquin took a family photo for us and made a point to chat with us. That's going above and beyond the call of duty in my book and it made us feel extremely welcome. The tram drivers were also excellent and helpful.
Room and Resort Layout- We stayed in Villa 76, which looks far away on the map but isn't bad. They have golf cart trams that pick you up every few minutes if you do find it unmanageable. Our villa was close to Coba resort as well, which made it easy to catch the tram to the Coba attractions, explore their pools etc. The rooms were large - at several points we had 6 or 7 of us in one room, chatting, drinking mini-bar beers etc - and it didn't feel cramped. Some of the reviews have mentioned a slight mildew smell, which I noticed too. But it was much worse on the humid days, so I assume this is just a natural part of staying in the tropics. The views were great to watch the setting sun and bustling resorts. The furnishigs are a little dated, but who cares? You're not here to look at your bedspread, just to enjoy a nice cup of coffee on the balcony or a cold beer from the mini bar before dinner.
Food - We found plenty to enjoy here. The main buffet at Akumal was good, but as previous reviewers have stated, we found the Coba buffet to have a slightly better selection at dinnertime, especially for the kids. (They're picky and Coba had peanut butter sandwiches, more cookies, chocolate milk more often etc.) They have cute plastic kids plates at all the resorts, which the kids looked forward to. Breakfasts were great at the main buffet - be sure to pour yourself a mimosa while you eat! If you're in a hurry or don't want to wait in line for an omlet, breakfast at La Dolca Vita near the activities pool is great. It closes at 10:30 am, but it's close to the pools and beach and is much less crowded. We also ate at the Snack Bar, which is handy if you don't want to put a cover-up on over your bathing suit. We had two a la carte dinners, so my husband and I went to Mikado (Japanese) and La Gran Tortuga (Brazilian Steakhouse). We enjoy sushi and have visited Japan, and we thought the rolls - especially the salmon - at Mikado were top notch. For our main course, we had the chicken and filet mingon from the grill and the filet was incredible. They excell at cooking meat at this resort! The meat at La Gran Tortuga - served at the table on giant swords until you feel like you might explode - was fantastic as well. The only thing that was a little strange was the rice seemed to be a bit undercooked at all the resorts.
Beaches, Pools - We went to Coba beach and two different locations on Akumal beach and loved it all! It was a little rocky in places, but water shoes were not necessary. The kids didn't have a problem! The sand is fine and you can see lots of fish in the water, especially in the lagoon created by the breakers. If you like a lot of action, sit in front of the buffet at Akumal, which is right near the Coba beach sign. There's a big wood dock with a platform where they do yoga, water aerobics (which will tire you out - in a good way!) and a bar very close for refreshments. If you'd rather veg, Akumal is more mellow. If you want a palapa, send somebody out with towels around 7:30. (You're not supposed to reserve chairs, but everybody does.) If you want a beach chair in full sun, you have until about 9:30. Otherwise, just head up and grab vacant chairs when the lunch rush hits about 11:00ish. We never had a problem grabbing three for four chairs to put our things on. We swam in both Akumal pools and really enjoyed the activities pool. People in our group did zumba, water polo and water volleyball and we could keep the kids in the kiddie pool (which is attached). The sunbathers liked the afternoon sun there too!
Nighttime Activities- I'd really recommend headed to Coba to catch the shows. The Friday night show featured an aeralist and singers and dancers, and they were fantastic. We caught the Michael Jackson tribute show on Sunday night and guy that played Michael was just okay, but the troupe of six back-up dancers stole the show. I've acted professionally and I'm hard to impress! The sets are chintzy, but they're extremely talented. The kids disco is boring - just kids dancing for 20 minutes - but they do a big kids show on Friday nights that looked interesting. We went to the Disco at the Hacienda and were pleasantly surprised. It's small and not fancy or anything, but they played a great mix of music - dub step, hip-hop, pop, bhangra and reggaeton and a cumbia now and then - which was fantastic to dance to. We went Friday night and the crowd was young and the floor was packed. We talked to a girl that went another night and she said the opposite, so maybe it depends on the day? Ask around. If nothing else, it's worth it to head to the shops around 10 or 11, before the disco opens, and see what's shaking on the plaza there.
Overall Vibe - I tend to gravitate towards urban vacations and was scared that this resort would be full of entitlted, sunburned white people demanding that people speak English, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It had a very international feel - we chatted with a lot of Canadians, but ran into people from Poland, France, Italy, Argentina, Spain and England as well, which was refreshing. There was a great mix of people and everybody seemed interested in interacting and having a good time. My husband and I had our honeymoon at Aventura Spa Palace just down the road and that was so focused on American honeymooners like ourselves that we actually felt like we were intruding on people's dates all the time. At Gran Bahia, I didn't get that vibe at all. People seemed to enjoy their food, their relaxation and their drinks, without being insular or going all spring break crazy.
All in all, we had a fantastic time, and I'd go back in a second!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
