Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

14548 reviews

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  Great hotels with very good service & very clean.

  My wife sister & I just returned from a 1-week trip, from August 30, 2025 to September 6, 2025, to the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal Resort. We have been to several all-inclusive resorts in Riviera Maya, MX (Iberostar, Grand Palladium & Barcelo Maya), Jamaica (Sandals) & Punta Cana (Iberostar & Bahia Principe) & this one did not disappoint! Overall, we all had an excellent experience from start to finish! We were very lucky with weather with it being sunny and hot everyday with no rain! We were a little concerned with weather since it is in their rainy season. Now for the pros in cons. PROS: The entire facility & sister resorts were very well maintained & super clean. We stayed in the adults only section by the infinity pool in building 83. We were able to pre-check-in using their app prior to arriving at the resort so it made the check-in process very streamlined & seamless. We arrived around 2:30pm & our rooms were ready by 3pm! Rooms were well appointed & modern. Beds & couch were very comfortable. Air conditioning & hot water worked the best of anywhere I have stayed. Room service was prompt & available 24/7. Minifridge was stocked with 2-3 beers, soft drinks, water & 4-small bottles of liquor. Room came with a complimentary small bottle of tequila as well. Maid service was very good & responded well to special requests. The resorts internal transportation was great! You never had to wait long to catch a tram to the lobby or to another resort. The trams ran from around 7am - 2am so no issues with staying out late. The staff was constantly cleaning common areas, bathrooms & the pool areas. Definitely one of the cleanest resorts we have stayed at. Buffet food was good & had a good variety. The food was fresh, the eating areas well maintained & no issues with insects. Our favorite a la carte restaurant, out of the four we were able to book, was the Japanese restaurant at the Akumal. The Italian restaurant was very good as well. The Ku'uk was probably my least favorite. We tipped our pool service waitress $5 USD each morning & received excellent service everyday with drinks & cups of ice to refill our Yeti's delivered regularly without having to ask. Pool & beach bars were plentiful & provided good service. We really liked the beach bars with the swings! Concierges were very helpful & friendly. We were asked several times to do a 90-minute presentation for the Bahia Principe Privilege Club, but they were not too pushy. CONS/COMMENTS: Some of the cons were there was a lot of seaweed on the beach, in particular by the infinity pool when we first arrived. When you go to the end to look over edge to the beach & ocean it was very smelly. In their defense I know this is Mother Nature's fault & their staff worked hard to clean up sections so you could use the beach & go in the ocean by the main pool. Probably one of our biggest issues was with the availability to get reservations at the a la carte restaurants. We found out that you are able to book your reservations up to 10 days prior to checking into your hotel using their app. We had a little difficulty linking my sister's room with ours to book reservations for three, so we did not book until 2-3 days before arriving. Most of the restaurants were 100% booked the entire week like the Katok Steakhouse & Brazilian restaurant. The restaurants we were able to book we had to settle for earlier times like 5:30pm or late times at 9pm+. I would highly recommend that you book the first day it is open on the app. We talked to another couple that was able to book 14 days prior. We did have a little bit of bad swim up bar service at the Grand Principe Tulum that I had to wait over 25 minutes to be served even though I was standing right in front of the bartender with my Yeti cup with it's lid off & made eye contact several times! He kept serving new people around me so not sure what the issue was. Seemed a little anti-American. Other than that experience the bar service was pretty good. The Tulum did not have pool service & was not as nice as the main pool at the Akumal so we stayed at the main pool at our resort the rest of our trip. The main pool at the Akumal was very nice & extensive but was divided into several sections even though there were several bridges but under the bridge was cement, so you had to exit the pool to get to different sections which was odd & a little inconvenient since they appeared to be connected. Adult Infinity Pool was very low key, no music, very small bar & older clientele so we only went to it our first short day. We like the pools that are more upbeat with activities & music. Most of the swim-up & beach bars close at 5pm sharp which we thought was a little early. The only other thing we felt the resorts lacked in was the overall quality of their activities & shows. They had daily water fitness class, water polo, water volleyball, beach volleyball & a few other games for guests during the day but the evening activities choices were very limited. It was difficult to find out what was going on at the other resorts short of going to the resort & taking a picture of their activity's boards. We found out later from another guest that you can go to the front desk & they would print out a list of activities at each resort the week. They had two shows/events that you had to pay an extra 500 pesos per person to attend which we thought should be included like most of the other resorts we stayed at. They had an 80s show that was pretty good, a silent disco which was a first but fun, karaoke night & a trivia night but overall quality was pretty low. There was supposed to be a disco, but it ended up just being a DJ playing some music at the la Hacienda shopping area courtyard & one small open-door bar for drinks. They had a nice sport's bar, but it did not serve any appetizers or food which was odd? Most other resorts I have been to with sports bar usually has a small buffet with pizza, sliders, chicken, nachos, etc. so you could get a snack while watching your favorite sport with a drink. FINAL NOTES: Top notch cleanliness, good quality food at the buffets & a la carte restaurants. Overall great service by their staff, nice beaches, ample pool/beach seating, especially at the Akumal. Their activities & shows could use improvement. We would definitely recommend & will probably eventually return but probably will try a few other resorts first.

  Sep 08, 2025
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  You get what you pay for !!!

  The STAFF is absolutely fantastic, restaurant are a hit & miss, so are the bars. Some of the rooms have been recently renovated (make sure you request one on these) most of the ocean front rooms are OLD & DATED in very much need of remodeling, defimetely NOT luxury. We stayed in villa 66 (8-31-9/7/25) in it looks at least 20 years old. Best experiece was at the Sian Kaan pools and restaurant, this hotel in NOT on the beach, but much nicer that the Akumal. The best food and service was at the Alux restaurant which is in the Sian Kaan hotel. Please do not EXPECT gourmet meals at most restaurant, "I know Michelin restaurants, have had the 'pleasure" of eating on at least 20 of them !!!" WE get what we pay for!!!

  Sep 08, 2025
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  Great Stay, 1 Week in the Jungle

  We stayed at this hotel for 1 week in September and would definitely come back. Don’t let all of the building works put you off coming as this didn’t disrupt our stay at all, if anything it made it better as the hotel wasn’t at full capacity. If you enjoy seeing wildlife then this is the hotel for you, everywhere you look there is exotic animals. Having access to all of the other hotels is good and meant we had plenty of choice to decide where to eat and drink on a nighttime. Only downfall to this hotel is the need for booking a la carte restaurants so far in advance. There was no flexibility at all for changing times and reception didn’t allow us to change any timings with the bookings we had. This was an issue as someday trips took all day and you were rushing to get ready on an evening or having to cancel a reservation. Hugo the trip advisor in the hotel for excursions was brilliant and made all of our trips with Cancun Adventures seem VIP with private transfers and exclusive small groups at busy hotspots. Cushions around the main pool area on a nighttime could have improved comfort if we were being picky, but lots of other areas to relax. Sea food restaurant was poor service as we pretty much got forgotten about and waited 1 hour just for our drinks order to be taken. We were booked for 7:30pm and others who had reservations at 8:30pm had gotten served before us. All of the other restaurants were brilliant though!

  Sep 08, 2025
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  First trip to Mexico but would return!

  First time to Mexico and we absolutely loved it. Food Lots of choices for food, I am vegetarian and didn’t go without although not everything was clearly labelled. I felt this could be improved particularly those who may have allergies. We booked the restaurants through the app prior to going on holiday and had no real issues. Sometimes the service could be a little slow and wasn’t always full in restaurants despite saying it was full on the reservations. I would put this down to the hotel undergoing renovations and having less staff. We were able to use the other Bahia resorts which was a nice touch. Cocktails Cocktails were fabulous and always someone to come and take your order. We did find the cocktails were not always consistent though but some of the best I’ve had. They were always happy to make whatever you wanted even if it wasn’t on the menu. Only downside was the swim up bar closed earlier than anticipated. Cleanliness We found the resort to be spotless and staff were always working tirelessly to keep the resort clean. Staff Most were very friendly, even the ones that weren’t so friendly weren’t really that bad. Most staff were super helpful with helping us get taxis and the little carts that take you around and between the resorts. Rooms We stopped in the adults only block and we had a lovely room, although sometimes you could hear noise from people in the morning or evening when leaving or entering their rooms but nothing too unsettling. Pools Variety of pools, we didn’t spend too much time with the adults only pool just because it caught the wind and was a bit cooler. We did however use the main pool and the pool with the swim up bar virtually everyday. Restaurants Abundance of restaurants. We didn’t use them all due to not being a fan of all the cuisines. We did use thali and katok and the buffet restaurant, coffee shop and snack bar quite regularly. The snack bar on a night could have slow service which was disappointing but then on some nights it was much quicker. Hacienda We visited the hacienda which is like a little village on the resort. There were lots of shops but you can haggle. We didn’t use them all but the market stalls you can haggle. There’s a pharmacy and tattoo shop and a little convince shop selling drinks and snacks. We also went to the fiesta on our last night which was an additional charge and although it rained it was still great fun. Would I stay again? Yes. Me and my partner loved it and would like to return.

  Sep 04, 2025
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  Amazing hotel with amazing food

  Just returned from a 2 week all inclusive holiday, we have had the most amazing time. Transfer time from Cancun airport approx 1.5 hours with Tui transfer. Hotel very clean. Rooms spacious although some rooms are being renovated at present this did not effect our stay, we had junior suit room for 2 adults and 1 child. Our bed was massive so comfortable many pillows AC in room, cleaned daily with shower gel, shampoo and conditioner available, plenty of wardrobe and drawer space, TV balcony with ocean view beautiful 😍 Pools as a luxury stay you can use any of the 4 sister hotels amenities 1 is adults only we didn't use this one but did visit others we found Akhmal was the quietist due to the Renovations, loungers available even after 9am, pools cleaned every morning, towels available, pool and beach bar amazing staff amazing. Ensure you pop in to each of the hotels and view their entertainment schedules we did this to mix things up. Foam party at Tullum on a Sunday Food One of the best buffets I have ever been too food was delicious staff amazing we did 2 al la carts 1 italian and the Brazilian. Brazilian not to be missed. We enjoyed the buffet that much we cancelled the rest of our a la carte reservations. Check in via the Bahia app 10 days before and book your restaurants reservations. Used room service once good service again menu on the app just allow 45 mins for it to arrive. Beach Although there is seaweed the staff are there from 630am clearing this away they work very hard, again didn't effect us were still able to snorkel and swim, beautiful beach. There is a Facebook page with lots of tips and info for travelling we had loads of tips off this. The Mexican fiesta and the origen show is well worth it the fiesta being my favourite. You can book trips, shows,water sports and coco bongo direct at the hotel

  Aug 31, 2025