TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We recently Travelled to the resort for New year and I was blown away by the level of customer service it was amazing! My son is only 3 and has very strict dietary needs, in the lead up to us arriving the hotel management team liaised with myself via email and understood and met all the requests we made. We arrived at the hotel quite late at night but was greeted by a wonderful lady called Victoria who became our personal point of call for anything we needed for my son, she was available 24/7 via WhatsApp. She arranged a meet and greet the next morning With the hotel manager and the executive chef who talked us through how all my sons meals would be prepared during our stay and he ensured everyone would be aware so no need to worry when going into the restaurants, they also let me bring my own food into the hotel as they couldn’t provide certain brands etc, they stored and prepared everything as requested to meet our needs. All the staff went above and beyond and was a credit to the hotel I would highly recommend the resort for anyone who has children with complex needs as they provided so much care and attention to detail to ensure we had the most relaxing enjoyable stay possible. We will 100% go back again and look forward to it the hotel did not disappoint at all!

Overall we had a wonderful experience, it had everything we needed for a week, and we would go back. The atmosphere is family friendly and laid-back, not a party scene. *What follows are in-depth about our experience for those who like details. Really all my complaints/suggestions are very minor. 9.5 out of 10 *Warm water, sandy, shallow areas, and lots of room on the beach *It's a huge resort and I'm guessing not close to full, so there was room, food, service, towels, shows, transport, etc for everyone. *The pools are very cold, much colder than the ocean. Hardly anyone was in them. This would be #2 on my improvement list. *Drinks are generally good. Bartender skills/knowledge vary, but they are willing to take directions. They are not full strength at the all-inclusive price, but when you start drinking at 10 in the morning this is not a bad thing. *There is a lot of variety at the buffet, and quality is always okay, occasionally a dish was very good. Labels for food were often missing, wrong, or in the wrong place. If I was to pick my #1 thing for the resort to improve this would be it. Very frustrating not to know what the food is or to have to ask all the time! *Give yourself time to get around. The resort is big, and restaurants may be on the Coba side. There are various shuttles with different routes. A few maps exist with route names/numbers, but don't expect the shuttles to have those names/numbers on them. Ask the drivers. *A la carte restaurants -keep your expectations low: Teppanyaki Japanese, Hindu Thali, and Le Gourmet were good. Tequila Mexican wasn't much different from the buffet Mexican. Maybe it's regional differences, but I enjoy the Mexican restaurants at home, and what I had at the Cancun airport, much more than the resort. *Housekeeping cleanliness was good enough, but we had to ask specifically for some basic things like refilling as the tissue box, doors were not wiped, floors not wiped, and sheets were strangely not covering the foot of the bed. *Some quirks like bathroom light sensors positioned so that they turn off either very quickly (room) or while you're still standing at a pew (lobby); many unlabelled light switches. *Our bathroom was not a room, just slightly separated from the sleeping area. Toilet has its own stall, but the door is glass, and not quite mirrored enough. Ask questions about your room if you're not intimate with your roommates. *The environment feels safe, but use the in-room safe, keep valuables secure, and don't flash wads of cash like a woman in front of me at the pool bar line up with a thick stack of USD. *Shows: We enjoyed the Black Bird Beatles musical, and each of us liked at least parts of the Origen show. The Fiesta Mexicana was a pleasant surprise if you get into the spirit of it. Be prepared for limited food options and long lines. If you are a vegetarian or have other dietary requirements, it might be a plan to eat at the buffet before you go. *Activities: we joined the bike tour a couple of times, with different leaders and it was a different experience. A nice way to get out and around. There seems to be a good variety of things to do but we didn't try anything else. *Staff were almost all lovely and keen. Of course there are always a couple of people who are more bored or dialing it in. Knowing a few words of Spanish helps a lot. Most staff spoke and understood enough English, but sometimes it required talking to someone else. Some strange behaviours like asking us twice whether we wanted coffee but not actually bringing it. *The BP app for information and registration is clunky and incomplete. For example, we registered for our shows, and it showed the location for some but not all. This would be my #3 area for improvement: an orientation, guidebook, information, communication, labels, signage, etc. *The alignment between the resort and the tour agency and the transportation company was not very good. The resort could do more to provide information about available resources on site. *People were generally well behaved, but there are those who smoke in crowds and lines, don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom, hold up their phones for long periods during shows, go ahead of others who have been waiting to take spots on the shuttles, think that we all want to listen to their music on the beach, etc. The resort could help by establishing, communicating, and gently enforcing norms. *I had been to the BP Grand Akumal several years ago so I knew what to expect. If you just reduce your expectations a tiny bit you will have lots of room to be pleasantly surprised. I would call this 4 star by most standards, not 5. *We had both been to the area before and were looking for a recharge so we didn't feel a need to leave the resort. There are some shops if you want souvenirs, and they seemed to be of good quality, but expect tourist prices.

I would like to preface comments by mentioning that I read many mixed reviews on Tripadvisor regarding the Bahia Principe Grand Tulum. There were many reviews that were not complimentary of the resort and it actually had us quite concerned and wondering if we had booked the right resort for our stay. I had never seen such mixed reviews on Tripadvisor before. Usually, a person can weed out certain reviews in order to get to a place where you feel comfortable either booking your stay or not. Our concerns regarding the resort dissipated upon check in. The following is our review: We found the entrance to the hotel Tulum to be very nice and nicely laid out. Check-in was seamless. We used their app prior to our arrival which helped. We also booked our restaurants through their app prior to our arrival since we had heard that the ala carte restaurants fill up quickly, which they did. We tried to change the time on one of our reservations after our arrival and the restaurants were booked solid so it was good that we made our reservations before arriving at the resort via the app. We were probably in our room 10 minutes after arrival at the hotel . Check-in staff were friendly and efficient. We found the resort to be large, however, if you are in relatively good health, it is easily walkable. We found the food at the buffet to be very good. Good variety. Staff were always on top of things keeping the food trays full. Staff were always friendly and helpful. We ate at four ala carte restaurants: If you stay at Tulum, you can access restaurants that are both at the Tulum and Coba. Which we did. Don Pablo (Tulum) which was very good. It is more of a fine dining experience. Tequila (Tulum) was very good. It is more of upbeat, party atmosphere, buffet style. La Gourmet (Coba), was good. Soup and salad were good, however, the shrimp and tomato based dish was flavorless. Mikado (Coba), was very good, however, we thought that they had to many people around the grill which made for a crowded experience. There are 3 pools at Tulum: The main pool is the party pool with a swim up bar. We spend some time here, however, we spent most of our time at the adult pool, which has a nice music list playing (could turn up the volume) and it is right next to the beach. There is a good combination of beds and loungers. There is no rush to get to the pool to get a lounger or a bed. We found that if we were there by 9:30 a.m. that we had no problem getting loungers. We thought that they could have served a light lunch at the adult pool. Enrique, the bartender, at the adult pool was excellent. Always greeted you with a smile and friendly conversation. We enjoyed some of the entertainment. Some shows you were required to pay for $20.00 US per person. (we didn't attend any of these events so we can't provide comments as to quality of the shows) All the bars made good drinks and the red and white wines were decent. We read some complaints that drinks were watered down and of low quality. That was not our experience. We thought that the quality of alcohol was mid-shelf and good. (if people wanted top shelf they had to pay extra). We thought that was fair. The facility was always clean and the washrooms were regularly attended to. We felt that the hotel took hygiene very seriously during our stay. Check out was seamless. We would definitely return to this resort and recommend it to our friends. P.S. When you arrive at the Cancun, bypass Margaritaville for a Margarita unless you would like to pay $56.00 US per person. We shook our heads and walked away after the fellow told us the cost. Cancun is no longer reasonable as it was a few years back. Wait until you get to your resort. Also, we would suggest booking an authorized taxi or limo service once you arrive in Cancun to take you to our resort. We did not and we had to wait at the bus for an hour until everyone arrived and then it took another 3 1/2 hours to get to our resort. We could have been at our resort 3 hours sooner if we had arranged for our own transportation.

The food was amazing! Definitely book a dinner here. Great service! Our waiter Bentura was such an amazing person really enjoyed meeting him and he provided the best customer service by far on the resort.

Very beautiful green resort. Some animals in the area which we liked a lot. Beautiful pool but a little bit cold. Food is very good and you can book a la carte restaurants at Coba hotel as well. Stuff is very friendly, animation team is very good. Nice with disco at pool in the evenings. . Origins show was good. Big minus is that Grand Tulum doesnt have a beach, you can take a trolley( long waiting time) to Coba hotels beach (not great beach but something), dont forget swimming shoes, rocks everywhere. We had many very small insects in our room. Overall we had a good time but wouldn' t come back because it is important to have a great beach at resort for oss.