The Grand Bahia Akumal resort is a great resort to visit if you’re looking for a friendly luxury experience without breaking the bank. Look no further with its great buffet food, even better Gourmet a la carte restaurants, beautiful beaches and a perfect pool layout with too many amenities to mention. Close to some of the best excursions, You are all set for a relaxing vacation.
My wife and I visited Playa Del Carmen and stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Akumal Resort in January 2023. It was not our first time visiting this resort, as we vacationed there in 2016. Before visiting this resort as a couple, I stayed at the Grand Bahia Principe Akumal and the sister resort Grand Bahia Coba before our 2016 visit. I am familiar with the resort and wanted to share our experience there. My experience will help you decide to visit Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal and better enjoy your stay there.
Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal Resort
The Grand Bahia Principe is a true full-service 5-star resort located approximately 45 minutes from Cancun Airport, conveniently just 10 minutes from Akumal Beach (turtle Beach), and 20 minutes from Tulum Maya archeological site. Bahia Principe Luxury Resort is the luxurious 5-star resort of its sister resorts. Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal is on the same grounds as Grand Bahia Coba Resort, Grand Bahia Tulum Resort, and the Grand Bahia Sia Kan Resort.
Built in 2005, The Bahia Principe Luxury Resort doesn’t show its age, as the grounds, pool, and amenities are all pristine. Over the years, many changes and improvements have kept things fresh. On this recent visit, there was a new cafe in the lobby and a very happening sports bar with all the sports one could imagine playing on TV. One of the best perks of being at the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal is that being at the Akumal Luxury Resort gives you exclusive access to all the amenities and restaurants of the other three resorts.
Accommodation
The Luxury Akumal resort has seven different room variations to select from, starting with the dated rooms Junior Suit Superior Junior Suite Ocean Front. Then there are the Junior Suit Delux and the Junior Suit Delux Ocean Front. The only areas I would be utterly transparent about are the standard rooms and suits of the Akumal resort, which still need to be updated relative to the rest. There was chipped paint and traditional bathroom fixtures, and the motifs of their rooms were very 2005. If you want an updated experience in the rooms at Akumal, ask for the adults-only area upgrade.
Update: Since we visited in January 2023, Principe Luxury Akumal has now advertised more up-to-date luxurious rooms. There is the Junior Suite Premium and the Junior Suite Deluxe swim-up. I haven’t stayed in these rooms, but they look modern with bamboo finishes that give you the modern Maya jungle feel. We are very much looking forward to going back to experience these new rooms.
Dining and Cuisine
The Food at Bahia Principe is one of the best parts of this resort. There are three buffet-style restaurants. Yum Buffet is an international cuisine. It has something for everyone, and each day, there will be a themed dinner (Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, French, etc.)The two other international restaurants are open all day near the beaches: Beach Restaurant Katok and pool restaurant Tikalalito. One doesn’t have to walk too far from the beach or pool to get something to eat as the main buffet is in the front lobby, which can be a short walk, depending on where you and your family spend time at the resort.
The a la carte selection is excellent, with Bahia Principe Akumal with over 14 a la carte restaurants. When you stay at Principe Akumal, one of the perks of this resort is that you have access to a different a la carte restaurant each night of your stay. If you were staying at any of the other sister resorts for seven nights, usually, you only get a la carte reservation option for 3 of your 7-night stay.
On our most recent visit, my wife and I enjoyed only two of the restaurants simply because we had other plans most nights.
Dolce Vita, the Italian-Mexican fusion
The second restaurant we visited on this stay was Furtos Del Mar seafood restaurant (describe the meal).
Back in 2016, they had 14 restaurants to pick from. The restaurants’ selection and locations were different, so rest assured, Bahia Principe Akumal is constantly updating its a la carte restaurants and menu to keep the experiences exciting and fresh.
I definitely wasn’t planning to write an article on my visits because I definitely don’t have good photography from my visits.
Amenities
Principe Luxury Akhmal won’t let you down when it comes to amenities. With the resort’s free wifi, even when you are down on the beach, you can genuinely curate your resort experience as much as you like.
An open market and an event square are at the entrance to all the Bahia Principe hotels, grounds called La Hacienda. The vendors around the square and the open-air market sell any souvenirs you could imagine; there is a liquor store and a jewelry store.
La Hacienda is also where the resort casino and a small nightclub cafe are. There is also a 24-hour Doctor. We had the unfortunate experience of needing a doctor on vacation on our last visit—the doctor’s services were good, and the Dr was prompt in seeing us.
Luxury Akamal has three large pools conveniently located. The main pool is the first pool you come to when leaving the lobby and walking toward the beach; this pool boasts a swim-up bar, several in-water lounging areas, and several little canals that pass under walking bridges. The canals allow you and your party to be at the main pool where all the action is and not necessarily have to join the large groups for the regular foam parties, DJ battles, and all the live entertainment. The second large pool is off to the right and a short walk from the main lobby. This pool is much quieter; there isn’t loud music, and there are quite a few tanning beds and secluded gazebos. There is also a shallow wading pool for the kids in this area. This pool also has two built-in jacuzzis for a relaxing experience.
The infinity pool is our favourite pool, which is never highlighted by the resort brochure. This pool is located furthest from the lobby. It is a hectic spot because this one doesn’t have a lot of chairs, so come early and reserve your place. Because of its location close to the beach, it has ia Tiki bar ( not a pool bar), and it is just a stone through away from the snack bar. This Infinity pool became our main spot when we spent the day at the resort.
Pro tip– if you like both Beach and pool, this is the spot. Usually, I will enjoy the beach and use the bar and snack bar till the afternoon, around 4:00-5:00. At this point, it’s usually a little windy on the beach. The crowd drinking at the infinity pool started clearing out for their dinner reservations. You can get the infinity pool and bar to yourself for the last few hours till 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. Our favourite thing to do with my wife was to have a drink and watch the sunset from the infinity pool most days.
The amenities don’t stop with the pool. Make sure to stop by the Beach house for any water activities such as Paddleboards, kayaks, and, if staff is available, short trips sailing on their Catamaran at all free with your stay.
Don’t miss out on the full-service Spa. We always enjoy a message when we are on vacation. I always go for deep tissue, and my wife likes Swedish massages. It is a full-service spa offering facial manicures, pedicure facial and aromatherapy. Along with the spa, there is a complete gym. It has several treadmills, bikes and rowers, so you can break a sweat or work off some buffet calories. A full roster of weight machines and a mirrored area if you want to stretch or work on your callisthenics routine. It doesn’t have free weight, but for a resort Gym, you can maintain any of your fitness regimens.
Pro Tip– if you like to get a cardio workout while on vacation, running or jogging, the resort is a great option; because it’s such an extensive grounds with so many different areas, it is easy to get a 5km run without having to double back on any routes.
Scuba diving
I can’t leave out the scuba services at Luxury Akumal. Their resort has a full-service dive shop right on the beach; one can easily plan a whole week of diving with the shop. There are excellent local reef and sea turtle dives, as the resort isn’t too far from Akumal Beach. Depending on how many people are signed up, the dive shop has the deep dive at 9:30 am. Shallow reef dives are at 1:00 pm. I have never dived for a whole week with the dive shop. I have gone on a morning unplanned/walk-on dive with them three times. When I am in the Akumal area, I usually like to dive with people I know, and I highly recommend their dive outfit on Akumal beach, just a 20-minute taxi away.
To learn more about Scuba diving at Akumal Beach with Natalie and Ivan, click Here.
Eco Bahia
Another Great amenity Is the Eco Bahia nature reserve, located on the Sia Kan golf resort across the street. To visit the reserve, you have to go to the front desk and book a time for a tour. They will request a modest donation to the nature reserve; I usually donate five USD per person. Then, you will be given a resort bicycle to ride to the reserve with your tour guide. Once there, cover yourself in bug repellent. I haven’t visited the reserve ever, where it didn’t have a ton of mosquitos, but with the repellent, you can easily enjoy the tour. The guides usually are conservation students studying the area’s wildlife and plants. They will have a tone of passion. They will tell you about all the plants and trees in the regions where you may encounter wildlife. These are wild animals, so please respect the instructions from the guide as you may come across a caiman crocodile ( don’t worry, they are small) or maybe even see a jaguar.
Pro tip: The resort can have some decent snorkelling on the beaches simply because of the location off of one of the most extensive barrier reefs; while snorkelling in the enclosed swim areas, one will see dozens of species of small fish, but I have also had the privilege of see squid small sting ray several lobsters and a beautiful small nurse shark which was almost hard to believe.
Here is a link to a snorkelling report for snorkelling at the resort. Click here.
While in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, take the opportunity to leave to a resort and go on some of the historical and nature excursions. Something that I highly recommend is Tulum, a historic archeological site. Chichitniza is another historical ecological site and one of the hundreds of Cenotes’ underground caves, and Akumal Beach is where you can swim with sea turtles.
Entertainment and nightlife
Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal pulls out all the stops regarding entertainment. The main lobby just outside the Sports bar has a large notification board with all the times and locations for all the live entertainment and activities available around the resort. Because you are staying at the Luxury Akumal, you will also get access to the live shows on the two other sister resorts if they have a more to your liking performance.
Daily entertainment is in the main theatre attached to the lobby. Some shows will be a Michael Jackson Special Or an Elvis impersonation. One of the improvements with some serious production value and a new performance was the circus show they put on once a week. If you can see the show, I suggest you watch it. The show has a genuine Cirque Du Soleil feel, with live acrobats and some very death-defying gymnastics or stunts right in the crowd. It was an entertaining show, and New to our visit had yet to be offered in the past. Also, the resort will put on silent disco parties where they hand out headphones that will play music from the live DJ just outside the lobby on designated nights.
Daily live music is also outside the lobby in front of the main bar. These will be ordinarily local Mexican musicians who will play a variety of Mexican music and covers of almost anything you can imagine. If you want a real nightlife experience, visit the Hacienda, where they have nightclubs and casinos. Every time I have been there, the nightclub has normally only operated on weekends.
Recent Updates
I don’t know if you have caught on, but this article’s recurring theme is the constant updates this resort is constantly experiencing.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, when we visited the resort in 2023, the standard room could use an update. They did have a 2005 feel. I know there had been some recent updates to the room in the adult-only area of the resort, but they were only offered as an upgrade and were not widely advertised. As I write this article and check the website for accuracy, the resort now offers a new room tier. By the looks of it, Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal brought three rooms right into 2023 with the most recent updates.
All the restaurants have been updated since I was there. There are many similar selections in that there is always an Italian restaurant and a Mexican restaurant, but the buildings have all changed and had facelifts. The menus are all different. The Sea Food restaurant and a Mexican-Italian fusion restaurant were a real hit this time. One neat feature was they added a food tuck-style restaurant near the beach that serves standard western fare like burgers, fries, and pizza, but they are made authentic, unlike the burgers they serve in the buffet’s kid’s section.
Entertainment: During this most recent visit in 2023, the resort put a lot of money and effort into their new live shows in the theatres. Their Cirque de Sole theme shows were awe-inspiring and a cut above what I expect from resort entertainment.
Sustainability
Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal is a genuine 5-star resort. It doesn’t skimp on comfort, but all through the resort, one will be reminded of the sustainability and conservation efforts of the resort as these locations are not benign to natural environments. One will see signs asking visitors to be mindful of how much paper they are using and to be continuous of unnecessary water usage. There are signs in the rooms explaining the impact of laundry and that if you don’t need fresh towels daily, don’t ask for new towels.
There are also signs on the beach explaining why visitors won’t have access to certain event spots because they are the seasonal nesting grounds for native species. Several times I have been there, I have seen screen boxes on the beach with signs to avoid that area as there are sea turtle eggs. This, along with the Eco Bahia reserve I mentioned earlier, helps one feel like there is some effort to remind visitors that every action has a reaction, and we can all do our part to leave as little impact as possible.
Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal strives to provide excellent service at every step. All the staff is polite and as helpful as possible with entertainment and amenities that would be hard to exhaust in a seven-day visit. As he mentioned early on in his article, some of the improvements I would have recommended, like room update/freshen-up, have already begun. The resort is constantly updating and improving. As you can see, Luxury Akumal won’t disappoint whether one is visiting the resort for a lazy, relaxing week or if you’re looking for adventure and exploring Mexico. You will have everything you need with more than the luxury from home at Bahia Principe Luxury Resort.