Do you dream of a paradise getaway to a luxury Akumal beach resort?
The Bahia Principe Akumal is a luxury resort located in Akumal, Mexico, along the Mayan Riviera. I stayed here for three nights, checking out everything there is to do, from enjoying volleyball to eating at all the different restaurants, drinking some cocktails, and swimming in the beautiful Riviera Maya ocean.
Keep reading and watch the video below for my tips, advice, and reviews on my experience at the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal beach resort.
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Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal Beach Resort
I highly encourage you to watch my YouTube video above for my full review of the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal Resort. In this blog post, I’ll give you a brief overview of how to plan and book your trip, as well as what may have changed since I visited and made my video review in 2021. The hotel has made a few updates to restaurants, cafes, and such on the property since my last visit.
How to Plan Your Akumal Beach Resort Trip
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How Do I Get to Akumal, Mexico?
First things first, let’s talk about how to get to Akumal, Mexico, and the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal beach resort. The best way to get to this hotel is to fly into the international airport of Cancun. From Cancun, you can take a taxi, but I definitely recommend booking a shuttle in advance. I like to take Happy Shuttle!
Oh, and a tip for coming into the Cancun airport: as I just mentioned, go ahead and book your transportation in advance. Otherwise, you might get overwhelmed by all the timeshare presentation people trying to offer you a ride at the airport. When you book your transportation in advance, you can go straight outside and find the person waiting for you with your name. It makes life so much easier!
How Long Should I Stay?
Since the Bahia Principe Akumal is in the middle of basically nowhere, the taxis are quite expensive. So, if you’re going to be staying here, I recommend staying maybe three days and spending most of your time on the property. Then I recommend spending some time in a city or a little closer to a particular town, either Tulum or Playa del Carmen, or actually in Akumal, Mexico.
What Do I Pack for an Akumal Beach Resort?
The Riviera Maya and all of the resorts here were actually cut out of the jungle, so it is extremely humid! When I visited in September, it was about 90 degrees and probably 120% humidity. I recommend packing linen items and moisture-wicking clothing to stay cool and be more comfortable. You might also want to pack some anti-humidity hair products, depending on your hair type.
Make sure when you’re coming to this particular all-inclusive, or any for that matter, you bring plenty of swimsuit cover-ups and some flip-flops. None of the restaurants will allow you to go in and be seated without at least these items. The beautiful tile work on the walking paths outside is also very, very hot during the day, so you don’t want to be walking barefoot on that.
When it comes to dining on the property, you’ll want to bring some nicer clothes with you, especially if staying at an all-inclusive like Bahia Principe Akumal. A lot of the nicer restaurants require at least semi-formal attire to be admitted to dine.
And don’t forget to pack some small bills to tip the resort staff. Even though your meals are all-inclusive, the staff is always appreciative of a tip for well-done service. I tend to leave around 50 pesos for breakfast or 100 pesos for dinner.
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What’s Changed at the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal Beach Resort?
I love traveling to Mexico and experiencing the sun, sand, and waves, along with the incredible food and cultural sites. Recently, I was looking at my past Mexico trips for inspiration for my next one, and I realized there have been some changes to the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal beach resort since I last told you about it (in 2021). From what I can tell (I haven’t made a return visit – yet!), they’ve updated some of their restaurants on the property to bring you new culinary experiences.
The Resort Restaurants
So, let’s start with the restaurants I talk about in my Bahia Principe Akumal video that are still here. Frutos del Mar, the seafood restaurant, and Dolce Vita, the Italian restaurant. I loved these restaurants and recommend you reserve a table during your stay.
The two that don’t seem to be around anymore are La Corales and Alebrije, the Mexican restaurant. There are still 15 amazing dining spots to choose from with all kinds of cuisines, including Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Mediterranean, Brazilian, and Peruvian.
You can also still enjoy the sports bar, coffee shop, and 24/7 snack bar if you’re an all-inclusive guest. They do still have a disco spot, as well, but I believe the name has changed.
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Enjoy Your Stay at Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal Beach Resort!
Overall, the Bahia Principe Luxury Akumal beach resort is a fabulous hotel and well worth a trip to Akumal, Mexico! Whether you’re looking for a relaxing or romantic adults-only vacation or a trip you can enjoy with the kids, this is an excellent choice of the Akumal resorts in the area. Book your stay today!
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I’m Kim, the Abundant Traveler and welcome to the Bahia Principe Luxury Resort.
I am staying here for three nights. I’m going to check out everything there is to do from enjoying volleyball to eating at all the different restaurants I can get my hands on, drinking some cocktails and swimming in the beautiful Riviera Maya ocean. I cannot wait, so let’s go check out this hotel. Come on with me.
It’s awfully quiet right now but normally there are six to seven thousand people that are staying at these different properties. I don’t know how many stay in this hotel but there are four hotels in this particular compound.
There’s one called Coba, that is off the water. The one I’m staying at is luxury which is on the ocean. There’s another one called Tulum, that is also on the ocean and then the Cian Khan which is actually named after the biosphere south of Tulum, that is actually on the golf course.
So, this property, if you’re traveling with a family, it is great for kids. If you’re traveling just with adults like I am, staying in the building number 83, that is adults only, there is a small restaurant there called Las Corales and they serve breakfast and lunch there.
The pool on that side is also for adults only and the beach is for adults only. So, it’s really nice if you’re planning on coming on an adult only trip.
So, now I’m going to take you on a little tour of my hotel room, it looks like the images that they have online. If you want to book this property, I will share the link in the description below for how I booked this property.
This is the hotel bathroom. You have a shower and you have a bathtub here and yes, it’s got reverb. But you can see that I have two double beds, I have a sitting area, I have a TV as well and a little balcony and I do like staying on the first floor. I get to see all the animals in the evening and it’s been really nice.
There’s actually an extra bed right here as well, so you could have a guest if you want to sleep really close to the person, there’s two beds so you could get four plus maybe one person here as well.
The mini bar is here and they put some goodies in it, oops, they put goodies in it snacks and everything so, and they refill it every day with everything that you could possibly want.
They also have robes and they have a robe there which has been great to have and little slippers as well and of course they have a safe. No matter what you do, you want to keep your passport in the safe, just a big tip when you’re traveling overseas in general. Always leave your passport in the safe at the hotel and bring some other form of identification with you, so when you’re using a credit card and they need identification, they have something else or if something happens to you, you have one form of identification but if you lose that, you still have your passport so you don’t have to go to the embassy and get a new passport. So, that is a major tip for when you’re traveling overseas.
In addition to the main restaurants here, you have a couple extra things as well.
One, you have a sports bar and that sports bar is open in the evening and definitely the place for the guys if you want to go check out whatever sports are happening. There’s also a coffee shop where you can buy some of the delicious Mexican chocolates as well get some ice cream and have your espresso cappuccino or lattes. There is also a snack bar and the snack bar is open 24 hours a day, so when the restaurants in the buffet are not open the snack bar is open.
Inside the snack bar, it’s simple things like pizza, quesadillas, simple things like that and all you need is more love. If you’re here on a romantic getaway, you can have a special dinner behind this love sign, they set up a table and will serve you from one of the restaurants.
It is a great experience. I also saw last evening a big group of about 12 people having a delicious dinner out here as well having a big party for somebody’s birthday. We all need more love.
So, here’s the love sign and here is Frutos del Mar, this is a restaurant I went to last night and I had the whole grouper, that was freshly prepared caught today.
You can see here just behind me this is the map of the entire property. This restaurant is Las Corales (it’s hard for me to pronounce) and this is open for breakfast and lunch only and then you have the Acuario which is a snack bar and the snack bar is open 24 hours a day.
The Dolce Vita is the Italian restaurant. And then, they also have the Frutos del Mar which is the fish restaurant, and then this right here is the main buffet dining area and underneath you have the spa. The fine dining restaurant is here, Artists Delicious, I heard you can get Hua and all sorts of goodies there as well.
This is Alebrije, that is the Mexican restaurant, it’s usually La Dolce Vita and from here I would say it’s about a six-minute walk, from here over to the adults area, well worth walking unless it’s the middle of the day and then it’s definitely time to take the train with the sweet guys that’ll pick you up and play macarena in the train for you.
Since this hotel is in the middle of basically nowhere, the taxis are quite expensive. So, if you’re going to be staying here, I recommend staying maybe three days and spend most of your time on property. I went to aqua mall and it cost 270 pesos each way which is around 12, 13 dollars with the current exchange rate, but I felt it was quite expensive, I would recommend that you stay part-time in an all-inclusive to enjoy the relaxing time and then spend part time in a city or a little closer to a particular town either Tulum or actually in Akumal or in Playa Del Carmen.
The property is very spread out and it requires a lot of walking especially if you are staying in the adult only area. The good news is that there is a trolley system that operates 24/7, and this little trolley will zip you around the entire complex from the Oceana disco or to your dinner reservation at the different restaurants or between the different swimming pools.
Each day while you’re here, they have lots of events whether you want, water volleyball or you want to do yoga. There’s also a theater that in the evenings, they have theater for the kids mostly if you go to the main entrance which is by the highway, they have a disco and a casino and if you’re a shopper, there are plenty of places to shop, there is a gorgeous jewelry store inside the lobby, there’s also a snack shop with lots of little trinkets and then if you go to the Hacienda Isabel where the casino and the discotec are, there are plenty of little shops there.
So, I’ve just come into the lobby and it is a beautiful lobby, it is gigantic, I can’t imagine what this is like when this place is full but the reception is over here, you can see across the way there’s a beautiful sculpture here as well, plenty of places to sit and in the evenings, you can come down here and grab a cocktail they have some premium liquors and a bar here as well. You can see behind me right here, there is an ATM but this particular ATM is only US dollars, so make sure when you are going to an ATM here on property that you ask for a ride on the train to the Hacienda Isabel or the Hacienda Isabel where the disco and the casino are around the corner there on property is an ATM with Mexican pesos. And, I find that in general ATMs using your debit card is the best way and the best exchange rate when you are traveling here in Mexico.
This is the main pool, it’s packed during the day, lots of people it doesn’t matter what time of the day is you can actually go to the bar and grab a cocktail or grab some juice. Also, over here they have the list of things that they’re doing every single day whether it’s yoga or the beach volleyball. You can see just here; all you have to do is pop over here and see what the events are. Also, in this area you have the gym, I did not go to the gym but I did walk in, it was really nice and around the corner is the spa and I definitely recommend that you go to the spa while you’re here and make sure to ask for Frida, I had a Mayan massage and it was absolutely delicious last evening, it was very lymphatic-ish, lots of oil in my hair and all over, it was a great massage and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Make sure when you’re coming to this particular all-inclusive or any for that matter, you bring plenty of cover-ups and some flip-flops, none of the restaurants will allow you to go into the restaurant without a cover-up and your flip-flops. And also, you can see this beautiful tile work here, this is actually very hot during the day so when you’re up and moving around you definitely are going to the bar and getting a drink, you definitely want to be wearing your flip-flops. I’m not sure if you’re aware the Riviera Maya and all of the resorts and everything were actually cut out of the jungle. So, it is quite jungly and humid, it’s extremely humid, it’s September, it’s about 19 degrees and probably 120% humidity but here in the jungle, you have lots of animals and you can see them come out, some come out during the day, some come out in the evening, you can see iguanas all of the time, you can see iguanas on the beach with you, you can see them running through the jungle or on the path so be prepared that they’re little critters running around.
I am now walking over to the beach and this is the main beach, there are people out here that are going to come bring you drinks, you can actually get food out here as well and speaking of food. Not only do we have the buffet and all of the restaurants that I mentioned, you actually can do room service as well, no matter what you need in your room all you have to do is ask your call room service and you can ask your butler, that’s very cool. This particular hotel has butlers in every single building, so if you need anything for your room whether you need pillows or sheets or extra water towels, anything like that, all you have to do is go to the end of the hallway and ask your butler.
A recommendation that I have for everyone staying at this all-inclusive or other ones here in Mexico is have some small money with you even though your meals are all-inclusive, the staff is always appreciative of a little bit of a tip. So, I tend to leave depending, you know, maybe 50 pesos for breakfast or 100 pesos for dinner or just something really nice a little extra for them, it’s really appreciated.
So, the best way to get to this hotel is to come into the International Airport of Cancun, and from Cancun you can take a taxi but I definitely recommend booking a shuttle in advance, I like to take happy shuttle and I’ve left a link in the description below for taking a private shuttle all the way to this hotel, it is 56 miles from the Cancun airport to this hotel and also if you want to take some day trips, then it is 24 miles you can take a taxi to playa, if you want to go shopping at Quinta Avenida or fifth avenue, they you can also go to Akumal, I went to Akumal and swim with the turtles one day. And also, if you’re interested in going to Tulum, Tulum is 13 miles away. And a tip for coming into the Cancun airport as I mentioned previously, go ahead and book your transportation in advance, you kind of run the gauntlet for all the timeshares, they’re trying to get you to come over, they’ll give you a ride if you’ll go see your place. So, it is best to go ahead and book your transportation in advance, run through that gauntlet go straight outside and make sure somebody is outside waiting for you with your name on it. Makes life so much easier.
So, let me know in the comments below what you think of this hotel, also let me know any all-inclusive in the Riviera Maya that you think that I must try. I’m Kim the abundant traveler, I’ll see you on the next adventure. Thanks so much for watching.
