well yes, the pools for dolphins look VERY small. And its extremely hot there in summer, so I'm not sure if the dolphins feel good there. But I guess we cant influence this (

We're tavelling quite a lot - about 5-6 times a year, but no always all-inclusive. Though I am uploading more and more videos. Just now uploaded our Harry Potter tour London walkthrough. Will post the London hotel we stayed in overview soon as well. thanks for watching :)

You dont walk to any neighboring hotels here: there are free electric buses (that look like long golf carts). So it's always a 5 minute ride. If you have some extra money, always choose the "Luxury akumal" because it makes you kinda VIP and you can go to ANY hotels/restaurants in this area, while if you stay in the Tulum one, you'll be limited to its premises only. So with a 5 yo child I'd choose Luxury Akumal for sure. This summer we're going to the Barcelo Palace I mentioned in the review - its way more expensive, but weighing pros and cons we decided that overpaying gives a bit more fulfillment in terms of what you get for your money. I think the same principle will work here: the extra 300GBP will be forgotten soon, but the lower quality of stay wont :) ALSO please ALWAYS search online for "coupons" or "discount codes" for any hotel you book - and do book directly from the hotel. It's cheaper than Expedia or the kind.

thank you for your opinion. I never said it's NOT a beautiful place. What I said is that during our stay the level of management of this place was close to despicable :) There WAS actual black mold in rooms, actual protruding electric wires, damaged ceilings ALL over the place, AC not working almost EVERYWHERE, and even the evening shows were happening with +30C inside theater - because AC was broken :))) So bullshit is you protecting this stuff. If a hotel dares to name itself "luxury", they are to be such or shut up :)

hi! I think with 3 kids under 9 you will be fine. The kids club is good, the zipline is really fun etc. I HOPE the hotel improves with time, but if you really are used to supermegahuge hotels like Barcelo and the kind, you will find the buffet, say, about 4-5 times smaller length/size/variety than in Barcelo-level hotels. I dont think it does totally spoil the fun - it's pretty much subjective. To ourselves, we as a family think that it depends on the price: this summer we saw that for some days Sensira charged about a $1000 per day. For THIS price they are NOT worth it. It's an insane price tag. But if you get it for about $300-400 per day (for a 2 adults+2ch room), it'll do. Also dont forget this hotel is REALLY close to Cancun, so if you get bored, call an Uber and go the the city to have walk or visit Cancun Zoo. It's just a 10-15 min drive, and will take half of your day.

Thank you for the great detailed review. You answered a lot of my questions. ☺️

thanks! Have fun! :) Meanwhile, we're packing for London and WarnerBros Harry Potter tour, and Paddington bus afternoon tea tour etc. It's going to be awesome.

not sure what do you mean by the buffet? The main 'ikea' restaurant is open for dinner. And you can have dinner a la carte as well - or can have both if you wish :)

we always enjoy - wherever we go. Your comment clearly says you've never seen great service, but that is okay :)

Well, this is business decision to make. As I responded in the previous comment, I can compare it to Hilton hotels practices: even a 2.5* Hampton Inn hotel here in the States guarantees you pleasant stay, and if they did not deliver it - you get a 100% refund easily. Once we checked in to such a hotel where they were making renovations. Hilton automatically refunded us and explained that they understand we were NOT signing up for living on a construction site. This is called The Level and class. Selling the picture as in the commercial WHILE on the site one upsells a "premium room" that has mold, broken almost EVERYTHING in USA is called "a fraud". So when you ask me, a paying guest, "when should they do the repairs", there is only one answer to this: NOT when paying guests are present. OR - they must inform paying guests beforehand that "hey, our hotel right now is under heavy construction and renovations, AC is not working in most areas, but our kitchen is still awesome. IF this doesn't scare you off, please enjoy our room for $200/night instead for $(whatever/night)". Once again, Hilton does exactly this: when some hotel is under reno, you can see in their app: "$140/night due to ongoing renovation". So you do understand that the reno is happening RIGHT NOW, when you stay there. But you pay 140 instead of 240-260, AND you're alerted about the fact, because the brand does care. Bahia Principe is owned by Grupo Pinero, and google says they reported a $982M turnover in 2018 (no fresher data I could find). So, lets put it mildly, we're not talking about a 'mom and pop' business that will go broke if they treat customers with respect. They just CHOSE not to. It was and is a business decision for them. The issues specifically in the room that we were checked in into can be fixed withing 24 hours total. So you shut down the room for 24 hours, send 4-5 people there to caulk, sand, paint, fix,etc - and in 24 hours you have a room that simply.. well... works :))) Once again: they CHOSE not to do this AND still charge its full rate + extra for calling this trash "a premium" room.

@@GreenCardShowUSA excellent answer you are correct and there should be some type of notice and or discount. Thank you for the reply

thanks to you. I traveled about 50% of the world, and lived in any conditions: from bedouins' huts to 5* luxury hotels and/or simple family hotels in war-torn Syria. It really hurts to see when a business in an ultra-popular destination simple exploits the fact 99% travelers will not stand up for themselves and chops money instead of earning them. But hey we, the people, have the power to kick them whenever we see anything that is not up to the promised level and can better the hotel for ourselves and those who come after us :)))) Thank you for your comments!

Been twice before going again in may enjoy instead of looking for faults.Happy Holidays.

my main idea is that the management of this hotel has no idea how to run it. Say, a simple comparison: we traveled by car around ALL the United States. Still do travel to many places. We usually stay in Hilton hotels (any of those) on our way because of how they treat customers and price/quality ratio as well. So, say, Hampton Inn (which is a 2.5*!!!! hotel) set the bar this high: "If a guest does not like their stay, we're refunding them". You can get your full stay refund from Hampton Inn if they failed to deliver you the service you paid for. It's a TWO AND A HALF STAR (!) hotel. Most of them are fully renovated now, with huge rooms. Once we traveled and happened to get into a Hampton Inn that for some reason decided to renovate their entrance, and used power tools to do this. We got an automatic refund for the stay, because, as they put it, "we understand that you were not aware of the hotel condition and you did not plan your stay in a construction zone". I mean... 2.5*... and THIS. This is what sanity looks like. Here they put the word "LUXURY" on their flag. I really, honestly, sincerely would love to see their CEO's home videos and photos of how they spend their vacations in this sort of "luxury" :))) No, not in the renovated swim-out rooms. The "premium" ones. So you get the idea: they just don't care about customers. It's their honest and public position proved by facts. And that's what bothers me a lot. I wish your next travel to be better than ours! :) We made them work a little here and there. So HOPEFULLY they did start behaving like a decent business that is honest with their customers. Bc if anything like this happens next time, I'll simply call my bank and get a 100% refund on the basis of fraud :)

the lower-level staff at Bahia is amazing. The management - in our experience - proved they have zero skills to manage a place like this. 1. we were checked in into a room with BLACK MOLD. I mean, what?! This is insanity. If it was in USA, they'd be sued 5 minutes after 2. The same room had no shampoo/etc refilled in the shower :)) So they just dont prepare rooms for guests. They dont care. 3. The same room had both (!) toilet paper holders broken. 4. The same room had bathroom ceiling broken. 5. The fan in the room worked in 2 modes only: off or "full force that blows you out of your bed" :) Even though the control panel was as-if offering you to choose the fan speed. 6. AC was - also - either full-force "meat freezer mode" or "off". Because the regulator was broken :))) 7. The balcony was all chipped. If it was my balcony in my apartment, I would fix this issue myself in, say, 3-4 hours max: grind the old paint off, cover with 2 coats of paint - done. They didnt do this, they dont care. BUT the didnt forget to charge $400 extra and advertise it as a "higher level suite" :)) 8. The view - you saw it - broken building that they dont even know how to paint professionally :))) 9. And I havent even started about the exterior condition of that building. When we asked to change the room, at first we received the answer of: "We checked all our other rooms - they are THE SAME AS THIS ONE, sorry" :))))) So it's an admission of the quality of 100% "other rooms" ANY of my employees would've been fired in 5 seconds for any work of this quality level. Their management does not understand the meaning of both 5* and luxury in their name at all. And when you take money for something you arent even trying to deliver - it's called... a fraud :)

Just end of July 2024.

Take no notice, it's just 1 persons views. I've stayed 3 times and each time was fantastic. Tulum was just updated 2 years ago. The food, staff, everything is great. NO, complaints by us. Don;t let 1 review put you off, go and enbrace the hotel, YOU will definitely enjoy your stay

Look at the Tulum section. It was very nice in January 2024. Updated rooms and good food.

do you mean the drivers are slow thinkers to have their engine on while NOT driving anywhere? Agreed! If you mean the public controlling this - disagreed. There is no sense in cars idling under your windows - say, a huge truck or a bus just sitting next to your house and stinking. Just because. So since there is an actual law, it's cool that any citizen can earn their share from the fine. I think it's awesome. Even homeless people can get an extra buck PLUS help the city.

@@GreenCardShowUSA its promoting a karen-tocracy which will drive some companies away while encouraging de-plating the vehicles. enjoy your 30$ turkey sandwich you Peon.

@@GreenCardShowUSA have fun in your karen-run police state. this only encourages more ppl to rip off their lisence plates. enjoy your thirty dollar avocado toast.

@@GreenCardShowUSA its disgustingly anti american

thanks for the laugh. SNITCHING on everyone, suing everyone for everything is #1 AMERICAN thing in the world :))) we were renovating a guesthouse on our land, and the FIRST thing happened - neighbors snitched on us to the building inspection. They did not know we had the permits, but still they called an inspector on us. He checked it all, everything was good, so he went away. But in the States it's a norm. USA is known around the world for 'looking a way to bite something off of you' being a part of culture :) So it's absolutely American in every way possible.

Glad you like them!

спасибо :)