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Trip Reviews, Ratings and Comments - Trip Review - Bahia Principe Tulum
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I was at this resort from Feb 21st - 28th, 2000. The ride from Cancun airport took about 70 minutes. We made two stops at other hotels prior to arrival at the Bahia. It is a lovely resort but a very large one, as are most new resorts in this area. All the staff are very friendly, speak quite good english and are always willing to help you.
Rooms are lovely - bigger than a motel room but similar in layout and most have an ocean view, some more limited than others. The balcony is a reasonable size with two chairs on it. The rooms were extremely clean and were maintained that way throughout my whole time there. I was actually anxious to return to my room each day to see what "arrangements/designs" the maid had created that day with the towels - they are quite creative! The bathrooms are equipped with complimentary shampoo, cream rinse, hand cream and shower cap and are replaced if used. The shower head is the detachable type and the water pressure was always good and the temperature was too. The TV carries HBO and ESPN plus an assortment of spanish channels (have you ever seen Jeopardy in spanish?!!) If any of your personal appliances have the type of plugs where one of the "prongs" is wide at the end you will need some sort of adapter as the plugs at this resort only take plugs with two "prongs" of the same size. There are also no clock radios here so you will have to rely on a wake-up call if needed. I used the service twice and they were reliable but the phones ring quietly so if you are a deep sleeper it may be better to take a travel alarm clock with you.
Food was quite good but not spicy enough for my liking. Standard buffet fare but always hot and with a large variety and my only complaint would be that there was not enough seafood on the buffet . There are three ala carte restaurants (I found the mediterranean one to be the best). The food at the beach bar was probably the most disappointing - burgers, spit roasted chicken, nachos etc. and there was usually a line up since the beach is a busy area! Most days for lunch I ate the tortillas, salsa, refried beans and salad that was always available (put out for helping yourself) at this bar - but no line ups! The drinks were good and they'd put as much alcohol in as suited you.
Men (even male teens) *must* wear long pants to dine at night. They didn't
seem too fussy about what they wore as I saw several guys wearing track
suits. Women wore anything from dressy shorts to nice evening "resort
style" dresses. I saw one woman in the buffet restaurant one evening who
was still wearing her bathing suit but had put shorts on over top of them.
Entertainment - I stayed mostly at the quieter pool but even there they
came by to do water aerobics, bingo and darts. The group that does the
activities are a very energetic lot and extremely friendly and speak
several languages. At night there is a children's show (put on by the kids
in the daily children's program) followed by various types of shows
(different each night) by the "animation" team. I think these shows end
about 10:30. I saw only 1 of these shows and I'd say it was "so-so". I
enjoyed watching the kids more :o) After 11 things move over to the
hacienda just outside the resort (a short walk). They have a disco, many
small shops, an internet cafe, a hair salon, a restaurant and a food court.
The hotel said they only take pesos there but I found out they take dollars
as well.
The hotel charges a lot to exchange your money - if I remember correctly
they gave me 220 pesos for about 25.00. You'd be better off to get pesos
elsewhere. However the hotel store only takes pesos! The store there was
well stocked for any small items you may have forgotten to pack and they
also sell snacks and pop should you get the urge for them. Anywhere else I
visited took dollars.
They offer a complimentary bus to Playa Del Carmen leaving twice a day,
however you have to stay there for about 6 hours. A cab ride to Playa will
cost you about 265 pesos one way! Tulum and Xel-Ha are quit close - I'd say
about 20 minutes to Tulum and about 10 minutes to Xel-Ha (which has fabulous snorkelling!).
Children's area - this seemed to be a well supervised area where the
children made arts and crafts and learned marengue dancing. I didn't look
inside so I'm not sure if there were chairs, tables etc. in there. There
was a fence around the area and always someone by the entrance to this
area. I'd feel comfortable leaving my child there to play. The kids seemed
to like the care givers :o)
Pools: There are three pools, 2 reasonably large ones that are considered
quieter than the *big* pool which located in the centre of the resort. The
big pool is made up of three levels and has a nice swim up bar but most of the activities are held there so it gets a bit noisy. Towels are only available by the big pool. All of the pools are fresh water, clean and were of a reasonable temperature. I found many of the guests preferred the beach to the pool.
They also have a gym. I didn't go in it but I did see several people
walking out with sweat on them so the equipment must be in good working
order.
The grounds are extremely well maintained and you see the staff constantly
keeping things neat and tidy. They have extended golf carts to take you
anywhere on the resort - walking is OK but it is a huge resort. I did not
see any iguanas at the resort but quite a few noisy crow like birds.
The beach is lovely and clean. It has been divided into three sections:
Coral bottom, Algae bottom and Sandy bottom. I found the sea to be quite
wavy but then again it was always breezy there. There are enough loungers on the beach but like the pools you may need to reserve yours by putting a
towel on it early in the day (by about 8 AM).
The first few days I found it cool at night so take a light jacket just in
case. It always seems cooler in the evenings when you have been in the hot
sun all day.
Guests: Spanish speaking guests were the most predominant followed by
Germans and then English. It seemed that many of the spanish speaking
guests came from South America.
While at the Bahia I never had to line up for anything other than towels! I
found the resort to be rated fairly accurately - 4.5 stars in the Canadian
brochures. This was my first trip to an all inclusive as well as my
first to Mexico.
Submitted by: Nikki -- Twiglet44@yahoo.com
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