Gran Bahia Principe Tulum, Riviera Maya
Get to Gran Bahia Principe Tulum
The best way to get to the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum is to book a package vacation with an agent. Package deals combine your airfare to Cancún, your hotel room and bus transportation to the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum. The bus ride from the Cancún airport will take about 2 hours, because your bus will usually stop at several hotels along the way. Once you get to the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum you have many other attractions nearby, like Playa del Carmen, the ruins of Tulum, Xel-ha, Cozumel and even a day trip to Chichén Itzá. We booked our February 2012 visit with Sunquest.
Swim Up Bar
Gran Bahia Principe Tulum – Sections
The Gran Bahia resort is both immense and lovely. The hotel is divided into 4 large sections. There was lots of space, lots of palapas and lots of great tasting food. The sections at the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum are:
Tulum – good access to the beach. Marketed by Sunquest and Apple Vacations.
Akumal – good access to the beach. Marketed by Transat and Solitours.
Coba – lowest price, quite far from the beach and back in the jungle, easy access to the beach on the free shuttle. Marketed by Sunquest.
Sian Kaan – condos for rent and for sale on the golf course. Sian Kaan is on the inland side of the highway, well back from the beach.
Suite
Gran Bahia – All Inclusive
The Gran Bahia is All Inclusive Service and it does cover everything: meals, unlimited bar drinks, beer and soft drinks, fast food and drinks in the Snack Bar 24 hours a day. You can have champagne mimosas at breakfast, red or white house wines at dinner and cocktails any time of day. Our package included 3 dinners at specialty restaurants. Wifi was free in all the lobbies. Bikes were available free for an hour each day. Kayaks and snorkel gear were also free for an hour each day. We found nice snorkeling right off the beach in the Akumal section, with lots of sergeant fish hovering around to see if anyone would feed them.
Yucatan Buffet
Gran Bahia Principe Tulum – Specialty Restaurants
The buffets were excellent, but you also had the option to try the Gran Bahia Principe specialty restaurants:
Gran Tortoga – specialty cocktail, great salad bar, individual roasted meats skewers. If you like meat, this is the place.
La Dolce Vita – specialty cocktail, good salad bar with seafood options. We found the service slow at La Dolce Vita, the food average and the ambiance of 70s elevator music to be a strange combination.
Tequila – We enjoyed a salad bar, lime soup with taco chips and then conchinita de Cerdo Pibil (slow roasted pork). I have to say though that the same dish at a tourist bus stop near Chichen Itza provided a better conchinita with salsa and lime topping
Mikado – rave reviews on this Japanese dining experience with impressive displays by table side chefs.
Akumal Pool Bar
Don Pablos – clearly the best dining choice at the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum. No salad bar. Special cocktail with lime and vermouth, chef’s choice of a small appetizer of shrimp and one of bruschetta which were both exquisite. The New York steak was made with a sauce that created one of the best steaks ever. The Chocolate Pepper Tarte was neither peppered nor tart but rather a delicious chocolate cake with a warm chocolate center. Add four attentive waiters covering your table and you have amazing fine dining.
Tropical Fish
Pleasant Evening Temperatures
One of the best parts of the Riviera Maya was the pleasant evening temperatures. A swim in the pool at 7 pm under the stars was a great experience, enhanced by the fact that no one else was interested in the pool at that hour. The pools did close at 8pm and most nights you can expect a wedding party to have reserved the poolside area.
Gran Bahia Slide Show
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