Gran Bahia Principe Resort Review

Arrival

We had a private transfer booked with Olympus tours to take us from the airport to the hotel.  It took one hour and fourteen minutes from leaving the airport to getting out of the van at the Coba Lobby.

The lobby was big and beautiful.  The bell boys offered to take our bags, but we only had carry-on luggage and we wanted to change into our suits right away, so we said we’d handle it. 

Check in was painless.  We arrived at 4pm and didn’t wait in line.  They provided us with a welcome drink and a smile.  They did forget to give us our room keys, but thankfully we figured that out prior to boarding the shuttle to our room.

Room

We were in villa 9 on the third floor.  This villa is along the outer rim of the resort and our room balcony overlooked a tree.  It was great for privacy purposes but certainly nothing nice to look at. 
The room was clean and large.  The floor was wet and VERY slippery, but we simply used a towel to dry it off.  You only get two bath towels, so make sure to ask for more right away if you’ll be needing them. 

The air conditioning didn’t work, however in January the temperature was perfect so we didn’t need it.  We also discovered that regardless of what setting you put the fan on, it has one setting, high.  And it turns on and off via the light switch next to the bed, not the thermostat switch.  Tricky! 

The bathroom was stocked with shampoo, conditioner, soap, sewing kit, shower cap, and shower gel. 

Resort Grounds

The resort is very clean.  Very rarely did we find anything out of place or dirty.  That was nice. 

The villas all look the same so finding your way around the paths can be quite confusing, but you are never far from a landmark.  For instance, our villa was just one path away from the Jacuzzi pool.  From there, you could see the main pool, and from the main pool you can get to the lobby.  So as long as you can follow the landmarks instead of the buildings you’ll be fine.

Pools

There are four pools.  Two Jacuzzi pools, an activity pool, and the quiet pool. 

The Jacuzzi pools are very nice as they were not crowded at all and had their own bar. 

The activity pool was large, had a volley ball net, and the activity staff leading people in dancing lessons and games such as beer pong. 

The quiet pool had a swim up bar and was also quite large.  Very nice place to hang out and enjoy the sun.  Lovely hammocks are available at this location as well.

Beach

Coba is not on the beach.  It’s about a 10 minute walk to the Akumal beach, or you can take the tram for a 5 minute ride to the Coba beach.  The Coba beach is in-between the Akumal beach and the Tulum beach and is very crowded. 

I would recommend walking to the Akumal beach as it was a lot more calm and many more beach chairs were available.

Buffets

Two large buffets for dining.  We only ate at the main buffet in the lobby, but I presume that the Cozumel buffet had approximately the same food.  Tons of food options!  Even a cute kids area where the counters were lower and the food was children’s classics such as peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and finger jello.  Food quality was typical buffet quality.  Not amazing, not terrible.  You can definitely find SOMETHING to eat. 

Snack Bars

The snack bars were hit and miss.  We did NOT like the snack bar located by the activity pool.  It had a limited selection and service wasn’t spectacular.  The snack bar by the quiet pool however had a lot more options and the wait staff was phenomenal.  If they were ever out of a food option, you simply asked and they would make it fresh for you. 

Ala Carte Restaurants

We dined at Portofino and Le Gourmet.  Portofino was for a wedding dinner, so I’m not sure on a daily basis how it was, but for the wedding it was good.  The appetizer is a buffet with plenty of options for everyone.  For the main course we had spinach and cheese stuff chicken which was very well prepared.  Dessert was some sort of pastry item with ice cream.  Very good.

Le Gourmet was okay.  For appetizers we went with the “Le Gourmet” salad and the cream of almond soup.  Both were good.  Our entrees were the Grilled Shrimp and the Filet Mignon “Rossini” Style.  The grilled shrimp was tasty. 

The Filet was very chewy and hard to cut, but had good flavor.  Dessert was fantastic… but sadly I forgot what it was!  Sorry!

To see the menus of all the restaurants at the Gran Bahia, go to this website: http://www.bahia-gourmet.com/en/losrestaurantes.htm

Wedding

As previously mentioned, we attended a wedding.  The ceremony took place at the Akumal Hammock beach location.  It was very beautiful, however the correct music didn’t play due to the CD that the bride provided being MP3 music.  It’d be nice if they’d upgrade the sound system to accommodate such things.  The ceremony was beautiful, the location was gorgeous, the congratulatory drinks and toast was a very nice touch.

The dinner was held at Portofino, as previously mentioned.  Dinner started at 5:30 and the restaurant was private until 6:30 when they started letting guests in. 

The dance at the Jacuzzi bar started at 7:30 (5:30-7:30 was too much time, by the way).  The bride hired an outside vendor for DJ services and he played great dance music.  The bartenders were extremely friendly and provided great service.  The guests danced in the pool and everyone had a lovely time.  At 10:30 exactly the music stopped and the wedding party went to the lobby bar until the disco at the hacienda opened around midnight. 

All in all, it was a lovely trip and we will most certainly return to the Gran Bahia Principe!