A fantastic week (from Canada with small children)
Jan 29, 2025 Sharlee L
I’m writing this on our last night, sitting outside the Coco Café (1 week stay). We travelled as a family of 4 (mom, dad, kid 5, kid 4) from Canada. We’ve stayed at Bahia Principe Luxury, Akumal Health and Wellness, and Grand Oasis Tulum over the last few years and this is our thoughts on this resort…
1. Food: At our time of travel, buffet is…
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I’m writing this on our last night, sitting outside the Coco Café (1 week stay). We travelled as a family of 4 (mom, dad, kid 5, kid 4) from Canada. We’ve stayed at Bahia Principe Luxury, Akumal Health and Wellness, and Grand Oasis Tulum over the last few years and this is our thoughts on this resort…
1. Food: At our time of travel, buffet is open every day for breakfast/lunch and only on certain days for dinner (pay attention to the schedule and it’s not an issue). Buffet food is fantastic and very clean, someone is always circulating to remove any dirty tongs/ fallen food. Tons of vegetables and vegetarian options, not as many meat options but all were very good and well cooked. There is also a “kids buffet” with kid friendly options. When the buffet is closed you dine at any of the a la carte restaurants (no reservations required). All were great (our favourite was the Beachside Grill, least favourite was the Hibachi). Also, the free room service menu is awesome (great for a long day with kids after excursions). Coco Café is 24 hours, lots of coffee and fresh snack options, also ice cream.
2. Rooms: We stayed in the “standard” room which is still one of the nicest we’ve stayed in; modern, cleaned daily, mini bar restocked daily. Showers are HUGE.
3. Pools: Kids loved the children’s pool, one slide was broken but it didn’t change the experience. Always someone circulating for drinks. Lots of fresh towels all day long.
4. Beach: Soft and clean white sand and lots of wait staff for drinks. Plenty of chairs and cabanas (30 minute limit for reserving seats before staff remove the towels which is really nice). The only real downside to this resort was the water and to no fault of the staff or resort. During our stay is was very windy, the first 30 feet of water was stirred up sand/seaweed the whole week. We love snorkelling and this made it really difficult. If that’s not something you care about then stop where I said that the beach is beautiful!
5. Staff were fantastic everywhere. Zero complaints.
6. Kids club; Our kids (4 & 5) had tons of fun with staff. They did crafts, wall climbing, trampolining and face painting. They give you a beeper (like the one they give you for restaurant reservations) and if you’re needed they contact you via that.
7. Best nightly entertainment we’ve had at any resort. The fire show is so good.
8. Honest to god, anyone giving this resort excessively poor reviews is simply doing so to complain or it’s a one-off. We, and everyone we met along our week stay, had nothing but good things to say.
If you’ve made it this far, a few things to note:
•no reservations required for any of the a la carts (only if you want to watch the Hibachi show)
•a wedding was happening almost every night of our stay but everyone was respectful and music was turned down at an acceptable time for those of us who have kids.
•infinity pool is 18+ for those of you without kiddos, it has a swim up bar, great view and it’s HUGE.
•there’s local artisans a few nights a week along the “boardwalk” in case you’re looking for souvenirs not from the gift shop.
Hope this helps anyone trying to make the impossible decision of choosing a resort. If you have small children and a little bigger of a budget, I would 100% recommend this resort. It truly was a 5 star stay for us.
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