Just returned from GBP Tulum we stayed June 24-July1. Traveling with 2 teenage boys and our friends and their 2 teenage boys. The resort is beautiful, clean. Upon arrival the front desk people were so nice. We both requested rooms before we left and they had us next to each other on the third floor just as we requested. Villa 33 close to the lobby, buffett and tequilla swimming pool.

Buffett and service we had no problem with. One of us would stay behind to put in a drink order while the other 7 went to get the food. Did not have to wait too long for a server to come to the table.

Room: no poblem with it they kept it clean. Had to ask for more towels the first day. But after that the housekeepers would leave us more towels.(left her a nice tip). There was always nice suprises left in our room for us at the end of the day. Thank you for that.

We arrived on Tue. 6-24 had meeting with Apple rep. at 4:30 and he was off on Wed. so we could not book any tours until Thursday. He said he needed two days notice to book anything so that left us until the end of our trip to book anything. NO big deal.

We loved everything about GBP Tulum we even ventured over to Coba and Akumual it was very easy to get around. We meet alot of nice people from all over the country.

Would definitly reccomend this resort to anybody. Hopefully we can go back soon.

My review will be brief, My husband and I have been to 23 all inclusive resorts over the last 20 years. The Bahia Principe Tulum and sister resorts were number 2 on our list of the best. I cant say enough about how clean and beautiful every inch of the property was. Food was great, staff wonderful. Rooms were fine. And the trollies thru out the 3 properties were fun.We travelled with my 78 year old father and we will go again in September to renew our wedding vows for our 25th anniversary with the whole family. I rate this a 5 star all the way.

We have just returned from seven days at the GBP Tulum with a party of 5 from June 23rd to June 29th. The resort was respectable in many ways, but did have some misses:

The Good:

Hotel Check in staff:
The staff was very good, despite the write ups found here. Though they certainly won’t be mistaken for stand up comics, they completed their jobs as efficiently as possible, considering the onslaught of tourists.

The room wasn’t ready when we arrived (Big surprise. I have yet to find any resort that actually has the room ready when we arrive), but within an hour or so, the room was ready. The check in station had not supplied the towel cards, or the key to the safe, however, and we had to return to the front desk for them. Otherwise, no issues.

Customer relations staff:

This is where the hotel really shined. There were only three attendants total, and usually only two beleaguered staffers dealt with the multinational clientele. Unfortunately, you have to book your a la carte restaurants through these poor staffers. I don’t know why the hotel doesn’t allow you to book your restaurants via a website, along with your departure information, rather than making you go through two different people to accomplish this simple task. Nonetheless, they cheerfully went about their duties.

Animation Team:

Yet another plus for the hotel. This team puts together the nightly shows, and coordinates the daily activities. They do a lot of work without much to work with. They keep the pool attendees happy and motivated. Kudos to the Animation team.


The House Keeping Staff:

No problems with the room, the mini bar was constantly stocked, and we found to the room to be fine, considering that this is not a five star resort. The only complaint that I have is that sometimes there’s maintenance to be completed on the rooms that is done during daylight hours ( i.e, polishing the stonework). While I realize this must be done at some point, I think it could much better be accomplished when the room is unoccupied.


The Food:

Buffet food was OK, but routine. Many other resorts that I have visited have true theme nights where the food is authentic and correctly prepared. While the buffet had so called theme nights, the food was the same every day, and sometimes, was incorrectly prepared. For example, on Spain Night, Paella was served. This would have been correct if the paella was not made with semolina pasta (spaghetti noodles). Besides which, Paella was available 6 out of the 7 nights we were at the resort.

Lunch was also a disappointment as there were always the same dishes available, including hamburgers (oddly enough, catsup was available only at breakfast, but not available when hamburgers and fries were served at lunchtime).

The wait staff was merely ok, but I do not believe it was their fault. The buffets were not only self serve, but self seating. As such, you could have a cluster of tables in one section, and one sole table in another, and only a handful of servers to run around and get coffee or drinks for all of the tables. It would probably be more efficient if the hostesses guided the incoming guests to certain seats to better balance the load on the wait staff.

The Tequila selection was another nice touch. Outside of the buffet, and in the main bar, there was a selection of about 10-12 tequilas for sampling. All of the tequilas were flavored (coconut, lime, cinnamon, strawberry, cherry, coffee, habanero amongst others). My only request was that they had been available for sale, which regrettably, they weren’t.

The Pools:

Excellent, for the most part. While there was the occasional missing tile, the pools were clean and well cared for. The only exception that I could see is that the water sometimes made your skin feel sticky (Ph adjustment, perhaps?).

The Pool Bar:

Manuel and Freddy, you guys worked your tails off, but there needs to be 3 things done:
1) You need at least one more bartender. The wait for a drink could be quite long, and if certain tourists groups (more on that in the Bad section) were present, the wait got longer. I would suggest 2 more bartenders (one upstairs, one downstairs) to accomplish the goal.

2) A bartender takes care of what is directly in their path: The customer, the bar surface and the workspace behind the bar. The hotel has you policing the pool area, collecting glasses
left at the poolside, and getting clean glasses for use. This really gets in the way of your core duties, and is not the way it is handled in other resorts.

3) Secondly, you need a bar call. Most of the resorts I’ve been to distinguished themselves by having a distinct bar call, to keep the patrons engaged, and to add some fun to the mix. Easy enough to be done.


The Managers Welcome Party:

Great idea, and held at a pretty good venue ( the Gran Tortuga restaurant). The staff treated all attendees very well, with cocktails and a sit down dinner. The only thing I would have changed is I would have made one long table capable of handling the number of guests, rather than allowing them to seat themselves. If given the opportunity, most people would sit amongst themselves, instead of gathering together to meet and talk. I felt particularly for a lone woman whose chose to sit alone for dinner.

The Music/ Entertainment:

By and large, the musical entertainment was ok to listen to, even if just to goof off for a while (when the lounge singer sang “you’re just to good to be true, can’t take my eyes off of joo”, I nearly hurt myself laughing). Unfortunately, the music is usually over by 9:00 PM as to not compete with the nightly shows. What they could use is some place other than the disco to dance. The DR has merengue on the beach at midnight…perhaps you could do the same?


The Bad:


The A La Carte Restaurants

Firstly, how on earth do all the A La carte restaurants get booked up? We arrived on Sunday, and by Monday, we couldn’t get a dinner reservation before 8:30 PM. After arriving at the first one (Don Pablo Gourmet…by the way, in this restaurant, gourmet means small. It was like elf food.), we were greeted warmly, but I did not feel it was worth the work to get the reservation.

Secondly, La Vida Dolce is more like La Vida Don’t . The menu is not clear ( you can only pick from categories outlined by the waiter. For example, the menu lists appetizers, soups, then pasta, then the entrees, especialites (sic) and finally desserts. You can order the appetizer (the appetizer bar is a joke), either soup or salad or pasta and then either your entrée or especialites. Funny thing, I thought this was an all inclusive. If I want soup and pasta, or soup, pasta, entrée, especialites and dessert, what difference does it make? It was obviously pre-prepared, so I know there wasn’t a swarm of chefs sweating my every decision. But the most horrendous was the cannoli for dessert ( it was closer to a twinkie than a cannoli), an abomination that would definitely get the pastry chef fired at any decent stateside Italian restaurant.

I chose the calamari, which, by the time I received it, had morphed from calamari to bungee cords due to over cooking. Add to this espresso that tasted like burned coffee that had been passed back through the coffee maker a second time, and a waiter that couldn’t quite get any of the orders straight, and you could see why this restaurant needs a major overhaul.

And to think, I had to put in a reservation for this. After these two experiences, and considering our other A La Carte reservation was for a 10:00 PM dinner, I decided to forego any further A La Carte restaurants.

The Snack Bar:

While this is a nice touch, the food is terrible. There needs to be an overhaul of the menu, and maybe, a bit of retraining for the cooking staff. The food was mostly inedible here, and avoid the wine. It is pumped to a spigot, and was undrinkable (oxidized).


The Tourists:


Now, I know this is a generalization, and I know they all weren’t at fault. But, for the time that we were there, the Italian contingent made every attempt to barge in, to interrupt, to attempt to get to the front of any line by any means necessary. In the buffets, it was not uncommon to practically be run over when they attempted to get to anything, without so much as an excuse me (sorry, my bad, they would say “Scusi” when they were barging in at the customer relations table, no matter how many people were in front of them, so much so that the poor staff looked at us, and in an exasperated voice said “Italians”, throwing her hands in the air). Add to this the chain smoking, the inability to allow anyone but themselves to walk down a hallway (not allowing anyone to pass without going around them) and acting unmannered and rude in every possible form. Those of you who handled yourselves in this manner should be ashamed of yourselves.

Apple Tours Service:

This is one sore spot for me. The Apple Tours representative had very curtailed hours at the resort. While I wasn’t expecting them there 24/7, I didn’t expect to have to hunt them down. I would have preferred that I was able to book and receive my return trip transfer information online, as well as having been able to change or upgrade my airport transfers.

For example, upon arrival we were transported to the hotel in a 10 person van, making two total stops. All in all, it took roughly 1.5 hours to get to the hotel. Upon departure, however, we loaded onto a tour bus at 7:55 AM (for an 11:40 AM departure). After wandering from hotel to hotel picking up other departing guests (many of which were not ready to leave the predetermined time), we arrived at the airport at 10:35 AM, and we were expected to report to the USA 3000 counter at 10:40 AM for check in. Had we known how much time would be wasted wandering the Yucatan looking for other departing guests, I would have booked separate transfers.

By the way, as long as I’m at it, is there a reason that we all have to wait to fill out the customs forms? Every trip I’ve taken, the forms are handed out on the plane, sending everyone scrambling for pens, and hoping they filled them out correctly. Why can’t they be handed out by the travel agents when you pick up your travel documents?


USA 3000 Airlines:

Well, this is my third trip with them, and I must say they are no better for wear then they were the past two trips. The planes are definitely shop worn, and showing their age. At least they got a new flight crew (I had the same flight crew, north and south bound for 2 years). Just a suggestion, start boarding the planes from the front occasionally, as the last boarding group consists of the first ten rows of the plane, and typically is not allocated any storage room. At least this time they didn’t play a depressing movie on the way to the vacation spot (last year they played “The Bridge to Terebithia” on the way to Mexico. Great…kill off the kid in the movie on the way to a happy vacation destination).

All in all, would I return to the Bahia Principe Tulum mostly because the staff simply tried harder to make the experience a favorable one, and I hope the suggestions made above would be considered and implemented to enhance the experience for all.

My Fiance' and I stayed at Gran Bahia Principe Tulum. We had a great time. But we do have a few suggestions for future travelers. We stayed in villa 23 and it was a really long walk from everything. So try to stay in a villa closer to the main part of the resort if you can. Also, take BUG SPRAY we got eaten by the mosquitoes on our first night there. Other than that the stay was great and the resort was beautiful. We are very pleased with are vacation.










Dallas, Texas