Booked this holiday for my 40th birthday and my sons 21st, we upgraded to the golden club but I don't really know what you were getting for the money.

We had issues from the start, the room not getting cleaned, no towels provided, this happened every day and we ended up getting our own from the linen closet!
The turndown service we were meant to receive happened 3 times in 2 weeks.

The last straw was at the end of our holiday my bag was stolen from the room, we had to have the room searched by security the whole thing was a nightmare!! At the end of the holiday the guest services manager told us the maid had been sacked and promised us free upgrades etc next time we stayed at one of their hotels, once we arrived home the customer service has been terrible and they don't want to know us, I am now trying to get in touch with their head office!!

Do not go to this hotel for your holiday!!!!'

We visted the Gran Bahia Principe in august and upon arrival where allocated our room in coba, very close to the pool and reception which was perfect. we travelled with our teenage son who immediately made friends with other teenagers and only returned to us at evening meal and bed time. We felt totally at ease leaving him to do his own thing. the resort staff are all friendly and the animation team work long and hard hours to keep everyone occupied. The beauty of this hotel is the great choice of pools, they range from full on entertainment pools to calm and relaxing. We never once had a problem with obtaining a sun lounger either around the pool or on the beach. There are also hammocks which are shaded and great if reading or want to get out of the sun. the food was fantastic and plenty of choice. would recommend the tapanyaki restaurant, this was both the most amazing food and very entertaining. Our son did not want to come with us for this meal, however we did persuade him and he loved every minute of it. Entertainment was varied, with full shows every night, live singers and also disco at the hacienda. Alternatively you can sit in the lounge areas with your drinks. As for drinks, the choice in outstanding every cocktail you can think of, and local and international brands of spirits and good lager. In the lounge you can help yourself to coffee and tea (every variety imaginable), together with about 10 different styles of brandy. Some of the bars have a self service option as well as being staffed so need to worry about waiting. There is a fab bar on coba beach with swings attached for you to sit on whilst you sip yor cocktails with the breeze coming off the sea. Really can not fault this hotel in any way and would most certainly return again without hesitation.

Just returned from a two week stay at the Coba. Overall, the hotel (grounds / buildings)does meet the high standards noted in the holiday brochure, however there are one or two dissapointments to note, You have to be up before sunrise to get a sunbed (all gone by 07.00 hours)If you do manage to get a sunbed don't you dare (girls) take your top off, because you will be promtly told to put it back on again (topless only allowed on the beach)and only try the pools if you enjoy personal torture, very cold (freezing)water tried them once or twice but the lack of temperature was just too much to bear. Talking of the beach, another unfortunate disappointment, it does not portray your caribean thoughts, it is not very wide with lots of people crammed in, very sharp sand and quite rocky in parts which leads to brusied sore feet and with a red flag (no swimming) flying most days

The hotel food was plentyful with lots of choices, but it was always served on the "cool side" if not it was just plain cold. If you manage to get a dessert spoon I suggest you hold on to it, had to ask for one every day, both at breakfast and dinner!!!

The hotel entertainment was very limited in the evenings,although there were shows everynight (starting around 9pm) and although well presented, these only lasted 30-40 minutes, same shows were then repeated the following week, not very good when you are on a fortnights stay. The remaining part of the evening being spent in the various lobby bars chatting and drinking. The drinks however, were to a high standard, whatever you requested they supplied, but once the clock struck 23.00 hours, tables were cleared and the bars closed. The location of this hotel can also make it difficult if you want to sample the real mexican night life, it's a long way from anywhere and we were warned about very high taxi fares.
Wanting to end more positively, the staff at the hotel were pleasent, polite and very attentive throughout our stay. They all said "Hola" when ever they saw you, always smiling and wanting to chat when given the time. They kept the grounds, bars, rooms,and public areas spotless, no complaints.

We booked this on the Saturday and flew out on the Wednesday. After a long flight we were really looking forward to arriving at our hotel, only to find we had a 1.5hr transfer. In all honesty it wasnt that bad and went fairly quickly. We arrived at the hotel complex and were greeted by the lovely reception staff. The complex is huge, hosting some 5 hotels in all. The Coba is furthest away from the beach but that really isn't an issue as a golf shuttle runs around the resort constantly. The beach is not that fantastic with massive sandbags spoiling the view as well as the water being very very rocky! The staff are very friendly. The hotel complex is very clean. We were able to eat in all the other hotels too which was very nice. One night we acutally went from buffet to buffet to compare the quality of the food and I have to say the food in the Coba was by far the best. The hotel is not far from the Tulum ruins. I would highly recommend a taxi ride out there to see these and get the driver to stop at the adjacent beach if you want a taste of the real caribbean. Despite the complex being so big I would definately return to this hotel if I were to get a good deal again.

hi there , we have just returned from a FANTASTIC two week holiday in coba 5 star should be 10 Star it was very clean (immaculate) very friendly staff .In my opininon coba is the best buffet the others sometimes run out of things and did not seem to be staffed to well, Excellent food with a wide variety of: meats,salads,Breadrolls ,vegtables,pasta,fruit,pudding,kids buffet was the usual burgers ,hotdogs, chips, pastas but there was plenty of healthy food in adult buffet for children too. breakfast was fantastic and yes they even had BACON !! eggs/omelete made in front of you ,fresh pancakes,fruit ,pastries,toast fresh bread every day even jelly yum, yum !!!!!.
Drinks on tap coffee and tea served at table.
Lots of different tequila's .
If your bringing little ones and they are tired but wont sleep take them for a trip around the ground on the golf buggy transport, (FREE) they will be asleep in seconds worked every time . excellent friendly guys driving from the three different resorts excellent fun.
Beach was a bit rocky on coba side but nothing to major it had big massive rocks that you could climb on and wait for a wave and jump off good fun . went to tulum beach on resort it was fantastic lots of different fish swimming round your feet.
the three different resorts mirror each other with big statues in foyers excellent reception staff.
avaliability for booking resturants is fantastic as this resort is massive .Tons of choice of beaches , swimming pools ,resturants.Lots of wildlife on park , we see types of racoons ,firefly,and lots of others.
our room was hugh and very clean very trustworthy staff.
had bath with jacuzzi in room just remember to fill water to holes otherwize you get very wet as my husband found out .Not a great hairdryer in room but it does the job.
Did not use kids club as it was always empty but to be honest the kids did not miss it anyway they were happy in pool . Not many brits on site , mainly canadians very nice people very polite puts us brits to shame .
the entertainment was fab for kids and adults .
different show's every night etc Cats, hollywood ,cirus act and more FANTASTIC with plenty of seats going spare.
the pools are immaculate and safe as all the pools have the same level throughout the three resorts and gardens are very pretty .
never used spa but it did look really good
dont do reps trips much dearer .
there is a goverment funded bus which stops outside hotel front entrance you pay about

We stayed at the Gran Bahia in the Coba part of the resort.... one word Fabulous! Room large and airy very clean... and cleaned every day. Food... the buffet was out of this world wall to wall food and of a very high standard. The restaurants were also fantastic each one totally different and very good! We had a very enjoyable time... staff very friendly,
Entertainment needs some work! As said in an earlier review repeating the shows each week.

The food and drinks in this hotel are the best we have ever had. There is so much choice you won't go hungry in this hotel!!
The hotel is huge but you soon get used to it and because it is so big you don't notice how busy it gets. The whole hotel and rooms are kept spotless. The staff are so helpfull and always have a smile. The pools are lovely and so much choice of which one to go to each day.
My kids used the kids club but not much my 9 year old hated it but my 6 year old loved it!! We went to Chitzen with Cancun Valet and used them for the airport transfer they were fab and I would use them again.

We returned from this hotel a few days ago - I must say that after reading reviews on other sites I was more than happy with the whole of this resort.

Yes it is BIG resort - but it does say that in the brochures that we picked it out of....
We did upgrade our room to a junior suite but found out later on that first choice always put there clients into the Coba and ALL the Coba rooms are junior suites so we are in dispute with them to regain our near

We have just returned from two weeks at the Gran Bahia Principe Coba. Overall we had a very enjoyable time but feel that improvements are needed before the hotel can justifiably call itself a 5 star resort.

We would have to agree with the people who say that the food in the buffets is cold. We also felt that there could have been more variation in the food that was on offer. We found that the food in the snack bars was fairly hot, and you could also order snacks such as tacos and pizzas, which was good. We found the food to be much better at the Playa Pesquero in Cuba were we stayed in September 2005.

When we were chatting to other holidaymakers at the hotel and told them that we had been to Cuba they always said "isn't the food bad in Cuba"? I am not sure what the other hotels are like in Cuba, but we found the food at the PP to be hot and there was always a good choice at the buffets.

The complex is huge but buses run frequently around the complex which you can hop on and off.

The bar service at the Daquiri was always smooth and we had no problems ordering drinks in English, however, we found the bar service at the main Akumal bar to be very slow and were ignored by staff who had obviously seen us waiting. This was also happening to other people waiting to be served.

We had the pleasure to be served by an excellent waiter at the quiet Coba pool. He would bring our drinks right to our sunbeds (we didn't even have to place an order sometime!). This waiter worked extremely hard and could not do enought to please us.

The cocktails at the complex were really good and the strawberry and banana daquiris come highly reccomended!!!!

The pool bar at the Akumal pool was really good- they had self serve soft drinks and beer and all manner of sipirts on offer, so you could just grab yourself a cup and make your own cocktail. We felt that more, self- serve bars would have been a bonus and would have alleviated pressure on bar staff during busy periods.

There was tea and coffee available most of the day and the cakes were very good! There were also lots of tequila bottles dotted about the lobbies which you could help yourself to which was a good touch.

The pools at the complex were really nice and there was no problem getting a sunbed at any time of day.

As other posts have highlighted the beach is very rocky and there are lots of little rocks that can hurt your feet so take care. Lots of fish swim close to the shore and it was nice to watch them swim about.

Unfortunately I had the misfortune to have a pair of earrings stolen out of my room. I have just read a review which mentioned that a football shirt was stolen from a room, so it seems that pilfering is a problem in the Coba resort. We did have a safe in the room in which we kept
our passports, money, camera, and travel documents. I make a point of not taking jewellery on holiday that is either worth a lot of money or has sentimental value. As the earrings were only a few pound I didn't mind taking them on holiday with me. I left them on the bedside table
whilst I went out for the day, when I came back they had gone. We searched the room and could not find them, and we also moved rooms (reason for this below), and the earrings did not turn up. I have stayed in a lot of different hotels over the years, from 2 star hotels in Spain and Greece, to 5 star resorts in the Carribean, and this is the first time anything of this nature has happened to me. I can only urge you to lock jewellery, no matter what the value, away from temptations way.

The major downfall of the complex was the amount of noise that we had to put up with while in the rooms. There is lots of moveable furniture in the rooms, such as chairs and tables, and residents persisted in dragging these around which resulted in loud banging and scraping noises
which reverbrated around the buidling. The first room we stayed in was on the ground floor. Next to us we had a couple who came back to the room in the early hours of the morning screaming and shouting and putting the jacuzzi on. The jacuzzi's were great but really noisy and we
felt that it was very inconsiderate to other guests to be using them at 2 and 3 am. In the room above ours there was a family with a young child. Every morning from about 7 am you would hear the noise of the child running up and down the room. Having not had much sleep due to the
people next door we were woken up very early due the the family upstairs. I felt that we could not enjoy our holiday if we could not sleep so we spoke to reception and asked to be moved to a room on the top floor. I had actually emailed the hotel a few times in advance of our arrival at the hotel asking for a top floor room. I was assured that the hotel would do their best to accomodate my wishes, but we were placed in a room on the ground floor of the building and I felt a little let down that
my request had been ignored, especially as it was evident that there were top floor rooms available from the ease in which our room was changed from a ground floor room to a top floor room.

We felt that our new room would have enabled us to have more peace and quiet but we were to be disappointed. We still experienced the same screaming, shouting, banging, and scraping that we had on the ground floor. To top all this off hotel staff used to shout to each other at the
top of their voices from the gound floor of the building to the top floor from very early in the morning. I think that there must have been a storeroom in our building as staff were in and out of rooms very early in the morning. The problem with this was that the staff slammed doors very loudly with no apparent regard for people who were staying in the building.

Although the grounds of the complex were immaculate staff used to mow the lawns from very early in the morning, around 7.30 am. and the lawnmowers were very loud. In the end we gave up on trying to have a restful holiday and got up very early most mornings and just chilled around the pool. Maybe the rooms in Akumal or Tulum were quiter than the rooms we had in Coba. The people that we spoke to who were staying in Coba were having similar problems to us regarding the noise. Maybe we just touched unlucky and had a bad experience, I'm not sure.

We went on the Coba jungle tour and Xcaret trip and we really enjoyed both. We were glad we syated for the night show at Xcaret as this was excellent.

Overall the Gran Bahia Principe is a great resort but just falls short of its 5 star rating. The main thing that would stop us going back is the noisy rooms but other than that we had a ball. The Hacienda is great day and night and you must pay it a visit if you stay at one of the Gran Bahia Principe resorts.

I would visit this hotel again if the rooms were quieter and there was not the worry of possesions being stolen but I feel that the noise problem is something that cannot be alleviated without re-building the complex!!