Akumal Holiday Reviews

I lost count of the number of bars, pools and restaurants. I think there are around 9 swimming pool locations with more than one pool at each one, 4 buffet style restaurants and 12 or more ala-carte restaurants. Too many bars to count!

All of the bars have different styles of service. Bar staff can conjure up many different cocktails and my favourites are; a ticket to fly, a long island ice tea, a daiquiri and the Mexican flag (the bar staff at the Premier lobby made the best Mexican flag). At breakfast you could pop open a bottle of Champaign for a mimosa or three or help yourself to putting together your own bloody mary. Some of the outside bars have the larger pumps on the outside so you just help yourself and some have a verity of spirits where again you help yourself and top up with flavoured slush (like slush puppy machines). These drinks are called a daiquiri… only you pronounce this word with some American slang.

Each of the buffet restaurants has a different country food theme every day and you can go up as many times as you like. There are set times for breakfast, lunch and evening meals. On top of all the many different verities of hot and cold food there’s an egg chef who can whip you up a pie-like filled omelette with the fillings of your choice and a pasta chef who can make you pasta and sauce with the fillings of your choice in minutes.

You can book, depending upon your wristbands colour, a number of ala-carte restaurants each week – our bands were Blue and we could book up to 4 each week. An Orange wristband gets you a little more and Gold wristbands more still… so push for one of theses colours upon arrival if you can!

And then there are the 24hour snack bars. On your way back from the nightclub pop in order yourself a pizza and spare ribs and take them back to your room. Or just dial 0 and they’ll bring it to your room.

The pools and seafronts are amazing, very clean and the waters are clear and warm. There are some big fish, which are right next to you, but never come into contact with you. The sea’s waves are broken by a man made rock-line so its calm and flat at the beachside. The pools are open from 8am till 8pm, after that they are cleaned and chemicals are put in – so its up to you if you go in after 8pm – no one will tell you to get out. You are given white towels for your room to dry off with and a blue towel for each guest. This is you beach towel… so don’t pack any! At the end of a days swimming exchange it for a dry clean one at the desk near to the pools or exchange it for a towel token so you’re not carrying heavy wet towels about with you.

Riviera Maya is a quite resort with hotels along the beech, playa de carman is the local town which is easy to get to on a bus. Most of the hotels are spread out and you are not able to walk to and from them. Cancun which is the livley resort is about 2 hours drive away

You can use the local taxt service which is a mini bus, which will take you all up and down the main road and drop you off in cancun, or at shall ha (which I cant spell but that is how you pronounce it) and its about 20p if not less, you have to share with the mexicans alot of which use for work, we felt very safe, no problems and was a fun experience. You are pretty much stuck on the hotel resort in this area and I think we were lucky that the hotel was so good and had the hacienda for night time enterntainment plus the inside entertainment. Not sure we would have enjoyed the resort as much in another hotel, and we did do a few trips, shall ha, chichiniza quad biking, sea fishing (that was fab!!!)

We didnt leave our resort much but there was lots to do in the surrounding area. Would highly recommend for a holiday.

We went to this hotel in Sept 09 - the weather was great, the alacarte food was amazing if you stay at this hotel you must book the Don Pablo and order the surf and turf, they don't give you steak knifes as you dont need them. the swimming pools are amazing and always warm. There is a mini golf buggy taxi that takes you between the hotels that are on the site and also a night club which is based a 10 minute walk from the hotel called Tumal. so you dont hear the music near your room. The waiters are fantastic and understand very good english. I will definatley be going back there again.

Very hot,lots of iguanas,if you don't like getting bitten by mosquitoes don't go here you need lots of mozzie repellent or you will get eaten alive.We where bitten 15-20 times in two weeks but we did see some people with bad looking legs arms ect.

the riviera maya is a lovely long strtch of coast running down the side of mexico, with beautifull beaches and fantastic coral reefs.

Excellent, what more can I say. There are 3 different hotels on this resort all sharing the facilities. There are loads of swimming pools both adult and for families. The beach is lovely and there is a train that can take you around the resort.

only went out of the hotel complex twice so we didnt really see much of what was on offer but what we did see seemed to be vey good people were very friendly and pleasant would definetly return

The views were stunning, the resort although seemed quite big was easily walkable, although it was nice to ferrired around in the golf carts, of which there were plenty and if you weren't sure which one to get, the drivers were able to point out the correct trolly.

We chose Akumal because we didn't want to be near busy Cancun - and Akumal is absolutely wonderful. The beaches are stunning and the snorkelling and scuba diving is absolutely fantastic. You can easily use public or arranged transport to visit sites during the day, however there is not much night life outside of the hotel resorts.

Playa Del Carmen is about 30-40 mins away on public shuttle bus(3 dollars each way or 30 dollars in a taxi).If you want to go to Cancun you change buses here and it is another 30-40 mins and another 3 dollars. I came to P D C 9 years ago and it was just a fishing village -0 it is now a typical tourist town with all the usual trappings-40pesos for a beer on the main street- 15 pesos 2 streets back. The ruins at Tulum are about 20-25 mins away(2 dollars on shuttle bus) and bout 5 dollars entry-an organised trip will cost about 38 dollars. The ruins at Chichen Itza are about 3 hours by bus-about 140 dollars on an organised trip.

Akumel beach itself is lovely with good snorkelling with turtles and good restaurants. Visit to Tulum ruins a must as is a swim in the sea there after to cool off. Xel Ha and Xcaret both excellent days out although can be costly at around ���£40 each-but this includes food and equipment.There are lots of other attractions along the coast road including Cenotes-sink holes-to swim in.