Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: The last time I'll be going to the Grand Bahia Principe, Jamaica

I've been to the Grand Bahia Principe three times. The first time was lovely (August 2016), the second time was spectacular (July 2018), so I figured this time would be great too. I was wrong. I could go on and on and on, but I've wasted enough time talking about how much has changed. Pros- - The most beautiful beach! Snorkeling right there!! - Stunning grounds - Tropical Beach Party night is super fun - Phillip and Raymond, the omelette chefs at the Garden Grille are HAPPY and make the  [... read more]visitors feel happy to be there - Shamieka, a server, provides amazing service with a smile - The jerk chicken at the Snack Bar is THE BEST! Melford, the cook, is usually pretty happy too - Michael at the water park bar is friendly - I have a very sensitive stomach and I have never had one issue with the food making me ill - Delicious pina coladas (when the machine is working) - water park is great for kids and has great seating for parents Cons- - 99% of the staff are miserable and unfriendly. Don't expect smiles or greetings - there are ALWAYS room mix ups. I have had an issue all three times that I have been here. The rooms are NEVER ready when you get there, even if it is hours past the check-in time - long drive to the resort; long wait at airport before leaving for resort - everyone expects tips even though there are miserable and not providing the type of customer service one would expect from a "5 star" resort - the food gets repetitive and boring after a week. Also, not sure why "cow head" is always at the buffet. I'm all for trying new things, but ew. Also, not an avocado in sight. Could have really used some guacamole with the nachos!!! - rooms are in dire need of an update. Beds are lumpy, pillows garbage, and the smell of the rooms can be atrocious at times (mold, mildew smell comes through the air conditioning) - paying an extra $9 for wifi in your bedroom. This is ridiculous and should just be included in the price of your vacation - unprofessional people checking you in...they do not listen to you, they almost act like robots and say what they have been programmed to say. - lack of plugs in rooms - phone in a nearby room rang non-stop for FOUR HOURS...we called the front desk 2x and went 2x and nothing was done about it. When I spend this kind of money to be in paradise, I expect to encounter pleasant and friendly staff, who want to ensure you have a wonderful vacation. The staff's overall negative vibe really took away from this vacation. When I discussed it with one member of the beach staff, he explained that it was because it was almost payday and everyone was tight, and therefore unhappy. Lots of people live paycheck to paycheck--it doesn't give you the right to be miserable, especially in the tourism industry!!

Bahia Principe Escape Sian Ka'an: Never board

This resort is a smaller gem attached to 3 other resorts in the Bahia family. It was the most quite and had the best food of all. Furthermore, if one wanted more excitement, they could simply shuttle down to a sister resort and participate in the excitement at no extra cost. All together, the resorts had everything one could ask for.

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Great place

This is my second stay in Grand Bahia Principe and both has been great experience, amazing food, well maintained and very clean. I am already planning my third visit with a group of friends in August. The downside Waiters are a bit rude at the buffets, good luck on getting your coffee or drinking refill.

Bahia Principe Explore Tulum: The right vacation place in the wrong resort

We decided to try the Bahia Principe Tulum after searching the internet for possible vacation spots. Admittedly, our travel was less than pleasant to begin with. Our flight was 3 1/2 hours late in departing, no fault of the resort. However when we finally arrived, the room we had been assigned did not have functioning air conditioning. No offer of an alternate room was made while they tried to repair the problem. When we finally did get functioning air conditioning working, we realized the rea [... read more]son for our poor sleep was not the room temperature but the slab of concrete that was called a mattress. I have had back surgery and a need a much firmer mattress than my honey however what we slept on could have been substituted by the floor tiles without a noticeable difference. Getting home made a big improvement. The main restaurant/ buffet was good, not exceptional. Next, the resort seems to use grey-water (that's water that was formerly in your sink, bathtub and toilet) for irrigating the grass and trees. It doesn't smell very good. In fact, it smelled like we were walking through a septic tank on the way to and from the main buffet restaurant. Believe me, it made both me and my wife to nearly vomit up what we had just eaten at the nearby buffet. I can only assume the signs placed in various locations to keep off the grass were not there to prevent wearing paths in the lawn, more likely it would be a health hazard to have skin contact with the grass. Don't expect to be able to do much of anything interesting in regards to snorkeling on the beach. There is a breakwater set up along the southern edge of the beach which provides some reduced wave action however the water is chest deep at best. No lagoons or bays available. There was paddle boats, para-gliders, hobie cats and wave runners available for some above water action. Of the a la carte restaurants I managed to try 5 of them. I recommend the Tequila (Mexican) and the Brazilian Rodezio as top choices. When getting your drinks at the various bars you may have to specify which liqueur needs to go in the drink otherwise the default seemed to be tequila. It doesn't work in a pina colada. Remember the phrase 'sin tequila' (pronounced seen tequila) meaning without tequila. Additionally, we were approached multiple times throughout our stay to attend the 'time-share' presentation or buy some cheap bracelets or get a massage. It seemed this practice of wandering sales people had the full sanction of the management of the resort. I came south to escape the snow and ice, not to deal with repeated sales offers. As a result of my experiences at this location, I cannot recommend it for future visits. I will be advising my friends and family to other resorts which I have visited.

Bahia Principe Escape Runaway Bay: Great couples resort

While there is a slight party atmosphere it’s more for couples on the luxury side. Food was amazing and the resort was very clean. The beach wasn’t the greatest on the luxury side but if you walk a bit to the grand side it’s gorgeous.

Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: Great Resort

Fantastic staff Great beach Food and services excellent Feel safe Snorkeling great fun Love this place Good resort for families or couples I would recommend this place to friends and would definitely come back

Bahia Principe Explore Jamaica: Great Vacation

I would definitely recommend the Grand Bahia Principe, Jamaica. Our room was spacious and clean. The grounds are very well kept - extremely clean and well-maintained. Loved the pool!The staff is super friendly and helpful. The food services was also great - a wonderful variety of food to select from and we never had to wait for a table. The hotel offered a number of activities throughout the day to keep you entertained, if you wished. However, there are plenty of areas to go and enjoy qu [... read more]iet time, if that is your preference. My only complaint with this hotel is the room reservation/management. They do not acknowledge or accommodate room requests, i.e., wheelchair accessible. We heard from a number of guests that they were given a room with one bed when there were more than two people staying in the room and/or the two people were not partners and did not want to share a bed!

Bahia Principe Explore Akumal: Best trip yet

Luxury Bahia Principe Akumal is the best resort we have been to. The place is gorgeous and clean and staff are amazing. We didn’t have to ask for anything, they were asking us. Customer service above and beyond. And yes the food was amazing as well. 1-5 rating a 5+++ And thank you Tanya Smith for helping us with this.

Bahia Principe Escape Bouganville: Very good

Servers in this resort were very nice, very helpful. I had no hot water in my room for two days, after I asked for four times, it got fixed. My room was always clean. Pool also was clean. The beach was okay.

Bahia Principe Explore Akumal: Awesome resort!

This resort is a foodie’s paradise! The resort was clean and the staff were eager to please. They made my stay very comfortable. The special touch in my room to help me celebrate my birthday was very touching! I felt safe Had a great time and would dedenitly go back!

Bahia Principe Explore Coba: Great Resort

The resort was amazing. The food was great, clean rooms and staff was very friendly and helpful. We would go back and stay here. We enjoyed it very much. There is so much to do here, you don’t have to leave the resort to have a lot of fun.

Bahia Principe Grand San Juan: Such a great spot

I traveled with my wife the week of March 2nd to the 9th and booked our vacation through Air Canada using tripcentral.ca. Overall, I loved the resort and l had an amazing week again wouldn’t hesitate to return to the same resort again. The value was very good and almost everything about the resort was better than I had expected. I will break down my review as best I can. Also to note, this is only my 3rd trip down South and my first in a decade, so I’m not comparing this trip with others [... read more], simply basing the review on my experience here that week. It was just my wife and I, we’re mid 30’s and didn’t bring our children with us, though we would bring them back here with no issues. Travel: Everything with the booking went smoothly and without issue. The bus ride from the Samana airport to the resort was about an hour and a half with a stop for beer and water built into that. When we arrived to the resort around midnight, they had food available for us. The Room: Our room was in section D11 and was one of the furthest buildings from the lobby. At first, I thought this was going to be an annoying thing but it turned out to be great for my wife and I. It was so quiet and private and since we were so far from everything, we naturally got a lot of natural exercise from walking to the main areas of the resort. If you’re feeling lazy though, there were always plenty of cart drivers around to pick you up and take you where you want to go. The room itself was extremely clean and well kept daily. The fridge was stocked with beer, pop and water each day and we never had any trouble with hot water or anything else in the room at all. The beds were firm but comfortable enough and the AC worked really well. The Beach: The beach was very long and always very clean. It isn’t the white sand but is soft on the feet and really beautiful none the less. It was always very easy to find a private spot to camp out with a lot of lounge chairs available any time of the day. Also never had any issue finding shaded areas at all. The water was a great depth for swimming was warm and clean. The barriers in the water are a little bit of an eye-sore but they did a good job at breaking the waves which made it a nicer swimming area I’m sure. The Buffet: The food was fantastic every day with so many options. It was repetitive yes, and there were only a couple of different items each day depending on the theme. I would say that my wife and I are relatively picky eaters and we both enjoyed the food very much. We ate fresh fruits, breads, sweets, fries, pasta, all of the meats except for seafood which neither of us eat, waffles, ice cream and really enjoyed the fajita station each day. The service at the buffet was so great all of the time. Everyone was quick to refill your drink and help with anything and there were always plenty of staff around to help. A la Carte: We booked reservations on day one to the Italian and Japanese restaurants. I used the hotel app to make reservations and even on day one, there wasn’t a lot of availability so I’d recommend booking ASAP. We actually ended up cancelling our reservations because we enjoyed the buffet so much anyway. Pools: The main pool was large and gorgeous. We never had trouble finding lounge chairs throughout the day but the ones with shade were reserved early. The pool never seemed crowded and it was always easy to get a drink at the swim up bar as well. We didn’t spend a lot of time here but had no trouble at all when we did. There are two smaller pools for everyone’s use as well. One was really good and we hung out there a couple of times and had no problem getting lounge chairs in the shade and it seemed quiet and barely anyone used this pool. The other pool was smaller and seemed full whenever we saw it and looked like it was pretty-much completely shaded. We never spent any time at that one. Gym: We used the gym daily and it was barely used by anyone else. The cardio machines didn’t operate well but there were a lot of exercise machines to use and a lot of weights. It was large, clean and a good temperature. Shows: We didn’t go to any of the nightly shows unfortunately. Disco: We also didn’t go to the disco at all. The Grounds: The resort itself is gorgeous and so clean. The grounds were immaculate all of the time and were impressively well kept. We saw a lot of workers all of the time cleaning and cutting grass and removing palm leaves, etc. Excursions: We did two excursions which we booked through Air Canada. We did the Jeep Safari which about 6-7 hours in total. It was 75 US per person and was excellent value. We went to a local plantation, house, school, lagoon, waterfall and beach. We had a lot of drinks available and stopped for lunch which was decent. The trip was definitely worth the price. We also did the Dune Buggy excursion which was amazing! It was only 4 hours and more expensive but so worth it. We drove a dune buggy behind our guide who was on a 4-wheeler. We drove through a small town, through the mountains and the forest. Stopped for coffee and to the same school as the safari. It was a really fun excursion and our guide was great. I can’t think of anything else to talk about but it was an amazing week and we loved the resort. Will definitely have no hesitation returning to this resort and would look forward to visiting others in the Grand Bahia chain as well.

Bahia Principe Explore Legend: Excellent!

Great service and friendly staff! Very clean and relaxing atomospher. Will definitly return back for future vacations and will recommend to friends. Great service and friendly staff! Very clean and relaxing atomospher. Will definitly return back for future vacations and will recommend to friends. Great service and friendly staff! Very clean and relaxing atomospher. Will definitly return back for future vacations and will recommend to friends.

Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: Awesome Resort!

This was the cleanest resort I have been to. The grounds were beautiful and well maintained. The food was amazing, both at the buffet and the a la carte restaurants. The people were always helpful and friendly.

Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: I had such a nice vacation

Beautiful, well kept, clean, amazing beach and pools, convenient shuttle, great food. Only complaint was that becsuse there are so many activities going on, it is pretty loud in common areas such as beach, pools, buffet, lounge/lobby. Room was very quiet.

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Fantastic

Clean and comfy room with pool view. Cleaned beach daily and pool . Food was great and service as well .we stayed for a week could of stayed for two more weeks!night life was entirely entertaining and everyone joined in with dancing and singing! And plenty of pussy around to take of any rodents! The gardens and grounds were very neatly maintained

Bahia Principe Escape Samana: Very relaxing

The resort was well appointed, the service was excellent and the food was as well, we truly enjoyed the beach the entire week. The resort was well taken care of and staff where top shelf as far as service and welcoming we sincerely enjoyed ourselves Thank you

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Beautiful and Clean

The grounds very well kept, clean and beautiful. The workers were not as friendly as in Cuba as per our experience, but we would certainly go back to this resort. We stayed at the adult resort Aquamarine. I will look for adults only for future resorts that we book. The pool was large with lots of places to swim and sit with good music. Shopping was great, didn't even haft to leave the resort. This was our first time in Dominican. We had to upgrade our room because the garden view was of a road a [... read more]nd a building in behind a fence that was very noisy. We were in front of the pool area that was nice, if we wanted to stay on our patio at night we could listen to the music in the lobby. Most nights we went to the bar and did a lost of dancing. Meant people and made new friends. The only negative we have are the bug bits that we had all over our bodies, mostly at night in the lobby and as we walked around the grounds.We had to spray our bed and sheets with off because when we got up in the morning we had been biting as we slept.

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Fantastic Resort

Very clean, great staff. Good selection of food. Beach was beautiful. A place where you can be as busy or relaxed as you like! Aquamarine is an adults only resort. The Bahia Principe is a large resort which has many things for all ages. Can't wait to go back!

Bahia Principe Grand San Juan: Great resort

Great resort with friendly staff (although many only speak Spanish). Good value for the price. Although they offer lots of resort-based activities, be prepared for long drives if off-resort excursions are your thing!