HOTEL GRAND BAHIA PRINCIPE COBÁ
RIVIERA MAYA - MEXICO
he Hotel Grand Bahia Principe Cobá, is located 1h30 by bus from the international airport of Cancun.
It is one of 3 hotels belonging to Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts and the one located furthest from the beach (shown in the image). However, inside the resort there are small "trains" that allow anyone staying at the hotels to easily arrive to the beach and also the hacienda Doña Isabel (an area of shops and entertainment in the resort). These trains have several routes marked by different colors depending on the destinations within the resort.
The room in which we stayed was large and spacious and was located in one of the several "villas" that exist on the hotel grounds. Each of these villas has 3 floors (ground floor, 1st and 2nd floor) and because we are traveling with a baby, they were careful to give us a room on the ground floor, close to the hotel's main restaurant and reception and with a stop from the trains to the beach just in front of the exit of our villa.
The hotel area is huge and has 2 large size swimming pools (we only use one of them close to our room. The children's pool (with water slides) was under construction during our stay.
As for restaurants, in addition to the main restaurant, the Cobá hotel has 6 themed restaurants (French, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Japanese and Peruvian and Mediterranean fusion) in which we can book 3 dinners during the stay and also a restaurant open 24 hours by the pool. We opted for Mexican, Mediterranean and Japanese and Peruvian Fusion restaurants. We can say that only the Japanese and Peruvian Fusion (Mashua) stood out because the food was very good. In the Mediterranean the food was good but without exceeding expectations and in the Mexican the feeling we had was that we were eating the same as in the buffet in the main restaurant.
The buffets in the main restaurant (morning, lunch and dinner) were very complete and varied and there were always good alternatives. We can say that we ate quite well every day when we used this restaurant (Kukulcan).
The beaches of the 3 hotels are accessible to those staying at the Cobá hotel, but the bars and restaurants of the Akumal hotel do not serve drinks / food to those who use these beaches, so the ideal is to use one of the other 2 beaches (Cobá or Tulum). The beach has a protection to prevent algae from reaching the coast which keeps the turquoise blue permanently and the swell is also less than that of an unprotected beach. This makes these beaches ideal for those traveling with children as a kind of natural lagoon is created.,
As for snorkling, there is not much variety of fish (we suppose that also due to the partition that prevents algae from reaching the beach) but it still allows you to see some fish and it turns out to be a fun experience.
Throughout the hotel area there are plenty of iguanas, coatis and even raccoons. None of the animals are aggressive, but neither do they fear people, as it is noted that they are used to contact with humans.
