Arched entrance to Akumal.
Supermarket/shopping: food, drinks, necessities, some souvenirs
Another mini-market in Akumal.
One a few small restaurants in the area.
A nice store with crafts, silver and pottery.
A few shops.
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Akumal Beach Resort - January 27th - February 3rd, 2002
EMail: Ron Mullenax (RAMProduct@aol.com) |
| This was our first visit to the Akumal Beach Resort. We have stayed at a few other 5 star all-inclusives in Playa Del Carmen and Punta Cana. I was a little hestitant at first to book this resort based on it's lower ratings, but overall we found most everything to our liking. Notice the blue skies in the photographs below, it didn't even think of raining the entire week. The 2nd, 3rd and 4rth days were a little windy (or a lot windy depending on your likes), but the wind was very calm or nonexistent through the end of our stay. Bottom line: I wouldn't hesitate to go back! |
| Akumal | |
| Akumal is much smaller than Playa Del Carmen, yet there are a few restaurants and bars in the area that you can enjoy if you like to get off of the resort for a little while. The town is still somewhat unspoiled by the commercialization that is going crazy in Playa Del Carmen. (so you better see it while you can) It is a very charming and quiet little community with beautiful beaches, local fisherman, great diving and snorkeling and the sprinkling of tourists. | |
Arched entrance to Akumal. |
Supermarket/shopping: food, drinks, necessities, some souvenirs |
Another mini-market in Akumal. |
One a few small restaurants in the area. |
A nice store with crafts, silver and pottery. |
A few shops. |
| Lol Ha Restaurant/Beach Bar | |
| Lol Ha, we did not eat here (except the chips and salsa), but we found it a nice place to come and have a beer. The crowd seemed to be a mixture of locals and tourists. They had a television in the outside beach bar which broadcast the NFL Championship games. Overall it was a nice place to relax. | |
 Lol-Ha Restaurant and Bar is a short 5 minute walk away. |
 View of Akumal Bay in front of Lol-Ha Restaurant/Beach Bar |
| La Buena Vida "The Good Life" | |
| We also visited La Buena Vida (The Good Life) three different times for lunch. It is about a 20 minute walk North of Akumal Beach Resort on Half Moon Bay. We found the cervezas cold and the food good. It was also a good break point for the walk back from Yal Ku Lagoon (see below). | |
 Part of Half Moon Bay. |  Judy doing her pointing (a vacation favorite!) |
 Ron enjoying the view and the food. |  Judy with some of her drinking buddies at La Buena Vida. |
 Ron at La Buena Vida...What a View! |  The bar at La Buena Vida. |
 Judy's new friend. |  Half Moon Bay |
 Restaurant from the beach. |  Entrance |
| Yal Ku Lagoon | |
| We snorkeled (this place is a must!) at Yal-Ku Lagoon. It opens at 8:00 ish...sometimes the guy is a little late. It cost 50 pesos (around 5 dollars) to snorkel (good all day, until 5:30). We walked this from Akumal Beach Resort three different times. We'd snorkel for 2 to 3 hours in the morning and then leave once the tour buses/vans started to arrive. The lagoon averages 14 feet in depth. Many places are much deeper, but there are places you could stand if it was needed (usually the nearest rock which is never really far away). We saw many angel fish, some barracuda, sting rays, turtles, a moray eel and many others. This was one of the hi-lights of the trip. Well, I added some of the underwater shots, truth is they just don't do it justice! Not only that my kodak underwater took really crappy shots! Judy used a Fuji and got some better results. Guess we need to practice or get a camera with a good flash. | |
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 |  Ron snorkeling |
 |  Ron snorkeling |
 "Stubbie" the iguana claims Ron's towel! | |
| Playa Del Carmen - "PLAYA" | |
| It is Playa what else can I say? Lots of shops, restaurants, bars and a beautiful beach. A variety of people, great food, good music and all kinds of crafts and gifts. If you haven't been, what are you waiting for? | |
 Playa's great beach....hence the name "Playa" |
 Litehouse and beach in Playa. |
 5th Avenue/Juarez |
 5th Avenue |
 Ronny's Beach Bar |
 La Parilla Restaurant |
 Fresh Fruit |
 Shops |
| Akumal Beach Resort - Pool | |
| The pool was very nice, but smaller than some of the larger resorts (as I expected). The water temperature was fine on the two occasions that I used the pool. It appears it was recently constructed or renovated as it has a somewhat "new" look to it. It was never overly crowded during our stay. Beware that there are drop offs in the pool (a foot maybe) that are actually steps not a sloped incline. I saw people stub their toes until they determined the exact locations of the steps. Overall it was a very nice pool. They do offer some activities with water aerobics, water polo and a basketball net over the pool. | |
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 Jacuzzi |
 Small Kiddie Pool |
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| Akumal Beach Resort - Buildings | |
| The buildings were all nice. Some appeared newer than others or had been recently renovated. Everything was clean and well maintained. | |
 One building of rooms |
 The Theatre |
 Side view of building, beach in front. |
 Front of resort, entrance to lobby |
 More rooms, pool in front. |
 One of the specialty restaurants. |
 Palapa with tables and chairs for relaxing. |
 Another view of a building. |
 One of the Dive Shop buildings. |
 Older section of resort rooms. |
 2nd Dive Shop building and Beach Bar. |
 Lobby area |
 Lobby |
 Lobby area |
 Main dining area (left) & snack area adjacent to beach. |
 Lobby area |
| Akumal Beach Resort - Dining/Bars | |
| The facilities were all nice and not overcrowded. I found the food, especially the dinners, to be very good. We had fresh fish one night, an Italian night, a Mexican night, and an Oriental night. We also chose to eat off the resort a couple of nights while we were visiting Playa Del Carmen. The food was served buffet style, but there were always two areas in the main dining hall where something was being prepared or served by order. Example: different pasta types with different sauces, heated and mixed to your liking. Neither of us had any problems with any type of illness during the week and in general we were suprised with the overall quality of the food. The snack bar food would get a little dried out after sitting out for a while. At the snack bar they would make burgers, they also served pizza, chips and salsa and usually some sort of taco or enchiladas. Late night food was also offered either at the snack bar or the beach bar depending on the evenings entertainment (beach parties, etc.) We found everything to be cooked properly and the variety was enough that we always found something we liked. We did eat at the Mexican specialty restaurant and both of us thought it was very good! The beach bar was very nice, we especially liked the swings. They are in the process (as I type I'm sure) of continuing to improve the bar. During the week we were there it was constantly undergoing new enhancements (signs, lighting, umbrellas, etc.) We had a good time at this bar and found it to be somewhat of a unique offering as many of the 5 star resorts that we've visited offered no facility or service of this type. It was a lot of fun! Overall the drinks seemed to be good. They had a menu of many of the common mixed drinks. I stuck primarily with the Dos Equis beer on tap. It was always served cold and tasted pretty good. | |
 snack area |
 snack area |
 snack bar |
 drink bar in snack area |
 Mexican specialty restaurant. |
 Inside main dining area. |
 Inside main dining area. |
 "Moon Rise" Beach Bar. |
 beach bar swings. |
 beach bar |
 beach bar swings. |
 beach bar swings. |
| Akumal Beach Resort - Grounds/Area | |
| The grounds were well kept, very clean and constantly manicured. The nice thing about the resort was the easy access to everything. The pool dining areas, bar, and lobby are all a short walk from each other and they are all located adjacent to the beach! Same for the rooms, they pretty much are all right next to the beach with some excellent ocean views and an easy walk to your favorite palapa. | |
 walkway in front of the rooms (buildings) away from dining |
 walkway in front of the rooms (buildings) towards dining |
 view from our room |
 jungle from building (behind our room) |
 view from our room. |
 more jungle behind our building. |
 another walkway shot. |
 walkway towards pool area. |
 walkway towards pool area. |
 stairs from beach to dining areas |
 3rd floor view. |
 back of building from 3rd floor. |
 Balcony view. |
 Our messy room. |
 Balcony view. |
 Balcony view. |
| Akumal Beach Resort - The Beach | |
| The beach is very nice! It is also the largest beach I've seen at an all-inclusive. This is because the resort is layed out parallel to the beach not perpendicular to the beach. So the beach extends to the far left (facing the resort ocean in back) (where the beach is excellent, but the water is very rocky) through the center of the resort (where the dining halls, bar, and lobby (just behind) are located, excellent swimming here, very soft sandy bottom and calm waters.) to the far right ( where there is excellent swimming, powder like sand and the beach bar). The beach was very nice! (I think I said that before) and very big, it wasn't too crowded and we were always able to find a palapa pretty much anytime of the day. | |
 beach, speciality restaurant to the right |
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 Entrance to resort on beach, beach bar in background |
 Hammocks next to older section of resort...siesta time! |
 Volleyball |
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| Akumal Beach Resort - Overall | |
| The place was rated three stars by Apple Vacations. We decided to book because of the price and it meant leaving Cleveland for a week in the Winter!!!! We both liked the place, it is not a five star resort, but it is not bad either. We both enjoyed the beach, the food and the location. It has many pluses over five stars resorts in our book (the beach is great, the resort was nice and quiet most of the time, less people overall, and the beach bar is a fantastic setting.) We also liked the low key town of Akumal. You can get away quite easily to Playa Del Carmen if you like, it is close only about 27km away. The location of Akumal Beach Resort is well suited for exploring Mayan Ruins (Tulum is very close) (Coba is not too far away), excellent snorkeling in Akumal Bay, Half Moon Bay and my favorite Yal Ku Lagoon. I found minor problems (not too many tv channels (wife likes tv, but hey...who flies here to watch tv?), some noisy children (but the staff moved us immediately upon request). Overall, I thought it was an excellent value for the dollars we spent. I'd definitely consider it again for a future vacation. It also appeared that they were still in the process of making enhancements to the resort, so I can only hope that the next visit will be even better! |
| Other Information | |
| See what others think of Mexican All-Inclusives over 1400 reviews on file Ron's Other Caribbean Photos | |
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GETTING AROUND: I thought I'd also relay last week's experiences with the Collectivo services. We used the service four seperate times and had absolutely no troubles. We had friends staying in Playa Del Carmen. Taxi fares ran between 200 and 250 pesos (or so we were told), but the Collectivo runs 10 pesos per person to go from Akumal to Playa. We also took it from Akumal down to Punta Bahia Soliman (Oscar and Lalo's restaurant). We would walk from the resort to the highway (307)...usually within 5 minutes a van would approach and if space was available they would flash their lights. You just flag them down...tell them where you are going and pay the 10 pesos! Very easy, nice ride. They are used by locals and other tourists. Down side is they stop running around 8pm (we were told)...so a taxi from Playa to Akumal was needed on both of the evenings we spent in Playa. I walked to the corner of 5th and Juarez (by the bus station) and starting a bidding war for the service. Was able to get a cab for 170 pesos. Not too bad at around midnight one evening. So if you have a need to travel up and down the Mayan Riviera be sure to check out this service, it may save you lots of money in cab fares. I believe they run about every 15 minutes (but like I said...we never waited that long). We also walked a lot! It was safe, but hot! So feel free to get out and see what the surrounding areas look like. |