I recently spent one week at the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an Resort on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. Billing itself as a luxury, five-star resort, this adults-only all-inclusive hotel has a unique jungle setting that makes it stand out from other nearby resorts.
In this (extremely comprehensive) Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an review I will take you inside the resort and show you everything from the rooms to the restaurants to the pools to the beaches, and everything in between! I will help you decide if this is the kind of hotel that you’re looking for on your next Mexico trip, and whether you think the resort’s services and amenities are worth the price.
Keep reading to learn all about the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an Resort, from me – a real traveler!
Note: I paid in full for my stay at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan resort and did not disclose that I am a blogger. Shortly after my stay, the Bahia Principe group joined the World of Hyatt family of hotels, which resulted in some properties being renamed (this article uses the new names) and some service adjustments.
All About Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort
The Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort is one of five Bahia Principe all-inclusive resorts on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. All five resorts are part of the same complex. Because Sian Kaan is one of the two more “luxurious” resorts in the complex, guests get access to all of the amenities across the entire complex.
The Bahia Principe Sian Kaan is also one of the two adults-only resorts in the development, which are now branded as “Escape”. Guests need to be eighteen or over to stay at the resort, but it tends to draw an older crowd. During my stay, the average guest age looked to be about 60.
Where is Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort?
The Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort is located in Akumal, which is between Playa del Carmen (to the north) and Tulum (to the south). Akumal is along Mexico’s Riviera Maya, on the Yucatan Peninsula. The resort is about 100 kilometers south of Cancun.
Something that makes the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan unique is that it is not located on the beach. Rather, it is situated in the jungle, about a kilometer inland from the water. The other four properties in the development area beachfront, and guests of Bahia Principe Sian Kaan have a designated beach (accessible via free trolley) and access to all of the other beaches on the resort.
How to Get to Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort
The Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort is most easily accessed from either the Cancun International Airport or the new Tulum International Airport, as it’s approximately midway between the two. Without any stops, the drive times are:
- From Cancun – 75 minutes
- From Tulum – 60 minutes
Since you’ll likely spend most of your trip inside the resort there’s no need to rent a car upon arrival. If you booked a package tour it likely includes transfers. For one person it’s worth paying for a direct transfer, which is shared but has no other stops. For two or more people, a private transfer is worth the money.
If you booked your stay on your own, not as part of a package, you’ll need to organize your own transfer. America Transfers is a well-known private transfer provider from the Cancun airport. They also just introduced services from the Tulum Airport. Either way, the Bahia Principe Resorts are considered to be in the “Akumal” zone, so book accordingly.
Other Resorts Bahia Principe Resorts on the Riviera Maya
As I mentioned, the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan is one of five Bahia Principe resorts on Mexico’s Riviera Maya. All of the resorts are connected to one another and guests can travel between them, either by foot or by the complimentary trolley.
The other Bahia Principe resorts that are attached to the Sian Kaan are:
- Bahia Principe Explore Akumal – This is the other “luxurious” resort in the complex. It’s at the south end of the resort, on the waterfront.
- Bahia Principe Explore Coba – This is one of the family-friendly resorts on the complex, set between the Luxury Akumal beachfront and the jungle. Rooms here are about 250 meters from the beach.
- Bahia Principe Escape Tequila – Part of Grand Coba was redeveloped into this new adults-only resort, which opened in December 2025. Click the link for my review of this new property.
- Bahia Principe Explore Tulum – The other family-friendly waterfront resort is at the north end of the property, near the Hacienda Dona Isabel. This is the easiest partner resort to reach from the Sian Kaan.
In order to be truly comprehensive, in this review I will focus on the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an Resort and what you can expect there, but I will also highlight some of the facilities and services at the other resorts in the complex.
Online Check-In at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort
The easiest way to check in at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan is with their online check-in system. While you can use the app for this, it’s easiest to do it on the official Bahia Principe website. Create a My Bahia Principe account and add your reservation a month before your trip. That way, it’s already in the app when check-in opens.
If you’re having a hard time finding your booking identifier number you can use the contact form to request their team link your reservation to your account.
Using the website I was able to check in for my stay ten days in advance. The system operates on Spanish time, so as soon as the clock struck midnight in Madrid I could check in here in Canada. Both the website and app were a bit finnicky, and I didn’t think it had worked, but a few minutes later I got an email saying my check-in was complete.
Once I had checked in, information about my stay was visible in the Bahia Principe App. I scrolled down to “My Plans” and clicked on “À la carte dinner” to make dinner reservations. When you stay at Sian Ka’an you can book one à la carte dinner for each night of your stay, so I booked six dinners and planned to eat at the buffet on two evenings.
Arrival at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort
Arrival was pretty unexciting. The driver (assigned by WestJet Vacations) had never been that far down the coast from Cancun and didn’t know where the hotel was, so I had to navigate using Google Maps. When we arrived at the resort he mentioned that it looked nicer than many of the other properties where he drops off guests.
I arrived around 9:30 pm and there was nobody at the entrance to assist with my bags, so I carried my own suitcase up a few stairs and rolled them across the lobby to reception. The receptionist greeted me, thanked me for checking in online in advance, and called a colleague to come take my suitcase to a golf cart that would bring me to my room.
The arrival process seemed abrupt and not particularly welcoming. Throughout my stay I saw other guests arrive and be offered welcome drinks, and be given orientations to the property. I wasn’t given any information at all, and was left wondering where I could get food at that hour.
Layout of the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort
The map above shows the general layout of the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan resort. Most travelers will enter through the lobby (#1-4) and then walk along the three pools to reach their “Villa”, which typically consists of twelve guestrooms (three levels, with four units each). The buffet, a la carte restaurants, spa and gift shop are all in this area.
However, you’ll also notice that there is a section of rooms on the far right side of the map. These are a five-minute walk from the lobby, on a path through the jungle. These rooms tend to be quieter, but they are a bit further away from most of the resort amenities. I’ve been told that many of the cheapest rooms are in this area, so keep that in mind if booking your trip through a discount vacation provider.
My Room at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort
I stayed at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan as part of a vacation package sold by WestJet Vacations. Since I knew I wouldn’t spend much time in my room I chose the cheapest option, called a Junior Suite (but really more like a standard room). I took the photos above on the night I arrived, before I unpacked.
The standard suite had a king-sized bed with an overhead ceiling fan (of course there was A/C too!). In front of the bed there was a half-wall with a TV on top (I didn’t try using it) and then a separate sitting area with a small (lumpy) sofa and a coffee table. As there was no luggage rack provided I ended up keeping my suitcase on the coffee table.
Not shown is the closet, which had a few hangers (not enough for all my wet beachwear), an iron (not used), a few shelves and an umbrella on one side. On the other side there was a mini-fridge (stocked daily with soft drinks, beer and potato chips, plus a few little liqueur bottles), a coffee maker and a safe. The safe was large enough to fit my laptop in its case, plus my wallet and GoPro camera.
The bathroom was spacious and had a large shower, plus a sink with adequate counter space. Every day I was given lots of fresh towels. Unfortunately the first time I tried using the hair dryer (before an a la carte dinner) I turned it on to find smoke and sparks coming out, and it took a few hours for it to be removed and replaced with a standard hand-held model. Because of the location of my room, right in front of the Activity Pool, I had to close all the curtains or close the bathroom door every time I used the toilet, otherwise people could see inside.
My room was on the ground floor, which isn’t my preference as a solo female traveler. I wasn’t informed of this at reception, and only found out after taking the golf cart from check-in to my room. I didn’t use the patio as it lacked privacy, and I didn’t leave any swimsuits or towels out to dry as I’d be mad at myself if they were taken.
Pools at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort
There are four swimming pools at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan. The first three are grouped together in the main part of the resort, and the last one is over by Villas 27-36. The maximum pool depth across all the pools is about four feet, so don’t plan to do any diving during your trip. Pools close around 6:30 or 7:00 every evening, depending on the season.
The Quiet Pool
This pool is right beside the Alux a la carte restaurant. There isn’t a pool bar right here and they don’t play music at the pool during the day, so it’s popular with people who want to relax, read and even nap.
The Cenote Pool
The Cenote Pool is the largest pool in the resort and it lines up with the Cenote snack bar. There are lots of shady trees around this pool, making it a good option for people who don’t want to get a sunburn (or who want to do a little bird-watching).
The Activity Pool
My room in Villa 21 overlooked the Activity Pool. This is the loudest pool at the resort, with a poolside bar, towel station and activities like beach volleyball and water aerobics (shown above) throughout the day.
The Iguana Pool
Located on the right side of the map shown above, the Iguana Pool is a quiet place to relax away from the crowds. Sometimes they offer bar service here, but usually there’s just a self-serve fridge with similar drinks to those you’d get in the minibar.
There is no pool with a swim-up bar at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort, which was a disappointment. If you’re looking for a swim-up pool bar you can hop on the trolley (see below) to the Bahia Principe Grand Tequila Resort, a new adults-only all-inclusive on the complex with a bit more energy.
Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort Trolley Service 🚃
To travel between the five resorts in the Bahia Principe Riviera Maya collection, there is regular trolley (or golf cart) service. I usually made round trips on the trolleys at least twice a day, and the average wait time was only about five minutes.
Sian Kaan is the only resort on the opposite side of the highway from the beach, so all trolley trips involve crossing the resort’s private overpass. The ride to Grand Tequila and Grand Coba takes about seven minutes, while the trip to the Akumal resort, Grand Tulum resort or the beach takes about twelve minutes.
Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Beach
For most travelers, it will probably be the beach that makes or breaks your decision to stay at this resort. As I mentioned earlier, Sian Ka’an is not located right on the beach. Instead, guests have to take one of the complimentary trolleys (they come every five minutes or so) or walk (it’s a pretty half-hour stroll) to reach the beach.
On the plus side, there’s more than enough beach to go around here. Sian Ka’an guests can access the entire beachfront, stretching from the Explore Akumal shore (and its adults-only infinity pool) in the south to the Explore Tulum beach in the north, a distance of about two kilometers. Along the way there are lots of sunchairs, beach bars and clean toilets.
There is a designated beach bar and sunchair area specifically for Sian Ka’an guests, which I’ve shown above. This area is often relatively quiet during the day, so you can have the waterfront swings, and even the bartender, to yourself. They’re also pretty good at keeping kids out of the adults-only sunchairs in front of the Sian Ka’an beach bar, which is nice if you’re looking for a more quiet and calm beach day.
Restaurants at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort (On-Site)
The Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an has four restaurants on the property: one buffet, two à la carte restaurants and one 24-hour snack bar. Guests here also get access to the other restaurants and buffets across the five Bahia Principe Riviera Maya resorts.
Yalku Buffet at Bahia Principe Sian Kaan
The buffet at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan is called Yalku. It is located right off the main lobby and it is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The cuisine is decidedly crowd-pleasingly international, which will satisfy those looking for a taste of home but might be disappointing for travelers wanting more authentic Mexican flavours.
The Breakfast Buffet
I had breakfast in the Sian Kaan buffet about half the mornings that I was at the hotel (on the other mornings I visited the Grand Tequila buffet instead).
There was a good selection of both sweet and savory dishes, including decent vegetarian options. Sometimes I went with cooked-to-order scrambled eggs, which I usually had with refried beans, cheese and some tortillas. Other mornings I made a sweeter plate, with pancakes topped with Greek yogurt (for vegetarian protein!), peanut butter and a little drizzle of cajeta (Mexican caramel).
I always had fresh fruit and coffee to go with my meal, and occasionally I couldn’t resist a breakfast mimosa. A weird thing I noticed about breakfast drink service was that there wasn’t an espresso machine inside the buffet, so if you wanted a latte or cappuccino you had to ask your server, who would go out to the lobby bar to get it for you.
The Lunch and Dinner Buffet
As a vegetarian, I didn’t enjoy eating at the Sian Kaan buffet at lunch and dinner. As you can see from the photo above, a lot of the food was mislabeled. Sometimes it was obvious (such as in the case of the sushi) but other times it was not obvious (such as when you bite into a “cheese” quesadilla and find it has chicken inside, or a “cheese” tamale that has pork inside). I had a hard time piecing together a vegetarian meal, much less one that included any protein.
I ate most of my light lunches at the buffet over at the Bahia Principe Grand Tequila, which was more spacious and had better labeling. For dinner, I preferred the a la carte restaurants where I could look over the menu in advance and confirm with my server that my meal was meatless.
Alux Restaurant
I was surprised to see that the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan had a restaurant called “Alux”, as there was also a restaurant with that name at the Akumal Bay Beach and Wellness Resort. It turns out that an alux is a mythological creature in the local Mayan culture; they are playful, mischievous and protective.
Here, Alux is a “gourmet” restaurant with a more international menu that leans heavily towards French cuisine with dishes like foie gras, escargot and duck confit. The vegetarian options here are acceptable, with multiple meatless appetizers (including soups and salads) and a Turkish-inspired eggplant entrée.
As you can see from the photo of my main course, portions at Alux are quite small. My main course consisted of a few vegetable slices in sauce, served without any grains or proteins to make it a more filling meal. This would definitely be an area where the resort could make some easy improvements.
Maiko Restaurant
The on-site Japanese restaurant does sushi and Asian fusion cuisine. There were some vegetarian options on the menu (one of the sushi rolls, salad rolls and the pad thai) but I had concerns about cross-contamination so I skipped it.
⚠️ Important Note! All of the à la carte restaurants at the Bahia Principe resorts require advance reservation. The easiest way to do this is by downloading the resort app (Apple / Google) and creating an account. You should be able to check in for your stay 10 days before arrival, but sometimes it opens as early as 14 days in advance. Once you’re checked in you can reserve your à la carte dinners. If you don’t reserve your à la carte dinners in advance, they likely won’t have any availability when you arrive.
Cenote Snack Bar
For 24/7 dining at Bahia Principe Sian Kaan there is a snack bar at the Cenote pool. It would have been nice for reception to inform me of this when I arrived after the buffet had already closed for the evening, but I figured it out for myself when I went wandering in the dark looking for food.
The breakfast options here are quite nice and I know that a lot of return visitors prefer to come here for breakfast rather than visit the buffet. For lunch and dinner there was only one vegetarian option (a vegetable wrap) so after eating it on my first evening I didn’t return.
A highlight of eating here at night is that you might get a visit from some of the raccoons that live in the jungle around the resort. These cute little nocturnal creatures come out after sunset to scavenge for food left on tables (and are occasionally hand-fed by guests who ignored the Do Not Feed the Animals signs).
When I stayed at the nearby Akumal Bay Beach and Spa Resort their snackbar had much better vegetarian options, including self-serve salads, tostadas, guacamole and salsa. It would be nice for Sian Kaan to offer a bit more variety for visitors who don’t eat meat.
Room Service
This is just my own hot take, but I hate ordering room service. I don’t like having food in my hotel room, especially if it won’t be cleaned again until the next day. I also hate walking in a hotel hallway and seeing people’s dirty room service dishes on the floor outside their door. So, I didn’t order room service here or at any other hotel.
That being said, I checked out the room service menu that is included in your all-inclusive package. It shared a lot of crossover with the Cenote Snack Bar menu, including dishes like burgers, pizzas and pastas. I found a room service menu online that had significantly more options than what was available via the app when I actually got to the hotel, so don’t trust what you see online.
Restaurants at the Other Bahia Principe Riviera Maya Resorts (Off-Site)
As a guest of the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan you also get access to all the buffets and restaurants at the connected resorts. This includes four more buffets, fourteen more à la carte restaurants, and countless snack bars, pool bars and beach bars. This level of access is specific to guests of the two “luxury” properties (Siam Ka’an and Akumal).
I could list all the restaurants here but you can also find them on the hotel website so I won’t bother. Instead, I’ll just highlight a few restaurants where I enjoyed eating (or that piqued my interest):
- Hindu Restaurant Thali – In 2019 I spent two months in India and I still dream about the food. Although this restaurant isn’t “pure veg” as they say, it does have lots of great vegetarian options (including a thali, or mixed plate that lets you sample small portions of many dishes). The food was definitely a Mexican interpretation of Indian cuisine, and the service left something to be desired, but it was a nice break from bland buffet food.
- Tequila – Weirdly, the “Tequila” restaurant is not located at the Grand Tequila resort. Rather, it’s at the far north end of Grand Tulum. Regardless, this ended up being my favorite restaurant of the trip, and the only one I tried to get into twice. They had multiple vegetarian starters, and then the main course was a Mexican buffet where they had four different vegetarian taco options among the meat choices. The desserts here were also great.
- Katok – Surprisingly, the grilled meat restaurant had a great variety of vegetarian appetizers, sides and a vegetarian pasta main course. Once again, though, there were some misses: the sauce for the vegetarian pasta was just the soup that was the vegetarian starter?
- Don Pablo – They serve a vegan filet mignon (shown above) alongside their more traditional meat-based dishes. The portobello mushroom soup was good, as was the chocolate coulant (lava cake) for dessert.
- Mikado – This Japanese restaurant at the Coba property has a vegan section on their menu, plus they can do a veggie stir-fry or pad thai.
Activities at the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort (On-Site)
There were usually a handful of different activities at the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an Resort each day. These could be roughly divided into a few different categories:
- Health and Wellness – Yoga, meditation, pilates, cycling tours, etc.
- Fun and Games – Bingo, trivia, “Mexican lottery”, pool games, etc.
- Arts and Entertainment – Silent disco, live DJs, Mexican musicians and dancers, etc.
Most of the daytime activities took place around the Activity Pool, while the evening performances took place in the lobby (keeping the noise away from the rooms).
Activities at the Other Bahia Principe Riviera Maya Resorts (Off-Site)
As a guest of the Sian Kaan resort you can also drop into any of the activities at any other resorts on the complex. Explore Akumal, Explore Coba and Explore Tulum are all family-friendly resorts where you’re likely to encounter children participating in the activities, so I mostly dropped in at Escape Tequila to see what was going on at the other adults-only resort. You can read more about their offerings in my review of that hotel.
Excursions from the Bahia Principe Resorts in Mexico
On this trip to the Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Resort my main excursion was a full-day cenote tour with a local community organization called Bejil-Ha. You can read all about it at the link – we visited the cenote shown above, plus three others, cycled into the jungle and ate a lunch cooked by women in the nearby pueblo of Chemuyil.
There are many other options for unique excursions along the Riviera Maya, including trips to Mayan ruins like Tulum and Chichen Itza, boat trips for snorkeling, sightseeing and fishing, and even day passes to popular beach clubs. Typically I prefer to book my excursions online in advance, rather than using the resort’s tour desk. I just find it to be less pressure that way, and I usually feel like I got a better price.
Customer Service at the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an
This is where I think the hotel fell really flat. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above I was placed in a ground floor room. On my second night in the hotel a man tried to enter my room in the middle of the night. Fortunately I had locked all the glass doors and deadbolted the main door, so he wasn’t able to get inside and eventually I saw him run away into the jungle.
Shaken, I tried to report this to the hotel. The button for Guest Services didn’t work on the phone in my room, so I called “0” and got connected to reception. I was anxious but able to explain in clear English and Spanish that I needed security as a man was trying to get into my room, but the operator on the phone refused to help me until I gave him a “luggage code”. He repeated this many times as I begged for security to come to my room.
Eventually security came (walking at an impressively slow pace) and they were absolutely useless. At the time of the incident here was no manager on the property, and I had to wait nearly an hour for one to arrive from one of the nearby resorts. That in itself was quite concerning to me.
Over the next 24 hours I received a whole range of excuses from management, including “the guard assigned to your part of the resort had temporarily stepped away” (convenient), “the guard who eventually came didn’t know how to find your room” (concerning), and “please send us a written report of what happened” (no response, a month later). They also directly told me that even if a drunk guest is a danger to themselves and others, they won’t stop serving them alcohol “because they paid for an all-inclusive vacation, just like you did”.
Because of that incident and the poor response from management I can’t recommend Bahia Principe Sian Kaan for solo female travelers. They had many opportunities to handle the incident differently and instead chose to gaslight, ignore and insult me.
Is the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an Worth It?
I think it’s important to note that there are no rules around the use of the word “luxury” when describing hotels in Mexico, and hotels earn their five-star ratings not by being truly opulent, but by checking off a specific number of amenities off an official checklist. So, if you go to the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an expecting the Four Seasons, you’ll be disappointed. However, if you go with reasonable expectations for what would normally be considered an average four-star resort, you will enjoy your visit.
I think the biggest advantage of the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an is its adults-only setting away from the hustle and bustle of Riviera Maya beaches, and its complimentary access to four other neighboring resorts. This allows you to have a vacation that is mostly relaxing, with additional excitement available when it works for you.
Of course, for me the biggest disadvantage was how I was treated when things became unsafe. I would also say the food was underwhelming (especially as a vegetarian) and the process of booking à la carte restaurants so far before arrival added a bit to my pre-trip stress.
All that being said, for couples and friend groups, especially those ages 40+, I think this is probably one of the best options around this price point on the Riviera Maya, and I think you can be confident booking a trip to the Bahia Principe Sian Ka’an in 2026 and beyond.
You might also be interested in these other articles:
💵 How Much to Tip at an All-Inclusive in Mexico
🤿 How to Snorkel with Turtles in Akumal (Without a Tour!)
🛎️ Akumal Bay Beach & Spa Resort Review
🌵 Bahia Principe Grand Tequila Resort Review
🐳 Where to Stay in the Center of Cabo San Lucas
☀️ How to Explore Cenotes in Mexico with a Sustainable Community-Led Tour
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