Is the Five-Star Banyan Tree Mayakoba Resort Worth the Money? - The Trendy Diplomat

When is the last time you went on a real vacation? I’m not talking about all those times you took off work to make your regular pilgrimage back home to visit your family, but a legitimate vacation?

My husband and I asked ourselves the same question and remembered that our last real vacation was a 3-night cruise to the Bahamas back in 2019 before the pandemic.

Like most of you, it had been too long, so we decided to treat ourselves to what we thought would be a luxury vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Neither one of us had been to Mexico, and frankly, the thought of being amongst the droves of American tourists on crowded beaches in Cabo was abhorrent enough to make me want another “staycation.” But we needed a break from the world. So while I was scrolling through instagram, I saw someone post a beautiful photo at Banyan Tree Mayakoba resort just outside of Cancun in Playa del Carmen. A quick google search led me to a spectacular website replete with photos depicting white sandy beaches, good food and even better looking cocktails.

Always ready for an adventure, I quickly clicked the “book now” button, but to my horror, saw that this five-star property charged 5-star prices. After I recovered from the literal sticker shock, I booked the cheapest villa, the “bliss pool villa” which included a picturesque private pool in what looked like a very secluded locale.

Dr. Bae and I booked our business class tickets on United (woof) and started dreaming about what would be our very first luxury vacation ever.

We Had Issues From the Start

Now, I must note here that some of the issues we experienced began with the booking, specifically, with the car service from the airport to the resort. The booking details required that we provide our arrival and departure data because someone from the hotel would contact us about scheduling a vehicle for pick-up (for a price, obviously). However, one day before our departure, I still had not heard anything from the hotel, so I called them, informed them that we were arriving the next day and asked about transportation. The harried receptionist attempted to transfer me to a colleague but instead sent me to what sounded like a fax machine.

Strike One - but I’m not too mad because, after a quick google search, I found a reliable car service called “Happy Shuttle Cancun.” Other than the somewhat unfortunate name, this service was quite fantastic. The pricing was reasonable, the driver was friendly, and we had a smooth ride from the airport to the property.

We finally made it to the gorgeous property and were immediately greeted with cold towels and a non-alcoholic welcome drink.

This was a very nice way to begin our journey at Banyan Tree Mayakoba

As we sat in front of reception, we were immediately accosted by a wedding party which made us rethink if we wanted to stay in the villa we had chosen. As is my custom, I asked our friendly receptionist if we could request an upgrade to which she responded the next available upgrade would be double the cost of what we originally paid for the Bliss Pool Villa. But she assured me that we would be far away from the wedding party . . . And since we had not vacationed since 2019, we figured, what the hell, let’s do it.

Neither my words nor my videos can adequately describe the beauty of this place. The villa was magnificent, and because we traveled in the rainy season, we found ourselves all but alone in this part of the resort. This much-needed seclusion and blissful exclusivity meant, in practice, that we were very far away from virtually everything. This is why each villa is provided bikes (ours with flat tires) and an on-call golf cart service. To give you an idea just how far we were from everything, the next video shows our “commute” from our villa to the signature restaurant (one of six) on the property.

Thai is one of my favorite foods, so you can imagine my excitement at what culinary delights awaited me at Banyan Tree Mayakoba’s signature restaurant, Saffron. So, after we properly explored our villa and all of its glories, we entered the restaurant where we were offered a traditional Thai hand washing.

The lovely staff escorted us to our table situated in a cozy green corner with the lagoon lovingly lapping water just shy of our sandaled feet. Such ambiance foreboded fabulous cuisine and equally interesting cocktails, but alas, disappointment was a mainstay at the Banyan Tree Dinner Table

A photo of me silently hoping for better food and drink.

Of course we started with cocktails. Although the presentation was beautiful, Dr. Bae and I both agreed that the signature ingredient was water. And at 20 dollars a cocktail, I’m sure you can understand why I was not pleased. Given the experience with the cocktail, I ordered something fairly innocuous … a shrimp pad Thai. Now, was it tasty? Sure. Was it the best pad Thai I’ve ever had? Absolutely not. And at 50 dollars for the plate at the resort’s signature restaurant, I expected more. Needless to say, I was disappointed. A vacation to me is good food, good drinks and a good time. I brought my husband (and my good time) with me, so all I needed for this vacation to be successful was good food and drink. Unfortunately, the restaurants at this resort very consistently underwhelmed my already pedestrian palate. But more on that later.

We returned to our room to find that the staff had given us turndown service and had laid out our robes for us. This was a nice touch, but it reminded us that our villa, as one of the premium villas, came with a personal host. Unfortunately, we had not yet heard from the host by the end of our first evening.

We began our second day with a quick stroll to the lovely and appropriately named “Sands” restaurant. The resort is expansive, but we were mercifully located about a two minute walk away from the beach and breakfast. Of all of the meals we had at Banyan Tree Mayakoba, breakfast at Sands was by far the best.

We were welcomed by the amazing staff who brought a gilded QR code that boasted an array of healthy and decadent delectables. We ordered something different every day, but each breakfast came with this plate of assorted breads, butter and jams. One thing I have to add is that everyone asked about food allergies and graciously attempted to accommodate my somewhat sensitive constitution.

We decided to spend the whole day at the resort and then go to Tulum on Day 3 (more on that later). The plan for Day 2 was to love up on each other next to our rooftop pool and then go to a 7-course Mayan dinner in the evening. While we were enjoying ourselves, we still hadn’t heard from our host at this point - so we called the front desk to bring us our lunch.

We were knee deep into day two and we still hadn’t heard from our our host, so we made the long trek to the reception and finally met him. Although we had a few interactions with our host throughout the trip, this was one of the most disappointing parts of this 5-star resort. Strike 2.

That evening, we made our way to the main building of the hotel to begin our Mayan culinary adventure. Now, we were told that there would be 12 other people joining us, and that we would all need to meet in La Copa bar for our complimentary drink before the festivities would begin. Here’s where things took a sharp left turn: Dr. Bae and I were the first ones in the bar and we informed the bartenders that we were there for the Mayan adventure, an experience billed at 220 dollars per person. Others soon joined us in the general bar area including the person I assumed would be our host given the customary white paint on his face. He broke his back introducing himself to everyone else in the bar and passing out their complimentary drinks. He walked by us no less than four times as he approached literally everyone else in the bar until I watched as the bartender pulled him to the side and pointed to us. He walked towards us, but my anger had reached fever pitch by this point. I very quietly told him that we watched him pass us and fail on multiple occasions to even acknowledge our presence. I also politely, albeit bitingly, informed him that he should perhaps simply ask everyone in the bar if they are participating to avoid this type of customer experience ever again.

At this point, Banyan Tree Mayakoba is no longer feeling like a 5-star experience to me, although we did our best to enjoy the Mayan culinary experience, a 7-course dinner that, at 3.5 hours, should’ve been 2 hours max.

The performers were fantastic but I was exhausted after this four hour culinary adventure.

We spent Day 3 in Tulum, a trip we will cover in another blog post, but we returned to Banyan Tree Mayakoba for what would be our final dinner at the Tomahawk restaurant. It was a fantastic albeit extraordinarily expensive experience. Most of the entrees cost above 100 dollars with the exception of the Salmon and two or three other dishes. It was no wonder the restaurant was empty. It was gorgeous - just empty with the exception of a few families which leads to what wonder, who is bringing kids to a 5-star resort to a restaurant with 100 dollar plates? I mean, I’m not mad at it, but my babies gon be with grandma an’ nem.

What’s the verdict on Banyan Tree Mayakoba?

Okay, there’s no doubt that this place is simply fabulous, and the absolute best part of the resort is the fact that you can experience the ultimate in privacy from the rest of the world. It is a beautiful and beautifully maintained property with some of the nicest customer service professionals with one or two very key exceptions.

The question is, is this place worth the money? Now, at this point, I have to admit that not one but two managers noticed that we were not very happy, and so we were offered the opportunity to come back to the property and give Banyan Tree another opportunity to prove that they have indeed earned their 5-star designation. We did accept the offer so we will be returning and we will provide a second review, but for now, I have to admit that this resort was simply not worth the money, and out of five stars, I would rank our experience a solid 3.8, especially given the very high costs.

What were the costs? Each breakfast, on average, cost about 70 dollars. Each dinner, on average, cost about 300 dollars. Our villa was, by far, the single biggest expense coming in at a whopping 1400 dollars per night (before taxes/gratuities/fees) per night. Excluding the cost of our flights, this vacation cost about seven thousand dollars for 4 days and 3 nights.