Quote:
Originally Posted by zigzag
First review of Banyan Tree Mayakoba was on Trip Advisor and it sounds very good for the first week. With what I have read here already I am really looking forward to my visit next month.
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The review on tripadvisor was done by my significant other, so you might notice some similarities between it and my review below, but here goes anyway...
General Stuff
For those who do not know, the Banyan Tree is located in the Mayakoba area of Playa Del Carmen, which is around 40 minutes south of the Cancun Airport. In the same complex are the Fairmount and Rosewood resorts as well as the Viceroy (which is not yet complete). Not in the complex, but literally right next door is the Mandarin Oriental. I’ve been to both the Rosewood and the Mandarin and will try to draw out comparisons between the BT and the Rosewood. While I’ve been to the Mandarin, it was only for a very short while (we left because of our dissatisfaction with the place), so I will not draw comparisons between the Mandarin and the BT. In my opinion, both the Rosewood and the BT are superior to the Mandarin in every way (but this is a topic that has already been debated here and I’m not going to get into it).
All of the resorts mentioned above are built in two distinct parts – interior and beach. The interior of the resorts are built around the naturally occurring cenotes amid the mangroves; the other portion of the resort is usually on or near to the beach. The BT is mostly located in the interior, with the majority of villas and resort facilities built next to one of the cenotes. There is a smaller portion of the resort (villas, beach pool and beach restaurant) built next to the beach. Between the two portions of the resort is an area of mangroves and portions of the golf course.
Pre Arrival
I made the reservation through DavidO who (as usual) was wonderful in getting everything situated (as well as putting up with my constant changing of where I wanted to go for this trip). I did also contact the resort directly to take care of a few things myself (like spa treatments and the like) and all of the communications went smoothly.
Arrival
We used the resorts transportation service, which, while expensive, was executed perfectly - cold towels, cool drinks and transportation in some sort of Cadillac SUV (sorry, not a car person, so other than thinking it was nice, I don't really know what it was). You clear security at the Mayakoba entrance and then another checkpoint at the Banyan Tree entrance and you are then at the resort.
My first impression of the resort was that it looked very large and impressive. The reception area is much larger and grander than the Rosewood. The main area is a large U shaped two storey structure which is built around one of the centotes. Contained in this area are two restaurants, two bars, reception, the spa, the gym, the banyan tree gallery and a convenience store. There is a lot of space in this area just dedicated to lounging, with a huge number of couches and daybeds pretty much everywhere. I also immediately noticed a good amount of Asian structural and decorative influences, but there were also a good amount of Mexican influences as well as a liberal use of indigenous building materials. This theme pretty much repeated itself throughout the resort and while Modern Asian / Modern Mexican / Local Building Materials may seem like a strange mix, it really works well here.
We were met at the entrance to the resort by one of the resort hosts, given more cool towels and a welcome drink and asked to relax while she arranged for our luggage to be sent ahead. We then got in a buggy and were off to our villa.
The Villa
We were in a Spa Pool Villa and my descriptions below are for this villa type. If you are in another type, YMMV. The villa is, for the most part, extraordinary. The build quality of the villa is a good as any 5* resort I’ve been to and everything was working perfectly. I am a northern hemisphere guy and like my bedroom cool at night and the A/C was cool and quiet (it’s amazing how many tropical resorts skimp on this). The main doors open onto a large courtyard area, which contains a large (12meter X 5meter) pool, a 2meter X 2meter hot tub, daybed and table and chairs for two. The villa had a view of the mangroves and cenote. All of the villas are built in a U shape with the bedroom/bathroom structure on one side of the U, the living room structure on the other and the courtyard in the middle. It is a wonderful design that allows for a great deal of privacy since you have walls on three sides and an open area on the fourth side. Note that although the Spa Villas do not face anything, many of the other villas do, so if you were in one of these villas, your view would be of the cenote, mangrove and the side of another villa.
The bedroom was a good size, with walls made up of floor to ceiling sliding glass doors on two sides. The bathroom is made up of a large central area, which is dominated by a large, circular vanity with two sinks, a separate WC, steam shower (which opens to the outside), outdoor area with a huge bath and another shower and a large closet/changing room. Honestly, I thought that the bathroom was a weak point in the villa (and inferior to the bathroom at the Rosewood). Although it is very WOW, you very quickly realize that the huge vanity makes it kinda hard to get around and that although the bathtub is great, it takes like 30 minutes to fill. The outdoor shower is really weak, with a cheap shower head and low water pressure. It was clearly and afterthought. The interior shower was wonderful, however.
Above the bedroom / bathroom area is an outdoor spa area (steps to this area are outside). This is a really nice space with two spa beds, an outdoor shower and a nice daybed. Although we didn’t have any spa treatments there, it was really nice just to hang out here and had really good views of the surrounding areas. Ironically, the outdoor shower here is wonderful, but in plain sight of the road behind the villa, so basically unusable.
The living room area is opposite of the bedroom and again, there are two walls with floor to ceiling sliding glass doors, a huge couch, nice sized dining room table, espresso maker, kettle, stocked fridge and wine fridge, 42inch plasma (there is also one in the bedroom) and DVD player. The room was a really nice space and again, well air conditioned.
The exterior area was extremely spacious and the ‘plunge pool’ was one of the largest I have even been in. If you want loads of personal space, the BT is the clear winner over the Rosewood. Heck, just the hot tub was as large as the plunge pool in many of the Rosewood rooms. One caveat: the pool was not heated and although this would not be an issue for much of the year, it was a bit cool when we first arrived (they had just had a ‘cold snap’), but gradually warmed up.
Dining
When we were there, three restaurants were open: Sands (beach side) was open for lunch and dinner, Tamarind was open for dinner and Oriente was open for breakfast and lunch. Overall, the food was very good. The one exception to this was in-villa dining, which was not good and had a very limited (and overpriced) menu. I’ve a feeling that this is one area that is still being worked on. Tamarind served ‘Spa Cuisine’, so small portions of well prepared food. Sands had a grill concept, where you picked your protein, picked a couple of sauces/marinades and picked two sides. The food here was excellent and I thought a good value. We only ate at Oriente for breakfast. The breakfast buffet was excellent, with a good choice of cold items and a choice of a hot item from the menu (I believe they are going to eventually move the hot items to the buffet as well, but this had not yet been implemented). Oriente is supposed to eventually be open for dinner as well, but was not yet. Saffron, the Thai restaurant was not yet open because the chef had just arrived from Thailand and they were still working on the final menu.
Spa
The main area (called the Rainforest) of the spa was not yet complete (and probably will not be until May). We had a tour of this and it looks like it will be quite something when completed. The spa villas and reception are done, however and we had a couple of treatments, both of which were excellent. All of the therapists are from Thailand and are very skilled.
Other Facilities
The gym was small, but will equipped and always empty when we were there. The main pool, located close to the main lobby is spacious and free-form, with a swim up bar (the bar was not yet open when we were there). This is also a kids pool next to it. The beach pool was a bit smaller, rectangular and also had a swim up bar. Both pools offered excellent pool service (actually some of the best we have had anywhere). I do not know if there is a kids club.
Service
Simply put – outstanding. They were only open a week when we were there and already the service was equal to most of the resorts that I have been to in Asia. They are obviously working really hard at this. In general, I find service in Mexico to be very warm, but not very efficient. The BT seems to have injected a good deal of Asian efficiency into the service, but let the Mexican employees retain their natural warmth and charm. After a day, pretty much everyone knew us by name. Service here was clearly superior to both the Rosewood and Mandarin.
Conclusion and Comparison with Rosewood
Really, the place exceeded almost all of my expectations (which are pretty high). They are still going through a few growing pains, but these are remarkably minimal. Management presence at the resort was very evident and management was very friendly and approachable. There is still some odd construction going on. I did not find it intrusive but occasionally you can hear a hammer or saw. For a new resort, it was already very lush and looked very ‘grown in’, as it were. I was not put off by the Asian influences in the place, but this is not the place to go if you are looking for ‘Traditional Mexican’.
Overall, I would have to give this place the edge over the Rosewood. BT is a larger resort and is built on a grander scale. The personal space in the villas here far surpasses that at the Rosewood (but I believe the Rosewood bathrooms are superior). Service is above and beyond better at the BT. The general ‘vibe’ of the Rosewood was that it was trying very hard to be ‘hip’ and mostly succeeding. The BT feels less formal and relaxed. I don’t think you can honestly go wrong with either place. Once I sort through my pictures, I will post some here.
