I have just returned from BT Mayakoba. Ether did a superb, comprehensive review only a few months back of this resort, so I won't repeat but I would like to add / emphasise the following:

I would agree with another review on this thread that the surrounding area itself is not that interesting or attractive and the beach is OK but certainly not spectacular. However, the Mayakoba complex has been designed to make the very most of the natural landscape, is superbly maintained and the Banyan Tree's oriental design and architecture are - imho - very attractive.

The service is excellent - very personal, caring, kind and courteous. Every guest is assigned a Resort Host, who is the primary source of contact. I believe this is largely because many of the staff still have quite poor English. I accept this (it IS Mexico and my Spanish is poor!) but did find it frustrating on a number of occasions when they appeared to understand but plainly hadn't, leading to confusion and issues not being resolved correctly.

The villas are superb (though I am not sold on the living room in a separate building idea) and we all adored the private pool and garden - a true delight.

However the food - other than stellar breakfasts - was a disappointment. Granted, we are "foodies" and look forward to high quality meals on holiday so might be setting the bar higher than many other guests and the Banyan Tree restaurants were better than any of the other "highly-rated" restaurants we tried (both at Rosewood and Playa del Carmen) but honestly, that isn't saying much! For anyone familiar with Thai food, for example, dinner at Saffron will be confusing. The dishes were largely sweet and had none of the pungent sourness you expect. The chef from Phuket admitted to me that he can't even get hold of kaffir lime leaves in Mexico! As service is excellent, he tried really hard to provide us with hotter more pungent dishes and I could sense his own frustration that he was not able to produce authentic Thai food.

In short, for a luxury beach break with superb service this is a very good option, but for anyone whose interests are either travelling out of the resort or fine dining, try somewhere else!