Venue Guide
Your Wedding at
Banyan Tree Mayakoba
Playa del Carmen
Banyan Tree Mayakoba is an Asian inspired luxury resort inside the gated Mayakoba community just outside Playa del Carmen, where every villa has its own pool and weddings are built to order rather than sold as a package.
Check your dateWhat couples ask first
5 figures, each with the caveat that comes with it.
- 1.1Outside photographers
- Confirm the current terms with the events team.
- 1.2Capacity
- The resort's wedding pages cite 50 to 600 guests.
- 1.3Wedding packages
- Quoted, not publishedNo public price we could source. Expect a proposal.
- 1.4Best months
- November, February, March and April are the dry season sweet spot.
- 1.5Airport transfer
- The resort lists Cancun International Airport at 48 km, about a 50 minute drive.
What couples choose it for
- 2.1
Every one of the resort's villas has its own private pool, which gives a couple somewhere genuinely private to get ready and to be photographed rather than a standard hotel room.
- 2.2
MK Blue, the resort's flagship reception space, is a roofed indoor and outdoor venue of about 11,100 sq ft with unobstructed views over Mayakoba's waterways and tropical forest, seating 500 at rounds or 600 standing.
- 2.3
The property sits inside a private gated community linked by canal waterways and holds Two Michelin Keys, an AAA Five Diamond rating and a Forbes Four Star rating.
- 2.4
The resort covers a wide range of guest counts, telling couples its facilities host anywhere between 50 and 600 people across seven named wedding settings.
- 2.5
Because it is a room only luxury resort rather than an all inclusive, food, beverage and venue are quoted to your event, which suits couples who want the day built around them rather than picked from a menu of packages.
- 2.6
The property appears repeatedly on the venue rosters of luxury planners working the Riviera Maya corridor, which is a reliable sign that high end weddings run there smoothly.
Where you would actually get married
Ceremony
3.1Beach Area
The resort's sugar sand beach on the Caribbean, named by the property's events team as one of its two main ceremony settings.
3.2Lobby Terrace203 seated
A raised terrace off the main lobby, listed by the resort at 203 guests free standing or 168 seated at rounds, and named by the events team alongside the beach for ceremonies.
3.3Mayapan Garden210 seated
A garden setting on the resort's wedding venue list, published at 210 guests free standing or 190 seated at round tables.
3.4The Chapel at El Pueblito
A Catholic chapel in El Pueblito, the Mexican plaza style village shared by the Mayakoba hotels.
Reception
3.5MK Blue
The resort's flagship event space at 11,107 sq ft, roofed and open sided over Mayakoba's waterways and tropical forest, seating 500 at rounds or holding 600 standing, with production grade AV on site.
3.6Mayapan Ballroom
A 3,310 sq ft indoor ballroom drawn from classical Mexican architecture, seating 250 at round tables.
3.7The Shack150 seated
A relaxed beachside spot on the resort's wedding venue list, published at 150 guests free standing or 100 seated at rounds.
3.8Mayapan Garden190 seated
The garden also works as a dinner setting, listed by the resort at 210 free standing or 190 seated at round tables.
When another venue fits better
Every point is drawn from the venue's own published terms and documented weddings. None of it makes this a bad venue.
- You want a package price you can compare.There is no published wedding package price. Every celebration is quoted by the events team, so a real budget only exists once they have built a proposal against your guest count and menus.
- You are bringing your own photographer.The resort does not publish an outside vendor fee anywhere on its own site. The only figure in circulation, $1,200 USD plus 16% tax, comes from a third party photographer's venue guide, so treat it as a starting point for the conversation rather than a quote.
- You are sizing a guest list against a published capacity.Published capacity figures vary between the Mayakoba complex site, which cites up to 200 guests, and the resort's own wedding pages, which cite 50 to 600, so the number for the specific space you want has to be confirmed.
- You want the chapel and you want it locked.The Chapel at El Pueblito sits in the village shared by all of the Mayakoba hotels rather than inside the resort itself, so it has to be reserved through the complex and can be taken by another property.
- Your date sits in the best weather months.December and January bring the best weather of the year but the highest prices, the fullest resorts, and more restriction from properties around event spaces and vendor access.
The honest considerations
- No wedding package price is published; the events team quotes each celebration, so a real budget needs a proposal against guest count and menus.
- The resort publishes no outside vendor fee; treat any third party figure as a starting point for discussion, not a quote.
- The Mayakoba complex site cites up to 200 guests, the resort's own pages cite 50 to 600; confirm the number for your specific space.
- The Chapel at El Pueblito sits in the shared Mayakoba village, not inside the resort; book it through the complex, since another property can take it.
- August to October is the height of rainy and hurricane season in the Riviera Maya; a covered backup for ceremony and reception matters more than the discount.
- December and January bring the best weather but the highest prices, fullest resorts and tighter restrictions on event spaces and vendor access.
Arrival, and where you get ready
- 6.1Fly into
- Cancun International (CUN).
- 6.2Then drive
- The resort lists Cancun International Airport at 48 km, about a 50 minute drive.
- 6.3Arriving at
- The gated Mayakoba community just outside Playa del Carmen. Fifth Avenue is 11 km, about 18 minutes away.
- 6.4Tell guests
- Send the full name, Banyan Tree Mayakoba. Several hotels share the Mayakoba community, and a guest who says only Mayakoba can be delivered to the wrong one.
- 6.5At the airport
- Ignore anyone offering a ride between the arrivals door and the curb, however official they look. Only pre-arranged and federally authorized transport may pick up at the terminal, and the walk-up offers are where the overcharge stories come from. Ride-hailing apps work for the trip back to the airport but are unreliable for arrivals, so do not plan a pickup around one.
- 6.6Book the drive before you fly
- Reserve a private transfer in advance: the driver meets you with a name sign, at a fixed price agreed up front, and tracks your flight if it runs late. We use Private Driver Cancun, WhatsApp +52 984 132 3989, mixofcultures.com. USA Transfers and eTransfers are two long-established operators for larger guest lists.
Where you get ready
Details below come from planners and photographers who have worked the property, not from the venue's own material; confirm with the wedding office.
- Day-use villaA villa assigned for the day for the couple to get ready in.
- Serenity Pool Villa with living roomLiving room with sofa bed; natural light.
What to ask the wedding office
- 6.7
Can we get a written proposal against our guest count and menus, since no package price is published?
- 6.8
What's the current outside vendor fee for a photographer? The resort publishes none; the only figure we've seen is a third party estimate.
- 6.9
What's the seated capacity of our specific space? Published figures run from up to 200 on the complex site to 50 to 600 on the resort's pages.
- 6.10
Is the Chapel at El Pueblito free on our date, and how do we reserve it through the Mayakoba complex rather than the resort?
How the light works at Banyan Tree Mayakoba
The resort's beach faces the open Caribbean, so first light comes up over the water and the sun goes down inland, behind the mangroves and waterways rather than over the sea. A late afternoon beach ceremony therefore gets soft, even light on faces instead of sun straight into the lens, and the strongest colour in the sky sits behind the lagoon side of the property. MK Blue is a roofed indoor and outdoor space set over the waterways, so it holds shade through the afternoon and leans on its own production lighting once the sun is down. The Mayapan Ballroom is fully enclosed, which makes it weatherproof and predictable but leaves nothing natural to work with after dark. Between November and April the sun sets early enough that golden light falls inside a normal reception timeline, while in June and July it arrives late and pushes portraits back.
The best time to start your ceremony
Arch's own rule for this coast is to begin the ceremony about 90 minutes before sunset, which leaves the vows in soft light and still keeps time for portraits afterwards. Start times are rounded down to the half hour. Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo. UTC-5 all year: the state left daylight saving in 2015. Times are town level, so they run within a couple of minutes of the property.
- 4:30 pm
- January, October, November, December
Sunset around 6:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- February, March, September
Sunset around 6:30 pm - 5:30 pm
- April, May, June, August
Sunset around 7:00 pm - 6:00 pm
- July
Sunset around 7:30 pm
Planning a wedding at Banyan Tree Mayakoba?
We are based in Playa del Carmen, so there is no travel fee anywhere in Cancun or the Riviera Maya.