Lovely week

The Grand Bahai Principe El Portillo was beautifully maintained and all Service was excellent. We enjoyed the Main Buffet food and Beach Buffet, lots of selection and very fresh. Air Canada flights & transfers were great and the Rep at the Resort was excellent. The only complaint from us was the male cat spraying on table and chair legs in the beach restaurant.

Great resort!!

This resort is really amazing. Rooms are clean, food is great, people are nice and the beach is beautiful. This was our fourth time at this Hotel and we just love it. The only thing that we were disappointed about is that there was a lot of kids this year, don't get me wrong we love kids we have three but we were not expecting to see so many.

Beautiful location, but poor management.

The Grand Bahia Principe el Portillo in Samana is situated in beautifully lush green surroundings. The beach quickly became one our favourites with many palm trees providing much of the shade and the mountain range in the background. Overall, the main part of the hotel is aged, but it appears well kept. The resort grounds are beautifully maintained. Our room, however, showed many signs of neglect, most significantly the musty smell, the air conditioning which did not work or worked poorly at bes [... read more]t, the lack of water (no water at all) flowing from the ‘hot’ side of the bathroom faucet, and the broken floor tiles. The view from our balcony was of a dilapidated structure/building (staff residence?). Thank goodness the fan worked to move the air around and the sliding balcony door opened. We spoke with the front desk people numerous times over the first 2 days and nights with no resolve. We asked to be moved several times but each time we were told the hotel was fully booked. Vacationers were checking out (and in) every day, but management refused to give us a different room. We received no compensation, not even a simple apology. Eventually we gave up, which is of course, what the hotel management counted on. Having no realistic options, other than packing our bags and waiting at the airport for 5 days, we made peace with the fact that management really did not care and that we were stuck in the smelly hot and humid room. So, we changed our mind-set and expectations and salvaged our vacation by enjoying the beautiful beach, the beautiful weather and the beautiful Dominican people. It really is beautiful in Samana. Unfortunately, you must pay for your vacation up front, which leaves the customer with little or no recourse when management fails to deliver on the promises they make to entice you to stay at their resort. Our only recourse comes after our stay: We promise to not ever return to the Grand Bahia Principe el Portillo in Samana or stay at any Grand Bahia resort anywhere in the world. The difference between the Grand Bahia management and us? We’ll keep our promise.

Vacances très appréciées

Nous avons passé une semaine franchement très appréciées. Le trajet de l'aéroport à l'hôtel d'une durée d'une heure est pittoresque et nous permet de prendre connaissance de la végétation, des habitations et de la beauté de l'ile. Les modalités d'enregistrement ont lieu dans l'autobus, ce qui accélère le traitement à l'hôtel. Il nous reste qu'à prendre possession de le clé de la chambre. Nous avions une chambre dans le complexe # 27 au troisième étage, bien isolée, spacie [... read more]use, propre, récemment rénovée. La nourriture était excellente tant au buffet que dans les restaurants spécialisés. Beaucoup de monde sur la plage, quand même un peu tassé. Les restaurants qui donnent sur la plage offre une vue fantastique, service courtois. Pour les adeptes de longue marche sur la plage dans un environnement sauvage, vous serez gâté. Peu d'hôtel autour du El Portillo. Le court de tennis (il n'y en a qu'un seul) nécessite que vous réserviez à l'avance. La qualité de la surface est de mauvaise qualité mais jouable. Les lounges sont nombreux et permettent de faire de la lecture tranquille, ou d'écouter un musicien ou de prendre un verre donc de relaxer et d'apprécier le luxe du tout compris.

Bahia El Perfecto!

Our stay was truly memorable. This hotel excelled when it came to service! The common areas and pools we clean and maintained all day long. The restaurants were excellent - we really enjoyed the variety and quality of food. Our room was perfect for our family of 4 and the twice a day tidy and towels were really appreciated. I would recommend and already have done so to friends and family! Great job Bahia team!

Best Choice For What We Wanted

Having been to DR several times, Cheryl and I were looking for a great resort in a different location with an awesome walking beach and great snorkelling. Our agent, O'Neil Graham made suggestions that exactly fit our bill. The hotel, food and especially the beach was amazing and we would definitely return. The resort is only missing two things: music of a latin flavour i.e. guitarists and a smoothie bar for breakfast meals.

Celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary in Grande Bahia Principe El Portillo Dec 23-30, 2017

I send our two page review to our excellent agent TERESA. The review points out the positive and negative points. Please ask her for the information. There were issues with the groupings of our three families for flight , seat assignments to and from Samana; confusion due to bookings for William the Sunquest rep with transfer to the Resort as well as problems with room location at the Resort. Upon her return from holidays, Teresa did call the Resort to confirm our requests. We still do not u [... read more]nderstand the confusion was it due to the agent replacing Teresa, Sunquest agent or the people at the Resort. In spite of the challenges faced, we did enjoy the holiday at this Resort celebrating our 50th, our daughter's 20 and our son's 15th wedding anniversaries. El Portillo is a good family type resort.

Lovely resort !

This was our second stay at Christmas at this picturesque little resort. Beach is beautiful, seating areas are the nicest I’ve ever been to in over 30+ years of travel. Highly recommend to families. Staff was wonderful and always willing to take extra care !

Good but not great.

This was our first experience at an all inclusive resort and we had seen several good reviews for this one. Our time at the resort was good but not enough for us to say we would definitely return. The beach was beautiful and the kids water park was fun for our kids. Most of the staff do not speak English so knowing a little Spanish helps. We found that tipping the staff did not make any difference in the level of service. The service was good at best, especially at the buffet and restaurants. [... read more] It seemed like they were understaffed at times and we waited a while to have water/coffee/wine/etc. served or refilled. There was a good variety in the food at the buffet and it was replenished quickly. The Italian and Mediterranean restaurants were very good, but the Brazilian one was a disappointment. This was the one with the best reviews so we picked it for a family celebration dinner. The service was terrible. Not enough servers so we waited a long time for food. They were however very prompt to bring us the bill for the champagne we ordered. All-in-all a good resort, almost great.

Nice resort but not 5*

Beach was absolutely amazing! Spent all of our time there. Pool is quite small with a lot of kids in it. Food and bars close early, food was quite good and so were drinks. Bars were understaffed. Room was large and clean but beds were extremely hard and uncomfortable. Check in was beyond ridiculous...have never seen anything like it before. Had to have our door mechanism replaced and lost the morning stuck in our room. Zero room service. Had a major issue with a staff member that harrassed th [... read more]e teen girls we had with us...nothing was done, although we reported it immediately.

Beautiful location

When I selected this resort I saw that an airport was 34 km away. I found out after that this airport is only used for Saturday flights. The result was an added four hour cross country trek in a van, after arriving 183 km from the resort. The resort staff are very friendly, with most just learning to speak English. The rooms are clean and comfortable, although our jacuzzi tub did not work. A variety of daily activities are available, and nightly entertainment shows are a nice way to spend the e [... read more]venings. The beach party was interactive and the best of the bunch. The resort has a long beach, that the staff maintain well. The a la cartes give you way more food than needed, and the buffet also encourages overeating, with so much food available. If you decide to go, make sure to book a Saturday flight!

Beautiful Place but just so you know

Booked this hotel as it offered a 5 day package as we couldn’t be away for a whole week right before Christmas and reviews were very good. We flew in to Puerto Plata - a 3 hour drive if nobody missed their hotel stop or their connecting bus etc. Not hotels fault but made for a very long day. Great reception, got a ride to our room and went to buffet after 12 hours of hurry up and wait. There were a couple things that I had trouble getting a straight answer from reviews. 1. There is only free  [... read more]wifi in the main lobby and there is no coffee in the morning, some bar service in the evening. 2. The safe in your room needs a key and you need to pay to use it. That said our stuff was safe in our room all week but I would rather lock up my valuables. 3. There is no swim-up bar. There would need to be another pool as neither the activity pool or the quiet pool would lend themselves for this. Our room was great, I had emailed ahead for a king bed and we got one, thank-you. We never went to any alacartes but the buffet was good. Repetitive but the service was relatively good and good food. Lots of seating areas in the “off-lobby” areas and good bar-wait service. Activity pool was loud and busy, quiet pool was awesome except for some patrons that tried to make it their personal party pool. Thanks to bartender Franco and the security staff the boom box and their boisterous behaviour was shut down. Great beach at this hotel, lots of chairs, easy swimming, good snorkelling, and walking for miles. We were impressed with most aspects of this hotel and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quiet holiday.

Even better the 2nd time around

This was our 2nd time at the hotel. The food is the best we've ever had at an all inclusive resort. The beach is beautiful and the staff are great. We were in a superior junior suite, block 27. Room was very spacious, bathroom was nice, and the maid did a great job. The resort is fairly quiet at night, other than the shows, which was fine by us.

Very nice resort.

Hotel is very clean and grounds are beautiful. Did not care to have the stray dogs on the beach though they didn't bother you but it seemed sad. Food is good and they had lots of chairs to sit down which is very nice. Don't know if this is because it wasn't full.

Amazing Resort!

Love this resort, the hotel is well maintained and beautiful. The staff is what made our vacation amazing, special thanks to Josephine in the loby area. The food is good but sometimes a little over salted. Gorgeous beach surrounded by palm trees. I will definitely go back!

Amazing resort

We had a great time and we will come back ,food was delicious,staff was great,very pleasant atmosphere,beach very nice 👍 Room service not very good 😊 our room was16205 and we have to call for service,cleaning lady didn't live coffee,one towel for two people,everyday something was missing.we decided just put signs not to enter our room for last two days ,this is the only one thing we did not like.Also main problem at the resort they offered privilege club members,this is very pushy offer wh [... read more]ich doesn't make any sense,we were involved in this,next day I canceled,but I lost my time and $100 US dollars 💵 Very disappointed 😔

Second Home

Travelled here for our 5th time for two weeks in October 2017. My Husband, daughters, Sister and Myself. My Husband & I celebrated our wedding Anniversary while there. Let me start by saying that this resort is Beautiful!! The setting is on a very long stretch of white sand beach that is raked and kept clean daily. The rooms are amongst lush tropical gardens with vibrant flowers and colorful bushes. The Staff and management are excellent!! The Food is amazing!! huge selection to choose  [... read more]from to feed the most picky of eaters!! The al la carte restaurants are magnificent!! Delicious and presented in a very professional manner!! The shows are awesome!! The animation Team are Excellent at what they do and always have a smile on their face and time to greet you!! Shout out to Sandy, Joel, Israel , Daniel and Carlos the D.J. Rooms are clean and comfortable!! you have a mini bar fridge in your room that is stocked daily with beer, water and soft drinks as well as potatoe chips. There are two pools both of which are great to hang out at!! The larger pool is where they hold all of the activities and play music and then there is another smaller pool which is called the relax pool where you can chill and relax if you do not wish to be a part of the excitement. both pools have bars with Excellent Bartendars!! The Beach has a bar as well with the most loving bartendar that will serenade you with songs!! his name is Euclides. We call him Mr. Bahia or Lady Gaga LOL. Shout out to Jorge at the main pool Bar and Jose at the relax pool!! The lobby bar is another place that is great to grab a drink and chill at with many staff members that are delightful and happy to serve you!!! Shout out to Carolina bartendar,server my little sweetheart!! We have been travelling to the dominican republic for the last 30 years but we keep on going back to the Grand Bahia Principe El Portillo as we feel like family and consider it to be our second home. Check it out and you will not be disappointed!!!!!

Large resort

stayed the week of oct 14, 2017. It is a very large property where shuttle busses will pick you up or you can walk to your room and t the lobby.. Beach was nice but ocean had some large coral that you must manoeuvre around in order to swim. Many loungers and lots of shade if preferred. Food at buffet has wide selection of items but it tended to be repetitious nightly. The alacarte restaurants were very nice. I stayed in a junior suite which was clean and large in size and had a balcony . It w [... read more]as located in the #11 villas with a gorgeous view of the relax pool. The mini fridge was stocked daily but the temperature of the mini fridge was very warm. The door of the room was operated by a swipe card which I had many problems with getting in. It seemed everyone I spoke to had the same issues with their doors. This was quite frustrating. Grounds were nicely manicured . Although I did have a good time, I would not travel back to this hotel.

One word AMAZING

I would like to thank Helen Cloutier for her proposition to go to El Portillo. It was exactly what she had said it would be. We had Villa 8 and it was in the center of the resort. The food very tasty both at the buffet and a la carte, vast variety and good, the beach was we just how we like it calm water and clean, weather was great except for one day. Rained all day it was good to play cards and chill. We will go back and I highly recommend this to anyone that would like to have a good and r [... read more]elaxing time. Again thank you very much Helen and we will book again with you for our next vacation.

Lovely resort

This is our second time visiting this resort and again we were not disappointed. The staff were friendly, food was fantastic with a huge variety every day, beach was excellent with great snorkelling right off the beach. The grounds were beautiful and well kept. We had another amazing vacation at the Grand Bahia El Portillo and would go back again. A lovely family resort.