Beautiful Beach

The hotel was older, but very clean. Our room was in a nice central location, on the 3rd floor, with a high vaulted ceiling with a balcony overlooking one of the pools. The food in the buffet was average, not a huge selection, but okay. The specialty dining rooms were better. There were 3 large pools that looked lovely in photographs, however the majority of the pool area was so shallow (less than 2 feet deep) it wasn't possible to actually swim, and because the pools were so shallow the wat [... read more]er was so warm it was like stepping into bathwater - no way to cool off. The beach however, was beautiful. We were there in early June and it wasn't crowded. The sand was soft and the turquoise water was crystal clear. The entertainment was minimal - there were a couple of good shows. If you are looking for a quiet relaxing vacation you will enjoy the resort. The transfer from the airport to the hotel was terrible. After waiting on the bus to leave for over 45 minutes we finally took an Ubr

Beautifully Kept Resort

Loved the food options, the snack bars, and cleanliness of the resort. Staff were nice and polite. Our family suite was perfect with two couch beds for the kids and our bed on the other side of the room. Disliked our location of the room as it was next to the housekeepers storage and we heard Them the minute they arrived for work. (Although they were kind and did a great job of cleaning). Hopeful we will return again!

Great resort

Very clean resort, the room was very spacious, great food, I just wished they had more snacks bars, the wood burning oven pizza place only open at 6 pm, they have a very good pizza, we arrived at 10:30 pm after the buffet was closed and went to get pizza, it was delicious, friendly staff at the comon area, but most of the buffet staff were mean, it felt like they are angry with the guests. I found one big roach in our bathroom, I told the front desk to come and remove it as I am terrified of th [... read more]em, 2 times they said we will send someone right away and no one showed. Over-all, great place and I will recomend it and will visit again.

Good time with friends

Nice sized resort Lots of chairs but minimal shade at pools and beach Always found something to eat at buffet Ala Carte's OK Room recently renewed Property well kept Mini bar restocked daily Overall lack of service in restaurants and buffets Resort was full capacity

Good location

Food was lacking in quality and variety. Pasta was not cooked sufficiently. Had to request burgers cooked more to remove pink. Service for water , pop , coffee always very slow and sometimes completely forgotten Resort was well maintained and clean. Lots of loungers both at beach and pools.

Gorgeous resort

The hotel was exceptional clean ,beautiful room, The food was exilent . Friendly,staff I would definitely go back in a Hart beat . Love everting even the show at night was excellent never the same. I Will recommend this hotel too my friend and family.

Great Stay

This resort was absolutely beautiful. Everything from the rooms to the pool area, to the restaurants are so clean. We were there for 2 weeks and the shows at night were never the same and were very good. There is no such thing as perfection no matter how much you spend or where you go, Some of the a la carte restaurants were amazing and a couple were not. Our keycard didn't work a couple of times so we were locked out of our room and had to go to the front desk for help. Minor details. All in al [... read more]l a great resort with everything you could ask for. I would revisit this resort in a heartbeat.

This was a great resort ? !

We do travel often , and would recommend to anyone . The staff keep it very clean , food was good , entertaining was good , staff was very polite and eager to help as best they can. Pool was very clean looking , and security was plentiful on the beach . Rooms were quite large and nice and bright . Will definitely return there .

Great time at this resort!

Beautiful beach with palm trees that offered enough shade for us. Very nice shaped pools with various degrees of depth. Amazing animacion team. Nice grounds, lobby, buffet food - but no bacon during our stay, lol. Live music in the lobby in the afternoons. The negative reviews didn't materialize for us, except, maybe, for one thing - waiting staff could be more hospitable, but eventually we found pleasant people and we stuck with those. I think I would want to come back to this resort. For the [... read more] price that we paid - we had an amazing time :)

7.5/10.....

I'll keep it simple and concise... Beach is great, not a rock or shell. Water clear and warm. Never calm but not rough. Just wave off vendors. They keep trying but aren't super pushy. Resort clean and visually appealing. (some minor details in room, but nothing horrible) Pools nice and water temp perfect. Food was good overall. Pizza bar was good feature. A la carts mostly a joke as usual, but it is what it is for the money you pay. Coffee not good as usual in caribbean LOL (get coffee in  [... read more]lobby bar to go... its much better and hot) Staff were pleasant overall but most speak little English. Put time share staff in their place from the beginning and ask them to respect your wish to be left alone, otherwise they will keep trying. Had to complain about one outside vendor who was getting rude and manager made him leave property. Not much entertainment wise when we were there. However...The Circus show was really good. Like a mini Circ de soleil... Overall glad we went there and would recommend.

Beautiful beach

Everything was amazing - sea, beach, pool, friendly staff, perfect service, everything neat and clean. Nature is charming! We spent lot of time on the beach, sea waves were magical, we couldn't get out of the water! Availability and versatility of food and beverages were impressive. Overall atmosphere - very relaxing and friendly!

NOW OWNED BY BARCELO.TERRIBLE. CATERED TO LOCALS AND SPANISH SPEAKING.

I wrote a review on tripadvisor, but they didn't post it. Here is what we experienced and saw. We stayed here several years ago when it was a 5 star. It is owned by Barcelo now. I wouldn't even rate it more than a 3 star now. Several hundred locals came from Friday to Monday. The staff and management catered to them. Management set up a lovely welcome station for them with trays and trays of drinks. We were never offered that when we arrived. The garbage left all over the resort was unhealthy. T [... read more]he food presentation in the buffet was lovely, but the locals pushed in to the line and left food everywhere. The seating area was unclean and tables were unwashed and left with used cutlery on used place mats. The staff was disorganized and inefficient. I think they were so overwhelmed. A couple had sex in the pool. That's right. We complained to management but we were dismissed and he walked away. We were shocked at the treatment we received. We will return to the Dominican, but we will never stay there again or at any other Barcelo.

Occidental Punta Cana

This is the worst resource which I ever visited Punta Cana above the other 5. So do not even think to go to this place or it will make your self regret and feel stupid. In my last word, garbage food and they will try to hook you up with their scammed time share.

Would Not Recommend

I expected to have an amazing relaxing vacation at this resort but instead was very disappointed. The food was awful and as a result made us sick. There were no options to choose from, the snack bar had uncooked hotdogs and hamburgers and crows would would be standing on the food eating it. You only get to make 3 reservations at the restaurants at the hotel. Those restaurants were not terrible but the portion size was incredibly small and didn’t satisfy. Air conditioning in our room broke 3 se [... read more]parate times and took hours to fix while we were left with it broken overnight while it was 25+ degrees. If you don’t speak spanish the staff would pretty much ignore you and be incredibly rude to you. There would be 30+ hagglers on the beach and just around the overall resort trying to sell anything to you and wouldn’t leave you alone unless you said you didn’t have money. This resort was not it and I am very upset with the outcome of this vacation. Do Not Go Here

Didn’t like it

Services at the buffet and bars are really extremely bad , they ignore you , and they take hours to bring you what you asked for location and beach it’s good , my room Was good , entertainment was good , I’ll recommend that you go to a better place

Not what it used to be …

As I prepare to leave the resort from my 31st visit, I must say, Occidental Punta Cana is NOT what it once was, and has declined at an accelerated rate. We flew in on Friday, and look forward to flying home tomorrow. When Barcelo purchased the location in 2015 and began renovations in 2016, I saw improvements during my following 4 or 5 visits. Since then, it has been a downgrade spiral, that has almost hit its lowest…. For one, the food is not what it once was… there were a few is [... read more]sues in our first 2 meals in the main buffet (rotted lettuce and cucumber as well as a pasta dish that had that taste of something about to go bad), so we decided to purchase the Royal access to at least eat well during our stay. The Mexican à la carte food was great, as usual, but the portions have definitely shrunk. The Royal meals were awesome, but that was to be expected. I honestly have nothing to say of the service on resort... after 30 visits, I know the staff and they know me, and we were always greeted with smiles, “Hola”s, and staff ready and willing to go the extra mile to please. On a side note, the AC was not working properly in the Royal restaurant and not once, nor in the buffet, Mexican or Royal restaurant did we get a “carbonated” coke. It was served flat at every meal, wherever we ate, for 5 days. Was that the end of the world?? Absolutely not…. But there was a time that would not have been tolerated. Lastly, I have seen over the past 5 years or so, and through a few general managers, some of the oldest staff (who had been here throughout) be let go…. I had told myself in the last couple of visits that there were only 2 staff members left, who have become friends, that kept me coming here, and as of today, one is gone… In closing, I am booked here for September, but you can bet your bottom dollar if I can change locations without losing out on $1300, I will be keeping the dates but changing locations 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ It has been a good run Flamenco/Occidental, but our relationship must come to an end 💔💔 For those eating at the buffets, here are a few pics of Royal Restaurant meals ….. Special shout out to Jean Louis, Juan, Weslin, Yuri, Leissey, Ronaldo, Alexi, Francia, Jose, Williem, Karina, Ana, Elvis, Joseph, Jean, John Kelly, as well as Hipolito, Wendy, Sandro and the Royal Restaurant staff!!!! Keep smiling and doing what you do!!! 💜💜

ACCIDENTAL PUNTA CANA- bright spacious and unfriendly

We just got back from 6 days at this resort from May 17-22nd. It was for my husband's birthday surprise. Upon arriving, check in was slow. Not to mention the front desk staff are the first people you are greeted by, there was barely any pleasantries. Arriving to our room (block 24). We were on the 3rd floor- the elevator did NOT work.. but I have to say that the room is absolutely perfect. Its spacious, clean, bright, comfy king bed, and being on the third floor- our ceilings were like 18 feet t [... read more]all with a nice oscillating fan in the middle. We had the view of the garden which also overlooked the other resort but it was perfect. The pools are endless but to give you perspective- I'm 5'5 and the deepest part of the pool was barely past my knees. It is lovely though. There's hamburger shack on top of the main pool that's open til 5am and a pizzeria that I believe is open til about 2am, Our rooms were cleaned almost regularly, but tipping does go along way. I left notes in Spanish asking for things we needed extra (water, soft drinks) and maybe 2 dollars or I left little trinkets like candy or lip gloss. There is in shower conditioner, shampoo and body gel which aren't bad at all actually, wish I had known that before travelling so I could've packed lighter lol. The lobby is gorgeous- enough seating and bar space to accommodate even a large crowd, every night there was an entertainer, we saw a saxophone player and a singer. The buffet- There wasn't many options to choose from, and its basically the same thing every day. We stuck with the fresh omelettes, a fruit smoothie and plaiintains in the morning. Lunch and dinner were roughly the same choices for both. I can't say I wasn't ever full, but definitely lacked on satisfied. A la cartes- We went to Italian, Mexican and the steakhouse. Italian was super small portioned and we felt rushed, literally were there for under 40 minutes. Mexican was tasty, and the steakhouse lacked seasoning but a good portion of steak with a tiny tiny piece of carrot, brocolli and barely a quarter potato. each meal, we went to grab a pizza after. Nightly entertainment- Enjoyable but like any resort, the same kinds. One night it was raining so they turned the theatre into a movie theatre which was kind of cute for the kids If you can't speak Spanish or slightly understand, brush up on some basics. They show you that they're annoyed that they have to speak English. The beach- beautiful, enough lounge chairs for everyone. It's not too shady though. Lucking out to find an area with the shade can be scarce. The beach is clear waters, they do work hard to keep the seaweed away. Only one day there was a lot but there was also a medium sized rainstorm the night before. There's a beach bar near by which also seconds as lunch and dinner buffet, but be sure to have clothes to put on as they may not serve you the buffet without a shirt on. PLEASE dont upgrade to Royal level or premium. I saw them waiting in the same lines as us, getting the same treatment regardless what band they had on. We experienced this at the last resort we went to (Impressive Punta Cana) so we weren't surprised when it happened at this one- Friday to Sunday is Local DR residents time. You'll see around 2-3pm, it just gets busier and more populated on Friday. This is because the residents will come with their entire family and take over. At this resort it wasn't as bad because its a more spacious resort. They'll try and cut in front of you at buffet line ups, they play their own music very loudly. The Gym- What gym? My husband went in, looked around, and left. They could use a serious upgrade. There is on site shopping inside the resort there's 3 stores with souvenirs and pharmacy type things and snacks. Just outside the resort theres a shopping centre of just the same type of things, but they are cheaper. This place could do better with firstly customer service, a smile goes a long way, more options at their buffet, larger sized portions for their a la cartes, and more shaded areas on the beach, umbrellas?? Overall, for the price we paid for 2 people and 6 days- I would not do it again. The resort is huge, lots of space to lounge, swim, relax, let me make mention that another part to making my trip was our room..... which usually wouldnt have a factor seeing that you would want to spend more time OUTSIDE your room than in it. SPF 50 is suggested, bring a good quality thermos for your drinks, tipping money, and bug spray if you're sweet skinned lol.

Occidental Resort

Very clean, pools amazing, resort very large, lots of walking. Buffet very good, lots to choose from and amazing deserts. Steakhouse and Italian restaurant both very good. Beach was clean, maintenance works clean every day

Average hotel

Great beach. Hotel was average and needs some improvements. Building 22 was dated and needs some renovations. Food was average at buffet not great. Drinks were not very impressive. Too many sales people on resort and beach which was very annoying. Many locals staying in hotel on weekends which made it very busy. Not enough shade huts/ gazebos around pool and in beach area. Servers were not very friendly and at hotel bar were just rude. Lack of servers at most bars and therefore extensive wait to [... read more] be served. Most likely if I spoke Spanish I would have had better service. This hotel is a 3 star in my opinion and I would not recommend it.

Very nice resort!

We went to Occidental Punta Cana in mid-April 2023 through Air Transat, it was a breeze! They arranged transportation to and from the airport and were very accommodating getting you settled into your room. The room, building and grounds were very clean. All the staff were incredibly hard working. Please see the video to see for yourself how the resort looks! https://youtu.be/NTYovcysVQ8