Great stay!

Stayed at the Be Live from Feb 20-27th, hotel was a tad runned down but overall a great week with lots of wonderful staff and people. Food was also good with lots of variety. Would come again for the right price !

Tired resort

We arrived at around 12 noon and checked in but could not get a room till 3, unless you wanted to pay extra, The Wi Fi is extra and is only good for one device, the safe was extra, I would rather pay more for the trip instead of all the extra fees. The food in the buffet was very good, The resort is clean and very safe just old and tired.

Great resort

Very clean! Well maintained. Good entertainment, friendly staff. Beautiful beach for walking, water warm. lots of food, usual buffet style, nothing great but normal for Dominican! Good drink menu. USA money is excepted everywhere .

Had a great time!

Let me start off by saying the restaurants were amazing. The Mexican, Brazilian, and Gourmet were all delicious. The grounds were kept clean. The rooms were average. The service was great. No swim up bar or lobby bar. It was difficult to get a hut around the pool unless you woke up very early. He disco was fun at night. Overall had a good time.

Best In Puerto Plata

Wow what a resort, from the bartenders, restaurant staff, cleaning staff, house keeping staff, bellmen and last but least the front desk, as far as I'm concerned this hotel is the prime example of what customer service should be. I had a Jr. suite with partial ocean view, it was huge 2 bathrooms, living room, and separate bedroom with a king size bed, 2 televisions, coffeemaker, ironing and board and a microwave. It was truly better then being at home. Be Live Grand Marien will be the only place [... read more] I stay when traveling to Puerto Plata, and I have been going their for 20 years but staying in a other complex which is starting to get run down, Don't truly know why it took me so long to venture out to a new hotel, but I'm glad I did

A Great Week

We had a great week at the Be Live Grand, reception was welcoming, rooms were fine. The pool was great, friendly staff ( shout out to Joel!!) and the wonderful lady at Building 8!! Above and beyond. Lots of activities, or time to read and relax. Food was very good, loved all the venues. We would go back!!

Good for price

The resort is not stretched out so little walking, large beach, line up at bars which is nice so people aren't budding. Buffet was not very big but always found enough to eat (served lobster tails one night). Room was decent size and fairly clean. People were friendly. Only 20 min drive from airport.

Fantastic Resort

Just got back from a very enjoyable week at this resort. The staff were all friendly. The food was fantastic...i did not make it to all of the a la carte restaurants but thought that the variety of foods on the buffet was excellent. The room was clean and the fridge in the room always well stocked but i did leave a daily tip for the maid. I will say that clean towels although they were always there were not available before 4pm once i figured that out all went well. The beach was clean and the s [... read more]ecurity ensured that you werent hassled by beach vendors. I think the only complaint i have was that it was difficult to get information from the front desk staff on how to get around locally. There was a push to take the taxi service provided or one of the provided tours. Otherwise a fantastic vacation.

Great Holiday

Found the staff friendly, enjoyed the meals. We had great dinners at the Brazilian restaurant, food was great and the staff very friendly, service excellent and we could not have asked for a better time. We ate there our last night and in speaking to the manager told him it made our final night there the best.

Awesome Time!

Had a wonderful time! If you want a five star resort, pay for a 5 star resort. If you want a lot of fun, decent hotel, not bad food, lots to do or just relax, this is a great place. Would go back again!

Good value for money

Travelled January 29-February 5, 2015. Resort had well kept grounds and nice pool areas with lots of lounge chairs and was never overly crowded. Had a large eating area and buffet was good with lots of choices. A la carte restaurants were good too. Nice and close to airport. Somehow got an upgraded room so we were happy with that. Great room and most comfortable hotel bed we've ever had! The worst part for me is the annoying time share people who approach you every time you go to buffet. They ar [... read more]e friendly but gets annoying fast.

An OK resort but....

We travelled here with 3 other couples. We are all regular Canadian country boys and girls, 40 somethings who travel every year. We always travel last minute because we get the best deal that way. On the net this resort was rated 4+ and we payed $1050 so we did pretty good. I will give you the bad then the good. The Bad; Buffet. We all love to eat, the food here was mediocre at best. Not that it was bad but not much selection. We only saw bacon once all week. The buffet features different themes [... read more] everyday but it all was pretty much the same. The room. We had a basic room. It was clean but plain. No veiw. The tile floor was probably softer than the bed so my wife and i were fighting for pillows to sleep on. lol Definitly get the upgrade. One couple we were with did and their room and bed was much better. The beach. The beach itself was really nice and in all fairness really it was the weather that caused the problems but lots of seaweed and garbage.They cleaned it all up fairly quickly. When we arrived we had 3 days of rain so the waves were huge and the ocean was really stirred up so we never swam in the ocean once. The good; The staff here are great, the dominican people are great. Even the vendors on the beach were great. A simple no,gracias and they would leave you alone. The markets up the beach a ways were fun with many outgoing personalities to interact with. They had the coldest el presidenties around so we enjoyed quite a few there This is a very clean resort. The cleaning staff take pride in their work especially the washrooms at the bars so make sure to show them some financial appreciation. They truly appreciate the gesture more than maids and bartenders. The ala carte dinners were all really good with the mexican being our favourite. I dont know why but anywhere you eat chicken here it is fantastic. These people really know how to cook chicken. Roasted whole, breaded and deep fried different ways, wings, parts, it didnt matter it was always delicious. Same goes for their breads and buns. They were all fantastic with a great selection so now you know what i ate all week. lol. All in all we had a great week here. If you just want to relax, eat drink and be merry, you are 30+ and not a fussy eater you will enjoy yourself at this hotel. I know I sure did.

Nice resort

I Thought the resort was really nice and things were easy to find. The service was great and specially at the bars. George at the pool bar was amazing! Always took time to come and talk and get to know his customers. Really nice man! Other then the 3 days of rain we had a fantastic time. Our trip to country world (zip lining, horse back riding and animals) was amazing everyone so nice and helpful. Great trip all around! Would go back to Be Live report

Great times at the Marien

From start to finish a great vacation-in spite of the weather. Sunwing was the only flight leaving Halifax that day due to the weather but was on time. Flight was good- food, wine & movie free. Arrival in DR smooth & efficient at the airport as well as checkin at the Marien. Norvin our Sunwing rep gave a great intro to the hotel & DR the first morning. FOOD-We ate breakfast & some dinners at buffet. Thanks to Patric our "omelet guy". Buffet food good quality & good variety-their evening menu cha [... read more]nges each day. The 3 a la cartes were amazing Our faves were the Mexican (beef fajitas & Chicken in poblano sauce) & Gourmet (fillet mignon that melts in your mouth). A friend we met at the resort recommends the Chateaubriand. Brazilian was a great experience with good food as well. We had lunch daily at the beach snack bar where they have a small but yummy buffet (esp chicken wings) or you can get hamburgers or hotdogs grilled for you. BEACH/POOL-Nice long beach for walking, you can walk right to the Orange market & Playa Dorada complex if you want ~30 min each way). Since we had some stormy days,the beach was full of debris that washed in. This was cleaned up in front each of the resorts but the vacant beachfront areas were quite dirty in places. Beach vendors were abundant but left you alone with a polite "no gracias". Fun swimming & jumping the waves but no water sports due to rough waters. POOL was always clean with activities going on if you wanted to join in. ROOM-We had a basic room which was cleaned to perfection daily by Rosa Maria. Our fridge wasn't working but was replaced very quickly once we notified the front desk. ENTERTAINMENT-This was where we felt improvements could be made by having more dancing/singing type shows by the talented Marien entertainment team. Another suggestion would be to have Dominican musicians (piano, guitar, violin) playing in the beautiful lobby for an hour or 2 each evening. Overall the resort was great with amazing, friendly staff.

Rough start- Decent Finish!

Be Live is the equivalent of a 3 star resort in the US. It has parts that are great (pool, restaurants) and other areas are lacking. The customer service at the reception desk is minimal, some rooms are in dire need of renovations (in the newer buildings they are fine, but you pay to upgrade to these). The beach is just ok compared to the Iberostar next door. It is fairly dirty and has a lot of seaweed which is not raked raked daily. The pool is very nice, however there are not enough chairs in  [... read more]shaded areas and never a decent towel supply. For the price it was ok, but not as polished as Iberostar.

Excellent Staff & Resort

From the moment you step off the bus and into the lobby the staff embraces you as part of their own family. The staff goes beyond to help whenever needed. The rooms and resort are a bit dated, but is clean and well maintained. The Resort is not huge so easy to navigate and everything is a 5 min walk. The Buffet for breakfast and lunch had a decent selection. The fresh Juice stand and omelette station was the best part of breakfast. Dinner was always a theme night. Saturday was the Chefs Selectio [... read more]n with Ribs and T-Bone Steaks. All 3 A'la carte restaurants were great Mexican was the favorite, Rodizio was fantastic as well as Gourmet cannot go wrong with either choice. Make sure you check out the Orange Market a 15min walk down the beach. Frank & Raffy designing T-shirts near the pool are a must buy $20.00US. Jorge at the Pool Bar, Melvin at the Disco make the best drinks. The Snack Bar is always great for late night fried chicken. The Disco and Casino are must attend. The one negative is the room decor needs to be updated. The Rooms are spacious, well maintained and clean overall but ownership needs to invest to add the extra wow factor. For the price it is a good pick for a week. We met a lot of repeat visitors to the resort on site. The Lifestyle Vacations people are not pushy and are not about the hard sell. Overall great resort because the Staff cares. Shows are pretty good as well.

Nice Quiet Vacation

The Superiour oceanview suite is very nice - well worth the upgrade. Staff was very friendly, both bar and cleaning staff were excellent and appreciative of tips! Quintin was great! The food was some of the best I've had in Dominican (and I've been to many resorts in Puerto Plata...esspecially the Gourmet a la carte. Our anniversary dinner was delicious! Beach was clean. The only downfall, this resort is quite far removed. If you want night life and shopping this is not the resort for you. If yo [... read more]u're looking for totally relaxation - you can't go wrong!

Be Live Collection Marien

issues: 1. No telephone in our room for 4 days (we were with friends, but they were in a different building than we were so it made communications with them difficult). We had to contact the SunWing rep to get them to change the phone. I was told to go to the room and someone would meet me there. It took in excess of 4 hours to get a new phone. 2. Water pressure in the shower was poor and was never fixed after we mentioned it. 3. The sand at our beach was nice, but on either side it was weedy an [... read more]d was cluttered with garbage 4. The water was green and weedy. 5 The glasses were dirty at the buffet 6. The buffet dinners were "OK", the meat was always over or under cooked (The roasted pig was under cooked and the beef was always over cooked) 7. Not enough dishes, as we were always looking for them 8. Our dinner in the RODIZIO was a big disappointment. The atmosphere was nice, but the meat was well over cooked...almost leather-like 9. The cost of internet access was atrocious... $4.00 for 15 minutes or $60.00/week. 10. There was no designated "smoking" area. Everywhere you walked there was this smell of tobacco. As a non-smoker, this is not pleasant at all. 11. The female employees rarely looked happy, unless you struck up a conversation with them. 12. Public washroom toilets backed up after a night of rain. 13. The drinks (pina colada's and margareta's) were made with mixes at the pool bar and snack bar. If I wanted "mixes", I would have stayed home. Pros: 1. Felt safe and the resort had a relaxed atmosphere 2. We had an upgraded room. The room was spacious, the bed was comfortable 3 Our housekeeper was pleasant and did a very good job

Can be easily fixed

My wife and I were there for two weeks, to the end of January 2015. The beach had lots of seaweed to be found down the whole length of the beach, but the area just in front of the hotel is better than most areas. There is a sewage outlet area about a kilometer down from the hotel, when the tide is just right the water at the beach gets filled with anything that floats. My wife refuse to go in it after the first couple of days, we started calling it The Ganges after that. The hotel itself was nic [... read more]e… Clean, well maintained… rooms were fine. The Old Tube TV should have been replaced , bad reception, few English channels, but who cares. (F.Y.I.) The food was just down my isle., Sufficient variety, tasty and lots of fish, the table service was fine, for a hotel of this caliber. They did have a few issues with respect to the food preparation though… Overcooking and under-cooking seemed to be a big challenge for some reason. I turned down a slice of whole roast Pig, it was bloody! No one should ever-ever under-cook pork. Fleshy Salmon in one restaurant , Pork and beef cooked to leather like tenderness and juiciness in another. By a meat thermometer why don’t ya! Now my wife and I have been taking two to four week annual vacations in the sun for about 14 years. This is the first hotel where we got diarrhea. Both of us… for days…, and yes we only drank bottled water. Which leads me to the first on the list of complaints about the hotel, which could easily be addressed with little or no cost, (like buying that meat thermometer ;-) and would have greatly improved our stay: 1. Don't be so cheap: Buy some more water glasses. They were always running out, the result was they were never properly cleaned, to be fair, the ones on the table were always clean but the ones by the soda fountain were disgustingly dirty. I’m sure they were not washed but just rinsed and then put back out to meet demand, they were almost always wet when you picked them up. I assume that is where my wife and I picked up the diarrhea thingy, (Or it could have been off the lipstick and mouth marks that are found on every third cup). FIX: buy more cups to give the dish washer the TIME to wash with hot soapy, water, rinse with HOT CLEAN water and let dry. (My mommy taught me this stuff when I was nine.) COST: Minimal. 2. Open the internet, stop being greedy. The BEST deal they offer is 25 hrs for 25$(US) that must be used in 6 days (who stays for six days?), and can only be used on one computer. What is this… 1992? Clothing is more optional than the internet these days. I not asking for a Manicure-Pedicure or a body message here, where some may want it and some may not. Let me spell it out for you, every single customer wants the (bleeping) internet… Figure it out!! FIX: open it up. It’s already there. COST: If you must be so greedy as to demand a separate payment; make it for the entire duration of our stay, and with as many Internet connected appliances as we may drag over the ocean with us. You would not even have to pay the wages of the guy who sits in that silly little internet room. 3. The Music sucks. I never heard a song that was not at least 20 years old during the 14 days I was there. At the “disco” (disco died 20 years ago, remember) you can watch as people who are paid to entertain us dance to male Spanish tenors that all sound the same. We can appreciate Dominican Music, but let’s be real, the sun, the beach, the food and the drinks and to have fun is the reason we spend thousands of dollars to visit you. The bad music is getting in the way of us having fun. FIX: Let’s say 90% of the music played be of a popular variety from THIS millennium. COST: Zero. If you want. just supply the computer interface, the customers can supply the music.

Disappointing

The maid was great, everything else is disappointing. Buffet is brutal, a la carte poor, beach was a mess, hotel is outdated and never had routine maintenance, constantly hassled by timeshare salesppl