Royalton CHIC Punta Cana: Poor service and definitely not a 5* resort !!!

Service is extremely slow at all the restaurants. Facilities are mediocre at best and entertainment is just average. All in all, this resort is probably at 3.5/4 star. I would not recommend this place during the holiday season and I would suggest you find a place that will get you more bang for the $$ you spend.

Barcelo Bavaro Palace: Beautiful Resort

i would like to start off by saying that Jill and her Colleagues at trip central are completely amazing. the Barceló Bavaro is a superp resort and the entire staff are friendly and courteous. the resort is super clean, the food is delicious recommend upgrading to premium level. the only complaint I have is that my son got sick there due to an ear infection which I'm pretty sure he got for the kids water park, must be something in the water. only complaint. would definitely go back.

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: Beautiful and friendly resort

Our second time at the Grand Sirenis this time at the tropical suits side... rooms where bigger than the Cocotal better when you have couple kids. We love this resort and spent Christmas there, our kids love the water park and we love the kids club service and baby sitting service. No complaints will be going again soon thanks for a another great experience.

Royalton Hideaway Punta Cana: Great vacation at The Hideaway!

I recently spent the holidays at the Hideaway with my daughter and for the most part it was wonderful. The Hideaway is an adult boutique hotel within the Royalton (which is not adult). It comprises a couple of buildings surrounding the adult pool with pool bar. In order to get to the beach (Hideaway has its own section with Beach bar) and to the adult only Dorado restaurant, you will be walking through the Royalton where there are kids. All other amenities (a la cartes, main buffet, main lobby b [... read more]ar, theatre, etc.) are at the Royalton so if you want a strictly adult hotel, this might not be for you. That being said, the Hideaway is definitely a beautiful hotel with an upscale experience and in my opinion is highly recommended. Pros: - Adult pool was bigger than pictured and service, particularly by Dolores and those who made sure you had your towels and mats, was excellent. Always some sort of entertainment and fitness classes provided by the vibe team and one day a sax player serenaded us with beautiful music. Christmas Eve featured a spectacular vocalist. The weekend was exceptionally busy (i.e. get your seats very early). - Front desk was superb, particularly Luz and Stephanie who provided excellent personal service to us and ensured our needs were met. - The Dorado restaurant provided such excellent, personal service at dinnertime (both the hostesses and the servers), great atmosphere overlooking the beach, and the food was so good that we ate most of our dinners there. The Christmas Gala menu was noteworthy (no extra charge for Hideaway guests) . Salmon and the steaks (which I preferred to those at Hunters) and my daughter’s sea bass were exceptional. - Beach was eroded (through no fault of the hotel). This being said the Hideaway portion had their guests packed in like sardines. We spent most of our days at the pool and took long beautiful walks on the stunning beach every day. - The Hideaway lounge provided an incredible spread of food, coffee and alcoholic drinks from morning to night. As our first breakfast at the Dorado took a little too long, and we were ok without a full breakfast, we had ours at the Lounge every day (smoked salmon, cream cheese, croissants, etc) – excellent feature. Same coffee machine as the Royalton coffee shop. - Theatre at the Royalton was 2 level, air conditioned and enclosed. Aside from some of the broken seats, several shows were beyond anything I’ve seen at any 5 star in terms of the production – Michael Jackson, Lion King and the Christmas Retro Rock Show (which replaced the Madonna show ) were excellent. More nightly entertainment in centre of complex. - Grounds are stunning and the entire complex is easy and quick to get around. Cons: - Not sure what the role of the concierge is. We did have one reservation made at Hunters (which we appreciated as we did not have a butler|) but aside from that, simple requests and promises were not respected and their objective seemed to be to lure you to a VIP breakfast to learn about other properties. They were hardly around in Building 2, and look bored when they were. Better to deal with the front desk. - Room we had was beautiful with a view to die for (of the swimup pool area, the adult pool and the beach). However, as has others have stated, the 3 drawer storage space is not adequate. We asked for more hangers and hung up what we could. This problem could be solved – there is definitely room to bring in a bank of much needed drawers next to the dresser. Not everyone wants to live out of a suitcase in what’s supposed to be a home away from home. A night light in the bathroom area is also highly recommended. - If noise bothers you stay away from a room near the common stairwell as it’s particularly noisy. Housekeeping was exceptional (though turn down service at night needs more consistency) but should be asked to keep voices down when screaming directions back and forth in the mornings. Doors also slam so bring ear plugs. And guests please be considerate of your neighbours, particularly late at night as walls are paper thin. - Be prepared to wait to get into Royalton a la cartes. I would rather have the abililty to make reservations myself (not all of us are prepared to pay extra for Diamond Club for a butler nor should it be necessary). Ate at Hunters and Jade and although the food wasn’t bad, we felt like a number. There was a 20 minute wait at Grazie one night. As it appeared to be mostly empty we didn’t bother and went back to Dorado. - Service at the buffets was atrocious. Had lunch at Grazie twice – first time offerings weren’t bad, but underwhelmed the next time. Service for drink orders or clearing your plates was practically non-existent. Ate remainder of lunches at main buffet with excellent offerings. However, the service inside was horrible – found it better if you were seated outside which was much brighter during the day anyway ( the inside tends to be very dim considering this is supposed to be a tropical resort). - I would have liked some sort of bar area dedicated to Hideaway guests (aside from the pool bar where the layout was not really conducive to meeting others, especially at night). Not sure if this would be achievable due to space constraints but would have been nice to have area to socialize other than the very small "grab and go" lounge area. All in all a great vacation, beautiful pics and memories and highly recommended! 

Riu Palace Macao: Excellent resort!

Loved our stay at the RIU Palace Macao. Best beach ever with never ending white sand. Excellent service and great succulent food! Never had to wait for specialty restaurants. No need to wake up early to reserve loungers, they have plenty around pools and beach area. Loved it and will return!

Grand Memories Punta Cana: Had a great family vacation!

This a great family resort. The waterpark is wonderful for the kids! The gr ounds are beautiful with an abundance of palm trees,very tropical ! Many pools both for adults and kids. Food was good at both the a la carte restaurants and the buffet . There is a snack bar called " Bites" which offered freshly cooked cheese burgers ,hotdogs and fries which were excellent! A constructive observation is that the bars all close at 11PM even the Lobby Bar which our party found too nearly! Our recommendat [... read more]ion is that Grand Memories Punta Cana keep the Lobby Bar open until 1AM. I also heard this complaint from several other guests! The staff were friendly and very helpful and the service was great! I recommend the this resort as a great family resort!

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Impressive on Every Level

We stayed at the Luxury Ambar from Dec. 28th to Jan. 4th and we can’t say enough about the resort, the service and the food. This was our third stay at the Bahia Principe, having stayed previously at the Punta Cana and Amber Green. The Luxury Ambar is by far the best. The staff are super friendly and work hard to make sure everything is to your satisfaction. Always with a smile. We stayed in a swim up room next to the pool and it was perfect! Our butler took care of our meal reservations but [... read more] with the app it is easily accomplished. Our one and only problem was with the internet. Possibly because of the volume of users. It was difficult to connect and very sketchy when you did finally get connected. Apparently they are working on correcting this issue. We will definitely be returning for New Years if not before!

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Huge Resort with immaculate grounds

The grounds are spectacular. Rooms are large and clean. Food was good. Really liked the ocean and the beach, which is a bit narrow and could be a bit crowded in the peak seasons. Very large resort with easy access to everything by carts always driving by...Would recommend...might go back??

Bahia Principe Grand Bavaro: awesome resort

amazing beach, great food, great staff, restaurants were good esp the garden grill, beef tenderloin, could put more beer in mini fridge, buffet was great lots to choose from pools were nice and entertainment was great, shopoing was good, too many vendors on the beach asking you to buy stuff almost every 10 minutes

Ocean Blue and Sand: Great Family Vacation!

We arrived late due to airline delays. The check-in process went well, however, one of the two rooms was not properly prepared for us. The air conditioner was broken necessitating the need for a dehumidifier that was full and not active. Once emptied the dehumidifier began to work, however, given the science involved it throws considerable heat!! We called to complain and were attended to immediately. Happy with the responsiveness given it was after midnight. Air conditioner was fixed the n [... read more]ext day and dehumidifier removed. Very satisfied. Staff was very friendly, grounds well looked after. Beach was great and housekeeping superb.

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Many things to like

I had a great room overlooking the pool. This wasn’t the case for some there, as they said the could hear the staff at 6:00 am and their room faced a wall. All the staff (and there are alot) were fantastic.!, Clean, clean, clean. I was happy to see the buffet at the beach, floors and tables were clean(as well as all the other locations) The same goes for the restrooms (all the different areas)

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Overall, mediocre resort. Not a 4-star, maybe a 2.5

SunWing has become a low-budget carrier where passengers are bused all over the Pearson tarmac to get to another building to board their flight. Food has to be purchased on board at ridiculous prices, passengers after row 26 were told there was only dry noodle soup available on the menu!! Surely they could bring more menu items on board for a 4 1/2 hour flight! Check-in at Be Live was an absolute disaster. We were booked in Adults Only VIP section for 3 junior suite rooms. Staff were disorga [... read more]nized and unable to accommodate rooms requested by guests. Some guests had to wait 2+ hours to get their rooms sorted out. As for the assigned butler which was part of our package, there was no such person available at check-in as promised. We were given no map of the resort or no instructions of the facilities. There seemed to be a supervisor trying to assume the role of butler. It wasn't until day 3 that our butler appeared in the lobby and I happened to notice him. Our party of 6 were shown 3 rooms which had multiple issues such as no air-conditioning and uncleaned bathrooms with foul smells. The section of Block 2 we were shown was largely in disrepair, far from the photos we had seen of the resort previous to our booking. We requested to be shown other rooms. After another hour we were finally able to unpack, still not pleased with our accommodations. The promise of stocked mini-fridges fell short, with only 2 mini cans of beer, a couple soft drinks and 2 waters. This was to be for the rest of the week unless you were "generous" with the cleaning ladies. Cleaning staff cleaned your room depending on how much money you left behind. Often not replacing towels and water. The VIP Lounge Bar offers a snack counter throughout the day as well as free water bottles and soft drinks. There are also late night cheeses and desserts trays for those before or after dinner drinks which is nice. This space is air-conditioned and offers a cooling spot from the mid-day heat. The food was well below par across the resort. Compared to other Dominican resorts, the buffets were terrible and messy with extremely slow service at the table... was only offered coffee at our table twice in one week!!! Many food stations, such as the omelette station, had a queue of at least 8-10 people with only one cook. The wait was 20 minutes on average every morning! Some serving staff were pleasant but almost all had trouble speaking and no understanding of English which made some requests nearly impossible. The a-la-carte restaurants were the most disappointing. The booking desk did a poor job altogether telling us we only had two options for the week (out of 6 a-la-cartes). The Mexican restaurant had average food. The Japanese was a complete disaster not seating us at a teppanyaki table and our server taking forever to take our drink and food orders. Appetizers took an hour to come to the table. There were only 3 other tables occupied in the restaurant at the time. Some appetizers showed up uncooked. Our server disappeared altogether with us having to flag down the others to ask where the other appetizers were. After another 20 minutes we were all starving and other tables were getting their main dishes. No servers were attending to us so we decided we should leave and head to the main buffet. That was a terrible evening to say the least. Overall a poorly run a-la-carte system. As for the beach, beautiful sand and cleaned daily by staff. Staff regularly pick up plastic cups and food trays and rake the seaweed that washes up overnight. Some vendors come by often but are not allowed passed the rope marking of the resort. Adult only section would benefit by allowing guests to us the "Palm Club" beach section as it went unoccupied for most of the week. We only saw a handful of guests in this section on some days. On the adults only beach there are plenty of single chairs and some Balinese beds available but most are "reserved" by 5:00 a.m. Some guests were even getting up at 2:30 a.m. to put towels down to secure a spot. You need to pay a beach attendant to reserve for you if you don't wish to get up at a crazy hour. It's unfortunate that some "reserved" beds go unused for most of the day. This is unfair and not in keeping with the resort's policy of "maximum 20 minutes and then free" rule. We observed a few altercations regarding this during our stay. Bar service on the beach is good, servers work very hard delivering drinks and food to your beach spot. The grill had the best food in the resort making it a very busy place for lunch but well worth it! Also should mention that bartenders are friendliest of all the staff. The adults only pool is fairly quiet and relaxing with music playing softly in the background. The pool is very clean. Hot tub also clean but not hot as it should be. There is a lack of chairs along the pool area and NO umbrellas to shade you from the afternoon sun. Basically no place to sit and relax -- what kind of vacation is that??? Activities on the adult side were very few. Two daily activities of Aqua Zumba and Beach Yoga/Stretching only. Mr. Blue kept the groups going. Nightly entertainment for the whole resort consisted of main stage themed-shows which ended at 10:30. One beach dance party per week is not enough to keep people entertained. You are left to do your own thing at a few bars and the disco which is way too loud for most. The casino seemed to be busy on a couple nights, not sure if it's due to resort guests or locals? The New Year's Eve Gala was simple... a banner photo area and two tables of champagne glasses with a few bottles of sparkling wine (definitely not champagne). Main food buffet was not spectacular compared to other Dominican resorts New Years festivities. The count-down fiesta on the beach was enjoyable and culminated with a nice fireworks display. Good work on that! Excursions are booked through SunWing and Nexus Tours. The tour people underestimate the travel time for excursions which adds to the day. Multiple bus trips and transfers are necessary to get to the destination point. Snorkelling areas are very busy with multiple groups descending on the same area at once. Food buffet offered is very limited. Not worth the extra money is the consensus. Overall, a disappointing trip to Be Live Resort. We will not be returning and will not recommend this resort. Will avoid SunWing travel altogether. Regards, The V Family

Impressive Punta Cana: A work in progress

Arrived at the resort Sunday afternoon and left the following Sunday morning. Since this resort has been rebranded and gone through some major renovations, I must give them credit for the hard work they have put in to make this a great place to vacation. From the reviews I had read from previous vacationers, I will say the comments were taken to heart and problems noted were rectified the best they could. Overall, my stay here was not without a few little challenges. The grounds were always ma [... read more]intained and clean. Workers constantly kept debris and garbage under control. The beach was kept clean from seaweed throughout the day. Public areas were always accessible, the pools from 9 am till 6 pm. Rooms were cleaned daily. Minibar was always stocked (asked for a few extra beers each day and they were there). Bathroom supplies (shampoo, conditioner, etc.) and towels could have been stocked better each day. Sometimes had to track someone down for items not replenished. The food, well I can say that there was enough selection for anyone, even the pickiest eaters. The main buffet was always well stocked until the last half hour of the meal times. Pizza and nachos always available from 10ish each day. The al a carte restaurants were excellent. The French, Mediterranean and Italian restaurants were really good. I would recommend the Beef tenderloin at any of them and the Lamb shank was exceptional at the Italian. We were unable to attend the Japanese restaurant because it is only open on Sundays at this time, it books up very fast. It would be nice if it were open two or three nights each week. Nightly entertainment was always available in the theater or near the main lobby. Always something for everyone, even the kids had their own entertainment nights and times. Local DJ's, small bands and entertainment staff were there to provide music for and dancing for all to enjoy. The entertainment staff were willing to teach the dance moves for those wanting to learn. For anyone who likes to walk along the beach, you can walk a long time before you run out of beach in both directions. My one big complaint is there is no smoking policy or restrictions in effect anywhere on the resort. Even to have designated smoking areas so the non-smokers could enjoy the resort. Having a large number European vacationers at the resort, as a Canadian, one begins to appreciate the Canadian smoking laws.

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Beautiful Beach

Be Live All adult Resort Punta Cana was mixture of disappointment starting with checking in that took 1 1/2 to get what we paid for which was Ocean View. When we finally got our room it was great. Beach was lovely white sand and the staff on the beach were awesome. Now the front desk was another story of inadequate, rude and ignorance. I have never come across such poor service from a resort before. Without going into the frustration of a 2 week Christmas vacation which which we had to just laug [... read more]h that it was so bad and make the most of it. I would never recommend this resort to anyone. There are much better places and I would bet anything there reviews are fixed. We have connected with others who where at resort the same time who have be blocked for writing a negative review. They don’t want to hear the truth. Look on Trip advisor about this Resort. Service is bad. For such a lovely resort to have such bad service is shameful. We hired a boat to tour the coast and even the operator was surprised we were staying at Be Live as he said service was bad. Should have gone further down the road.

Excellence Punta Cana: Lovely resort

This hotel has a very beautiful botanical garden with wild birds, an iguana and fish. Just gorgeous space for a quiet walk. The service and the food is first rate. Our rooms were great with all the expected amenities. We used a daily room service for coffee for convenience and luxury. The games area had all you needed to pass the time away when there was rain, The only thing I would recommend is to bring bug spray as there seems to be very small flies that will get you in the evening as you enjo [... read more]y the outside. I would also always recommend to use the safe all the time as it is a smart move. Oh and as a final note try not to overeat as you will be tempted by all the great food and drinks. I only wish the common areas were non-smoking with designated smoking areas like the Alelier resort in Cancun.

Lopesan Costa Bavaro Resort Spa and Casino: Definitely Not recommended

The service was non existent. People arguing daily for beach chairs and towels. Staff did not keep their promises of getting us the room we paid for. Food was sub par at best. Resort reused food from prior days at buffet and at la carte restaurants. Terrible sewage smell on first floor throughout resort and in parts of lobby. Bar at beach and in lobby would ignore and serve whomever they liked/tipped the most. Shows are horrible when there were any. So many more issues with this resort although  [... read more]fingers are tired from typing :(

Impressive Punta Cana: Would NOT recommend

Honestly there are better places on the island then this resort, staff was extremely rude and would cat call any females. the only place to get "free wifi " is the resort lobby or you have to upgrade or pay for the wifi. the shows weren't anything special. beach was nice. Food was ok, I have a food allergy to gluten and it was hard to make clear to the restaurants because of the lack of English. One on the problems with the resort was a guest was slapped in the lobby and the staff and "security" [... read more] refused to do anything about it because the guess who assaulted him was leaving tomorrow, little did we know we met that same guest 2 days later in the resort. not worth the money if your resort isn't safe... spa on resort was mediocre , expensive for what the services was. rooms are very outdated.

Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: Wonderful Resort

We had a great time at the resort. The staff is very friendly and the food was fantastic. Everyone in our group had a great time from relaxing at the beach and the pools to enjoying the daily activities at the resort.

Ocean Blue and Sand: Good ressort, but!

It smelled of humidity in the room, we had to change rooms for 3 times. Always take upstairs rooms.

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Amazing resort!

Rooms were very clean. Food was great! Staff was amazing. Entertainment staff was top shelf! Only complaint is pushy vendors on the beach or at the market. Will go back but I want to try the amber this time!