Barcelo Bavaro Beach: 3 Star Hotel

Great staff except for dinner staff at Brisa, issues fixed same day, quality of buffets are good but Chez Gourmet had the best service/ food.The location was not relaxing either. Power boats zoomed by with screaming drunks and loud music playing on the boats. Right out front of the beach was holding tanks for dolphins and to the right another was a bar for people to drink so it was not very relaxing. Beach had pockets of grass and seaweed, it was shallow out to the buoys which was nice. No sha [... read more]de on beach except for palm trees, should have umbrellas.

Barcelo Tambor: Well kept, kind staff, good food and lovely scenery!

My 4 teenage kids and I loved this resort. It was clean and very will kept. Loved the pools and the staff were always kind, even of they didn't speak English, we always managed. Overall a great experience! Pura Vida!!!

Barcelo Bavaro Beach: Not beach friendly

Seaweed issues on the beach daily. Staff did its best to clean up. Rooms are dated and not enough towels provided. Not enough shade on the beach. Trees to not provide adequate shade. Cabanas should be installed like other resorts on the beach. Eye sore views of the dolphin cage and the party structure was a turn off. Food was good. Buffet was at times better than the À la cart restaurants. Upgrades are definitely needed to give a better customer experience

Barcelo Maya Palace: Barcelo Palace - My home away from home!

I had the most amazing experience with my Mexico trip!!! From the minute I pre planned not knowing where to go, I reached out to Karol Chareza through Trip Central, and he helped me find the perfect destination. The Barcelo Palace hit every check mark and MORE!!!!!!! I flew out to Mexico April 8, 2024 and landed in Cancun with Air Transat, very smooth process. We arrived at the resort and it is paradise. I was amazed to find out my resort has sea turtles that swim out front all the time. Wh [... read more]at an incredible experience in the ocean!!!! I also was able to take advantage of the Hydro Water Therapy as I was premium - wow.. what an experience! The drinks, the food, the staff all are amazing!! Not only will I return to Mexcio.. but I will return to the Palace for sure!!!!!!!!!!!! I made the best memories over the ten days I was there.

Barcelo Maya Caribe: Beautiful resort

This resort is amazing, second visit and it only gets better. Service was exceptional and staff was always willing to provide anything you needed. Rooms were very clean. The food at this resort is fabulous and the the restaurants provided superior meals and the presentation was so beautiful. Loved my vacation and will definitely return!

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Great value - beautiful resort

I've been to the Barcelo Colonial 22x. Most of the time we are a family group of 8 to 27 people. This time it was just two of us. We try to book the Colonial, but we've stayed at the Tropical as well. Its the same, just the next building. We booked this time through WestJet Vacations. FLIGHT Our flight with Westjet, there had no tv screens so unless you had a tablet, it was super boring so I napped. Water, pop and coffee with 1 cookie or pretzel bag was offered for free. They did have a sma [... read more]ll menu to order items at a cost. It was a smaller plane with 3x3 seats. The staff are great and friendly. MEXICAN CUSTOMS Not efficient at all, took us over an hour to get to our luggage. We were of the first people off the plane and our line was still full while the other 4 lines emptied. An average employee would notice and shuffle people in other lines to even it out. Nope. On return the airport was a sh*tshow. Even though we checked in online and had boarding passes and used the kiosk to get the luggage tag, we waited 90min to drop off luggage! Then paid $60 CDN for 2 hamburger combos at Johnny Rocket (not worth $20 never mind $60). SHUTTLE This was provided by Nexus Tours. We downloaded their app, registered and got a QR code in the app. Once there, we found the employee in orange shirt and fedora and he guided us to small van. Ride was nice, air conditioned. Good driver. All smooth. Keep in mind its 1hr and 15-30min ride. On the return, here is where problems started. Nexus tours called our room multiple times. I picked up 3x and told them I’m not going to desk (I have no desire to waste time listening to sale pitches about tours and wasting my beach time) I’ve been to Mexico 30x I don’t need to do tours. I told the rep you have an app and I got QR code on the way here so I’ll do the same and check in online and get the QR code. No need to come to desk. Alex hung up on me. 48 hours before flight the QR code didn’t update with shuttle pickup time so I walked to desk near lobby and asked about pickup. I was threatened there may not be room on bus because I choose to ignore them and not go to desk. Why would I when its all digital? He was rude and made me worried I would have to pay for a taxi. I told them its already included in packing price and I’m getting on that bus come hell or high water. It was my birthday and I cried for an hour worried about return transport to airport. I emailed my travel agent at TripCentral (Liz Simunic) who saved the day by contacting Nexus tours to get me on the shuttle. She acted promptly and helped alleviate my anxieties. I will never book Westjet if they continue to use Nexus Tours as vendor. It was horrific experience. CHECK IN Was smooth for us as we are Premium members. Yvonne was great. Our dinner reservations were all done and off to eat at buffet quickly as it was closing at 10pm. ROOM Each named section has 2 buildings, 3 stories with an elevator in the middle. Imagine a hallway open to the sky and rooms on your left and rooms on your right. Its bright because its open and there are plants and beautify 10ft tall angel statues along the hallway. Our room this time was a disaster. We were in Guanajuato building and our bed was broken. It was 10:30pm and we were tired but I didn't want to waste the next morning dealing with it. A worker came to fix it (no english) and it was not fixed I sank off and fell to ground. The manager (Marianna) came and apologized and offered to move us. There was no other room on 2nd floor with 2 double beds facing away from loud theatre until the next day. I didn’t want to move next day as it would waste ½ day. So, by the time we go to new room in the next Jalisco building and settled it was midnight. We got to the new room and the mattress sank to the point I slid off the bed. Manager could see as she escorted us to new room. She promised to have the mattress replaced the next day. I told her also to have someone unplug sink, the toilet lever didn’t work and the wood door of the entertainment unit you needed to open to access mini fridge wouldn’t close and was loose and was ajar. I said it was a liability issue as I could walk into it, especially in the dark at night on the way to washroom. The next day there were 12 employees in our room at the same time, switching mattress, fixing plumbing and loose door. All was good after that. Keep in mind the rooms are dated. But they are clean, the AC worked great and the fan even better to circulate the air. The rooms are VERY humid so leave a spare kg in your luggage as your clothes will be damp and heavier on your return home. Don’t bother bringing anything from home and lugging heavy damp rid stuff. Not worth it. Just know your clothes will be a bit damp. The room has a king or 2 double beds, a desk with chair and mirror (use this to blow-dry hair as bathroom is HOT), a sofa, round glass table (not needed just takes up space), a large wood tv stand combo with mini fridge inside and also drawers to put your clothes. Once of us used that to put clothes in. Try to keep wood door in front of mini fridge open when you are not there to let air from back of fridge circulate. The fridge is not cold, not warm but not cold enough. The TV has only a few English channels, so we bring our Firestick to watch Netflix. The bathroom is large, big shower. I wish they had a handheld shower as the rain one from above doesn’t help get soap out of hard to reach, areas. They provide shampoo, condition and body gel. All terrible so I always bring my own. The sink and shower seem to always be a bit clogged. They have a magnifying mirror, great for makeup or picking zits lol. Its large enough for 2 people to get ready. But its HOT! There is no exhaust fan. Too hot to blow dry hair in there so I use the desk in the room. They do provide a descent blow dryer but I bring my own. Oh, no point to spend time flat ironing your hair in 5min it will be a chia pet. They also provide shower cap, sewing kit, comb, toothbrush and paste, shoe shine. Oh, I always bring an air refreshener for the bathroom and one for the room. Each morning, I leave a note in Spanish thanking housekeeping for keeping room clean, I ask for how many towels I want and leave my tip on it. Also leave a note for the person who replenishes the mini fridge with the same request and tip taped inside or outside the fridge door. There are not enough plugs in the room. By the bed, by the desk and in bathroom. The mattresses and bedsheets are AMAZING! And I’m picky! There is a large closet and many hangers plus iron and ironing board, robe and slippers (you keep slippers not robe). Where the safe is there are 4-5 shelves so 2nd occupant can use that for clothes. Safe easy to use and in my 22x I’ve never had anything stolen, in safe or anywhere loose. The patio doors never seem to lock by being on upper floors we weren’t concerned. Large balcony with 2 chairs and table plus retractable clothes hanger to dry clothes. Privacy and great view of tropical bushes. There is a tall mirror by the bathroom to check yourself out before leaving the room. Lobby is the best of the 4 same level buildings. The largest and airiest just perfect to hang out or play cards. GROUNDS Immaculate, they work hard to have it perfect. Biggest, longest, cleanest pools, bridges, covered outside walkways between buildings so you never get wet and protects you from sun. Easy to navigate. Large resort and lots of walking but I have mobility issues and never felt tired. VERY, VERY, SAFE. Even walking alone, at night, I never felt unsafe. Beautiful plants and flowers everywhere, just gorgeous. Pools (not to swim in, just décor) between restaurants etc. fountains. Resort on flat land. The gym is nicer than some in Canada and the Hydrotherapy area has Hammam, sauna, cold plunge, hot plunge, many lay down loungers, men and women’s lockers with toilets and showers. There is cucumber water, chlorophyll water, towels, 4 showers with essence waters, ice machine to use to cool off your body. There is an outside pool with fountains and a jacuzzi. Gorgeous! Thy hydrotherapy is for Premium members or pay $30 USD a day for use. There are iguanas and turtles (by the Palace rooms) please do not feed them at all. They will get sick. Just outside the Colonial building is the kid’s waterpark our nieces used from 2 years old til 12 years old. And a kids club that my nieces went to from 5yrs old to hmmm 10 years old? They loved it and wouldn’t want to hang out with us. EMPLOYEES All excellent and helpful and quiet and respectful. The servers speak English, but the rest mostly no English. Please don’t mistaken them not engaging in conversation as being cold. Its mostly confidence due to language barrier. They were all amazing. Our breakfast/lunch server Oscar will hunt us down to seat us and every morning had our drinks ready for us. In Marenostrum fish restaurant, Roman and Moises took very good care of me and brought me a birthday dessert and sang to me. In Sante Fe Steakhouse, Jorge is always our server and remembers us year and after. He is amazing, went above and beyond with extra dessert and shrimps. Adela at Tokyo remembers us too and took care of us both nights we went for Teppanyaki show and had all the servers sing to me for my birthday with a special cake. BUFFETS My boyfriend prefers them. I prefer a la carte. There is SO MUCH CHOICE that anyone who complains is just wrong and picky. Its not a Michelin star restaurant, its cooking for thousands of people. The buffet is huge with pasta and omelette stations, dessert stations, fruit, breads, meat, cold cuts, salad, Mexican food, carbs – nothing missing. A LA CARTES I prefer them, feels special. Tokyo – book Teppanyaki show, you get soup or salad, an appetizer like sushi roll or tempura, them main dish of a meat or fish with friend rice and veggies and dessert. I order surf and turf. Unfortunately, both dinners our chef didn’t speak English very well thus didn’t engage us in the show and make it fun. We’ve had better times other years but the food was good. Sante Fe Steakhouse – the best. It has an antipasto bar, you can choose from menu for multiple course. The best is tenderloin (baked potato and corn side), and dessert. Very good steak! Marenostrum – quick service (too quick), I always order ceviche Marenostrum, instead of soup I ask for Shrimp cocktail (its actually a main but really? 6 shrimp a main?) and then grilled lobster tail with rice (looks big but lobster yields ½ palm of meat) and dessert. La Trattoria – my boyfriend hated the Papardelle Bolognese, the meat sauce here and at buffet is sweet and weird tasting. I had seafood pasta and it was delicious. A nice antipasto bar as well. Beach buffet – we hate it and prefer to go to buffet where breakfast is served. BEACH The last few years the seaweed got bad to the point I didn’t want to return this year and beach regressed with hardly any sand, a hard surface to walk between beach loungers and ocean. But first 3 days crystal clear water and day 4-7 very little seaweed and they filled the beach with lot of soft sand. It was beautiful! It was a windy week which meant waves but beach was full, no chairs by 9am and full all day and water filled with swimmers. Gorgeous. PUBLIC BATHROOMS The ones by outside buffet and pools was soooo hot no windows or AC. You could die in there lol. TOWELS The resort gives you a towel card per person, make sure you don’t lose it 25USD. Plus, we would exchange our towels and the guy never asked for the cards. ROOM KEY Ask for 2 extra because they demagnetise and you end up having to walk 10min back to lobby and 10min back to room every day. Keep them in folder and don’t put them near cell phone or credit cards. CONCLUSION Great value for price point. We will definitely go back, as we have the last 20 years!

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Great in every way!!!

Beautiful resort with immaculate grounds, friendly and helpful staff, excellent food - both buffet and all restaurants, great beach (appreciated the daily cleanup). I would recommend this to everyone.

Barcelo Solymar: Nothing spectacular

Hotel was nice elevator not working at times Food same every day,pool nice . Service in restaurant could improve .Staff was friendly and polite entertainment at night needs improvement The restaurant should be better organized you sit at your table no one comes to ask you if u need anything.aThere was shortage of pop and poor selection of drinks location is close to down town

Occidental Punta Cana: 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!

Barcelo Maya Colonial: Consistent

Been here 4 times now. Being the older resort out the other 5 it’s kinda showing its wear. But service and amenities are still very good. Lots of beach to walk. Buffet is pretty decent. Japanese a la carte is a must.

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Barcelo Maya Tropical

Great resort for couples and families. Lush grounds, Great pool areas and a good beach. Food was great, both the buffets and the ala carte restaurants were very good. Lots of choices and very fresh food. Staffing was just right, enough but not in your face. Even though the resort was sold out there were enough chairs around the pool or at the beach for everyone.

Barcelo Maya Palace: Great choice

Everything was great! Beach is great, water is clear, can do some snorkelling as well. Pool is great. Kids pool area with slides is amazing. Food was very good. A big variety. Service is great too! Rooms are nice! Very clean. Just a bit far from airport.

Occidental Caribe: An honest review for families with small children

I wanted to write a review of this resort, something I don't normally do but there are some standout things families travelling there with small children should know. We were a family of grandparents, and two families with an infant and a baby 20 months. And very experienced world travellers. 1. If you want your rooms together, be sure to book together. We emailed the resort all reservations to get our rooms together. Despite initial responses asking us for more information and at least [... read more] 6 attempts to connect with them, we were eventually ghosted. 2. Upon arrival we went the resort for assistance in getting our 3 rooms moved closer together for childcare reasons and I showed them our previous requests. We offered to be downgraded from ocean front to regular rooms to accomplish this - but every visit to the front desk we were told there was nothing they could do. Eventually, the resort offered that if we paid an additional $350USD they would give us a suite and another room nearby - but the third room would still be far away from these two rooms. So, our view is that they were not helpful. 3. They shut off many of the elevators during the day - so getting strollers down to the lobby proved challenging every day. Two people had to move the stroller and baby manually down the staircases on numerous occasions. 4. Getting milk by the bottle was accommodated, but we ran into difficulty getting anyone to give us more milk for the night feedings. Bring more than one bottle to be filled for your baby just in case. 5. The resort would NOT confirm a crib for the two babies before our trip, and there were none in the rooms despite the babies being on the reservations. This we felt was unacceptable and we were thankful to have brought the travel beds. 6. For toddlers, note there is nowhere to get them a meal between 4-6:30 pm. After a day in the sun, the toddler was exhausted and couldn't last until 6:30 - we had to bring a travel plate with lid and make their dinner from the lunch buffet, then run it up to the room fridge for storage. There should be an early dinner option for families. 6:30 is the earliest. 6. The Pools was dirty! Balloons, bugs, hair ties and other items just floating around in the pool and water had a grey cast to it. Need better skimming and testing of the water for safety and health of the guests. Folks - this is not whining and I am a very well travelled person who has never written a resort review before. I did write the hotel to give them this feedback but the concerns I outlined in our holiday week with the Occidental Caribe were glossed over in their reply. They said 'hopefully the beach and setting made up for the issues we experienced". I was aghast at this response. Occidental Caribe needs to do better here and most issues we feel are with the management and staff attitude towards families with children.

Occidental Tamarindo: Very nice and comfortable

Cleaning of rooms needed a little work,.................................................................................................................................................................

Occidental Caribe: It's a trap

Cons ? Shower has no pressure and the head is for short people, have to hug the wall to get wet ? No welcome drink, as advertised ? No servers at the pools to help with drinks ? Says mini bar in room on dis but it’s actually mini fridge it 0 liqour in room ? Toilet barely flushes and if it plugs you wait 3 hours for them to fix it ? Pillows are clumpy and old and they dont give new ones ? No fitted sheets just sheets used instead ? Food has no flavour or horrible flavour. I was disappoin [... read more]ted every time we went to the buffet usually only 1 or 2 items seemed edible ? Room service doesn’t show (waited 7 hours for toilet paper and still had to go find a janitor to get some) ? The service desk only has 2 people working and your waiting forever ? Room cards constantly stop working and got locked outta my room. Had to wait at least 30 for them to reactivate my cards which only takes a min ? Bar service sucks. Barely anyone making drink or they’re annoyed that they have to 6 people behind to bar 1 making drinks at a time ? Barely any AC and it was humid ? The power goes out every night couple times a day ? Every pushy with trying to sell you stuff CONSTANTLY ? Excursion that sounded so nice was horrible. Sorna island. Boat ride was way too long and the drive. They fed us horrible food and it says it’s 9 hours long but we were gone for 13 mostly just travel not enjoying the ocean. Also a couple having sex in front of little kids. 9 hours travel 3 hours on the actual excursion ? Hard to get into the restaurants that you need to make reservations at ? Very busy on the weekends cause the locals come in and they seem to be very entitled. one lady threw her drink at the bartender for serving us after we waited 10 minutes for service. if you dont speak their language they ignore you. ? Our room got too hot and we wanted to air out our room and they told us we weren’t allowed to have our room door open to let the air circulate - You have to be at the pool by 5 am to secure a spot at the pool as people will go down and save spots and make it impossible to have seats at the pool. - Lots of false advertisment and lack of care. - Constantly try to trick you into time share meetings with sister resorts. - pool closes at 6:50 Pros ? The beach is beautiful although the waves are a bit rough if you’re wanting something a bit calm ? They have some stores and can charge them to the room ? Two big pools ? The japanise restaurant was entertaining and great food ? The theatre is great and great entertainment ? They clean the rooms well, well at least the floors. More Date of stay: April 2024

Occidental Punta Cana: 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.

Occidental Caribe: Needs updates

This hotel was getting some fresh paint outside, stairwells and balconies. The rooms inside are in need of updates to plumbing, air conditioning and cosmetics. Many beach chairs were broken or in need of repair.

Barcelo Bavaro Palace: Beautiful Resort

This hotel is just massive. The grounds are very well maintained and has one of the biggest pools I’ve ever seen. There are many restaurants to choose from with excellent food. The French restaurant was one of my favourites. There is always something to find at the many buffets although they are very busy. The beach is fantastic and the water unbelievably warm. Had a great experience overall. Employees speak mostly Spanish, and understand very little English. Learning Spanish would be a great a [... read more]sset. Would definitely go again and recommend it to anyone.

Occidental Caribe: Beautiful resort

Day 1- get here at 9 pm room isn’t ready, the lady at the front desk tells us to go to the restaurant and wait. Doesn’t tell us where restaurants are, not given a map or any information about what is when or where. Finally get to room about 45 minutes later and call down for room service only for them to tell us it’s closed even though the room service card says 11:30. Tells us the snack bar is open but can’t tell us how to get there other than “umm it’s orange and white?” We decide to give up a [... read more]nd just go to bed. Day 2- we got drinks no problem and found the buffet on our own. Food was delicious. Went to one of the shops, they don’t take cash just CC but machine wasn’t working. No big deal, they can charge to your room. We decided to go to the pool. Plenty of chairs, nobody saving with towels and we found two under an umbrella. Pool is perfect temperature to make you feel refreshed. Although it was a little gross, there were bubbly sections of whitish sludge. Pool is huge and majority is quite clean. Our maid is so sweet and everyone else has been very helpful and friendly today. I’m not impressed with the amount of cockroaches I keep finding in the room. Called room service for water, never came. Asked for towels from a maid in the hall, Said shed be back in 5 min, never came back. Beach is beautiful and warm. Hard to find a lounge chair. The guys that set up tables to sell stuff are extremely pushy and touchy feely. They are very flirty and will use any tactic to make a sale. Buffet always has something delicious. We have eaten everything and not been sick. A doctor recommended taking a chewable pepto bismol each morning and I guess it works. No tummy issues. After a few days more people started saving lounge chairs by the pool, so bad to the point people were sitting on the cement on their towel near lounge chairs that had been saved with nobody on them for hours. The beach was beautiful but very wavy, some days the undertow was so strong but they did have the red flag up and were on top of the warnings. Overall I had a great time, it was extremely humid so the water always felt great. I probably wouldn’t go back due to how busy it is and no control over saving seats.

Barcelo Maya Tropical: Great family resort

Resort is huge, it’s actually 6 resorts that are all linked together. The 4 resorts in the middle are the normal level family resorts (Tropical, Colonial, Caribe, Beach). The one on the north side is the higher end Palace family resort, the one on the south side is the adults only resort. There is as double decker bus that you can jump on and off at each of the resorts, it also stops at the go cart track, the mall, the spa, and the beach/dolphin show (all of these are located on the resort!). [... read more] There is a ton of things to do to keep you/kids busy. Even though the overall resort is huge, you will prob spend most of your time around where you are staying. We did the go carts which was fun, but kids have to be 14 to drive on their own. Also don’t go in the middle of the day (too hot). Dolphin show is good, but we felt sorry for the dolphins in that small space. Snorkeling is good out from the beach when it’s clear. I was a few stingrays, 1 small shark, and a bunch of different fish. If you go near some of the tide pools in waist deep water with some bread from the buffet you will have a bunch of fish come around you. Just drop the pieces of bread in the water, don’t hold it for them cause some have sharp teeth. Worth a visit is one of the cenotes across the road (not on the resort). We just walked across and went to Cenote Cristalino (google it) which was $47 US for all 4 of us (2 adults, 2 kids). There are other cenotes around there too, but they are more expensive. The restaurants were all very good and worth checking out. The buffet is good, standard stuff you find at a resort buffet. We never had an issue finding tables and never waited very long for food. The nightly shows are ok, we’ve seen ones that are much better. But hey it gives you something to do after dinner. We booked with WestJet Vacations. They had a small shuttle waiting for us that only went to our resort which was nice. Shuttle ride was 45-60 mins from the airport and was comfortable. We stayed at the Beach resort, which we were happy with. Overall we were very happy with the vacation and would go back there again. Happy travels!