Great Resort, beautiful beach!

I think for the price, this resort was well worth it. All basic amenities were included. The food was great, lots of variety. The rooms were a good size, outdated but functional. The actual resort was very well kept, constantly clean and had plenty of space and activities. The staff were absolutely amazing. They made the experience at the resort phenomenal. The beach was absolutely gorgeous. A beautiful spot to relax and also enjoy a bit of night life in nature.

Beautiful resort!

Hotel was beautiful. Food was delicious and well presented. Service was poor to fair. We were never offered tea or coffee in the morning and when we did ask, we sometimes did not get it until the end of our meal. Some servers did not understand when we wanted tea instead of coffee. We ended up serving ourselves at the tea and coffee bar so that we had some with our meal. Our small group tipped at every meal even if the service was bad as we were sure that tips are a source of income for p [... read more]eople. We noticed that we were almost the only people that tipped. Was this because the service was bad, or that people were cheap? Not sure. Even though we were constant tippers it did not make a difference in our service. No consistency on who waited on you even though we sat at the same table every time. We ate out at the beach restaurant for lunch everyday. Not once were we offered drinks. When we did order them after stopping a waiter, they only came a couple of times. Beach was fabulous. Great for snorkeling and just hanging out. Did have to go out by 7:30 in order to snag beach chairs. Activities on the beach were good fun. Didn't try a dance class. Our room was in need of a few repairs. Just minor stuff, however, our shower did leak all over the floor. It was always well made up when we returned in the afternoon. Drinks were very good and well appreciated. Bar service very slow. Lobby was beautiful. We spent our last day in the pouring rain and it was nice to see people using the lobby for games We didn't spend much time in the pool as there was no shade. It was a beautiful pool . Grounds were lovely and we enjoyed the cats lying around. We had our favorites. For Air Transat who we booked our trip with, we asked for 3 rooms close together and were in 3 totally separate buildings 2 which were far apart. We booked in October and this request was not filled. People need to know that doing all the computer work that needs to be done by the customer will take a lot of time. We attempted to do our entry into DR on my laptop, it would not take my birthday, so we started over on my husband's phone. His phone would not accept my birthday. So we started over on an i pad. Finally we were in. Then there was booking our seats and booking our ticket. We do not own a printer, so we had to go somewhere else to do all this. It took us 3 hours and a lot of frustration. What exactly are travel agents doing these days? It is not a fun way to start a vacation. When we were leaving, we tried to book our seats for our return flight, got all the way to the end and it would not accept our phone number. We tried all 3 of our phone numbers and none of them worked. So we gave up and waited until we got to the airport. We learned that you have to put a 1 in front of the phone number. How were we to know that? Our biggest shock was being finger printed at customs in DR. Kind of disturbing. Overall, a lovely resort although there was no where to really walk too. We took a taxi into town that was set up by the hotel. Driver spoke no English so was unable to explain anything to us. When we arrived at the "tourist" drop off, a man met us on the sidewalk and explained that the taxi driver worked for him. This lead us to suspect that this man took a good part of the money we paid, the hotel probably got a cut for their advertisement of the taxi service and the taxi driver got what was left over. Had we known all this we would have got to town in another way.

Disappointing

The room was great, clean and well kept, the service was mediocre to say the least one or two were motivated the rest didn't seem at all interested even though we tipped well at every meal. The resort was very well kept but overrun with cat's, you couldn't eat at the open restaurant's without them walking under your table begging for scraps most of them were pregnant so it's going to get a lot worse, we even had a dog just stroll into the restaurant, none of the staff tried to remove them or cha [... read more]se them out. I would not go back to this resort.

Bahia Principe El Portillo

The beach at this resort is beyond compare with any other resort we have been to.Some of the A LA Carte restaurants are below standard.The buffet food needs to be warmer even the coffee needs warming.

Grand El Portillo Samana

Excellent staff. Beach is awesome . Food is good. Beach bbq awesome . Some restaurants could have improvements. ( fish market) Italian restaurant is a definetly a five star, Alcohol drinks need definite improvement . More selections such as premium alcohol. Ground keeping immaculate. Rooms very clean . Some a little outdated though . Definite would recommend this hotel

2nd time guest

A very comfortable resort with beautiful scenery on the drive from the airport. Clean, plenty of washrooms and bars throughout the resort… except no lobby bar. A very walkable resort, but a shuttle is available if needed. Greek and Italian a la carte restaurant meals were delicious and beautifully presented. Service at the beach buffet was good, but hit & miss at the main buffet. Beach is beautiful & has areas for good snorkelling. Long walks along the beautiful beaches. The entertainment staff  [... read more]work hard. A lovely zen pond for a quiet spot to relax. Overall, very pleased with this lovely resort.

Very good resort

We just got back from a week spending in Bahia Principe and we truly enjoyed our stay! The rooms are a bit out dated but the layout and energy were amazing, the resort is gorgeous, staff, service, food, facility, beaches were perfect! It was our second time there and we will definitely go back again, hoping next time the rooms will be renovated! Keep up the good work! Thank you dear Colleen for your professionalism and all your help for providing an amazing holiday experience!

Would not return

I gave a 3.5 stars to this resort just because of the beach. Would probably be a 2.5 or 3 stars. The room was ok. We were there 15 years ago and it had not changed. It is a rundown hotel. Need a lot of fixing. Lack of staff. Music is very loud at the pool or on the beach. Not even able to listen to my music with my headphones. If you don't smoke you will have to smell the cigarette everywhere. There is always someone smoking. people were dropping hash and cigarette butts on the pool deck. Unless [... read more] you got to the a la carte restaurant, the food was warm or cold at the buffet. A few people got food sick including my wife. Unless you get early, all the chairs were reserved before we got there. The staff was friendly. If you wanted some quiet time, there is a small pool with only a short number of chairs available or you had to walk on the beach away from the resort. There is a jacuzzi but it is pool temperature so no one uses it. Most of the people were 55 and over and young family no need for extra loud music or base.

1st time at a Bahia and probably the last

Give this resort a 3 ? definitely not a 5 ?. Resort is old and is due for an upgrade. Facilities are well maintained but definitely a lot of wear and tear. Rooms are clean but felt like we were in the early 2000's. Mattress was rock hard and felt like you were sleeping on plywood. Beach is spectacular. Can walk for miles. Area for hotel is very condensed and a fight for chairs. Weakest point of the hotel is the food. Felt I was eating in a cafeteria and not a 5 star resort. Worst Caribbean f [... read more]ood experience outside of Cuba. Definitely will not return

Awesome stay at the Bahia Principe!!!

Awesome stay at the Bahia Principe El Portillo! My husband and I traveled with another couple. They honoured our request to stay in the same building block. The entertainment team was amazing - always looking to make the guests laugh and brought positive energy. The fitness (e.g., water aerobics, yoga) classes were great! The beach is absolutely beautiful - very clean and private. The pool is awesome - never feels crowded and just the right temperature. We also really enjoyed the food - even the [... read more] buffet had a nice selection! The rooms are dated but clean and we spent most of the time outside of the rooms anyway. Overall, awesome value for your money!!

The perfect vacation

Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo was the perfect vacation for my group! The food was fantastic with endless selection (including lots of bacon), grounds were beautiful, entertainment team was fun and lively, and we had a fantastic time throughout! There was always something to do or explore, and the value is amazing! I will return to this resort in the future and look forward to visiting other Bahia Principe resorts as a result of my positive experience here!

Had a good time

The hotel has a lot of amenities, restaurants pool beaches, and they are very close to one another. You don't have to walk too much to get around. The food is good, lots of variety. I liked the French restaurant.

I love everything!

Great and friendly staff, good food and drinks, fun entertainment. Rooms look pretty old however we didn't spend time there. Matress is comfortable. Territory is very beatiful and good maintained. You can walk along the beach far enough. I would spend more time, it was very sad to leave.

Amazing Resort and Trip

This trip was amazing from start to finish. The hotel staff was so accomodating and made everything so easy, from the quick check in to the never ending selection of food. This Hotel and the staff made this experience amazing.

Getting worse every year

We are returning visitors since 2019. This hotel is getting worse every year as I’ve heard also from other people. No dry towels after rain, no bell boys to help with luggage, no one told us we can check in online in the bus so we had to wait an hour with small children to be checked in, food is not good anymore, no hot water to make tea, coffee machines always broken, no entertainment for children and no one cares about your requests. We won’t be going to Dominican anymore.

Great time at this resort !

My family and I had a wonderful time at this resort. We had a toddler and grandparents with us and everyone’s needs were met. The water park for kids was fantastic, our daughter had a ton of fun. The beach was full of chairs and wonderful to take a long walk on. The food was great with tons of variety, and always plenty of it. Staff was friendly and accommodating and rooms were comfy. We would definitely bring our family back to this resort.

Amazing beach

Stayed at Bahia principe El Portillo for two weeks. We had a wonderful time The food was good and so was the service Beautiful beaches!! The rooms are dated and need to be renovated. Premium alcohol is extra charge not included. Overall we had a good time and will probably re visit in the future

Great Resort

Great food, spotless rooms, beautiful beach and pools. The resort is not new but very well maintained. Our group did have issues with room key cards not working multiple times. This was a hassle as the trip back to the main lobby to get new key cards for our rooms was not short. When you are ready to head back to your room to have a shower before dinner or to turn in for the night a trip back to the lobby to get access to your room is not welcomed.

Nice Beach

We did enjoy our stay. Nice beach, rooms nice and clean with comfy beds. Buffet excellent, however, the 3 restuarants you needed to book were awful. The food and service could do with improvement. Overall staff were friendly, but needs some improvement on Customer Service.

3 star resort, not higher

The resort is extremely understaffed. The rooms are quite dated, each room has issues. For example, our shower was broken, water facets were covered in rust and our AC control unit was defective. Our friend's TV was broken, another friend's AC was moldy, and so on and so forth. They make you change rooms and you discover different issues in each new room and have to move again. This doesn't feel like having a vacation. The food was okay, but again, we had to get our own water, coffee, and tea,  [... read more]because there was not enough staff to help us. The beach itself is okay, but there are a lot of rocks in the water, which makes swimmable spots crowded with people.