Not for the party people, but relaxing

I am going to be really honest. This was my 3rd time in Punta Cana and my first time going to a Royal Catalonia resort. We booked here because my family golfs but turns out this resort is more for older couples and doesn’t have much to do for younger people especially in the evening. The food was much better than any other resort I’ve been to but you MUST make a reservation for dinner or you can’t go in to any restaurant and there is no buffet option on the Royal side. The concierges were  [... read more]extremely un accommodating when we wanted to go book dinners at the attached resort even though they told us we could. Some staff members were amazing though! Maria the housekeeper, Williams the towel person and Ashley and Anderson the servers were phenomenal! The rooms were outdated and the AC wasn’t nearly strong enough in any of the 5 rooms we booked. Overall, a place I would go for a quiet relaxing time, not a good time and the resort is very much a couples resort which I wish I had known beforehand.

Beautiful Resort

This resort was absolutely stunning landscaping the foliage very mature very clean. The beach was not the greatest way too much seaweed and coral which I had cut my feet on. The food was wonderful sometimes at the restaurants some of the meals came out a little on the cold side. As for an all adult resort they had very little entertainment or activities for our age. That would be the only downfall for this resort everything Seem to cater to the family side of the resort that was a bit disappoin [... read more]ting. COVID was no problem. Not enough staff to serve you drinks. Made many trips for water and drinks to the bar ourselves.

Most amazing experience

This was one of the most relaxing yet entertaining resorts I have been too. The staff was amazing, kind, friendly. The rooms was heaven. The private pool rooms are amazing. I will most definitely be back with more friends. Thank you

Resort need a major redo

The resort need a major revamp. Very little selection at the buffet in the morning and night. Restaurant at the beach should be buffet in the morning and at lunch time. Sitting area around lobby had uncomfortable furniture. Restaurant a la carte where so-so. It wasn't worth the price I paid. Very disappointing.

Not too great

Resort was not as clean and taken care as should be. Not a lot of care during these Covid times. They were barely cleaning the tables between customers at the restaurants. We got Covid during our stay there. Food was terrible and often cold at every single restaurant. Service was also not great, slow and painful.

It was only worth it because we had an upgraded villa

Like the subject says, the best part of our stay was enjoying our villa. The customer service and food in the restaurants were generally sub par. Our orders were forgotten, or cold, etc. The food and selection in Cuba was much better - and that says a lot. The ups - the room (although it smelled of mold when we got there, didn't seem to be ready because our bath robes appeared the next day, the fixtures were broken (tub, the hand shower, curtains), the juice bar, the drinks were always gener [... read more]ally very generous. The live music was nice including the general ambience in the adults only side. Only complain here is guests/families, not respecting the adult only side and the staff didn't care to say anything either. But most of it was poor and we wouldn't go again... waiting almost an hour in the car to get to the hotel, the check in service was extremely slow, in fact, nearly everything at the desk was slow, including booking dinners.... the only decent food was that the buffet for breakfast. The Tapas place was so awful we left mid meal - the waiter didn't speak much English, after our first tapas dish we were asked if we were ready for dessert, we mentioned twice that we were waiting for the 2nd and 3rd selection. It finally came out and it was cold... like not even heated up. It was so bad, we just left. At the steak restaurant , the only reservation we were able to get was for 9pm. Our order was taken at 9:45pm after we said something. Honestly. They could use some help. The beach was just ok. Not great, and a lot of seaweed. We've travelled a lot - some fancy, and not. Been in some rough situations, and this one is closer to the bottom. The reviews gave me so much anxiety before the trip but I went anyway. I was glad I did because I needed the break and wanted a villa... couldn't find it elsewhere. So don't go with high expectations. Would I return? No.

HONEST REVIEW

My boyfriend and I stayed at the Catalonia Royal Bavaro from November 22-29. I’ll go through step by step how our experience was from booking until home. First off, initially booking with trip central was great! Carol was able to find us the best room for the best price and the majority of the work of booking was done through her. She ensured to include what we needed for travel, including what we need to get into the DR and everything we needed to get back home. The night before we left how [... read more]ever, we weren’t able to check into AirCanada for our flight. Obviously concerned, we called air Canada and were told the information, specifically our names, were incorrect for our flight. This was a 2.5 hour problem literally a few hours before take off. If we had not called, we wouldn’t have been able to get on the plane. This was extremely frustrating on our end and caused a huge inconvenience/ stress all because of one simple mistake from trip central. Getting to the resort was easy as airport transfer was included. Once we arrived at the resort, it took us almost an hour to check in. Hotel staff was incredible nice though, took care of our luggage and ensured it made it up to the room. The room itself was definitely not a 5-star. The bathroom was musty, mouldy, and very poorly constructed. We wore our sandals in the shower because water would just pool at the bottom and sit for days. The outlet also would come right out of the wall and expose live wires. The bed mattress was as hard as a rock, made it very uncomfortable for sleeping and was very creaky. The aesthetics of the room were good and house cleaning was fantastic. Always checked in and made sure we had everything we needed. I had a birthday surprise package purchased for my boyfriends birthday which was done very nicely. It included balloons, chocolates, a cake and rose petals. Our first nights dinner was great. I honestly can’t say enough good things about the service and staff at the hotel. Everyone was very welcoming, little bit of a language barrier but that’s to be expected! Breakfast is also very good. Lots of options available for every kind of food intolerances. The food had labels as to which allergies it contains, such as wheat, dairy or seafood. This was super helpful, but not always accurate so keep an eye! Flash forward to day 3. We had lunch at a restaurant by the beach and roughly two hours later, I was projectile vomiting into a garbage can. I got the worst food poisoning I have ever had in my life!!! I was violently ill for 24 hours straight, didn’t leave the room for 2 days. This put a little bit of a damper on the rest of the trip as I was extremely weak and had bouts of nausea and an upset stomach for the remaining 3 days, made it a little difficult to fully enjoy. My boyfriend didn’t have any issues and thought highly of the food however. Once again, housekeeping was incredibly courteous bringing me lots of water, extra garbage bags and even brought me some tea. Heads up.. there’s no ginger ale and it was pretty difficult to find Gatorade. Our AirCanada rep, Juan was very kind and offered to drive over some as well. We did an excursion on the Friday to Catalina Island. It was a catamaran full day trip booked with GoExcursions, which was through our AirCanada rep. It was well organized, but the food and snacks they offered were bare minimum. Some store bought croissants, the tiniest single sandwiches I’ve ever seen, and a fruit skewer. The alcohol was also bottom barrel rum in an unlabeled bottle lol. The island itself was really nice, we were able to snorkel off the boat as well as the off the island. There was a snorkel expert there that toured me around and showed me some pretty cool marine life. Lunch afterwards was alright. It was buffet style and the everything tasted good, no food poisoning! This was probably the highlight of the trip. The beach was good, lots and lots of sea grass this time of year though! Staff did a good job of raking it every morning and there was a wake that caught most of it as well. The sand was beautiful, very white! We had privilege status and had a private sector off the main beach which had beds and more comfortable chairs, as well as full service for drinks. This was a great addition but there really wasn’t any other major differences between privilege and not, a little disappointing. Checking out was a breeze and transportation was comfortable again. Once at the airport, prepare to wait in a lot of big lines! Once again, because our names were typed in incorrectly at booking, we weren’t able to check in for our flight. This was extremely nerve wracking, considering we’re in a different country. We weren’t able to use a kiosk and had to speak directly with a desk rep. They gave us an extremely difficult time and we spent almost an hour sorting everything out with them. They almost didn’t allow us on the flight plus with how long it took, we were minutes away from missing our flight. At the airport, be prepared to wait in a lot of big lines! Getting back into Canada wasn’t difficult. Just make sure you have all the appropriate paperwork, vaccination status’, and the ArriveCAN app. All in all, traveling in the pandemic wasn’t as bad as one would think. The hotel did a good job at keeping everyone safe and ensuring cleaning practices were don’t effectively. AirCanada was also great with upholding mandates. Masks had to be worn at all times on the flights, and around the hotel inside buildings. Which was not a problem coming from Canada, being used to it! The adults only resort is also attached to the main Catalonia resort which was actually nice to have! We walked over there a lot. Just gives different options for entertainment and food! Overall, not the most relaxing trip and definitely would have changed some things. Trip Central caused us the biggest grief with the mistake in names with the flight information. Food poisoning wasn’t great either. Great hotel staff though and the hotel itself was picturesque. But first trip for both of us in 7+ years and a good learning experience!

Beautiful Resort!

We stayed at the Catalonia Royal Bavaro at the beginning of August. It was a gorgeous resort, very peaceful. It was busy, but staff ensured that Covid protocol was in place at all times. The drinks were absolutely fantastic, and the food was good. Definitely a good resort to go with a partner.

Not impressed

This was my third time at this resort and I was pretty disappointed. Despite being COVID the quality of this resort has gone down a lot. When I first arrived the room we were given was missing basic things that we always get in our rooms and also had ants. They only have two restaurants open a night- with one always being booked leaving us with the same restaurant every night. The menu has less food than previous years and the food quality has gone down so much... my partner got food poisoning t [... read more]he 4th day we were here. One night we made a reservation at the front desk, later found out that restaurant wasn’t open. When I told the front desk about the problem they offered no solution and told us to deal with it and get room service.One night it took two hours to get food. There was a couple staff members who were really friendly, The rest seemed pretty miserable. The beach wasn’t maintained well compared to years before. The weekend was packed with a-lot of locals who made lots of noise and made the trip less enjoyable as this resort is usually a lot more peaceful. After being at this resort 3 times- this will definitely be the last. I was disappointed with the customer service especially the front desk.

Great resort

enjoyed our stay at the resort. Everything was really good. The grounds were very well maintained . The staff was great. The food was very good. My only negative was the fact that the walkways were hard to walk on as they were very uneven and for a person will back problems it proved to be uncomfortable.. overall I had a wonderful experience .

A first rated property

Very friendly staff totaly clean areas , fine food , only our TV reception was deficient and also it did not offer a Canadian News Chanel ( CBC NEWS World etc,) while it had American , British , Chinese , Spansish yet the largest single group there are Canadians .

Excellent resort - would definitely return!!

Stayed in the Royal side of the resort, which was Adults only. Upgraded to the Privilege Deluxe romance room, in Block 36, which appears newly renovated. Room was one of the nicest we've stayed in across 8 visits to the Caribbean. Only issues was the thermostat seemed a bit flaky, and the room would get REALLY cold - had to manually turn it on and off. Spent most of our time around the infinity pool, which was quiet, close to the beach, and right next to the Sea blue restaurant, which was great  [... read more]for breakfast and lunch. Food was great for Dominican standards, but you had to get in to the a la cartes early, otherwise it could be a long wait(1 hr+). No reservations for any of the a la cartes. Have to get to the pools early (before 7:30) if you wanted a chair or a bed - They advertise that no reserving chairs allowed, but it is not enforced, and everyone is out early to throw their towel on a chair. Aside from the room, we noticed no benefit to having the Privilege upgrade. Only the "Exclusive" members get any perks, which are basically higher-grade drinks and some extra menus options. Beautiful beaches, and they do their best to battle the seaweed, but can't fault them for that. Resort is super-close to the airport, and was only a 15 minute transfer, which was nice. Same local people on the beach all week trying to sell coconuts and massage/spa treatments, but easily ignored. Same with the staff in the lobby trying to sell the exclusive package. Also easily ignored. Overall, a great trip, and would return. The other 'family-friendly' side of the resort was nice as well, but not a while lot for kids to do aside from the pool and beach. Would not recommend for family trip, as other resorts have much more to offer for kids.

Great resort

The grounds of this resort were well maintained. Cleaniness in all the buildings were excellent. The food in all the restaurants were well presented and very tasty. would recommend this resort to everyone.

Super relaxful resort!

This adult only resort, more Iike couples resort certainly can pass for a 5 star! Everything about it, service and food was great! Two different pools with two different atmospheres. Loved that you didn’t need a reservation for the ala carte restaurants! This is most likely our yearly vacation spot!

Nice resort.

We enjoyed this resort. It was on the small side which we like. One pool was fun and the other quiet which was good if you just want to relax. Rooms were clean food was good except no notice of what a-la-carts were open on what night. The buffet was good. The quality of food was good. Staff were very please and helpful. Grounds were well kept. We will probably return for another relaxing and enjoyable vacation! The only thing I wasn't fond of was they had some sort of an air freshener constantly [... read more] running in the lobby that was too strong of a scent at least for me.

Loved It!!!

Resort was immaculate, lush grounds, great variety of dining and bars. Staff were plentiful and lovely. Beautiful room, pool and ambiance great variety of adult entertainment. Only minus was the seaweed and rocky/coral underfoot on beech.

AMAZING RESORT!

Catalonia Royal Bavaro was an amazing resort! Great atmosphere and fantastic staff, very attentive. My husband booked this vacation as a surprise and to be honest I was a little hesitant. From the moment we arrived to the moment we left, the staff where fantastic! Our room was beautiful, spacious and close to all the amenities. it was just a sort 3min walk to the "family side" if you wished to go and explore. The restaurants were all good with fresh enjoyable eats (with the exception of th [... read more]e Italian - we did not enjoy the food there). The Entertainment staff were exceptional! Eric and his crew made our vacation one to remember. Loved this place, we would definitely recommend and will return to Catalonia Royal Bavaro Resort.

Good value for the $$'s if you're looking to just relax

Our 1st all inclusive resort (other than a cruise). Rooms were large and kept clean, altho' a bit tired (sliding doors to closet and especially to the patio were very stiff; shower floor not well sloped to the drain). Brought my golf shoes as the resort offered one free round per day at their adjacent course (club rental & carts extra), but was not able to book until after 11:30 on any day so we did not due to afternoon temps. I had emailed the company about 2 weeks prior to arriving to inq [... read more]uire on golf but had not received a reply, and therefore had not pre-booked prior to arriving. So if you're looking to golf, make sure you have this pre-arranged. Very disappointing to me on this issue. Staff are friendly (we made sure to bring a large # of $1 bills to keep the tips flowing) and those doing the bar tending and evening activities were engaging. Beach activities included Hobie's (only 2 of the 4 were in operation and we used them a fair bit), kayaks and apparently snorkelling, altho' I'd not waste too much time on the latter at that location - nothing to see. I'd recommend they get some paddle boards as the location had a few very calm days on the water. I also saw some persons doing scuba, but again, this is not a great location for that. So we enjoyed the beach which was well raked daily by staff to keep the weeds at bay. Two pools, one with a swim up bar that was active in the afternoons - dance lessons, etc. Food was fine, and I'd steer more towards Thalassa than any other of the restaurants there. Sushi at the beach was a nice offering, the Japanese restaurant was disappointing (weak showmanship and very salty), steakhouse was satisfactory. Casino was small and not anything to get worked up about. All in all it was a good stay for the $$'s, and a good winter get-away, but I'd have preferred a bit more to do other than sit my butt on a much sought after lounger - I got thru 5 books while there.

Great time!

The Catalonia was a beautiful hotel. Well kept very clean but the best part was the staff. I travel a lot and the staff at the Catalonia was the best!! Erik the entertainment coordinator by the pool and piano bar made our trip! He was so fun and outgoing! Also Moses aka “pineapple head” was great! The pool bar staff was fun and attentive. Great Place, great food, great time!!!

Great adults only resort

The resort was very clean and attractive. The employees were attentive. There were lots of choices for food service and the food was consistently good. The Sunwing representative was helpful but not pushy. The nightly entertainment was relaxing.