Great resort but no night life!

Food was great, pool veey nice. No night fun for teenagers or adults. Jose at the sports bar was amazing. Staff in restaurants was amazing. Pool bar staff was slow but understaff. Beach bar was great. Overall very nice but won't return due to night entertainment!

Beautiful asthetic

Very beautiful, recently renovated resort. Nice beach with lots of seating and food and bar nearby. Poolside seating limited to those that wake up at the crack of dawn and throw down their towels. Resorts not that big. Food and service was ok.

Incredible holiday!

We stayed in Villa 91 with a pool view on the ground floor. This was an ideal room for us. This was close all amenities. Beach, pool, buffets and sports bar were all within a 2 minute walk. The Room: these beds are the most comfortable that I’ve ever had at a resort. Plenty of pillows, lots of closet space, very spacious room with a pull out couch if needed. Be sure to use the room service as they are very quick and efficient. We ordered the smash burgers and had them within 15 minutes as we [... read more] arrived to the resort after the lunch buffet closed and before dinner was open. The bathroom is spacious as well and had full size shampoo/conditioner/soap available. The resort wristbands are great as they act as your room key too. No more forgetting it in the room! The Pool: There are 3 pools available, we spent all our time at the one closest to the beach. This is where all the activities are held. Great swim up bar with friendly bartenders making you whatever you wish! We enjoyed the mango daiquiris! Pool is very clean and lots of chairs to be had, no real need to reserve very early. The Beach: the beach is very deep and if you enjoy walking the beach you can go for miles! Lots of beach chairs and palapas available. If you enjoy sunrises, they are beautiful around 6:30 at the end of March when we were there. Restaurants: The beach buffet for breakfast and lunch, Caicu, is very good. Not as big of a selection as the larger buffet at the back of the resort but a quieter and less busy location and you can’t beat the view! Winston our server most days is amazing ! The food is never running out, lots of bacon, crepes, fresh omelet and egg station. We also went to MEAT restaurant in the Ambar section for adults only. This is the steakhouse and it was good. Service was a little slow but they were very busy. Yurta is the Mongolian restaurant and we enjoyed it very much. A nice quiet atmosphere and very good food. We got the choose exactly what went into the dish and the sauce to prepare it with. Very nice to be able to customize your dinner. Mikado the Japanese teppanyaki restaurant was great. Dinner and a show is always good entertainment. Sports Bar: this is an excellent choice for lunch or snacks all day. You can watch the TV’s with all kinds of sports and enjoy top shelf drinks. While you’re there be sure to order the smash burger and sweet potato fries and the mozzarella sticks. The best!! Staff: From check in to check out all staff is very welcoming, accommodating and friendly. They introduce themselves as ask to let them know if you need anything. Keep in mind that there is also a concierge on the main floor of each room building to ask and assist with any concerns or accommodation requests. If a restaurant is full they can help to try to get you into it. Top notch service. There are lots of trams to take you between resorts as there is a lot of walking between all sections. Remember that staff does appreciate tips and they are very grateful.

Great family place!

Very satisfied with my recent visit, extremely happy with the staff and all the amenities. The food is top notch definitely recommend to everyone especially families with kids. My family and I will be going back for sure!

Ok, Resort

Unfortunately, because our flight got delayed we ended up arriving at the Resort at around 1:00 in the morning so we couldn't really see how good the Resort was until morning. We just wanted to take a quick shower and go to bed. As one of my son's were taking a shower I noticed that the bed sheets were not clean and then my son said that water in the shower was boiling hot and there was no cold water. At this point I called someone at the reception tell them about the sheets and the problem with [... read more] hot water. They sent someone to change the bedsheets and to see about the hot water in the shower. They weren't able to fix the water problem in the room so they said to go back to the reception in the morning to see if they can change our room.The next morning we went to change our room ,but we had to wait until 5:00pm to switch rooms. Finally, we went to our new room, we made sure that the shower was working properly and that everything was ok including the pull out couch since my other son was going to use it. As my son pulled out the pull out couch there was a dead big insect on the mattress. I couldn't believe it and even my son. We took a picture of the insect and went back to the reception and showed them the picture of the insect. We no apologies they gave us another room and told us to make sure the room was ok before moving our luggage there. At this point I was upset and tried. Lucky, the room was nice and clean with the swim up pool. My son's and I wasted one whole day just changing rooms which was frustrating because it felt like we lost one vacation day to relax and have fun. The Resort itself is beautiful ,but the housekeeping needs improvement. So many times we didn't have enough towels and there wasn't enough shampoo ,etc The beach area was nice and the entertainment was good, but hardly any of the waiters would ask us if we wanted a drink in the stage/theater area. The buffet was ok, but half the time the table was not set properly and sometimes we had trouble finding plates for the buffet. I hardly doubt that will come back here again.

Good resort !

Nice room ! Good service, good food, good drinks, good location, Entertainment ok , need more entertainment, more activities, Building needs elevators , too many stairs to up and down for old people like us,

Decent

The major problem is communication. We specified on many occasions we needed a specific area / room / floor for our father, the entire family (9 people) had to move twice, except my family who had to move 3 times from Friday to Monday. This was disappointing. The Italian restaurant service was slow, and I mean, we were there for 90 minutes and that was because we started to ask for things, the food, coming from an Italian backround, wasn't the greatest either. Depending on what they offer after  [... read more]their renovations, not sure we will go back there.

Pleasant stay

We were satisfied with the pools but disappointed with the hotel. It was s bit run down and in need of some upgrades. The staff were wonderful. A special shout out to our maid Carmen. She was wonderful and attentive. She made our stay more enjoyable.

Reliable

This is the 4th time that I have had the pleasure of staying at Bahia Principe Esmerelda. Although the property is slightly outdated and in need of some renovations, it continues to be one of my favourites resorts in Punta Cana. The beach is beautiful, I had a working air conditioner in room, hot water in my shower, the place was clean and the entertainment has improved since pre pandemic. The food was very good, however the selection of fruits and morning juices was limited. T am guessing the p [... read more]andemic may have affected supplies. I did notice that at the pool bar, I was over looked x2, as the bartender served other male guests that came after me and overlooked an elderly gentleman that was waiting even longer than I . I brought this to their attention as I had to slap my hand in protest and say”hey, wait a minute, u r serving others 2 other people and were ready to serve the third before I said something. “ The older gentleman came up to me and thanked me as he placed his tip money into his pocket and said he was not going to tip. They seem to overlook women over 40 and the elderly. Sad. As far as COVID precautions, some staff work masks and some did not. There was sufficient hand sanitizers around the food pavilions/ restaurants, however not many people utilizing this anywhere else.

I was dissappointed

I was dissapointed in the Resort, As a vegetarian, the buffet offered limited choices and the options that looked like they might be vegetarian were not labelled with a V. I asked several times if the staff could point out vegetarian optins, but they could not understand me. The room had very limited outlets and my phone charger was actually fried in one outlet that sparked when I plugged in my charger, The shower door had soap caked on. Pool side entertainment was mostly in Spanish and much of [... read more] the staff does not speak English. We did enjoy ourselves poolside and the ocean was also beautiful, The ala carte Restaurants were also great. I am sure the Esmarelda will be beautiful after the Renovations are complete. We also payed for our seat reservations , but were dissappointed that the agent placed us right across from the bathrooms. I would not recommend this resort to friends.

Does not meet expectations

Disappointed in the buffet restaurant, cold food and not much selection or variety. There were days when yogurt wasn't available and fruit selection was minimal. Rooms were not very clean and a slight musty smell. Staff difficult to communicate with as they don't speak English. Service was hit and miss. AL a carte restaurants were good but vegetarian options were minimal Enjoyed the entertainment and close proximity to the amazing beach.

In need of coming refurbishment

We went in knowing that Esmeralda has aged and refurbishment is upcoming. As Esmeralda guests we were able to spend time at the Ambar adult section. The service at Ambar was definitely better. Butler took us to our room and we never saw her again. Never got to know our maid and her service needs definite improvement. Air conditioner not working for 5 days. Room phone not working entire stay. We loved the beach except for the towel game of reserving chairs at both beach and pool. Hopefully [... read more] things will improve after the upgrade.

Beautiful grounds

Terrible food in the buffet Waiting for clean plates, line up every morning at omelette station. Coffee machines broken Entertainment sucked. Not a five star resort. I would not recommend Esmeralda to anyone. The grounds were beautiful and lovely beach

We enjoyed the resort!

The weather was terrific, room location 90017 was super. We tried 7 different restaurants – all were good – service varied from one to another but lots to eat in most cases. The buffet for lunch and breakfast were smaller than some we have seen but still had bacon and eggs everyday. They really keep the place neat and tidy including our room. The beach had a lot of seaweed on it all week – they had trouble keeping up with cleaning it up as it was continually come in from the ocean. T [... read more]his was the largest complex of resorts we have ever been to and it was 28th trip down south.

Needs work,cleaning and food

I have been to grand Bahia principe ,thought I would chose esmeralda, not at all what was expected, buffet needs work,second buffet jazmin not open ,disappointed with Brazilian al a carte, Has to ask for clean towels daily,not impressed.group of 5 with 2 teenagers, given alcohol before checking wrist band..trouble...put next to kids water park ,not impressed

Not a 5 star

First the positive.. the beach and property grounds are beautiful. The hotel needs a lot of repairs. We found the staff to be very rude. Something we have never encountered in any resort. Our room had constant problems . We finally gave up reporting everything. We traveled during the rainy season and we had a few strong rains. The buffet had leaks in the roof. all thru the room and people were sliding and it was treacherous. They had to keep mopping up and putting buckets everywhere. There w [... read more]ere leaks in the lobby and in the halls. There were a lot of unhappy people. We will not be returning to that resort

Good vacation

In general, we loved our stay. The buffet was good. A couple of la carte restaurants - also good, but not all. Nice beach, but a lot of wrack in October. The hotel does need to improve the sound isolation between rooms and the hall. Noisy neighbors returning to their rooms at 2-3 AM were a real problem for us. It would be also fun to have some variety of music, not only ten latin songs playing on repeat. Rooms a clean and the staff is nice and polite.

Bahia Principe Luxury Esmeralda

Well let me say from our last stay in Oct.2018. The resort has deafeningly dropped in service,activities and especially in the food. No food theme nights as in the past. Same arrangement of food lunch and dinner. We had our room fridge out the hole week. No one came to look at it. The beach staff was hardly seen. We got our own drinks. Also in our past stay at the Bahia Principe Luxury Esmeralda we where able to have dinner in the other Bahia Principe resorts. (Not this time. we w [... read more]here told.) Well short in staff this was our 5th time at the Grand Bahia Principe. Punta Cana and Mexico. .

Bahia Esmiralda

Activities were great. But wasn’t good at all Room was clean but one time we had a none cleaned towel But it would be better for a 5 stars ranked hotel to have better cleaned rooms and better food We found cockroach in the restaurant and told the manager

Nice Resort

The resort is beautiful, lots to enjoy. The service was not impressive at all. The dining room was terrible service, you can ask for tea, water or wine and get it the same time you finish eating. I think they could do a better job with organizing the dining room area. I found it very difficult that the workers didn't know the basic English, and that led them to ignore our request. Even though you were in an all inclusive resort I think they were always looking at opportunities to sell to make mo [... read more]ney on the side.