Occidental Caribe: Fabulous time in Punta Cana!!

People were all wonderful, drinks were great and plentiful, rooms were clean and well kept, pools were absolutely glorious, shows and performers were very enjoyable, pool side entertainment was tons of fun, ocean and beaches were breathtaking, food was okay.... reservation restaurants were good, however, buffet not the greatest.. was always able to find something to eat though. Overall I would recommend and definitely return! Monkey excursion was amazing and a must do! Thanks to TripCent [... read more]ral and Transat (specifically Diane) for making our trip effortless!!

Paradisus Punta Cana: Ups and downs at Paradisus

We had a great time but would not return to this resort and here’s why: Upon arriving, the front desk clerk immediately tried to sell us a 700$ upgrade for ‘royal service’. We were told that without this upgrade we would not be allowed to use one of the two pools, part of the beach, several bars and restaurants, the second lobby or have nicer quality rooms. This excluded literally half of what the resort had to offfer. And when you pay for an all inclusive you don’t expect to be bombard [... read more]ed with things you won’t have unless you pay more. When we declined, the tone of service changed. We then waited 3 hours for our room which surpassed checkin time. We were told we’d have a king and we got two doubles (one more uncomfortable than the next) The food was alright (fresh produce), the beach was breathtaking (one of the most beautiful) and the facilities were clean. Many of the staff were friendly and many were not, and looked unhappy (which made me feel a bit guilty for being there) Overall, we had a lovely time and overlooked the negative but would go elsewhere next time. While most resorts have that type of ‘royal’ upgrade, this place takes it to a whole new level. I’ve never taken the paid upgrades and it never mattered before but at Paradisus, if you don’t take it, you see the division in quality and service.

Barcelo Bavaro Beach: Another great vacation at Barcelo Bavaro Beach

This was our third trip to the Barcelo Bavaro Beach. We had an oceanfront King size room. The bed was very comfortable. Love the bathroom with dual sinks and separate toilet and shower area. Cleaning lady did a fabulous job. Floor was so clean as was the rest of the resort including the bathrooms. We found that the restaurants (on both the Beach and Palace side) even better than last year. The Mexican was our favorite. The house wine on the Palace side has improved, however the red  [... read more]wine (didn't try the white) on the Beach side is still not drinkable. Service at the buffet for Lunch was very good, however coffee service at breakfast was still slow, which would have been fine but we were in a bit of a rush to make our tee time at the golf course. All employees extremely friendly. We enjoyed that there were so many places for night entertainment, from the sports bar, to the singing and piano in the lounge next to the casino, not to mention the entertainment show every night which you could catch at either the Beach or Palace side. The beach was spectacular as usual. Love the natural shade from Palm trees. No problem getting chairs and no-one reserved. Seaweed was cleaned up every morning and the water was clear every day. The golf course was absolutely beautiful. We will definitely be returning again.

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Beautiful resort BUT go for the premium plus package

We booked expecting a premium package but were quite surprised when we had arrived and were endlessly turned away from buffets, denied drink request, asked to move to a different part of the beach (literally 6 feet away), were refused service at the cafe, and actually stopped on the trolley commuting from one lobby to another because we were wearing the dreaded “green bracelet”... it took two full days to find out the can’s and can nots of this resort. The beds were like sleeping on the [... read more] floor and the pillows were small and smelly... not a real 5 star luxury room ! But... the resort is grand and gorgeous, clean, well maintained... very beautiful! The beach is beautiful, the ala’ carts fantastic, sports bar is a great addition, poolside entertainment is fun. The language barrier is strong so communication was difficult. I would go back to this resort but only with a better package... the difference in the food is huge and the cheap Dominican alcohol gave me heartburn for a week. I assume the premium package would give me these extras and hopefully a more comfortable bed. Because of the recent changes to the resort if given the option we would have upgrade to a higher package.

Ocean Blue and Sand: A Very Friendly, Comfortable Place

This is the third time I have been to this resort. The food is very good with a lot of variety. The staff is terrific -- very friendly and obliging. Could not be nicer. Some erosion to the beach, by all accounts. Primarily a resort for honeymooners, young families and middle-aged couples.

Occidental Caribe: Punts Cana

The hotel Occidental Caribe was excellent. Resort, rooms, staff and food was wonderful. The resort is spacious with lots of things for all ages to do. My only complaint is I requested a room facing the front of the resort on the 2nd floor and we got a 4th floor room facing the back of resort.

Catalonia Royal Bavaro: Good Value

This property is well maintained. The swimming pools are spacious with plenty of loungers available. Service at the swim up bars is a bit slow . Some of the newer staff struggle with speaking English at all. The hotel has been made aware of this. Meals are good and restaurants offer a variety of seafood, steak and Tai food. Privileges are extended next door at the huge Bavaro resort. This is a plus because all nightime entertainment is over at the Bavaro including the casino. Wine at the Italia [... read more]n restaurant at the Bavaro is suspect. You can get a glass of Chardonay at the Royal. You have to pay for it as a premium wine at the Italian restaurant. This caused guests to bring their own into the Italian restuarant. That should not be the case. Based on my experience I think this resort needs to make changes to keep its 5 star rating. At present it is a 4 in my opinion. I prefer resorts that play English music and understand our language

Riu Republica: Amazing time

The resort was great overall. The food was great. Steakhouse was my favorite. Lunch and supper buffets were also really good. Beach and water were very nice. All the staff were very accommodating and friendly Would definitely recommend this resort and hopefully I'll be back someday.

Ocean Blue and Sand: Wonderful experience!

Hotel rooms were basic but very clean. I even took the sheets off the bed to investigate the quality of the mattress and to my surprise it was brand new! Food was delicious, lots of variety. Pools were cleaned each morning, ocean was fun and they had breakers so the waves weren’t over powering.

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: 5 Star Luxury

The Ambar renovations were all complete when we arrived Nov 9th and was only about 1/4 full as part of their 'soft opening' and our first visit to Dominican Republic. The Lux Bahai Principe Ambar's 534 Adult only rooms are part of the 5000 room Bahia Principe complex in Punta Cana. However; the design of the resort allows Ambar guests to feel very pampered and 'protected' from the rest of the Bahia resort. All 8 Ambar blocks have swim up pools on the ground floor rooms. The swim up pools  [... read more]offer privacy but are also shared with 7 other rooms. Each block had it own concierge. Warning: I would not want a room on the west side of the 4 blocks on the west side, as they face an ugly concrete wall that is about 4 stories high belonging to the resort next door. . The sandy beach and water were beautiful. The beach is deep but not that wide. So even though the resort was only 1/4 full you had to put a towel down at 600 am if you wanted chairs with shade in the 'front row' of the Ambar beach. However, if you did not need to be in the front row, there were always lots of chairs available at the beach and pool. Unlike the other resorts, the Bahia always had lots of guys raking any seaweed off the beach. We often 'gifted' these workers with the contents of our mini bar. The other resorts on the beach often had a lot of seaweed. The Ambar had beautiful grounds and a wonderful pool that was right beside the beach. We found all the staff, friendly and very helpful. We were pleasantly surprised to find more youngish guests form Argentina than Americans. :) My wife and I consider ourselves food lovers and found the food quality quite good. Caviar for breakfast anyone? None of our dinner reservations emailed 10 days prior to arrival had been set up. But the concierge in our Block was able to book our dinners the first day we arrived. The best meal was at the Limbo and we both liked the steak at the M.E.A.T. restaurant. Other than the LImbo I thought the food quality at the Buffet was as good and offered more variety than the a la cartes. Tuesday night is seafood night at the Buffet, which ran out of Lobster at about 745 pm. ( But some guests were grabbing 2 lobsters) During our stay we mainly drank the 'champagne' which was dry and only 5% alcohol. You could have the 'Champagne' delivered to the room at any time and it was at all the bars and restaurants. The house wines were unfortunately undrinkable. Which was surprising as they have a very pleasant and knowledgeable sommelier. We brought 7 bottles of wine with us and had no problems drinking these at the restaurant or buffet. They even offered an ice bucket for our whites. ( (However; I should mention we were lucky NOT to be a tourist to have our suitcases x-rayed when going thru local customs.) You could buy wine at the Restaurants/Buffet, but would have to pay $50US+ to get a bottle we can buy in Canada for $15 CDN. There is a nice Coffee shop beside the lobby where you could order really good espressos. cappuccinos etc. You can also order these coffees at the the Buffet from your waiter. The Wifi was quite fast in the room and lobby. Use Network 1SSID_V2 as it was faster than BahiaPricipleFreeWiFibyEurona. When waiting for the flight to return home from Punta Cana; be aware there are two free areas at the airport to wait. One is noisy and NOT air conditioned, the other, on the other-side of the food-stalls, has AC and is much quieter. Would we return to Bahia Ambar Punta Cana? -Definitely!! But we were impressed enough by Bahia Lux, we might check out another Bahia Lux resort first. Thanks so much to Tanya Smith at Trip Central for recommending another wonder vacation spot. We trust your judgment and will definitely book with you in the future.

Dreams Onyx Resort and Spa: Amazing Resort

I had an amazing vacation. The resort was beautiful and very clean. The staff are incredible, everyone was so nice and accommodating. The food and the drinks were delicious. I loved that they had a coffee and ice cream shop.

Punta Cana Princess: Great Friends Reunion

The Princess had a lot of great places to have fun. The beautiful Lounge by the Beach with the Best Margaritas and Food all night long, was a great place for your own party. The soft sandy Beach offered daily surf waves rolling in to jump and play in with the VIP chairs with built in sun shades a few feet away. If you just wanna bake by the pool you can keep cool by swimming up to the Bar for your favorite beverage. The Pool staff were very personal and happy all the time. The Grand Entran [... read more]ce of the Resort was converted into the Evening Entertainment Shows and fun was had by all. We went with a group of 15 and were very noisy at times but didn,t have any problems and met a lot of new people. The rooms were very fancy and updated with beautiful views from the balconies. It is a Adult only resort but if you need more action you can visit the adjoining Resort for more action. Great Trip was had by all

Paradisus Punta Cana: Loved every minute!

I traveled here solo with my 2 year old and we had a wonderful time. Everything was excellent, including staff, food and service. Beautiful grounds set in nature and a great place for families but also has a separate kid-free area.

Ocean Blue and Sand: Great Resort

The resort was just the right size, not to big and not to small. The buffet meals provided were very good and lots of choices. The restaurants besides the Japanese do not require or take a reservation so that was nice to be able to go when you wanted. They take turns being open, so just need to look at board to know. The Steak house we found to be the best and went 2 times. Mike's Café is amazing, just like walking into a Starbucks. Such a nice treat to have on a resort. The bars and selec [... read more]tion was excellent. Never been able to order a real Caesar drink in any other resorts, but here you could and they were made real good. They have 2 pools, one quite the other not so much. Always lots of loungers to use. We took advantage of the bowling and billiards and lots of fun. Beach was nice, not as big as used to but was able to walk for miles past other resorts if you wanted. We went with a group of 8 as we do every year. Making all 8 happy can be a challenge. In this case, all 8 would return to this resort. That is saying something.

Royalton CHIC Punta Cana: Good, but not 5*

* Spent honeymoon in Dominican Republic: RIU property in Puerto Plata - nostalgic to return to DR to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary * Chose CHIC due to so many positive TripAdvisor reviews * Definitely did NOT find this a 5* property; perhaps for those travel only to Cuba or DR - not by Mexico standards; 3.5 tops, across the board: service; accommodation; most food; property size * Right from arrival: Airport chaos - no structure * Bus run down and wasn’t sure we’d make it to our [... read more] destination! * Check in process long and not very informative * Requested top floor room for our 15th anniversary: given ground floor; requested quiet area: our room opened up to main road / staff entrance…(building 8); immediately asked to move as room had a bad smell of mold!!! * Moved to building 5 - ok but VERY small rooms; seem a bit run down; lights didn’t all work; chips in counters; rust on floor bolts. * No information in rooms - told it was all on TV’s (on day 2) which take a while to figure out! Funny though, we went for our 15th wedding anniversary but a Happy Birthday message kept popping up on our tv! * Few restaurant options: only one choice for breakfast; same food every day - didn’t alter menu selections at all! It’s called Elements “gourmet” buffet - it was not. * Lunch no difference - same buffet as breakfast, or a beach bbq, which had same menu exactly each time or a burger stand or deep fried options at Munchies. * Dinners were admittedly great: steakhouse was amazing - they do know how to cook a fine steak! We enjoyed all our dinners. * Most servers appear to hate their jobs, which affected their service - again, it was fine; just not 5* * REALLY aggressive sellers: both on beach & on property - on beach you can understand it and accept that, but not from those they allowed to set up by the pool each week. Couldn’t walk by them without another aggressive sales pitch... even after you say you already bought something (which we did)! * AND WOW! The repeated SALES pitches! All day, every day! From the second you check in they are looking for more money from you!! Again, where is this “luxurious, exclusive” all inclusive??? Trying to get you to upgrade your room, purchase a cabana, surf & turf dinner, and of course the “travel smart” ultimate sales pitch to become a Royalton member! From the concierge at your building, to all those stationed around the property in their hot pink shirts - accosting you each and EVERY time you walked by... hubby joked: we need one of those stickers saying we’ve been asked already!!! It was too much!!! * Paid a premium for “luxury; exclusive, all inclusive” ...it was not; again, based on TripAdvisor reviews... it was better than our Cuba vacation in some ways, but overall the service and amenities in Mexico far exceed for us. * Washrooms always a little gross and ladies stalls constantly out of toilet paper! * I was dismayed by the number of excellent ratings on TripAdvisor - I then came to learn, it’s actually part of the staff’s “schpeel” at end of any fitness classes “best to share on TripAdvisor”...almost funny by end of trip * This property is very small (again, in comparison to those 5* we frequent in Mayan Riviera) - so hard to escape the noise of the fun & games around the pool * We are not big party people, we go on vacation to relax and enjoy some serenity * No such thing as a true “quiet” area if you want to escape the loud music of the vibe team - super nice people, but we don’t go for the games. I did partake in yoga and Fabio was amazing. * Not much of a nightlife either - also fine with us, but if going for the “shows” you typically find in Cuba/Mexico, you may be disappointed. * If you enjoy the ocean, this is NOT the place to go... winds are VERY high and water is REALLY rough & unsafe to swim! Fine with me as I prefer the pool, but hubs prefers the ocean. * They do have some wonderful staff: evening servers: Nestor and Nicholas; Yulia doing pool service (the only one who would actually service the “quieter” pool!); amazing lady at coffee bar: can’t recall her name unfortunately, but she is 6 months pregnant, cute as a button and has a fabulous personality! And Edwin at Munchies. * Don’t get me wrong, we DID have a great vacation! After all, It’s what you make it! It’s just not up to the same standards we have become accustomed to; and was definitely disappointed to have paid MORE than we normally would for those “luxury exclusive” offerings... which we never found!

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Good Adult resort

Rooms were fantastic, clean and big with great air conditioning. Lobby area was nice with great bartenders, but the area should be better ventilated with fans as its quite hot at times. Love the covered outside lobby area for ambiance and smokers and entertainment. FOOD: Buffet has a great variety of food, but as with most buffets nothing is hot. They had a fantastic salad selection but the dressings had no flavor. Egg guys were both great and line ups minimal. Service in buffets was [... read more] great for being seated but lacked for drinks, water or coffee unless you pre-tipped or had a relationship with the server which never happened for us. Ala cartes were hit and miss, the Japanese is great both for the show or ala carte, and were heard Mashua Nikkei was good as well as the Brazilian, but as Aquamarine quests you are not allowed to go to the Brazilian now. MEAT was a nice spot, but ALL our food was luke warm to cold, even the Rib eye steak. The Sports bar had great HOT food, wings, mozzarella sticks, burgers and fries among other things. Its only open 4-12pm and I think it should be open for lunch too as there are NO ala carte options for lunch which I found disappointing. I like to be able to sit by the beach in a restaurant and order food, there was not even a snack bar with just pizza and burgers for that and the Aquamarine guests cannot even use the Beach grill as its only for the Luxury Bahia guests. Big separation there, we are only allowed to use the beach there and the buffet down there which I found poor. We got to all go to the Beach Grill once and it was HOT food and was amazing, we all (20 in our group) noticed how amazing it was comparably. We also heard from many returning guests that the food and service has gone down alot since November 1st which is truly unfortunate. Entertainment: The pool side staff is amazing and so are the bartenders and towel staff!!! Loved Willy, Marcus, Rosa and Stefanie. They are also by the outside lobby to dance with you later on in the evening when there is Live entertainment from 7-9pm every night. Then there are great shows, silent discos, Karaoke, and couples fun, so really you never have to go to the Village stage, or Theatre to see anything unless you want to see Michael Jackson which we heard was great. Seen it before. BEACH- Its a nice beach, apparently the sand was whiter 5 years ago. There are ALOT of chairs, its like a city of chairs but the resort is large. Lots of seaweed coming in, they clean the beach very well but its all over you jumping in the waves too which is something I have not experienced before and is rather gross. Plus there are lots of mosquito's, and not thinking they are all at the beach as my husbands lower legs were covered in bites and we had not seen the beach yet. As a whole we did have fun, I would give this hotel at 8 out of 10 since its the DR and I expect less. If you want to go drink and relax and don't mind a LARGE hotel and taking a Tram to the beach or walking 10 minutes then I would say yes go. Personally I like to look at the beach via the pool area, or have it close by for morning walks, and found it just a bit too inconvenient. So I would not go back for those reasons. Also my husband and 4 others in our party all got quite sick while there.

The Level at Melia Caribe: Absolutely beautiful resort

The Level at Melia was amazingly beautiful. The pools were gorgeous. I love the breathtaking views from the dining area of the beach. Staying at the Level adults only was very nice to have as many towels as you want at the pool or on the beach with no towel card and being able to get driven around by a golf cart wherever you wanted to go instead of waiting for a train. The trains were small and crowded and a little difficult to get on and off unless you’re young and healthy. The golf carts we [... read more]re much better. The staff were all very friendly. We were always being greeted and offered a coconut every time you walked on the path by the gardeners. But no one ever offered us any kind of drink like a samosa with breakfast for example. And the service was very slow at the restraints. The food was not very good. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good either. I lost 5 pounds because I barely ate anything. The only thing I enjoyed was the bacon in the morning at breakfast and the bananas were very fresh and delicious. I basically lived on banana mamas the whole week. A delicious drink. The omelets in the morning were ok but never cooked enough. And there weren’t many options for dinner. We ended up eating at the steak house almost every night and there wasn’t much on the menu to choose from so we ended up eating the same thing every night. I thought the indoor buffet was the best over at the main lobby. The phone in our room rang constantly which was annoying. They were calling to see if everything was ok. We also got a phone call the first day asking us to come to a complimentary breakfast at a resort next door. They want you to sign up for a timeshare. Also annoying because they should not be calling your room. Some of the shows were pretty good but the theatre was small so we made sure we got there early to sit in the front row every night. The Queen show was the best. It was a live band. And the Michael Jackson show was good as always. The resort was under construction when we were there and I think they were building a new bigger and better theatre. The beach was so beautiful. It was not crowded at all and it was huge. But it was wavy and there was quite a bit of seaweed. I couldn’t swim in the waves. They were too strong and pulled me under. But we walked way down the beach and it was much calmer and more swimmable. And there is a great shopping market of souvenirs on the beach if you walk about 15 minutes to the right facing the ocean. Our room was very beautiful but I’m afraid there were cockroaches which was horrible because I’ve never seen one before. It was a little black bug that ran fast as hell in my bathroom at night. So we slept with the lights on in the bathroom and hallway. One more thing. As soon as you walk to the water you have people harassing you to buy things. Just don’t look at them and don’t even say hola. The beach and pools and gardens are so stunningly beautiful though that it made up for anything else. We had a wonderful vacation.

Majestic Elegance Punta Cana: Beautiful and clean

The hotel is huge ... but seemed still very pleasant and quiet . Plenty of space for any groups to be in the pools .. Beaches were well kept and lounges available easily .. Staff were equally as pleasant ... prepare for your beach outing to be regularly ‘visited’ by cigar, sunglasses, jewelry etc... vendors

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Great resort

large beautiful resort. Caribbean village needs a better variety of shops. White parties are fun. Restaurants are beautifully decorated very up to date. All details even in the corridors with the rought iron is lovely and high end. The rooms are large and cozy. Bathroom is awesome, love the jacuzzi tub after being in the pool and on the beach.

Royalton CHIC Punta Cana: Wonderful Resort

We had a great experience at the Chic The rooms were very clean and the hotel grounds were very well kept The staff were accommodating and friendly. The restaurants were beautiful and the food was top notch quality.The daily activities made the resort lively. The recreation staff had great energy and ensure a great time was had by all!