The room was far too small for 5 people, however the food was amazing, I would return if we were in a better suited room. The beach was okay, quite full of seaweed which can’t be helped as the tide was high. Very windy beach, the pool was great though.
Of all the resorts I've been to, this resort is the worst. Service was absolutely terrible. The butler in our room showed up only 3 of 10 nights. Two nights are room was cleaned, bed not made. Plastic cups and straw were still floating on the pool in the morning.
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Amir -
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Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: Punta cana
The place was very good service its good the room it was clean food was very good alot of resturant .the only thing I didn't like was the beach was full of weed,but they said its seasnl so I dont no .othre then that every thing was good.and its worth of money .
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Private -
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Secrets Royal Beach: Secrets Royal Beach
Recently returned from a week here - May 14-21, 2018. Weather was amazing. The rooms and grounds of this hotel are probably the best we’ve seen. We had a Junior Suite Pool View - which for the most part is a view of the lazy river, which was lovely.
The food was ok but if I’m being honest the Secrets “brand†did not live up to its reputation at this resort compared to others, i.e. Silversands. It may be possible that since it joined the other chains of Zoety and Breathless the fo[... read more]cus may have shifted. The best meal we had was at the Now Garden @ Capers. The Seaside Grill was our least favourite with very poor service
The beach is beautiful however there is a major seaweed problem - mounds that were 3 feet high and quite a lot in the ocean. They work from sun-up to sundown trying to remove it only to start all over again the next day.
The housekeeping, bar and entertainment staff work tirelessly and always with a smile on their face.
I wouldn’t suggest upgrading to preferred unless you really feel its necessary. Also, unless you really want to invest in the UVC - Unlimited Vacation Club, don’t waste your vacation time going to a “special breakfastâ€.
Please don’t think this was all negative as it wasn’t - we had a great 7 days and so glad we got to experience another Secrets Resort.
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Mark1961 -
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Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Beautiful resort
The resort offered something for everyone. We had a variety of food choices and snacks. The grounds were always clean by morning and our made was very good. The pools are very large and you had lots of room to relax in them.
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Lisa1965 -
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Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Amazxing Trip! Great people! Awesome Resort!
The pools were large and warm, The grounds were kept clean, The food was very good and plentiful, Restaurant's were amazing, People were mostly friendly, you ran into the odd grump. Pool bar they did not add alcohol to drinks so after a few daiquiris I clued in that you need to say add rum. Over all GREAT time and the tours they offered had something for everyone to enjoy.
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Private -
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Sunscape Dominican Beach: Good Resort
I would not advise Canadians to go to this resort, besides the seweed on the beach that they cannot do anything about , they will not take our Canadian dollar and there is nowhere to exchange it at the resort, the one bank machine they have will not accept Canadian cards because it does not have interact plus.
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Gigi -
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Riu Republica: Pleasantly surprised by its beauty!
Hotel was wonderful. Our room was very clean and well attended to every day. Food was excellent including the coffee which is not always the case in large hotels. The hotel employees were very helpful and looked like they really enjoyed their work and dealing with the visitors. The evening shows were ordinary but good performances. I would definitely return anytime.
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TomKitchener -
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Caribe Deluxe Princess: We do not recommend this resort.
We were very disappointed with this resort as the resort had age and was not kept up to our expectations of a 4-star superior resort. We had seen multiple star ratings for this resort listed online. The star ratings were misleading as they were not consistent across online reviews. The rooms were in need of a massive overhaul; mold issues, rust issues, old uncomfortable mattress and thread bare linens. We also had a toilet that required four maintenance visits to stop continually running (and[... read more] still was not repaired).
If bland, spice-less food is your preference then the buffet is a good choice. Unfortunately the buffet could not accommodate a variety of dietary needs and we were very disappointed with the choices for vegetarians. We did speak with guest services and their solution was to present me with a letter to present to the buffet hostess regarding my dietary requirements, but most of the times this letter was misunderstood and I was presented with fish as an option (not an option for a vegetarian-vegan dietary restrictions). The Dominican restaurant served an amazing vegetarian dish and we were very happy with the selections at this restaurant so much so that we went twice. In my opinion the a la cart restaurants were the only redeeming factor as far as food was concerned.
We were disappointed by the solicitation occurring right on the resort. We were constantly being solicited the entire time we were there and multiple times during the day. Vendors were set up every night outside of the buffet and they were aggressive in their sales tactics, as were the companies attempting to sell you your next vacation package or a vacation package membership. Talking to staff and locals we were told that this is normal but this is the first time I have ever encountered this much solicitation while on a resort and I was surprised that this was permitted. Yes everyone does need to make a living but I was very disappointed that a simple no thank you did not suffice.
The beach was beautiful, lots of shade and shady beach huts.
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Fiona -
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Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: not my ideal vacation very disappointing
The staff at the hotel was good helpful and friendly, however we had issues with the room, and the beach was a mess the whole time we were there, the first room was in disrepair, shower door off it's hinges and TV not working, also balcony was beside a very loud air conditioner. No handles on the outside of the sliding doors, so you needed to keep them open in order to get back in. This allowed the insects into the room at night. Second room over looked the service road and traffic started aro[... read more]und 5:00 am. TV also did not work, and took four attempts at services calls to correct , we arrived on the Friday and finally had some resolutions by Wednesday, we left on the Friday to come home. Would not recommend this resort to friends.
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Renaughty -
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Secrets Cap Cana: I love Secrets!!!
Wow!!! My first all inclusive resort and the bar is set high!!! Everything from the spaces (rooms, pools, bars, restaurants, beach) to the staff, was excellent!
The grounds were beautifully maintained, I loved the flowers and palm trees. Pools were a gorgeous bright blue.
But the service!! Next level amazing!!! Mr Blue, Mr Obama, Omar, Edwin, La Diva, Chocolate, Rihanna, Jorge, Daysi, Teofino, and many others really contributed to our stay, always smiling, engaging, and helping us get the most[... read more] out of our stay - it would not have been the same without them. So appreciative of the Secrets team and definitely hoping to visit soon!
I strongly recommend: the daily dance lessons on the beach with Chocolate, pool water aerobics with Mr Blue and Chocolate, any activities with La Diva (thanks for helping me land an archery shot!), sitting on the left side of the Market breakfast brunch restaurant so you will be in Edwin’s section!
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Private -
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Occidental Punta Cana: absolutely loved this resort!
Grounds were beautifully maintained. Bathrooms were cleaned regularly. Pool was amazing, lots of lounge chairs available. Beach was incredible and kept cleared of seaweed. Rooms were well cleaned daily and staff always made sure there was coffee for the coffee maker. Oriental restaurant was perfect-had generous serving of succulent Peking duck with roasted veggies. There was lots of excursions to choose from with something for everyone. Warning about the ziplining. Was told there was a 5-6[... read more] minute walk between some of the platforms. Turns out it was more of a 5-6 minute uphill hike! Despite this, the experience was exhilarating. Nightly entertainment was very professional and energetic, excellent shows every night! Although a large resort, it is well laid out and everything was easy to find. Only thing missing were smiles, especially at the front desk. Overall, an amazing experience.
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Private -
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Royalton Punta Cana Resort: royalton punta, punta cana may 5th to may 15th
amazing resort. super clean and well cared for grounds. beach is beautiful and swimming pools are excellent. rooms were extremely clean and couldnt ask for better staff. they are just like family. i love this resort.
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DanP -
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Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda: Luxury Bahia Principe Ambar Blue April 30 2018 – May 14, 2018
This is our second time we have been to Ambar Blue and it was just as amazing the second time around as it was the first. The people here are really great and work super hard for you to enjoy your vacation. I won’t go into too much details as many others have explained what the place looks like, what to expect and how good the food is.
While it’s true the place is not perfect and there will be some issues, it’s the way the staff handles it and fixes the issues ASAP. For instance we had [... read more]issues, one with our air conditioner in our room. We spoke to our butler Padro and within 30 minutes a technician was there to try and fix it, unfortunately his efforts didn’t work so we spoke with our Air TransAt rep Gabriel who took us over to the manager right away and explained our problem. Within no time the manager working with Gabriel had us in our new room with very good air conditioning. I’m not one who thinks highly of travel reps as we have had our fair share of very bad and useless ones, but Gabriel was a no non sense type guy who took our concerns seriously and was extremely helpful. Air TransAt should be very happy with employees such as Gabriel.
Our second issue was when we opened our safe my tablet was gone, we looked everywhere for it but couldn’t find it. So we went down to customer service where we spoke to a very helpful young man named Joan. He walked us through the paper work and then called security a man named Ramon , together we all went to the room. Now I found this very interesting as both gentlemen asked for permission before coming into the room, they took pictures of the door and swipe lock and then again asked for permission to look into the safe. After a few minutes Ramon produced my tablet. I was shocked and couldn’t figure out how he found it when we couldn’t. What had happened was as we got stuff out the night before we must have moved the tablet on it’s side, now being in a black case against the side wall of the safe which is also black made it almost invisible. We were so happy at getting it back and apologised to both men for not seeing it, but instead of being ticked at us they were super understanding and telling us not to worry as it wasn’t the first time this had happened. Both men were very professional.
Other people like Carlos and Michelly at the lobby bar went out of their way to look after us and put a smile on our faces. Carlos is quite the bartender with his flipping of bottles and glasses, he was always in a good mood and quick with jokes.
On the beach they have an issue with sea weed but every day you see guys there from first thing in the morning to late in the afternoon raking and taking the sea weed away. These guys work so hard to ensure we have a nice beach to walk along.
There are so many others that also helped make our vacation a wonderful time, I just can’t remember their names.
I had read in other reviews of how the mini bar was never stocked regularly or properly, this was definitely NOT the case with us, our maid was amazing and kept the room very clean and ensured our mini bar was stocked regularly. She even gave us doubles of some spirits without our asking.
Because the property is so big they have trolleys running all the time and even have carts available to take you to where you want to go, just ask the bell boys and they are more than willing to take you where you want to go, kind of a personal taxi ride.
All in all this is an excellent property and a good deal for the money, we will certainly be going back as it is very quickly becoming one of our favorite places to go in the DR.
Quick tip: if you need to exchange money to get more ones, don’t bother with the front desk go to the bell boys as they have pockets full of ones and are more than willing to exchange money with you.
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Private -
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Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: AMAZING RESORT
The whole experience at Luxury Grand Bahia Principe Ambar Blue was fantastic. The people working there were all very friendly. The entertainment was great but it should have been until a later time. The food was amazing. The pool and beach were beautiful! Transportation to and from different resorts were very quick. I would definitely go back again.
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Private -
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Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: It wasn't what we thought for the kids
Food was ok. We found there was not much for the kids. Room was great but staff was rude!! Will never stay there again!! The water park that was advertised was not in the main pool area it was a 20 min walk with no shade or was horrible .staff were rude nothing was explained to us on check in when we left the staff at the desk were very rude. The selection for the food was poor not much for the kids to eat
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Bman -
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Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda: RESORT THAT CATERS TO ALL!
This was our second time back to Bahia Principe in Punta Cana.
First time we stayed at The Ambar (back then it was only one Ambar) was amazing we tended to stay to that resort only. But this trip we stayed at Esmeralda (because our excellent agent made us aware that Ambar is under construction).
The Esmeralda was perfect for us. It is a smaller portion of the entire complex that allows you to have all the privacy of 2 pools and a smaller adult pool, with 2 large buffets and 3 specialty restaur[... read more]ants.
All the buildings are a short walk to the pools or the beach as this resort is very close to the beach.
The food was great especially at Los Geranios buffet, nicer seating & tables, presentation and hotness of food.
Service by staff everywhere was top notch. Very friendly people from bar staff to waitresses to maid staff.
Shout out to Josephina, she is the best waitress, very friendly and remembered your drinks. OLA JOSEPHINA!
Brazilian restaurant was my favorite.
The nice thing was you can go to any of the other 6 resorts except Fantasia for anything, specialty restaurants except buffet, you must eat at your own resorts buffet. Do yourself a favour and do a walk or tram ride around the entire 6 resorts on your first or second day to see how much stuff is available to you.
The only negatives I will say is some of the rooms are tired and need a refresher, painting and some cracks filled. We were told it is coming after the Ambar renovation.
Also the pool bar closest t the beach is understaffed as it took quite a while to get served all week.
Overall you cannot go wrong with this resort, well worth the money.
Thumbs up to Bahia Pincipe in Punta Canada! lol
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Cookie3 -
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Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: Disappointing
My husband got sand flea bites all over his legs!! The place was huge, have to take a trolley everywhere!! Not always clean, toilet didn’t work in our room and had to go ask to get it fixed twice!! Room keys didn’t work had to get them reprogrammed twice!! Overall disappointing and will not go back been to much better resorts!!
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SSFamily -
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Catalonia Bavaro Resort: Wonderful Time At Catalonia
Catalonia was a wonderful place for our family! We thoroughly enjoyed our villa and our private deck - very cozy! Room was very nice and we had ample hot water. We loved the ducks and their babies and all the other wildlife on our walks to and fro the beach and lobby. Loved all the cozy places you could stop and visit around the grounds. Beautiful landscaped grounds.
The Italian Restaurant was exceptional. Amazing food and the waiter who served our table was fantastic. The Seafood Rest[... read more]aurant was average - The food was minimal there and not our best experience. There was ample food at the buffet for all of us and we always had something interesting and new to eat.
The beach was breathtaking! We stayed there from early in the morning into suppertime. The bartenders at the bars on the beaches were very customer oriented.
Being a privileged customer was a perk. It had many special opportunities which the general customer did not receive. We would definitely ask for that class of service once again.
We would love to revisit this Resort in the next couple years. Wonderful memories!