Excellence El Carmen: An "EXCELLENT" Vacation

Having travelled to well over 30 hotels throughout the Caribbean, the Excellence El Carmen is by far on the top of my list. First of all, Candice Anger from Tripcentral was phenomenal. She answered any questions we had about the resort prior to booking the trip and even up to the date of departure. Leaving from Hamilton Ontario as so easy. The flight was uneventful and we quickly made our way through customs to a waiting mini van which took us the 30 minute drive to the hotel. The hotel wa [... read more]s amazing. The junior suite swim up (Block 4) had everything one could ask for. The location was perfect as it was mid way between the "activity" and the beach. One (of two) small disappointment was that our room was not ready until 3:00pm. We arrived at 1:00 pm but were able to grab a drink, some lunch and wonder the grounds to familiarize ourselves with the resort. Fortunately, we had shorts in our carry on luggage. Room: The room was amazing from the floor sensor light switches, oversized bathroom, fully stocked bar, walk-in closet, comfortable king size bed to the huge "L" shaped lounge couch. Rose petals were throughout the room upon our arrival The private jacuzzi was fantastic to enjoy a midnight drink. The private deck had two double loungers, two sun loungers and a table with two chairs. One could not ask for more. The pool was a perfect temperature and very relaxing. The second and last disappointment was that we needed to wait until mid afternoon on two occasions to have our room cleaned. We had to go and ask that the room be cleaned. This was not a huge problem but more of an inconvenience. When the room was cleaned it was fully restocked with everything. Food: All I can say was AMAZING!!! The New Tears Eve party was unbelievable. The pre dinner "80's" party and appetizers was so much fun. Scallops, soup, lobster steak and desert followed by an after dinner party and fire works at midnight. The Kitchen Table Restaurant buffet has everything one could ask for for breakfast and lunch. Dinner was al-a cart only (all 7 days, any restaurant with no reservations required). The food as never a disappointment and one would think you were at a major city fine dinning restaurant. Every meal was made to perfection. Room service was very quick and to the same high standards of the food which was prepared in the restaurants. SERVICE: Restaurant and bar service FANTASTIC. A huge thank you to Sergio and Elisia our "personal" bartenders for the week. We never had to wait for a drink and in fact drinks were brought to us before we could ask. "Special" request drinks were always provided. Bars throughout the resort were never busy and the staff were always friendly and attentive. Restaurant staff was very attentive. There was never a dirty dish on the table and coffee was refilled before the cup was empty. STAFF: always smiling and would go out of their way to ensure we were happy with our staff. Management was always present asking if we had any concerns. RESORT: This is a new and modern resort. Very clean and the grounds were very well maintained. If one wants the "Caribbean feel" you might be disappointed. The walls are stark and there are limited "tropical gardens" Floors are marble and the resort is "modern". Mobility throughout the resort is not an issues. Elevators are strategically located in all buildings and a shuttle cart is also available. The beach was beautiful and raked every day. The ocean was warm and all sand (no rocks in the water). There was never a time one could not find loungers on the beach or around the main pool area. OVERALL: Definitely a 5 star. The room, service and food would exceed the 5 star rating. We are already planning a return trip to this resort.

Bahia Principe Explore Legend: Amazing Resort

We stayed at the Bahia Principe Fantasia Jan. 3 -10, 2018. We travelled with my two children age 5 and 8. My children were catered to at all times. The grounds were clean. Everyone was friendly and helpful. The rooms were spacious and clean. The beach was close to resort. Everything was within walking distance. There was lots of activities for the kids to do. I would completely come back to this resort and recommend it. Trip central was great to deal with in regards to booking trip. They were [... read more] very helpful and I would book with them again.

Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: Good Value

Hotel was clean and food was ok but not a lot of seafood or fruit. The beach restaurant was always a problem for a table and cutlery and better off to shuttle to the main buffet. Beach was fantastic as usual but had to reserve chairs in the morning as well as the main pool by the beach

Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda: Great resort with a few things that need to be fixed.

Hotel in general: the resort in itself is beautiful. It is very large however the nice thing about the Esmeralda is that you are right on the beach regardless of how far back your room is. The grounds are immaculate and very well kept. The lobby is beautiful and open air. There is a bar right in the lobby and on the side there is a coffee machine with sweets and snacks in the afternoon. Rooms: very nice large rooms. Comfortable beds. We had 2 double beds. One for my wife and I and another for o [... read more]ur 18 year old son. Our mothers came with us. We requested ahead of time rooms in the same building on the second floor with separated beds. These requests were not met. You also won’t get your room until 3pm. Wifi did not work in one room, we complained about this multiple times to the front desk and our concierge however this was never fixed. The rooms are quite large and we never felt crowded with 3 people in the room. Beach: beach is nice, however if you’re expecting clear, calm water, you won’t get that. The beach in punta cana is rough and goes deep very quickly. The water is not clear, so forget about snorkeling. We had to get up early (8am) to get beach chairs in around the third row so that we could see the beach from our loungers. However if you wake up later, you can always find loungers further back. Lots of palapas and chairs towards the left of the beach area, close to the Fantasia area. Pool: 3 pools, 2 large pools and an adult only pool. There aren’t enough loungers in the pool area. They get reserved very early. My opinion is that there is a lot of room to add more loungers. Food: this is where I have mixed reviews. I haven’t been in punta cana in 10 years. Last trips there were in the Luxury Ambar and Riu Palace. In the past 10 years I have been going mainly to Maya Riviera and other islands. Although it seems that in all the buffets and restaurants, there is ample variety and every food you would want: seafood, meats, vegetables, etc.. The food for the most part in the buffet was cold to luck warm. The food was either salty or bland. I found the food to be much tastier in the resorts in Mexico. They need to drastically improve in this area. Also for specialty coffees, there are all machine made, no real expresso machine. The desserts were amazing, kudos to the pastry chef. But they need to improve the temperature in the buffet and hire better chefs. Having said that you won’t go hungry. Tons of restaurants and choices in the buffets. We did 3 a la carte, Italian in the Ambar (very good), Brazilian in the Esmeralda (very good), meditarrean: Bahia Punta Cana (average). On the positive side, we were a group of 5 and nobody got sick. On the topic of getting sick, I have been fighting a cold since I landed in punta cana and despite the warm weather, I got really congested towards the 6th day. I went to the pharmacy (in the ambar) and even walked to the pharmacy in the Riu complex. Very hard to find cold medicine and when I finally found it, it was US$10 for 6 pills (cold remedy). Lesson to learn, take all your medicine with you. Entertainment: aside from the standard shows in the main theatres which I never attended, I’ve seen them too many times in others resorts, there is local entertainment in every hotel lobby. There is a theme every night, Latin band, Karaoke, Tropical nights (dancers) etc… These are all held in the lobby and they rotate to the different lobbies. There is also entertainment in the main Plaza (south of the Punta cana) where they have a band at night (10:30), a night club, a bar and casino. We went to the club a couple of times, it was fun and it is oriented for the younger crowd but you would find people of all ages. One negative aspect is that it was difficult for my 18 year old son to connect with other teens except at night at the disco. They should have a pool table and a ping pong table in the main lobby or somewhere around the pool. This is great for the teens to congregate and meet. They have this in every other resort I’ve been to except here. There are also lots of daily activities led by the staff, Zumba classes, yoga, games etc…What we would do most nights is stay at our lobby until 9pm then take the trolley to the punta cana lobby, it is more lively there, then around 10:30 walk over to the main plaza. By the way, walking from the main plaza which is all the way at the end of the complex to the Esmeralda took about 15 minutes (we are fast walkers). In general, we found things to do but my teenage son found the resort too big to connect to other teens and told me he would have preferred a smaller resort. Having said that he went out every night to the club and made friends staying out until 3 am on a nightly basis. So nights were fun for him but was bored during the day. Overall impression, it was a nice resort but for they need to work on a few things. Most staff members were pretty friendly but we came across some staff with attitude and both my wife and I speak Spanish fluently. We find that in general hotel staff are much friendlier in Mexico. Wifi was spotty and never worked in our room. A pool and ping pong table in the resort is a must. Improve on the food quality. We also did one activity that we purchased in the resort. We went on a dune buddy activity that was a lot of fun.

Grand Palladium Select Bavaro: Great location and facilities, but unfortunate mishaps caused issues

Beautiful location and facilities, and most service was excellent. Bad experience on check-in with upselling of rooms that were not as promised. Then a dangerous (electrified) hot tub in the room that was never fixed (and kept us waiting on maintenance for hours. Buffet meals were passable, but the a la carte dinner restaurants were mostly just plain disappointing. Overall, 95% of our time there was really good, but the 5% that was bad was key and really frustrating so damaged our enjoymen [... read more]t of the whole trip.

Melia Caribe Beach Resort: A bit disappointing

Breakfast and lunch were a bit boring-bacon only served twice. None of the food was hot except the freshly cooked egg dishes. Getting coffee was at times very slow-waited 10 minutes once. The American Grill was a nightmare at breakfast time the only day we tried it, no juice available. There was not much communication about the updates due to the fire, we found out accidently the Italian restaurant was relocated. Some of the staff hardly spoke any English. The Air Transit rep did not give us [... read more] the time of day when we went to meet him at the appointed time. I guess he felt we weren't interested in any of the optional tours. The a la carte restaurants were pretty good.

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: Great resort!

The grounds were beautiful, hotel suite was newly renovated and very nice. A crib was already in the room when we got there. A few ants in the bathroom but no issues other than that. English tv stations available. Lots to do for all three kids who are 10,3 and 8 months. The buffet was excellent once we figured out the least busy times to go. A new buffet opened for us on the Sirenis side while we were there and we never waited to get in and food was great. We only got to try the Tex Mex restaura [... read more]nt -as we couldn't get a reservation at the others - and it was excellent. Waterpark was great! We would go back for sure!

Grand Palladium Punta Cana: Good Resort lots of variety

All in all a very nice resort with very friendly and helpful staff. The buffets and a la carte restaurants are very good with lots of selection. The rooms, pools and beaches are all clean and well maintained. The only negative is the constant solicitation from vendors and sales people for souvenirs, photos, excursions, cigars, presentations, etc. Some won't take NO for an answer. However vacation was enjoyable and would consider going back here again

TRS Turquesa: Superb Amenities, Many Helpful Staff but...

Excellent facilities (gym, spa, restaurants, bars, rooms, etc.), very clean, excellent food. This was our 2nd visit and 4th to a Palladium chain. The majority of staff were friendly and very responsive. Reception staff in the RST lobby however were quite impersonal... little eye contact, appeared to have some difficulty understanding English and provided minimal information in response to questions. Upon arrival we were greeted with cold, wet towels and reception staff who treated us as numbers  [... read more]rather than guests. This was different than our first visit when we truly felt welcomed as part of the RST family. Also, for both visits, menu service in the Royal Suites dining room was extremely slow and in this case, the food was cold. Great value for the price... but room for improvement!

Caribe Deluxe Princess: Not recommended

We arrived at the resort (myself and my 2 adult kids) at about 2:15 pm and was told our room would be ready at 3:00. We finally got the room at around 6:30. I am not that picky about the room I stay in. I like it clean, half decent water pressure in the shower, comfortable bed. The room we finally end in up in was the 3rd room they had given us. The first was never ready (they kept telling us 15 minutes until I asked to speak with the manager - never connected), in the second room we were [... read more] sent to, the room hadn't completed being cleaned (no towels, some beding not there, ...). The 3rd room was very run down. Toilets with seats that were broken, crooked light switches, no lights to see into closets, safe faceplate was broken, no floor towel, no hand towels (and multiple days they didn't replace the towels at all). There were 3 towels. No amount of going to front desk or calling made any difference. The unit had two rooms and each had a bathroom. About the 5th night, we returned from the evening outing and the floor of the larger of the bathrooms was flooded with water dripping from above. After multiple calls to the front desk, I was told that no one was on duty and it would have to wait until the morning. About two hours later, knocking at my door woke me up and it was a maintenance person. I spoke with the Sunquest rep. on site but nothing was ever done. We made the best of this expense vacation (the beach was nice and the food was above average) but I would never recommend this establishment.

Hyatt Vivid Punta Cana: Pretty good resort

Overall, the resort was great. This was the first time we took our kids (5 & 7) to an all inclusive, so I learned a few things. 1. I might upgrade to a bigger room next time. The rooms were the most disappointing thing. Just two beds- literally. Nowhere to put your clothes, nowhere to hang anything wet (the line in the bathtub was moldy). Everything had to stay in the suitcases and on top of tables...the bathroom wasn't really separate, so that was interesting. It was obviously older, but th [... read more]at doesn't bother me. The lack of space...different story. Sometimes our room wasn't cleaned until 4 pm. 2. Nightly entertainment was late. Shows started at 9:30. My kids can't stay up that late, so unfortunately we (they) didn't see anything. 3. Pools and beach were perfect, and really, that's the most important part. Excellent for the kids. 4. Food was fine, nothing close to Secrets, where we stayed last time in Punta Cana. A la cartes were pretty good, buffet was fine. Coco's cafe was fantastic, with pastries and sandwiches, cappuccinos and lattes until late. I miss the cafe already. Beach restaurant was great. 5. Kids club was underwhelming for us, but luckily the kids were busy and entertained all day swimming anyway- we didn't need it. 6. The grounds were very well kept and clean. Staff were not overly friendly, but they also didn't hassle you, which was nice. There's always people tying to sell you stuff, but thats at every resort. I would go back to this resort, but I would inquire about a different room. We had a lovely vacation with a few minor issues, but overall, it was great.

Breathless Punta Cana Resort: Breathless Resort!!!

My husband and I just got back from Breathless Resort and Spa Punta Cana celebrated our 15th year wedding anniversary. When i booked our trip I upgraded it to xhale club with swim up pool the room is beautiful but complained after 2 nights because our room is at the end beside alley way where workers loading and unloading their stuff. We went to the club and spoke to Gilberto he was very helpful and go beyond. We ended up upgrading our room to exhale club master suit ocean view room 2394...one  [... read more]of the best room at the resort paid extra US$500 with Gilberto's help we got a discount yes, for me its worth it..its a luxury room with 2 bathrooms, huge living room and king size bed and 2 jazzucci inside our room and at the balcony. We treated like King and Queen...bed made twice a day with a surprised every night with chocolates, champagne etc...and fridge is fully stocked everyday. We got calls every morning if we needed something and to make sure everything is OK. Gilberto, you are amazing, thank you very much for making our vacation so special. Also, our butler Papa Eudi...thank you very much for everything you did for us....and the surprised you did on our last night was unforgettable..you guys know how to treated your guest so special. I also need to thanks Black Armani for a great pool workout...you rock man. Also to Martina for always giving us a welcoming smile and for cooking my calamari as requested. Its a fun fun place...my husband and I had a great time...from day 1 new years eve to the end of our trip. It was one of our best vacation together...great memories for the two of us. I also like that you can walk in to any restaurants when you are ready to eat and not booking in advance. Food is awesome more than i expected except the Japanese restaurant food was OK. We only eat once at the buffett which they have great selection as well and for lunch since we upgrade it to xhale club we have a choice not to go eat at the buffet for lunch. This resort is a party place day and night but also there's a place for those who choice to be in the quite place. At night if you like boom boom music...you'll love it not my kind of music but again you don't have to be there. All in all this resort I'll give it a five star.

Bahia Principe Escape Aquamarine: Woohoo

Love this Resort Amazing people, beautiful white beaches, great selection of food. Luxury gran Bahia Principe ambar green, is beautiful, wonderful new building and swimming pools, and whirlpools. Entertainment everyday and night. BBQ lunch at the pools everyday was a welcome addition. Definitely recommend and will be back...🏖️🌴🏖️🌴🏖️

Riu Republica: Very good adult resort.

We stayed the first week of January 2018 at the resort. Pros: great beach, lots of activities within the resort, rooms are great, lots choice of food at the buffet, many pools Cons: food at the a la cart restaurants, staff don’t speak English, overall service is lacking

Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda: Great place for family vacation

We had adjoining junior suites at the Esmeralda Hotel , large, clean ,beautiful , spacious well decorated rooms, large bathrooms, and well stocked mini fridge. The pools are great, but pool chairs were always reserved with towels, but no guests ever actually using these reserved chairs. Fantastic beach and water was close to the hotel, but again chairs reserved and unused by those reserving them. Children's water park was great for the little ones, and the play area near the hotel was fun for [... read more] the kids. Buffet meals became boring after 3 days. It was difficult to impossible to get reservations at the specialty restaurants, so don't be attracted to that option, as it probably won't be available. The Italian restaurant which we finally got to, was not worth it, as the food was poor quality. The Asian restaurant was really good.

Occidental Caribe: Very nice resort!

The grounds at this huge hotel were spectacular! I loved the beach the best, great for a long walk, sand was soft to walk on and not hot, and not too much seaweed in this area! There were waves every day and the kids loved that! Lots of places to eat besides the buffet, and we always found something we liked! We went for the New Year's week and the weather was excellent as well! The only thing I would do next time is get the upgraded room facing the pool and the ocean. Our room was a little bit [... read more] antiquated, it did the job but it could have been better! The pools were great as well!

Bahia Principe Explore Turquesa: Disappointed with Turquesa

Having stayed previously and been impressed with the quality of facilities and service in another Turquesa hotel in Cancun, we booked the Grand Bahia and Turquesa in our first visit to Punta Cana. From Day 1, we were disappointed with the level of service here. We were not allowed to reserve more than one Ala Carte hotel in our 5 nights stay there. No internet in the rooms unless paid! No welcome gifts! No adjoining rooms and type of beds that was requested and paid for during the booking. Som [... read more]ewhat half-hearted Christmas celebrations! They insisted that was their policy- max 2 restaurant reservations allowed for a 5 night stay (even with 2 rooms), and they counted the Christmas-eve buffet dinner as one of the allowed two! And we had to pay for the wine there. The rooms itself were good and clean, and the beach was excellent. Overall Turquesa seemed like a poor cousin amongst the rest of the Grand Bahia properties!

Breathless Punta Cana Resort: Very nice hotel, Thank you Angela, Sunwing was terrible

The hotel is modern and more hotel than resort, but very pleasant and relaxing. Everything is clean and well maintained, when you need something just ask and they will provide. The restaurants offer a large variety of food and a good service, we were very pleased. We spent an enjoyable week. Only bad memory Sunwing service even upgrading to Elite plus we didn't receive any food, barely a cup of water and the ground transportation in Punta Cana late and disrespectful. In conclusion we love [... read more]d Breathless and we will return anytime but in any case not with Sunwing

Barcelo Bavaro Palace: Substandard Resort

Check in - Rooms were to be ready at 3pm and they were not. Resort - is massive with a ton of people Staff barely speak English Wait was very long for water, food at any restaurant Sante Fe Steakhouse was a horrible meal, quality of food was very poor Rest of the a la carte restaurants are good to better Drink selection is adequate not great. Although they say 3 rounds of golf are included; you still had to pay $75 US per person per golf round for the golf cart. Ants in room; after getti [... read more]ng them to spray still took a few days to go away You could only exchange beach towels from your room; you couldn't get any additional beach towels and the towel staff was very rude about it. Pool and beach were extremely overcrowded with no available loungers at anytime of day The golf course and the staff at the golf course were the only highlights of the trip. Although the landscape staff is constantly trying to sell you balls in secret from Hole #1.

Secrets Royal Beach: Wonderful vacation!

We just returned from a week at Secrets Royal Beach, Punta Cana. It was an amazing resort! Our room was beautiful, the food was great and the beach was beautiful. We definitely recommend going with the Preferred Club accommodations. Having a separate beach area was a definite plus.