Very nice resort!

Aside from the beach, I had no complaints. The staff were always very friendly and willing to help, the food was always tasty with plenty of options. BAHIA Spa was also very relaxing I would highly recommend a massage while you are here. Definitely worth the money and will be returning!

Average

Grounds were well kept. The rooms were small with double beds not queens and were totally uncomfortable. The beach was disappointing, yellow sand with lots of crushed shells and seaweed. Very limited to the resort, taxi service is available. The food was average but the al Carte restaurants were good. The most annoying issues are the line up and slow service at the reception desk as well as waiting for restaurant booking. The other thing is there was not many chairs to lounge on the be [... read more]ach. You have to be up early to get a spot. Not much for teenagers to do

Relaxing resort!

We thought the property was beautiful, well spaced out and very relaxing atmosphere. There was enough to do without having to leave the property. The food was reasonably good. The appliances in the room (refrigeration) was rather old and it would be nice to have a coffee maker in the room so guests can have cup of tea/coffee when they wake up and before coming to breakfast. Overall a good experience and a relaxed holiday. Nice and friendly staff, especially the activities / engagement team.

Great vacation spot with a beautiful beach

Well maintained resort despite its age...very friendly people .. Beautiful beaches.. Main pool gets very crowded at times I wish there were more pools in service especially on the west end. Also I found main pool closing at 6 pm is a bit early an it does not look nice to be kicked out with a whistle blow. Rooms were nice.. But furniture was old drawers were not working properly.. Nice to have fridge to be filled up with choice of cold drinks also chips.. I liked it... Lobby was very crowde [... read more]d due to free Internet most of the time.. Over all we enjoyed very much If I have a chance I would go again.. Very friendly staff.. They try their best to fulfill the requests as much as possible.. Getting into bath tub was not designed properly it was a bit dangerous there should be a handle to hold on to.. Also water pressure was not to much even on the first floor.. Buffet food was ok. It would be nice to have dedicated vegetarian section. Wait time at the French restaurant was way too much but food was good...

Nice resort

Lovely resort, grounds are beautiful. Rooms are clean but dated. Pools and beach are nice but the ocean is quite murky and lots of seaweed. Staff are amazing and go out of their way to make you feel welcome.

So relaxing

Very clean resort, always something to eat and drink and the staff were very friendly. Never saw an bugs or sand fleas people complained about. Rooms spotless, beds a little hard and mini bar stocked with pop,water,beer and chips. Beach not bad but the water was too rough this time so we stayed at the smaller pool near the spa. We will be back!

Amazing resort!

Restort was great but with the amount of people I’d suggest more chairs around the pool and beach area. The beach also wasn’t the cleanest (seaweed, garbage, cigarette butts, etc). Overall we did have a blast and would return given the chance

Was ok for the price

food was never hot beach has lots of rocks and sea weed rooms were very good and clean the bus ride is a bit long and hour and a half entertainment was fair nothing special in the buffet Eddie was the best server there was he tried to help with everything

Great trip

This hotel was excellent, very clean, staff were very nice, food was great. Even had hit water all the time for showers Would recommend this to anyone took an excursion, recommended by our air transat rep, it was fantastic

It's a very nice resort

The hotel is old but clean and customer service is excellent, friendly and helpful staff, food was good, and the entertainment was okay. The beach is spread out and so it's never crowded, very quiet and peaceful. If you are looking for Wifi it's ok.

Gran Bahia Principe San Juan

Grounds: excellent maintenance Restrooms: always clean and fresh Buffet and A la Carte: something for everyone Takara - Japanese and Orquieda- Mediterranean - fine cuisine at its best Reception and lobby: great All in all, a very good holiday! Downside: quality of beach and 1 hour from airport

Pool Nice, Beach Dangerous, Don't Travel with Air Canada

My girlfriend and I stayed at the GBP San Juan in early March of 2018. When we checked in to Pearson Airport we learned we would not be sitting together, which was fine but a bit disappointing to start the trip off, but again not a big deal. When we landed and checked out of customs, Air Canada didn't arrange a ride for us to the resort resulting in us waiting an hour or so after everyone else was transferred to their prospected resorts. When we finally got a ride the driver didn't seem to ha [... read more]ppy, I'm guessing since the resort is a good hour and a half from the airport. The ride was interesting, good to see the local culture and nightlife from the minibus. When we got to the resort at about 10:30 pm local time the buffet was still open and they let us eat before checking in which was nice. This is a massive resort, the luggage guy was nice enough to hook up some local ganga for pretty cheap. We stayed in C9 block, the room was great. AC worked almost too well, fridge was cold, was cleaned daily. The only thing was the shower pressure was spotty and the toilet worked but constantly ran so I had to keep opening the lid to giggle the float. The bed wasn't that comfortable but did the trick after a day of drinking in the sun. The room was cleaned every day. The pool was great, the beach not so much. The water is also pretty dangerous as some kayakers got swept out, one didn't make it back and it took the lifegaurds two hours for a rescue mission. By that time the poor girl capsized a couple times and lost all her belongings, not to mention the mental shock of being left alone out in the ocean for that long. The food was great. Big buffet with lots of variety, the A La Cartes were ok. The staff was friendly as expected. All and All it was an Ok vacation for the price. But I would suggest going elsewhere if you can, and don't travel with Air Canada.

Near death experience

Went what was to be a relaxing fun kayak water sport adventure with 2 friends just in resort and turned deadly with the weather. Lost my friends and then lost my kayak and paddle due to white squalls and undercurrents. My friends I found out made it to shore and asked for help which took over an hour because they didn’t have an emergency plan in place so I was stuck with only a lifejacket in the Atlantic Ocean before being rescued. Then for the remaining two days of our trip they did nothing a [... read more]nd didn’t follow up with myself and the two other kayakers to see how we were doing following this traumatic experience because none of their lifeguards were watching the ocean at all only tourists who cane running and screaming when they saw me. Never go on their kayak!

Grand Bahia Principe Bavaro Luxury, dominican republic.March 2018

Hotel was fine. Olive Gourmet restaurant had very bad experience when they refused to let us have dinner because we were wearing bermudas pants while they were accepting people wearing jeans/leggings(Yes I said leggings)T shirts and running shoes. They would not accept a couple which the hotel had booked a reservation for his birthday. An elderly couple of 82 years old which had walked 20 minutes to get to the restaurant was refused because he was wearing knee bermudas. Manager was insulting a [... read more]nd all couples decided to eat elsewhere. People were really upset about the Manager's response. This happened at 19.15 on 3/6/2018. Shower door in bathroom did not close properly. A sewer scent came from pipes in bathroom. They gave us lemon scent to get rid of odor.

Nice Resort

Very well kept resort. Pleased with the quality of the shows, food and service. Location is a bit far from the airport, but the bus was fairly comfortable. We would recommend this resort to others. The price was reasonable and the value is what we had expected.

Nice Resort

This is a nice resort. Older. It could use some updating, but they have done a good job at keeping up with it. The food was good, with a new theme (i.e Italian/Mexican) everynight with a signature cocktail. The grounds are nice, well kept. The beach is also nice, however the large floating barriers in the water ruins the view and atmosphere. Stuck to the pool. Also an hour an a half to two hour bus ride was not told to us prior to arrival.

Great Spot!!

The resort was wonderful!! ** FOOD - lots of variety ** POOL - very big with a great swim up bar (staff is friendly - especially JUNIOR) but unfortunately closes at 6:00pm every night :((( ** BEACH - OK, I've definitely been to better ** ENTERTAINMENT - most shows were fantastic ** STAFF - very friendly and super helpful ** BARS - all bars close at 11:00pm :(((( ** ROOMS - very clean and very roomy ** LOCATION - only resort for miles, you're locked to your resort unless you pay for  [... read more]an excursion

Lots of fun

Had a fabulous week at this resort. Check-in was so quick and easy, the room was great, cleaned and restocked daily. The beach and pool areas were beautiful and spacious. The staff and entertainment team are what make this resort so great. They really go above and beyond. The only room for improvement would be in the food department. While variety was good, often it was repetitive and not hot. However, i would definitely recommend and return to this hotel. Another great stay at the Bahia princi [... read more]pe chain.

First Time and Not our last

We travelled here as a couple the last week of Feb. 2018. It was our first time in the D.R. and it will not be our last. San Juan resort was very good for being 23 - 24 years old. Friday to Wednesday: sun and rain 24 degrees. Thursday & Friday: hot and sunny 27 degrees. We flew into Puerto Plata via Air Transat with a three and three seating plan with only free water, pop, tea or coffee for a 4 hour flight. Food could be purchased at a bargain price of $25. It was an hour and 15 minute bus ride [... read more] to the resort. Do not watch out of the front of the bus if you want to keep your heart in your chest. Driving in the D.R. is a whole new ball game. Watch out the side windows and find out how blessed you are for what you have. We stayed in the D9 block. The resort is fenced in and security patrols the grounds 24 hours. Our outside stairs needed some work. Inside the room was clean and the fridge had beer, wine and pop. We had to ask for chips. The bathroom was aged and some of the grout needed work. If you're looking for the perfect accommodations you're out of luck. AC is new, no hot water issues and our room was cleaned every day. The mattress was good and there is an outside balcony with a table and chairs. Staff in every part of the resort were great with no issues at all. The grounds are friendly for all ages, nationalities and the LGTBQ family. We were pleased with all the facilities offered. There are kids programs, beach volleyball, darts, bocce ball, night programs, dances, scuba diving and spots to do nothing. You can go on excursions for a fee. Taxis are available. A cab ride to the Puerto Plata airport is $100 U.S. round trip. The beach is fine. No flee issues and we're not O positive blood types. It is west coast Florida sand and not white Caribbean sand. There was still some hurricane damage in one area which was not yet repaired for some reason. Those look alike rocks in the ocean are sand bags. You can swim out to them and the water is about 4 feet deep. The first 30 feet of the beach is murky because of the crashing wake and then it becomes clear. Like any resort there are people walking around who don't know how to clean up after themselves. Cups, straws and cigarette butts are left on the beach. Resort staff are out on the beach trying to keep it clean. The west snack bar is convenient during the day with your basic food, drinks and a sit down area but they have a bird problem here. Watch the back of the chairs for crap. The resort needs to better cover the nacho's and pizza in this snack bar. Worst is people are feeding the birds so some are pretty persistent. The west pool near the snack bar is a lot quieter (and smaller) then the main pool. The sign at the small pool reads that no seat saving is allowed with your towel and unattended ones will be taken away. The main pool does not have this rule yet. So if you want a pool side seat you need to place your towel on a chair at 7 am. Sorry folks you can't eat your breakfast and save your pool seat too! You better have someone sitting there because a growing number of people in all resorts aren't taking this anymore. It's called first come first serve and your towel maybe gone. We only ate at the buffet. The food was good. No, it's not all hot but everything that we came across was cooked and warm. You have to be careful if you have food allergies. We have a peanut allergy. Someone contaminated the vegetables beside the peanut chicken while the clean tongs sat in front of the veggies. The food is well labelled, it's those not paying attention you have to worry about. There was Chinese night, Mexican night and so on. Cats can be found under some of the buffet tables. Make sure you swat under the table before you sit if you don't like them. The issue would not be as noticeable but you have people feeding them so what can you expect. We booked through Tripcentral.ca and they advertise saving their customers money for over 20+ years. Well that was not the case for us. We booked this trip in mid 2017 with Victoria Sullivan from Tripcentral.ca. and made a deposit. We found the trip for a better price in January of 2018 with Tripcentral.ca. We booked for the new price. We contacted Victoria for a price match and was basically told we're out of luck because a) they don't price match and b) our original booking date was too far from our new booking date???? We lost our $200 dollar deposit. So heads up when you're working with these travel agencies. Thanks Bahia San Juan for an enjoyable vacation.

Very Good

The hotel was very good, nice clean and daily serviced room, grounds very nice, evening entertainment was excellent, staff very courteous and helpful, Oriental Rest. excellent, helpful for staff to know more English (service staff). Very large buffet that could be more organized, hot food not together so sometimes cold when sitting. In general very nice place with long and lovely beach and large beautiful pool1