Disappointed

We stayed at the confederacy February 26 to March 4, 2023. We were scheduled to arrive on February 25 but due to flight delays we didn’t arrive until February 26. Although we pre-paid for seven nights accommodations when we arrived on February 26 we were told the room wasn’t ready. We arrived at approximately 9:30 AM February 26, and had to sit and wait until almost 4 PM for our room. Difficult to understand how a room that we had paid for for the night of February 25 wasn’t available? The [... read more] service at the main reception check-in was deplorable. There was no empathy for the amount of time we were delayed arriving at the resort, nor was there any level of positive customer service when we inquired about our room availability. The Transat rep was very sarcastic and belittling. The resort itself was ok. However, the food was below standard of a four-star resort and undercooked. I would not recommend this resort and will certainly not be returning for another stay.

Overall Good

After reading many bad reviews we were a bit worried about this resort. There were areas that needed improvement but nothing that upset our trip. Hot water needs to be addressed resort wide as does basic maintenance and repairs. Overall we enjoyed the the many amenities of the resort and the food was on par with other all-inclusives. We booked restaurants our first day with zero issue. The frost bar was heavy handed on the alcoholic drinks and nothing tasted watered down as I had read in  [... read more]previous reviews. Kids club workers were excellent and interactive with our two-year old. We were not even asked about purchasing time shares or bothered in any way by sales tactics. The resort has plenty of options for pools, bars, entertainment, and food. There are a lot of stairs but even with a stroller didn't mind it as we were prepared for this by the warnings when booking. Upon arrival we were upgraded to a bigger room on the ground floor when they saw we were on the third floor with a young child/baby stroller without us asking at all. Overall it was a good resort for the price. As a budget-conscious traveller it was a great deal. Lastly, I found staff to be friendly and helpful throughout the entire resort - everyone was smiling and happy to help when needed - customer service was excellent. The beach was nothing spectacular so if you are looking for a great beach, this isn't the resort for you, though it was walkable and still beautiful. Freddie our Air Transat rep was fantastic and available to assist when needed.

The smell of rare sewage!!!!

Well I generally don't write reviews however in this case the review title says it all. To make matters worse Our room was on the main road which was very busy and the ditch of sewage pipe which ran all the way down to the beach YUCK!!!!!!! Just dont stay here!!! We had to pay for the safe in our room $20 US not cool. So many stairs

Definitely not worth the money

This was definitely the worst resort I have ever been to. The pictures do not represent reality. It states 468 rooms, golf on site, 4 poolside bars, a swim up bar, Private beach, a beach bar. These amenities are not for the 468 rooms (which are awful rooms) they are for approximately four times that number of rooms, there is literally not a square inch of space that has not been built on. It is attempting to Service way too many rooms, all of which are being left unmaintained. There’s no hot w [... read more]ater in many buildings, sometimes not even warm water sometimes no water. The power went out multiple times a day. The whole resort smelled of sewage the entire week; it appears as though they are pumping all of their gray water into the ocean. Two people in our party got food poisoning on the fifth day, my husband and I both were sick when we got home for days. The food was not great, drinks were worse, getting a coffee and water at breakfast was twenty minutes every time! The resort states it has 9 a la carte restaurants, unfortunately not just serving the 468 rooms but also for the resort next door as well as the VIP’s and the time share owners, so we managed to get 2 reservations at ones that were leftover basically as well as the time (first or last seating) for them for the entire week. Our room was two double beds, a night stand, a table, one lamp, a closet with 8 hangars. There was no dresser, no luggage stand and no drawers or shelves to put our clothes in. We had requested a king bed prior to our trip and again at check in. The beds were hard and uncomfortable, thank goodness the air conditioning worked! No wine was available anywhere except the resort next door at the lobby bar, dinner buffets and the “casino” bar. Not a real casino, just some slot machines. Also the only bar to have anything other than house red and white wine, sparkling rose and a white. The wine was served very sparingly, tiniest wine glasses I have seen - basically an ice wine glass.

Welcome to poopslosion

The room was fine but outside of it smelled of raw sèwage. The beach was good. The food was okay but repetitive. My fiancée got pretty bad food poisoning. Overall not a great resort but for the money it was okay

Amazing place

Everything was great. Our room was beautiful and clean. The pools were great the drinks were delicious and the food was delicious. I don’t know where the bad reviews come from. Probably the few people we saw who are demanding and expect the world

Cofresi Beach

This hotel is massive, lots of walking, unless you are staying within the timeshare/vacation club, then everyone has a golf cart and they are everywhere. Ongoing issues in the standard rooms with no water and toilets not working properly. We had a suite which was nice, however it was so damp nothing dried and our dry clothes were alway wet from being in room. Not impressed with food, ocean is filthy and rough and there is a constant sewage smell across the resort. Covid protocols within st [... read more]aff seem very,high, masks, sanitizing, being served at buffet. 10 of us went 3 were violently ill. The rest had stomach or intestinal issues. It appeared you are treated by the amount of money you spent to stay there. Nighttime shows were just ok

We had a great time

We really enjoyed our family vacation at Cofresi Palm Beach Resort. We have 3 complaints regarding this hotel. The smell in some areas was not great. And the mattress needs to be updated it was extremely hard. The third is if you have a neighbor with an adjoining room its almost like they are in the same room. The rest of the resort was amazing. Covid measures were still used as in staff had masks and hand sanitizer was offered at restaurants.

Good resort

I like the food and beach. The show at night time is excellent. The staff are friemdly.However, too many golf cart on the road and causes bad smell. Also, the drain caused bad smell near some part of beach.

Would not recommend

My husband and I booked our most recent vacation to the Cofresi Palm Beach Resort last June as we wanted a winter getaway in January. I wanted to write this email to explain our experience and how it was not a positive one. Our dates of travel were January 10-17 2023 and we were flying out of Hamilton International Airport on the 10th at 5:35pm. Our flight was almost 2 hours late taking off. It arrived late so we were not able to board when we were suppose to and then when we finally got on b [... read more]oard we sat on the tarmac waiting for the crew to empty the waste and refill water on board. By time we took off it was after 7pm. We landed in Puerto Plata at midnight. Getting through the airport was fine and finding out transfer to the hotel was okay. We arrived to the hotel and got our keys and when we got to our room after 2am our key cards didn’t work. We are tired and hot at this point. So we trekked our long way back, up many flights of stairs to the front desk where they configured our key and we took the shuttle back to our room complex. Our room was pretty basic. The bed was like sleeping on a hard concrete slab - it was not comfortable at all. The mini fridge only had 1 bottle of water in it and we had no pool towels in the room. The next morning we were to go to our transat meeting which we didn’t since we were tired after finally getting to bed at 3am and a long travel day. We had breakfast at the buffet restaurant and then began our journey trying to find seats to sit at the pool or beach. This resort is very limited on seating anywhere you go. The beach was very small and not many seats around. We did enjoy the rest of the day at the pool and had dinner at the buffet. The next day was raining and as we were heading out of room complex the stairs were slightly wet and I did manage to slip down a stair hitting my head and back of my left arm badly. To say this was a bad start of our day would be an understatement. We went to the transat meeting that morning and learned where we can make our a La carte restaurant reservations. We also learned that our mini bar should have been fully stocked and have pools towels in the room which we did not. After the transat meeting I went to front desk and asked if we could have our mini fridge stocked and pool towels in the room and we were informed that they would let housekeeping know to do that. We went on with our day and made the most of it. When we came back to our room to have dinner our mini fridge was not stocked and still no pool towels. I called front desk from our room and they advised they will have someone do it. So we had dinner again at the buffet as we were planning on heading to the guest services office tomorrow to make reservations for the rest of our stay. After dinner we came back to the room where we still had no pool towels and our mini fridge was still not stocked. I called front desk again and tried to explain that I was getting frustrated that I have had to call this many times for these 2 things and they advised they would send someone up. A few minutes later we got a bag that had 4 cans of beer, water and 2 bottles of pop. A few minutes after that housekeeping had 2 white bath towels in her hand which is not what we had requested. She didn’t understand what I was saying so she walked off rudely saying “sorry no English” The Friday during our holiday we ended up both getting food poisoning and not able to leave our room to go anywhere as we were very sick. Another damper to put on our vacation. On Saturday we were feeling better and we headed to guest services to see if we can make restaurant reservations for the rest of our stay as we didn’t want to continue to eat at the buffet and there was a note on the door that said they were fully booked for reservations until next week and to come back Sunday morning. So after that we headed back to front desk and I asked for pool towels to be delivered to me right then and there as I had asked everyday that week and we still had not received them. The front desk reservation person gave us 2 towel cards and we were finally able to get our towels at the main pool that day. Sunday morning we headed to the guest services area in the lobby to make restaurant reservations and the line was from the door to where the main pool was. At least an hour and a half long. My husband and I didn’t want to wait in that line while we had little of our vacation left and we hadn’t had the best time up until that point so we didn’t want to waste it standing in a long line to be told there was nothing available. On our last full day at the resort we tried to see if we could get some sort of restaurant reservation for that night but by time we got to the lobby the line was as long as it had been the day before so we didn’t stand in it. All week we had buffet food which was a bit concerning since we had gotten sick from it. My husband and I don’t tend to eat things we aren’t familiar with when we stay at an all inclusive so we aren’t sure what exactly made us sick from there. The morning when we checked out the front desk man asked for our towel cards and I said we didn’t have them and that our towels were on the balcony for housekeeping to grab. He said we had to present the cards and I told him we were not advised that at all and said they were in the room for housekeeping. He checked us out no problem and we made our way to the airport. Our plane left 20 minutes prior to schedule which was great as we were tired and wanted to get home after this awful week. We had become friends with a few other people who came down the same time as us on the same package and a couple had gotten sick at the a La carte restaurants and other people had complaints about their stay such as showers not working during the stay etc. Overall we would not be coming back to this resort. I found the staff to be rude at times and it was like pulling teeth to get anything done that was so insignificant. My husband and I had stayed at a 5 star luxury resort in Punta Cana back in 2021 and the staff there were so accommodating, friendly and we had no issues there what so ever. We had high hopes coming to Puerto Plata and this vacation put a bad taste in our mouths. I am hoping with this review this gets shared with the staff of the resort so they can change their protocols and behaviours down there for future guests as I am sure we aren’t the only ones complaining about their stay at this property. Sincerely Olivia Howell Abel & Jon Bowles

Terrible trip

On the second day, multiple people in the resort got food poisoning. My husband was so ill,vomiting and diarrhea at once, unable to keep anything in him for 12 hours. The clinic doctor sent him to the hospital via ambulance. We spent overnight there -my husband getting IV antibiotics of 2 types. When we came back, the buffet was no longer self serve and majority of food was wrapped in plastic. The grounds were tropical and lush but smelt of sewage-there was a leaky sewage pipe that ran out int [... read more]o the ocean.

Would not recommend!

Had to pay extra for wifi that was more down then up. The pools are not heated so were way too cold. Wasted hours trying to get reservations for our group and ended up with only 2 bookings for the worst restaurants and had to split our group because there was nothing else available. 7 out of 10 people in our group got sick.

Ok resort

It was lacking the following : Booking restaurants was disorganized No variety of foods buffet or enough quantity Snack bars open late Bars clubs open late Activities On good note: Friendly hotel services Security Promptly removed noisy neighbours on last night

Very bad hotel

service and food was OK ,terrible room, no hot water for five days, the management level never give solutions for as and never show up. terrible experience,never recommend this resort .xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [... read more]xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

2 Stars at best

I’ve stayed at 4 stars in the DR before and this by far was the worst hotel I’ve ever been to. I’ll start with positives. Servers and entertainment staff were awesome. Beach was beautiful, food was surprisingly ok. The bad: check in system was a long process. I bet some people may have waited 3 hrs to check in. Power kept going out too. Dining reservations required you line up at 9am, I was about 8th in line, the first few days were already full. We were 4 couples and one couple got  [... read more]a room with 2 singles. Took 3 days to change. Freddie from air transat helped because staff said there were no rooms, even when people checked out each day. AC worked in some of the rooms, not ours. they were loud and one of the rooms leaked so the maid put towels all over the floor so they wouldn’t slip. Hot water only on 2 of 8 days. Fixtures and all were from the 80s, very patchwork style of repairs. You have to request a key for the safe but I would guess that’s an extra fee. They never refilled the fridge with beer and pop, but did bring water. Food tasted great in some cases, we were surprisingly pleased. But one by one all 8 of us got food poisoning and were stuck in our rooms. We avoided salad that sat in water and tried to just eat hot fresh cooked food, but we still got sick so not sure where we got ir. You could hear many people talking about their family’s all being sick. The ice is brought in to site and the water served is from the large water jugs.. Bar was underwhelming. No real juice, sugary orange water like tang was served. Liquor was no name, and they had frozen strawberry or pina colada mix. I craved a mojito or aperol spritz but stuck to gin and tonic and vodka Soda or beer. Staff would not allow food out of the buffet to bring to sick guests. I went to guest services. One lady was incredibly helpful and had a vegan soup made for one room of sick family and chicken soup for another. The next day the staff were incredibly rude saying that we had service yesterday so no service today. I explained that the second person in the room was now sick but they wouldn’t help. We had to smuggle out food in to go cups. The following day I managed to get soup. Luckily by the last day we had 6 people that were well enough to go to town, which was the highlight of the trip. In hind sight, I should’ve rented an Airbnb, likely would’ve had better service.

Disapointed 3 stars at most

Resort is part of a group of resorts that has been expanding the last 20 years and has not renovated this part. Food tasted good but we were all sick, entertainment ok, beach is beautiful but divided between groups. They need to fix rooms as they are run down, they gave us the older ones and we had to change. Smelled like mold and sewage, didn't have hot water for a couple days, paint in pools was peeling. It looked better as we went on the other side of the resort near the VIP/members/owners  [... read more]part, we noticed a difference in the drinks and food as they were better there but our access was limited.

Beautiful property with lots of walking

Beautiful property but beware of travel documentation. waited 4 hours for room confirmation. good bed with lousy bathroom and if you lose your bracelet there is s $200 charge. Poor room service. beware, of what you pay for.

Beautiful surroundings with lots of walking

Please be careful. We got to resort only to wait 4 hours for them to find confirmation on booking. Beautiful place with not so good service. Bathroom drain leaked. No replenished fridge and if you loose your bracelet they charge $200.

Not so good

Pros: nice and clean room, good food, many restaurants; Cons: small beach with dark sand, best spots reserved for VIPs/Lifestyle Vacation Club Members; better service, food and even coffee like espresso available for VIPs only, free internet only one hour/ day and very slow, if you want internet for one week you have to pay 45 USD( cheaper to buy local SIM card with data); a lot of stairs, definitely not for tourists with mobility problem; They lure vacationers to buy membership, sort of share [... read more]s- be careful !!!

Lost our reservation.

This hotel is an older property, so everything reflected that. Our room had some challenges. The door was tough to push open, hot water was iffy, and the water pressure was terrible. The most unfortunate part was that they weren’t expecting us, and when we showed them our confirmation, instead of upgrading us for our inconvenience, I think they shoved us in 2 of their forgotten spaces. It was an odd introduction to the Cofresi. The nice thing about this older hotel is is very tropical looki [... read more]ng, with lots of greenery. We had great weather all week , so we graded the trip a success.