Great Trip!

Beautiful property - friendly staff! Entertainment and bar staff were amazing! Buffet was great. Greek was my least favourite of the restaurant dinners, butt was still good. Rooms were good, always cleaned and ready when you came back from the pool/beach. Beach was fantastic. We had 2 bad days of rain and the entertainment crew still made it fun! Yovanni helped us with our breathtaking tour to El Limon Waterfall and gave us great local day trip ideas.

Family Vacation

I will start by saying the staff was amazing. Any complaints were met and resolved. The grounds were very clean. And I would have to say, this is one of the better beaches I have ever been to. That being said, the room fridge was never cold. Some of the lights worked in the room - very dark at night. There was almost no water pressure and one night we only had cold water. I have a smaller child and I did find it disturbing to see the lifeguards on phones. It was very challenging to book  [... read more]our a la carte dinners, as the restaurants are not even open every night. Overall, very good trip and I would go back again, but request room in the 26 villa complex.

Beautiful resort to enjoy

Beautiful resort to enjoy ocean beach hotel entertainment restaurants and amazing food. Very calming atmosphere, all facilities working just perfect, guest service outstanding and caring about all guests needs. Very appropriate Lidia for comfortable stay. Live music enjoyable and give more charm for romantic vacation. Very happy return home and thank very much for beautiful and unforgettable time at Bahia Grand Principe Portillo

Very good!!!

The hotel is very clean. Very friendly staff. Very good service. BUT! We paid for a Superior Junior suite, but they gave us a Standard room. We arrived and looked again at the photos on the hotel website and this is a Standard room. We were told that this is a Superior Junior suite. Room 7202, we stayed from September 21 to September 28. Svetlana Baiguildina and Albert Baiguildine.

Amazing beach

Overall a very good vacationing spot. The beach is amazing, with lots of palm trees to provide shade. The coral reef is right in front of the hotel's beach so we did lots of snorkelling and fish feeding (my 10 year old was in heaven). We spent probably 85% of our time on the beach in the ocean and then the rest at the pool. The pool is somewhat small for the place it was full most of the time, they do have a second small pool further out between the villas but it was too far to walk too and tend [... read more]ed to be crowded too. Rooms are very dated but clean and that is all that matters. Service mainly good but you can tell that most servers/bartenders were overwhelmed as the resort was full so not all the time you received the best service and had to wait for drinks but they did their best. Food was plenty and good, lots of variety but again the buffet was a bit small for the amount of tourist were there, if you went early you were ok. A day before our return our beach towels were stolen, we left them out around 6:45 a.m. went for breakfast and came back around 8:00 a.m. (note that we followed what we saw is the practice with reserving your spot, even though the hotel says not to do it, if you did not reserve by 7:15 a.m. most seats were gone at the beach, they had spots at the pool until about 8:00 a.m.). Anyway we went to investigate as we also had personal items (some headbands) on each seat. Apparently it was not removed by security as they would return the towels to the towel place and then notify reception how many towels they collected. It was removed by a tourist as later in the day my niece saw one group was leaving and were short on towels and then another tourist walk over to them and offered them towels as he had extra towels... interesting... well his extra towels cost me US$40 in fine but whatever, I wish in the future will only have this much of "damage" on all our vacations. I would recommend this hotel/place for its beach/ocean for sure.

Good average resort

Pool and beach were great. Buffet decent. Gourmet and Brazilian alacstres good. Drinks are generic and should include more for the price. Rooms clean and spacious. Spa disappointing as they didn’t accept the offer posted in lobby. So take a picture of all offers to show them. So they can’t cheat you Staff very good.

Amazing place

Very nice place customer service is great took care of my needs there was a problem with wifi in my room they switched my room and gave me a voucher also offered me bottle of wine I do not drink so they gave another formal dinner to a restaurant

Resort was ok

Rooms were outdated , new pool , new sports bar and new dining room were very good staff was excellent .beach very good. But beer and liquor was late 3days,they ran out of bailey's cranberry juice,and other mixes. This resort should be down grade a half star . It is no longer a 5 star.

Awesome experience

I contacted Trip Central re: March Break 2023 vacation I got in touch with Monique, who had exceptional suggestions within my price range We were not disappointed, the food, pool, beach, entertainment @ Bahia Principe Grand el Portello in Samana Dominic Republic was beyond our expectations Just 1 minor hiccup, we were booked for 8 days, 7 nights, however, because of delays with Air Transat, we ended up staying 7 days, 6 nights

Beuatiful Resort!

This resort is very well laid out and kept in pristine condition. We stayed there 4 years ago and the renovations that have been done since are amazing! The staff are great, the food is great and the activities are varied and all fun. We will visit again ....

A Little Piece of Heaven!

A wonderful week away. While the resort is smaller than some of the Bahia properties, it has everything you could want. Clean, comfortable rooms, and a well maintained property. The staff went out of their way to ensure our comfort. The A La Carte dining was superb. Sun, Swim and Relax!

Great place to stay!

We have a loveliest family stay at the resort at the end of January 2023. Absolutely well maintained facilities starting from lobby, landscaping, villas, restaurants, everything. Very clean. Food and drinks were amazing. Beach and pools are perfectly maintained, gorgeous, stuff was very friendly.. We stayed with the 4 years old and he had a great time at their children's waterpark and Miniclub (children's care place).Entertainment was good enough (but we were not much into this, because we had [... read more] the grandson with us, maybe for someone else it was not that good). But

Great food, friendly staff, but bad drinks service

We went to Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo for a week as a family including two sets of grand parents and our four year old. It was a fantastic resort and the beach absolutely blew us away. The sand was soft and well maintained but the best part was the coral reefs just off the shore that were teeming with fish! You could literally walk a few meters into shoulder-deep water and see colorful tropical fish without paying for any snorkeling tours. Indeed, many other tourists came prepared with the [... read more]ir own snorkeling gear - there was a ton of people enjoying the beauty of the reefs, adults and kids alike. The food was phenomenal at the buffets - loads of choice and the snack bar was way above what we expected to find at a typical snack bar - it was basically a mini buffet with full on meals which was amazing for a little kid who gets hungry at random times of the day. The a-la-carte restaurants were alright, nothing too interesting or special but still worth a visit. The staff were incredibly friendly and even though few spoke English outside of the front desk staff they really did try hard to tend to your needs. In particular, the ladies who ran kids activities were so nice and so sweet, my son really enjoyed playing in the sand the sand and at the "Bahia Scouts" kids center. The only exception to this is the drinks service - the staff will happily come take your order as you sit and enjoy the patios but literally out of 10+ times they took an order from me for something as simple as a glass of wine they never actually came back with the drink. I'm not talking about it coming slowly, I'm saying after 45+ minutes they still didn't even check up again and even try to make up for forgetting. Moreover, in the evening time there's basically only the one bar operating as the beach and pool bars close so with the amount of people there and the tiny bar, you guessed it - you're waiting more than 20 minutes sometimes just to fill up a small cup of beer. This is not limited to alcohol - at the breakfast buffet, getting a cup of coffee was a challenge. This was honestly one of the most annoying things about our stay and while it is not a deal breaker it would definitely make me think twice about visiting again. I generally don't want to stand in lines for significant portions of my vacation. The rooms were pretty "meh" - adequate but nothing special. We had a shower faucet that sprayed sideways when we got our room that they quickly fixed after we complained. Unlike some other resorts I've been to, there's not much to see if you try to walk somewhere from the resort. The closest town, Las Terrenas, was almost an entire hour's walk down the beach with not much to see there. A few other things that are worth mentioning as well: * There are a few mosquitos but not many; only a few bites out of a whole week there * There are two ATMs at the resort but both of them stole my money - they withdrew the funds but never gave me any cash. One refunded it quickly, but for the second time I had to launch a full investigation via my bank that is going to take 10-15 business days to recover the funds (hopefully). DO NOT USE THE ATMs; and even the ones outside the resort I wouldn't trust. You're much better off bringing in American dollars that you exchange in Canada. * There are some incredibly friendly stray dogs that occasionally wander into the resort area; we along with many others that we saw found them very endearing. They are super sweet and do not cause any trouble at all, but if you're afraid of dogs you might want to make note of that. Many people including us petted them and really enjoyed their company. They will quickly leave you alone if you tell them to "shoo" and wave away. There are also cats around the resort, they are also super sweet although they don't really like to be petted - me and my wife both got scratched when we tried to. * Wifi in the lobby and common areas was fairly good but in the villas it was very, very spotty to the point of not working at all for long stretches of time

Nice but some things have changed

Resort is beautiful. However. Relax pool is not relaxing any longer. No rules posted. No rules enforced. It used to be for adults but no longer. Security removing towels from lounges because of unclear rules when you can place your towels on them. Waiting for a drink takes way too long.

Nice resort

Everything was fine, except the waiting line for the buffet. Hotel was crowded and waiting in the line for a table when is hot outside was unpleasant. This was the main negative aspect. Room and the beach were good. No seaweed, the shore was clean and the sea clear enough. Nice beach in general! Activities and night entertainment were present like in the old times, before 2020.

Average

Hello, I like to leave a review on our recent travels to this hotel and our experience with trip central. Firstly when when we speaking with trip central agent about booking travel and stay at this hotel. Even thou the travel agent informed us that no flights would fly directly into Samana going forward and therefore only to Puerto Plata at the time of travel. The agent never mentioned that the bus ride would be a 4+ HR bus ride..THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MENTIONED. The travel agent should have at [... read more] least informed us of this at time of booking. They could have stated that as a courtesy. Nevertheless, the trip was booked. We stayed at this hotel before (pre- pandemic) and the experience was incredible therefore we were so excited to take our first trip after the pandemic to this exact destination and hotel again. We stayed two weeks in superior junior suite. The room was great as like before. However, the overall service was average at best. Far cry from before(pre pandemic). The shows were only tailored to children. No adult shows or entertainment existed. Very disappointing. The service seemed to cater to the locals rather than travellers from outside countries. On weekends the service was even worse. Sometimes had to ask to be served after waiting on servers who were going to serve locals multiple times. It was noticeable… some were quite rude and and didn’t try to even speak a word of English. The beach is great. Overall, average. Never travelling to this hotel again. Not worth the money and never using trip central again.

The ultimate in incompetence

Room not verified before rental, shower head didn't work and hand held shower in bathtub also broken. AC didn't blow strong enough to cool the room (AC system antique) and the bed was hard as rock (flintstone era). Only the shower head was fixed, the rest wasn't properly addressed to my liking. Wait time for lunch and dinner lineups was up to 30 mins, but most of the time was 8-12 mins. Shows were very poor, always for kids and very few, if any, were good for adults. Beach was the best I've seen [... read more] from all the Bahia's I have been to. Excellent for people (like my wife) who can't swim, you can go out 50 feet and it's at mid section height and this was for kms everywhere on both sides of the resort. Kite sufing 5 mins away. Pool was full on weekends since they rent rooms to the locals. Service on weekends is horrendous since they increase the room rentals to locals but don't increase the staff. Beach bar service could take up to 1/2 hr. No where to sit on the beach on weekends. Staff have a hard time to understand plain english except for Lidia who was very helpful. If your a privilege menber of any sort, you will be equally ignored like everybody else. I feel generous today and will give a 2/12 star rating. Definitely not a 5 star. Paid $1449 for a superior jurior suite in first class (still too expensive for what is was worth) CAD with Air Canada from Montreal. Unless you have very little money, DON'T GO THERE!!!!!

Absolutely Amazing

Upon arriving at the resort the first thing you notice is the cleanliness. We booked the junior suite and it was just what we had expected. The moment my wife got off the bus she said we have to come back. The beauty of all the vegetation was incredible. The friendliness of the employees made you feel so welcome and at home.Food was amazing, there were many different choices and they never ran out of anything at the buffet. The beach seater were very clean and very well maintained. We will defin [... read more]itely be back next year. Special thank you to Nicole Deforest for everything and for answering the questions that I had for her, your answers were always polite and very clear to understand

Fabulous place!

We had the time of our lives, highly recommend and will go back again for sure!Every thing was fantastic and we were impressed by the quality of service, beach was amazing, hotel and staff also perfect, thank you so much for all your hard work for making us enjoy our vacation!

A real 5 star two week vacation.

Been to El Portillo several times. We were given the black royalty wristband that we appreciated. We will return to El Portillo. It keeps getting better. We noticed the amazing skills of the staff, very polite, helpful and enthusiastic. Many got to know our names. Buffet…..5 Star….Great selection. Greek, French and Italian restaurants….5 Star Cleaning staff……5 Star Relax Pool…..5 Star (Carolina was the best…so funny and helpful.) Main pool looked nice and was kept clean. Fro [... read more]nt Desk……5 Star…Made us feel welcome. Gardens……5 Star….Grounds crew does a great job. Beach……5 Star, clean and relaxing lounge chairs. Towel service….5 Star. The guy there was very polite and very helpful. Bars….good variety and quick service. Washrooms…..always clean. Room…..nicely appointed. Shuttle to and from El Catey was great. Suggestion: Having that program for kids every night was not necessary. Someone yelling over a microphone was hard on the ears. There are hundreds sitting there having to listen to that almost every night. The kids have lots to do without that nightly time period. More singers, guitarists even keyboard music is needed.