Wyndham Alltra Samana: Beautiful resort

The hotel is under construction, and we had issues with the air conditioning and hot water. Even though we had problems at the beginning, the hotel, beach, and pools are gorgeous. The food was amazing, large variety of different food and the a la carte was amazing.

Bahia Principe Escape Samana: Great resort for R & R

We stayed at the resort the first week of December 2016. Highly recommended. Positives - beautiful resort, small with 190 rooms - staff are great, engaging and friendly - food is good to great - lots of chairs and loungers - clean, clean, clean - great views of the mountains, sea and sunsets - good entertainment for a small resort - good house wines - WiFi coverage is okay Cons - small beach but that could be a plus too - not a place for party people but that could be a plus too [... read more] - I'd like to have a sound bar in the room for music If you love quiet, quality service and nature, this is the place for you.

Wyndham Alltra Samana: Grand Paradise Samana

There is good and bad with this resort. The beach was beautiful, main pool was amazing and staff was friendly and accommodating. Resort overall is unfinished and not completely updated. The food variety in the buffet was also lacking and became very repetitive after a few days of eating it.

Wyndham Alltra Samana: Resort will be Nice

Half of the Hotel was in Renovations, other half that was finished was nice! , Resort needed fun Entertainment and Music at Pools, we had to supply our own music, Beach was beautiful! Food was decent, drinks were a plenty, staff needs to be happier

Bahia Principe Escape Samana: Top-end resort

High marks for the rooms, meals and overall atmosphere. Staff are very friendly and accommodating. All rooms overlook the Sea and the views are spectacular. Beach is so-so but not a deal breaker. Airport at Samana (El Catey) was a breeze.

Wyndham Alltra Samana: Another great Time at Grande Paradise

Great Staff, Beautiful natural;surroundings, Awesome upgrade they did this year, the main pool is amazing, great food. we have been there 3 times and already planning on going back for number 4 in the spring

Cayo Levantado Resort: Tranquil resort with a lot to offer

An exceptionally, well-groomed property with amazing, thoughtful staff. There are many secluded places to bask in the sun or places to socialize. There is something for everyone. We were impressed by the bartenders blending drinks behind a closed door to reduce noise so other guests relaxing didn't have to hear the blender noise all day long. Food and service were on par with a Sandals or Couples resort. Will definitely return to this property

Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: Nice get away

Overall, the hotel was clean and well kept - the grounds, the rooms, the public areas. The beach was gorgeous - many reefs and fish to see, snorkeler's paradise. The staff were all friendly and efficient. The food was good, always something to choose from. We tried the Gourmet, Italian and Brazilian restaurants. All were quite good, with the Brazilian being our favourite.

Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: Samana

The Hotel was beautiful with well manicured grounds. The food was very good and with a good assortment of foods. Also, the staff was very pleasant but needed to speak better English. Hard to communicate with restaurant staff. A few things I was not impressed with were:We were told we'd have an oceonfront view and this was not possible as only one building had this and of course it was already booked. This Hotel has quiet time at 11:00pm. which was a shock to us. Sitting in the lobby and all of [... read more] a sudden the lights go out was a bit disturbing. The bar also closes at that time which I realize we are seniors but on vacation I am not ready for bed this early. The shuttle which takes you to your room also stops at 11:00pm. so we had no ride in the rain. Our room looked over the pool which we thought was great until we were told to keep the laughter down as it was "the quiet pool" I am a Rye drinker and they had none. I was told to drink Scotch which I'm sorry is not even close to the taste of Whiskey. Also, on the last two days they ran out of Vodka. Not a happy tourist!!! I believe our Travel Rep should have advised us of the early to bed rule.

Bahia Principe Escape Samana: Luxurious!

Absolutely stunning resort with true luxury service. The food at the buffet and al la carte was amazing! If you are a seafood lover, you will love the selection. Also the Brazilian Restaurant with amazing cuts of beef etc., all I can say is WOW 💯. We celebrated our honeymoon here and we look forward to returning on our anniversary!

Wyndham Alltra Samana: 7TH visit in 3 years

Grand Paradise in Las Galeras are under renovations right now but didn't interfere with much.I have seen many changes in the last three years,they are always trying to make things better and they are succeeding the new pool area is spectacular. But the buildings and surroundings are a bonus,the staff at Grand Paradise are comparable to none.The maids do an excellent job the bartenders and wait staff are friendly but their animation team are awesome,they make sure everyone has a good time.Mikki,L [... read more]ima,Youseff,Magrarita,Olga,Wilson,Andular,Bombey and Judy work so hard and it is very much appreciated the place wouldn't be the same without them. Did the eco park excursion and was really disappointed,spent a lot of time on a boat to see an island of pelicans...the cave was cool but that's were it ends.Went to Bacardi beach and was hassled non stop had to pay to sit on a beach chair.Would not recommend this excursion for the price of $110 american.Did Zip lining it was fun the zip team are excellent at the job and make you feel comfortable. I cannot wait to go back to Grand Paradise to see the many improvements

Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: The resort was very nice

The hotel was very clean, rooms spacious, good service and food. The staff was great. Their bar is very limited with domestic brands and the wine was fair. Things like Canadian Club, Baileys, Grand Marnier, Scotch, etc. you had to pay for as well as they sold better bottled wine on the resort. I didn't find the Atlantic side to be so inviting and we were on the tail end of a Hurricane so there was a lot of debris on the beach. There are massages on the beach for $20 US so that was awesome.

Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: beautiful resort

The room We had was lovely. I was with 4 other people (2 suites). Unfortunately the maid service could not understand that 3 beds meant 3 people and every day we had to request 3 towels ,3 cups, 3 glasses, extra tea, coffee, WATER etc.. We had to ASK for our umbrellas (only received 1 per room for 3 ladies), Robes, Rum, never received our slippers, All part of our upgrade... Two pools: 1 is a quiet pool no music, no laughing loudly, you have to be very very quiet. So we had to leave the pool th [... read more]at was below our balcony and walk 15 minutes to the other pool to just TALK. There was not a decent type of (rye) whiskey except at (the only inside bar) lobby bar. If you wanted Canadian Club that was an UPCHARGE. I have been to D.R. many times this was the worst for accommodating an upgraded package. The resort CLOSES at 11:00 pm Lights out in Lobby. The only Bar closed AT 11:00pm. NO TRANSPORTATION back to your room from the bar. Sorry to be negative but I don't work all year to go on vacation to have to turn in at 11:00pm. We were informed that there was entertainment (and with the rainy weather we couldn't figure out where it was. The Theater was in the total opposite direction of the outside stage (disco area) the front desk didn't know where the entertainment would be either. We had a good time because a vacation is what you make of it, come rain or shine..

Bahia Principe Escape Samana: Fantastic

This resort is a perfect place to go to relax. We enjoyed the beach area, the pool area & pool bar every day. The staff was helpful and great customer service. The food was the best I have had at any resort. Amazing choices at the buffet - the A-la Cart restaurants were ok - but we actually preferred the buffet or room service. We have no complaints - this resort is one of the best we have ever been too.

Cayo Levantado Resort: 5-star resort, 5-star staff

We had an amazing time at this beautiful resort, even with some rain a number of days. I have never been to a resort that has umbrellas in every room. Nice touch. We were part of a group of 28 Canadian friends (50+) celebrating some anniversaries, and we had lots of laughs. When it rained, we just jumped into the pool so we wouldn't get wet. The restaurants, including the buffet were very good. Don't skip seafood night at the buffet. The wine and other drinks were . . . you know. And the staff [... read more] was amazing, all of them.My wife was in a wheelchair due to a recent injury. They took care of her everywhere. Sadly she couldn't go shopping!!! We will be back.

Cayo Levantado Resort: Save yourself $. Go Anywhere but here!

Trip to Grand Bahia Principe Cayo Leventado in Dominican Republic Via AirTransat Vacation First let me say that I am 38 years old and consider myself a seasoned and veteran traveller. I have gone on at least one vacation a year since I was 19 years old, and I have been all over the world, from Costa Rica, to Spain, to Indonesia. I have done it all from cruises, to all inclusive, to condo rentals. I will say this… It is the first time I have never written a review on anywhere that I have e [... read more]ver been, and I’ve never been compelled to share my experiences as much as I am now after my trip to the Grand Bahia Principe Cayo Leventado in the Dominican Republic via AirTransat Vacations. I guess Looking back on most of my experiences you could say I’ve been really lucky to have gone this far without having issues like I had during my week at the Cayo Leventado. Cayo Leventado was rated a 5-star all-inclusive resort that was located on one of the most breathtakingly beautiful landscapes I’ve ever visited. Its very own private island! The price of the one week stay was $1735.00 CAN, which seems pretty high when I hear about people travelling to the Dominican for as little as $600….But this is a FIVE-STAR so it must be worth the extra $1000.00?.... Well I didn’t think so, based on my experiences. Many of the experiences I had were incredible including our dinner at the don Pablo restaurant, our Jacuzzi night, and breakfast in bed on our last day, and the wonderful server who made sure my girlfriend, had nothing to do but sip on her coffee, and reach for her grapes, and yogurt. They hit the mark on a few things, but missed it by a mile on some really important stuff. Probably only a couple of the bad things that I had to endure, would have ruined some peoples weeks completely. Because I am so easy going, I still managed to really enjoy myself, but I will never pay the money to go back to Cayo Leventado, and here is why. When we first got there my intentions were to talk to the front desk to upgrade our room to the junior deluxe room, since our travel agent was unable to upgrade us she suggested we try when we got there. I was told there were know deluxe rooms, or beach villas available, but my room had been upgraded free of charge to the junior suite superior. Well immediately I told her that I did not want the superior room, because I had checked out all the rooms online and felt that the junior suite was nicer. I was assured that this was a better room because people pay more for this room….Sorry, but that doesn’t make it nicer. Any who…we went with our butler up to the room and it was nice enough, but not what I was looking for, the view was ok. It looked over the garden and there was a small window through the trees where you could see the ocean. We decided it wasn’t what we were expecting but we would make the most of it. It gets much worse. The Butler explained a few things, I tipped him $3.00 US, and that was the last time I ever saw him again. After unpacking and getting settled in, I started wondering when our air conditioning was going to start cooling the room down, so I decided to go have a shower since I was tired and sweaty from travelling all day, and unpacking all my stuff in a hot stuffy room. When I went to open the shower, I was excited since it had a big huge shower head that is a luxury I don’t have at home. I was instantly disappointed when I went to go turn my shower on, and the water started spraying out of the shower head in about 50 different directions, none of them towards my head or body. Luckily there was a detachable sprayer, and I was able to bathe myself. After drying myself, I called down the front desk to ask them if they could send a maintenance person up to the room since my shower, and my air conditioning was not working. Someone came fairly quickly. The language barrier was great, and communication was non-existent, but he felt the air coming out of vent with his hand, and said it was ok. I work as a refrigeration mechanic and told him that “no, it is not working!” It was 35 degrees in my room and the system has been running for at least 3 hours now. Air was blowing out of the vents, but it wasn’t cold air. He took my shower head and returned half hour later and the shower worked great. My AC was still not fixed. I called back down to the front desk to ask if there was someone else that they could send to fix my AC knowing that I would not be able to sleep if we couldn’t get that AC fixed tonight. They said they would send somebody else. I asked them if they could also bring a couple more beers, since I had already long finished the two beers that were in my room fridge when we got there, and also asked if they could send a bottle of wine for my girlfriend. I was told that my bar fridge had already been stocked for the day so if I wanted more beer they would be $3.00 US per can, and would be $24.00 for the bottle of wine. Well... I was appalled! This was supposed to be an all-inclusive, and I wasn’t about to pay 3 bucks for a 50 cent can of Presidente beer, which by the way, is your only beer option on this island, and I certainly wasn’t going to pay 24 bucks for a 5 dollar bottle of wine. I expressed my dislike for this rule with the person on the phone and said surely with all the troubles we’ve had now with no air conditioning in the room this could maybe be the least that they could do for us, so I was told they would have to get a hold of a manager to find out if this could be possible. They called me back a few moments later and said that they would bring up a complimentary bottle of wine and a couple beers. Thank You! Or not… When my beer arrived it was warmer then my room. I asked the man who delivered it if he ever drinks warm beer…He said “Of course not sir!” I asked him why on earth he would bring me two warm beers. He agreed that it was ridiculous. I called back down to the office this time quite perturbed about the level of service I was receiving at this 5-star resort and reminded them that I paid and extra $2000.00 to get a 5-star experience and that this really wasn’t cutting it. I asked that I be moved. I told them I would be more than happy to pay for an upgrade to the junior deluxe, or a beach villa, or would be happy just to go back to the junior suite, that I had originally booked. I was told there was no other rooms avail. Except one junior suite but the view was terrible. I asked if the AC worked, they said yes, I said I’ll take it! I was then told to wait they would see if they had any other availability, so me and my girlfriend decided to try and get some sleep. We both struggled to sleep due to the temperature of the room, but about an hour later just as my eyes were ready to finally close. We were awoken to a knock at the door. I quickly got changed, and it was a staff member telling me he had a room to show me. It was in the same building just upstairs, and he would like to show it to me. I asked him if the AC worked and he replied “yes”. Well we got up to the room it was an identical room just one floor up. I immediately asked if we could go to the thermostat to make sure the AC worked. The employee turned the AC on and turned the temperature down low and the AC would not even kick on. It wouldn’t even blow hot air around the room like my current room. After trying a few things the staff member got frustrated with the fact that he could not get it running so he started punching the wall. I just walked away and went back to bed. The next day after an awful night of tossing and turning and sweating, we went straight to front desk and asked that somebody please fix our AC, or please move us to a room that has working AC. I was assured that this would be done. My and my girlfriend spent the entire day enjoying the beautiful beach and pools. By about 5:00 we were anxious to find out whether they managed to fix the AC in our room, at this point we were kind of hoping we wouldn’t have to move all of our stuff again. When we got back to the room I was very disappointed that my room had only cooled down to about 30 degrees C. Still very hot! I called front desk and talked to somebody different. This time Anna and she at least seemed like she wanted to help. I went down to talk to her, and she told me that the maintenance staff had been saying that the AC is fine, and that it was my fault, because I was leaving the door open. I explained to her that the door had been closed all day with the air running and still made no difference. I also informed her that I was a refrigeration mechanic, and was quite capable of determining that we were not getting proper cooling in my room. She gave me a couple of options. One room was a superior like the one we were in, and the other a junior sweet like the one that I had booked originally. She asked me to go take a look at both with a guy named Augustin who was great, although I ended up getting the island tour because they also had 4 other fares for Augustin to tend to, and he left his keys in one of the other villas. After looking at both rooms, I decided to take the junior suite. Because I like the layout of the room much better, and it was in the main building, so was closer to the bars, buffet, and any of the action. We were running extremely late for our reservations at the Mediterranean restaurant so we quickly packed our stuff, and Augustin waited patiently to move it for us into our new room. As he stood there he admittedly said it was really hot in the room, and that our AC was not working. Thanks Augustin! Our dinner was mediocre at best. The restaurant was extremely loud with some rowdy guest, and I really didn’t like the au gratin sauce they ruined my lobster with. While chocolate mousse, was more like marshmallow with some berry jam drizzled over it. After returning to our new room we were very happy to find out that the air conditioning was working, and a bubble bath had been set up with candles, and rose pedals for my girlfriend, upon my request to Anna, when I was settling up the changes it was delightful, and relaxing. The view was a disgraceful, we over looked the laundry room and employee area, and had zero view of a garden or the ocean so that was disappointing, but at least the room was nice and cool. We were there with a group of 28 people so I was able to see the spectacular views that some of our friends, had that actually paid less money to go there then we did, so that was a major disappointment. The next day we had dinner at Don Pablo’s. It was an amazing dining experience. My only complaint is that our waiter took everyone else’s order, and forgot about me and left the table. He later apologised, and no big deal right, just one more story to add to the trip. At this point in the trip some of the housekeeping habits were starting to arise, and we started to question why garbage, and dirty dishes weren’t being collected, we started a collection of wet towels under the bathroom sink. After about day four the towels were finally picked up off the floor from under the sink and folded, and placed folded beside our Jacuzzi. Thank you! Never know when I might need a wet towel from two days ago. Service around the pool and beach was slow, but I expected that. Once I asked the same server for a shot of tequila 3 times before it finally came on his tray. I was tipping these guys every time. And it seemed much more then then the people around me who still seemed to be getting better service then me. I called butler service one night to have a couple pillows from their pillow menu, and a scent from the scent menu delivered to the room, and the person on the phone gave me a bad attitude. I got “Sigh ….fine!...What time?” I said 10:00 they said “Fine….” I asked if this was ok I got more attitudes and told that he would be there. I said thank you and left a $5.00 tip on the bed. Came back and my pillows were tied tight in a bag at the end of my bed. We had booked a snorkelling excursion on a catamaran for the Friday but we were unsure about the weather. The rain had been relentless, and the Dominican had received historically high amounts of flooding during the week were there. I’m not blaming anyone for that. Nor did I even mind so much. But conditions were unfavourable for snorkelling as we could barely see 5 feet in front us because of all the bad weather. In most places I’ve been to they would have cancelled the trip but not in the Dominican. We went regardless, and cancelling, and getting money back was not optional. Snorkelling was awful. The catamaran ride was nice, and so was lunch, but I paid to go snorkelling not for the pleasure cruise. The tour guides were unhelpful not once did anyone give us any direction of what may have been a good spot to snorkel in or give us any information on the area, or even give us some safety reminders. The one girl who spoke English from the beach hut where we paid for the excursion was on the boat, and all she did was flirt with the other male staff. Not one word was spoken to any of the guest on that boat, unless it was to order a rum and coke. Our last night we had dinner at the Portofino restaurant and by chance two of our friends from our group also had reservations at the same time. We asked the girl seating us if we could put our two tables together to share dinner together, and she responded but shaking her head at us and saying “aye aye aye!’ I couldn’t believe it so we put our table together on our own…They hated that, and made it very clear. We learned at the table that our friends had also been having some pretty terrible experiences with the staff and the hotel also. In fact they had decided to forfeit their second week. They paid the extra money to get on a flight a week early and go home. I’m not sure exactly what all their issues were but I know there room was a major factor. At the end of dinner, a young waiter by the name of Pedro came to our table to ask if we wanted desert. We had already discussed that some of were interested in two desert, and since we were in an all-inclusive what the hay?! Well Pedro ask my girlfriend first what she would like and when she told him she also wanted a second dessert Pedro looked at her and shook his head and said “Really?... You’re going to eat to desserts! ... Aye Aye Aye!” Well I don’t know if he thought he was being funny but I can tell you nobody at the table thought it was funny especially Amy. She was mortified and so was I. The nightly entertainment wasn’t all that great except for the night of the beach party, and the night they did the Michael Jackson nigh. Otherwise it was just their local band that played I think in the lobby about three night. The one night I think was the Tuesday they bored everybody to death with BINGO. If you filled an entire card, you won an airplane sized bottle of wine. YIPPEE! (Sarcasm) One more small complaint about the hotel, it seems old and run down. Lots of things don’t work. Even in our new room the toilet didn’t flush properly. Every time you flush the toilet you had to take the top off and put the flapper down, or it would just keep running none stop. The water in the toilet, and out of the taps, and showers, was brown. There were various leaks in the ceiling of the lobby, and sections of it were caution taped off due to water on the floors. Water was a big concern all week because of the amount of rain we got. The outdoor dining rooms were sitting in two inches of water and staff had a hard time getting rid of the water. What can you do? That‘s nobody’s fault. When we arrived and the Samana Airport to go home we found ourselves at the very end, of a very large line. We found out from someone else in our group that did some investigating, that the airports computers were down and they were writing out boarding passes by hand. It took us 3 hours just to get our boarding passes, and almost missed our flights. People that paid extra to part of Air Transat’s preferred customer program, were not give their rights to be able to by-pass the long line up. If I had only paid to go to a 3-Star hotel, I would say that Cayo Leventado was great. How this place ever got a 5-Star rating will always be a mystery to me. I have been to 4-Star resorts that put this place to shame. Save yourself $2000.00 and go somewhere other than here. Sincerely

Cayo Levantado Resort: Would definitely go back!

The resort was beautiful. The grounds were immaculate.The staff was outstanding. We were so impressed with how much fun they were, their positive attitude and their work ethic. I had to travel in a wheelchair because of an injury and they made sure that I was given assistance and transportation so that I could do everything the rest of the guests were doing. The food was very good. Our favourite was the Don Pablo restaurant. The service, presentation and menu made dining there a special event. W [... read more]e had some leaks in the ceiling of our room so that is one area that needed improvement.

Cayo Levantado Resort: Wonderful Vacation

There is no doubt that this is a luxury resort!! From the moment you step off the boat you are served with a smile and receive extra attention!! The food here is fabulous, unlike other Dominican resorts, everything at every restaurant is great. Don Pablo was absolutely delicious, the service was exceptional, the ambience was luxurious!! The Animation team that do all the activities are wonderful, full of energy and again, lots of smiles, eager to make your vacation fun. Loved loved this [... read more] resort and the people!!

Cayo Levantado Resort: Wonderful time for all our group

This Hotel is a small piece of Paradise. Our time there was wonderful. When we visited it was the "Rainy Season" and so that meant that some evenings the outdoor entertainment came inside. The down side of this was the volume was still the same as outside and way to loud for us to enjoy. Other than that all was good. The staff are an amazing group of young men and women who are always there for you.

The Eurostars Grand Cayacoa: Definitely a 5 star

Grand Bahia is definitely a 5 star. Hotel is spotless staff are friendly and inviting always a smile on their faces. Entertainers are engaging and work very hard to get you involved. Food in all the restaurants are excellent. The buffet is by far one of the best we have been to. Pools are clean and beach also just the water is not. Lots of debris which they try and clean but can't keep up. View is spectacular. Not sure if we would go back in Nov again cause it rained all week. But any other time [... read more] definitely..