Grand Palladium Punta Cana: Grand Palladium Punta Cana

This was our fifth stay at The Palladium in Dominican Republic. As returning customers, we've usually enjoyed room upgrades, but not so this time. Managers promised to meet with us but never delivered on that promise, opting to let desk clerks handle our concerns. Our closest pool was out of service for half of the week. Plumbing and electricity was interrupted for more than a day. We're used to being approached to purchase various services, but this year the frequency was significantly higher.  [... read more]People selling spa services were particularly annoying. The on site transportation service was heavily weighted toward people willing to listen to Palladium Travel Club pitches (which we did a few years ago, but we're not interested). My wife did finally make contact with a Manager while we were waiting for our taxi to the airport, and was assured that we would see better service on our next visit (should we choose this resort again). We've usually enjoyed our Palladium vacations, but this year was a step backward.

Dreams Royal Beach Punta Cana: Quality resort

Grounds well-maintained. Nice pool & beach areas. Good sized rooms with A/C and large balcony. Entertainment team provided many activities for those who were interested. Buffet food was good but not a huge variety and just warm rather than hot. However you did not need reservations for 4 of the 5 the a la carte restaurants nor was there a limit on number of visits ... just subject to availability.

Riu Palace Punta Cana: not that great

It was ok smelly rooms no towels half the time no water bottles in room had to ask them everyday. Carpets dirty people were very friendly all of them can,t say nothing about them food was terrable no taste about fifty of us got sick from the fish we talked to someone on the resort told us that they go fishing leave the fish in the boat not on ice in the sun all day that is why people get sick.

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: Great beach

The beach and resort were nice. The food could of been better. My son got sick one night because of the food. I had a little stomach problems the last day. I liked how the resort was all by itself which made walking on the beach nice and peacefully

Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: Great time!

The hotel, location, etc. were all fantastic. There is a long walk (or shorter trolley ride) to the beach. Some of the walkways were under construction and caused some inconvenience. Pool bartenders (Jose Manuel and Blandino) were superb!

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: Not a 4 or 5 star hotel (medium)

Hotel itself needs major updating. ex: condition of the bathroom was disgusting. Bathroom door at the bottom was falling apart. Mold, rust, broken equipment, we had no toilet paper roll dispenser. Bedroom patio door curtains were not sliding easily (needed new hanings). Patio chairs need replacement. Grouting needed to be done all over. But the maid we had always kept the room & bathroom very clean, fresh towels daily, toilet rolls daily and mini fridge was always filled. So maid service was exc [... read more]ellent. General areas were good, clean. But again Lobby could use updating and waterslide area needs updating. Grounds kept very nice and clean. Beach and pool area very clean. Bar and restaurant staff and service very good (especially morning Server "Ana" at the Buffet restaurant was excellent). Most employees were pleasant and helpful. Checking in we had a Concierge named Luis, he was very nice, helpful (a little bit over the board at times) but we did not appreciate him indirectly asking for tip for his services. Also we had asked for a room on top level floor with ocean view. We did not get anything close to that.

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Exceeded our expectations !!

A large group (14+) of us traveled to Punta Cana Feb 6th to 13th and totally enjoyed the Be Live Resort. Grounds were great, food excellent, service very good, staff friendly, enjoyed the VIP options.

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: Overall Good Vacation

First the positive - Beautiful well kept grounds. Entertainment team was incredible. Food at the buffet was good. Negative - rooms badly need renovating. Bathroom not great. Chairs on balcony a disaster!!!

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Punta Cana

Our agent set is up just perfectly.Our stay was amazing.Great food and entertainment. The beautiful atmosphere will definatly be remembered.we will always keep this resort in mind when speaking with others about vacations. Thank you Laura Spry

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Amazing resort!

The resort was beautiful, rooms had lots of storage and where clean and comfortable. Enjoyed all the buffets and the a la carte restaurants where excellent,(we where reserving for 14 people and never had any problems getting reservations) All the staff where friendly and helpful especially our favourites, Mr Minime, Lucia, Chocolate, and Hector at the pool bar..I would highly recommend this resort for a fun filled holiday..WE LOVED IT!

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Pleasantly Surprised

My Tripadvisor review of Be Live Punta Cana: I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with this resort due to the many negative reviews I read prior to visiting. I was actually a little afraid at what I would find. I decided to go with a good outlook and see what happened. The following is an honest review, I have been to many all-inclusives in the Caribbean. We traveled here with another couple. Check-In : we arrived at the Be Live resort at approximately 12 noon and we were given bracelet [... read more]s and asked to go have lunch and then come back and we would be assigned our rooms. We went to lunch and then back to the check in at 1300 hrs. We were immediately given our rooms, no hassle, no fuss. The lovely people at check in were very polite and fast. In the brochure it states you don't get to check in until 3 pm so we were very happy to get ours early. Rooms: we were assigned to building 16 and our friends to building 15, these are apparently the newest buildings in the resort and we loved our rooms. We were in Jr Suites. The shower was huge and the room updated and clean. We had a problem with our AC on the forth night but they were there within 5 minutes of our reporting this and fixed it asap. I read in some other reviews that there were no face clothes and not enough toilet paper. We did not find this to be a problem at all. The room came equipped with a speaker dock for your phone so you could play your own music. This may be a mistake on the resorts side as I think many people took this as a challenge to see who could play theirs the loudest. I found it a bit noisy due to this and people slamming their doors at all hours of the night. Pools: the 4 quiet pools down by our building were nice and clean and there was a pool bar there as well. I really enjoyed these pools. The big main party pool was a bit cloudy but I think having foam parties there causes this. The bottom of the pool needs repainted as well. I did go in for the foam party which was fun. Beach: the beach was lovely and it was clean. They work very hard at keeping the seaweed cleaned up as well as the straws, cups and cig buts from resort goers. The beach is in a bit of a cove area so the water sometimes has seaweed in it as it can collect there making the water a bit murky. This really wasn't a big deal for us but you won't find it to be crystal clear as in other areas. We still very much enjoyed the ocean. Entertainment crew: the guys and girls on the beach and by the pool were excellent! They worked so hard to try and get everyone involved in the various activities they provided and they made it fun. We did not take in the evening shows so I can't comment on these. Food: out of the 4 of us, no one got sick. We did do the oral vaccine called Dukoral prior to our vacation and I would recommend it for anyone going to the Caribbean on vacation. I found the buffet to be ok. I found something to eat each time but I wasn't overly impressed with the taste and temperature of things. I found the food to be very bland. That being said, our travel companions enjoyed the food a lot more than my husband and I. We went to the Mexican and the Brazilian a la carte, they were ok. Only 4 of the seven a la cartes we actually open during our stay. Yes there are a lot of time share people there but they are polite and they take no for an answer. There are also people selling excursions and merchandise on the beach. Again, they are polite and will be ok with a polite "no thanks". Renaldo at the Dive Shop got us a great deal on a snorkelling excursion. He is a very nice and funny guy. I highly recommend him. All in all I would rate this resort as a 3.5, it would be higher if the food was more exciting and less bland. The Dominican people at this resort were lovely and helpful and polite. They work so hard and long for little wages. If you can, please tip them for their great service, I was surprised at how many people, especially the Europeans did not.

Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: Beautiful Resort

I thought the resort was excellent. Very well maintained and clean. Rooms, pools, restaurants, washrooms very well kept Enjoyed the evening entertainment each night. Many activities to keep you busy... A little disappointed in the house wine. Trip Central did an outstanding job.

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: soso

The rooms need face lifts and repairs, the pool was in poor condition. Many of the tiles were broken or damaged, algae was found on the walls and most corners. The grounds were well maintained and the a la cart restaurants were quite nice. The buffet was boring, pretty much the same everyday. Sadly, our fault, but we were expecting the white Punta Cana sand that we had on many other trips. This resort is on the Atlantic side so the sand was tan. Nice beach to walk though.

Occidental Caribe: Great trip to Barcelo Punta Cana

The hotel/resort is huge but still has that cosy feeling in that the swimming pool areas are divided up into quite/kids area and an open area with a pool side buffet and bar. There are ample lounge chairs at the beach and pool areas. The room we had was very nice the couple of snags were fixed with in hours or our request. The maid service was very good and our room was kept in good order. night time entertainment in the theater was equal to anything from Las Vegas. No problem signing in or out  [... read more]and our Sunquest rep was quite helpful. The wait and Bar staff were well nice and made an effort to keep our inquires satisfied. The food was good at the main buffet with a large variety and the restaurants at night were excellent.. The only thing folks from here should note that if you use Hotmail for your internet it will not work in Dominican Republic. The WIFI is rather expensive there at a cost of 10$ a day or 49$ a week. You can buy it by the 1/2 hour for 5$. If you want to leave the compound to go to closest town cabs will cost about 15 to 25$. It is VERY pricey on the compound for suntan lotion or after-sun stuff. A bag of chips 300 grams is $7. Stuff in the local area are 30-40% cheaper in the towns. All prices are in US dollars. Dollars can be used anywhere even Canadian dollars. The clerks will change the price listed in Pesos over to US or Canadian dollars. Most off compound places are close to bank rates. The reception desk also will change currency. They have a rate chart up for several types of money. Have a bunch of one dollar bills (US $) for tipping. Leave a dollar a day for maids and then 5 or 10 $ on last day. Tip waitress or bartenders a buck or so every 5 times they serve you. Also the helpers in the dining rooms. Our Rep told us all tips go into a pot and all the workers share. There are many activities you can do so if you want you can keep busy. Overall we enjoyed our trip to Barcelo Punta Canada

Excellence Punta Cana: Perfect Resort

It has been our third year at The Excellence so I don't think I need to say anymore. Would I go back, absolutely. The service, food and atmosphere are very relaxing. It is a great place to get away and everyone is very friendly.

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Above Expectations

This resort was recommended to us by our travel agent. My boyfriend and I are 24 and 26. Upon arrival at the resort we were dropped off at Ambar 3 for check in. The staff sat us down and started explaining about the envelopes we would receive. It was very difficult to hear the staff instructions in that lobby but the envelopes were self explanatory. We were given a welcome drink (Coco Mango) which I loved. Once they had our signatures and information we waited to be loaded into shuttles to deliv [... read more]er us to our rooms. This took over half an hour as they did not have enough shuttles for all of us. It was really too lengthy of a process, we just wanted to get to our room and go eat. We were very overwhelmed about the size of this resort when we first arrived but after the first day we realized that it was not bad at all. We were in villa 84 in Ambar 2 and it was beautiful. We were right in front of the jaccuzi area and first Ambar pool. The pool area was beautiful and well maintained. We loved the pool side sushi bar! Our view was not great (we faced out onto a construction area) but after a few days we came to enjoy how quiet that location was at night. When we first arrived in our room they had balloons and flowers everywhere. We were disappointed by the half empty or completely empty shampoos and bath gels in the bathroom and by the opened beverages in our fridge. We called housekeeping to fix these issues but instead of replacing everything they ended up taking away our bath wash and not replacing them for a few days and only leaving us with shampoo and lotion. The room was beautiful, everything was spotless and the looked brand new. The tub was a bit worn looking but it was still usable. We would advise people to pre-book your A La Carte's before they arrive. Luckily we were able to get a few 9:15 reservations but that was all that was available. The only three restaurants we could get into were Don Pablo, Bella Italia and Maiko. Don Pablo was fabulous but you get extremely small portions of food. My salad was three pieces of lettuce, four tomatoes, two pebble sized dollops of cheese and one dollop of dressing. The food was delicious though and the atmosphere was lovely. Bella Italia (located at Esmerelda) was a joke. It took us forever to find the place because the signage at Esmerelda is really confusing. The appetizers (buffet style) were cold and mostly fried foods. We both ordered the lobster and salmon pizza. When it came it was drowning in oil and was basically inedible. The lobster was actually shrimp which was also disappointing. We left this restaurant extremely disappointed. Maiko (at the Punta Cana) was nice. The Tapenyaki show was alright but short. The chef didn't really do any tricks while he was making our food. I liked that you got to try all the proteins he cooked (normally you get one protein). Dessert was disappointing as they didn't have the one thing on the menu everyone wanted. Fried ice cream. They gave no explanation for why they weren't serving it and just kept saying no when we asked. The buffets at Ambar were delicious. A lot of variety and different themes every night. I most enjoyed the lobster on the grill and the pasta station. Breakfast was the same, a lot of variety in the food. We loved how long the buffets were open for during the day. They had long hours so we never missed a meal. They were very on top of refilling the food and replacing when empty. The staff coming by the tables were pretty good, sometimes they forgot to get you a drink but if you asked again you would get an apology and they would bring it to you. The beach was beautiful. We didn't spend a ton of time there because we loved our pool but we enjoyed a few afternoons there. There are always loungers available but not in the shade. If you want shade, get up early. If you don't care then you will be fine. Maintenance was always grooming the beach and so it was well taken care of. No seaweed anywhere. We walked down to the next resort (The Majestic) and their beach was disgusting. Covered in weed. Maintenance was crazy at this resort. Staff were always cleaning and fixing things. When you told them about something not fixing they fixed it immediately. They wash down lounge chairs daily at night and the pool side as well. They also hose the paths down to keep them clean. The grounds were beautiful and nothing was out of place. It seems like cleanliness is a big priority at Ambar. The staff were friendly but the language barrier is difficult at times. We googled basic words so we could communicate with those staff who don't know any English. I would recommend learning some Spanish basics before visiting Dominican! There are shuttles running up and down the resort so you don't have to walk everywhere. They run from 6am to 3am which is amazing and they come every 2 minutes or so. The shop keepers on Ambar are not pushy which we liked. We went to the Punta Cana and got hassled by the vendors. The only plus of the outside vendors is you can haggle with them for better prices. The spa was amazing but expensive. Best massage I have ever had. Very clean premises and friendly staff. The gym was run down a bit. Some machines were broken and its in the basement so its not very appealing. On Valentines day the resort went all out. There were balloons and streamers and signs everywhere. They had a lot of activities to take part in and special cocktails were served. The bars on Ambar are really good and the liquors you get are definitely worth the extra money you pay for Ambar. The butler service is slightly confusing. We apparently were supposed to meet ours but never did. We didn't even really understand their purpose but it didn't take away from our trip in any way. Pillow service was cool and so was the aromatherapy sprays they offered. We had a photoshoot on the resort with Henry the photographer. It was free and you could buy however many photos you wanted at the end (on a CD). The session was 45 minutes long and we took photos in the gardens and on the beach. They were high quality and high resolution. Definitely would recommend for couples going here! Overall we were really impressed by Ambar and would return in the future. We would recommend this resort to others. Some people said it was too big but we enjoyed all the options available on the property.

Royalton Splash Punta Cana: All around more than you can imagine!

Hotel- I dont even remember what star it was but it was like a 5. From amazing room service- hate to say it but very picky- everything was cleaned prompt and everything new was provided daily. Staff- Everyone was so attentive and polite, guests and staff included. answered all questions and will personally introduce and tell you whats going on around the hotel and how the things are that youve tried Restaurants- Mexican, Italian, Bellini Bar and Seafood 2 minutes outside of our room! I loved sea [... read more]food and he loved mexican! Pool- Morning, Afternoon, and Evening- right outside our room so it was too easy to take a quick dip and change your towel asap for a dry one- and they didnt mind! Beach- Hardlyyyy seaweed at all if any where we swam. Amazing waters and not crowded Things to do- excursions- Bavar Splash- 99 Each bought on the airplane.. Snorkeling, Speed boating( you drive your own too- unreal!) and Ocean Dive (also just so worth it) Also the Royalton hotel was a 5 minute walk and we were able to drink and enjoy their entertainment as well! They had more lively night entertainment- on resort was more music and good to enjoy Waterpark- Yes this deserves its own category. My boyfriend and I were here DAILY better than the few weve been too in ontario...

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Exceeded expectations

Contrary to the many negative reviews that I read, myself and the 13 people in my group had an excellent time. We all agreed that though not "perfect" we all had no negative complaints. The staff were friendly, grounds beautiful, entertainment fun and the rooms were fine. I recommend the Side by Side catamaran and dune buggy excursion as highly enjoyable and well worth the money.

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: AWESOME RESORT

WE were a group of 22.....LOVED every minute. Entertainment Staff made the trip---BJUJI, MINI ME, EVELYN, LUCIA , MISTER CHOCOLATE , SPAGETTI .... :) Sunwing reps excellent , swim out in block 17....the best !!! Ocean & pools.....amazing Staff in restaurants went over and above ...lots of food options . GREAT STAY... thanks again

Catalonia Bavaro Resort: Simply Beautiful

As a whole the resort was great!! Excellent amenities , great food with an unbelievable selection. Rooms where nice bars and service was impeccable. The on site golf course was amazing. The only flaw is how pushy they are with trying to sell the time share next store and the people they let on the property to sell their crafts. THEY DONT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER!!! but that's trivial considering the paradise you are truly in. Love it!!