Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: Samana is my favorite!

I don't like lazy Cuban service and arrogant Jamaican customs, so out of all mid-priced Islands DR is my 1st choice. Punta Cana is really overcrowded, from the airport to the beach. Samana, on the other hand is less high-fed with tourists, more peaceful. We've been to Bacardi Island before we had kids (Adults Only GBP Cayo Levantado), and it was our one and only worth-to-come-back place. Now El Portillo made its way to our favorite spots list. Canadians fly in to Samana directly, so the bus r [... read more]ide for us is fairly short and really entertaining - those views worth the bus ride. Check-in could have been faster, as there was only one guy distributing the keys and bracelets to our crowd, and when I asked why no one is helping him, he answered - I like to work alone. Really? Tell this to people standing in the line. Folks at the reception were all nice and helpful. Jr Superior Suite was fine, GBP's standard, all functioned well. The guy with a crib showed up 5 minutes after we came in the room which deserves a high-five, even though my toddler doesn't like sleeping alone, and we had to waive. Unfortunately, we've been given 2 double beds instead of a king as per my request, but I didn't want to waste time trying to change the room. Maid's service was good, yet she has taken off the pillow covers from the couch and never brought them back. Puzzle here. They have put us in villa 27 on the edge of the resort which is close to road, so we could hear all the motorcycles at night and workers chatter from the service buildings nearby. Despite of my preliminary request for QUIET location. And it was a long walk in the heat with a toddler who has to nap after lunch, so we had to ask for a ride which was never a problem to the drivers - always with a smile. Main buffet was good, selection was fine. Usual menu, nice fruits variety, grilled/stewed/sautéed food. One thing I don't understand though, why the hell they put out the bananas peeled? Out of sanitary reasons leave them unpeeled maybe? This way I'll have one not visited by the flies, and my child might enjoy it later as a snack, and we'll put the peel in the garbage, I promise. Their cheese and fresh bread - AWESOME! Bakers and chefs deserve a huge THANK YOU and big tips, if only we could meet them. Beach restaurant offers less variety, but there's very good nachos/quesadillas option, fresh fish, and THE VIEW. We went there for the last night of our stay for Brazilian dinner, and it was so very good - the service, the wine, the whole meal was fantastic. Kids splash park is nice, quite, and secure - the guard does watch the place closely. Main pool was good, yet it gets slippery around, even though workers do their best to keep it clean at all times. Quite pool was relaxing, too bad some guests there acted like they own the pool or we disturb them personally - it's not an adults only pool guys, read the signs. There's a Jacuzzi for adults only, and there I have seen kids, which is not cool, for sure. Finally, the reason we will come back - the BEACH! Protected by the reef it is indeed calm and shallow, pleasant to just float or play with kids. Plenty of fish to watch even if you don't snorkel. Snorkeling was just perfect - we have even spotted an octopus and a barracuda. Perfect beach walks in both directions, no other hotels there, which is wonderful. Vendors at the beach are a bit annoying at times, even though they are polite and "no, gracias" was usually enough, one guy did frazzle me out. Won't say anything about the kids club as we like to spend our time with both our kids. Animation team is hardworking and devoted. They work their butts out at the beach and by the pool. Their most loud guy talks non stop, no wonder by the time it's mini disco time he is exhausted. Then he participates in the night show, which is another puzzle for me - how on Earth he does that everyday. Won't say much about night shows, I've only watched the beginning of MJ show (kids bed time), and it was decent. A word for the management - don't waste your money on imported salmon. Majority of your guests eat it back home, fresh and much better cooked. Including the smoked salmon. Stick to local fresh fish, that's what we come for, really. Overall it was a great stay! Thank you very much!

Dreams Royal Beach Punta Cana: Excellent Staff - Small and Quaint Resort

Our family has been to Punta Cana on several occasions and this is our first time at the Now Larimar. The resort is small and quaint which worked out well as we have a 12 year old son who was able to venture out on his own a bit. The staff are excellent and very friendly. The rooms and amenities are well kept and always clean. The food needs some work however, the buffet in particular is not stellar. They are aware of the situation as at check out they asked me to rate my stay and when I sa [... read more]id you are a five for everything except the food they immediately acknowledged that fact. This was a nice get away.

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Great trip!

Not a truly 5 star but still very nice. Room was huge and clean. Having access to all resorts was nice. Entertainment was fun (definitely not broadway but that's to be expected). Beach service was great. Bianca was incredible, always made us feel special on the beach when taking care of our drink orders. Lots of pools. Weather was great. Buffet was good but not amazing. Some of the a la cartes were incredible. Some were so so. Very good value for the money. Staff are very laid back and didn't go [... read more] out of their way to make you feel special. I was fine with it but I could see some people interpreting their laid back attitude as rude. For example, at the gourmet don Pablo restaurant, our server literally walked up to our table and said "what do you want." That's it. I'd go back.

TRS Cap Cana Hotel: Great resort!

Really enjoyed my stay at Alsol tiara cap cana! The customer service at this resort is great and having access to the alsol luxury hotel is a great plus. I found that the size of the resort was just perfect if you want to have a nice relaxing vacation. Pools were great but the beach isn't. But with a 5 min shuttle, you get to be on one of the nicest beaches juanillo beach. They also have plenty of excursions to do, so you definitely won't get bored ;)

Grand Palladium Palace: Awesome Resort

We had an amazing time at the resort. Our first trip to the Dominican Republic. I would definitely recommend this resort to others. The staff was great. The rooms were nice and very clean. The food was so good too

Majestic Mirage Punta Cana All Suite Resort: Our May 2017 get-away

We recently spent a week at the Majestic Mirage resort. There were a lot of excellent things about this resort but also some problems. Here is what we found. The Check in. This took way too long. We spent the first 45 minutes to an hour of our holiday waiting for something to happen. There were only 3 couples there, coming in at different times so there was not a rush of people they had to help. This should have been done in 15 minutes at the most. Another couple that was before us fi [... read more]nally asked what was happening. This lead us to our Butler, Nelson. He helped us with??? We were told he no longer booked reservations or does this or does that. I can’t see one thing that he helped us with. Our Room. We had a swim out and the first thing out of our mouths when we saw it was WOW. Beautiful room or should we say 2 rooms. Great bed, couch, outside furniture. The lady that looked after our room (Ru?) did a great job every day. We would recommend building number 3 in the adult section. Do request a room facing away from the construction of the new Royalton. Pool and swim-out pools. We enjoyed this but you had to be careful in spots as some of the tiles have already started to lift. The pool foam party was fun. We really enjoyed the swim out room and Bali bed. The Bars. They used high-end liquor and real fruit to create their drinks. They had some wonderful fresh fruit drinks. The swim out bar-tender (Andy) even strained out the seeds in the passion fruit drink he was making for my wife. The one bar tender in the lobby bar made my wife some tea (his idea) when he found out that she wasn’t feeling well and gave her special attention. Room service. We ordered it once and it came quickly and was good. The problem we had with room service was that at 1:22 am one morning they called and woke us up to tell us our food was on the way. I tried to explain to them that we did not order food but they just told us that it was on the way and hung up. A couple of minutes later, a waiter came with our (?) food but I had to tell him that we did not order it and all he said was oh no and walked away. The food. We tried all the restaurants. They were not bad but not very good. I think they try to make too much out of a dish and it turns out that when you receive it, you are no too sure what it is. In Le Essence, I ordered ravioli; I’m not too sure what liquid (bowl full of cream) they poured over it but there was no pasta. The seafood restaurant was good and a beautiful view. The buffet was very good especially for breakfast. Sit in the “beautiful” Carolina section and she will make sure you have everything that you would want. There is a lady in the grill that switched places during the week but she always made my eggs for me with a big smile. A good way to start the day. There is food and drink all over the resort. It seems that everywhere you turn you can get a drink and have something to eat or nibble on. The coffee place was also very good by the theatre for both their specialty coffees and desserts. The entertainment. We saw most of the shows but missed a couple of them. Great shows probably some of the best we have ever seen in an all-inclusive. They had music for a couple of hours before the show with dancers that would ask people up to dance. After watching the dancers for a few days, I did notice that the male dancers would only ask young attractive girls to dance. Anyone over 40 they would just walk by. One of the problem we had with the resort was with the check-out process. After trying six or seven times to request a wake-up call, since no one would answer the phone and then it was continually busy, I finally talked to some one at the Butler service and they repeated our wake- up time request and said there would be no problem. The wake up call never came. Luckily, we had a back-up plan. We then confirmed at 6:40 am that someone would help us with our luggage at seven. We were told that there was no one there yet but someone would help us at seven. I tried to call them at 7 multiple times but no one answered and no one came to help us. Since we had to leave and try to get some breakfast before our return trip we carried our own luggage from one end of the resort to the other end. This resort, located on the beautiful white sand Arena Gorda beach, is great for long walks, could go over the top with a few changes and some consistent procedures in place. They have a beautiful resort, a lot of excellent staff, however, the food and lack of caring by some of their staff is hurting them. Would we go back? Most likely.

Bahia Principe Explore Legend: Wonderful resort

Our vacation on this hotel was really good because the nice people working there . All food and cocktails were excellent, nice beach an clean, pool perfect, amazing shows, Mamajuana tested really good, everything perfect Thanks guys

Grand Palladium Palace: Our first Punta Cana trip

Hotel grounds were beautiful! The rooms were stunning....we got a loft close by the beach...not ocean view but we could see the ocean slightly. We had another room for my sons and the bathtub leaked incredibly with a terrible odour...so we asked to be moved which they did easily....the rooms were kept clean....the food was ok.....good but not great.....the drinks were really strong and fairly good...the options were good...the staff were friendly but did not speak much english so ordering a me [... read more]al was a challenge. Always could find seats on the beach and pool...down fall is the breakfast closed at 10 am which is too early...11 am seems more appropriate. ..finally we all got severly sick! Stomach nausea and diarrhea ...my friend for two days and in bed and my son in bed and my other son severly sick on the plane ride home.....severe dehydration and they nearly held us back for his safety.....we did not drink the water but stopped having ice in our drinks thinking the tap water was used and perhaps the water is not filtered as claimed. With speaking with a number of guests ...they too had suffered from this as well. But....the beach is gorgeous the gym was awesome! I will not return to this resort . But we still had fun... ..

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: Relaxing Vacation

Be Live Marien turned out to be a good choice for a week long break. The room was comfortable and the staff friendly and accommodating. What I really liked was the fact that the resort was a little more compact than some of our other vacations, not a lot of walking necessary, but all the amenities you get used to with all inclusive resorts. I'd be inclined to check out their hotel in Punta Cana next spring. All in all a good vacation!

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: Nice but older Resort

Well overall my "séjour" at teh resort was good. The room was very clean despite 15 coats of paint. It smelled old and humid. The made was so friendly I would have been happy having her has my mother. I got a very big Genuine hug before I left. The food was ok but not consistant from one night to the other. For exemple pork medallion with sauce would melt in your mouth one night but be hard the next night. I was lucky to be bilingual. Some of the staff were not bilingual at all. There w [... read more]as may be 2 nice days overcast but nice and 1 beautiful sunny day out of the 7 days a was there. Would I go back? Probably but not alone, and it would have to be cheaper. On the Friday night 600 Dominicans arrived at the resort as a present from there Boss. They were every where. I understand that for them was a treat but for the people that paid full price, I don't think it was fair as I am single and paid more for my trip because I am single. As for the buffet, they raided the desserts first and you could see, a lot of them would fill their plate like they hadn't eaten for days. So that Friday, extremely noisy in the corridors of the building after checking in and Saturday and Sunday, outside at the pool kids running around and filling up the pool. So I spent most of my day in my room

TRS Turquesa: Horrible

This resort was horrible they didn't give us the room that we asked and paid for, we arrived on a Monday and told us that our room might be available on Tuesday This is not acceptable. I paid for that room for that day and didn't get it!!! The staff at the front desk and the manager were rude and unprofessional I am totally disappointed disgusted and furious Had I known that this was going to happen I would not have booked that resort and I'm mortified that instead of me being stressfree I  [... read more]was stressed out which with my health I wasn't supposed to get and avoid stress. That's why I went and they caused me to have major panic attacks!!

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Great Resort!

Spent a week (Apr 28/17 to May 5/17) at the VH Gran Ventana and had a great time. No real issues with our room, nothing broken or leaking, and the location (ground floor at the end of a block of rooms) was perfect. However it would have been nice to have had a dresser for our clothes rather than having to leave them in suitcase. Enjoyed the buffet, good variety and plenty of food. Yes, the servers for beverages at times were slow but most times our wine glasses were refilled promptly. Enjoyed th [... read more]e 3 a la carte restaurants and had no complaints. Had no problem finding loungers around the pool, however, it you wanted one under an umbrella they were hard come by. The same with the beach but you could position yourself higher up from the water under trees for shade. The ocean was super with little to no seaweed. There was a different show each night, some better than others, but all enjoyable and there were games etc. around the pool and beach everyday if you wished to participate or just fun to watch. There were only two issues that come to mind. On the weekends the locals come to stay at the hotel and kind of take it over and the other issue was that it was a very humid time of the year and the air conditioning kept you cool but didn't remove the moisture so you bathing suit never really dried and your clothes felt damp. Would we return to the VH Gran Ventana again, yes with no hesitation!

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: average family resort

lots of construction and renovations and building closures. very noisy too much contact and pressure from resort staff regarding time share presentation buffet food was ok, but never really changed ate same food every meal bbq chicken and baked potates at beach were very good difficult to book a-la-cart dinners while we did not have too much trouble with our room ceiling fan did not work and toilet would not flush (I fixed it myself) others in our group had numerous problems and/or had  [... read more]to move rooms

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: A decent prioperty

The overall condition of the property is above average with the exception of the staff who are exceptional. The only major issue that we have, has well as the majority of the guests that I spoke to, is the Hotels policy of allowing locals access to the Hotel from Saturday to Sunday afternoon. The resort is relatively small and imagine up to 600 locals arriving at basically the same time, thus overwhelming the facilities. The line up to the bars where 15 to 20 minutes, likewise to the buffet. [... read more] Food actually ran out Saturday afternoon at the beach grill. I feel that we lost three full days out of the fourteen that we stayed there. I suggest that travel agencies issue an advisory concerning this hotel policy before suggesting this property to prospective clients. Our agent Julie was exceptional and we highly recommend her. The reservations for the air portion and at the actual hotel went like clock work. She is very professional and friendly and goes the extra mile to support her clients. Please keep up the great work Julie.

Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana: Absoutley Beautiful. Have been here before and would go back again.

We have visited this resort in the past and all is remarkable there. Would visit again. The food the staff aim to please. Rooms are very clean. All the grounds are impeccably kept. Have recommended it to a few different friends. My son is the one in our family that visited there first. He told us all about and we booked.

Bahia Principe Explore Legend: Almost the paradise

It is a wonderful place, with a perfect infrastructure, with some lugo finishes, it is a majestic hotel. Their rooms are comfortable, clean and beautiful. It has its own restaurants within the hotel but you can also make reservations at the other hotels in the complex. Their pool is very clean and beautiful. All the staff are attentive and friendly. Summing up is the perfect paradise !!!!!. Would go back thousands of times.

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Average

Review is similar to ones I read prior to going. Pools were dirty, food was average but the a la cartes were great, they cater to Canadians, took a while for our rooms to be ready. The further away rooms down back were amazing but was told that closer rooms are outdated and not very good. Over all had a very good trip but I've need to better resorts.

Vista Sol Punta Cana: First and last

Stayed at the vista Sol for 9 days. I have been to Punta Cana many times. I don't need fancy rooms but I do expect some service and a little respect from the workers there the front desk staff need to be taught some PR skills the ignorance of one misses was much to be desired. A door that don't lock was no big deal to her. A phone that don't work. Had to get friends to call front desk at 6;30 for towels. At 8:50 still didn't have them. And don't go to front desk looking for an iron. Which is u [... read more]sually in you room. Her answer to that. This is not a five star hotel. Only thing in your fridge. Was two bottles of water, note if you are lucky. But if you visit with you husband who is Dominican. Your fridge would be stocked. Mind you paid the same for the room every day. Don't look for service in the buffet cause that's not happening either I would never go back there again.

Melia Caribe Beach Resort: Far from amazing hotel

Took 5.5 hours to get our room. Reported phone problem and it took 5 days to fix. Found if you didn't tip all the time service declined. Got sick from water Wednesday and lost 35 pounds-will take from 7 - 12 days to recover. Tried to get room made up in AM so I could sleep-finally got towels from cupboard and left dirty ones and posted do no disturbe - maid knocked on door 2 hours later. Kids got foot and mouth. Resort is to big and to far to walk anywhere. Gave up waiting for trolley a couple o [... read more]f times - WILL NOT GO BACK TO D.R. AGAIN.

Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Punta Cana: Amazing Family Vacation

Travelled to Hard Rock Punta Cana May 11th through 18th and had an amazing time. This is my fourth time at this location and I`d highly recommend this resort to anyone travelling with small children or as a family. Reception / Check In: Quick an easy. The hotel is roughly 30 minutes from the airport and we arrived by tour bus. There was no wait for check in, and refreshments were provided as we checked in. There was a bit of a delay getting our bags to the room, but not an issue. Rooms: We [... read more]ll appointed and as advertised. Everything was in good repair, and the room was clean and well stocked. Service: The service at the Hard Rock is incredibly - friendly staff, room service, always helpful. Restaurants: Overall food quality was excellent - especially Toro, Zen, and Ipanema. We tried Los Galos for dinner and were not impressed, but all the others were great. Room service quality was excellent - speedy delivery and well prepared.