Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada: Fantastic Resort! Lots of fun!

I went here with a few friends for a week and we all had a fantastic time. The food was delicious, the staff was friendly and the beach and pools were divine. Even though it rained for a part of the trip, there was still plenty to do and see. Really enjoyed the pool tables and the small library. Thanks so much!

Barcelo Bavaro Palace: Over charged

although we experencied a great time. We were overcharged. My partner has been to the Barcelo twice before (her parents have been there 13 times and are traveling back for the 14th in February). This made it easy to decide where to spend our vacation. When we talked to the agent - we specifically asked for a certain area of the resort due to being their previously. He booked our room and ensured us all was fine. We called several days prior to leaving to double check all was good. Left a messag [... read more]e and did not receive a call back. Upon arrival we found that we were located in a completely different area of the resort (not even close to where we requested). The front desk at the resort was not heplful, we had to call tripcentral to get it sorted out. We called our agent, not there, talked to a "generic" person, who informed us they were unable to do anything about it at that time. Out of frustration we paid the extra funds to get the location we origionally requested. To this date, nothing has been done to rectify the matter. Besides that the experice was outstanding.

Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada: Great Resot

Thought the staff and the food were great. My only complaint is that I wish the dancing had more options or themed nights. I'm not great at latin dancing and I wish there had been evenings when they had 90's or rock and roll.

Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada: Beautiful Resort

Iberostar Costa Dorado is a lovely clean and well kept resort. The food was amazing and the service fantastic. Would highly recommend it. Have visited many hotels in the Dominican and Iberostars are the best. The hotel staff are extremely helpful and always ready to please. Rooms were always cleaned daily and restocked. Great value for money. Would certainly return.

Riu Republica: Great resort

Clean, new, great staff. Rooms are very clean and large. All restaurants are buffet style with no reservations. Food quality and selection are excellent. Staff is pleasant and helpful. I will return again!

VIK Hotel Arena Blanca: Relaxing vacation

This resort was very nice. Grounds and public areas were kept very clean as were the rooms! Food was decent. Not the best but good selection. Night entertainment could have been better! Wifi in lobby only :(

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: Huge pool!

The hotel was very clean at all times! Lots of rain during the week but the grounds crew always stayed on top of it. Staff were superb ! Always friendly, joking around with you and always engaging in activities. Drinks were very strong so ask for "un poco" if you do not like to taste the alcohol. The pool was massive and had lots of sports to play which was great! The beach could have more huts to sit under but it was not a deal breaker. The ala cart of Mediterranean was by far the best as the o [... read more]ther 2 did not have much of a choice for meals. Maids were very good but the rooms always were a bit moist from the humidity.

Iberostar Selection Hacienda Dominicus: Just an awesome resort! Would love to return for sure!

The gardens/grounds were in immaculate condition, thanks to the very hard working staff! The pools were monitored all day everyday for debris, etc. The beach was kept clean and supervised! The nightly, variety of entertainment was exceptional! The staff connected with the entertainment were willing to give dance lessons and were all very friendly!

Grand Palladium Palace: Beautiful Resort with an Unexpected Surprise

After 3 stops to drop off guests at other hotels we arrived at the Grand Palladium Complex. It is a huge complex with separate lobby areas for each of the 4 resorts within it. We were dropped at the Palace Lobby ( so we thought) It turned out we were at the Royal Suites Turquesa Lobby. We were offered hot towels and champagne while we began our check in. They discovered there was a mix up and we were at the wrong hotel and were being sent over to the Palace Lobby. They gathered us up and t [... read more]ransferred us over. Once there we were informed that they were upgrading us no charge back to the Royal Suites Turquesa! So my review is of this hotel. Food was amazing, grounds impeccable. The whole length of the complex beach is just beautiful. We did have some lunches at the Palace. We also loved the live nightly entertainment at both the Palace and Royal lobbies. Our room was spacious and maid service was great. We used the room service which was awesome and the servings, well a bit too much but you were never hungry. We tried some of the a la cartes and they were great. Would highly recommend this hotel. We also used the Spa! OMG its amazing and the massage ladies are incredible. Make sure to take advantage of the water areas of the spa. Drinks were all good, top shelf available if you asked for it! I can't think of one thing to complain of...

Caribe Deluxe Princess: Honeymoon

Overall, a pretty decent resort! My husband and I stayed from Jan 7-14, 2017 in a honeymoon suite. Room: Not bad-in need of some upgrades. The shower head had awful pressure and the temperature was either hot or cold (we were lucky to get a luk warm temp). The bathroom sink had a lot fo scuff marks and look unappealing, and the floor had quite a few chips in it. Overall, I didn't care too much since the room was clean, big, and a ocean view. Guest Services: Could be improved upon. We were  [... read more]to receive a fruit basket and a bottle of rum in our room upon arrival-which we didn’t. It took three days’ worth of calling to finally receive the items we were supposed to (very frustrating experience). Food: The a la carte restaurants were great! We had dinner at Shangay (do not get the deep fried ice cream-it was beyond disgusting), Mamma Mia, El Pescador, and La Cava. Surprisingly, the buffet had pretty good food. Entertainment: Staff-LOVE the staff. They were the highlight of my trip. There was entertainment on the beach and pool area throughout the day, as well as, fun entertainment at night. Beach: The most beautiful thing I have ever seen. The sand was so soft there was no need for water shoes. Now, the water was fairly rough but I enjoyed it! Bottom Line: We thoroughly enjoyed our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic.

Emotions by Hodelpa Juan Dolio: Nice resort

Very nice resort, clean. Service at the bar and pool area was very good. The front desk however, they didnt speak any english, gave us the wrong room facing a parking lot and we had to go back 5 times to get the one king bed that we paid for. The excuse was "there are more double rooms" to which we responded thats great but we paid for a king bed. Beach was amazing and great food.

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Perfect vacation

We are couple and really have enjoyed our vacation in Luxury Bahia Principe Ambar Blue at the second week of January 2017. Resort is the good size: not too big and not too small. Property is very well maintained. Ground transportation is provided. Our building was in the middle between pool and main lobby, very conveniently located, close to everything. Beach is beautiful, witch is the main criteria for us. Grounds and landscaping of the resort are in perfect condition. Pool area is very clean. [... read more] Good selection of food in the buffet. There are several a la carte restaurants on the property; more then enough for a week of vacation. Hotel was not too crowdy at this time, just a right amount of people to be accommodated by all the services; no line up to the buffet or restaurants; easy to find a cozy seats any time of the day in the lobby to have a drink, read a book or check Internet. Free Wi-fi works perfectly everywhere including the room and beach area. Lounge chairs are always available on the beach. Spa is beautiful and not overbooked, no problem to get appointment on the time I wanted. Room has a pleasant design and was nice and clean. Night turn-down service was provided. Good selection of excursions and day trips. We liked this hotel and definitely would recommend it to family and friends.

Emotions by Hodelpa Juan Dolio: Had an Incredible time!!!

Soo beautiful, had great food, friendly staff and lots to do. We stayed for 8 days and still didn't get around to trying everything. It's got ping pong, basketball, pool, rock climbing, archery, tennis, local golf course, life size chess and even a disco club at night and a ton more. Ended up staying an extra night! Won't be disappointed.

Casa Marina Reef Resort: Beautiful Resort on the ocean

Overall this resort offers very good value for money ! The location in downtown Sousa allows you to explore safely the small shops. The services offered such as manicures, pedicures and massages are all very affordable. Within the resort, the staff are very accommodating and friendly. The three swimming pools are very well maintained and are clean with lots of lounge chairs. The food is very good and varies everyday. We managed to stay up and attend the Disco which opens at Eleven PM. It  [... read more]is true that the Main Lobby is a little small and is used for the free WI-FI, but still works !

Emotions by Hodelpa Juan Dolio: nice resort and beach; unfriendly staff

My boyfriend and I stayed at this resort for 7 nights from January 6th-13th, 2017. In all we had a great time, but there were some kinks and mishaps that could have made our trip less enjoyable if we chose to let them. (I'll elaborate more later). Firstly, I'll start with the positives. The resort was very nice, obviously new designed. It had a very modern feel with wood and stone accents everywhere. The restaurants were nice, the buffets were enclosed in rooms that had to be entered and exi [... read more]ted by automatic sliding doors (no bugs flying around the food!) which I thought was a smart touch. The coffee shop was cute, they seemed to had a lot of different types of coffees and flavoured syrups but since there wasn't a menu we stuck with getting lattes and frozen coffees. The snack bar always had fresh burgers and hot dogs on the grill, and the french fries and pizza were usually fresh and hot. The beach was very nice, beautiful water and plenty of beach chairs so we didn't have to search long for one. They seemed to have many games to play during the game, but they were closer to the resort side of the beach, so if you didn't want to be bothered by the speakers you could move closer to the water and you wouldn't really notice it. Now for the negatives...The staff weren't very helpful or friendly, and the front desk really didn't seem to care about our needs/problems. For example, our first night there we got in late so the only food we could eat was from the snack bar. This would've been fine, we aren't picky, until the group of dancers from the entertainment show butted to the front of the line (there were about 5 people in front of us waiting for burgers) and got served their burgers right away before any of us who were staying at the resort. We decided to let it go, but for the rest of the trip there seemed to be a preference for the spanish speaking couples and families over us (we are a young couple from Canada). In the mornings we were only offered coffee or water from the waiters/waitresses in all maybe 3 times (keep in mind there was 7 mornings), the same happened during lunch and dinners (I'd often have to wave them over for water, and we were only offered house wine once). I've been to many other resorts, and I've never had to constantly wave over a waiter to be poured a glass of water. It is not like we didn't tip either, we'd leave a tip for our waiters and bartenders that would serve us kindly and especially the bartender if we asked for a more 'complicated' drink (such as a strawberry margarita where they would use the blender). I just got the impression that the staff didn't really want to cater to us, and I am not trying to sound like I am high maintenance, but I do expect a minimum amount of catering to when I am at an all-inclusive resort. To elaborate on the front desk, the first night we were there we noticed we couldn't change the temperature on the air conditioner. We called the front desk and they said there was a remote that went with it, and I told them there wasn't a remote in the room. They said they'd send the maintenance man over to help us. 30 minutes later the man showed up, and only spoke spanish. This was okay since I can speak a bit, so I (badly) explained to him that we didn't have a remote. He tried connected to the air conditioner with what seemed to be a universal remote, but nothing worked. He called the front desk and spoke to them, but I couldn't understand what he was saying. He then left with the impression of coming back, but never did. We waited for an hour for him to never show (this was at 1 am the night we arrived, so we were tired from travelling and didn't want to wait longer). The next day we went to the front desk on our way to the beach to complain again, and they took our room number and said they'd send someone to fix it. Once again nothing was fixed when we returned to our room that afternoon. We tried to call the front desk and noticed that the phone wasn't working (no dial tone) even though it was plugged in. We decided we'd get ready for dinner (shower) and go to the front desk on the way to the buffet. After my shower, I stepped out from the shower to find the bathroom completely flooded with water. As I stepped out of the bathroom I realized that the water had not only flooded the bathroom, but also the first half of our room (the water ran all the way to halfway under the double bed closest to the front door). It shocked me so much because while I was in the shower (it's a walk in shower so it isn't in a tub) the water hadn't accumulated at my feet, which means that it would partly run down the drain but the majority would leave under the glass door. Since our phone was broken, we had to walk to the front desk to tell them our room had flooded and that we wanted to change rooms (flooding shower, broken phone, and missing air conditioning remote were enough reasons for us to want a new one). They told us they would send someone over to check and then would see if they could accommodate us. We went back to our flooded room and decided to take initiative and push most of the water out by the front door with the towels we had. About 30 minutes later I heard a maid and maintenance man outside of our door talking and then beginning to sweep away the water from in front of our door. I am still not sure if those are the people the front desk sent, but since they never knocked on the door (I had to open it to talk to them) I assume they weren't sent. They moved the rest of the water out of our room and we went for dinner. We came back to a mostly dry floor and decided to deal with it in the morning. The next morning we went back to the front desk, and they explained that some of their rooms had been made improperly and the shower floors don't slope towards the drain (meaning they know they have flooding showers and still put people in those rooms). They also told us that we cannot change the temperature in our room (which is strange to not say the first time we asked? Why send a man to our room if the remote apparently doesn't exist). We then realized that they weren't willing to accommodate us, and we didn't want to fight them for a better room. We had wasted too much energy and time into it as it was, and we wanted to focus on our trip and the beach instead of our room. In the end, we found a way to inhibit the room from being flooded (the bathroom still would fill with water, but we'd close the door and stuff the bottom with a towel). The temperature in the room was tolerable, and we didn't use the phone since we never tried calling the front desk again. We focused on our time together, and the positives of the resort and had an amazing vacation in the end. I realized that I wrote a lot longer paragraph about the negatives of the resort, but keep in mind this was only our experience. Maybe you will be put in a room that doesn't flood and that has an air conditioning remote, and maybe the staff will treat you better than us. I realize that maybe since we are a young couple (both 19 years old), the staff might have not taken us seriously and maybe treated us unkindly because they didn't expect tips from us? These are only my assumptions and I could be wrong. For what we paid, ($1100) the trip was worth it to us. The food was good, the drinks were good, the resort was modern and nice, and the beach was amazing.

Sunscape Puerto Plata: Great Place

Sunscape in Puerto Plata was wonderful. Foam Party every Saturday...SO MUCH FUN!! Evelyn at the Explorers Club was amazing and treated our daughter like her own child! We stayed on the first floor of building 10. I loved it! Came right out to pool, bar, food and close to entertainment. Very nice beach to walk on!...but not clear or good for swimming. Food at buffet was good..not great. Italian restaurant was excellent! Entertainment area was always packed and easy to socialize. Drinks were fine, [... read more] nothing special. Small resort, so not great for long strolls..but good for being close to everything the resort had to offer. Paid $20 CDN outside the front entrance for a horse/carriage ride down the street towards the mountain and to an outdoor market..was a small journey but a beautiful view! Would rate the resort 3.5 stars.

Riu Merengue: Riu Merenge - Nice location and good food but......

Overall this hotel is decent. We did have some issues the first day with room location - they relocated us when we asked....but the new room had serious A/C issues which was a bit of a comical farce trying to get fixed...so we ended up going back to the initial room that night just so we could sleep in a cool room. The evening Manager said he was going to write a report....which truly was not helpful to us at all. We ended up staying in that original room the full week as I didn't want to wast [... read more]e time changing rooms again. Note to large families/groups travelling together: please remember there are other guests that have also paid money to enjoy a holiday and you need to be respectful of everyone's right to their holiday. Groups of unsupervised children running amok yelling and screaming at all hours, loud "conversations" between rooms and in hallways and "group togetherness" late at night is not ok...it's downright rude. Hot water was good...sometimes had to let it run a while before it heated up but once it was there it was super hot. Nice to have a room fridge with some water and soda, etc. in it. They won't refill your fridge if you aren't there to answer the knock so you might have to chase them down as it's not the room maid that does it. I thought the in-room liquor dispensers were overkill and not needed. Nice touch of an umbrella in each room for those evening sporadic showers. We really had no issues with the property or location. The food ranged from ok to some very good dishes. The staff were lovely when you made the effort to treat them as human beings and make eye contact, speak to them and ...oh yes...actually leave them a tip . I was appalled at the way the many guests from Eastern Europe treated the staff as if they were ghosts. Not friendly towards other guests either. They need to work on their social skills. I'm thankful everyday that the majority of Canadians have such good manners and are kind, pleasant and respectful people. It was a nice sized beach to walk on ...it's a lovely walk up to the gazebo on the cliff at the Riu Bacchata where you can see the cruise ships when they are in. It was very cool to watch the ships depart from behind the cliff and into the open ocean ...and see them disappear into the distance while you were sitting on the beach! We are beach people and didn't use the pool all week so can't comment on that. Entertainment was quite sporadic. Some nights it was terrific...others it was just plain odd. The Merenge has two sections - make sure you check out the offerings of both stages before you commit to watching a show - they varied greatly in quality. Down sides of this resort : 1) lack of clarity in the water. I hoped to snorkel from the beach but could not all week due to the murkiness 2) everything sold is priced in U.S.$....when you asked for the conversion to Dominican currency the price jumped 3) very expensive excursions A few years ago we stayed at a Bahia Principe in Samana and I would return there before this hotel/area of DR.

Grand Palladium Palace: Family Vacation January 2017

This resort is beautiful! It is kept very nice. Here is the summary of experience: Check in: Amazing - we arrived at 3:30, rooms were ready, and we had our keys and were to our rooms within 20 minutes of arriving. There was a small issue with one of our rooms (requested double beds in one room, and got a king), but it was rectified very quickly, and a new room was assigned immediately that met with our approval. Our rooms were in 95 block which we found conveniently located. We had a loft sui [... read more]tes, and they were very nice rooms.. as we only had 2 people in each of our rooms, the loft was not really used. The Bathroom shower/tub is not well designed, as mentioned in other reviews.. Water gets everywhere, and we needed extra towels to clean up the water... but it did look really nice, and the water pressure was awesome. Mini bar was stocked daily :) We found the bed very comfy! Food was good, the specialty Japanese and Brazilian were AMAZING!! Unfortunately, we did not get to many of the restaurants.. but the buffet was definitely a good alternative. There was a very good selection of food! Pools were beautiful, and lots of seats.. couple days got busy, but we always managed.. The resort was HUGE.. It really is 3 in 1.. (Grand Palladium Bavaro, GP Punta Cana, and GP Palace, can all share facilities, and then there is Royal Suites Turquesa, also, but GP guests do not have privilege there.. So, if you are at the Palace, and want to go to the Disco or Sports bar, or go see a variety show at the theater, it's a trolley ride to Bavaro.. I would have preferred if the resorts were "self sufficient", and if you didn't want to leave your corner of the world, you didn't have to. The sales people can get on your nerves, but after a couple times of saying no, it stopped. Overall, It's a beautiful place to go for vacation!

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: Average Hotel

The hotel was of average standard. The rooms were okay. The bathroom could use updating. The water pressure was poor and so was the hot water. Rooms were not cleaned until late afternoon. It would be nice if they added a bar at the beach and if the staff was a little friendlier. Overall everything was okay, three stars.

Punta Cana Surprise: Generally a good resort!!!

The facilities, accommodations, programs, food services, staff, etc. match the rating of this resort. Of note however is that the resort utilizes an electronic room access (locks) fob system which failed during our stay resulting in guests not being able to access their rooms for a number of hours-an inconvenience at the minimum Additionally, Sunwing did not honor it's commitment to Elite Plus pre-boarding in Punta Cana - we were hearded onto a bus with the other passengers