Occidental Caribe: Fantastic resort, our best holiday vacation yet!!!

They changed our room to ocean view and pool view, it was there idea to change rooms, very impressed, the ocean was great and the pool area super clean, hard working employees, super friendly, best service ever!!! We'd go back in a minute!!

Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: Great Value!

Our group went for a week over New Years and we all had a fantastic time! We are a family of 6 ranging from 18-54. Pros: - The New Years Eve Party was AMAZING! I think this is what the Sunday parties may be like(Our Sunday one was cancelled due to weather.) - Location of building 207 was great with a pool and bar right out front - Although our friends had a problem with their room, they offered to change it right away in addition to a couple freebies. Great customer service! - The food was cons [... read more]istently good even at the regular buffet. Try to book as many specialty restaurants as you can. The snack beach bar was just burgers/hotdogs which I personally love but I know others would want a few more options. Neutral: - some may take this as a negative but they close down the bars and pools by the beach around dinner time. I personally like this because it shifts everyone up near the lobby and allows you meet more people. Cons: - Everyone says this...but there is A LOT of walking. Lots of stairs too. - The rooms were OKAY. Nothing too bad, just dated. The beds were pretty hard too. - Impossible to find $1 bills around here haha. BRING LOTS! Overall: If you're laid back and just looking for a good time that doesn't drain the bank account, then you've come to the right place. However if you expect this to be like a 4-Star in Canada/US then perhaps you should increase your budget and go elsewhere. Would I come back here? In a heartbeat. Will I? Probably not. There's way too many places to explore!! Side Note: Everyone says you can't buy VIP access without being a timeshare owner. That's not true. You can purchase it for $1000pp with a $500 credit for your next stay. Most definitely NOT worth it...

Bahia Principe Explore El Portillo: Extraordinary property !

I absolutely loved this property ! The nicest Baha'i I have ever stayed out for layout & ambiance. The only issue was service at the beginning of my 10 days but as we got to be familiar with staff it improved! Hope to return with my whole family !

Occidental Caribe: Beautiful Beach

The staff were friendly and kind. Most however did not speak/understand basic English, but they tried and were always smiling. The activities staff (Alex, Alexander, Gabriel and Warlin) were fabulous and always went the extra mile to make you feel included and remembered. The energy they portrayed was wild. They were always ready to pump up the crowd and have a great time. Evening entertainment was enjoyable at the theater and we had a great time participating in the Ideal Couple show. We booked [... read more] for the honeymoon package and were very pleased with our ocean view upgrade and extra amenities they provided us. We were disappointed that our romantic dinner on the beach became a romantic dinner beside the bar (no privacy, very loud with drunk guests all around us) as the light was out on the beach and it was very windy. It would've been nice to be a little more secluded for this type of dinner (maybe off on the chess court, since it was private and not in use at night). The beach was spectacular and very clean. Beaches at the other hotels were covered in seaweed and not cleaned. Barceló, definitely had the longest, nicest and most spacious beach, with lots of palm trees to nap under and it never felt over populated. The food was ok. Some days were better than others. My milk soured in my coffee one morning and you need to be careful of the foods that are left out in the heat at the buffets (pasta salad with mayo). Variety of foods was good. The A La Cart restaurants that we were able to experience (Japanese, Dominican, Seafood) were excellent. New Years dinner was a little chaotic at the Dominican a la cart, as they were never sure what they had or hadn't served you yet. We did spend a lot of time dodging the Coco Bongo representatives while there. They really wanted you to purchase their package and didn't like taking no for an answer. They were a little pushy when you just wanted to relax and be left alone. The pools were great! Loved the sun loungers in the quiet pool (except for the kids playing all over them, when their pool was right beside it) and the pool bar was fantastic. The bartenders were always friendly. Our room cleaner did forget to restock our fridge twice and towels (we had none for 2 days) and had to use our beach towels in the room. The resort lost power for a few hours and water. However, they had it up and running within a couple of hours and they did a great job at keeping all the guests happy. We were pleased with how they dealt with this situation (especially since it was New Year's eve). Overall, this hotel was pretty great for the price. There were some things that could change to make it even better, but we were pleased with how helpful, friendly and kind everyone was.

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Amazing, Clean Resort

The resort is gorgeous and clean. The food was by far the best resort food I've ever had. The beach was beautiful. The staff were nice. It's a family oriented resort with absolutely no opportunity to party.

Royalton CHIC Punta Cana: Beautiful, clean and modern

Fantastic resort. Compact footprint so everything is relatively close and easy to navigate. Rooms were beautiful, mood lighting was cool. Food was very good. Loved that you could eat at the ala carte restaurants every night if you wanted to. Staff was amazing and the entertainment was great too. Late afternoon pool entertainment included live bands, foam parties, inflatable slide and obstacle course. Beach was nice, but the ocean here is pretty rough, so it's not really swimmable. But we didn't  [... read more]mind at all. Demographic was 35-40 average, adults only. Good mature crowd. Made some great friends there! We hope to return one day!

Grand Sirenis Tropical Suites: Great New years food very old rooms

Nice grounds and pools. Good variety of food. The beach would be amazing if they cleaned it every morning. We did get travellers diarrhea. We paid for a suite and it was old, we couldn't sit on the patio chairs in fear of them breaking, the beds are extremely hard with a plastic cover. The pillows are chunks of foam... Needless to say we didn't get a good nights sleep all week. I will say that they had a beautiful New Years Party :)

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: loved it

everything was close at hand food was great pool and resort including rooms were very clean staff resourceful a bit more English would help and entertainment started to late at night buffet was awesome

Caribe Deluxe Princess: Great Resort that includes fabulous service

The Club Caribe Princess was a wonderful resort who's staff work so hard to make your stay special. Judith at guest service exemplified this by her outgoing and tireless assistance!! The room very clean but in need of a renovation. Grounds and buildings were kept immaculate. Best part of Bavaro beach! There was a variety of good food at the restaurants, buffet and snack bar.

Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: Amazing resort amazing time

Traveled to confresi from Dec 18th 2015 until Jan 1 2016. Resort pools and beach are gorgeous, room was nice and clean food was very good lots of choices alacarts were very good would definitely return hopefully again for Christmas they put on an amazing Christmas Eve bash it was breath taking and did the same for New Year's Eve boggles my mind how they set up an prepared so much food for so many people

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Awesome really great place

Every think was beautiful grounds room food all perfect beach was beautiful lots of food to choice from pools kept very clean and warm very big resort but trolley carts every 5 mins to take u anywhere u want to go great place for families

TRS Turquesa: Wonderful place for a getaway!

Our room was spotless every day. The staff were friendly and helpful. The grounds and pool area were gorgeous and clean. The shower in our Royal Suite was on the small side but worked well. The beaches were clean with deep white sand. The seaweed was not an issue. We had a walkout terrace with 2 chairs and a table to put your drinks on while we relaxed outside. The cappuccinos were great!

Ocean Sand Golf and Beach Resort: Amazing Resort

This was our 4th time at this resort IT gets better every time we go. They are constantly up grading and making positive changes. we have been to other resorts in Punta Cana but like this one the best. Everything is within easy walking distance. Great choice in restaurants, especially the steakhouse, Japanese, and coffeehouse.

Bahia Principe Explore La Romana: Health Inspector Required ASAP! Food poisoning!

We stayed at this resort from December 25th - January 1st/16. We were in a group with my parents, my husband and our toddler. We came from Vancouver, BC so it was quite a bit of money and time to get to this place. To give you a little bit of background, we travel frequently, about 5 times a year and stay in all-inclusive luxury resorts in the Caribbean about twice per year. We have previously stayed at Grand Bahia Principe in Runway Bay, Jamaica and Grand Bahia Principe in Punta Cana which are [... read more] actual 4.5-5 star resorts. This place has nothing to do with the Grand Bahia Principe name which we experienced before. It is generous of me to give this a 2 star rating. There is absolutely nothing 5 star about this place. If luxury and five star experience is what you are looking for, this is not the place!!! I'll start from our arrival. We arrived at the resort in the evening around 11:00pm. After nearly 12 hours of travel we were exhausted and starving. I should also mention that I am PREGNANT. While checking in I asked the employee if there was room service, as I had thought there was but he said "NOT FOR YOU" (referring to our particular package, I suppose). After 12 hours of travel, pregnant, and exhausted with a toddler the answer should have perhaps been "unfortunately not for the particular package you purchased, sorry" instead of “not for you". He told us that there is a snack bar where we can grab something to eat. As a pregnant woman I am very restricted with what I can and cannot eat and have to be very careful for obvious reasons. All that was available at the buffet style snack bar were hot dogs (which by the way were sitting in a pool of water), sandwiches with deli meat, and burgers. No fruit, no French fries, no pizza, no nachos, no dessert. I am not allowed to eat deli meat and hot dogs as a pregnant woman, therefore I had one choice left, burgers that were sitting in the heat. You can imagine how happy I was at this supposed "FIVE STAR LUXURY" resort from the start. We got to our room, which looked like we went back in time to the '90's. Everything was worn down and falling apart. Our room was on the ground floor and our balcony door did not lock properly and could easily be opened. Also, the chain lock on the main door was missing and my toddler was able to open the door without hesitation. So there we are, still hungry and now feeling unsafe and very much so irritated. We had to put the couch on the balcony door and chairs on the front door so that we could somewhat sleep. Food and safety are basic needs, there is nothing luxurious about that. The next morning we were woken up around 8:00AM by the housekeepers who scream at one another to communicate right in front of your door. Absolutely zero consideration for the fact that guests are there on vacation to REST and RELAX. This continued for the duration of our trip. That morning our safe also started breaking down. It basically just stopped working. We called the front desk who sent someone to fix it. He told us the battery was out and he needed to change it. In total 4 people came by to fix the safe which was very, very strange that a simple battery needed that many people. They also "fixed" the balcony door and eventually added a chain link to the front door after I had to convince the employee that my child could open the door. He thought it was fine as is!? The tub in our washroom did not drain properly, so every evening when we would shower we would literally be standing in a foot of filthy water (with sunscreen, sand and salt, trust me its FILTHY) Five stars right?! (Y) Often we did not have enough towels in our room and had to call the the front desk for more, who would take an hour to bring them while we waited to shower. The ones that were there half the time had strange yellow and orange marks on them. We took our toddler to the kid’s park area to play. It was the biggest joke of a play area that I have ever seen at any resort. It’s basically a bunch of plastic swings and slides that were half broken and completely unsafe all placed on top of sand, also not a good idea as it got in her eyes as she crawled around for 5 minutes. The pools are nice but dirty. There are always random things floating around in murky sunscreen water so we spent most of our time on the beach. 90% of the staff could care less that you are there. They will ignore you for as long as they can to avoid having to do their actual job. We sat at the lobby bar area, there was nobody else but us at the time and the waitress just would not come over to ask us what we wanted to drink, just ONE example. On the third day I woke up nauseous. I assumed that it was just pregnancy sickness but unfortunately I was wrong. My symptoms quickly worsened. On the third day I woke up nauseous. I assumed that it was just pregnancy sickness but unfortunately I was wrong. My symptoms quickly worsened. I developed a low fever, vomiting, loose bowel movements, chills, aches and all the works that go along with food poisoning! Did I mention that I am pregnant???I was so, so, so careful. I avoided all deli meat, salad, hot dogs, anything that sat there for a long time, made sure to have everything fresh off the grill and made in front of me and well done. I even brushed my teeth with bottled water. My symptoms persisted for 48h and I was confined to my room, more precisely the bathroom. We had to cancel our trip to Catalina Island and considered going home early. Please, do not ignore all of the reviews regarding food poisoning, they are not a joke. Wish so many complains, if this were a hotel in Canada, it would have long ago been shut down by health inspection as it is completely unsafe. My husband developed food poisoning symptoms on our last day and had diarrhea the entire flight home and still two days later. I have never, ever had food poisoning in the Caribbean and I have visited over 20 times. This is a first! We were only given half of our money back, for the Catalina cancellation. There was zero understanding. The only employees who will give you attention at this resort are the ones who are aggressively trying to sell time shares to the point of harassment. What part of we are on vacation trying to relax and not interested is so hard to understand? Also on the beach, if you have any length to your hair you will be asked if you want it braided at least 5 times daily. As for the drinks, they ran out of mint leaves for the mojitos on the 2nd day and for the duration of the trip. How is that even possible, honestly? Again, five stars? There is wifi available, you get 1 hour a day and you have to go to the reception for them to log you in and it’s only available in the lobby, how convenient? Every 5 star resort that I have stayed at thus far had 24H free wifi even on the beach. The shows were really fun and our toddler really enjoyed them. The entertainment team is really energetic and does their job well. For breakfast they have delicious donuts which we really enjoyed! There is also a nice selection of fresh fruit and fresh fruit juice. The girl who makes the fruit juice was super nice and stood out. There was always room on the beach and the pool and we easily found chairs. The beach is clean but is not as turquoise and crystal clear as other Caribbean destinations. The new year’s eve party was amazing. Tonnes of champagne, live music, an overall great party. Karaoke was great too! Overall, despite the few positives, this resort was a big, big letdown. I don't know if I can trust the Grand Bahia Principe name after this experience. The 4.5-5 star rating is a complete lie. I would never go to this place again and would absolutely not recommend it to anyone.

Sunscape Coco Punta Cana: Great Entertainment staff!

Had an amazing time at Be Live. I specifically booked this resort because of the reviews I read about the entertainment staff, and they didn't disappoint. They all have great energy by the pool and get you up dancing at night. The pool parties were always fun, but my favourite was the foam party! Mini Me, Speedy, and super Mambo, and Mermalada were especially great on my trip. The food was okay. Typical DR food always had something to choose from. Was upgraded to a master suite when arriving wi [... read more]th a pool outside our balcony, which was very beautiful. I am not a picky person and my trip was all about relaxing and having fun. I booked a trip to Saona Island with the hotel. Highly recommend it, it includes a catamaran trip to the island, lunch and speed boat back with a stop for some shopping. There was seaweed at the hotel beach, but knew this when booking our vacation and planned to have one good beach day.. Saona island was the best place for it! I love Punta Cana and would return to this resort. Entertainment is awesome excellent

Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda: Wonderful

What a wonderful trip. My wife, son (Jefferson or JJ) and I spent 2 awesome weeks at the Esmeralda Dec. 11-25. I can't say enough about how wonderful everyone was to us. I will mention a few names and am sorry for the ones that I can't remember. The guest services person, Anny Kerry, is wonderful. Thank you very much for all your assistance. Charlie and Devlin and everyone on the front desk were equally helpful. Our room service people could not have been more kind and professional. Particularly [... read more] we would like to thank the people at the Geranios buffet where we ate almost every day. Our 2.5 yr old was so happy there. (Everyone in the resort seemed to know his name and took time to play with him). Thank you to Franklin, Wilson, Luis, Altagracia and everyone else at the restaurant. Franklin would always take the time to play with JJ –thanks for making his trip special. The Esmeralda is excellent in every way. Our room was great, the pools are nice, the beach is kept clean and there is always something going on. The food was excellent, especially on Christmas Eve. It was truly amazing. We didn’t try the a la carte restaurants because the buffet worked better for our son, but some of the friends we made recommended the Don Pablo, Olivar, Beach BBq, and the Grill. Everyone works very hard and deserves your respect and tips. I can’t say enough about what a wonderful experience it was thanks to the staff. We will definitely be returning. We met people who had been there 3 or 4 times – for a very good reason. A very Happy New year to you and your families.

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: An all right resort

Grounds were fair, food fair, pool good, staff not overly friendly, the night shows were the worst I have ever seen, beach lots of seaweed, bathrooms clean and always toilet paper, room clean, did not like the locals on the beach trying to sell you stuff and on the resort trying to sell you timeshares and on sat there was locals that had set up tables selling you souvenirs they were very pushy you couldn't even walk on that side of the pool as they would hound you

Bahia Principe Escape Ambar: Amazing vacation!

My boyfriend and had a wonderful time at this resort! The grounds were kept very clean, our room was beautiful and we loved the food. We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to book an a la carte restaurant every night of the week because we were in the "Adults Only" section. We spent a lot of time at the pool and the drinks in all the bars were delicious. I had previously stayed at the Bahia Principe Bavaro which was right next to us and it was nice having access to the facilities on tha [... read more]t side (casino, disco, theatre, etc.) We would definitely come back :)

Riu Merengue: Loved the resort

Riu Merengue is a great resort. I loved how all three resorts were attached. If one pool was busy we could just go to the other pools. Overal great experience but hated the locals pestering on the beach.

Paradise Playa Dorada: Nice Amenities and Well maintained

First room assigned was a loft where AC did not work and was a bit of sewer odour; shower was broken repaired early next day. They allowed us to switch to standard room with poolside view. Nightly entertainment by main dining room near beachfront was a bit loud and went till after 11pm every night