Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: NOT WHAT WE EXPECTED

Misleading description as one doesn’t have access to everything that is listed for Cofresi. Unless you want to become a VIP member that is. To do so, that requires the purchase of a time share. Most workers are lazy. The resort is messy and dirty. Empty cups, half full cups with cigarette butts, unwiped tables in the common areas. All this in the morning from the night before. It seemed they scrubbed the stairs with a bucket of soapy water at a time when people would be using them to go for  [... read more]breakfast. There we always puddles from either rain or a spray hose. Palm leaves that have fallen are not picked up. The grounds are not nice. Workers just walk past the above mentioned things. We’ve never seen this before at other resorts. The smell of sewer is prevalent as a PVC sewer pipe runs in a large trench right through the resort. Not sure if there is a leak in it or what but it was gross.It is not somewhere that we’ll be back.This certainly is not a 4 star, at best, 3 maybe and that is being generous.

Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: Would not return to this hotel

Food and drinks were great Lots of stairs to go everywhere Mini fridge does not get restocked even if asked for more beer or pop. Get told they will not do it Beds where hard as rock to sleep on Only way get internet is if you buy it and its $60 for the week per device or can buy a sim card from the shop in hotel for the week for $40 and can hotspot with friends and family No entertainment staff by any pools Most bars and all pool bars closed by 5 and never found the beach bars It was [... read more] a 50/5 if they would make you drink that day at the bar as they would say didn't have stuff to make them and wouldn't get 8t in Only knew what the show was at night and the time hit never knew where the show was being held at Unless you where VIP you really where anything to them as they wanted everyone to upgrade to VIP AirTransat rep didn't want to handle any complaints They didn't offer the 20% off at the spa

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Won't go back

This was my 5the visit to Puerto Plata and i will not be returning after this visit. Food was the same everyday, only 3 a la cartes which were so booked before we got there we didn't even get to visit them all. Rooms were sub par, clean but old and outdated. Walls paper thin and could hear the neighbors using their bathroom.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Get what you pay for.

If you are looking for a budget friendly resort, are not picky or demanding and just want to laze around then this resort will be fine. After booking I was told that this is a party resort. It is anything but. Pool activities are posted but don't always happen, and when they do, they are disorganized. I was only at the resort for 3 days as I had to fly back for a family emergency, but I have never been so bored or hungry at an all inclusive resort. I should have spent the extra money and gon [... read more]e back to Punta Cana, which is where we normally go. Pros: Most of the employees were very good to deal with. Beds were comfortable. No problem finding loungers by the pool. Resort was fairly quiet after 11pm. Cons: Resort is very dated. Many broken or missing tiles in and around the pools. Beach sand does have some sand flies. Food choice is very, very nominal. No mimosas. Recommendation: Go to Punta Cana. The money you save isn't worth it in the end.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: A dump

This place is a dump,I am very disappointed with tripcentral whom we booked through. She said she has been to this resort,she asked where have we stayed before I named the resorts we have stayed the last 16 years. And she said ok you will like this place. She said it’s a very quite resort. It’s the noisy resort we have been to the last 16 years. We had 3 rooms, two of us they had to move because there was to many things that did not work and they could not fix, the 3rd room they fixed want w [... read more]as wrong. For excample the room we were first in ,the floor was really dirty,lipstick on the cup,air conditioner not working,big gap under the door any thing could crawl in,walls dirty and so on,2nd room dirty,safe not working,air not working,shower head laying on the floor in the bathroom in pieces,When they clean the rooms they don’t clean the floors,you have to find them to get clean towels,glasses and so on. All the furniture in the rooms is made out of plywood and painted white,nothing is ever fixed,they either leave it broken or patch it up,this place is a mess,don’t book here,cancel if you can,and be careful want the travel agent tells you about this place. The day we left the pool water look like milk,the buffet is very small,with no change in the food,if I could sent you some pictures of this place you could see what this place is like. Out of all the people we talked to there just two people said they liked this place,and they said they have always booked the cheapest resorts possible. Out of 16 years of travelling to resorts this is the first time I have did a review on one,there is always going to be some good and bad at each resort,this one is all bad,I could could say many more things about the dump.

Viva Heavens by Wyndham: NOT A 4 START HOTEL

NICE AND CLEAN HOTEL, SMALL, COZY. THE DOWNSIZE FOR IS THAT THERE IS ONLY 2 BARS, LOBBY IS QUITE SMALL AND NO ENTERTAINMENT AT ALL, PEOPLE AT THE FRONT DESK SOME PEOPLE ARE NICE BUT SOME PEOPLE HAVE A BIG ATTITUDE. FOOD IS ALRIGHT, NOT TOO MUCH VARIETY, SAME FOOD ALL THE TIME. THE GOOD THING IS THAT THEY HAVE 4 RESTAURANTS ALA CARTE, BUT EVERYDAY THERE' S ONLY TWO AVAILABLE PER DAY AND THEY ROTATE TO THE OTHER TWO, BUT IF YOU GO AFTER 7:00 PM BE PREPARE TO WAIT FOR A TABLE, AT THE PUEBLA RESTAUR [... read more]ANT THE FOOD IS ALRIGHT BUT THEY TAKE TOO LONG TO BRING YOUR FOOD AND IS NOT EVEN WARM, THE ONE WE ENJOY AND RECOMMEND IS THE BLEND, THE FOOD IS OK AS WELL, BUT SERVICE IS FASTER AND THE WAITERS ARE VERY FRIENDLY AND ATTEND SPECIALLY (DOTOR) BEST WAITER EVER, HE WILL GO THE EXTRA MILE TO MAKE YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE. AT THE BUFFET, THE ONLY LADY WHO WILL GREET YOU WITH A BIG SMILE IS SUSANA, BUT SHE IS ONLY THERE FOR BREAKFAST AND LUNCH, THE REST OF THE WAITERS YOUR ARE JUST ANOTHER GUEST, SOMETIMES THEY DON'T EVEN OFFER YOU A DRINK UNTIL YOU ASKED FOR IT, SOME OF THEM THEY EVEN LOOK MISERABLE. THE ROOMS ARE DECENT SIZE AND CLEAN, BEDS ARE SOMEWHAT COMFORTABLE, THE ONLY ANNOYING THING IS WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING AND THE AC TURNS ON YOU WILL HEARD A BIG BANG. WIFI AROUND THE HOTEL SUCKS, IT' S ON AND OFF ALL THE TIME, THERE ARE AREAS THAT YOU CAN'T EVEN CONNECT. I AM SORRY BUT THIS IS NOT A 4 STAR HOTEL, I WILL PROBABLY GIVE IT A 3 STARTS THE MOST, FOR THE PRICE THAT WE PAID IS NOT WHAT WE WERE EXPECTING.

Playabachata Hotel: Awesome resort

Playa Bachata resort is a great resort because of the cleanliness of rooms and grounds. Food is delicious. Variety of different food daily. Lot’s of activity daily. Pools and beach are great. Staff very friendly and helpful

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Great resort, small and close to pool, beach and restaurants

This is my 3rd. Visit and it gets better each time. Great food, really clean and amazing staff.. The upgrade to superior premium is well worth the extra. Private beach with waiter service, Vintage club all day with great assorted coffees and snacks, and speciality cocktails. Also all a la carte dinners booked right there. Also free wi fi. Fresh white beach towels brought to room daily with candie kisses. We were cared with lots of love.

Playabachata Hotel: Ok

Grounds and beach was great.. pool ok, no swim up bar.. Service and staff were friendly.. Entertainment crew were good and the evening shows were entertaining.. Buffet were repetitive, mostly the same food every night..

Playabachata Hotel: Disappointing!

This was my 4th visit to this resort. My first visit was ~18 - 20 years ago, when this resort first opened as part of the RIU chain. It was great at first, but with every visit over the years, the resort kept going downhill. My most recent stay (this will be my last) at Playabachatta was disappointing. The bad... The check-in process was way too long. The room smelled of humidity (probably moldy too). The bathroom showed signs of age (cracked tiles, dripping taps, loose handles, etc.). TV re [... read more]mote did not work. The food selection at the buffet restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner was very limited. Several times had to wait for clean plates. Food stations were sloppy. Waiters are not attentive (take too long to setup table, bring drinks, etc.). Twice the bars ran out of beer. The buffet restaurants were a major disappointment. The a-la-cart restaurant was worse. Our reservation was for the 2nd seating (forgot the exact time). When we arrived, the restaurant was not ready. The waiters were still cleaning up from the 1st seating. We had to look at the dirty tables and floors for 20 minutes before it was all cleaned up. The waiter who took our order was a bit rude when taking our order for food. The waiter who asked what we wanted to drink forgot to bring them. The food itself was horrible. We ordered "steak" medium-rare. The steak was half steamed and then lightly seared. It was chewy and had no taste. Really, really bad!!! The "nightly entertainment" was not nightly. When there was a show (45 minutes of it)- it was amature and unimpressive. The good... the beach was good.

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Excellent Value for the price paid. Loved our 9th visit!

Hotel: Love the layout, it is compact and within 5 minutes you can be from the lobby, main pool, your room and to the beach. Rooms are very clean. There are 3 floors (and I believe a 4th floor in one area) and no elevator, so if you need the main floor, email prior to going and request it. There is a small fridge, and you get one pespi, 7up, water and 2 cans of beer each day (they have Diet Pespi at the bars). There is no coffee maker and there is a hair dryer in bathroom. There are only 2 [... read more] small drawers and a few shelves for your clothing. They do have some hangers in the closet, but I bring my own for all my tops/dresses. Maids do a great job in cleaning each day. Food: We love the food here and that is why we returned for our 9th visit. (and going back again in April). The buffet food has lots of variety (and yes, it will feel repetitive, buy only because they offer lots of options). We enjoy all 3 of the al la carts. We book them upon arrival for as many nights is available. If you struggle to get into one, you can always go to the restaurant at night to check and see if they have had any cancellations (which happens often) to see if they can take you. They provide excellent service and food at all 3 of them. The main buffet has really good service as well (There is always a manger on site who is overseeing the staff to make sure you are getting your water/tea/coffee). You have to keep in mind that on really busy times of the day you may have to wait a little longer to get your table and service, which is understandable. Drinks: We do not buy the “royal” package; therefore, the alcohol is not premium, however we enjoy the drinks here. All the bartenders are very pleasant and will mix any type of drinks if you don’t see it on the menu. Its nice they have the blenders, so they can make those blender drinks for you as well. Beach: yes, there are lots of venders on the beach. Some people are annoyed by them to the point of not wanting to come back, while others, like us have gotten to know them over the years. I get a massage from Anna, nails done by Lilly and my silver jewelry with Pedro everytime…lol. My husband loves to sit and chat with the most of the vendors who are generally nice people. The beach itself is always kept clean. There are areas in front that have coral and if you bring your snorkel/mask, you will love to see the coral and fish. We love that you can walk long distances on either sides of the beach and not limited to just the resort. There was a lot of wind and some rain when we went, and that makes a difference in that the water was not as clear as the sand gets stirred up. If you walk along the beach I think you will find that this resort is the calmer side and much cleaner. Entertainment: The entertainment team work very hard and we recognize that based on the amount of money we spend to go here we don’t expect that they bring in outside entertainment. Remember that there is no disco on site (one just outside the resort at the mall where you buy your own drinks). But people tend to just stay around the lobby and drink after the evening shows. Service: It is the service and food that brings us back to this resort. We did have one issue with one of our rooms and although we called maintenance twice, they could not figure where the water was leaking from. By the third time, they figured it out and offered to move the group to an even nicer room to make up for the inconvenience. So many of the staff go above and beyond and too many to name…. The only improvement I would recommend is having more umbrellas (especially around the pools). If they had umbrellas between every set of chairs, that would eliminate the people playing the towel/reserving game. So frustrating that when you want to come back from the beach in the afternoon, that you cannot find shade anywhere by the pool. Tipping- Some may say that we only receive excellent service because we tip a lot, but we actually tip when we have received good service. A tip goes a long way for them, and they truly appreciate it. We tend to book this resort when the price is $1000 or less (from Toronto) and we feel for the price paid, it is excellent value. (Keep in mind that if your looking for under$ 1000, the only options are usually Cuba and Puerta Plata for a 4 star). We have travelled to many resorts and keep coming back to this one for the excellent value for the amount paid. See you in April!! 😊

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: great place

the nite music is far to loud lots of french who leave their manners at home finger in the soup then their mouth sorting the bacon with their hands then into their mouth lick clean and repeat arrive at d r airport behind 2 other planes 45 min to clear customs then sit on a bus in the parking lot for 40 min waiting to fill bus

Sunscape Puerto Plata: 7th visit!

Beautiful grounds. Friendly staff. Love the beach in this area. We get the suite everytime. Love having breakfast with Norberto and crew. After dinner drinks with Luis. All the staff are wonderful. We like that it is 15 minutes from airport.

Casa Marina Reef Resort: Not so great resort

I wish I had known more about the resort before I booked it was ok but the food I expected better, the two other times I went to the Dominican, food was 100% better staff was more friendly , smaller lobby than I’m used to, they kept running out of towels,I made the most of it and although I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, I did enjoy myself

Sunscape Puerto Plata: Excellent vacation destination in the Dominican Republic

Excellent resort with very friendly staff.Excellent buffet with a varied selection of food plus 3 other restaurants offering Asian,Italian and Argentinian menus.Pool and beach bars for great lunches and snacks and drinks. 2 pools and a great beach.Can not stress how wonderful and helpful the staff are at this resort!

Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: It’s okay

The resort on the hold was OK there was a lot of stairs and a very narrow area that was not VIP. I don’t think will ever visit that again porta Plata was nice but that resort I would look for a different one the people were nice the servers were very very good just too many stairs

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Had a great time!!

We had a great time at the resort. Everything was always very clean and the staff were incredibly accommodating. The beach was great! The water just depends on the weather of course but regardless it was great for swimming, very clean. Juan, the bartender at the tiki bar, was our favourite of the staff!! He is so friendly and his drinks were always perfect!! We would come back just for Juan!!

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Great Resort for Value Minded Travelers

After doing much research on where to get a decent resort at a reasonable price - VH Vantana was the winner and we were not disappointed. We were able to book 14 days for $1550 Canadian for first 2 weeks January. We arrived from the airport in good time - hotel being 25 minutes from the airport. We had requested rooms side by side with friends on upper floor. Unfortunately, the ones assigned were facing the noisy entertainment square- but after 2 more tries, we got a great superior room fac [... read more]ing beach trees on ocean side- thanks Edward. We got room 2228 - convenient to beach - pool and restaurants with an ocean view - and when it rained, we could walk under cover to entertainment- restaurant and lobby. Beds and pillows were comfortable. The resort is about 30 years old which would make a lot of people shy away from it - but management takes good care of the property - so there were not too many issues even though water went off for a few hours one day - power went off another day momentary - and rooms needed to be sprayed with pesticide while we were there Age shows in some areas but management tries hard to keep things in order. The food was very good - 3 a-la-carte restaurants. Restaurants have a good selection without too many frills and extras - but there something for everyone. I must say that the red table wine was terrible - many glasses were left on tables. And they want to sell you bottles of wines in many places for double the price you pay in Canada. They also need a better sports bar – they only had 1 TV ny the pool bar. The service was slow at times at the pool bar - due to volume. The entertainment group tried hard but it was terrible 90% of the time. The water ballet was ok and the Karaoke was funny. The local’s pedlars do roam the beach but that didn’t bother us much. The beach was very nice and lounge chairs were available most times. If you like walking – the beach cove is a great walk both ways with lots of natural habitat to explore. We met many people that where repeat customers- so this place has something going for it and we loved it as well. It’s not the biggest or fanciest resort we’ve been to - and the ocean can be rough at times - but the size of the resort was perfect and the people and staff very friendly. This resort appeals to young families- singles and retirees as well. I figure that 75% of the customers were Canadian – no wonder it’s a friendly crowd 😊 We’ll probably return if the price is right.

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: Great resort!

The resort was well laid out. Room was clean. Big bed. Nice sandy beach with no shortage of chez's. The buffet food was okay. I highly recommend the Mediterranean restaurant for the reserved dining. Take your own drinking containers for water and bar drinks, otherwise they give you those cheap little plastic cups at the bar. Shauna gave me a great deal on a last minute booking for one week and the process was seamless. Would definitely recommend.

Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada: One of the best Dominican Resorts!

Having just returned from the Iberostar CD, we were so impressed by the resort that we plan to return soon. It is an eco- friendly resort and works diligently to protect the environment. The beach is fantastic, large and free of litter. We went on a standard package and found the amenities well above other VIP packages elsewhere. It is a large resort but pleasant to walk through. The evening shows were primarily resort staff participants and luckily, we usually don’t attend them anyway. I must [... read more] compliment our concierge Jose who was so very kind to us. There was no pressure to purchase upgrades or packages. He was truly a gentleman. The food was superior to many of the resorts we have visited in the DR. Wait staff were very attentive and actually saved your favourite table each meal. The entire staff was kind and hard working. Bar drinks and staff were also excellent.