Playabachata Hotel: Honest Truth of our 1st Family Vacation

The hotel was dated but very nice, it was well kept, clean, bright and very scenic. The staff were friendly and polite but it got annoying when they would keep pushing you too visit the Senator hotel so they can pitch their Timeshares on to you. The buffet had a good selection to choice and very clean. The superior Garden view room was our choice and we were please with the size and cleanliness of it. The bathroom windows do not open and there was no fan in the bathroom which cause it to be very [... read more] musty. We had three encounters of unwelcome cockroaches. Entertainment could use much improvement along with the range of the provided WiFi in the hotel. The beach is what we came for and was the highlight of our stay it was AMAZING! My family really needed this vacation so we give this trip a 8/10.

Senator Puerto Plata Hotel: Great time at the Senator!

First time in Dominican and had a great week at Senator Resort in Puerto Plata. The staff were all friendly and the wait staff in all areas were always quick to serve. I was amazed at how clean everything is kept considering how many people are being served every hour! Also impressed that many bartenders remember your face and your regular order...and Alexander at the sports bar even talked some hockey with us! I will definitely be returning to this resort.

Senator Puerto Plata Hotel: Amazing resort

Hotel is very good, long beach, around amazing view, restaurants are beautiful with variety of food.Food are delicious staff very friendly and polite. Hotel is clean, room spacious. Japanese and Steak restaurants serving very good meal. Available as well coffee and pizza shops.

Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: Love Cofressi Palm!

I was quite skeptical about Cofressi after reading some bad reviews, but I was super impressed! Check in was easy and the staff were pretty friendly. I liked our room, it was good sized, clean and had a huge balcony with Muskoka chairs. The air conditioning worked great and the bed was decent. The grounds are amazing! Very beautiful. So many pools and bars. Eveything kept very clean. The staff at the bars were so friendly and danced alot to get you having a good time. The food was surprisingly g [... read more]ood and no shortage of it! Lots of different options. Lots of activties and the shows every night were good. The only things i didn't like was the fact there are a million stairs and there on septic so it can get pretty stinky! The beach isn't great, no sandy areas, the water comes up super high and they should rake the beach more often.

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: Be Live Marien Collection Puerto Plata

I spent 8 days at this resort. Pros: The food was really good with a lot of different items to choose from, grounds well kept, the shows were good. Cons: Not much animation, especially for solo travellers, people wake up at the crack of dawn to reserve spots around the pool by putting towels on transats without using them for hours

Casa Marina Reef Resort: Meh

Hotel is nice, grounds are nice. The ocean and Jacuzzi's were closed for first 4 days due to rain and wind. It is a private beach set in some beautiful coral so the waves were hitting hard. The staff was mostly friendly, the game organizers by the pool were awesome, enthusiastic and fun! The food was good, I only tried Mexican and Italian restaurants and buffet, the only other restaurant is Seafood - it was a line up to book the restaurants, but no issues like not available. Breakfast buffe [... read more]t only had bacon on 2 days for about 1/2 hour. Yogurt for 1 day but I did see some people asking and servers bringing from the kitchen upon request. The BOOs; Only one key card per room, we were told to come check "the next day" every day with no success in getting another, which sucked when we split up. Could not get a pool towel for the first 3 days due to availability and we were only able to exchange once in the next 4 days. We complained up front and the kid at the desk actually told us to fuck off ... so that was amazing. :( There are 3 bars total, none at the pool which sucked. 2 beach bars opened at 10am, one closed at 6 the furthest one away closed at 11. The restaurant/disco bar did not serve until after dinner (Mexican Restaurant) and closed at 1 or 2am. At ALL BARS, there was only 2 servers - there was ALWAYS a line and a wait 5 mins. up to 10 mins. for drinks. It seemed only one was serving while the other was cleaning up or prepping. I couldn't imagine how the servers felt. One said this was the only resort they'd ever worked at with such horrible service. My Service Star Rating is based more on time....

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Highly Recommend!

This resort delivered more than expected! The food was incredibly delicious, not just for resort food! My party of friends was delighted at each meal, which was always varied. The grounds are well laid out and nothing is far away - very short walk to the beach, restaurants, pool - all very convenient. The staff are all very lovely, helpful, and fun, and the resort itself is also located a 5-minute walk to a local mall where you can buy souvenirs, services, and conveniences. I went with two  [... read more]girlfriends, and we had a great time, but there were also couples of all ages, families, and many different types of groups on the resort, all enjoying the amenities. I would recommend this resort for anyone looking for a basic all-inclusive vacation to the Dominican Republic!

Marien Puerto Plata Hotel: Nice family vacation

Was a nice resort to spend a week with family. Rooms were very nice and comfortable. Travelled with an infant and accommodations were great. food was very good. Beach was nice but water was too rough to swim in 5 of the 7 days. Staff very friendly.

Casa Marina Reef Resort: If it an't broke why change

Have you ever gone to a place had great time food good great location family have a good time, then on your next vacation went somewhere else and it was losy or had a bad experience it happen to me and you spent all that money and you regret going there. When i go away I want sun good people good food and niece room thats what i get when I go to Casa Marina. I have met friends from Europe Russia Italy and other countries and see them sometimes. I have to say the people that work at the hotel fro [... read more]m front desk to the maids and to bartenders and cooks, they become good friends. Like said before great hotel niece people and blue water.

VH Atmosphere: Rest and Relax

Hotel staff were excellent and friendly. Food was good and rooms were clean and comfortable. If your looking for a place to destress and relax this is the place for you. Only disappointment was the lack of night life.

Lifestyle Tropical Beach Resort: Average Resort

I have been to this resort 3 times, this would be my forth. This time was not a pleasant trip. I called numerous times and visited the front lobby asking for towels in my room on the first day my family and I got to the hotel. I had to wait 2 days for bathroom towels and beach towels, till I finally was given them in my room. I had NO towels for 2 days. And after that, I still had to call everyday for towels. Literally every single day for bathroom towels. I found cockroaches in my room. Th [... read more]e food was very disappointing. Not only did my husband and I get sick but the food was either disgusting or tasted funny. There was no selection. It was a 2 star type of buffet. This hotel has excellent staff during the mornings and afternoons. The evening staff are not as helpful and sometimes can be rude. I was no impressed this time around and I absolutely will not be returning.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: overall great experience

The staff are genuinely friendly and helpful. The beach was good but not the best as there was heavy waves which only allowed us to be fairly close to the shore. Rooms were very clean and comfortable. What I was disappointed in was the food. options were limited at the buffet, so although i always did find one or two things that i liked, i never felt satisfied after eating. The friend chicken at the snack bar was sometimes a bit stale. Overall i had a great experience and was dissapointed with t [... read more]he food which was very limited and didnt have the the best flavour.

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort: Great Resort

My second time visiting VH Gran Ventana. I really love the location. It's got a great beach. The staff are always cleaning and maintaining the grounds and facilities. The people are really nice. It is a great resort for older people as the pool, beach and restaurants are relatively close together. The food is good, although the a la carte restaurants aren't as good as they used to be. On my first visit in 2011 I was impressed by a la carte's not so much this time. The room was clean and we had a [... read more] view of the water which was nice as we were on the ground floor. I prefer a much lighter bed cover, ours was very physically heavy and I found it difficult to get comfortable. They had entertainment every night but it was repetitive and can use improving. I would visit again. Location, beach, people and food made for a great vacation.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Small Resort

This was a small resort. It was very nice that it had three different pools but all were shallow. The rooms were clean but dated and the beds were hard. All of the staff were very friendly and helpful. Each carrier seemed to different services, some people had to pay for internet and for some it was included. I would recommend to travel with Air transat if going to this resort

Senator Puerto Plata Hotel: Fabulous, Fun and Fulfilling

We had a group of 10 people for some it was our second visit to the resort. We had a fabulous time! We love the fresh, crisp, clean look of the place. This resort has everything you need for a great holiday. Good food is key and the staff is so friendly and helpful. We had a little trouble with booking the alacarts but it worked out in the end, we had two birthdays during the week and the staff produced a cake for each and sang happy birthday to each of us, candle and all. One small issue, a co [... read more]uple of days they ran out of certain alcohols, but tried to get it stocked up asap, even offered to find me once they had it. The beds are amazing n the entire place is spotless, someone cleaning the bathrooms seems like 24 7. We really enjoyed the entertainment staff, Skinny, Dora and Picachu. They had us up and enjoying all of the activities at the pool and beach party. I would definitely return. Oh yes and with this you also have full access to the Bachata property as well, no complaints here...

Senator Puerto Plata Hotel: Great resort with phenomenal staff.

This is one of the best resorts I have ever visited. The grounds are immaculate. Staff are super great. Food is good too. This was our third visit. Came home Mondsy and would go back today if I could. Cruise ships come in very close and they are great to watch

Sunscape Puerto Plata: Amazing Resort

Stayed from Dec. 30-January 6-20, went to celebrate New Years with the family, we were a group of 24 adults with 2 children under 12. The Hotel is clean is immaculately clean, from the lobby, bathrooms and grounds, the rooms have been updated they are spacious and clean. The mattress are comfortable as well. The check-in went smoothly so did the check-out. The food is okay at the buffet I think their breakfast buffet was the one I was not that keen on. The restaurant in the pool are is very good [... read more], the pizza spot is amazing and the café is fabulous. The staff is very friendly and always made us feel very comfortable. Juan de Jesus & Jairo from the entertainment team are just amazing they made our stay a very enjoyable one. A big shout out to the girls in the café coco truly friendly ladies. We did 2 excursions they were fun and well organized. The massage offered in the beach are well worth the money. I really can't say anything bad of this resort. This was our second time in Dominican but our first time at this resort. Would definitely consider going back.

Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: You get what you pay for

We had a nice stay at confresi palm. We aren’t usually very picky travellers but the one thing that I wasn’t super impressed with was that booking through trip central didn’t give you access to all the facilities - about 90% of the resort was only available to “VIP members” which costed an extra fee. On our first day there, we were approached by a resort employee who told us he would take us on a tour of the resort but actually took us to the sales centre, where were were stuck for abo [... read more]ut an hour trying to get talked into upgrading to a VIP for an annual fee. The resort really creates a segregation between just standard guests and vip guests - for example we weren’t allowed on some parts of the beach and weren’t allowed at some bars. Other than that, the beach was beautiful and the food was ok, loved the Italian a la carte! If you care about the rooms, I would definitely recommend a garden or beach view, as the standard was a bit out dated and run down.

Cofresi Palm Beach and Spa Resort: Absolute amazing time

I had an amazing time at the cofresi palm resort all the staff and entertainers went above and beyond. The shows were amazing and had some great parties. Met some really great people and I cannot wait to go back again. I would definitely recommend to anyone.

Senator Puerto Plata Hotel: Mixed feelings...

My wife and I just returned from 2 weeks at the Senator Puerto Plata Resort and Spa in the Dominican Republic. We had read several great reviews about this resort before we booked – most of them rating the hotel at 5 out of 5 stars; however, this was not our experience. The resort is beautiful and there are a lot of positives about the resort but the negatives really ruined our experience. The Positives: The scenery is beautiful. You have the ocean on one side and mountains all around [... read more] the resort. Also, there is a port for cruise ships beside the resort and you get to see these gigantic cruise ships coming and going regularly. The resort itself has been upgraded and revamped to give it a minimalistic appeal. It is completely redone from the old RIU Bachata and looks brand new. The cleaning staff do a great job of keeping the resort common areas and bathrooms clean. We need to mention Estrella as a top-notch cleaner in the public washrooms and common area---Always a smile and a hug for the guests! You see all of them coming around to clean at all hours and they always have a smile and a hello (Hola) for the guests. The grounds are also beautiful and very well maintained—credit to the gardeners! The rooms themselves are very nice and well equipped (soaps, shampoos, hair dryer, iron, coffee-maker, razors and toothbrush in case you forget and bar-fridge with water and pop). The lady that cleaned our room (Barbara), did a great job and always replenished the water and pop, and created fantastic towel art every day for us. The front desk staff are excellent. They were always very helpful – especially Michel. When we checked-in she saw that my wife’s birthday was in January (on the same day as hers!), so she had somebody decorate our room on the day we arrived. She made my wife feel very special and welcome. Also, when we had asked all over the resort about getting our free bottle of rum that we are supposed to get every 5 days - she was the only one that got it done, as soon as we asked her about it. The Legends Sports Bar was awesome. All the servers were excellent and a lot of fun - especially Luis and Ariel. These guys really know their stuff and can make any drink – we highly recommend that you try a Chocolate Monkey. My wife is a former bartender, and she had nothing but good words to say about their creativity and service. The food here was fantastic - burgers, chicken balls, onion rings and Caesar salad and they made fresh popcorn in the evenings. The food throughout the resort was very good. The buffet and the Snack Bar by the pool both had good selections. The club sandwich at the Snack Bar was especially good. There is also a pizzeria on Tropical Avenue that makes good pizza (using the oils that they have on the pizza really adds to the flavour) and there is an ice cream shop that has really good ice cream and lots of flavours and toppings. We tried the Japanese a la carte and the Steak House. Both were excellent and the service was exceptional. You get a ton of food at the Japanese restaurant and they cook it in front of you. We were a little disappointed that there was not much of a show as part of the cooking. The Steak House was very good. The salad comes with this amazing little edible bowl that tastes like a cheese corn bread. I really enjoyed that there was beach volleyball being played at most times in the day and the entertainment team often joined in. However, the court does not have enough sand on it and there are several pieces of coral that the players were getting hurt on. I really hope the management addresses this issue for the safety of their guests. The entertainment team were good. We didn’t get to interact with them much when the resort was full, as they were more engaged with the younger guests; however, in our 2nd week we got to spend some time with Pollo, Pikachu, Coffee and Dora. My wife especially liked chatting with Dora and her dances with Pollo, especially to Suavamiente! The Negatives The staff selling time shares are extremely annoying. There are several of them and we were pestered by all of them at one time or another. They do not tell you what they are all about but just try to get you to attend a session (a Grand Opening) where the closers will push you to buy. The worst of all was when a very official looking gentleman came and sat at the end of our lounge chair at the pool and said he was the Manager in charge of the accommodations and wanted to know if everything was okay with our room. After getting all our information he then started into his pitch about attending the Grand Opening, etc. – he even said he would send a bottle of rum to our room and would split the money with us that he gets for having us attend the session. We were extremely annoyed to be pestered so much on our vacation by these salespeople but to have the nerve to come and interrupt us at the pool (twice), during the day was completely unacceptable. The New Year’s Eve dinner was a big disappointment. We were at the late sitting and we could only get a half of a lobster to share between the two of us. We were told that people at the early sitting were taking two or three lobster halves each. We complained the next day to the Restaurant Manager about not getting lobster and he said he would look into it and get back to us. We never heard a word back from him. Very poor customer service from a manager, and from the resort as a whole. And, the New Year’s Eve show was nothing special either. We have been to other resorts where the New Year’s Eve show was absolutely spectacular. Slow service – we noticed that during the last week of December when the resort was packed full that there were not enough servers and the service became extremely slow. The worst was an hour and a half wait for our lunch at the lunch restaurant and it probably would have been longer had my wife not complained to the waiter. We heard from some other guests that had been to the resort earlier in the year that the service had been great when the resort was only 60 – 70% full and they were shocked by how poor the service was with the resort being full. The beach is ok but nothing special, compared to other beaches we have visited. Lastly, there was an incident with a very drunk and half-dressed guest outside our room early one morning which my wife felt it necessary for the guest’s safety and well-being, to get a security guard involved in. While this guest’s behaviour was not the hotel’s fault, the concern is that somebody served her well past the point of inebriation and given her state of undress – my wife was asked to help carry her to her room in another building. We will contact management regarding such in a private email. My wife is someone who is highly skilled in interventions such as this...lucky for this client. Conclusion The resort is really beautiful and we did enjoy our stay but the people selling the time-shares and the slow service really annoyed us. A few tweaks by management and the resort could truly be a 5 out of 5 stars. I would consider going back to this resort but not at high season.