Disappointing 4-Star Experience

The resort falls far short of 4-star standards. Our "Superior Ocean View" room was starkly minimalist: no coffee maker, an empty mini-fridge, and a pay-per-use safe (watch the final bill—they tried to charge us double). The shower had almost no pressure, with water swinging wildly from scalding to icy. Noise from nearby activities blared past midnight every night, despite the room's prime location steps from the beach and its stunning balcony views. Dining and Bars: A Letdown The buffet was c [... read more]onsistently poor, missing items, zero variety, and low-quality food. À la carte restaurants were a step up with attentive service (unlike the nonexistent help at the buffet). Bars were chaotic: endless lines, subpar or unavailable drinks, and exhausted bartenders doing their best under pressure. Beach and Extras The white-sand beach was pleasant overall, mostly seaweed-free but dotted with hidden rocks. Weather was perfect (31°C+ sunshine), but skip the kayak/boat rental; they're rude. The pool was unappealing and poorly maintained. No visible cleaning efforts during the day, and the water appeared cloudy. In summary, beautiful setting marred by subpar facilities, food, and service. Not worth the 4-star price.

Viva Dominicus Palace by Wyndham: "A Home Away from Home + Sunny Weather"

A Familiar and Welcoming Stay: We booked a 14-day flight and all-inclusive package through Sunwing, and this was our fourth visit to Dominicus Palace. Once again, it truly felt like "a home away from home." Our stay in the Superior Room near the beach, located in a renovated block of rooms, was exceptional. The room was wonderfully equipped with all the conveniences needed to feel at ease. The overall atmosphere was lively and inviting, with an engaging animation team ensuring guests were en [... read more]tertained throughout the day. They led fun and energetic morning aerobics sessions, catering to guests of all ages with friendliness and warmth. Each evening, the administration arranged performances by talented local musicians in the main lobby, filling the space with the vibrant sounds of traditional melodies. Occasionally, we couldn’t resist joining in the dancing! A thoughtful touch for Italian-speaking guests was the special entertainment at the theater three times a week. Sunny Weather and Relaxation: The beautiful sunny weather added so much to our experience. Relaxing on the beach was pure bliss, with clean and comfortable lounge chairs always available. Daily towel changes were a welcome service that added to the convenience. Room Amenities and Thoughtful Details: The Superior Palace Room was both comfortable and well-equipped with modern facilities, including a safe and complimentary internet. Housekeeping provided daily service, ensuring fresh towels and essentials were replenished. A standout feature of the hotel was the filtered water stations on each floor, where guests could refill specially provided bottles. This thoughtful addition allowed us to stay hydrated while avoiding local water a much-appreciated health precaution. Constructive Feedback: The internet connection in the room was slow and inconsistent, which could be improved for a smoother experience. We recommend that staff members who interact with customers learn a few basic English words to help facilitate communication. Dining and Exceptional Service: We dined primarily at the Restaurant Buffet “La Yuca” near the main lobby, while lunch was often enjoyed at the snack bar by the beach. The food was consistently delicious, with an impressive variety of dishes and expertly prepared specialties. One evening, I savored the most delicious Seafood Paella – Mediterranean style! The desserts were equally memorable, especially the house-made Vanilla and Pistachio ice cream. Drinks like wine and beer were served generously and promptly upon request. The restaurant staff offered attentive and efficient service during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, making the dining experience truly outstanding. Personal Touch: One of my favorite activities was taking a leisurely walk from Dominicus Palace to Dominicus Beach along a picturesque walkway. To the left, breathtaking views of the sea stretched out endlessly, while lush greenery surrounded the resorts. It was a serene and rejuvenating way to exercise while soaking in the natural beauty of the area. Overall: Dominicus Palace is a wonderful place to spend quality family time. For those traveling from Canada or other winter destinations, it’s the perfect spot to recharge and soak up the sun in the Dominican Republic. Truly a gem for an unforgettable vacation! **However, we have some constructive feedback for Sunwing regarding the transportation from Punta Cana. On March 6, we were taken in a small SUV that had seen better days. What should have been a 55-minute journey to La Romana took over an hour and a half in cramped conditions, which was especially difficult after being on an aircraft for 4.5 hours. We would also like to understand the logic behind taking us to Punta Cana when La Romana Airport is closer to our destination

Second time back - great place

We liked this resort so much that we decided to visit again for New Year's week of Dec 26 to Jan 2. The plane landed in La Romana airport which is a small seasonal airport that operates few months in the winter season. It was very speedy passport control as Air Transat was the only plane there at the time. From airport to hotel it only took 20 min. The hotel caters to Europeans and some Argentinians, I didn't not see any American tourists and very few Canadians. It is located in beautifu [... read more]lly maintained lush gardens and some wildlife (Peacocks, iguana, geese) that people feed every day. Food was very good - lots of vegetarian choices, fish and amazing desserts. We tried 4 a la carte restaurants and enjoyed the atmosphere Also, beach is amazing with calm waters. Unlike Punta Canada, La Romana ocean is very calm and not too windy. The only negative aspect are front desk staff they are a bit rude but they get everything done. Overall, this is a good chain and we plan to visit their Freeport Bahamas location soon.

Spend your money and time elsewhere

The first day set the tone. We were approached five times in three hours by staff attempting to convince us to attend a one hour meeting to learn about the Viva membership benefits (read : time share) It was as stressful as being on a used car lot with their hard sell tactics. By the fifth approach we were admittedly curt and spent the balance of the trip avoiding them and not making eye contact. It was relentless and not what you hope for when going on vacation to relax. Retreating to our room  [... read more]proved to be worse. It was old and outdated and our wing bordered the public beach beside the resort. We were unable to sit on the ocean view balcony that we paid a premium for because there was the music coming from the pool that blasted (almost) all day that competed with the blaring music coming from the public beach. Bring ear plugs if you like afternoon siestas. Never going back to a Wyndham property if they think this is okay to do to their guests.

5 star Beach & Beautiful property

This property has the most wonderful beaches! You can snorkel by just walking into the ocean and looking down into the crystal clear water :) great combination of soft sand vs. coral areas with lots of fish. We brought our own goggles and snorkels. They also have several great pools between the Palace and Beach properties. The oceanside infinity pool was lovely. Also great options for catamaran rides, kayaks and paddle boards. There are interactive ducks, various birds, Geese and lizards [... read more] on site. Our daughters loved feeding them daily. The Palace buffet was our favourite, we tried several a la carte’s - the Mexican one was the best. La Creperie and smoothies from the Tiki bar were delicious. La Trattoria was great for late night, wood-fired, fresh pizza. We had a top floor, ocean front room in Building 59 - perfect location to access the sister resorts & so close to the beach we could hear the waves…

Great place the "Palace"

We spent a week at this resort and I would recommend it to anybody, because you can have almost everything you need with a possibility to have access to the sister resort, the Beaches too. Services are good The food is great The rooms are clean The beach and the sea are amazing The only negative thing was the loud music near the beach, if you are middle aged or senior.

Beautiful!

This is a great resort! People are friendly, food is good, lots of a la carte restaurant to choose from. The beach is spectacular with good snorkeling. Personally a better wine list would have been a bonus.

Beat the Winter Blahs - Enjoy a little summer in your winter! Destination: Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace -La Romana.

The resort is situated in Bayahibe, La Romana just 30 minutes buss drive from La Romana International Airport. After several years, I returned to this wonderful resort and I was impressed of the entirely redesigned lobby. To my surprise, at the lobby bar I was delighted to meet an old friend Raul the barman. No one can forget his friendly smile and his moto “Especial”! In this all-inclusive resort, the atmosphere provides a level of privacy that appeals especially to adult couples. Howeve [... read more]r, families with children are also welcome and are well taken care off! We had a “Garden View, Superior Room” very clean, good size bed. The rooms are maintained daily by the cleaning crew.. Complimentary Wi-Fi connection is available all around the resort. The food selection for breakfast lunch and supper is good, with restaurant reservation available as well. We eat mostly at Rest. La Yuca (buffet) which had a good assortment to our liking. My “sweet tooth” was delighted with the selection of sweets available, especially the home-made ice cream. The grounds are well maintained, and all is green - immaculate! The staff at this resort are having a pleasant professional attitude, making sure that you are having a great time. The most important time of our vacation was the accessibility to the immaculate white-sand beach, the ocean views looking out over the brilliant waters of the Caribbean Sea, and then enjoying a swim. Life can not be better! Each evening at the lobby bar, has live music, and of couple of time we danced to it. There are also daily shows given by the artistic crew. We preferred evening walks from “Dominicus Place” to the shopping center a nice 15 minutes walk. You don’t get bored at this resort! There are lots of activities available, including water sports, fitness programs etc. We have enjoyed the morning exercises at the pool site conducted by a dynamic team. The selected music that accompanied the exercises was great. In addition, we appreciated all the selection of Dominican music that played daily at the pool site! The staff at the beach bar are all great. In addition to drinks, snacks and light lunch is also available. All in all, we had a great time. Thank you “Viva Wydham Dominicus Place” for an unforgettable 12 days of vacation. This is "Au Revoir, not Goodbye”. In addition many thanks to Fathia Ibrahim from tripcentral.ca that help me book this vacation!

Lovely property and great staff

This is a beautiful property. The beach is wonderful. Both the new rooms and the older rooms are well kept, clean and comfortable. The staff were extremely helpful and did their very best to get us everything we needed to have a really good holiday. The food in general was good. We had our favorite al carte restaurants but the buffet always had ample choices. A good thing was that many of the foods were new to us but became some of our favorites. Who knew that fried mashed green plantai [... read more]ns are just delicious? This was our fourth time at this property and we have seen improvements every year. We hope to be back again next year.

Amazing resort.

This place has breathtaking beautiful gardens. It was a pleasure to take walks in the early mornings and evenings. The food was very good offering guests a vast variety of food selections. However, we were not happy with the Oriental Restaurant. We found that the resort was huge and at times very tiring for us to get from one area to another. It would be great if they would consider offering cart service for seniors. The front desk staff was extremely helpful and went out of their way to [... read more] assistance us with our concerns. Only, we had to wait 4 hours before check-in as we arrived at 11 a.m. and they have check in set at 3 p.m. It was an uncomfortable hot wait for us.

Wonderful vacation at wonderful resort

The resort was beautiful. It was always kept very very clean, the food was amazing. The staff were pleasant and accommodating. The grounds and pools were fabulous. All in all, it was truly an enjoyable vacation.

Hassled

The resort was ok. More like a 3 out of 5. The food was better in the non VIP section but not that great. Everyday we were harassed every single day to attend information to buy into the hotel's direct purchase program---constantly harassed. While in the pool, ocean, eating---eveverywhere. I would not recommend. Not recommend!

Great vacation

The hotel has a lot to offer. Awesome beach area. Ocean view room that we upgraded to needed an update badly as opposed to 4 years being at the same resort, but a garden view room. Buffet appeared to has less variety, but the food was great

Nice

the road going into the resort its self was a disaster.The bus was 1 1/2 late picking us up to go to the airport. The rep for WestJet was no help at all. I would go again but only if the road was fixed. The resort was good overall including the staff and food.

La Romana South Coast experience

My wife and I have traveled throughout the Dominican Republic to many places over the last 12 years, mainly on the North Coast. The Viva Wyndham Dominicus Palace was an excellent vacation choice this December during their off season. The rooms were adequate and very clean. Quiet at night provided you shut your patio door. The food in the dining hall was very good. The hostess gave everyone hand sanitizer as you walked through the door. This is a great idea! Also, there was no smoking in the di [... read more]ning area! Hurray! I was never bored with the food and always had a wide selection to choose from. Once a week they brought out delicious cheeses to sample. They had various theme nights such as Dominican, Mexican, Italian etc. My husband and I do a lot of cooking at home and I can't say enough about the chef's menus and food selection. The meals are standard European fare since 90% of the vacationer's are from Italy, France, some Germans, Swedes, Slovaks, Fins as well as French Canadians. There were a few English Canadians but not many. We met a lot of people that could speak some English. Also, the staff spoke some English and we managed fine. We expect this every time we travel to the D.R. I loved the walkway along the beach! In the evenings after dinner we walked the well lit path over to the Dominicus Beach Hotel. There is a central meeting area with a bar and loads of seating. They played live music once a week. Everyone would head over to this area after dinner. It's such a nice walk along the sidewalk between resorts and the meeting area was a perfect place to congregate and chat with the different people you've met during the week. There is also a quiet bar between resorts you can sit at and have a cappuccino or a drink and listen to the waves roll in. The pool bar is really nice during the day at the Palace however, I did not like the Karaoke at night. I think they could improve this. The bar in the lobby is very nice with friendly staff. A good place to have a cocktail before dinner or a cappuccino in the afternoon. The Caribbean beach was very nice, with warm water, and easy to swim in. This is quite different compared to the North Coast, Atlantic side. There were lots of chairs available and no rush to "save you chair" since we vacationed off-season just before the Christmas rush. Still, it was quite busy. Our last week was rather wavy and we enjoyed this very much. I did a lot of kayaking and tried sailing and paddle boarding one day. The sand is very soft and difficult to walk long distances. I only walked the entire beach area twice due to the soft sand. However, it's a good workout! We spent most of our time at the beach and swam every day. They have the swimming area all marked off so lots of people would swim laps in the ocean every day. Overall, this resort has a very relaxed atmosphere. My wife felt very comfortable getting drinks at the bar, accessing sports equipment etc. on her own. Many guests got up and participated in all the sports activities, especially the dancing lessons twice a day. I wish more Canadians would look at this area of the D.R. I would highly recommend the Jeep Safari tour. You really get to see a lot of what goes on out in the Country. My highlight was seeing the sugar plantations. We also took a cab into the city of La Romana (population approx. 200K) and walked all over. The taxi picked us up 3 hours later. It was a busy, safe city and no one tried hustling us to buy anything. We are used to stepping outside the resort and we are careful to watch our backs when traveling. My wife and I really look forward to returning next year!

Amazing Vacation. Very relaxing.

It was beautiful. The staff and entertainers were extremely friendly and helpful. We liked how the entertainers involved our children. We really enjoyed the daily and nightly entertainment. We would definitely go back again.