Beautiful weather

The room was good and cleaning service was awesome. The beach was very disappointing, full of garbage and hardly any chairs. Staff was very friendly and helpful. The internet service was terrible. Our pool was really nice and was designated as an adult only.

Great resort

Great hotel attached to Cofresi and Tropical resorts. You should expect to spend all of your time at those resorts as there is only 2 small pools and a buffet (breakfast and lunch only) at residence suites. Tropical has an excellent VIP beach that you have access to and thats where you can get all the drink choices, espresso, cabanas and sushi that you can't get anywhere else (all included). Cofresi has a splash pad area with a slide thats fun with kids. The room was clean and nice and the staff [... read more] were lovely. The beach itself is on a platform with sand as I think the tide can come up pretty high at times. Overall great food (although no ice cream at buffets), great room, great facility. I would recommend to others for sure!

Disappointing

As a group, we found this resort disappointing for a variety of reasons. I will provide more information below and although it may be lengthy, I feel this is a perfect opportunity to explain, fully, my concerns. I would also like to state that the natural state of the resort was beautiful. I really appreciated that the resort was built around nature instead of nature being taken down for a resort. With that said, I think it is important that future travellers are aware of the amount of walki [... read more]ng uphill/downhill and stairs that they face regardless of shuttles or the use of golf carts. 1. Shuttles/Golf Carts: We were not part of the 'Presidential Suites" and therefore did not have access to the golf carts. We relied on the shuttles. These shuttles are crowded and there was no consistency with the time that they would pick up. Given that to get to any location on the resort it a 'walk' and a lot of hills, it would be nice to be able to have the option to rent a golf cart for convenience and independence. In addition, given the size of the shuttle, many times they were full, making it difficult to get on and off. The shuttle was not consistent with when they were picking up and how long to the destination. In some cases, it would take 5 minutes to get to a location, another other times it was 15 minutes. Regardless of the number of people on the shuttle. This made it difficult to make proper time arrangements for a la carte reservations. As a recommendation, please run more shuttles. 2. Entertainment: Entertainment, more like lack of entertainment was a definite issue. There was no music at many of the pools. No disco on the resort and no general feel of entertainment. We did participate in the foam party, which was great, but there was little to nothing else. The time spent in the evening was frustrating when it came to getting something to drink and there was a lot of inconsistency. For example, we could not get coffee at certain bars, lobby bar would have none so you would have to go to the buffet. The poolside bar would close, so you would have to go to the buffet for a drink, and if that was closed you would have to go to the casino for a drink. Too much time was spent moving from one location to another for a cocktail when none of these locations were close. You must agree that when on vacation, one would want to be able to stay in one location without having to constantly move areas in order to get a drink. In addition, it was surprising that I could get a martini at the casino but I could not get one at the martini bar?!?! With a resort of this size, one would think that there would be a disco/dance club, a place where adults could go dancing in the evening, but no such place existed. What! But, there was a location, a tiny club location beside the casino. But alas, you could not gain access to this place unless you were a member, which I will speak to in another section. In addition to no real entertainment on the resort, there was no entertainment or music whatso ever on the beach! 3. Food: Generally, the food was good. Although many times, in the buffet, the food was cold, this was not really an issue. The issue with the food is the lack of what would be considered 'regular' stuff. Specifically, ICE CREAM! Why was there no ice cream available at the buffet. We were able to enjoy some ice cream when we went to a la carte restaurants but that was it. When we enquired about ice cream, we were told that it was available to 'members' only. This seems very unfair. We later found a small freezer in the mini-mart that sold ice cream, but this is not acceptable. In eating at the a la carte restaurants, which was great, at the Italian restaurant, there was so much food that we requested to be able to take some of our meal back to our room, we were denied. Instead, our leftover meals were thrown in the garbage! This did not make sense to me and is a real waste of food. And, why is there no room service at this resort???? Although our rooms were cleaned very well, everyday, we were disappointed when the fridge was only refilled withe water. We had consumed the pop and beer the first night and after that, no more was replemished. 4. Sales: The sales people at the resort, selling time share, were extremely aggressive. Daily we were approached to take a tour and learn more about the resort. These people were standing outside of the buffet. Upon saying 'no thank you', they would continue to follow us trying to convince us of the tour, asking why we didn't want to go and overall being pushy. 'Winston' in particular was very aggressive. I can appreciate that they are doing a job, but it is unnecessary to keep questioning on someone's availability and why they are saying no. It was too much! 5. Power: Several times during our week, the resort lost power. No mention of what happened, how long it would last, or any compensation for any inconvenience. Basically, this was not a problem, power outages happen, but in the room, the air conditioning unit was very loud and would shut off when the power went out and then turn back on. This happened 8 times in one night! We were a travelling group of 8 adults and three out of the 4 rooms had power issues, loud air conditioner and no hot water in one room. The concerns were brought up to the front desk who offered another room, but by this point in our vacation, the idea of packing all of our luggage to relocate seemed fruitless given that we were only there for another two days. General points: Overall the resort was beautiful in landscape, the staff were helpful when approached, but it was surprising to approach several security guards asking for directions who did not speak or understand English. To advertise this resort for all is a terrible mis advertisement. The treatment and explanation we received indicated that if you were not a 'member' or 'VIP', you did not have access to a lot of amenities. I would recommend they stop selling travel packages to the average person and just concentrate on being an 'Members Only' resort. We had a great time on our vacation but that was based on the company, not the resort or what they offered. IF I take a trip to Dominican again, I will definitely NOT return to this resort, nor will I recommend it.

Nice resort.

As this was our first time to the Dominican, we found that we quite enjoyed the resort we stayed at. You had access to 2 different places along with a mini casino and a variety of other places to check out. The beach was nice for the most part, however there was quite a bit of rocks in the water. The service was amazing and the drinks/food were the star of the show. The only thing that was a bit of the negative was the rocky beach as once you went out about 5-10m, you would step on one. All thin [... read more]gs considered, it was a very fun time and we would go there again

Avoid this resort at all costs! The staff and service are terrible, and I would never consider returning.

I’ve travelled extensively to various countries and resorts, but Lifestyle Tropical Beach Resort stands out as the worst experience I’ve ever had. Upon check-in, guests are given a yellow bracelet, signifying the lowest tier at the resort. For an additional cost, you can upgrade to various memberships, each identified by a different wristband colour. The more you pay, the more access you gain to different areas and amenities throughout the resort. Be prepared to be constantly hassled about [... read more] purchasing a timeshare during your stay. The staff are relentless in their attempts to sell, even going so far as to trap you into attending a three-hour presentation. If anyone offers to drive you to a free round of golf or show you around the grounds, it’s almost certainly a ploy to pitch a timeshare. They even approach guests while they’re eating at the restaurants. When they approached me, I managed to get them to leave me alone by claiming the vacation was a gift and that I was poor, even joking that I get up at 5 a.m. back home to wait in bread lines. They immediately backed off—problem solved! The resort itself is quite large, and while the grounds, food, and weather were decent, the beach was filthy and uninviting. However, the most shocking part of the experience was the staff. Despite the resort employing around 3,000 people, not a single staff member I encountered during my week-long stay made any effort to smile or improve my experience. Many of them appeared arrogant and treated guests with complete disregard. If you’re staying at the Residence Inn section within the resort, your access is incredibly restricted. Though they claim guests have access to 11 restaurants, the reality is very different. You’re limited to two international buffets offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While the menu varies daily, the other nine restaurants are supposedly “reservation only,” yet reservations are perpetually unavailable. Restaurant reservations can only be made between 8 and 9 a.m., but staff repeatedly claimed they were fully booked during that time. I visited a few of the so-called “reservation only” restaurants and managed to talk my way in by claiming I had made a reservation and that my name must have been mistakenly left off the list. During the hour I spent there, the restaurant remained half-empty the entire time. The poor treatment extended beyond the resort. Staff at the airport were rude, and even a visit to a grocery store called Jumbo in Puerto Plata resulted in a hostile interaction with a cashier. The entire area seemed rife with corruption, with everyone—from airport staff to shuttle drivers, security personnel, and resort employees—working together to exploit tourists financially. The alcohol served at the resort is another major disappointment. It is all produced by a single company and tastes absolutely terrible—comparable to drinking paint thinner. I would never return to this resort or Puerto Plata. It was, without a doubt, the worst vacation I’ve ever experienced.

Solid four star

This is a big beautiful property. It has several sister hotels in the area which are accessible by provided shuttle buses, or walk.(maximum time to get to any hotel 6 minutes). the hotel we stayed was called Residence. There are many stairs and hills. Would not be suitable, in my opinion, for persons with mobility issues. There were many pools, never did I see overcrowding. Beach, we had a couple of beach days, we did not have a problem finding a cabana to use, however by the afternoon, i [... read more]t might be harder. It is my experience that the sea here is usually very wavy. (which we like). This would not be the beach for snorkelers. Food/drinks. There was never a shortage of food or drinks at this hotel. The food I gave a 3. There were a lot of stewy type foods. Even vegetables, at times were in some type of gravey. I truly believe they could do better with food, however I never walked away hungry. We went to the Italian al a carte, this was the only time we came across almost rude, employee.We came for a reservation 4 minutes early, the reception, stated, all these people are waiting, (she waved to show all the people sitting by the pool waiting to be seated) she stated, you will have to wait your turn. yikes..... I should mention, not every hotel offers everything. Example, all entertainment is at one sister hotel, the al a cartes are all at different sister hotels. It truly is not a big deal as there are many shuttle buses to take you were you need to go. There was a 20.00 us fee per person to get out of the country.

Spectacular

This hotel is very nice. It's clean, well managed, the people were friendly. The food was delicious. We were never hungry. We had different nationatility type resturants to visit. the bâches were clean , the pools were clean and fresh. the rooms was cool and just right. It was a very comfortable vacation. Everything was taking care of. There was security every where so we didn't feel scared at night walking alone. The shows were spectacular amazing, entertaining. We want to go bac [... read more]k. I love the fact that there was a bus to take us to and from the airport in Dominican Republic. It was great trip, highly recommend.

Lifestyle Residence Suites

I just got back January 12th and I am not a fan. There are way too many stairs everywhere in the complex that is made up of many Hotels. You need to take the shuttle bus everywhere because there is only one bar at the Lifestyle Residence Suites where I stayed, and it is the pool bar that is only open from 10 to 5. There is a very small buffet for breakfast and lunch but it is an Al a Carte restaurant at night, so you have to shuttle to one of the buffets at one of the other hotels. The beach is  [... read more]a 10 minute shuttle ride away, and then you do a whole bunch of stairs down to find the beach.There is no snack bar restaurant in any of the hotels in the complex. If you want to sit at a bar and have a few drinks after supper; you guessed it, no bar at Lifestyle Residence Suites so off on the shuttle you go. I spent more time on the shuttles than anything else. This is all so a members complex, and you will be lied to when someone will ask you if you need a ride somewhere, and then they take you to the sales office to try and sell you a membership instead of where you were going. There are a lot VIP beaches, restaurants, world, and much more that if you are not a member you do not have access to. What they advertise is the VIP beach and other VIP amenities that you do not have access to on any of the travel websites, so beware. You are not getting what is advertised. I will be booking at a small 1 hotel complex my next trip and will not be back to Lifestyle Residence Suites.

Excellent vslue

Good value for your money. Beach nice but small in size compared to other resorts. Pools were nice with a good selection ie quiet or entertainment staff. Room was outdated but Ac and beds were very good lots of hot water as well. We stayed at the Residence Suites.