What a beautiful place. There is much potential in this resort but they put so much emphisis on becoming a club member "VIP" that they go as far as talking down their own resort. Our party consisted of 11 people ranging from the age of 3 through the age of 88 years old. We had booked 5 of their standard "Tropical" accomodations. We liked the room size and can say they kept them clean. No bathtubs just showers ok for adults but if you have little ones it can be a challenge. You are supplied with bottled water and a water cooler is available on each floor of the building, because you cannot drink the tap water!! The proximity of the pool and beach are reasonable and staff members are helpful and friendly. The food offered was good and cooked mostly in front of you. We found the beef to taste ok but was very tough. The pork was great sometimes and not so great other times but always greasy. I found myself craving peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from the third day until the end of our stay. I wish the meals offered were not scheduled, after all we were on vacation. Good luck booking one of their other restaurant's if you choose not to become a member. We did not like the constant harrassment of the VIP club member sales team who were stalking us everywhere. We were approached at our room door and at the pool, beach, the common meal area etc.. When we arrived at the airport we saw a Shuttle bus driver from the Lifestyle Hacienda Beach Resort and Spa. we asked him about transportation then he asked if we were members we told him no. He called the Resort and they said we had to deal with the transportation for ourselves not a good way to treat potential future "VIP" members. We were told that the taxis took credit cards and decided to take two taxis to the resort . Upon arriving at the resort they would only take cash and we did not have the chance to get to a cash machine up to that point. We checked in and settled down. The first night my wife and I who put out all the financing for this trip ended up with the only room out of our five rooms to have no air conditioning. That problem was fixed during the next morning after a lenghty attempt at 2am. On our first morning while we were all going to breakfast we were stopped by the sales guys who wanted our attention and told us we could be treated better as "VIP"s just come to a members tour and they will go over all that it means to be a VIP. We told them it was not a good time. They kept on us and on us for three more days to come to the VIP tour. This pushy tactic after a rough start to our stay made us feel as if we were piggy banks being shaken for all we were worth. My wife and I finally told them we would go to the VIP tour if they would accomadate us with transportation to the airport on the day we were to depart. We did not become VIP's and for the last couple days felt like we had been given a second or third class status by many of the administrative staff. I do have to mention that some of their staff members were really terriffic and they made the last few days easier to get through. One last comment, we did get the shuttle to transport us to the airport but one taxi and the VIP bus were sent. The administrative people tried putting all of my family in the taxi and only our bags in the better VIP bus. We ended up with 5 of us in the taxi and 6 of us in the VIP bus. What a weird way of treating people they know will pass on information to other travelers. Be careful out there. We will not go back to that resort or the Dominican Republic because of the way the Lifestyles Beach Resort and Spa wanted to treat our wallet not us.

we went to the lifestyle tropicalin june and had a great time,we had a junior suite which was really clean and away from any noise.T he food was good,and the alcohol STRONG!!!!!!.I would not reccomend this hotel to people with kids as the pool side entertainmant can be a bit to raunchy,for kids of an age that understand.we went to ocean world which i would reccomend to anyoneclub was good,and evening entertainment was provided by the team that work very hard day and night for very little money.will go back next year as a couple not a family

I just don't get it! what' s with all the complaints?

v.i.p's well if you want to go v.i.p well pay for it then, yea there are people selling you stuff but just tell then no thanks and they will leave you alone, staff not friendly, well if you are going to be rude and unfriendly towards them, well what do you expect, they work hard for there small amount of money they get in that blistering heat. food was great always something to eat, there are two shops i an agree the one in the centre of the complex is extortionate but if you go down by the vip bit there is a shop for quarter of the price but that like any resort shop being dear

As for people saying "The V.I.P'S are the most rude people ever what visit there" WHAT YOUR PROBLEM THEY PEOPLE HAVE PAID FOR IT, YOU STILL GET A GOOD VIEW.
its well worth the money cant wait to go back next year
go with an open mind and leave the attitude back home

Friends of ours are RCI timeshare members who invited my wife and I, as well as my in-laws to accompany them to this resort. Travel here from Newark was easy and the resort did provide us a taxi mini-van to bring us from the airport. When we arrived we were warmly greeted by "Cesar", "Have no fear, Cesar is here." Cesar got us checked in and to our villa which had 3 bedrooms, a nice living room/dining room area, and a nice covered porch area that overlooked the private pool. After showing us around the villa and assuring us that someone would give us all the info. we needed on how things worked at this resort he left us his phone number to call him "anytime, day or night, my wife is used to me getting calls at home...whatever it takes to make you happy, etc." if there was something that we needed, or a problem taken care of while at the resort. We were told that the refrigerator would be stocked with drinks (beer, soda, water, etc.) and that snacks and some other items (fruit platters, cold cuts with cheese) would be provided if we wanted.

So far so good. First problem, the water was not yet turned on in the villa = no showers after a long flight. OK, so we all went swimming in the pool. After contacting the front desk, the water issue was handled within a few hours. My friend, father-in-law, and myself are big beer drinkers so within the first 3 hours we managed to put away most of the 22 oz. beers (Presidente) that were stocked in the fridge. It took 3 phone calls over the next 24 hours to have them bring more beer. When our friend called "Cesar" that evening he told her "Do you realize that I am home with my family, I am not at work." DUH! Then why did you give me your number!! Needless to say we did not see "Cesar" again until Friday night at the Casino party.

Sunday was nice after recovering from heavy partying Saturday night, but then things started to slow down on the service end. Lack of towels for showering, and pool towels were slow to be replaced. Washcloths??? Non-existent for the first 3 days. The maid showed up in the morning to make breakfast, which was very nice, but after we said "NO" to the timeshare breakfast had to be asked for twice before we got it again. The fruit and cold cuts stopped coming until we again asked several times. "Andrea" had replaced "Cesar" and she did not show up regulary as we got closer to the end of the week.

When we went to the presentation to buy into their timeshare, we met Daniel, who was an island native who did a very nice job selling us on the resort. He drove us around in the golf cart to a fabulous 7 bedroom, 7 1/2 bath vacation villa that knocked our socks off. But when we kept asking about price he politely put us off by saying someone else would be handling that part of the deal. Got back to the offices, kept trying to ply us with drinks, etc. then the "manager" comes in to make the deal. Long story short, we did not buy and were sent on our way. That is where the real story begins. Service dropped off greatly from the villa, the maid showed up later each day, the drivers of the shuttles showed up later or never unless we called back a few times. It was not the worst vacation in the world, and I don't mean to sound "whiny", but when you are promised certain levels of service and they stop coming through you get a little annoyed.

We took one side trip to Sosua Beach. WARNING: Be prepared for some dangerous driving in the taxi, sub-standard beach conditions, and pushy natives trying to sell you EVERYTHING! Snorkeling at Sosua was disappointing due to the trash scattered on the ocean floor, and mediocre clarity in the water. My in-laws went to Ocean World and had a fabulous time, I would suggerst this over our side trip. Overall this was a very nice resort, but I would suggest putting off the "timeshare business" until later in the week to see how long the pampered service stays in place.