My wife and I returned yesterday, 3/28/08, from a week visit to Gran Bahia Principe La Romana. We booked online though Cheap Caribbean for less than $1,000 each for week including air transportation. We are frequent travelers particularly to the Caribbean, Europe and cruises. For the busy reader I will try to itemize our experience.

1. Venue : 25 miles west of town of La Romana. Isolated.
2. Price: Unbelievably inexpensive for all the amenities included.
3. All inclusive: Includes all food and beverages including alcoholic beverages.
4. Restaurants: Orquidea buffet - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Beyond our imagination for variety and quality.
5. Specialty restaurants: Fish, French and Italian. Must make reservation. Great but buffet was superior. 24-hr food available.
6. Service: Very attentive and polite staff.
7. Beauty of resort: Exceptional in all regards. Resort opened Nov, 2007, as we understand after a remodeling. The grounds are spectacular, well cared for, and beautiful.
8. Beach: Also exceptional. Wide sandy beach bordering a lagoon or small bay on Caribbean side. Thus no wave action.
Beach lined with palapas and tall coconut palms. No need to stake out lounges and palapas as there are so many. Beach is pristine maintained by daily raking.
9. Pool: One large beautifully designed pool surrounded by ample deck and lounges. Swim-up bar included.
10. Beach food: Snacks and light food available at Las Olas located on the beach.
11. Casino: Opens at 8:00 P.M. Drinks not included in casino . . . strange. Mainly slots, black jack, and poker.
12. Floor show: Nightly show beginning with kids show, followed by adult guest participation program, and then musical show by staff performers.
13. Spa: Also beautiful and well equipped and staffed. We enjoyed sauna and 1 hour deep massage.
14. Dancing: Begins at 11:00 P.M. with latin music primarily. Staff personnel ensure that anyone who wants to learn or dance has a partner. Great fun.
15. Shopping: Limited number of shops at resort. Limited selection of items for purchase especially clothing.
16. Rooms: Very accomodating and large with sitting area. Large bathroom with bidet. Very clean, modern, and comfortable. We shared a king size bed that too was very comfortable. Room equipped with coffee, usual toletries, mini bar, TV with English channels, and safe. Unusual though, there is $5.00 daily fee to use room safe. Daily maid service with new linens each day. Each room has balcony or porch.
17. Tours and car rentals: Both available on site. We rented car for day and drove to eastern end of island.
18. Beach activities: Volleyball, dance instructions, games, ping pong, aerobics, yoga. Plenty of activity for all age groups.
19: Guests: Mostly Europeans with Spanish, Italians, Germans Scandinavians leading the list.
20: Down side: Resort did not enforce its dress code. Muscle shirts and shorts allowed in buffet restaurant. Whereas specialy restaurants enforced dress code of long trousers and sleeves for men.
21. Tipping: As all inclusive resort, tipping was limited. We tipped at the specialty restaurants, bell hops, and maid.
22. Would we return: You betcha we would. We have never enjoyed a more inexpensive and care-free vacation.

Canadian family of 4 plus 1 just got back from march break and had a great time at the Gran Bahia, La Romana. Many Europeans especially Italians. Staff were great very helpful. Can speak English and some are still learning but there is always someone to communicate with. Food was good. No problems with getting sick. You need to be careful where ever you go and watch what you eat. Rooms were excellent, very clean and well kept. Grounds were beautiful. Pool area was great. Beach was also great, however the water is not as clear as other places we've been. In fact the water is cloudy so you really can't see much if you wanted to snorkel. Apparently hotel will be closing down for a few months in the summer because there is a river not to far that seems to be disturbing the water in the area. They are looking to try to divert the flow of this river so that the water on the beach will hopefully clean up. At 6:30 each evening a guy goes around the complex and sprays for bugs regardless if you are walking around or sitting around outside. Not a good thing. We just made sure we were inside taking our showers and getting ready for dinner at this time each evening. Bugs are bugs, we have them here in the summer and they have them there so they try their best to keep it to a minimal. I just think they should pick a better time to do the spraying. The animation staff, games staff where great. Lots of fun and friendly. Overall we had a great time and would go back.

Four of us girls in our mid-twenties booked this hotel for sun, sea, sand, cocktails & to relax . . . thats exactly what we got. The hotel was lovely.

When we arrived (evening) we had been put in 2 rooms with a king-size bed rather than two doubles in each. We notified reception & they moved us the following morning to VIP rooms with a beach view. Fab. The rooms were cleaned daily, fresh towels, mini-bar stocked up & if you needed anything extra room service would provide you with in very quickly.

The pool area was brilliant . . . a massive pool with pool bar, jacuzzi bath and two smaller pools for children or a quieter area. Everyday there would be water polo, aqua aerobics & other games. There were so many sun loungers availbale it didnt matter what time you went to the pool because there was so many places to sit. The pool was right next to the private beach which was lovely as it provided a breeze.

The beach . . .lovely sand but unfortunately the water was murky rather than crystal turquoise like you would expect at the carribean. This was disappointing, but we preferred the pool area anyway. Bar & restaurant right by the beach & pool so you could help yourself rather than having to wait to be served, unless you wanted alcohol of course.

plenty of activites going on during the day . . beach games, volleyball, water polo, aqua aerobics, bingo, dancing & lessons, archery, football, spanish lessons, table tennis etc.

The food . . very much enjoyed it. Lots of selection & you could have certain things cooked infront of you. Plenty of drinks available, cakes, fruit, salads & icecream!

For lunch you could either eat in the main restaurant or at the beach restaurant. There are other restaurants in the hotel . . fish, italian & gourmet. I would advise looking at the menu's first as the menu is limited. NONE of the group were ill & were unaware of anyone else having problems. Surprised to hear on here that others were.

Every evening when the sun goes down, there is a 'smoke'-like machine which sprays mosquito killer around the complex - i round that thanks to this & deet spray i was not bitten . . my friend had a few . . they usually eat her wherever she goes though.

Entertainment . . what can i say! Shockingly bad. The only night we enjoyed was the 'love' night where guests were involved in games on stage. It was absolutely hilarious & everyone was crying with laughter. definitely watch it . . so funny. There is a disco & kareoke but we never stayed out past 12 as wanted to be up early everyday for the sunshine. Not much else to do in the evnings except from drinking, relaxing, card games & tv, and watching the poor entertainment.

The cocktails were very nice . . frozen daquiri's were de-lish. Quite a lot of choice which was good.

Trips - the only trip we did was one to Saona Island - i highly recommend this trip. Takes you to a lovely area with white sand & crystal clear turquoise waters. Star-fish & nemo-looking fishes, it was lovely. We took a large boat ride home where we saw dolphins. it was amzing. The best day ever!!! I only wish we had done this trip more.

Spa and casino at the hotel . . didnt play in the casino but my friend & I went for a pedicure which was lovely. Also, massages available in the spa & also in the parlour beside the beach.

Everyone at the hotel was sooooo friendly & polite & very helpful. Their English isnt very good, but they do try.

Arriving & leaving the hotel we had a porter take & collect our suitcases - this was great & they did it straight away.

I had a lovely time & so did my friends. It was better than i was expecting. We were all very sad to be leaving & wish we had gone for 2weeks instead of one.

We chose this resort because last fall we stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe in Punta Cana and had a fabulous time. That resort however, was HUGE so we thought going to the same resort on a smaller scale would be nice. WRONG WRONG WRONG. Thank goodness my other half speaks fluent Spanish. That was the only thing that redeemed this vacation at all.
We have been to DR quite a number of times. We will NEVER go to LaRomana again, particularly this resort. YUCK.
Sickness all around. We were both sick a total of 4 days of our 7 day vacation, and all around us were horror stories of other guests who just managed to crawl out of their rooms trying to salvage some of their vacation.
And the BUG sprayer. Not only was it horrible to breathe, it didn't kill the bugs. We have bug bites from neck to toe.
Really, whatever you do, DON'T GO TO THIS RESORT. There are tons of other places to choose from and Punta Cana and Puerta Plata are SO MUCH nicer.