So, as the title suggests, the beach is a 9.5 out of ten. The .5 was deducted for the amount of people hawking trinkets, selling excursions, cigars and other stuff. Security was good though, they never let you get harassed and a polite "no, gracias." was enough to send them away. Still, every 5 minutes you hear, "Para-sail, banana boat, snorkeling, feesheeng...para-sail, banana boat, snorkeling, feesheeng..." or "Cigars! Eees smooooking tiiiime!" or "Cheapy-cheapy!!!!". Whatever...Just avoid eye contact and they likely not even bother...we spent 9-5 on the beach every day. I would suggest the far right side of the beach, (as you face the ocean) as there's a little bar and it's quieter - found the animation team at this resort very loud and irritating. We were able to get those thatched umbrella thingies every day at 9am. I took one brief swim in the pool and left shortly after emerging due to the super annoying animation team guy yelling into the microphone about some nightclub and the blasting house music, "hee hee hee"...not so much. If you stay there you'll get it....not my scene.

We were booked for a junior suite but after a $40 bri…err, tip were upgraded to a bungalow suite. It was ok. Bed was fine, our AC was super cold. They do charge for the beer and water in the room, so stock up at the beach bar...They will give you canned beer there...we tipped well every day and the bartenders would give me a 4 cold beers to go. Do that a couple of times and your fridge will be nicely stocked. BRING A BIG INSULATED CUP!!! We forgot ours, and regretted it. Tiny disposable cups are offered at the bars.

Food was alright. We ate at the buffet almost every meal and got to be chummy with the pasta and omelet dudes. We did the seafood a la carte, (Meh) and the Japanese. The Japanese we waited for an hour while they seated 20 people who arrived AFTER us. When I expressed my indignation, I was advised that Platinum guests get priority for the restaurants. That's super lame...Anyhoo, Japanese was terrible, (If you like authentic Japanese food) so was definitely not worth the wait. I'm convinced that most all inclusive resort a la carte restaurants are geared towards people who never go out to dinner. "OOOoooh look Brandy-Lee, they gots one o' them fancy tablecloths!!! La-dee-da!!!"...no offense if that's you. If you eat out often at decent places, then I would advise you to stick to the buffet like we did and not waste your time.

The grounds are very nice...lots of exotic birds n whatnot. A peacock roosted every night on our neighbors balcony! Very large resort...We were in 621 and it took us 10 minutes to walk to the beach. We didn't mind though and only took the trolley on 2 occasions. Good for burning off those pina coladas.

All the bartenders were great. Particularly Jonathan and Reynaldo at the main lobby bar. Nice dudes who remembered my name and treated us very well. Our maid Julia was awesome too. We tipped very well. Probably about 2-$300 over the week. $5 for Julia every day and $20 when we left. That's how we roll. We were well liked and well treated by the staff for it.

The shows are so ridiculously bad that they were pretty much only good for a laugh. They had a "Circ de Soleil" ripoff that was just plain hilarious and they did a "Dancing with the Stars" night that consisted of mediocre choreography and terrible lip-synching to Lady Gaga and Christina Aguill-whatever her name is. We lasted about 10 minutes - even with the unlimited booze. I prefer audience participation and live bands...they did have some live acts before the "shows" that were pretty good.

The majority of our fellow travelers were Quebecois or Russians...As primarily english speakers we were in a vast minority at this resort. It seemed to be mostly Quebec residents. They actually have a poutine station at the buffet every night! We had no issues as we can both speak it well enough to get by and the Russians were cool, so that wasn't any kind of problem either. Just an FYI.

BIG ISSUE was the hotel sponsored photo people... 4 times a day some dude with these poor, beautiful parrots, (wings clipped) would be trying to get us to take a picture....and if it wasn't parrots, it was a sweet little monkey on a leash or an iguana or tarted up carribana dancers...I wanted to flee with the poor parrots or monkey and get them to someplace that would take care of them!!! There was a lot of on-resort solicitation....I didn't like that. Also, parents - I was offered drugs about 9 times on the first day. Not by any official resort staff but just an FYI. I do kinda look like a bit of a stoner I guess...Ah well.

I might consider going back with a Platinum upgrade....but likely I'll just try out one of the adults only 5 stars in Punta Cana. Sorry if this review made me seem like a whiner. Our last, (and first) all inclusive was Secrets Capri in the Mayan Riviera and we got used to a higher level of luxury and service than Bavaro Princess provided...plus I hated the class system of Platinum and everyone else...Overall, wicked beach, decent value and I'll pay more for the same beach with more luxury next time. Hopefully this review helps you to maximize your vacation here if you've already paid or maybe reconsider if you haven't. Cheers.

We (myself and my boyfriend) just got back from the Bavaro Princess on Jan.27th 2012. We went there for 2wks! We had the bungalo suite. It was big and quite nice. I had booked a king size bed but upon arrival we had 2 small beds. I went to reception 3 times and stated that I had booked a king bed and wanted one, and each time they said no problem....we never recieved our king bed. After speaking with many others on the resort, we come to find out that this resort does not have any king beds, so dont expect one. All they did for us was put them together and give us king sized sheets to cover the beds up. Now here I went down South with my boyfriend and ended up having to sleep in different beds, needless to say we were not happy campers!!! The beds were hard as rocks as well! Each morning of the second week we woke up at 6am by a thick smell of smoke. After further investigation by my boyfriend, he found 2 holes in the wall that the smoke was travelling through. It was coming from our neighbour's room who smoked cigars all the time and right into our AC, spreading it throughout or room. My boyfriend plugged the holes with our beach towels - it helped a bit but still wasnt good enough. Our room was located right beside a sewage treatment plant and we smelled crap all day long. We couldnt sit outside on our balcony at all due to this smell. It was horrible!!! The lock on our door was broken and the odd time a maid walked in while we were showering. There was alot of smoking on the resort, which I knew would happen but it also happened in the buffets where there was non-smoking signs. We had to move our seats quite a bit and was a pain in the butt. I though one of the workers was going to tell someone to put out his cigar one time but instead she gave him an ashtray. I mean, com'on, we are all eating and dont need to suck back smoke. That should be the one time that we can actually enjoy having a smoke-free environment. Guess not. The resort was huge an therefore had lots of trucks and scooters driving around ALL the time. The pollution was gross from the scooters. The roads arent big enough for people walking and the trucks so everytime a truck came you had to stop and jump off the road. This happened like 3 times out of every 10min of walking. Ive been to Punta Cana before and had a great time at the other resort (Now Larimar) and was told this one would be better but it totally was not. I had the worst vacation ever here! I would not go back even if it were free, and I totally mean that! We were bothered by many hagglers ON the resort. They were trying to sell us excursions and after telling them that we already had them purchased they still insisted and annoyed us and wouldnt go away. We even had a few of them offer us drugs from them. Being in the policing industry I took a huge offence to that and have never been asked to buy drugs before in my life!!! Overall, go to another resort. The Bavaro Princess will never be recommended by me to anyone, EVER!!! It was a waste of my 2 week vacation and a waste of $2,500 that we each paid!!!! I will be returning to the Now Larimar for my next vacation to Punta Cana!!!!!

There were some good things about this resort. The rooms were clean and the staff was friendly. However, my overall impression about resorts in general has been somewhat tainted by my experience at this one. Maybe it's because we went in the low season, but if a hotel is going to be open at all they should commit to the same standards of excellence all year round.

Our air conditioning worked, but only in comparison to the outside temperature. It was a relief to walk into the room from the heat, but after being in the room for about ten minutes, even the air conditioning felt warm.

Meals were only available at specific times, so if you left the resort in the middle of the day for an excursion, you were on your own until suppertime. They did have a snack bar on the beach, but all they served was hamburgers, hot dogs and fries, greasy food that I did not feel like eating when I was already sticky with sand, salt and sweat. Furthermore, on all the maps and info, the snack bar was listed as 24-hour, but when we were there (low-season) it was only open from 10 until 9 at night.

The nightly entertainment was poor to fair at best. I was excited to see the Lion King, but the music was canned and they even lip-synched the speaking lines. Plus, the sound during the shows was turned up so loud that if you were far enough away not to burst your eardrums, you couldn't see what was going on on stage. The other shows were in a mixture of languages, which I didn't mind, since I realize that it wasn't only English-speakers attending, but it made everything take three times as long. In short, I came away from every show I attended feeling like I should have done something else with my time.

On the plus side, the Air Canada rep here was very helpful and thoughtful.

I can't comment on the alcohol because I was pregnant when I went and so did not imbibe.

My boyfriend and I travelled to Bavaro Princess from January 9-16. It was my first time to the Dominican and his 2nd. I was a bit put off at the airport that they lined us up outside and I was unsure what to expect. No one really directs you anywhere, its just a bunch of confused tourists. We got to the resort in about 20 min ride from the airport in a small uncomfortable van. The check in was quick as it was 10pm and not a rush hour time. We were taken to our room by a golf cart and we were pleased with the service. Our room was beautiful it was just a standard suite but it exceeded our expectations. The only problem we had with our room was the toilet leaked a bit and the floor would get wet. I wished they had provided us with more towels as well as we showered a few times a day but they only came once. It didnt matter that we asked for extra towels or tipped, still didnt get any. My boyfriend loved our resort compared to the Grand Bahia Principe where hed stayed before. Our rooms were 100 times nicer he said. There was a good selection of food at Bavaro.. We mostly ate at the buffets. We actually left the Japanese A la Carte because there wasnt a great choice on the menu. Overall the food was ok.. Im a picky eater and I still found enough to eat every day. I did get sick on our last few days there.The entertainment was excellent we liked the bands and singers. Wish there had of been more dancing. The casino is located at the end of the resort at the road, and there are people out there trying to lure you into their shops across the street. We did go across its like a small market. Same stuff in every store. the beach at Bavaro princess is gorgeous. I felt bad for the resort next to us as there was alot of wash up from the ocean and no one was swimming at that resort. We were lucky!! We only went to the main pool but it was clean and always a great selection of lounge chairs. Johnny at the main bar in the lobby was the highlight of our trip! Learned alot about the culture from him.

I loved Bavaro Princess and would definitely reccomend it!