I normally read bad reviews and think, oh this was just written by a snob, or someone who likes to complain. If you read my other reviews, you can tell that I am not a complainer.... However, If you are looking for a resort with good customer service, a clean room and good food, DO NOT GO TO CLUB MED PUNTA CANA!. We just returned from a 6 night stay and I can honestly say we were extremely disappointed and will never go back to a club med property again.

We checked into the hotel in the afternoon. As we just traveled for several hours from a colder climate, we were not yet dressed appropriately for the warm DR temperature. Once we arrived, we were not given any information about the resort, no details of kids club activities, no info on events or where to go to find the list of activities, NO INFORMATION! This was a recurring theme of the week. Club Med should institute a customer service training session for all their employees. Anyway, we were escorted to our rooms, which happened to be the absolute farthest building on the property. We were a party of 6 with 4 small children all carrying back packs and not one person thought it would be a good idea to use one of the several golf carts they have on property to help us to our room.

Room: We had a deluxe family room.. basically two rooms with a connecting door. Our bed was damp as the A/C was clearly not working. When we complained about the bed, they said they could help us in the morning. There was plenty of mold and dirt in the room plus the smell of mildew in the room. This was NOT acceptable and the resorts response to our issues was also not acceptable. My wife spent several hours looking at other rooms, however, they were all the same. We ended up staying because we had 10 more family members coming to the resort. My brother asked for a fan several times and never received one for his room.

The food was acceptable, however, all of us had to deal with digestive issues. The buffets during breakfast and lunch were pretty much the same everyday. My father became ill for 2 days with a fever and stomach pain, but, according to the medical staff, it was not due to the food. I heard that a virus might have been going around the resort.

The only pleasant part of this resort is the kids clubs. The GO's take good care of the kids and ensure that they are well entertained during the day. I would suggest that they extend the club hours until 10PM,

I'm sure the GM will comment on this post saying they appreciate the feedback and blah blah... Perhaps Club Med corporate should pay a surprise visit to the resort and investigate some of the other reviews that have been posted on this site regarding the resort.

Our family of 4 traveled to Punta Cana Club Med for the 1st time for 7 nights mid-October 2012. We are from Denver & traveled with our 13 year-old son & 12 year-old daughter. This is our 3rd time to a Club Med (our other 2 times we went to Sandpiper Bay in Florida.) I apologize for the long review, but it’s complete…

We had a fantastic time! The grounds are absolutely beautiful and spotless. We never saw a piece of trash, cigarette butt, or empty cup anywhere. The entire resort is set along the beach with dozens upon dozens of palm trees and tropical flowers- the perfect backdrop of a dream beach vacation. We even saw groundskeepers shoveling seaweed away! I’ve read some complaints about the resort being so big that it’s difficult to walk around, but quite honestly it’s so beautiful, why wouldn’t you want to? Besides, you eat every several hours, trekking around the resort isn’t the worst thing you can do.

You have to pay for WiFi- one of my pet peeves in all resorts. It’s also very difficult to get reception in the rooms. I was happy my kids had to “disconnect” for the week, but my husband had to do some work, so this made things difficult for him.

Some people complain about the rooms, but they are quite nice. Besides, you shouldn’t be in there anyway (the longest time we stayed in was to watch the presidential debates.) The kids had their own separate room & we had a balcony. It was cleaned everyday & stocked with bottled water. The paint was chipping in places & we killed a bug or two, but it’s not a new resort & it is the tropics. Expectations need to be reasonable.

The Food- it was good, not amazing; Sandpiper is much better & our family agreed. We were told that is because ingredients/food needs to be flown/shipped in. We met the Head Chef however, who was fantastic (I forget his name), and he took a great deal of pride in his work (in a humble way), which must be quite an undertaking when you’re preparing meals for the 2nd largest resort of 80 Club Meds. One of our favorite GOs was Natalie who was always serving food & ready to greet us with a smile & great conversation. We learned that great GOs don’t always come from the “high profile positions.” It was a pleasure to see her 3 times a day.

The bars- I’m sorry to say these were bordering on terrible for several reasons. The bars were usually always tended by the GEs during the day. I hate to say this because GEs are so important & so integral to CM, but in this case were not. They didn’t speak English so it was difficult to communicate. The drinks were inconsistent. The bar was understaffed, especially the outside/beach bar. The last part of our week, the October transition seemed more complete & things seemed much improved in this area. One of the best parts about Club Med is you don’t see sloppy drunk people around like you do in other AI resorts. Love that.

Sports- We never took advantage of tennis or golf. Our son showed up at the beautifully manicured soccer field every day at 5pm sharp, but no one else showed. How we can be in a resort of mostly Europeans that offers daily “futbol” & only 1 American shows up is beyond me. It’s probably because it’s low season. We did archery several times- loved it! It was a new experience for us girls. We never did any water aerobics or zumba but saw tons of people doing it & it looked like a blast! They had 6 hours of exercise/fitness classes offered throughout the day. (I counted.) You will never get bored & everyone is enthusiastic.

Water sports- This is an extraordinarily patient group of guys. I would test anyone’s patience & you would never know it by their smiles & willingness to help. We took sailing & water surfing lessons & other than my husband & sailing, we were terrible. These GOs were fantastic! (I’m sorry to not name them by name.) I’m impressed by their ability (along with the CIRCUS TEAM to explain things in 3 different languages without missing a beat.) Again, they seemed to love what they did & seemed happy to help us. What fascinated me was that there were never any guests there- why? I know the resort only had 1/4th of their usual capacity, but no one seemed interested in any of the water sport activities. You couldn’t get a better beach! Hey- better for us!

Circus- Gotta love the circus, and if you don’t, at least stop by & watch everyone else. Again, patience is what these GOs have in abundance. They are seriously talented (watch their shows-you will be in AWE!) There was a certain “trick” I was trying to master before I left & they didn’t let me down. They are amazing with people of all ages. They want everyone to be successful. They WANT everyone to have a good experience. GO Nick is fantastic.

The shows- some are great; some are corny- we went to about half of them.

October- It was transition time for the GOs & you could tell. Even though there were only 300-400 guests out of a maximum capacity of 1600, the GOs seemed distracted to say the least. The new ones jumped right in as if they had always been there, but the ones that were leaving acted like high school seniors on their last week of school. We didn’t experience this when we were in Sandpiper in October 2011. Overall, I found that the GOs were not as friendly in general as those in Sandpiper. Everyone seemed like they were in a great hurry & didn’t make eye contact or say hello. In 7 days, we only had 2 meals with GOs. The GEs were the friendliest of all.

Teen Club- Our kids LOVED THIS in Sandpiper. You couldn’t tear them away. Here they didn’t want to go because none of the kids spoke English, only French. Bummer for all of us, but I can’t blame them. GO Obed (their “counselor”) persisted in having them join all week which was really sweet & GO Dietter who worked with the younger kids also called them by name & encouraged them to participate every time he saw them throughout the week which made them feel good, but we understand why it would have not been that much fun for them.

Language barrier-Out of 400 guests in the resort at the time we were there, we do believe we may have been 4 of maybe 15 English speaking guests. I have read review upon review that the GOs & staff cater to the French guests & have thought about this quite a bit. I don’t think this is true. I think this seems like it because French is the primary or at least secondary language (before English) of the GOs who are there, and therefore are more comfortable speaking it. I also think they are more comfortable with the culture. My husband & I personally enjoyed that part of the experience, but were disappointed for the kids as far as the teen club goes. We could have forced them, but we all know that forcing teenagers to do anything is like nailing Jell-o to a tree so we just let it go. They had a great time regardless.

Of course, the best part about Club Med is the Club Med experience. We love the late nights. We love the people & the personal experience. We love meeting the GOs. We love the clientele that Club Med attracts (typically.) We fell in love with GO Kaylen who works with the babies but who is adorable & outgoing and just wonderful! Our last night my husband and I hung out on the beach until 3 am with 2 GOs Bruno (bartender) and Nick (Circus- met him a year ago in Sandpiper!) smoking cigars. I may always hate crazy signs, but I will always love Club Med. Yes, we would go back to CM Punta Cana, but next time may try Turks & Caicos.

Thank you Club Med for a wonderful vacation!!

Just returned from a week in Punta Cana with our 2 kids (5 and 2). The mini club was great with so much to offer. My older son who is sometimes a bit reserved participated in the activities, learned the songs and dances and even performed on stage. The mini club staff was great. My husband and I enjoyed some quiet time and activities together such as taking tennis lessons, water aerobics, snorkeling, zumba, soccer, basketball and swimming in the beautiful / clean sea. The GOs were great, with so much energy. Nice caring people. The only thing I would suggest is for Club Med to offer free snorkeling trips like they did when we went to Turks.

This was our first experience staying at a Club Med. We stayed there the week of November 3rd and we lucked out on the weather all week.

We arrived at 11am on Saturday and our rooms where not ready... they provided a hospitality room so we could change into our beachwear and enjoy the day. That worked out just fine - rooms were ready at around 3pm.

We stayed in the Pescado building, room 505. It was about a 10 minute walk from the main pool area and lobby. At first we felt this was too far and asked for a closer room, however the resort was full and could not be moved until at least monday. After walking it a few times, through the well manicured lawns, palm trees and flowered bushes, we no longer wanted to change... this also provided sometime to digest all the food we ate at the restaurants!

The grounds, beach and pool areas are fabulous, everything is so clean and very well maintained. The food at the 2 restaurants was very good and had enough variety each nite for everyone. Although the resort was full, it never felt that way. We never had to wait to eat or for a drink at the bar.

The Lunch at the "snack bar" was fantastic... we had Grouper everyday and it just melted in your mouth - thanks to Sofia who always served us with a smile!

My wife really enjoyed the exercise activities and the "no pressure" attitude to join in when you wanted or not. No pressure for anything all week - the GO's informed you on what was going on and up to you if you wanted to participate.

For the kids, my daughter is 13, and she had a great time.. again, some days she slept in and join the group at 10am (an hour late) and if she didnt feel like doing an activity, just came back and met us at the beach.

Another great thing is that the beach is private, so we never had anyone trying to sell us things on the beach or anywhere. We left our beach bag with iPhone, iPod and iPad unattended everyday at the beach chairs when we went for lunch, never any worry that someone would take something. And never had any concern allowing the kids to roam free.

This resort is a great place if you have kids from 6 months to 16... lots to do and great place for them to make friends... sad goodbyes at the end.

In each room you have a nice walk-in closet where you have a safe and a fridge. My only disappointment was that it was empty - was hoping it would have been filled with beers and juices ;)

we took a 15 minute taxi ride ($30 fair each way) to the San Juan shopping center. It is still being renovated but had some ok shopping and a food mart, so we stocked up on (beer, juices, and snacks, as well as some nice wine for supper).

Our friends took the free tennis lessons everyday and did the "tournament" in the late afternoon.

for Wifi access, i paid the $57 for the week. It didnt reach our room in the pescado, but was available on the walkway close by, lobby, pool area and some parts of the beach... so i was able to listen to internet radio while sitting on the beach chair! It was good enough to skype and facetime.

all in all - excellent time and would definitely go back.