We travelled in October in a group of 14 people. Some of our group had been several times before, so we knew it would be good, although it was our first visit. The hotel is very nice, the beach fabulous, but what makes it so special is the staff. They work really hard and are always cheerful. Eduardo and his animation team are fantastic, and create a really friendly atmosphere. We also met some great fellow guests from around the world. The AI does include everything, even sunbeds and drinks on the beach and the nightclub. Food choice was extensive, and there was always something for everyone, though we did have trouble getting slots in the specialist restaurants. We had a brilliant trip to Saona Island with the hotel Dive school. Tony the guide really looked after us, the food was great, and you can buy a video of the trip if you choose to. This was a fantastic holiday and we will definitely return.

I'll start with the cons.

Cons:

Food: While the buffet was very very GREAT, the hotel has a few other restaurants here which you have to get reservations for, including: Gourmet, Steakhouse, Japanese, Mediterranean. These restaurants were average to below average. You have limited choices at these restaurants in terms of what you can order and the food at these places was just "ok" and in some instances, The Mediterranean, the food was just bad.

Rooms: The rooms aren't that great. Don't expect a lavish 5 star quality room. First off there is no thermostat in the room, so if you enjoy sleeping in a comfortably chilly room like I do, you don't really get that. The beds are pretty stiff & cheap and they don't change the sheets every day. Yes you heard me right. Also because it's a tropical environment, it's hard to keep the humidity out of the room, so your room feels almost as muggy as it does outside. The television in the room had limited options, no on-demand movie options at all, the tv reception was poor (there was a lot of static) and the channel selection was poor.

Room Service: The room service is from 11am-11pm from an extremely limited menu of about 8 or so items, none of which are very appetizing, except maybe the hamburger? Either way, chances are if you're ordering from the room service menu, you're desperately hungry.

Pros: Beautiful location, obviously. The food here (at the buffet) was shockingly good. My expectations were very low since it's an all inclusive but the buffet here was OUTSTANDING. Every single day they have a different theme for the food including: Italian, Dominican, Spanish, etc. Excursions? Lots of options! Sailing, scuba diving, snorkeling, zip-lining, swimming with dolphins, fishing, 4-wheeler driving, you name it! I highly recommend you do some of these because they will really enhance your trip!

It's a great place to get away and despite the cons, I'd definitely come back.

I would stay at the Iberostar Grand instead of the Bavaro next time though. I took a tour of that place and WOW it's nice! For an extra $180 a night what you get is dramatically different.

My husband and I spent a week here - Nov 11 to 11/18. Loved the junior suite as it had a nice sitting area which was appreciated! Our maid, Margarita was fabulous and really took care of us. We were close to the beach and pool areas except it was a walk to the ala carte restaurants from our room but the hotel furnishes rides to and from which was great for us older folks. We were always able to get a palapa which is our favorite place to spend the day.

The only problem we had with our experience here was the quality of food even in the ala carte restaurants. Several months prior to this I was at an AI in Ixtapa and guess I got spoiled by the fantastic food choices we had there. There was always plenty to eat but very average. We did have some great ceviche several one night. As expected there was a nice variety of fish each night. Of course, my husband loved the dessert assortment each meal.

Our entire week here was extremely fun. The beach is beautiful with plenty of palapas to go around. The food was very good, and plentiful! Every day the lunch buffet was so good and fresh. The dinner buffet is good, the Chinese restaurant could be skipped in my opinion. The beach side massage was totally worth it. We went scuba diving to the wreck just off the beach, it was fine for us because we didn't want to spend all day but the diving at that spot wasn't spectacular. I would definitely go back