We stayed at Natura Park from March 31-April 7, 2007. We had a great time. We only paid $774.44 per person and felt that we got an excellent deal for our money spent.

I do have a few pointers though. Pablo, that works at the front desk is fantastic. If you have any issues go see him. Take with you an alarm clock, and some kind of extension cord, as well as your travel mug.

I brought gifts for the maids and the other staff. I also would tip the grounds keepers as well as the men raking the beach. You don't have to tip them every time, and I didn't see many people doing it. These are the people that really need it. They were so appreciative of it! I also gave them chocolate bars and gum. I brought along school supplies, Tylenol, Children's Tylenol etc. I wasn't sure if the stuff I was leaving was benefiting the maid, but she thanked my husband one morning very very much for all of it. She had young children. I think that if they get things they cannot use they pass it on to their co-workers.

I brought along a few pages of Spanish words and phrases. I printed it off of debbiesdominicantravel.com It came in very handy especially when I was wanting extra towels or face cloths in the room. They do have them, you just have to ask. If I wanted extra water I left a dollar bill and a note where the water was, and did the same for the towels, and the mini bar. I usually left $3.00/day plus a little gift.

We were a bit concerned with the food when we first arrived. Things did not taste the same (of course), and their style of cooking is different. We learned when and where to eat. You are better to eat as soon as the buffet opens. There is a snack bar down by the beach that has hot dogs and hamburgers. The burgers were o.k., but I was very concerned to see a bowl of Mayo sitting out in the hot sun with absolutely no refrigeration to it at all. People were actually eating it!! Just watch what you are eating and if you question it at all don't!! Someone recommended that just in case we had food issues to take along peanut butter and crackers, or prepackaged tuna and crackers. I did not do this, and would recommend that it would be a good idea. My husband and I are very adventerous eaters, so we were surprised when we were having food issues. We did not get sick, and were choosy as to what we ate, but overall the food and the selection was good you just had to find something you liked the taste of. The steak house was our best spot, and did hear that if you just went to the door on a night that you did not have a reservation and asked if there was any chance of getting in they were very accomodating.

I never felt unsecure the entire trip. I did speak to the couple that had their room robbed while we were there, and they were very upset! I don't blame them. I had noticed that our patio door had been opened from the outside a few times, but the chain was on the main door. There was one instance where we came back to the room and the chain was off the door, but I don't know if that was me or the maid. I suspect it was me. The hotel did move the other couple and did give them a day at the spa, but I know that their trip was spoiled. I also heard of another couple that were robbed with machete's at the end of the beach that we were warned to stay away from.

I had read on Trip Advisor about Mike and Hector the guys on the beach that sell the excursions. I read that they were good men, and they were! We were somewhat hesitant to book with them at first and infact booked Saona Island with our Sunwing Rep. We got to be very friendly with Hector and he is quite the character to chat with!! We had booked a trip with him, and the morning we were standing in the lobby we were summoned to the phone to tell us the trip was cancelled. My heart sank thinking that our money was lost, but we went back to our room got ready for the beach and found one of Hector's men and he spoke to Hector who came to see us later that day with our money! Becasue we were supposed to be going to a rum factory and cigar factory and didn't because it was cancelled I asked Hector if he could get those things for us. He made a special trip to get us Rum and cigars, and returned on Good Friday (his day off) to deliver the goods! We did not want to buy them from the resort or the shop vendors down the beach because they charge too much. Don't pay anymore then $8.00 for a bottle of Rum and we paid $30.00 for the cigars and 20.00 for cigirellos. He was awesome and I would recommend that you book with him. We also did the parasailing and the other couple with us did the snorkelling.

Speaking of snorkelling. The fish off the resort are amazing. When we travelled to Saona we didn't see half of what there is off of Natura Park. Grab a few bananas and an empty water bottle full of bread pieces and you will be amazed!! I did not take a snorkel with me, but bought one there, and I already had goggles. The snokel was around $8.00. It was probably the best $8.00 I spent for the entire trip. I wore my Croc's in the water so not to step on the coral!

The trip back home was yet another adventure for us. There was a storm in Halifax and we were re-routed to Moncton. My husband and I chose to rent a car which cost us almost $300.00. We did not stick around to find out about the bus situation, but were told it would take 4 hours for them to arrive from Halifax. The buses infact did not show up until the next afternoon. People had many issues with the way Sunwing handled the situation. We are very happy that we made the decision to drive home. It took us 8.5 hours to drive, and in good conditions it should have taken 4. Sunwing has since sent us $200.00 in travel vouchers for our next get away, and I saw on my Visa statement that $100.00 was taken off! We were very pleased with this. I was not expecting anything from them! We did not have issues with the airline or how they handled the situation, but I suspect that if we had stayed I would be singing a different tune today!

Overall, Natura Park was a good pleasant place to stay. I would not consider it a 4 star resort. This was our first time at an all-inclusive, and from talking to others that had been doing this for years they felt the same way. I do think that we got an excellent deal for what we paid and if that same deal came up again I would take it!!

Keep in mind while away in the Dominican that their lifestyle is completely different from yours. Be open minded and patient. The Dominican's are on their own time, and are wonderful people. You see a lot of poverty when you travel on some of the excursions and it makes you thankful for what you have at home.

I've just returned from a 1 week stay (14-18 May 2007) at Natura Park resort (Cabeza de Torro, Punta Cana).
Overall, a recommendable and nice place:

-Food 8/10
buffet is ok (you get the same standard at such 4 star hotels of DR). Italian Restaurant (Gondola) has nice overall food ... kinda of fusion between Italian and popular european meals. La Media Luna has great Steaks (it's specialities). The sea food restaurant (La Perla) is just Ok (meals seem to lack a lil bit of flavor and the absence of variety of sea food -- no lobsters, no shrimps ... just fishes...when I was there -- was a lil drawback for what I would expect of a sea foo restaurant

-Room 8/10
Not luxurious (looks a lil bit old), but nice and clean.
They put a lot of emphasis on wood.

-Entertainment 4/10
I found the entertainment at the pool and the one at the night show entertainment to be dumb and without any flavor.
I am not sure if it's the same person (s) who entertain(s) at both places, but the hotel should replace him/or them on a heartbeat: bad songs of music, bad dancing (more like a tasteless go-go boy party at some occasions) the entertainer (s) seem cocky and self-entertained?? and that's at both the pool and the night show entertainment.

Scenery 10/10:
My style of hotel's scenery: discrete and well embedded in nature. With cute water lakes full of fishes,birds, bridges, gardens all around. Their lobby is lovely and cozy: wood ,marble, gres (sort of stone made of sand) at around. Beautiful

Beach 7/10:
The front beach has too much sea weed when I was there.
I spent my time swimming at the left part of the hotel's beach (no sea weed, crystal clear water and no resort), BUT be very careful when you do that because too much sport-boats pass by and they are way too close to the beach border.

Service,Customer attention 9/10:
Perfect service at the lobby and from the entire staff.
You can see that they were well trainned and are very professional (only the guy at the Gym + the night show entertainer + the swimming pool entertainner need a serious refresh in customer service).
Special estrellas (stars) to:
-Jose (at the towel-exchange booth).
this gentleman is so entertainnning, fun that you'll forever remember him, believe me.
-Rafael (bartender), Catalano (restaurant manager) are very professional, accomodating and devoted.

I've been to all types of hotels (from the 5* Paradisus of Holguin, to some awesome Sandals, Accor, Iberostar, Melia hotels all around the globe), and I can safely say that Natura Park is a recommendable discrete nice cozy hotel ... they just need to improve the entertainment, add more flavour to their sea food restaurant and just buy the left side of their current beach location (if that's possible).

PS: Big thumbs up to the travel carrier Sunwing since everything went well.

we just returned from this resort and we hated this hotel -----their rooms needed updating , the food was thumbs down!!!!!!!!!!!! no lobster!!!!!! they said it was out of season???? and did i mention roaches in the room!!!!!! we were moved 2 times , and did i mention air condition--------that was a joke-----now lets talk about the grounds on this hotel----that is nice,and the beach was wonderful-------soooo if you don't care about the room or food and bugs , they you will enjoy-------------- we use apple vacation and it was rated a 4 Star. i feel this was a 2 or 3 Star.we left out of bwi airport.and it was a 7nt pkg and the cost was about $2000.00

We had a great vacation week at Natura Park and returned home on May 13th. We booked through AAA and they went through Apple vacations. The charter flight was direct and comfortable, with a movie and meal. I would travel with Apple again, they provide everything that their guests need. No worries! The buses were comfortable and air conditioned. Anytime we had a little problem at the hotel we mentioned Apple and the problem went away.

When we arrived at the airport in Punta Cana our photo was taken with local women in bright dresses to purchase when we returned to the airport for departure for $8. So if you like that idea you may want to dress nicely, smile pretty, and have some cash with you when you return home to purchase it.

The hotel was great. Many of the staff do not speak English but enough did that it was not a problem. The staff was friendly and helpful. Our room was nice with a big walk in closet and nice patio. Not a five star hotel but nice and clean. Each room has a safe for no extra fee and we used ours. They do not provide face cloths so you may want to pack some of those. The electricity in the room was not compatible with US plugs. They had mostly 220 outlets and one 110 in the bathroom but you need to bring an adapter to use US plugs in any of them. The adapters they sold in the gift shop were opposite what we needed so that was no help. There are no clocks in the rooms so you may want to bring a watch or travel alarm clock.

A note about money: We brought traveller's checks but found them hard to use there. They could be cashed at the hotel for Dominican Pesos only with lots of ID and paperwork. The exchange rate was about 1 USD to 32 Pesos so the pesos were bulky to carry and didn't go far. US dollars were accepted and preferred everywhere so there was really no need to bother with the checks. Credit cards were only accepted for larger purchases. We brought lots of $1 and $5 for tippng and were glad we did. Next time we will bring more larger bills for shopping rather than planning to use ATM or travelers checks.

The beach at the hotel was beautiful and the swimming excellent. There were beautiful fish to see under the water. Don't miss out on the snorkeling. A friend gave me a tip that worked really well. Fill an empty water bottle with bread then open it under water then watch the fish swarm you! It was so much fun that we bought a cheap underwater camera to photo the fish. You may want to bring one from home.

We were surprised to learn that the water sports equipment was provided by another organization for the hotel. The staff at the water sport center were not very friendly and required a cash deposit before allowing us to use any equipment . The deposit for a snorkel and mask was $20 and no fins. We were required to return them in 1 hour even though they were not at all busy. I might have brought my own had I known. For the catamaran they first required payment for a lesson.

The food was fine. Not gourmet, but we were not expecting that. The A-la-carte restaurants were good. The steak restaurant was our favorite. The tenderloin was better than the ribeye. We could only book each of the three restaurant once for our week stay but the buffets had lots of choices so we didn't mind.

We read a tip from a few guests before our trip that suggested bringing a large cup to save trips to and from the bar for drinks and be more eco-friendly. That worked well for us. We brought the self insulated type that stay cool longer.

We went to the beach after breakfast each day and had no trouble finding a beach chair with an umbrella. It was a pretty quiet week that we were there. The hotel had activities by the pool every day but we were just there for R&R so didn't participate. There were many European guests on the beach so many women were topless. The beach has security all the time. Vendors do approach you when you are walking on the beach by all the hotels to offer to sell you excursions, timeshare tours, and lure you to their shops. They are polite and do leave you alone if you just tell them "no thanks". The shops on the beach are fun to look in. The shop keepers don't take no for an answer though and will keep trying to make a deal until you leave.

We booked one excursion through our Apple Rep to go to La Romana and Altos de Chavon. The Apple guides and bus drivers were great, but I wouldn't take that one again because it was far too much time on a bus. Altos de Chavon and the caves were fun but the boat ride was not great and the long time on the bus was tiring. It was interesting to learn about the country and we met some very nice people both Dominican and American. It is a very poor nation so tip well while you are there, and maybe bring some school supplies for a local school.

If you are like me and always cold, don't bother packing sweaters because it is very hot there and all the hotel restaurants are open air. There is air conditioning in the bedrooms but it only brought the temp down to about 75.

We had a great relaxing vacation at Natura Park and will definitely return again! My biggest decisions of each day were which bikini to wear and what the drink of the day would be. Now we are back to the work grind and wishing we were still there on the beach!