Booked before reading the reviews or wouldn't have. Upgraded to Prestige.

Check in went well as there was only one other couple on our airport transfer. Saw many huge lines at the check in desk almost always. Staff at the desk are as rude and unfriendly as everyone says. Room was good, with ocean view. Had to call down to desk to get housecoats & slippers, mini bar fill. It took 2 days to get the bottle of Rum that was supposed to be in the room. One lamp had a broken lightbulb, I called the desk 5 times about it. Even left the bulb on a $5 bill on the bed. Finally on the 4th day I brought a housekeeping supervisor into the room and showed her the missing bulb and it got fixed.
We left $5 each day for housekeeping.

Beach is spectacular, sand like flour. Waves were strong, we never did go in the Ocean. Pools were good. Could usually always find a pair of chairs so there was no need to get up early to rush down and reserve a couple with your towels.
We were unimpressed to see one couple take the Diaper off their Baby and take her in the pool. Another couple were seen changing a Diaper and dipped the kid in the pool to wash her off before putting on a clean one. We stopped swimming.
Food was OK. Only one Buffet always busy. The Al La Carts were better. At Conouco we noticed it didn't matter what appy you ordered everybody got the same 3 dough balls, at every table. If asked about it the Waiters laughed and pretended they didn't understand.
One day in the Buffet the Omlet Chef was chatting in Spanish to a guest and he made some rude comments to my Wife, laughing at her because she didn't speak Spanish.
After check out we were allowed to use a courtesy room before our flight. This was one of the rooms everyone is complaining about. Lumpy beds, broken curtain rods etc. we wanted to shower but their were no towels.

Took a van to Chey Nicole to shop and see more than the resort. This was a total waste of time. Don't go. Cost $30 Taxi to return.

Pay for the room upgrade. Better rooms, better check in, our Al La Carts were pre booked for us so we didn't have to line up for reservations.

Didn't see much of the true Dominican and felt we were isolated to the resort. In the Myan Riv we made several trips to Playa Del Carmen and Cozumel but here we felt there weren't those options. We found the people less friendly than in Mexico.

Several reviews say 'for the cheap cost it was OK'. We spent over $5000 for a week at peak season. It was very expensive. It was just OK. We will not return.

As never being to a AI in DR I don't have anything to compare this resort too. Having said that we have travelled to many other destinations and stayed in other AIs. We heard both good and bad from others that had visited other AI resorts in DR.

The rooms were sufficient. We travelled with our 2 children and did spend time in the evening watching movies before bedtime. The tv had a lot of channels in english. Beds were ok. Not luxurious but not terrible. We did have bugs of all kinds come in from the patio or if the door was left open. We come to find that can happen in any country though. There is Mosquitos at night so bring your repellant. We tipped our maid $2-3 dollars a day and got enough towels and our beds made (but not the bedding changed the whole week we were there). It is a different person that comes in to stock your mini bar so leave their tip in the fridge ($1-2) and you will get extras. We had one night where we didn't have any hot water to shower but otherwise it was fine.

We used the complimentary safe for all documents and valuables and it was good except one day we got timed out for putting in our code wrong and security came (not in a timely fashion), plugged in his iPad, and reset it in seconds.

We paid for the prestige upgrade with Transat holidays and there was no point because all the little extras didn't happen like the rum in your room at arrival and your beach towels waiting for you in your room too. We had to chase that all down. We never had a separate check in/check out line either so be prepared to wait! We did have a bus transfer to and from the airport to the resort.

The food was hit and miss. The seafood restaurant was terrible. The Dominican specialties was good. The Japanese was AMAZING and if we would have know it was that good we would have changed some of our reservations for just there. The French was pretty good as well. The pizzeria for lunch is the best and the grill (hamburgers, hot dogs, fries) was very good as well. But the buffet on the other hand was always the miss! We all got sick from the buffet! And some of the things we couldn't even tell what it was. Sunday is the big buffet night and was a little better. The late night food in the theatre isn't worth your time to walk out there! Cut up hot dogs and ham between some bread!

Drinks at every bar are different. We like our vodka but just couldn't drink DR vodka. Tasted like paint thinner! We drank drinks that had ice cubes and were fine and we also drank water from the dispensers at all the bars and were fine. We just didn't use the tap water at all, even to brush our teeth! When you order a drink at a restaurant order 2 or 3 because you can wait a long time for another or not get another one at all by the end of your meal. Especially at the pizzeria. Bring your own bubba mugs for at the pool and beach. A must if you don't want to drink sand!

The resort itself is HUGE! We stayed in building 2 and it was good. Close enough to the pools and beach and restaurants. We were by the theatre which was noisy at night but not for too late! The casino was at the end of our hall and did attract some late night passerbys that wanted to make themselves be heard! We went to the sports bar one night to play pool and it was quiet and fun. The disco was small and smelled terrible! The music is all Caribbean style or bad 90's techno! The nightly shows at the theatre were hit and miss too. We went to the magic show with our daughter and it ended up being dancers in Disney costumes. The circus show was good. The casino wasn't much but ok if your a 3 card poker player. I wouldn't trust the slot machines. They were pretty old.

My kids only did the rock wall and the kids pool. Both were "cool" to them! We didn't bother with the trapeze or kids club because of the times they were open and our routine we got into. Safety is not #1 in DR so there are little things that the kids can get hurt on in the pool and kids area like the filter covers on the ground that I seen several people fall through and get hurt! And the slippery tiles everywhere!

The beach is clean for seaweed and ocean debris but does have a lot of garbage from the guests like cups and cigarette butts. It is always windy and there is always waves. The first day we were there my 8 year old daughter was the in the ocean with her new mask and snorkel and a wave came and took her down and by the time she collected herself the mask was gone from the undertow. It scared her a bit so she didn't go out with mom or dad for the rest of the trip. My 13 year old son loved the waves! Bring lots of sunscreen, you will need it and it is expensive to buy in the resort store.

We bought sand toys at the shop for $18 for a set. It was a bit pricey but she played with them everyday. We had found a body board and some other sand toys on the beach at night and when the kids were done playing with them at the end of our trip we gave them to other kids as we didn't have a way to get them home. Passing it along :)

The resort lets vendors come onto the property and set up tables every second day or so. You can get some better deals on items that you will also find in the stores at the resort. Make sure you haggle with them. I got my kids 2 necklaces with shark teeth that they wanted to sell me for $70 and I got them both for $25. If your going to buy souvenirs there is a mini mall a 10 minute walk down the road that is worth it and I wish I would have gone there instead. I bought all my souvenirs from the resort store. Spent $100 but got some coo stuff that I felt was worth it. DO NOT WAIT TO BUY STUFF AT THE AIRPORT. It is STUPID expensive. The same shot glass I bought at the resort for $3 was $8 at the airport!

The resort store can be expensive for items. I bought the kids a bag of Doritos one night for munches while watching a movie and it was $6 a bag! And chocolate bars were $3 each! Try to avoid having to buy that stuff as you don't really know how long it has been sitting there!


All in all it was a great family vacation. We feel we got what we paid for but we probably won't go back to that particular resort. We met people that went over to Barcelo Bavaro Beach resort and it sounded like that was the Barcelo resort to choose! Worth the little bit extra.

Barcelo Punta Cana is not the worse resort but age is starting to show in the structures. The staff can be friendly but you get the few that will completely ignore you. Especially at the front desk. We didn't find a lot of the staff spoke english and if they did they didn't let it be known. To tell you the truth, we didn't find a lot of tourist spoke english at all. Lots of french and spanish. We love meeting new people when we travel but this trip we pretty much stuck to the 4 of us as a family.

Your vacation is what you make it! We didn't let the little things bother us and stuck to having fun at the beautiful beach!

I have never been one to take these reviews seriously and I wish I did. I decided to take the reviews with a grain of salt and booked a trip. We thought that being rated a 4 star and 4.5 with noli tours it had to be decent.

All I can say is ever negative review is correct. First of the entrance is unimpressive not to mention the entire lobby smells of smoke. I couldn't even stand to sit anywhere with my kids cause it smelled so bad!!!!! The rooms are musty,old with zero water!!!!! We couldnt even shower the first nigth cause there was no water NADA!!!!

Our door did not lock properly and my husband could open it by pushing hard on the door. The lock was all carved out. The up graded rooms r far from an upgrade. They showed us one that was clean and I notice peanuts on the floor!!! Disgusting!!! Basically you got a flat screen tv over a tv from the 80's. the walls are super thin. The hot tub was cold. No towels for the pool for an entire day!!!! Only 2 body towels in our room. There was a line up to get into the buffet then u would litterally line up in the pasta line for over half hour!!! It's over crowded. I could really go on for ages.

We ended up leaving 2 days later and stayed at the barcelo bavaro delux palace which was absolutely beautiful. Fantastic family resort and we would go back again.

Whoever stumbles upon my review please take this review seriously and do not book the barcelo punta cana. Save up and spend the extra money!!!!!! Trust me to even spend what we did the thought of staying there for the entire week would not have been a vacation! The staff were sweet not their fault they are working at a s&$) hole!!! They worked very hard and tried to please many unhappy guests. We all save up for this one week of paradise so make it worth it and do your homework!! Good luck

The only good things I have to say about this place are great beach and nice pool. The staff at the bars/restaurants were friendly, but staff at the front desk were down right rude. There was once clerk running the front desk the entire time (major lines to check in and major lines to check out). The biggest dissapointment in this resort was the food. The food was so horrible it was not even eatable. It got to the point that we wanted to vomit even walking by the buffet due to the horrific smell. We ended up paying for a cab to the hard rock cafe that last two nights of our stay because we could no longer live off the chips we had to buy at the resort store to survive on. The "special restaurants" were always booked (yet completely empty) and impossible to get a reservation at. We did get a reservation one night at the dominican restaurant and were very dissapointed. The pizza place always had an extremely long wait and on the once occasion we did get in I had a long hair embedded in my "freshly made pizza". The other couple we went with both got sick (vomiting/diarhea) from the food. Our room was another issue. Three out of the seven days we were there we did not have hot water. Our tv did not work nor did our fridge. Maintenance had to be called about our in room safe twice during our stay as that also did not work. Our room was not cleaned ( no new sheets/towels/toilet paper) until 5-6pm at night after we would call to complain). There was also not much going on for entertainment as this resort. We are two couples (all in our late 20s) who are very easy to please and were just looking to have a good time. I have never in my life seen anything like this resort. At first glance it appears nice, but dont be fooled. Spend a little bit more money and go somewhere else-- trust me!!! Will never go back!