I stayed at the Bahia Estela from February 17-24, 2007 and I’m FINALLY getting around to posting my review... so here it goes...

Rooms
We stayed in a Superior room, which is the hotel’s standard room. It was small, but clean. The air conditioning worked VERY well and the unit was quiet. I found that the countertops were higher than those here in Canada, which was a bit a bit of a nuisance (especially while washing my face in the morning) because I am under 5’0”, but it was something to laugh about. The maids kept the rooms very clean and restocked our water, 7up and cola daily.

Resort
It’s a small resort – you can walk from the beach to the lobby in 2-3 minutes. This is a great resort for people with limited mobility, as there are ramps throughout. The grounds were very nice and well-maintained. There’s a stream running along the main pathway to the lobby, which links a few small ponds with fish in them.

Food & Drinks
There was a great selection of for such a small hotel. I tried almost everything at the buffet and I liked everything I tried. For breakfast there was always bacon, cold cuts, cheese, buns (which you could toast) fruit, yogurt, and eggs (made to order). Lunch and dinner were different every night, but there was always a display of cold cuts, cheese, salad and soups. We also tried lunch at the beach grill over at the Viva Wyndham. Overall, I was very impressed with the selection and quality of food.
The drinks were GREAT – blended perfectly and just strong enough that the alcohol isn’t overpowering. After talking to Danny for a while he concocted some special drinks for us that weren’t on the drink menu. YUM! Overall, the food and drinks get two HUGE thumbs up.

Beach
The beach is fairly narrow, but since the hotel is small, it never feels crowded. There are a few rocky areas when you enter the water, so you need to be careful and walk slowly, but once you’re past the first 20 feet the bottom is all sand.

Staff/Activities
I was impressed with the variety of activities offered for such a small resort. Darts, beach volleyball, bocce ball, stretching, water aerobics, and bingo are among the daily activities run here. The winners get a small bottle of coconut rum as their prize. You can also use the beach club at the Viva Wyndham next door (it takes no more than a few minutes to walk there).

Entertainment
All of the nightly shows take place next door at the Viva Wyndham. The shows are very good – I especially enjoyed Grease. After the shows we headed to the disco, which is right beside the theatre. The animation staff does a great job of getting everyone dancing and having a good time.

Overall, I was very impressed with the great value of the resort. I had a great week and I’d like to return in the near future!

I'm afraid that previous reviewers got to this hotel a little too early. It was recently converted from a time-share and is just getting its legs as a boutique hotel as the owners advertise.
The result is a small, relatively quiet hotel which is precisely what we were looking for. You can use all of the services except for the buffet of the larger Viva Samana down the beach, if it's crowds and noise that you are looking for. The beach was great, the food was enjoyable, the service extremely competent, the rooms were clean. I'll assume that previous reviewers caught the hotel as it was getting into gear. We found no language barrier–perhaps because we learned a few Spanish expressions to get us by. (It is a Spanish-speaking country after all.)
That being said, there were a couple of incidents showing that the hotel was not up to cruising speed. One morning the water supply gave out for about an hour. Our room did not have the promised bar fridge. But if those things are going to give you a hernia, I suggest that you stay home and visit your local fast food.

This hotel has major issues. Some have already been posted. If you have no need for linens, beach towels, service, drinks or food then you will get along just fine. I would suggest skipping this hotel. Please see the large right up on this hotel in other sections of tripadvisor.

We arrived dec.23 2006 and left jan.06 2007. There was a 2hr bus ride not 40 min. The reception was horrible no room ready and a strong langauge barrier. There was on the wall a award from RCI time shares for i think 2002 and 2004. So this put a smile on our face for the time being. The road into the resort is a muddy one with lots of pot holes. The room we were given was a ocean view with a balcony, there was no a/c no fridge half the room had no electricity,the water was a horrible sulfur sewer smell. No bed linens, or pillows ,when the pillows arrived they were blankets rolled up in a pillow case. There was a awful smell of mold and mildew in the room, upon futher investigation we found the mold growing in the drawers and on the furniture, so we did not unpack our clothes. THE beach was small but ok i guess, the food was hit and miss but the first week it was horrible. The alcohol was a very cheap brand, no iron or ironing board,or hairdryer, we did recieve all this during our second week though. Everything to do is next door at the wyndham resort, the kids club was so bad that our kid refused to participate. The pool is missing many tiles and looks bad, as does the resort in whole,it looks old and needs a lot of TLC. The service was bad, probably because there was no employees there to do the work, there was a real problem with beach chairs and towels. The bugs where really nasty there too, some guests had to get security to kill and remove large sewer rats NOT JOKING!! There is a lot of garbage around the area however the resort did not have garbage around. They did begin to make improvements during the second week, to little to late our christmas vacation was ruined and i feel that anyone going there should be warned by there travel agent. I know the travel agents know of this problem because everyone i talked was unhappy. With a lot of work and investment this place has potential. I have been traveling with my family at christmas for 7 years now and feel i do know what i am talking about, and this was our expieriance for the two weeks we spent there.