I was worried from all the terrible reviews I've erad before I went to this hotel. Let me just say that I had a blast on this vacation.

Some things to note

1. The staff was very friendly and helpful and very appreciative of any tips
2. The locals who try to sell you things will not bother if you say "no gracias" and return to whatever you were doing.
3. Not everyone can do this, but if you udnerstand any Spanish at all, and you make an attempt to speak it, the people are impressed and will treat you with more respect
4. The food: Italian (surprisilngly Domican Republic knows good Italian) = Great; Mexican = good; Dominican = pretty good (my girlfriends steak was a little tough one night)
5. There is a restaurant down the street I think it's spelled "Aura", most romantic and delicious meal ever
6. There are Canadians EVERYWHERE. This is merely an observation. I don't know how 60% of the gusests are Canadian, but they are. I love their accents.
7. First room we were given wasn't so good, got locked int he bathroom. SO we went back to the front desk and they gaev us a room with two balconies overlooknig the pool and beach. Perfect.
8. If you like to drink, Bring big mugs! The plastic cups they give you are too little
9. It is not dirty everywhere. What are you peopel talking about? Are you from Scarsdale, NY? The hamptons maybe? This place is a steal of a deal and its a poor country. Get off your high horse.
10. There are no bugs in the rooms.
11. Breakfast is fair = get an omelette
12. Great french fries at Mango's Grill (open 24/7)
13. The casino was fine, although I did lose. Hard to get a cocktail waitress though.
14. The "Chocolate people" (name of the activity staff) are very friendly although some games are corny. I found it better to drink and watch than actually participate.
15. Excursion to Saona Island = lots of fun.
16. Interhabit was a reliable company for getting us to and from airport, as well as booking excursions through.

OK so do not worry if you are going here. As long as you're not expecting US 5 star accomodations you will enjoy it. The bext part of vacations is relaxing, eating, drinknig, swimming and basically doing nothing. All those are great to do at Costa Caribe. Enjoy.

We bid on this vacation for charity, and while it is not the usual area we would stay in, the resort appeared to be okay and the beach the main attraction for much needed R and R. That being said, this is far from a 4 star resort, one of the managers told me that is dominican standards, this resort is bordering on a 2 star. The bottom line is ,my fiancee put it the best, we felt intimidated the entire time we were there, the needs of foreign travelers were not this hotels priorities.

We were prepared for rooms that were not modern, as well as other problems mentioned in previous reviews. We were not prepared for the depth of issues this resort seems to have. We will tell you that some of the people that work there are cheerful and will work to attempt to solve any problem or issue, but they have little to work with. We understand the hotel was recently sold from Hilton ownership, and the owners were very visible for two days while we were there of the seven. They have much work to do. Our first room (note, many travelers who have posted reviews say they have moved their rooms) looked as if it came out of a horror novel. Stained and leaking ceilings, non working lights, balcony door broken , non working AC , dirty bathroom. So we put our bags in the room and went down to eat. I knew also that on the weekend the hotel offers locals a package to stay , which is nice, but , more later in my comments. We were barraged by people. It looked like Coney Island on a hot sunday, certainly not the ambience described in any of the travel sites. We attempted the buffet, but too many people and we were too worried about our room. Back to the lobby and again the greatest asset this hotel has is its some of the staff, who calmy and quickly found us a much better room and apologized to us for the inconvenience (not their fault, they have to work in these conditions too). Our new room was fine, it certainly seen much better days, and on most days we did have hot water. The refrigerator had a block of ice so thick in the freezer and was in bad need of repair, the sliding glass door did not lock, and the AC in the living area was non functional. However the AC in the bedroom area worked so we shut the door at night. I do not know where they got the pictures they post on the travel sites not one of these rooms look that way and we saw quite a bit. Just about everyone from the USA and some folks from Canada had to change their rooms. We did tip the maid daily and this helped with extra towels and water, for what she had to work with the room was okay, but the floor was cleaned with dirty water.

During our stay they also requested permission to fumigate the rooms, we deferred as many others did that we spoke with. From one of the recent reviews I saw it appears they had roach problems, nice.

Now to the beach, it is virtually impossible after 10 am to not be constantly approached by beach vendors, yes I know everyone needs to make a living, but their access needs to be controlled. It was interesting when the management was visible for those two days, that they were hardly around. And it is not like they do not get a chance to sell, most evenings tables are setup outside and the vendors have a chance to display and sell their wares. It was quite annoying to be approached , woken up and distrubed throughout the day, we were here to relax. And here is the best part , one guy kept bringing us a table every day, so we gave him a dollar, one day he was not there, so we just moved a table from the beach to our location, he came by later on and demanded a dollar!

Security is very visible throughout the resort, and on the beach in the evening.

The pools are not how they look, the pool bar is in sore need of updating, and it is very difficult to get a drink while sitting at the pool bar. We were told one day we had to get out of the pool to get a drink, whats the point? The pool was also filthy and only appeared clean during the managers day blitz that went on. The other pool in the area was much cleaner, but lacked a pool bar or easy access for drinks.

The food was okay, actually after the saturday nightmare, the food at breakfast and lunch was good, and we settled into a routine of eating in the veranda area for a leisurely lunch with wine. Toward the end of the week the food selection was poor and became increasingly bizarre, with offerings of fried chicken and nachos for breakfast (sorry I am not in college anymore).

Your best bet is to stick with the specialty restaurants and get there before they open at 6:30. The Italian restaurant is the best of the 3, and open most times while we were there. The mexican was not bad and enjoyable margaritas, the authentic Domincan was okay as well. Stay away from the buffet at night towards the end of the week it is too crowded and lets just say manners are not a top priority, nor are you welcome as a tourist.

We arranged a private tour of Santo Domingo with the concierge and she was great, it was wonderful to see the history. I recommend this for anyone staying in this area. Our driver while he could spoke little english was wonderful pointing out many points of interest, and our concierge , virginia was fantastic. She also arranged for our transport back to the airport, which created some problems with the doorman who initially refused to check our bags as we did not go through him first. A call to the Virginia solved this problem immediately.

The casino is another danger zone, and watch if you are winning. Keep track of your conversion of RD to dollars, which at the time we went was 33 to one dollar.

I tried the Spa. The ladies are wonderful and I feel sorry for them. Their facilities are old and in much need of repair. The Spa "shower" had cracked tiles, a dirty appearance and not much better hot water than the rest of us.

Be forewarned there is a travel club on site, with lookouts who request that you listen to a 1/2 hour presentation, something like a timeshare. We went as we understood the lookout gets a fee, so that was okay, heard the presentation, and said we would research when we got back. We expressed out concerns about all of the things above and more, we were told that this was not representative of the other properties they represent. That being said , the salesman popped up no matter where we were during the week, even when we came out of the ocean. I finally told him when he approached me while I got out of the pool to get drinks, that I was clearly turned off by this place and I would have nothing to do with anything if they represented this place. He finally left me alone, and I received a round of applause from fellow vacationers I was talking to.

People reading this may think we are spoiled or expect too much. I do not think it is unreasonable to expect clean conditions, working AC, and respect for your privacy. So if you want a vacation on the cheap, this could be the place for you. Me, I would rather spend the extra $500 or so and go to a place that is not intimidating but accomodating to travelers and not be harrassed on the beach or have unclean conditions.

My neice and I visited the property from March 29th thru April 5th through Interval International. I too had read various reviews regarding the property and what to do prior to a visit pretaining to medical issues, shots, pills, etc. I didn't realized certain precautions had to be taken, maybe, so I did nothing. However I survived the weeks and came back alive, no ailments or sickness. First of all I'll like the say the owners are sitting on a "gold mine" and with some money invested in the property they will have a "jewel".

The rooms: I had a 2 bedroom (comprised of 5 beds) in building "N". When I got in the room I couldn't figure how why the beds were so low. I discovered none had a box spring. After one night of terrible sleep and the beginning of a backache, I came up with the bright idea to combine the 2 beds, which made it bearable for the rest of the week. I didn't experienced any bug problems, and I don't want to give the hotel a bad rap, but I swear I thought I saw a "mice" run across the floor one night at the end of my stay. I was then moved to the building where the spa is located, which is much nicer.

The food: All their chefs need to go to cooking school. The Dominican restaurant was the best. I didn't like the Sante Fe Grill service was slow and the meat wasn't that tender. The Italian wasn't any better slow and meat was tuff. The buffet was better, but as others have said repetative.

The bar: The drinks were pretty good but they don't practice good sanitation The should all use plastic gloves in handling food and fruits used in the drinks

The Tours: Agency tooo expensive in the hotel, especially when I found a company down the street in the strip mall called Cigua Tours that's cheaper and offer the same service. I enjoyed the safari, such as it was, mingleing with the native and seeing the kids. I regretted not having enough candy to give all we passed. That also goes for the trip into Santo Domingo which they charge $28.00 to the taxi outside the hotel that charges $85.00 and may or may not speak English

The Activities: Don't know, didn't participate, but did see people playing beach volley ball. They could use an activities committee co-ordinator. I heard the night time entertainment was pretty nice I didn't attend, started too late (9:30 p.m.) I went one night, it was nice. The beach was nice, it stayed packed.

The People: Very Nice and tried to help if they could. Keith on the omelet grill, Hector in the Sport's Bar, Greg, Customer Service and others I can't call by name. I took $80 worth of singles and used them all in tipping someone for service and was happy I could do so. I didn't see a lot of people tipping because of the All Inclusive status they were on, but come on, would a $1.00 tip here and there, kill one that is so fortunate (from other countries U.S., Canada, and England).

As I've previously stated, if the owners were to invest money in this propery it would really be a site to behold. They can make a lot of money. It appears people will visit the property regardless of reviews negative or positive. In the final analysis it alls comes down to personal preference by the individual, what they are accustomed too, and/or what they will or will not tolerate or accept.

I won't waste your time with negative comments on the hotel because overall, my sister and I had fun with the people we met on the resort. I just want to warn travellers that there is a cockroach infestation in the resort. We changed rooms 3 times and the problem did not go away. More disturbing then the rooms was the fact that there were also cockroaches in the bread at the Buffet! All reviews have some good and bad and I think you should take and leave some, but I simply wanted to ensure people are warned before they decide to book the hotel. I've attached a few pictures as "evidence".

Sophie