Stayed at this resort 2 weeks April 16 - 30, 2008. Booked through Sunwing. This is the 7th or 8th time to the Dominican...lost track. This resort had both positives and negatives. Its definately not a 4 star...maybe 3 - 3 1/2 Dominican standards. (but I had a 4 1/2 star vacation) here is my review:

Check in:

went by smoothly, but you couldn't get a safe key until the next day. I had requested a room with a balcony and second floor...neither request granted (minor inconvenience)

Rooms:

Very basic, had better room in resorts with a lower star level, rooms definately need upgrading. I notice some had problems with water pressure...we didn't ... we always had a warm or hot shower. (bonus!) Found a few bugs in the room...but you are in a tropical country...and besides we get bugs in Canada. (No problem!) Just get a can of raid. or take some lysol spray.

Restaurants/Food

Enjoyed the food...and the restaurants. We never went hungry...the snack bar made great pizza, fries , burgers and hot dogs. Favorite restaurant was the Santa Fe grill ( Mexican) Service in the buffet very inconsistent with some great staff and some not very friendly or accommodating. Locals take over on the weekends.

Beach:

Clean, raked daily. No shortage of beach chairs. Very nice. Water not very deep for swimming. Stay away from the seaweed areas...sea urchin infested...be careful! Beach vendors can get on your nerves...but no worse than any other areas I visited. Just a no gracias will do.

Activities:

Didn't take part in many activities. There was water polo, areobics, aqua fit, and a kids club. There was also mini putt a small soccer area, tennis courts...and you can rent bikes.

Gym

Free weights and universal equipment, a few bikes. not much cardio selection.

Shows

The same shows each week. Stayed at resorts in the past on a 3 or 4 week schedule, less variety. But the animation team do work hard... and do try their best to include the guests in the shows.

Bars:
4 bars...I had great service. I never noticed about the locals getting served first, maybe because a smile and speaking a little spanish goes a long way. I can't believe how rude some people can be! I did tip my favorite servers on my last couple of days.

Disco / Casino

Disco is air conditioned, and smoke free!!! which was my favorite part of this place...you didn't reek of others bad habits when you returned to your room. Also they play alot of latin music, and not much American music...but I enjoyed that....It was great to experience their culture!

The casino...well it reeks of smoke...and it is ok if you are into that sort of thing. It is airconditioned. There were ladies of the night all around there.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE:

I had a GREAT holiday, despite the few minor inconveniences. Go with a open mind and you will have a great time. It is centrally located...only 30 minutes to Santo Domingo. This resort IS NOT for anyone that is picky...pay the extra and go to a 5 star resort in Punta Cana. I will return to this resort again.

Will gladly answer any questions!

My husband went to this place from 4/20/08-4/27/08 and we were very disappointed with our stay. This hotel leaves a lot to be desired.

CHECK IN: I'll start off with check in. We arrived at 4PM and were told that the room wasn't ready yet so they told us to go to the snack bar. We found this odd since check in is at 3PM. We went to their snack bar "Mangos" and were hoping that this wasn't the calibur of food that was to come for the rest of the trip: greasy french fries, stale looking pizza sitting under heat lamps, and hot dogs.. yum? I think not.

THE ROOM: The beds are uncomfortable. The pillows are flat. There was no hot water when we took showers. One day, when my husband went to wash his hands, only air came out!

THE POOL: The pools weren't very clean. I wanted to go in the pool until I saw a sludgey film on the water. I stuck to the beach

THE BEACH: The nicest part of this nasty hotel. The water was pretty and blue. There was sufficient beach chairs. The peddlers were a little annoying, but this is not the fault of the hotel.

THE FOOD: The food was the worst! The buffet was nauseating. The Italian restaurant was a joke. The only good food we had was at the tex-mex place. The service at the restaurants was very good. The waiters were attentive and friendly.

What made our stay even less enjoyable was the fact that the hotel was bombarded by about 150 Dominican teenage athletes about 3 days into our stay. They were loud and rude. We were lucky enough to have had a few of then in the room next to us. They were screaming at 3AM and blasting their music. We complained to the management and their reply was "well they are teenagers."

If you are looking for a relaxing vacation with good food, and nice accomodations, do not come here! I read the reviews before booking and thought it couldn't be that bad.. it was! The moral of the story is if something is cheap, there is a reason for that.

We got this trip cheap - and thank god for that! We consider ourselves an average family - not high needs or high end. I have to say my 9 and 14 year old enjoyed the pool and the sun. We all did. The food was plentiful though pretty average. No real complaints there. The rooms were dated but not a big concern when you are there to be on the beach so that didn't bother us. What did drive me nuts were as follows:
1)the resort is more like a motel 6 - tons of locals stay there..there were 125 teenage girls from all over the DR staying there - they screamed and hollered at 3am and drank and partied and pushed and shoved in food lines. They were not supervised or controlled. It was as the maid said " a catastrophe"....2) on the weekend the rich people from Santo Domingo converge and take over the pool and restaurants as well...there are no beach chairs or towels. They pay $25 US for a weekend! 3) the staff are not friendly or helpful - they tolerate the non-Dominicans at best 4) there are fleas everywhere - our room was being fumigated the day we left - today - we have bites everywhere 5) it is not a family resort!! Drunk people everywhere - bars open 24 hours....there are lots of very open displays of PASSION shall we say in all the pools. 6) also there is GARBAGE everywhere as soon as you leave the airport - it is scary actually....7)lastly we moved rooms twice - first room faced the a/c units - outside our window...no locks on the windows or sliding doors! Make sure you get a safe for sure.....both times we ended up with an adjoining room - steer clear of those - we had to listen to every sound ( and I mean EVERY SOUND ) from the couple next door - the connecting door has a 2" space at the bottom and the noise is too much! Yikes.

All in all it was cheap - but I would not recommend it for families - a great spot for single couples who want to drink TONS and not sleep. I am not impressed with Sunwing for giving this place 4 stars - try 2 stars and don't try to sell it as family. I was talked into by itravel2000.....I wanted to go to Punta Canta and that was my first error......

Coral Costa Caribe has potential, but needs some improvements and is not a 4-star. My husband and I are not really picky travellers, so we had a good time in spite of some deficiencies.

ARRIVAL: The worst part of the trip was the three-hour bus ride from Punta Cana airport, no bathroom on the bus. And we didn't arrive at the resort until 3:00 in the morning! After we checked-in, we were heading to our room and all of a sudden a guy appeared out of nowhere, wearing a dark hoodie and frantically speaking to us in Spanish. Eventually we figured out that he was security and was trying to bring us to our room. But it was pretty scarey, at 3:00 in the morning being approached by a frantic stranger in a dark hoodie.

ROOM: Our room was okay - not great but not a disaster either. It was a bit dark and the clock-radio didn't work, but the sun beamed in the window at 7:00 every morning, which was lovely!

SERVICE: We arrived on a Saturday night, and the next day we went down to the buffet for breakfast and could not find a clean table or a cup of coffee to save our lives. The place was completely over-run with local people. Which I have no problem with at all, except for the fact that the staff could not keep up with the influx. Service at the buffet was often slow, but if there was a big crowd of people it was impossible. With that said, the staff were all very sweet and friendly.

BEACH: The beach was okay, although not the really soft sand like Punta Cana - a lot of the beach was covered with crushed shells and pieces of coral, although the sand down by the water was softer and had less shells.

VENDORS: One big problem with Costa Caribe was the vendors on the beach - they were relentless. There's a steady parade of people selling items, and even though they would move along when you'd say "No thank-you," they'd be back again an hour later. They also set-up tables at the resort in the evenings, which was nice because you could look through a big selection of items. Although Dominicans can be very assertive when trying to make a sale, which can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it.

RESTAURANTS: Pretty good. I think our favourite was the Mexican restaurant, the Santa Fe.

SANTO DOMINGO: Loved it! We toured the colonial zone and it was fantastic!

SAONA ISLAND: Biggest regret of the trip. It was utterly disappointing. We were promised a trip to the most beautiful sandy beach in the Dominican, a chance to swim with starfish, and a barbeque of steak and burgers. They brought us to the area with starfish, but there were none anywhere where our boat stopped. None. When we got to Saona Island, the beach was blocked full of people, worse than at our resort, and was CRAWLING with vendors, again, worse than at our resort. And the food? There was no barbeque. There was a buffet of crappy food - warm coleslaw, tough chicken. The only thing that was edible was the instant mashed potatoes. The beach was mostly rock and coral and was difficult to walk on in bare feet. Only when we were leaving did I realize there actually was a beautiful soft sandy beach there, but it was not where our guide brought us and we didn't get to appreciate it at all.

WARNING!: One of the staff on the boat back from Saona Island tried to steal our bags. It was very upsetting and really soured the day. He tried to open my husband's bag and started to argue that it was his bag. My husband had to physically rip the bag away from him. We didn't have anything of real value in our bags, but it was a very souring incident.

Overall, however, we had a good time and we got a really good deal through Sunwing. However, I could see how people would be disappointed if they had paid for and expected a 4-star resort. I don't think I would recommend this resort to a friend. And I definitely would not stay at another resort 3 hours from the airport.