My personal experience and opinions, with the pros and cons:

First of all, if you do choose Oasis Canoa, make sure you request for a renovated room beforehand, or request right at the time you check in. Otherwise, you may get one of those rooms that would not be fun to stay in. You can still request them to change room, but it would be a hassle having to move and settle in again.

Secondly, this resort would be a little too quiet for those who love to participate in activities. They do have activities, like beer contest, bikini contest, salsa & aerobic dances on the beach, and aerobics in the water. However, the number of activities is not that a lot compared to other resorts in punta cana. I found it a little quiet in general. People mostly just sat or lay around the pool or on the beach, taking naps or reading. Not many people participated in activities.
I would recommend this resort to those who like quietness with some noise, just enjoying the scenery, the pool and the beach.
This resort is mostly for local people. You will find a lot from Santo Domingo or somewhere else in DR.

The PROS:
- Overall view of the resort: clean, beautiful and romantic with wooden bridges across the ponds (see photos by lamerOasis), plenty of coconut, mango and palm trees. All is very nice, perfect for taking leisure walks around the resort at night. I loved the landscape of the Resort. The PLUS thing about this resort is that they do spray along the pathways to keep out mosquitoes, so rest assured you won't get attacked too much. You might still get some bites here and there when you dine at the restaurants, even inside the Akeru japenese restaurant, but it's not bad.

Dining in the Mare restaurant by the sea is just romantic. You can look out the beach and hear the sound of waves rushing the shore, enjoy the cool breezes while you dine.

This resort has a nice garden by the Beach, perfect for enjoying your morning coffee or whenever you want to sit there just to enjoy the cool ocean breezes.

- The room & room service: if you get one of the renovated room, it will be clean and good enough for the rest of your stay. they do clean your room every day, so rest assured that everything is nice and clean.

- The Pool: 1 pool only, but big, clean and very nice

- The Beach: Beautiful and clean, white sand and turquoise water (see photos by lamerOasis). You can walk along the beach. The Iberostar Resort is actually nearby, on your right. You can walk along the beach to Iberostar. There are quite lovely nature spots along the beach for you to take pictures. I loved the Beach.

- The location of the Resort: only about 20-minute walk along the beach to Dominicus. It's a nice & quiet little town if you want a little adventure to get away from the resort. There are shops in Dominicus you can bargain. To get to Dominicus (if you don't mind walking), walk along the beach towards Iberostar. Once you get just a bit past Iberostar, you'll see a few gift shops and the public beach, just get out from there to your right and keep walking till you hit the end of the road, turn left. You won't get lost, just explore if you'd like. A long the way to Dominicus, you'll see Wyndham Resort as well. You can take a cab to Dominicus, cost you $5, but I suggest walking along the beach for the experience and the purpose of exploration.
Also, you can walk along the beach to your left to National Park. That is further. We didn't get to explore NP though. The locals are friendly. It's safe to venture outside of the Resort. The resort is also 3.5 miles from Altos de Chevon. It's a nice little town to visit.

The CONS:
- Oh my favorite one for this category is the service, which I found somewhat discouraging and disappointing! When you go to the restaurant or the buffets, or even at the swim-up bar, you will find that you cannot get your order of drinks the first time! If you can speak spanish, good for you, but for those who don't speak or understand spanish like I, forget it! The waiters/waitresses don't speak English. Only 1 or 2 do speak a little, but you'd be lucky to find them. Every time I wanted to order something, it was quite hard work LOL, to the point sometimes I got tired and said 'forget it', and because of that I lost my mood in calling for drinks, when I love drinking. A couple times I had to serve myself some water because trying to tell them that I wanted a glass of water with ice was such hard work. They don't understand what you want.
It may not sound so much, but when you actually experience it, you'll see. For me, it just made me lose my mood for drinking. At one point, my friend ordered coke&rum at the swim-up bar. the waiter nodded his head, then we waited and waited and waited and...then finally he just left the bar without making our drinks!!! Then we tried to order again, and waited and waited and...finally we got some thing to drink!

- The drinks were somewhat cheap in my opinion. Mixed drinks were very sweet to me. I found that the drinks were a bit better that the bar beside the Mangos. I think that bar is the La Hicotea. It seemed to have all the right tools for making drinks, jars & jugs, and the waiter there made better drinks than those at the swim-up bar. I liked the tiki tiki drink that he made for me.

- This resort has an Italian club, called the Vera club (if I spelled that right), whose buffet you cannot eat in if you are not Italian!!! what would you call this...discrimination?! When I and my friend went in one night to check out their buffer, a waiter (maybe head of the waiters) was following us around and keeping his eyes on us. What was this?! At that time we didn't know why he followed us around. We told him that we were just checking out. The next day we tried that buffet for lunch, we were told that we could not eat there because we were not Italian!!!

- The food at the restaurants and buffets was okay, nothing special or memorial about. It was good enough for a 3* all-inclusive resort. I am not too picky about the food. I tried most of them, neither too crazy or dislike.

- Nightly activities: well, nothing special unless you just like drinking and dancing. I found that they did not prepare ahead to make sure all equipment would work. One night they planned for a karaoke show. They went around in the afternoon, asking vacationers to sign up for songs. Well, when the night came, they brought out their stuff just half hour before the show and began setting up, ran into some technical difficulties, and they had to cancel the show and put on something else. They did make it up the next night, but we were leaving that next morning. My point is that things should be prepared ahead of time because they don't know when people are leaving. We all go there for a vacation, and their job is to keep us entertained and give us good impressions to come back in the future.

- I didn't like the fact that we couldn't throw toilette tissues in the toilette. I did anyways in our rooms because we got the renovated room, but elsewhere in the public areas like at the restaurants and on the beach, the washrooms were a bit smelly. The water is not strong enough to flush with the tissues in there. You'd be lucky if you get it flushed, otherwise, just leave it and run out of the door LOL.

Overall, the Resort itself and the Beach are beautiful and clean. That was the plus side of it. What disappointing was the service for drinks. The resort is somewhat quiet, lacking activities. It isn't all that bad if you don't mind a few shortcomings I just described. There are too many resorts, even better, in DR to experience, so Oasis Canoa will definitely not be my second time. We will not return.

I spent a week at Oasis Canoa as part of a group of four mid-twenties female friends. First off, to potential visitors-- if you're a single woman, or traveling with friends as I did, you will be part of a very tiny minority at this resort (I think I saw only one or two other groups of young women). Most are families or couples. That's fine, since we didn't go for a party scene or anything, but be advised that you will get hit on/flirted with/harassed almost constantly by the male staff. Most of this was friendly and innocuous, but some staff members were way out of line and extremely pushy. If I say no to your request to dance with me three times in a row, that means no. Do not physically drag me out of my chair. Don't try to force me to kiss you on the mouth.

More advice to potential visitors: bring your own stash of bandaids, antiseptic, etc. There are lots of sharp rocks on one side of the beach-- the side to the right as you walk down to the beach (toward the little row of vendors). My feet were really cut up, and when my stash of bandaids ran out and the sand started to infect my wounds, I went to the resort doctor to ask for some antiseptic and bandages. The doctor, snapping her gum, didn't even take a look at my injuries, and told me I was fine and not to worry about it. I asked for some stuff. She said it would cost $95 for a consultation and refused to give me even a single bandage. It was truly shocking. I then went to the front desk and asked for some stuff out of their first aid kit. They told me that they didn't have a first aid kit (!!!). My only option was the resort shop, which marks up commodities incredibly high (a bag of Doritos for $8, a small bottle of coppertone for $22). Come prepared to deal with your own injuries! And bring tons of sunscreen too. I went through two whole bottles in one week.

Food: the Japanese restaurant is absolutely amazing! SO delicious. Do not miss it. You can only go once per week and have to make a reservation at the front desk. The Italian restaurant was disgusting. Wow. So salty and gross and horrible. SKIP IT. Sick. The buffets were really good. The beach buffet is simple, snacky, but still good; the main buffet is actually delicious and has a huge variety of food at all mealtimes. Breakfast is the best meal of the day. Tons of fresh papaya and mango, an egg station, great smoothies, etc. Make sure to stock up on fruit here since the vegetable/fruit offerings are very limited at lunch and dinner! You probably don't want to go to this resort if you're a foodie, but you won't be dissatisfied if you're an undemanding eater.

The beach: wonderful, beautiful, lovely. The highlight of the trip. My only complaint was that the resort plays loud music on the beach alllll day long. It's hard to relax and read as a result. Occasionally they turn it off around lunchtime when the beach is empty, so as a consequence, swimming in the ocean is best around 1-3 PM when everyone's eating or napping. Make sure to swim on the side nearest Anani Beach and farthest from the vendors (there are lots of rocks near the latter and they will cut your feet up!) The pool is also great and huge.

Disco/nightlife: pretty lame but still fun. We went to most of the nightly entertainments and one of them was amazing-- a Michael Jackson tribute night, with a lot of local dancers and performers. They were really talented! The other nightly entertainments were variety show/slapstick style, but they made us laugh.

The room: we were in building 12, which I think is for timeshare owners/renters. Our room was big, clean, and awesome! I was not expecting it to be so fantastic due to the reviews I've read, but I was pleasantly surprised. Only problem is that our building was closest to Veraclub, the Italian club/restaurant, and they boomed loud loud music and super annoying Variety Show noises til about 1 AM. Had to sleep with earplugs most nights. I would recommend requesting a room further away from the pool to avoid this problem.

Most of the staff was lovely and helpful (Christina, Andy, Leany at breakfast, Radhames at the Japanese restaurant). There is definitely a management problem here-- things are disorganized and confusing, but the individual people were mostly great with a few exceptions who I will not name, and who will not bother you unless you're a single woman traveling with other women.

The staff can be pushy throughout the day trying to get you involved in their little entertainments and games-- beer-drinking contests, kayaking contests in the pool, water aerobics, etc. It's pretty annoying and they often won't take no for an answer when you try to do your own thing. They'll eventually back off, but if you're looking for quiet, serenity, and being left alone, don't look for these things at Oasis Canoa. There's a strong summer camp atmosphere here.

Excursions: make sure to leave the resort and spend an evening in the great town of Bayahibe (took the local bus for essentially pennies). Also, if you're going to plan an excursion to Saona Island or the Piscina Natural, book it in Bayahibe (people will approach you in person once you get to town, I guarantee it). The resort's excursions are way overpriced. I paid $40 for a day at Saona and a brief stop at the Piscina Natural. Saona was amazing, but do not pay anything extra or go out of your way to get to the Piscina Natural. It was a gross display of young tourists drinking liquor in the water, killing starfish by taking photos with them in their hands, blaring trashy techno, and ruining the ecosystem. Very depressing!

I've given a lot of criticisms here, but only so you know what you're getting into and can plan accordingly by booking certain rooms, bringing certain things, etc. Overall, we had a really wonderful week. Spent most of our time in the ocean and the pool and there's no complaints about that. I'd still go back and I'd recommend it to friends who don't have a bougie attitude about travel.

I travelled to the Oasis Canoa on 12th May with my boyfriend, having been one of the unfortunates to have our mexico holiday cancelled.

It has to be said that we had an amazing time and were pleasantly surprised having read some of the hotel reviews beforehand.

The rooms were clean, food was excellent... I did not see any bugs :-) the staff were very approachable and friendly!

We went on to excursions through Thompson, the Saona Island ( beautiful and lots of fun!!) and the Maniarium, Punta Cana ( swimming with sharks and sting rays) both trips were worth the money although the trip to Punta Cana was about 2 hrs travelling.

I would recommend this hotel to my friends and family , especially if you need to relax have some fun and enjoy the beautiful surroundings that Bayahibe has to offer.

So, we stayed at the Oasis Canoa from 5/23-5/28. It was amazing. We flew into the La Romana airport and was picked up by dominicanairporttransfers.com which went very smoothly and the ride to the hotel was only about 20 minutes if even that. The ride was beautiful as well!

THE ROOM: Check in was smooth and easy. My first impression of the resort - I couldnt believe how HUGE it was! I was so pleasantly suprised. There is an area with shops, including a cigar shop, so you have no need to travel outside of the resort. We made sure to call ahead and get a renovated room, after reading everything on this website. Our room was cute, the bathroom was very cute, and the balcony was HUGE! We were on the top floor of building 11, and looked out over the beautiful jungles of Bayahibe....just the tops of trees for as far as the horizon will let you see. GORGEOUS sight to wake up to every morning!

THE FOOD/DRINKS: As everyone says, there are the restaurants and buffet. My boyfriend ended up getting sick for a few days, but he also has a very sensitive stomach. I did not get sick. The food was good. It wasn't like, WOW THIS FOOD IS GREAT!, nor was it WOW THIS FOOD IS TERRIBLE! It was just...GOOD. Same with the cocktails, except for the BLUE HAWAIIAN! Yum! (TIP: Bring PLENTY of 1$ bills to tip. Tipping makes a huge difference in the service that you get. They will give you bigger glasses, and better alcohol!) The only complaint I have is about the Japanese restaurant. Our food was not cooked very well (even the rice! It was crunchy!) but reading everyone else's experiences there and loving it, maybe it was just our particular chef.

THE BEACH: How can you describe it? BEAUTIFUL! People's pictures do not do it justice. We woke up early every morning (about 6:30), went to the buffet, then immediately went to the beach. Nobody is there that early, so its nice to kind of have it to yourself. Every morning around 7am there is a grounds crew there that comes and quickly rakes up the seaweed and takes it away to make the beach look great. Plenty of loungechairs, plenty of sun and plenty of shade...even at high noon there was no problem getting a great spot.

ACTIVITIES: We went parasailing which I highly recommend (about 80 dollars total for 2 people). There is so much to do there, so many things to rent and use, you will have no problem finding ways to keep having fun.

OVERALL: We had a really great time. We really have no complaints. It was hot, VERY HOT, extremely humid. (Tip: Make sure you bring a personal fan with you. I got mine at Sport Chalet for a few bucks, and it ended up being used very very often.) The grounds are HUGE!!!! So much room to walk around, and everything is very spread out. Lakes and waterfalls and bridges flow through the middle of it along with beautiful flowers and trees and plants. It is SO spread out in fact, that you dont run into too many people at any given time. No lines, no crowds, none of that...just good relaxation. Also, make sure to learn a few simple spanish phrases before you go. It will come very handy, plus its fun to use another language somewhere else!

I HIGHLY recommend this resort to any young couple looking to get away for about a week or so. Not sure if you can go longer than that....the humidity was driving me crazy! :)