We stayed in the resort for 8 days (7 nights), 2 adults and 2 children (6 and 11 years old). We booked for the privilege rooms and we got a room on the ground floor of Villa Nº 6. The overall experience was good and we strongly recommend. Starting with the staff, I have nothing to point. I have read some bad comments on TripAdvisor regarding the staff and I honestly cannot understand them. If you complain that they don't speak english you must understand that you are on a Spanish speaking country. Most of them understand english, and if not, they will very likely ask for help from another colleague. Since I speak both Spanish and English, I had ZERO PROBLEMS when addressing them. All of them were kindly and looking forward to help. Remember, if you are abroad, on a non-english speaking country, and you only speak English, remember that you are the one who has to adapt, not them. Yes, it is important that whoever is selling a service tries to satisfy all customers, but as a customer we must also adapt to where we are. Otherwise, the solution is simple, I'll go the other way. Not my case, I will for sure try to comeback. Regarding the room, I honestly think you got what you pay for. The privileged rooms have been refurbished recently and the conditions are good, although some construction details could be improved. AC works very well. Rooms are cleaned daily and towels replaced. Only one day they did not replace the towels. But after a phone call to reception, they got delivered in minutes. If you need/want to replace the pool/beach towels, then you must do it early in the morning, otherwise they will quickly run out. Still, they will get more during the day. Regarding the food, overall I will give it 4 out of 5, mainly because of diversity. Seems fine in the first days, but after 5/6 days you basically tried everything already. Drinks/cocktails are good and you have a lot to choose from. If you booked a privilege room, then I strongly recommend to get the drinks for the bar in the beach (for Privilege and Exclusive members only). The beach bar also provides pancakes throughout the day, and I really recommend them. I went to all the restaurants, and must say that the steak house is the best one (at least for me). Mikado is also good and serves a lot of food. On the Italian restaurant, I had to order my beer 3 times to get it delivered by the end of the meal :). Spanish tapas are OK. Regarding the surroundings, the gardens are very well maintained and clean. The casino is small, but I also did not expect more than that - it's ok if you want to spend some time and waste some money :) The beach suffers from the same problem as all the beach in Republica, the sargassum. But even here we got lucky - during our stay (26th July to 2nd of August) in the beach in front of the hotel there was a area that was clean. You could walk far away without sargassum and you could even feed the fishes. The staff cleans the sargassum daily, and they really keep an effort in keeping it clean - although, you cannot fight mother nature. You see a lot of families, with young kids. There is people from Portugal, Spain, France, among other countries in Europe. You also find people from the US and some other spanish speaking countries in America. If you prefer quieter environments, then you should look for the Adult only hotels. Kids loved the beach and the pool. My final rating would be 4.5 out of 5. It met my expectations and the money I paid.…
The positives- SOME staff are wonderful, kind and happy to be there. The grounds are well kept. It's clean..... The negatives- a lot of staff are inconvenienced without a tip! Rooms are very dated with bits hanging off the walls and leaking AC units. (The maids don't always leave towels, toilet roll or put sheets on the bed) Food is edible, but bland. There's groups of (French) teenagers running amok without adult supervision. Be careful walking across the laminate flooring (near reception) after rain, it's like aquaplaning in a flip flop 🫣! The 'entertainment' by the Lookea team at 8pm is strange and all done for French guests, which is odd in a Spanish speaking country.
Pros, the beach and grounds were lovely and the people were very nice. Cons, issues on check in as our room was not ready and they could not accomadate our family of 4 on a ground floor room (with pushchair) so we had to spend the first night in a room that was not what we paid for. Both rooms were dated and in much need of TLC. The food was not good, alot of the time it was not hot and on numerous occasions i had to steer my children away from some food as it was covered in bugs. All food was uncovered and being open air there were numerous birds and animals that came in to the eating areas. The birds were constantly eating from the tables and were often shooed away but rarely cleaned up after. Unfortunately me and my daughter became ill following eating only at the hotel, resulting in a 3 day hospital stay. As the eating areas were open air they were extremely hot and not well air conditioned. Holiday was a complete shambles and would not return.…
DO NOT GO HERE!!! Drugs was planted in my Jeans upon returning to the UK! Luckily they were not found at the airport as i currently would be in a Dominican Jail right now!!! Offered drugs as soon as we arrived at the resort off one of the greeters called “fernando” and offered drugs on a daily basis around the resort, this being mainly in the pool bar toilets and bar toilets, even our 19yr old son and his girlfriend was offered them on a daily basis…I have raised a severe complaint with TUI and I will await their reply.. wife is now thinking she was spiked on several occasions seeing she wasn’t well virtually upon arriving and whilst there….also logged this with my local police and the British embassy here in the UK and the BRITISH embassy in Santo Domingo… Enough of that now here’s the review of everything else… Food was shocking, especially on how hot the main restaurant was, absolutely unbearable heat which made you nauseous all the time. The Dominicans seem to hate my wife and sons girlfriend seeing they were English, this happened all around the resort, but they were totally fine with us, the men. Son had to change rooms twice, they were like pet shops with the amounts of insects there were, cockroaches, lizards, spiders, you name it, it was in that room… water dripping through the light fittings, curtains with holes in them, toilet seat was broke, electrics really unsafe with the wiring, (son is an electrician low and behold) air con didn’t work in the extreme temperatures, fridge got replaced which also didn’t seem to work… Son got hounded about his “Valentino” man bag, and felt scared so didn’t use it again from the first night, also myself who worn a decent tag watch, “whats the time on a daily basis, pulling my arm to them… swiping my wife’s arm for her Pandora bracelets… was definitely a holiday from hell and no one especially us (brits) should go through that with the amount of money we paid… ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING and TUI should drop that Hotel from their portfolio of where to visit as this is damaging their reputation severely… I HAVE POSTED ABOUT MY EXPERIENCES ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE BUT ALL MY COMMENTS HAVE BEEN REMOVED AND I SEEM TO BE BARRED FRONM THE PAGE!! IF YOUR BRITISH…. DO NOT GO TO THIS RESORT YOU’VE ALL BEEN WARNED!!! TUI… please check it out yourselves you’ll be very really shocked and know this review is the Honest TRUTH!!!!!…
Love this resort! This is my 3rd time in 7 months. We recently joined the Exclusive Travellers Club because the team is so great and inclusive! Entertainment Team - I cannot say enough great things about the entertainment team - they are the WOW factor of this resort! Ricky, Mari, Jose and Francisco are truly the backbone to this resort. They always know how to ensure everyone is having a great time. Rooms - Very clean and modern but would definitely recommend the privilege rooms over the standard (worth the extra few dollars) Restaurants - A lot of variety available. Service can be pretty slow at times. Reception - Prior to becoming part of the exclusive travellers club, we had to check in at the front reception (like everyone). Check in process is VEEY LONG. They are so slow but we accepted it and just go with the flow. We did have a HORRIBLE experience with Santiago (from the reception desk). He is a liar and has a horrible attitude. We asked for a golf cart to take us to our room and he said it will be available shortly. We waited 20 mins and then I went and asked for an update. Again he said it will arrive shortly, so we continued to wait. Another 20 mins went by and I asked him what was going on, to which he said “actually there are no more golf carts available tonight.” This was very frustrating and felt like he was making a joke out of us. I told him I would be speaking with a supervisor in the morning and he said “you can do whatever you want.” This whole interaction happened while he was sitting comfortably in the office - he refused to come to the desk and talk to me. His arrogant and unprofessional attitude was uncalled for and very rude! This is not the correct person to have working at the front desk - as a point of contact for guests.…
I cannot recommend this hotel at all. We have been here 4 days so far and I’m dreading the next 10. We paid for the Privilege which does have some benefits however… Check in - took so so so long and there was only 1 family in front. Must have taken 30 mins at least. Room - nice room but we booked for 3 people however the set up is for 2. 2 chairs, 2 cups, 2 glasses etc. requested extra through the hotel and through Tui but got nothing so spent our evenings with our son in the room and us on the balcony. Our power and air con was on and off for 24 hours. Contacted reception via the supposed 24hour WhatsApp service to tell them - only to be totally ignored. Eventually went to reception the next day after a long hot sweaty night and they said “oh yes. There’s a general problem in that block we are trying to fix” I don’t understand why they couldn’t have replied to the WhatsApp to confirm. Bathroom/shower - cold water just not coming through at all - after a day on the beach with sand, salt and oil on my body and skin ended up totally unable to shower without burning. Again - zero response to WhatsApp Buffet - one word - HOT! Unbearable. If you want to lose weight then great. I could barely run in, grab a plate of rice then get out of there. Privilege beach bar - nice but only if you tip. I will return to this country but never to this hotel. I have been to Cuba where you expect less and got far far more.…
Really wasn’t looking forward to staying here after reading all of the negative reviews however we were pleasantly surprised and had a fabulous time! Rooms - dated yes but clean and comfortable. Restaurants - good choice of tasty, well made food. Buffet repetitive after two weeks as expected with AI however plenty of a la carte choices too Grounds - just beautiful. Well maintained and always something being done to keep up high standards Sun beds - there are signs saying that these can’t be reserved however these were completely ignored. After 10am and you had no chance until lunchtime. We just went in the beach instead as beds were pretty much always available there and did the pool in the afternoon Staff - the bar staff at the pool weren’t the happiest however everybody else that we met were super friendly and couldn’t do enough to help you. As for the language, yes not a lot of English spoken but why should there be? We only speak a tiny bit of self taught Duolingo Spanish but did our best and the guys really appreciated it. Even taught us a few words extra during our time there. Look out for Luis, the best omelette maker in town, and Kenia at the entrance of Gran Caribe who greeted us every morning with the biggest smile and a hug ❤️ Birds - new netting put up whilst we were there which stopped the herons. Yes the smaller birds can squeeze through sometimes but you can’t expect to sit outside in such beautiful surroundings without some wildlife being there. Im not a bird lover at all and these didn’t bother me in the slightest. The food at Gran Caribe is behind a second set of doors and so very rare to find them near the food there. The only real negative for us and the reason for 4 stars rather than 5 were the other guests. We came across some of the most ignorant, arrogant and downright rude people from other countries. On more than one occasion our children were pushed out of the way at the buffet and the manner in which some of the staff were spoken to was atrocious. Overall though we really enjoyed our time here and were sad to leave.…
Pros: -beautiful location and beach - the drinks are amazing and not watered down at all - the privileged rooms are great, are modern, clean and great AC - very beautiful landscaping and places to take pictures - the reservable restaurants are good especially the steak house cons: theres alot lol - the hotel keys would often stop working and it takes forever to walk all the way back to recession to get a new one and it gets annoying because it so hot - the towel service is so weird, you are given a card when you first get to the hotel and you have to trade it in for a towel and if you loose the towel or the card you get charged 20$, where in other hotels towel service is free - food is horrible, it is so average and it is the same things everyday almost - buffet is so hot, you start sweating when you stand in line - the pool is nasty so much build up of sunscreen on the sides of the pool in the mornings - theres wild dogs that come out at night, they are friendly but the hotel does not do anything about them and there is a great chance the dogs might carry diseases - the beach water is so merky it does not look like the photos -the disco is so boring, they have staff that help start the dances but after an hour everyone is just on the side sitting - a lot of the staff dont speak english, i think i learned so much spanish during my trip just trying to navigate myself around the hotel and buffet since the workers either had difficulty talking english or didnt even speak it - alot of the staff are uptight for no reason highlights: - some of the staff are amazing; the highlights are the bartenders, my favourite was jose and alba, they were always so nice, energetic and had great energy - they always served us with the most passion without ever expecting a tip, because some of the bartenders would take forever to get you drinks unless you tip them -but because the specified bartenders where amazing ppl my group decided to generously tip them for there great work - the beach volleyball was really fun, most of our time we where there playing - the casino is fun but very small and not enough variety…
Put in the worse rooms had to pay for upgrade and were told by the rep that the hotel put us in that room because we were English and they knew we’d pay for the upgrade. The privileged room was much nicer but there were ants. The staff seem overworked and tired so can’t be bothered to offer any customer service. The buffet restaurants were like feeding time at the zoo. The birds and herons were eating directly off the buffet itself as well as fighting each other to get food off the guests plates and tables as soon as they turn their backs. It’s unsanitary. They allow guests to reserve sun beds (despite signs saying they will be moved after 45 minutes they don’t do anything about it). There are very few parasols and shaded areas around the pool so these are always reserved from pretty much the crack of dawn. The pool also didn’t appear very clean with yellow stains and scum along the edges. Would not recommend, will not be returning. Which is a shame because it’s in such a beautiful location. If you are wanting to visit Punta Cana do not stay here!…
Just returned from a week's stay. Starting with the pros, Wilson the Tui rep at the hotel was excellent. Marhia the lady who cleaned our room also good. The grounds nice with ducks and other birds. On a clear morning you can see a beautiful sunrise over the sea. Most staff were friendly. Cons Pool is filthy, I understand tree debris but I'm talking about a layer of scum and built up sun lotion. You can see the dirt build up by the edges of the pool. The side with the pool bar is even worse! Really crowded and hard to get a drink people sat in there all day. People where reserving sunbeds from as early as 6.30am even though there are signs saying your items will be removed after 45 mins. This never happened and many remained reserved with no sign of people until the afternoon. Beach Not the hotels fault but the sea was really unpleasant as it was full of seaweed. The hotel team did a good job of clearing it off the beach but the sea was full of it. Lots of sellers on the beach, can't walk along without being harassed by them. Room Very dated, the aircon was hardley noticeable. Safe stopped working mid stay, plug in the bathroom came out the wall, lots of little ants. Contacted guest services about the wall plug and safe got no response so gave up. Food/buffet, Main buffet was very repetitive and some days hard to find something to eat. Now this is of course subjective but both of us struggled. Some days left waiting ages for water especially in the morning. The birds in the buffet were a nightmare, the netting around the buffet was broken so large birds came in to harass you whilst eating. Later they fixed this but small birds where still able to get in and landed on the tables as soon as you turn your back. The buffet by the beach is even worse for small birds with them landing in the food and eating it. Staff do nothing to move them. The Italian restaurant the food was good as was the service. Steakhouse, food was good service was lacking some. Grounds After it rained the place would stink, I mean really smell bad all over the hotel. Sellers in the evenings, some days they had stalls selling various bits and pieces but you couldn't get to the restaurant without being asked 20 times to look at what they had. If you did look they would then try pressure you into buying. You have to say no thank you quite firmly but they aren't unpleasant. This would put some people off. A group of dogs from somewhere down the beach came into the hotel one morning turned out they are friendly however still a little unnerving having large dogs appear in the grounds. Overall, wouldn't recommend. Cleanliness is a big factor in this. The situation with the birds is so unhygienic.and I wouldn't be surprised if people got sick from the swimming pool. There are nicer hotels in punta cana.…
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