We have just returned from a wonderful trip to the Grand Sirenis Hotel in Punta Cana. We stayed from the 26th August until 16th September 2023. If you are expecting 5* luxury, then this will not be the place for you. I would say by UK standards, this is a 3-4* hotel. When we first arrived, we asked that we could have 2 rooms close together as we are a family of 4 and my son has additional needs. The first room that we were shown to was flooded. It took a couple of hours, but eventually we got 2 rooms on the same floor of the same block, which I was happy with. Our first evening’s buffet experience was a bit of a disaster. By the time the rooms had been sorted out, it was 9pm. We were tired and hungry and the sight that greeted us in the restaurant was not what we expected. There was no care of the food and everything was just a mess. We managed to find some food and that was pretty much as far as we got for the first night as we were so tired from travelling that all we wanted to do was sleep. The next day was so much better. A good night’s sleep did us the world of good and we awoke to the beautiful grounds of the hotel and enjoyed breakfast. We booked the a la carte restaurants for the next few nights and I will give my personal review for each of them at the bottom. The animation team – wow – there are so many of them! They work really hard to keep everyone entertained and it must get so tiring being so cheerful all of the time! The entertainment timetable is full to brimming. There is something to do from 10am to 2am. We watched a couple of shows and enjoyed playing Bingo Bongo. We did stay up to go to the disco once, but it wasn’t really to our taste. There is a foam party every Sunday. The bar staff were amazing. You name something and they’d make it for you. I have to give a special shout out to Ana Julia who worked the juice/ health bar at the pool. She was so lovely and made us lovely fruit drinks every day. I don’t think she gets much credit as most of the people (as I saw it) were wanting cocktails and slushies and cokes etc. The only down side to the all inclusive and swim up bars is that not everyone is respectful of their surroundings. Food and drink could be found in the pool at the end of the day, which is a bit of a shame. We chose an area of the pool that was in a separate section to the main area and found it much cleaner, albeit a bit cooler. The restaurant staff and grounds staff, as well as the maids, all played their roles and I can not even think how many people work there to keep the place going, but it must be a few hundred. I cannot complain about any of the staff. The only complaint I had was the mosquitoes – may I add that this is NOT the hotel’s fault, but I think due to us coming right after Storm Franklin, they were out in force and even though it calmed down a bit, I am obviously a delicacy to them and they favoured my blood out of all of our family! The concierge rang us almost daily to check that everything was ok with our room. I must say though that when I said I would like more water, or more teabags, quite often this was just ignored and even when I wrote a note for the maid, sometimes I didn’t get a refill for a few days. The beach was lovely and when there was seaweed, a tractor came to pick it up. I made use of the gym nearly every day and was quite impressed with the equipment compared to other hotel gyms that I have been to in the last couple of years. The waterpark was great fun. I had read reviews about it being run down and tired. Sure, it’s not brand new, but the slides work and are great fun. The pool and splash pools are lovely and it was nice to have a change of scenery from the main area of the hotel. The waterpark is about a 10 minute walk towards the entrance of the Grand Sirenis, but there is a buggy that drives up and down to give you a lift if you so desire. There is no salt and pepper at the dining table (probably due to the humidity) so if you are a salt and pepper lover, like me, just ask for it and they will bring some sachets out to you. We did a few excursions for which we used Bia Travels and could not fault them. Restaurants: RAW Bar: This restaurant is great if you like seafood and raw fish. One of my son’s does, but my other one didn’t. Thank goodness that the RAW BAR serves pizza during the day. Go there and order what you want, and collect an hour later. I kind of made my way through this meal, but it wasn’t my favourite. This was due to my taste in food rather than the quality of the food served. CINECITTA This Italian restaurant was my favourite. We booked here twice. There is a lovely salad bar for your starters and then the menu is so varied you could probably come back 10 times without having to repeat what you have previously eaten. Lovely restaurant and the service was great. IKEBANA The Japanese restaurant! Well what can I say! They put on a good show. The salad bar again, you could probably fill yourself up there and not even think about the main course. The chef did a great job, I just found it a shame that the 3 dishes – beef, chicken, and shrimp, were all flavoured the same way so there was no distinguishing between the dishes. Although we enjoyed it here, we didn’t feel we wanted to come back for more of the same. RELAIS GOURMAND The French restaurant is lovely. I think we got better service the second time and the food was lovely. I had the beef on my first visit and the pork on my second. The chocolate coolant was delicious. So delicious we had that twice! ROUTE 66 The service in here was quite poor and it took a long time for us to get our drinks, and even longer for the food. I think I was the only one that enjoyed my food. I chose the 4th July Burger which had a nice balance of meat and salad. I chose the carrot cake for a dessert and it could have just come out of the buffet restaurant. Other family members chose a milkshake and their complaints was that they weren’t very cold. LAS BARCAS I LOVE Greek food and had their menu been a bit more varied, we would have come back here again. I personally see |Greek food as rustic, and they were trying to make it fancy. You’ll know what I mean if you have been there and ordered the feta cheese salad. It did look beautiful though. This one came in 3rd place. Would have been a solid 1st if there was more on the menu that I liked. LA GIRA RODIZIO Oh well this one was fun. You go up and get your salad and then the waiters come over with meat on skewers and serve you throughout your duration there. This one is definitely for the meat lovers. Although sometimes the meat was a bit dry, I enjoyed it enough to book twice as I enjoyed the experience here. EL RANCHO I was most disappointed with this Tex Mex restaurant. I was told that if I wanted a good proper steak, to come here. I chose the ribeye and unfortunately all it was was fat and gristle. My husband did not enjoy his fajitas; the meat was served cold. The service here was also under par and for that reason we did not return to this restaurant. Please remember that these are my own personal experiences and I suggest that you try each restaurant at least once and make up your own mind. Check the menus first on the app so that you know what you are letting yourself in for! To conclude: I loved this hotel, the amenities, the food and the staff. Would I return? Yes, maybe, but with the foresight that we’d want to hire a car so that we can go out and explore rather than stay in the resort for the duration. Although in reality we would probably try somewhere else in the country that has something else to offer within walking distance outside of the resort.…