Casa Marina Reef

Was at the Casa Marina in June, had a great time. Unlike many of the all inclusive hotels, you are able to book your a la carte reservations upon check-in, make sure that you do. You are allowed three restaurants per week and the food is pretty good.

I did not hear of anyone getting sick while at the property, but anytime you travel no matter where, you should bring some pepto and aspirin just in case.

The hotel is right in the middle of town within walking distance of everything, definitely take advantage of this and venture outside the resort. There is a restaurant right outside the gate of the Marina Beach that is open all-night and has excellent food and Presidentes if you still want to drink and listen to music once the bars in the hotel have stopped serving at midnight.

One important thing is that the sand on the beach is EXTREMELY hot, make sure you keep your sandals on while walking on the sand, or you will literally burn your feet.

All in all, the property is nice and the views off the cliffs and the jacuzzis are very nice. The staff is very helpful and the food at the buffets is pretty good and abundant.

I stayed at the casa marina reef for my first visit in June of last year. I have been to numerous AI's on other islands (probably about 4 in Jamaica alone) and they seem to be about the same. The food was OK, the drinks were too sweet or too watered down.

What I really hated about the resort is the allowing of locals on weekends. I think they let locals in for $ 10.00 or something. They place was OVER RAN, NOISY, No Food left, etc.

Luckily I discovered Sosua and Caberete and stayed away from the resort as much as possible. I actually bought a place in Caberete in September.

My advice would be to only use the resort for a place to sleep.

Melvin, that's part of the fun, a resort filled with locals. The music is louder and the atmosphere more lively. Who the heck wants to go to DR and hang with a bunch of Germans or Canadians?(no offense if you're from those countries)

You catch some rays and drink during the day, then venture out of the hotel at night.

If you really want to party with Dominicans at the resorts, make sure you plan your next trip during Easter Week and go to ANY resort. That's fun!

There have been previous threads on Casa Marina Reef/Casa Marina Beach in the past, and all have been generally favorable. Probably 3 stars, but everyone says it is very good value.

It sounds from Melvin's post that he might have been there over Easter week. This time of year, most Dominicans don't go to the beach. It is winter. While those of you suffering under the subzero temps in the northeast may laugh, to those of us who live here, it is too cold to go to the beach.

The Casa Marina is great. I have stayed there on 4 occassions, and I loved it when the hotel was full of Dominican guests. The hotel seemed to roll out the red carpet on the weekends and stepped everything up a notch including the food, music, atmosphere,etc. Make sure you get out and walk around Sosua while you are there.

I haven't stayed in that particular hotel but some of my friends have and they really enjoyed (and want to go back). I haven't heard anything bad about it at all.
Dominican people have breaks in all the AI hotels (pretty much) and when they are there it is better if anything. We went to an AI hotel once that was a bit quiet because of the season, but at the weekend when the Dominican families came in the atmosphere was a lot better.

I am sure you will have a good time, go out of the hotel aswell. Cabarete is nearby, the public transport is very cheap (in my eyes).

Casa Marina

It always suprises me, that people ask about the proeprty after they book it. How is it going to help you now, if you get a bad report))) ????

Inany case, Casa Marina is ok for the value, as others said, the drinks are watered down, but what do you expect.Last time, when I was there on the property inspection, I was amazed, that you have to make a reservation to a particular restaurant on the property only the same morning and people were lined up to certain places at 8 am to make a reservation.
Sorry, but I never wanted to get into a line for food...what is that all about.

From my experience the Superclubs are the best of the All Inclusive resorts and they always stand behind there offers and the rates are not that much higher than Casa Marina, depending who you book it through))

Have a great time, get out of the resort and enjoy Sosua as much as you can.It is a wonderful place filled with great people.

Re: Casa Marina

sunnyvillas said:

It always suprises me, that people ask about the proeprty after they book it. How is it going to help you now, if you get a bad report?

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Well, one year we found a hotel that offered us 2 weeks AI stay for 420 pound per person, the other hotels were 600. Which one did we pick?
Having booked it and read all the brochure reports how else could we find out about the hotel? Seeing as we didnt have the internet at the time, we asked other friends who had been. Yes we couldnt change the holiday once we had booked it (even if we had got bad reports), but is it not better to have information than to not?

The Casa Marina is not a 5 star but the rooms are nice, the food is good and plenty, there is lots to see and do, both on and off the resort (activity pool, beach, water sports, walking tours, discos), and a great staff.

There are 3 pools, 3 outdoor jaccuzi's, great view of Sosua Bay and Mount Isabella. The little beach is very nice for swimming and sun tanning. There are 2 main buffet restaurants (each night they have a theme), 2 snack restaurants (for hot snacks in the pm), and 3 a la carte restaurants (seafood, italian and mexican). There are 4 to 5 bars open at any given time from 10 am to 11 pm. After that you can purchase drinks for reasonable prices at the cash bar or at the disco until 2 am, or you can walk about 5 mins in any given direction and hit a pleasant spot to have a drink.

The evening shows are great and sometimes they have a beach bonfire, a live band or karoke. Take their bicycle tour and get a feel for Sosua then go out and explore it. They offer spanish lessons and merengue. They have tea time. There is a games area with billards and an internet machine. They even have ping pong.

It is a lot of fun and you can be as busy as you want or as relaxed as you want. It used to be that if you were booked at the Reef you could eat at all restaurants and if you were booked at the Beach you could eat every where except the Reef's buffet. I'm not sure of the Reef/Beach relationship now, I thought I read that they are now one.

Btw, the drinks are not watered down and you no longer have to que for a la carte restaurants as NY1 previously stated. No worries. Unless you always travel in 5 star luxury, you have made a great choice. I hope you have an awesome vacation.

(edited to break into paragraphs)

Great reply Nelly - very helpful!

I struggle to believe that hotels would water down their beer, people would stop going and not recommend the place to anyone!

We have stayed at the Casa Marina Beach and Reef a total of 4 times. Obviously we liked it. Food is good, clean, friendly staff, lots to do on and off resort and very homey feeling. Definately lives up to it's 3-3.5 rating. Have a blast!!! No problems with the booze either.