Sun Village Beach Resort in POP

Are you planning a trip to that resort??

Hello Lulu,
I don't know about you but if I were to read those reviews there would be no way in hell I would be going there!!! As for personal experience I have not gone there but my boyfriend went there last November (2003) and when he got home he was 5 pounds lighter!! He was sick as a dog, he had to take another week off work to get better. I even had to take his first day home off to help him. He could barely walk. He was vomitting and the other thing for weeks after. It slowly went away but it was brutal. I think that he had a parasite or something like that!! I have no idea, he said the resort was beautiful but it is overshadowed by the sickness he got!
Anyhow, I would suggest you not go there. My advice is go to Occidental Grand Flamenco, it is beautiful there, the food is great (lots of variety), the people are friendly and very inviting to play games etc....
Have fun!

Dear Lulu: I was upset by your post so I did some reasearch-

Now I am even more upset and think that our Ministry of Tourism should step in and close Sun Village as a danger to our tourism industry!
I went here: http://www.debbiesdominicantravel.com/emisun.html

And ohmygod! There is nothing good said about the place.

I think I would remember somebody that was really nasty to you at one time and call them and tell them that you want to give them a present: That package!

Or put it back on the auction block!

If none of that is available, make sure that you
1) leave no valuables in your room
2) Be extremely careful what you eat. Try not to eat there if possible.
3) Be ready to be firm with the staff.

All that said, you might think "outside the damn place" and just use it for a sleeping place.

You are 8-10 minutes to the West of Puerto Plata. The beach is nice. Ther is a place nearby that is called haciend resorts that will let you eat there, paying of course, but they have maybe 5 different style restaurants.

Then you can take a guagua to Puerto Plata and explore. (You will have to cross the highway to get one, but they will stop for you and 10 pesos will be enough for each of you to get into town. Go over to Playa Dorada, another 10 peso bus ride, (and believe me, the people will help you get around!) and see what is there, like planning for your next trip.

Then take a guagua to the West and visit the RIU resorts: Bachata, Merengue and ???, all in one place.. And the same guagua a little further to Tito's place for fried fish dinner.

Get over to Sos?a. You might not ever go back to Cofres?! Party a day in Cabarete, since it is so close.

All this good advice is there for free, because I know how you must be feeling about now. However, if you get out and about you can have a blast.

HB

All i can say is that it would be a shame if your holiday was ruined before you even got there.
Try and be postive otherwise things might end up appearing worse than they actually are. Don't let the hotel be the be-all-and-end-all of your trip. Save a little extra money and get out on a few trips aswell as just getting around on your own, you will have an excellent time experiencing the country.
Get to know some of the Dominicans they will show you where to go while you are there.
And if the sun shines that will go a long way in making you feel good, i am sure it will.

Have a good time!

Well.............they will not quote you 10 pesos - they will say more like 100

Hillbilly said:

Go over to Playa Dorada, another 10 peso bus ride.

Click to expand...

...and thats per person

But believe me, the Dominicans are only paying 10 pesos and if you are firm you will get your fair price, there are loads and loads of these vehicles going past, don't feel pressured.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, a group of us went down there from Santiago for a weekend a couple weeks ago, and most got sick, especially the women who swam in the pools all seemed to get a horrible viral infection.

One couple woke up in the night and found a huge rat running around in the room, etc.

Their main dining room cought fire in November and still has not been rebuilt. All in all I get the impression that the place has gotten too big to be properly maintained by the current administration, whoever they may be.

Through business and family we have had a lot of people staying there and from I have witnessed (eating there myself on numerous occasions), it is not as bad as its made out to be. None of our people (in the dozens) has ever gotten sick there.

The problems with sickness that peaked in March 2004 were not isolated at Sun Village, RIU and other resorts on the north coast had the same problem and it has been suggested that a virus/bacteria came in via guests, even though I find this unlikely but a possibility.

I dont want to downplay the serioussness of the situation of hundreds of people getting sick, it is horrible that so many people had their vacation ruined. I certainly hope that management is doing all it can to get to the bottom of it.

Generally Sun Village is a beautiful resort if you can handle all the stairs, and if the sickness problem is taken care of (IMO it is now), you should have a great time there.

Stay positive though otherwise your holiday might be ruined before you even get on the plane to fly there

Enjoy yourself!

On April 22nd, we had 50 people stay there (most of them one night and some 3 nights) and none got sick. I also ate there three of those nights, and it was fine.

correct

Sun Village... I'd return in a hearbeat

After reading a bunch of the post about the place I had grown pretty concerned myself about the trip I was taking there this past week. I stayed at Sun Village from June 2-4 and had prepared myself for the worst. I was pretty sure I (or one/many of the people in my party) would become sick... i thought the room would be a nightmare. generally I was not looking forward to going there.

to my surprise it was VERY NICE... i was stunned after being there a few days that people would write such awful things about this resort. First off we'll start with the grounds. If you have been to the website and seen the pics, it looks exactly like the pictures there... the place was beautiful. The pools which I was expecting to get violently ill from just sticking my foot into were beautiful and surprisingly didn't make me sick.

while we're on the subject of sickness at the resort... my girfriend saw one guy on an IV, but that was it and we didn't hear one thing about anyone else being sick... My girlfriend got sick one day but it wasn't from the food, rather we are pretty sure it was because of getting dehydrated from being out in the sun too much the day before... I ate the same things that she did and I wasn't sick at any point... And we ate at the buffet the entire time (which seems to me like it would be the least safe place to eat) and with no problems to report. The food was pretty good... although I was somewhat cautious after reading all of the stories on these pages, which now seem exaggerated to put it lightly.

as for the accomodations. we were in building 6 on the 3rd floor. This is the only thing that I would "complain" about... but it isn't a horror story like some would like to feed you. when we first got into the room and turned on the sink in the bathroom the drainage pipe underneath was not properly aligned and the drainage went onto the floor... a little ducking down to see what the problem was and a slight alignment (no tools required) was all that was needed to fix that. Then starting on the second day, the air conditioning unit that was in our room was started to condensate water over the ceiling in the bathroom... i just adjusted the AC to fan only (which kept the room plenty cool) and leak was fixed. The bed was a king size and comfortable. The room was on par with what I would expect in a 3 star hotel... not bad and certainly not scary either. We never had anything of our own messed with (and we didn't even use a locker). I left a five $5 USD tip out each night for the cleaning crew. It wasn't as nice as the room we had at Jack Tar (oh yeah, we stayed there the 2 nights before we were at Sun Village), but it was nicer than the room we had at the H10 Ocean Bavaro resort near Bavaro (we stayed there the night after Sun Village).

So, I also have something to compare the Sun Village to... In fact, look at the reviews for Jack Tar and they are nearly unanimous in their complementing the place... I was as surprised as anyone when everyone in our party of 4 said their favorite resort that we stayed at was Sun Village.

the beach was okay, but it was somewhat rough the time we were there so we didn't venture into the water there. The water in this part of the DR wasn't as clear as the beach on the south-eastern coast... my complaints about the beach here would also apply to Jack Tar a few miles away.

My words of advise would be this...I wouldn't drink the tap water (well, duh... but I imagine that a percentage of the people that are getting sick are dealing with Motezuma's Revenge). Tip the staff, this will endear you to the staff as I don't believe that most of the people there tip since many are from Europe where it isn't customary. Don't worry about this trip... Seriously... I worried myself sick about this resort before going because of the stuff that I had read and found it to be without foundation when I got there. And going in the offseason was nice as the place seemed like it was really at only 25% capacity or so the whole time there... We had entire pools to ourselves for hours at a time.

And one last piece of advice... if you like a nice thrill (carefully) jump off the waterfall from the main pool to the second layer pool near the main lobby. It's about a 12 foot jump into a pool that is about 10 to 12 feet deep... Super fun. There is a gate and a sign that says not to do it, but as long as no one is underneath you in the lower pool it is plenty deep. FUN.

If you have any questions that I could answer, feel free to PM me.

RELAX... your vacation will be great.

Derrick

That is wonderful news for LuLu

When I researched this place the reviews in Debbie's site were horrible. It seemed that some sort of government intervention was needed to close an obvious health hazard.

It is heartening to see that ,obviously, some modificatins have been made.

Speaking for a lot of people, I am really happy that your trip was so successful and I sure hope that dear Lulu reads your report.

Cordially,

HB

A Week at Sun Village

Hi Lulu,
I just got back from Sun Village a couple of days ago and the entire time I was gone I kept telling my husband I couldn't wait to get back to write to you. About a week before we were to leave I got on this website and came across the comments about Sun Village you had received. I was horrified! I walked out on my deck and told both my husband son that I was NOT going to go. Neither one of them could calm me down. The last one I read mentioned a rat and that did it for me. My husband got on the phone to try and cancel our trip or reschedule it until we could confirm any of the stories, but he couldn't or at least he couldn't without our loosing our money. My son said, "Mom, maybe someone went and got ticked off about something and then came home and wrote a bunch of these e-mails." That seemed really plausable to me, so off we went. The place was beautiful!!! I watched those people clean those pools everyday from side to side. Those grounds were immaculate and the people were so friendly I couldn't believe I had almost spoiled this whole event by even considering not coming. I was expecting to see sick people everywhere, bad looking food and who knows what else. I didn't even see a bug. I am convinced the bad e-mails you have read were made up and put on this website out of spite or some sort of sick revenge. The place looks exactly like the video. I hope your trip is as wonderful as our week at the Sun Village. As for the food. It was beautiful and very good. I was scared to eat anything new, because I have always been afraid of food in foreign countries, but I read that you should take lots of calcium, drink bottled water, don't eat any salads or fruits you have not peeled and you aren't suppose to eat diary products. I did all those things, but my husband, son and my sons girlfriend all ate ice cream and lots more than I did and none of us got sick.
Have a geat time!