Playa Dorada/Fun Tropicale

My family and I got back from our first trip last Thursday (10th Aug) to DR. I was going to write all about it but then read Emma22's account in her Sosua/North Coast with children thread.

Looks like we had almost an identical holiday from a slightly different base. I'm sure lots of people do similar activities on their first visit. My children are older at 17 and 14 but particularly the 14 year old had such a great time she really didn't want to come home.

As my children are older we did do the waterfall climb and I too wouldn't recommend it for young children. But if they are old enough it was absolutely fantastic and the highlight of our holiday.

We also did the sealion encounter and the dolphin swim - it is a real treasured memory and I think worth the money.

Overall a great holiday - I do think the tourist areas are over priced and that reduced the number of excursions we did in the end. My husband was very disappointed by the coffee on the complex but this was made up for by the smooth rum!

excursions and coffee

" tourist areas are over priced and that reduced the number of excursions", "very disappointed by the coffee ".

ok - pleased to help the Monster truck safari for example was $75 dollars each so $300 for our party for the day, compared with $28 each for the jeep safari. $300 put it out of our price range if we wanted to do other trips during our stay. Considering the local economy I think that is over priced - i suppose that is my main example.

The coffee served in the hotel was all instant and not good quality. Considering that coffee is grown on the island it seemed odd that the local hotels don't tap into this great local resource. We only got decent coffee when we did the jeep safari and the coffee plantation was one of the stops, the coffee was great and very cheap to buy to take home.

nickijay said:

You stayed in a different hotel to Emma also so maybe you could report on that. What your room was like,the food facilities.

nic

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Some of the reports we read about the hotel on various sites gave some cause for concern - but we really liked it. The room was spacious, with effective air condidioning and a daily maid service. If I was to be picky the decor was a little dated - but everything worked and was more than adequate.

The food was varied and generally of a good quality, the two a la carte restaurants are worth a visit. Its the first time we have gone AI and with a fussy eater for a daughter it was great. She could pick and choose and always found enough to satisfy her.

Time Share sellers on the complex were a pain stopping you on your way to and from breakfast each day, but as long as you were firm they soon stopped appraching you.

Entertainment team worked hard and day time activities were good - in one afternnon my daughter participated in a mini golf tournament, darts competition, learnt Salsa dancing and competed in a swimming race!

Evening shows were repeatative and amateurish with lots of bad miming but overall good enough to keep me amused for a few hours each evening.

Overall I feel its one of the best family holiday destinations we've ever been to - I doubt we will go back as we tend never to return to places as there's so much of the world to see!