Holiday Village Trip Report
We have recently returned from a two week family vacation at the Holiday Village Golden Beach and wanted to pass along our review. There isn?t anything pertaining to the Royal Suites in this review as we did not experience anything in that area. I?ll try and break it down into pieces to make it easier to work through.
Rooms:
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We stayed in a regular room (two queens) with two adults, a 14 year old boy and a 13 year old girl. We were in the second storey of a building that housed 4 units near the main lobby. The room included a safe which we used with the key we requested when we checked in (no cost). The room itself was vaulted which gave it an airy and open feel. The lighting in the room was not adequate but was not a big problem either. The plumbing was fine except after a heavy rain, which occurred twice on our vacation. If the rain is heavy and accumulates, it seems to affect the water system at the resort. You lose access to hot water and you lose water pressure, so it is difficult to bathe. In our case, the water was back to normal in a day so it was not too big of an inconvenience. The air conditioning worked fine, but whenever it ?kicked in?, it made a noise that sounded like someone dragging a bag of large rocks across a metal surface for about 20 seconds. Fortunately, we discovered that if you set the thermostat to the lowest possible setting, the air-conditioning ran continuously but it was never strong enough to lower the temperature below a comfortable level, so we were able to avoid our regular ?scraping? interlude. Maid service was good although inconsistent in the timing? sometimes they made up the room during the day but sometimes they were not around until close to suppertime (which was a problem when you are trying to shower up and get ready for dinner). They replaced towels and the drinks in the fridge but we had to ask them to get more soap or shampoo.
Resort Grounds:
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The resort sprawls across a fairly large area and is true to the ?Village? name. The grounds are well cared for and there are always staff attending to sweeping, tidying, etc. We enjoyed walking around in the warm evenings amongst the mature trees. We especially liked discovering the little turtle habitat not far from the tennis courts.
Pool / Beach Facilities:
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We spent most of our time at the Wave pool and the Beach? less time at the L shaped pool. As has been mentioned in previous reviews, the L shaped pool is the center of activities so it is always bustling. The kids enjoyed the wave pool and slides? they were a hit. The pool is not huge and there are only a couple of slides for the older kids, but it was still great fun. In the bright sun, the whole area is almost blindingly bright? don?t forget your sunglasses. Getting a sun bed at either of the pools was almost impossible unless you got there early. We usually were out after breakfast at around 10:30am and you were pretty much out of luck by then. The beds were either in use or reserved with towels. There were signs posted that if sunbeds that were unused for 30 minutes, the towels would be picked up to allow the beds to be used by someone else, but that rule was never enforced? we saw lots of beds reserved with towels and left unused for hours at a time. There was no problem getting sunbeds on the beach. The beach palapas were taken early but if you wanted shade there was always room up by the trees that bordered the beach. On hot days the breeze from the beach was wonderful. The ocean was quite choppy in the early part of our trip but less so in the latter part. We enjoyed going out in the kayaks and playing in the waves. No snorkeling around the resort as the water was too rough, visibility limited and not enough coral in the near vicinity for the fish.
Food / Restaurants:
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We ate at the buffet and all the restaurants except the adult only restaurant on the beach. There was a good variety and generally something to appeal to everyone. Meat variety included lost of chicken as well as pork, steak and lamb. Veggies were good in the restaurants but not as good in the buffet. As has been mentioned, the omelet bar in the morning and the pasta bar for lunch and dinner were really good. They could use having a self serve station for common drinks such as pop, beer and wine to speed up drink service at the buffet. We enjoyed the meals at all the restaurants we ate at. However, if you wanted a 6:30pm seating at the restaurant of your choice, you needed to be in line at about 7:40am the day before your desired date in order to get your choice. They open up bookings at 8:00am only one day in advance, and there was one occasion that I arrived at 7:55am, was about 10th in line, and still could not get the 6:30pm seating I wanted for the next evening. As has been mentioned in other reviews, even though the restaurants are ?booked up?, not all the tables were in use? not sure if that is a staffing issue or what.
Activities / Entertainment:
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The resort is well set up for families and there are plenty of activities to try out. From Aeroball to Archery to High Ropes to Circus activities, there is something for everyone. Our kids went to the youth club if they fancied the activity or stayed with us otherwise. There were also family activities that we all joined in. There was an extra price for some of the activities so be aware? in some cases the extra price seemed steep for what the activity included. The evening entertainment was much better than I expected given previous comments on these forums. There was lots of variety, including several evenings with local Dominican talent, a Fire Eater, a Magician, a Dominican Michael Jackson show, as well as the Resort Entertainment team. Steve, who sings and entertains in the adults only bar every night, also does a show in the main theatre once a week that is very good.
Excursions:
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Definitely a highlight of our trip! We booked two excursions through Isaira Tours on the internet. Ocean world was fabulous and the interactions with the animals will be a life-long memory. We also did the Monster truck tour and loved getting to see and learn about the Dominican Republic. I would also like to give extra kudos to Martin Espinal of Isaira Tours. When I paid for the tours using paypal I accidentally overpaid by $24. Not only did Isaira let me know that I overpaid, but Martin came to the resort gates himself to refund me the overpayment in cash! It?s a bit of a shame that First Choice / Signature make it difficult to go through anyone but them for tours (warnings about using other agencies, no access past the front gates for other operators, etc.).
Food Prep???
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Any of the ?issues? I have pointed out above were really only minor annoyances and not anything to get worked up about. The only issue of a more serious nature we encountered was illness? and I know it has been a topic of much debate in other threads. Of the four members of our family, three of us got sick on our vacation. My wife and I were each sick once and my daughter was sick on two separate occasions. Only my son escaped getting ill. This was not your regular travelers diarrhea as you get used to the food? this was a violent ?coming out of both ends? sickenss! We had read about illness in the forums earlier so we were taking all the precautions (drinking lots of water, brushing teeth with water, hand sanitizer before and after meals, staying in the shade, little or no alcohol, selective of food choices, etc.). Because we were sick we did ask others if they had similar issues. Some had no issues but there were lots of people who did have similar reports (including two brides who both had to have their weddings postponed). It just seems to be a higher than normal incidence of this kind of illness given the various reviews and reports. On our last trip to Mexico, we did a similar amount of research and review into the resort we picked, including reading user forums. Like any resort, there were good reviews and not so good reviews? but the number of reviewers mentioning about getting sick was so much smaller than what has been reported in the Holiday Village threads. I have to believe there is something to this? perhaps in the food prep?
Conclusion
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There were lots of things we really loved about this vacation? the weather, the wonderful people, the excursions, the beach, the activities etc. It?s a great family resort. My only reservation about recommending it is what appears to be a higher than normal incidence of sickness (based only on anecdotal evidence and informal review? not on any hard statistics).
A holiday is meant to be fun and relaxing but with alll this bad press its making it stressful!!