We were there last weekend. The location is beautiful, getting there was fun, we flew from La Isabela to El Portillo in a six seater plane, and then drove from there via Sanchez and Samana, so we got good views from the roads and from the air - amazing country.
The place was full of French and German visitors of all ages, all of whom seemed to be locked in some mortal competition to see who could smoke, drink and eat (or abandon half-eaten) the most. One of the problems with this kind of AI resort with tenedor libre eateries is the revolting exhibition of pure gluttony on view ad nauseam in the restaurants and the resultant nauseam clearly evident (both visual and odiferous) on the paths, in the palms and gardens leading to and from the restaurants. Even in the two "a la carte" restaurants only the main courses are "a la carte", the primi and postres being every man for himself. But I digress into personal pet hates rather than a review of the facilities.
Rooms are nicely furnished and equipped, spacious and airy, although the older buildings have a rather institutional 1950's look about them and could benefit IMHO from a little exterior decorating. Bungalows are nice too, but we needed separate rooms for our teenage population so we didn't take the option of the monospace bungalow with junior beds in the semi-loft.
The grounds are very well groomed and everything seems to blend together without jarring. Lots of wild life roaming free, ducks and geese, mares and foals, two adult and one young iguanae rhinoceri, and a couple of ponds full of fish, turtles other aquatic residents, but amazingly, no irritating insects at all.
The beach is...........well, just let me say that early in the morning long before the first bathers were up I half-expected to find Tom Hanks sitting under a palm tree rubbing two sticks together to make fire. The beach and the bay look exactly like something out of Robinson Crusoe, the only problem is dodging the occasional coconut falling out of the trees. At the eastern end of the bay there are some nice craggy coves with a couple of caves and a few hidden blow holes which shoot up air and water as waves rush into underwater caves. Can give you a nasty surprise that, as happened to a German lady who was expecting no more than a gentle breeze-up so that her companion could video his own version of that classic Marilyn Monroe take (where she stands over the subway grating and shows off her knickers) and then she got the full force of a mini-tsunami waterspout upskirt........and treated us all to some very colourful and high pitched teutonic colloquiallisms!
Free pools, entertainments, sports, biking, etc., but beware the horse riding and quads are 10 Euros an hour, and the watersports are also extras to be paid for, not in the AI package - although I heard that they were reasonable value for money.
Public areas,facilities and bathrooms were all clean and tidy, with the possible exception of the above-mentioned nauseam around mealtimes. Staff were friendly and reasonably efficient although we felt that they could do with some numerical reinforcements particularly in the restaurants.
All in all, not too bad if you like that sort of thing, and I understand that at this time of the year (officially low season) there are some good deals to be had especially during the week and at a reasonable price we found it was pretty good value for our money.