I promised to make a review of my trip to Samana.. here it is:
I came back last week from Samana and it was really great! I will try not to bore you with too many details and will keep my remarks short.
I stayed at the hotel Casa Marina Bay in Samana from 12.06.2004 till 26.06.2004.
Here's my review:
1) Samana: Samana is really beautiful. Wonderful nature, beautiful beaches and not as much tourists as you would find in Puerto Plata or Punta Cana. I really loved it. (10/10)
2) People: The people in Samana were really friendly, always smiling and helpful. I was amazed as they seem to always greet you and smile at you. Some of them though can get pretty annoying trying to sell you excursions or sombrero's that you don't want or need, and not taking "no" for an answer (happens mostly in "las galeras" village). But none of them got aggressive, which is good. (8/10)
3) The travel: 9 hours to go from Belgium to punta cana and then wait 1/2 hour in the plane to go to puerto plata (another hour) and then 4 hours bus is quite a challenge
I think that is the main reason why some tourists stay out of Samana (which is actually a good thing) (1/10)
4) The hotel:
a) Rooms: We had a bungalow which was really great. Very pretty, lots of space, clean (except for some weird stuff in the "safe") and view on the sea. Airconditioning works very well (but is a bit noisy) (9/10)
b) Food: food is generally good, but not very varied. The pizzeria is really not great, but the sea scape restaurant was very good! The hotel also makes snacks around 4pm and at 0:00am. (7/10)
c) Drinks: The drinks were just "OK". Coke, Sprite ... were taken from some kind of tapped "hose"and were not very good, alcohol and cocktails were made with weird brands and did not taste very good, but were OK. I liked to drink the "pineapple juice", the banana mama en the Fruit Punch. A good thing is that they fill your fridge in the room with BOTTLED pepsi and sprite (5/10)
d) The location: BEAUTIFUL private beach. Every day I saw this beach again and again and always felt like I was in paradise. The place is full of coconut trees, mango trees ... you can also see plenty of animals walking around (chicken, ducks, cats, goats, rabbits ...).
The "hungry" chicken seemed to annoy some of the guests but I found that actually pretty funny (and kids loved it). The sea is clean, clear and warm. The only thing I can say is that there is not many fish to see. Just a few. I was lucky to enough be nose to nose with a baracuda fish (gosh these are really scary!) and saw for the rest some small fishes here and there. (9.5/10)
e) Staff: animators were really nice and funny. The staff always friendly and smiling. I remember asking a lady why there were no mangoes in the morning since there are so many mango trees around. The next day she prepared me a plate full of mangoes taken off her tree at home. (10/10)
f) Show: the shows in the evening were generally good, but many of them required cooperation from the guests who actually rather wanted to passively watch the show in stead of participating. (8/10)
g) Shops: what shops? there are no shops in the hotel during my stay because the rent was too high and previous shop owners left. The only available souvenir shops were in "Las Galeras". Not much choice. (1/10)
h) Excursions: There is a wide array of possibilities for excursions (limon, rincon ...). We tried the funny biking excursion. The Funny Bike was good, but it's best to order in it "Las Galeras" since it's much cheaper and it is done by the same crew anyway. They just ask more in the hotel.
In general:
I had a great time there enjoyed my holiday at the fullest, and will keep great memories from this trip!
I came back last week from Samana and it was really great! I will try not to bore you with too many details and will keep my remarks short.
I stayed at the hotel Casa Marina Bay in Samana from 12.06.2004 till 26.06.2004.
Here's my review:
1) Samana: Samana is really beautiful. Wonderful nature, beautiful beaches and not as much tourists as you would find in Puerto Plata or Punta Cana. I really loved it. (10/10)
2) People: The people in Samana were really friendly, always smiling and helpful. I was amazed as they seem to always greet you and smile at you. Some of them though can get pretty annoying trying to sell you excursions or sombrero's that you don't want or need, and not taking "no" for an answer (happens mostly in "las galeras" village). But none of them got aggressive, which is good. (8/10)
3) The travel: 9 hours to go from Belgium to punta cana and then wait 1/2 hour in the plane to go to puerto plata (another hour) and then 4 hours bus is quite a challenge
I think that is the main reason why some tourists stay out of Samana (which is actually a good thing) (1/10)4) The hotel:
a) Rooms: We had a bungalow which was really great. Very pretty, lots of space, clean (except for some weird stuff in the "safe") and view on the sea. Airconditioning works very well (but is a bit noisy) (9/10)
b) Food: food is generally good, but not very varied. The pizzeria is really not great, but the sea scape restaurant was very good! The hotel also makes snacks around 4pm and at 0:00am. (7/10)
c) Drinks: The drinks were just "OK". Coke, Sprite ... were taken from some kind of tapped "hose"and were not very good, alcohol and cocktails were made with weird brands and did not taste very good, but were OK. I liked to drink the "pineapple juice", the banana mama en the Fruit Punch. A good thing is that they fill your fridge in the room with BOTTLED pepsi and sprite (5/10)
d) The location: BEAUTIFUL private beach. Every day I saw this beach again and again and always felt like I was in paradise. The place is full of coconut trees, mango trees ... you can also see plenty of animals walking around (chicken, ducks, cats, goats, rabbits ...).
The "hungry" chicken seemed to annoy some of the guests but I found that actually pretty funny (and kids loved it). The sea is clean, clear and warm. The only thing I can say is that there is not many fish to see. Just a few. I was lucky to enough be nose to nose with a baracuda fish (gosh these are really scary!) and saw for the rest some small fishes here and there. (9.5/10)
e) Staff: animators were really nice and funny. The staff always friendly and smiling. I remember asking a lady why there were no mangoes in the morning since there are so many mango trees around. The next day she prepared me a plate full of mangoes taken off her tree at home. (10/10)
f) Show: the shows in the evening were generally good, but many of them required cooperation from the guests who actually rather wanted to passively watch the show in stead of participating. (8/10)
g) Shops: what shops? there are no shops in the hotel during my stay because the rent was too high and previous shop owners left. The only available souvenir shops were in "Las Galeras". Not much choice. (1/10)
h) Excursions: There is a wide array of possibilities for excursions (limon, rincon ...). We tried the funny biking excursion. The Funny Bike was good, but it's best to order in it "Las Galeras" since it's much cheaper and it is done by the same crew anyway. They just ask more in the hotel.
In general:
I had a great time there enjoyed my holiday at the fullest, and will keep great memories from this trip!