As much time as I spent on this sight reading other people's trip reports in preparation for our trip, I thought it only fair to post a report of my own.
My family (me, wife, sons age 13 & 17) went to the Bavarro Princess in Punta Cana for 5 days over an enlongated President's Day holiday. This was our first trip to the DR so we weren't too sure what to expect. Let me sum it up immediately by saying, you know it's a great trip when you go somewhere for 5 days with 4 people, 3 of whom got sick and you still had a GREAT time!!
We flew a charted flight out of Philadelphia that was an absolute breeze. It left at 6 am so it was an early morning, but we landed in Punta Cana less than 4 hours later and had the whole day to enjoy. First timers should be aware that you have to buy a tourist card before you can go thru immigration. The cards are $10 each so be sure to have cash available, exact change will definately speed up the process. There was no one providing any information on this process so we spent a few minutes trying to figure out what the mob of people was doing, but we figured it out - and now you'll know ahead of time.
Our package included transportation to the hotel and the bus was clean and in good shape and the greeter/tour guide had his patter down well. All in all, we were checking into the resort within 1 hour of getting off the plane, which is faster than I normally get home from my local airport without waiting for luggage or going thru immigration. A very smooth experience.
We got to the resort about 11:30 am local time and were told that our room wouldn't be ready until 3 pm. I'd read that in other trip reviews and my impression was that even if the place had been empty the night before - we still wouldn't have been able to get into our rooms until 3 pm. That's just how they run the place. However, they did check us in and give us our little All Inclusive indicator bracelets, so we had the run of the place even though we couldn't get into our rooms. We'd packed so that beachwear was quickly reachable and the delay in getting the room was a complete non-issue.
The resort itself is spectacular! I'd read that it had been heavily damaged in last Fall's hurricanes and hadn't even re-opened until Christmas time. However, you couldn't see any signs of hurricane damage at all by the time we got there in February. The main building at the front of the resort is open and comfortable as well as attractive. We'd requested a room near the beach and they had us set up there which was nice. The resort is big (more on that in a second) so if you know that you'd prefer to be near a certain facility (beach, one of the pools, main restaurant, casino, etc.) it's a good idea to request that.
The rooms are all suites with a sleeping area, a living room and a bathroom area. The bedroom and living room area kind of flow into each other, so while there is a pull out sofa in the living room and they'll rent a suite to 4 people, don't expect any privacy if you've got more than two people. We put our sons in one suite and had an adjoining one for ourselves and it worked out great.
One note of caution - this resort is big, although not as enormous as some of the descriptions would make it seem. Nonetheless, it's a good 5 - 8 minute walk from the beach at one end to the main building at the other. There are shuttles that run all the time and there are restaurants at both ends of the property so it wasn't an issue for us. We're all fairly active and usually wound up just walking back and forth. However, if mobility is an issue for you, this resort will take either planning, patience or both.
The beach is everything that has been described by others and more. If you have a complaint with that aspect of the place, then you're just looking for problems. Nuff said.
My wife and I both got food poisoning, so it pays to be careful. However, I can't identify what I ate that struck me wrong and I found everything tasty. I think it was probably a combination of everything, including too much sun, alcohol and unusual foods as well as some hygene issues. The place is wide open so there are flies around and walking on some of the buffet tables. However, it's certainly no worse than a picnic at the Jersey shore.
The only problem with the food service (and this is a very minor issue) was the need to make reservations in advance. There were 5 restaurants that required reservations and another buffet style restaurant that didn't. They take reservations each morning for that evening and the following evening. We learned early that getting a reservation in the morning for dinner that evening is very difficult to do, so you've really got to plan your dinner 2 nights out. Like I said, not a big issue but when I'm on vacation I want as little structure as possible. In fact, there were a couple of nights where we made reservations and then wound up going to the Hispaneola restaurant (the buffet where reservations weren't required) just cuz we were having too much fun to stop what we were doing in order to make our reservation time!
I personally only got to one of the reservation restaurants (the italian one) but I found that to be very good. The service was excellent and the food great. The wine was probably the finest wine you can produce in the Dominican (you'll note that you probably don't see a lot of Dominican vintages in your local wine emporium) but it was passable. Besides, going to the Dominican Republic for it's wine is like going to Kansas for the skiing.
The easiest eating was at the "snack bar" at the beach. Calling this thing a snack bar, however doesn't do it justice. There is a wide variety of food available from 10 am right thru until dinner time with plenty of walk in seating available. There is also what they call the McPrincess which is consists of a walk up window to a small grill kitchen. They only serve burgers and fries (maybe hot dogs too) but the burgers are great and watching the guy who does the cooking going a million miles an hour is a show unto itself.
There are bars everywhere and they're pretty relaxed about drinking ages. My 17 year old could order whatever he wanted without anyone batting an eye. They even had no problem serving my 13 year old as long as I was with him. He had more fun carrying a beer than actually drinking it, although he did chug one beer one day to see if he could do it. (That was the cause of the 3rd sick person but he recovered quickly!)
The resort is right outside "downtown Punta Cana" which consists of a bunch of shops selling cigars and paintings to tourists. If you leave the resort be prepared to have the shop keepers try to coerce you into their shops. However, while there was a lot of chatter, no one took offense to a polite "no gracias" - just keep moving.
If you don't speak Spanish, there can be a bit of a language issue. Most of the front desk people, head waiters and others with a lot of guest contact speak at least passable (if not fluent) english but most of the rest of the staff didn't. Even some of the bartenders and waiters struggled. However, keep in mind that the language issue is yours, not theirs. This is their country and the national language is Spanish. A smattering of Spanish doesn't hurt. I'm 8 hours into one of those learn Spanish while you drive CD courses and that alone was enough to help me get by. If you don't know any Spanish at all, a smile, gracias (thank you) and hola (hello) will do you fine.
The people working at the resort were outstanding! I've never seen a friendlier, more conscientous bunch. I would recommend doing some tipping. For one thing, these people really need it. I don't think there's a whole lot of wealth down there. For another, they really appreciate it. It doesn't take a lot of money. A couple of bucks goes a long way, especially if the workers are getting it from all the guests. I was tipping our maid, bartenders, towel people and others and don't think I spent more than $50 or $60 dollars all week.
In summary- it was a great trip and I'm sure to go back. My kids are ready to make it an annual event, but they're willing to make everything we do an annual event as long as I'm paying!
My family (me, wife, sons age 13 & 17) went to the Bavarro Princess in Punta Cana for 5 days over an enlongated President's Day holiday. This was our first trip to the DR so we weren't too sure what to expect. Let me sum it up immediately by saying, you know it's a great trip when you go somewhere for 5 days with 4 people, 3 of whom got sick and you still had a GREAT time!!
We flew a charted flight out of Philadelphia that was an absolute breeze. It left at 6 am so it was an early morning, but we landed in Punta Cana less than 4 hours later and had the whole day to enjoy. First timers should be aware that you have to buy a tourist card before you can go thru immigration. The cards are $10 each so be sure to have cash available, exact change will definately speed up the process. There was no one providing any information on this process so we spent a few minutes trying to figure out what the mob of people was doing, but we figured it out - and now you'll know ahead of time.
Our package included transportation to the hotel and the bus was clean and in good shape and the greeter/tour guide had his patter down well. All in all, we were checking into the resort within 1 hour of getting off the plane, which is faster than I normally get home from my local airport without waiting for luggage or going thru immigration. A very smooth experience.
We got to the resort about 11:30 am local time and were told that our room wouldn't be ready until 3 pm. I'd read that in other trip reviews and my impression was that even if the place had been empty the night before - we still wouldn't have been able to get into our rooms until 3 pm. That's just how they run the place. However, they did check us in and give us our little All Inclusive indicator bracelets, so we had the run of the place even though we couldn't get into our rooms. We'd packed so that beachwear was quickly reachable and the delay in getting the room was a complete non-issue.
The resort itself is spectacular! I'd read that it had been heavily damaged in last Fall's hurricanes and hadn't even re-opened until Christmas time. However, you couldn't see any signs of hurricane damage at all by the time we got there in February. The main building at the front of the resort is open and comfortable as well as attractive. We'd requested a room near the beach and they had us set up there which was nice. The resort is big (more on that in a second) so if you know that you'd prefer to be near a certain facility (beach, one of the pools, main restaurant, casino, etc.) it's a good idea to request that.
The rooms are all suites with a sleeping area, a living room and a bathroom area. The bedroom and living room area kind of flow into each other, so while there is a pull out sofa in the living room and they'll rent a suite to 4 people, don't expect any privacy if you've got more than two people. We put our sons in one suite and had an adjoining one for ourselves and it worked out great.
One note of caution - this resort is big, although not as enormous as some of the descriptions would make it seem. Nonetheless, it's a good 5 - 8 minute walk from the beach at one end to the main building at the other. There are shuttles that run all the time and there are restaurants at both ends of the property so it wasn't an issue for us. We're all fairly active and usually wound up just walking back and forth. However, if mobility is an issue for you, this resort will take either planning, patience or both.
The beach is everything that has been described by others and more. If you have a complaint with that aspect of the place, then you're just looking for problems. Nuff said.
My wife and I both got food poisoning, so it pays to be careful. However, I can't identify what I ate that struck me wrong and I found everything tasty. I think it was probably a combination of everything, including too much sun, alcohol and unusual foods as well as some hygene issues. The place is wide open so there are flies around and walking on some of the buffet tables. However, it's certainly no worse than a picnic at the Jersey shore.
The only problem with the food service (and this is a very minor issue) was the need to make reservations in advance. There were 5 restaurants that required reservations and another buffet style restaurant that didn't. They take reservations each morning for that evening and the following evening. We learned early that getting a reservation in the morning for dinner that evening is very difficult to do, so you've really got to plan your dinner 2 nights out. Like I said, not a big issue but when I'm on vacation I want as little structure as possible. In fact, there were a couple of nights where we made reservations and then wound up going to the Hispaneola restaurant (the buffet where reservations weren't required) just cuz we were having too much fun to stop what we were doing in order to make our reservation time!
I personally only got to one of the reservation restaurants (the italian one) but I found that to be very good. The service was excellent and the food great. The wine was probably the finest wine you can produce in the Dominican (you'll note that you probably don't see a lot of Dominican vintages in your local wine emporium) but it was passable. Besides, going to the Dominican Republic for it's wine is like going to Kansas for the skiing.
The easiest eating was at the "snack bar" at the beach. Calling this thing a snack bar, however doesn't do it justice. There is a wide variety of food available from 10 am right thru until dinner time with plenty of walk in seating available. There is also what they call the McPrincess which is consists of a walk up window to a small grill kitchen. They only serve burgers and fries (maybe hot dogs too) but the burgers are great and watching the guy who does the cooking going a million miles an hour is a show unto itself.
There are bars everywhere and they're pretty relaxed about drinking ages. My 17 year old could order whatever he wanted without anyone batting an eye. They even had no problem serving my 13 year old as long as I was with him. He had more fun carrying a beer than actually drinking it, although he did chug one beer one day to see if he could do it. (That was the cause of the 3rd sick person but he recovered quickly!)
The resort is right outside "downtown Punta Cana" which consists of a bunch of shops selling cigars and paintings to tourists. If you leave the resort be prepared to have the shop keepers try to coerce you into their shops. However, while there was a lot of chatter, no one took offense to a polite "no gracias" - just keep moving.
If you don't speak Spanish, there can be a bit of a language issue. Most of the front desk people, head waiters and others with a lot of guest contact speak at least passable (if not fluent) english but most of the rest of the staff didn't. Even some of the bartenders and waiters struggled. However, keep in mind that the language issue is yours, not theirs. This is their country and the national language is Spanish. A smattering of Spanish doesn't hurt. I'm 8 hours into one of those learn Spanish while you drive CD courses and that alone was enough to help me get by. If you don't know any Spanish at all, a smile, gracias (thank you) and hola (hello) will do you fine.
The people working at the resort were outstanding! I've never seen a friendlier, more conscientous bunch. I would recommend doing some tipping. For one thing, these people really need it. I don't think there's a whole lot of wealth down there. For another, they really appreciate it. It doesn't take a lot of money. A couple of bucks goes a long way, especially if the workers are getting it from all the guests. I was tipping our maid, bartenders, towel people and others and don't think I spent more than $50 or $60 dollars all week.
In summary- it was a great trip and I'm sure to go back. My kids are ready to make it an annual event, but they're willing to make everything we do an annual event as long as I'm paying!