N
ND
Guest
For the benefit of those who are planning a trip to Punta Cana, we just returned from a 7 night stay at the Melia Tropical. The resort was large and beautiful, rooms were large and very comfortable, huge pool and nice beach. We did not get terribly ill (2 brief bouts resolved with Imodium AD), but approximately 60% of the resort was ill at the time we were there including some friends. Most seemed to be down for 3-5 days with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Take lots of Imodium AD! Do not drink the water--only bottled water. I drank soda and beer in bottles and occasionally had a soda or beer from the tap and had no problem (including ice). I limited my diet to bread products, pasta, an occasional orange juice in the morning, and cheese pizza. I adventured once with Chinese and also with beef medallions and again had no problem (other than having to send the meat back to be cooked better). Make sure your food is cooked thoroughly. Listening to everyone talk about their vomiting and diarrhea had a great negative effect to the vacation.
Prepare yourself for one of the worst airports you have ever seen. It's not clear to me if it's so primitive because of the hurricane, but at least at this time it is far too insufficient to handle the amount of travelers (i.e. 2 bathroom stalls per gender serving 1000-2000 departing passengers!).
Although we did not leave the resort during our trip, we were surprised to see men with machine guns at the resort entrance (we arrived late at night) and a car stopped by someone with a similar looking gun. The poverty is sad. We were sure to place a comment on our hotel evaluation how much we enjoyed our trip, despite the apparent illnesses, and we hoped that the resort would share its profits with the staff, from the bottom up. The staff was very, very kind and super-hard working during our stay.
If you go, have a fun trip. Email me if you have questions.
Nancy
Prepare yourself for one of the worst airports you have ever seen. It's not clear to me if it's so primitive because of the hurricane, but at least at this time it is far too insufficient to handle the amount of travelers (i.e. 2 bathroom stalls per gender serving 1000-2000 departing passengers!).
Although we did not leave the resort during our trip, we were surprised to see men with machine guns at the resort entrance (we arrived late at night) and a car stopped by someone with a similar looking gun. The poverty is sad. We were sure to place a comment on our hotel evaluation how much we enjoyed our trip, despite the apparent illnesses, and we hoped that the resort would share its profits with the staff, from the bottom up. The staff was very, very kind and super-hard working during our stay.
If you go, have a fun trip. Email me if you have questions.
Nancy