Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9636 reviews

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  A great week!

  We loved our week at this resort. Beautiful clean beach with soft sand and fun waves to play in. Our room was big, clean, and quiet. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast and beach lunch everyday. The à la carte restaurants in the evening were easy to access with thoughtful menus. Our favourite was Naan - the Indian restaurant! We hope to be back soon.

  Apr 03, 2026
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  Average Hotel, does not deserve 5 Stars

  The hotel did meet the expectations of a 5 star All Inclusive resort in Dominican Republic. I have been to the DR at least 10 times and this is by far the worst resort where I have stayed. I will start with the positive: the hotel has been recently renovated, the rooms are very nice and spacious and the it has nice facilities like the 2 large pools. You also have access to the other hotels in the complex. I also had one of the best massages of in the spa. However, the food situation was a disaster: the buffets were just ok, nothing exciting. Like many resorts you have to reserve the restaurants where you want to have dinner but it is impossible because you are told that they are all fully booked. When you arrive at the restaurants they are all empty and there is plenty of availability. The only restaurants where food was decent were the Mongol and the Dominican. In all the other restaurants the food was not good at all, many nights we left without being able to finish the meal, that’s how bad they were. The brazilian rodizio and japanese were particularly bad. Also, there is no place to grab a snack between meals when the restaurants are closed. It would be nice to be able to grab a snack specially when you are drinking. In addition, the service was really bad. It is clear that the management does nothing to train their staff. They are not attentive to helping clients, they are often seen just talking amongst themselves instead of working but then they interrupt you constantly to try to sell you some random activity. In the pool and the beach, the chairs are so close together that you cant even access them and at the beach they allow street vendors to bother you constantly so you cant even have a peaceful afternoon. In conclusion, I would not stay at this hotel again, there are much better hotels in the DR.

  Mar 27, 2026
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  Gorgeous five star experience

  We spent a week with our five year old. Beautiful resort! Food was very good!! Taino al la carte restaurant was EXCELLENTE! Delicious. As were both the buffets, and the other al la cartes. Gorgeous interiors. Yummy fresh fruit in abundance. Huge selection with something for everyone. No one got sick. Service lovely. Very nice and helpful. Check in and out smooth. Room GORGEOUS. Clean and up to date and comfortable. No issues with hot water. Loved that the resort wasn’t massive. Very walkable. Beautiful clean beach with plenty of shade. Warm turquoise ocean. Pretty easy to find loungers. We just borrowed an occupied one if needed :) Great stuff for kids - kid pool with slides and a kids club with some good activities which we used a few times. Highly recommend Monkey Land excursion. Amazing scenery and wonderful experience. Pools are warm and clean (maybe not the shallow bubbling one but the rest were clear!). We would return.

  Mar 16, 2026
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  Hard pass

  We booked this last minute as a much needed escape and in a nutshell- go elsewhere. Hyatt seems to be taking this over in a week or two and current service is lackluster, there’s just little incentive to impress or go the extra inch. A simple example- kids need to have a different bracelet than adults understandably- but it was a comedy of not having any bracelets for kids available at check in, then getting them took multiple tries, then they didn’t work, once they worked the adults bracelets were instantly made unusable etc etc. Don’t get me started on the lack of any available reservations for a family of 4 with kids to actually -gasp! have dinner together earlier than 10pm (and hard pass on the buffet, a lite lunch at one should have been simple, it was nothing short of sad—and we’re with kids- we’re not expecting over the top). None of this seems to phase anyone. Have a question? Go on the app. Have a question about the app- go on the app. App not really intuitive or behaving? Try the app. Can you book something for us, we can’t get it straightened out on the app-sorry, system down. Rooms are so tired. No one really picks up after themselves at the pool and no one on staff really does a clean sweep during the day either. If you wanted to go someplace and escape picking up towels and cups after your kids- this isn’t it. There isn’t a soft surface to absorb noise so you hear everything from the halls. If you’re a college kid on spring break, maybe this place is for you. Love boozing in the pool to thumping music alllllllll afternoon- sure, who cares about a moment of peace. For the rest, let someone else take it over and re-consider it in a few years after a make over. The beach is lovely though and about the only plus so far. We’re kicking ourselves for taking the non-refundable rate. We desperately needed 4 days of sun and fun together and we’re stuck. If we could, we’d get out of here.

  Mar 14, 2026
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  Avoid for multiple reasons!

  As many people have stated, this resort was not good. Save your money and go somewhere else. Apparently they are being taken over by Hiatt March 23rd. Maybe because of that, the employees are not helpful, rude and ignore you. Here are some of the issues we encountered: 1. There are no elevators. I sent four requests before we left to make sure they would put my 93 year old mother on the ground floor. When we checked in, we were told she was on the ground floor. When we got to the rooms, she was on the third floor. Our bellboy told us to ask the next day as many people were checking out. When I asked they stated they didn't have any rooms on the first floor unless we wanted to pay an additional $650 and get a swim up room. Unconscionable and somehow she managed to go up two flights of stairs multiple times a day. 2. Uncleanly. Stairwells dirty, tubs in room disgusting and bugs in the restaurants. 3. Employees rude and provided poor service. Bartenders ignored us, even if we had tip money out. We would tip a pool waiter and they never returned. 4. Buffet had lots of food but often cold. Mediocre at best. Specialty restaurants did some things right but there was always something not good at each meal. 5. Cheap liquor. The best vodka they had was Sky or Smirnoff and you only got that if you asked for it. Paid way too much for that. Overall, I couldn't wait to leave which is very sad given the amount we paid to stay there.

  Mar 14, 2026