Bahia Principe Explore Punta Cana - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

10690 reviews

• 

  Family holiday

  Shocked by the bad reviews. Currently here, yes it's a large resort but surely you would have done your research before coming. Regular golf carts to ferry you around. We did have an older room which wasn't suitable, within an hour we were moved to a new upgraded room. Food hall is busy but there are times when it's a little quite, so go when suits you. Beach is beautiful. Pool entertainment team do an outstanding job, lots of things to keep all ages busy if you want to. Monkeyland is worth every penny. Having a great time, it's what you make it, so ignore the negative reviews.

  Mar 31, 2026
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  BAD SERVICE AND UNSAFE FACILITY

  TLDR: Hotel is unsafe for anyone with reduced mobility, obesity, or allergies. Staff service is disappointing, most of them seem miserable. The resort is poorly managed and barely maintained. Long version: The hotel is a dump and we had horrible service from the minute we stepped off the bus. Only two people were available to receive all the new arrivals off the bus. They took 2 of our 8 suitcases to a staging area and then left us to take the rest over ourselves. The staging area wasn't even a secure room, just a pile of bags on the stairs where anyone could help themselves to any bag whether they own it or not. AND it was exposed to the rain so my bag got wet. The hotel was absolutely not accessible. There were small steps everywhere that you had to navigate to get through the lobby and the buffet. No hand railings on most of the stairs which is dangerous for anyone with unstable balance. Even the few railings they had were wobbly and unsafe. There were ramps, but many were very steep and slippery. For some reason they had glossy floors in an open air building in a tropical climate where it rained nearly every day. The flooring made walking treacherous. Both my niece and my dad slipped on wet floors. **WARNING** to anyone with scent sensitivity, DO NOT GO HERE. They had a machine in the lobby continuously spraying this weird fruity perfume into the air. It's REALLY strong and gave me a headache while we were waiting to be checked in. Only 3 people were at the check-in counter when we arrived and two of them were standing behind the ugly fake palm tree display in the middle of the lobby so we couldn't see them. Even once we were finally speaking with someone, it took a solid hour to check in our group of 5 people. The man helping us kept wandering away. The woman at the desk helping get access to my room later in the afternoon was snarky when my mom got straight to the point asking for help instead of saying "good afternoon." Look, we'd been awake for 28 hours straight at that point. We were sweaty, smelly, and exhausted, and just wanted to get to our rooms. We didn't care about good afternoon. It hadn't BEEN a good afternoon and her snotty attitude made it worse. They didn't explain anything about the hotel during check in. No maps, no rules, no info about the trolley system or anything. They didn't even explain which areas we could go explore and which were member exclusive. The only info they gave us was of the buffet times. We later discovered that their app had a lot of useful information, but they didn't tell us about it. We found it on our own. And half the time it wouldn't load on our phones. Then after getting our room keys set up (which took around 30 minutes), we had to wait another 20 minutes for a trolley to come around to take us to our building. I ended up sitting on the ground because there aren't any chairs near the spot where the trolleys come to pick up the bags. Finally got access to our rooms. We're on the 2nd floor, and there are NO HAND RAILINGS going up the stairs. We had to lean awkwardly on the wall going up and down the stairs while praying we don't fall. No elevator available. And the open air design means the floor was wet and slippery from the rain. The bell hop let my parents into a room, which later they discovered was the WRONG ROOM after another bell hop was trying to help somebody else in! My room was the correct one (small victories!). Everything is dated and painted sad beige, but not awful. The TV won't turn on, though. And the safe was already locked so I couldn't open it. Had to put my valuables in my parents safe instead. My sister's room was in a completely different building. Her wrist band didn't work and none of the electrical outlets in her room were functional. She called for maintenance and a guy did show up, but he left soon after without fixing anything. She ended up having to rely on my portable power bank to charge her devices because she had no power. In the suite bathroom, there was a lovely large tub, but the only safety rail was on the back wall far out of my reach and the step into the tub was HUGE. Incredibly dangerous and all they had was a "slippery" sign on the wall. I had to cling to the glass divider and hope it didn't break while getting in and out. And the towels were stored on a shelf near the ceiling so I had to stand on my tip toes in the slippery tub to reach them. The buffet was absolute chaos during most meals. Way too many people going all over the place. No organization whatsoever. There's no clear flow of traffic and the dishes are placed haphazardly so people are going every different direction. There was no point waiting politely in a line for anything, people just went around you. Competing against other guests to get to the food seemed the norm. Also, most of the dishes at the buffet had no labels, so you're just guessing what it is. I accidentally put bbq sauce on my mashed potatoes thinking it was gravy. Good luck to anyone with any sort of allergy. Guest services was a joke. I went to the front desk to complain because the housekeeping hadn't been taking away my dirty towels and did not make my bed for three nights in a row. Housekeeping showed up with a huge arm full of clean towels at like 9PM. I never asked for more clean towels, I just wanted the dirty ones removed. Clearly they didn't understand what I was saying. And when she left, she only took 3 of the probably 7 dirty towels I had accumulated in my room. She left the rest sitting on the floor... My mom also called twice for an umbrella (none in the room...?) but nobody came. I enjoyed the magic show and the circus show was very funny. Oneiro was excellent, well worth the extra investment. The first quiet pool was nice and the staff at the swim up bar were excellent. Funny and friendly. The staff at the first pool were the best part of the trip honestly. The party pool over by the beach has awful flimsy chairs absolutely not suitable for fat people like me. And the staff at that bar were not friendly and VERY slow even when there was only 2 other guests at the swim up bar. They acted like it was inconvenient to ask them for a drink. We ended up returning to the quiet pool because the bar staff at the beach pool made us feel unwelcome. The train/trolley system was a god send because the resort is spread out over a large area. Being able to hop on the trolley made the space more accessible. But it apparently closes in the evening so I had to walk back to my room in the rain after the Oneiro show. I did see one trolley running but the driver said it was members only and he refused to give me a ride up the road even though he was already headed in the same direction and he had no other passengers. Also the trolley seats are pretty high up and they don't have running boards, so they can be a challenge for anyone with mobility limitations. It also would have been nice to have benches for people to rest between the buildings. I didn't see any benches between the villas other than the train stops. I'm an obese and being able to sit and rest a moment would have made it easier to navigate the resort, especially at night when the trolleys stop running.

  Mar 30, 2026
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  This resort is huge

  Overall as many reviews have said, it's a huge resort. If you are looking for a quiet peaceful place, this is not for you. We stayed 14 nights. We always make the best we can do. We were in block 12 with a ground floor room. Close to one of the central pools. Even then we were up before 8am to reserve sun loungers and a shade. We went to the beach a few times after lunch when there were some beds available. We didn't bother getting up at 6am as we saw reviews were the beds and shades were all gone. There are two buffet restaurants. The main one in the Principe was very busy, but the other buffet called Bugambilia in the Bavaro was much quieter and also brighter (only open in the evening). We eat there most times. We had 6 other restaurant bookings. We found the Japanese and Italian to be the best. The Fish market was OK too. We learned on the first day that breakfast was less crowded at the Beach House Las Olas, so we ate there most mornings. The large pools near the beach were extremely crowded. The entertainment team worked their socks off to keep the guests busy with various games etc. The foam party was fun. The main issue was mosquitos. Remember to take some repellant as they get into the rooms. We saw a lot of people with very bad sun burns, some were so red, it must have been very uncomfortable. Of course there were many Spring Breakers in March and some of them were pretty loud after drinking. There were buses to help transport you around, because the resort is so big. The staff were mostly OK, English is not their first language. TIP: take plenty of $1 bills for tips. It helps. Also don't buy anything from the beach vendors. It was all mostly cheap crap. We also noticed there was a mafia style vendor cartel. We appreciate they have to make a living but it's the tourists that they are preying on!! For us, 3 stars was about right, overall average. We won't choose this resort again as it was far too over crowded. We booked with TUI. We never saw the hotel rep but then again we didn't really need him!

  Mar 27, 2026
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  SAVE YOURSELF THE TIME AND MONEY

  more HORRIBLE experience of my life.... service was HORRIBLE and the room was infected with bugs. If you want to go to a location you hate. this is the place.

  Mar 22, 2026
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  Avoid this resort ....

  Let me start by saying that i do not like giving bad reviews but this one warrants it, I am at a loss as to what to say about this resort, first impressions are quite impressive, decor and furnishings in the lobby, That's where it ended. The room that was given us was old, dated and falling apart. The patio door handle fell off within the first minute of being there and stayed outside on the small table on the balcony. One King size bed for the two of us, and to be honest the concrete would have been softer but here we were for 10 days. The resort is huge and with 5 other Bahia Principe's surrounding it , it is big enough to warrant golf carts (or busses ) to ferry people around the resort from the lobby to the rooms lobby to pool, rooms to the beach. The Golf cart drivers will not stop if you are between (bus stops) Finding a smile on 80% of the staff was hard to find, they all looked very unhappy and not enjoying their job at all. Most of the staff were not very attentive to the guests needs . There were a few extremely nice staff . Our Air Transat rep was very dismissive , I went to speak to him 2 times and was told to wait until he had set up his table even after he had set it all up he really didnt listen to my question. gave an off the cuff remark. Food was good. We did not use any of the Al a carte restaurants as the buffet food was good. I would definitely not recommend this resort to anyone, too large, staff were not caring, Vey crowded everywhere. Cuba could teach these staff a thing or two about customer service.

  Mar 20, 2026