Location
Punta Cana - BeachProperty Information
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Resort Details
General Policies & Fine Print
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policy: - This hotel cannot guarantee a spring-break-free environment.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
9612 reviews
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Nov 29, 2023Bad experience on a first time ever in a resort!!!
We are a group of 7 families with nineteen (19) adults. I, my wife and her sister shared a room. Here are our experiences including the time wasted at the check-in and a break-in while we are not in our room. The flight from Ottawa to Punta Cana were short, less than 5 hrs so it was uneventful. Arrived at Punta Cana, it was HOT and humid. Going through Custom at the airport was easy and quite fast. Make sure you have your QR code ready to show to the Custom Officers. If you don't have it, I think they can still find you using your passport and your e-tickets. ***See my recommendations on what to pack with you on the trip at the end of my review*** The check-in at the resort however was very slow and quite a mess. A room is assigned to us, but we cannot pickup the keys until 3PM. However, we could not pickup the keys until almost 6:00 PM because the room was not ready. When I pickup the key, I noticed the room number is changed but didn't think anything of it. We went into the room and found that the room has only one (1) bed!!! We went back to the Guest Service desk and asked for another room with two beds and got a run around!!! (did I mention it was hot and humid there?). They offered to put a portable fold-away bed in the room, but we refused as we paid for two (2) beds, they told us to come back later once the check-in has calmed down. We didn’t want to wait around so we decided to go check out the resort and to cool off at the beach and come back the next day. The next day, we came to the Guest Service desk asking about the room situation, again we are told to wait! After another two and half (2.5) long hot hours that you cannot do anything but wait, still nothing!!! We got stuck spent most of our morning in the Lobby waiting for someone to help us instead of going to the beach and enjoying ourselves. Finally, we got fed up and went back to the Guest Service desk and demand a resolution. This time, we met with a lady by the name of Michel Osoria, she quickly found the reason why we only got one bed. Apparently, they entered us in the system as only one person!!! With her help, we finally got a room with two beds in the afternoon. Quick note about Michel Osoria; she was very helpful. I would recommend that if you happened to run into any issue while you are at the resort, seek out this lady and she will surely resolve your issues. Not only she helps sorted out our room situation, but she also helps with the booking of the restaurants and organizing a birthday party for my friend. You'll get a wrist band to open the door to your room, a card for towel for each person for the beach or the pools, a key card to turn on the power in the room and to open and close the safety deposit box. Make sure the key AND your wrist band are working or you will find yourself returning to the reception desk again and again. Currently they are doing a lot of renovation and as such, some area (along the main roads to the beach) are quite messy and lot of construction people. Our room was old and outdated, but we didn't mind as we did spend most of our time at the beach and common areas such as the lobby and the bars :). The hot water in your room is quite HOT so be careful when start a shower. There isn't much to do there but to relax and enjoy the sceneries and the beach. There are shows and events every night so make sure to check them out. Bring bug spray or put on bug lotion! The Air Transat’s staffs said the water from the faucet at the resort is not good for drinking and you should only shower with it. Fresh bottles of water (and beers) are provided in the room to you for drinking and brushing your teeth with (you can brush your teeth with beer too LOL). We did brush our teeth with the water from the faucet and we are fine. But don't temp fate and try to drink it or your vacation could be ruined LOL... The food in the buffet is OK, just like any typical "all you can eat buffet" here in Canada. Good quantity but average quality. If you are a picky eater, there two stations with chefs that will make you some hot meals with a limited ingredients selection of the day such as beef, pork chops, chicken, fish, eggs, etc… If you want to try out the restaurants, then make sure to book them right after you check in. They are average but it would be a change of scenery from the buffet. Watch out for the salt at the Japanese restaurant next to the lobby, our chef was quite generous with it. By the beach, there are three or four restaurants and eateries that you can just walk in. There is "The Truck" restaurant you can order hamburger, fries, chicken wings, etc... Similar to a food trucks / stands that we have here in Canada. Drinks are included and you can have them anytime and almost anywhere. In your room, the daily supplies are three soft drinks, two beers, and a couple of freshwater bottles. If you need more just call Concierge service and they will bring you more. Out in the common areas of the resort, there are many location / bars with bartenders that can make any cocktail drinks you want. But if you would like a drink with a nice presentation or decorated glasses, a single U$ goes a long way. ***More on tipping at the end*** The beach was nice. During our stay, the weather was a bit windy so there are lot of white-headed waves. the sand is flat and shallow but there are many deep areas so feel the ground with your feet before adventure out to the deep blue water. Go to the beach early to ensure you will get a chair under a hut or bring lots and lots of sunscreen lotion. The towel hut open at 8AM so if you want a towel in the early morning then Keep a towel from the day before and use it to reserve a chair by the pool or the beach the next day. You can exchange it for a fresh one when the hut is open. On our check out day, our flight is at 11PM but the checkout time is 11AM! So, at 8AM we packed everything in our suitcases but leave them in the room and go to the buffet for a quick bite. During our breakfast, I realized that I forgot to bring my medicine, so I went back to my room. Arrived at my room I noticed the room’s door is a jar!!! I walk in a found a man in my room and one of my suitcases was opened, I asked what he is doing in my room, and he said he is checking the light and then quickly leave the room. I check my suitcase and thankfully nothing is missing. Had I return to my room a couple minutes later, he would have found my money and passports under my clothing. I reported to the Guest Services, and they said they will investigate and get back to me within 24 - 48 hours! I leave the resort with a hug disappointment and bitter taste in my mount. This is not an experience I expected for my very first vacation at a resort. Notes: - Bring one closed toes shoe for the restaurants and flip flop for everywhere else. You will be doing a lot of walking so make sure these footwears are comfortable. - Bring a hat and sunglasses. - Bring light / thin clothes. At least one set of business attire (long pants, collared shirt, and closed toes shoe) for the restaurant. - Sun screen of SPF 50 - Bugs are bad so bring bug spray or lotion. In your room bring some incent stick with lemongrass to keep them bugs out. The two item I used are: Diffuser and Pure Lemongrass Essential Oil and they work well in reducing the number of mosquitoes in my room. - Food varieties are limited so after a couple of days, you will be craving for some of your favorite's snacks from home. Bring some. - If you have many electronic devices, bring a power bar so you can plug multiple chargers at the same time. Try the USB fast charge like this one. TIPPING: - You don’t have to tip at all but if you do you will get a more “friendlier” service. - We leave a couple of dollars for the room cleaning everyday. Skip the next day if they do a bad job the day before, like forgot to give you fresh towels. - A dollar in the fridge if you want more beers than water… lol
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Nov 28, 2023Would not recommend
After a two week stay these are the main points of why we wouldn’t recommend this resort *Restaurant was not organised Long queues and after being shown to your table you still don’t have glasses,knifes and forks and have to ask for these items. *Restaurant does not insure that the correct card(if any) are will the correct food *You have to hunt for plates cups and glasses and when you ask staff it seems like an inconvenience. The food was average but very hit and miss and what they decided to serve on the day. Towards the end of the restaurant times food availability was poor. * The WiFi was rubbish and hit and miss again of where you can’t access which is not good when you are not given any information about the hotel in paper format you have to download the map although it was not informative where and what times you can eat. *Deco is extremely dated and it looks run down and is need of a total refurbishment The lights by the bed would go off by themselves and would come on with a tap !! However the good point *No issues with finding sun-beds Overall our memories of this holiday will be of queuing and only our basic needs being met We didn’t feel the hotel or restaurant staff including the steak house did anything more than they had to
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Nov 24, 2023
The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Our Family visited in November. I will begin with the positive first, because no one likes bad news. I do not review hotels often, but with this one I feel the need to share our honest expérience. The pools/beach are very well maintained and the grounds in general are beautiful. The resort is quite big, but you have efficient transportation at all times. Pool bar near the beach is usually more full, and more of a party place. But if you want something a bit more grounded, the middle pool near garden grill is a good compromise. The staff is very nice, and if you want a drink faster you can just order outside of the pool. Beach is very clean, and the Sand super Beautiful. There are always chairs available at least when we went. There is no bar on the beach for Bahia Principe Grand Punta Cana, or any servers coming to take your order. I did notice Fantasia does have drinks servers on the beach to take their orders. This did not bother me, however some people may want to know this particular detail. Restaurants that we tried were Garden Grill, and Mikado Restaurant ( On Bavaro side if you want the show) Both restaurants had good service. Japanese was ok but not excellent in terms of the food. Garden Grill was better and nice plating presentation. We had a third réservation at the Thali, but we Lost this réservation since we were waiting at the lobby to change rooms which I will explain later. Useful TIP: use Bahia Principe APP to pre book restaurants. We did this around 7 Days in Advance to devanture! The alcohol is of cheaper Quality, but if you want the good stuff you have to Pay. Perhaps if you go to Ambar you might get something better. Example Jack Daniels cost 10usd per glass. Now time for the BAD NEWS. First of all, Concierge is not really there to be empathetic just so you know. They are there to say NO, NO, NO, NO, It is not possible. So be prepared to learn how to become a sales person! Also we did pre checkin, but still you have to line up and show passports. Super slow, like sloths! seriously must be the heat? The rooms are outdated, but we knew that when booking. We were OK with that! Until.................. the ceiling started to leak as well as the Wall. This is the time we wanted a new room. Reasonable right? The concierge did not care at all ( We were SUPER Diplomatic too) looked at our photo and said it is because of the rain! Finally he said to come back at 4pm. When we came back at 4pm, he completely forgot who we were, why we were there. We had to explain our situation again. Finally he said wait here I will be back because the phone does not work. We gave him the benefit of the doubt. He came back 3 Hours after only to say has anyone helped you yet? ( did he think we would give up and leave?) At this time I never saw my husband so angry. I had to keep him cool. We said we were going to Pay to go to Fantasia and we were serious because we were exhausted dealing with this. They insisted we stay and finally gave us a room of someone new checking in. Why did it take this long to find a solution. We were honestly disappointed when they said no to switching hotels. I was looking forward to something else to be honest after going through such bad customer service. Empathy is universal human emotion, you cannot treat people this way. I know they get tons of complainte so probably they are exhausted themselves. However this place will be back to 4 starts when it will be renovated. Rooms need a lot of love. Also as a side note, I got thèse terrible bites on my leg. lots of people at the resort have them. I do not think it is mosquito bites, but judge for yourself, and please comment to let me know what you think it is? First time I ever had bites like this. One older lady was literally covered in them, it looked pretty disgusting. In conclusion, if you have stamina to deal with concierge if things go wrong then go for it. The pictures do not lie now that I look at them in retrospect. However if you do not care about customer service, or rooms, then you will be very happy because the beach, grounds, and food are great. So you have to choose what makes you happy on your vacation. We will not be back here until things change (2025) which is a shame because I see great potential at this resort especially since it is such a beautiful space. If customer service would have been better, my perspective could have easily been changed. Customer Service is the key to success!!!! Every Company has NPS Score so you know how important this is! Use it to your advantage! Turn those NO into Yes, sure, ok, great, it could be possible. Give people HOPE!
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Nov 20, 2023
Disappointing Resort
From the check to the next we have had problems. Firstly, on check in after lining up for an hour, we got checked in. Once checked we were told that the keys are at the neighboring resort. We were taken in a trolley and had to queue up once again and it took 1 1/2 hour before we were served. Total check-in time 2 hours 30 minutes!! Then in the room we found mosquitoes. Called the front desk around 6 pm, they said they would send somebody. No luck, called again at 8 pm. They said they would send somebody. Fell asleep at 11 am. Got a call at 1 am to say somebody is at the door to fumigate! Don’t they know people would be sleeping at 1 am ?. A day later, I sm still waiting for somebody to fumigate the room. Called again, still waiting !!! Also found the safe not working. Got a maintenance guy after 3 hours. Said he could not repair it, will need a new safe and will get somebody to see us at 9 am the next morning. Nobody turned up, had to go to Lobby again. Eventually, we had somebody who was able to repair it. Bathroom, there was no soap. Had to take shower without soap. Again had to complain at the Front Desk. Have spent half of our holiday chasing Front Desk to get things sorted out. There is also a queue before we can speak to the Front Desk VERY DISAPPOINTING RESORT.
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Nov 17, 2023Recharging vacation
I don’t often write reviews but, as I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home, I thought I’d give it a go. This is the 3rd time my wife and I have stayed at Bahia Principe Punta Cana in the past 3 years. Twice at Aquamarine and once at Ambar. We are planning to go again next November for the simple reason that it has everything we are looking for when it comes to a relaxing vacation. I’m don’t worry about the shininess of the chrome in the showers or if the drapes are 10 years old. My wife and I appreciate cleanliness, kindness, quietness (when appropriate), great morning coffees, great fitness centre, professional staff at the spa, lovely sandy beachfront and choice of tasty and assorted cooking keeping in mind safe food preparation. We never held back in our choice of foods from either the buffets or restaurants including uncooked fruits and vegetables. Neither my wife nor I have had any health issues from our stays. BTW we are in our 50s and 60s. Contrary to other reviews, we have found the quality of food exceptional in the buffet and especially at the restaurants (special mention for Limbo, El Olivo and Nikkei Mashua). The self serve specialty coffee machines in the lobbies were a great addition this year. Staff have always been friendly and helpful. I agree that many will struggle with English (especially the chambermaids). However I have never been stuck with help of my “google translate”. In fact, most are enamoured when they see I’m making an effort. Those in key positions such as front desk, etc have always conversed well in English. The exercise facility is one of the best I’ve come across in resorts. It is properly air conditioned and well maintained. Important for someone who exercises daily. Busy between 7-9 am but nice and quiet after that. Plenty of chairs at the beach. Special shout out to “Juan” in the Aquamarine section of the beach. His interest in your comfort along with his charismatic and friendly personality made our daily beach time very relaxing. There is a constant stream of vendors who walk up and down Bavaro beach but almost all respect your disinterest (if it be the case) in their product and move on. We didn’t have much gas left in our tank past 9 pm so can’t comment about evening entertainment. Pools are kept clean with again plenty of chairs. However the choice locations are often claimed by the early birds. There was only one negative and that had to do with the slow free Wifi speed when it came to doing some office work (on a VPN). In hindsight, I should upgraded to the “Premium” service from the outset. Simpler applications like for the mobile phone was quite fine with the free version. Marc Langill Ottawa, Canada