Grand Palladium Select Bavaro – All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

20500 reviews

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  Entertainment staff

  Yefrey is the best entertainment staff at the pool

  Mar 07, 2026
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  A lovely stay at a great property

  Great food, kind friendly helpful staff, a beautiful beach and lovely clean pools, rooms and common areas! The only downside was the ridiculous length of time it took to check in because of the incredibly expensive upsell they tried to give us by telling us our rooms could be much better if we paid a lot more money! We would come back and we would recommend the property but we would shut the front desk down right away if asked to upgrade.

  Mar 06, 2026
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  **Beautiful Grounds, Frustrating Experience — Service & Dining Fell Short of Expectations**

  Just returned from a week at **Grand Palladium Bávaro Suites Resort & Spa** as a family of four (with a 14-year-old and 6-year-old), and unfortunately, we left feeling disappointed. We chose this resort because we like larger complexes with multiple areas to explore. We’ve stayed at similar properties like the **Barceló Maya Grand Resort** and **Bahia Principe Grand Punta Cana**, and expected a comparable experience. Sadly, this one fell short in several key areas. --- ## The Positives The grounds are beautiful and very well maintained. The beach is excellent — clean, spacious, and great for long walks. The à la carte restaurants were the highlight of our stay and were actually quite good — on par with what we’ve experienced at Barceló. Our room, once properly cleaned and stocked, was nice (though a bit small with limited storage space). --- ## Where It Fell Short ### Service Service throughout the resort was inconsistent at best. At the buffets, you could wait quite a while for drinks or even to get someone’s attention. Friendly, attentive staff members were few and far between. We tip generously everywhere we travel, so this wasn’t an issue of not tipping. ### Buffet Repetition & Missing Food Labels Breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffets were nearly identical every day with very little variation. After a few days, it felt repetitive. Another major issue was that most of the buffet food was missing labels. You often had no idea what you were putting on your plate — whether it was chicken or pork, what sauces were used, or what certain mixed dishes actually contained. For anyone with dietary restrictions, allergies, or even just curiosity about what they’re eating, this is frustrating and not ideal. ### No Daytime Entertainment for Kids There was essentially no daytime entertainment around the main pool area aside from adult fitness activities. Nothing engaging for kids, which was surprising for a family-oriented resort. ### The App-Only Menu System One of the biggest frustrations was the complete reliance on the resort app. There are no paper menus anywhere — not for drinks, not at restaurants. Every single order requires you to pull out your phone and scroll through the app. When you're on vacation and trying to unplug, constantly needing your phone feels counterproductive. Even more frustrating, many bartenders and servers didn’t seem familiar with drinks listed on their own app menu. More often than not, we defaulted to a rum and Coke or pre-made frozen drinks because it was easier. Pro tip: Download and thoroughly explore the app before you go. For example, we later discovered the coffee shop offered smoothies and specialty cold drinks — something that was never advertised or displayed anywhere physically. ### Dinner Reservations Make your dinner reservations as early as possible. Keep checking the app for cancellations and consider visiting the front desk to ask about openings. Otherwise, you may miss out on restaurants you were hoping to try. ### Nightlife We enjoy having a good adults-only option after the kids are asleep. The “disco” here was underwhelming and nowhere near the setup or atmosphere we experienced at Barceló or Bahia Principe, both of which had lively nightclub environments. If nightlife is important to you, adjust expectations. ### Room Issues Upon Arrival Our room wasn’t ready at arrival (which can happen), but when we entered, it clearly hadn’t been properly cleaned — visible debris on the floor, unmade bed, missing towels and bathrobes. It took multiple calls to have everything corrected. ### Pushy Timeshare Staff The timeshare representatives were extremely persistent. “No” didn’t seem to register. We eventually avoided parts of the lobby just to escape the sales pitches and phone calls to our room. ### The Pizza Shack Experience The poolside pizza is actually very good — but ordering it was incredibly frustrating. Wait times were inconsistent and often extended well beyond what we were initially told (20 minutes became 40, which then became another 40–60 minutes). Communication was unclear, and the attitude from staff didn’t help. Many guests were visibly upset. The whole point was to grab a quick snack for kids without heading to the buffet, but waiting over an hour defeats that purpose entirely. --- ## Helpful Tip If you need a break from the resort, taking a walk down the beach to **El Cortecito** (just past **TRS Turquesa Hotel**) is worthwhile. It’s a good spot for souvenir shopping or grabbing food off-resort. Tip: The shops located in the alleyways are generally more open to negotiating prices compared to the vendors directly on the beach. --- ## Final Thoughts This isn’t a terrible resort. The property itself is beautiful, and there are enjoyable aspects if you plan carefully and manage expectations. However, between inconsistent service, repetitive and poorly labeled buffet offerings, lack of kid-focused daytime entertainment, over-reliance on the app, and frustrating dining logistics, we wouldn’t return. There are better-run resorts at a similar price point. Based on our previous experiences, we would choose Barceló or Bahia Principe again over this property.

  Mar 04, 2026
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  Rooms

  The shower in the room was loose and sprayed water outside of the bathroom. This issue was shared and was resolved. The sliding door to the balcony was very difficult to open; that was reported but was not resolved. I stayed in room 1820.

  Mar 04, 2026
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  Lots of maintenance issues and bad service

  We had a swim up suite at Bavaro select, beautiful view. That’s where it ended. Our room had so many maintenance issues, from no hot water, no usb outlets water puddles on the floor, lights not working, not able to use jacuzzi tub, to a mildew smell. We had to waste a lot of time making calls and walking to guest services, don’t call for travel club “welcome breakfast/lunch”, it’s a sales pitch, you will be stuck there for a min of 90 mins after being told it’s not a sales pitch nor do you need to be there longer tha 30 mins. Staff wasn’t very helpful , especially when it came to directions, they would just point a finger.

  Mar 03, 2026