Resort Details
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
153 reviews
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Mar 26, 2025Peaceful winter getaway 😎
I write this review with a smile. This was our second visit to this amazing resort, and it was just as incredible as the first visit last year! THE ROOMS We started our stay in a standard room this year and upgraded to an ocean view with plunge pool. While all rooms are beautiful, I highly recommend the ocean view, you might even see whales in the distance! We stayed in a beachfront villa the year before and enjoyed the bigger exceptional room with the great accessibility, to what felt like was our private beach. The coconut body cream, mango body scrub and nightly little gifts made our vacations so special. The mini bar was promptly refilled and our request for wine was waiting for us upon arrival. THE STAFF As many reviews have already stated, the staff are what make this resort shine. I would like to thank Emma our Ambassador for her attention to detail and quick responses to messages. All our messages were answered within minutes by Emma or whoever was covering our calls. Restaurant reservations were made in advance and we were able to amend them with ease. They also handled bookings for any classes we were interested in. Special thanks to Eddyl and Agusto for their outstanding service! Everyone that we encountered was so friendly and helpful the cleaning staff, bar and restaurant staff and Jose who introduced us to the sounds of plants. This resort is truly a unique stand alone experience where you will never have to fight for a chair (no towel games) The beach is private and small with no vendors and lots of trees for shade. You are provided with a button for service and drinks are top quality with great variety and fun garnishes. We found the food ranged from great to pretty good. Our favorite was Carey for breakfast and Manaya for dinner. You will never be hungry! Visit the lobby bar for really unique drinks! This wellness resort feels tranquil most of the time. The only semi negative comment I have is the 5pm very loud disco music from the beach. Not very relaxing and seems bit out of place at a wellness resort. Again, this is a very special place and we are already planning our next visit😎
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Mar 10, 2025
A Private Paradise
My husband and I wanted to go on a relaxing all-inclusive beach vacation, but wanted a more unique location. There are so many all-inclusives in the DR, so it's hard to filter through all of them and most of them have suspiciously high Google reviews. Cayo Levantado Resort did have a lot of good Google reviews, but not too many from international travelers, so I was hesitant to book. We are foodies and did see some reviews about how great the food was, so I took this place a little more seriously, went on the website and saw the high price tag. I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend between $7k and $8k for a week vacation, so I didn't commit, especially when I saw that this place was a little harder to get to. Fortunately, a couple of weeks later (in Sept. '24) I saw that they were having a 60% off sale and that sealed the deal for me. When I booked I saw that the resort offered a car service from to and from the Samana airport, which was perfect. We ended up vacationing there in January and both my husband and I couldn't be happier with how everything went. The resort is absolutely gorgeous and the island is beautiful! When we got there we felt like we had the place to ourselves as there were hardly any guests (every day more and more people started to appear), and our Seaview Junior Suite was awesome. The food at all of the restaurants were really good - we are foodies, so this was important to us! We even ordered food to our room one night and weren't expecting the quality to be as good and we were blown away with how great it was. We enjoyed the different activities the resort offered - we did a paint and sip one night and they had a lot of live music, specifically one band with a super talented saxophone player that we really loved. During the day we did some sound healing and meditation classes at their wellness center, which was really lovely. The resort had some really interesting events at their garden - a Cassava cooking class which was super fun and a "plant disco" where you were able to listen the the different frequencies of their plants. Jose instructed both of these classes and he seemed to genuinely really care about the plant life and the island. In fact, all of the staff at the Cayo Levantado Resort were great - the restaurant staff, the cleaning staff (who I felt went above and beyond during our stay), and our ambassador, Edyle aka Eddie, was the absolute best! Eddie was so energetic, fun, attentive, and really made us feel at home. The only thing that we did not appreciate was the day that we left another ambassador met us at the front of the resort to send us off - he pressured us to leave "appreciation" with him and tried to convince us that it would be split between him and Eddie because they were a team. The one day that this guy "filled in" for Eddie he sent us one generic Whatsapp message in the morning and did not respond to our inquiries. Eddie did let us know that this guy would take care of us while he was out and made a note for him to set up a tour for the public beach and some other things, which this guy did not reach out to us about. We did not feel comfortable leaving him a tip, since we felt he did nothing to deserve it and feared it wouldn't make it back to Eddie, so we left the money with the front desk with a note to Eddie. Overall, I was worried that a week would be too long and we would get bored, but it was the quickest week of my life. My husband and I were extremely happy with our decision to stay at the Cayo Levantado Resort and would gladly visit again!
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Mar 09, 2025
Cayo Levantado is a gem in the DR
Cayo Levantado is a quiet, peaceful, gem of an all inclusive resort. It is not adult only, though as advertised in places....small children were there though never a problem. If you are looking for a low key, relaxing vacation this is the spot. It is considered a "luxury" brand and I believe it held up its end of the expectation. The biggest hurdle is getting there since the area was hit so hard by covid and the airport is not as available to US cities as it once was. The resort offers transport, though, which was seamless in both directions. The resort was at 30% capacity which made it an absolute dream since nothing was unavailable to us. The food was fabulous however, the restaurants do not change their menus throughout the week which is a drawback since there are only two restaurants open nightly (again, has to do with capacity, I am sure). The staff is beyond friendly, though many had limited English. The room was enormous and beautifully maintained. Not sure I would bother with a plunge pool as when we spoke with people who had one, they said that all it did was offer a pretty view, never got used since the pools are so lovely. The evening activities are limited, but again, it is a quiet getaway, not ClubMed. I would definitely recommend this resort to anyone who is looking for something a little nicer.
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Mar 08, 2025Beautiful Wellness Resort BUT not for kids....
Long review, read it if you want details... This resort is truly stunning and offers a peaceful retreat, especially on its private island. My husband and I enjoyed a tranquil five-day stay. While the atmosphere was mostly serene, we did notice the presence of unsupervised children and babies crying, especially during meals and walks around the property. Unfortunately, the resort has shifted from being adults-only to accommodating families, which we feel is a significant misstep. We booked the room called the Junior Suite Plunge Pool Sea View which offered a stunning ocean view but the plunge pool fell short of expectations. Rather than a refreshing pool, it resembled a large bathtub where you can't swim or even stand. A whirlpool would enhance the experience significantly, providing guests with a true way to unwind. As it stands, it feels like a wasted opportunity and could mislead future guests during their booking process As a wellness resort, it offers limited activities for kids, and we believe it would be better suited for adults seeking relaxation. It would be ideal to designate separate areas for families and adults, ensuring a more peaceful environment for those looking to unwind. We appreciate families and have children ourselves, but this setting is not conducive to a family vacation. The essence of a wellness retreat is to disconnect from everyday life, including parenting responsibilities. We thoroughly enjoyed the delicious food, friendly staff, and fantastic wellness activities during our stay. However, we felt that the overall wellness atmosphere was lacking, and there were notable language barriers when communicating with the staff, particularly the ambassadors. Our experience with the ambassador service fell short of expectations. We had difficulty communicating with our ambassador, Ivan, as he struggled to understand English. Given that many guests may not speak Spanish, it's essential for ambassadors to have at least a basic command of English. Although I attempted to communicate in Spanish and even used translation tools, it felt like Ivan was not as accommodating as we had hoped. He didn’t manage our reservation requests effectively, and I often had to follow up to find out what was happening. Additionally, we encountered a different ambassador each evening, which made it confusing for us, especially since we had to ask for their names on WhatsApp. It would have been helpful for the evening ambassadors to introduce themselves and check in with us about our needs. Ivan and Lorena did make an effort to identify themselves, which we appreciated. On a positive note, Aleny, Lorena, and Cristian were excellent at communicating with us. Cristian stood out as our favorite; he was personable and consistently checked in to ensure we had everything we needed, and he was the one who was with us on the first night, not Ivan whom we were told when we checked in that he was our ambassador but he never introduced himself that night. Overall, while our stay had its highlights, improvements in ambassador communication would greatly enhance the experience. Angel was fantastic! It’s a shame we only got to see him on our last day. While Ivan may not have been the best fit for us, we do believe he made an effort and could benefit from further training to enhance his English skills for guests who don’t speak Spanish. Furthermore, some of the servers, like Augusto, Vladamir, and Elaine, were especially nice and accommodating during our stay too. We feel like they went out of their way to make us feel at home at Cayo Levantado Resort. At the spa, Celeste and Malany (my apologies if I misspelled your name) were excellent too. We had a great deep-tissue massage that was invigorating and made us so relaxed that we had to take a nap afterward. Finally, Yubarta was a standout highlight of our stay, providing a truly relaxing experience. We participated in the Meditation Sound Healing session led by Loose (my apologies if I misspelled your name), and it was exceptional. Although I dozed off briefly, the relaxation was completely warranted. Additionally, we had a valuable conversation with FlorAngel, who demonstrated extensive knowledge about the various wellness paths available. We thoroughly appreciated our discussion with her. To help improve the ambassador service, we have a couple of suggestions: Ambassadors should be proficient in both Spanish and English to effectively communicate with guests who may not be fluent in Spanish. It would be helpful to ask guests about their preferred language upon arrival. This way, the resort can pair them with the right ambassador, minimizing any language barriers. While it may not be perfect, having ambassadors who can communicate in both languages would significantly enhance the experience. At a wellness resort, it's essential to provide menus in both English and Spanish instead of relying on our phones. While the digital shift has certainly been accelerated by the COVID pandemic, a true wellness experience should allow guests to disconnect and fully enjoy the serene surroundings. Additionally, our checkout experience could have been improved. We encountered a higher charge because we used US dollars instead of Dominican pesos, and we were not informed about this beforehand. Clear communication regarding currency and charges would greatly enhance the guest experience.
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Mar 08, 2025
We totally enjoyed Cayo Levantado, a paradise island!
We had a wonderful time at Cayo Levantado. The resort was amazing and the people are very friendly and accommodating. We enjoyed getting to know Daviel and Fredrick, the pool ambassadors, they were both very friendly, fun, helpful, and also worked with me on my Spanish. I will remember them! We appreciated Emmanuella, our resort ambassador, she brought me a 12 pack of Coca-Cola Light in my room, thank you! We appreciated the friendliness and smiles of Ingrid, she also helped me with Spanish. This was our second time to the island, it is a total paradise! We thank all of you at Cayo Levantado!