Location
Punta Cana - BeachProperty Information
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Resort Details
Hotel Advisories
General Policies & Fine Print
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
- Early Departure Penalty: 1 Night Applies: Sunday - Saturday 04Jul24 - 23Dec26
- Early Departure Penalty: 2 Nights Applies: Sunday - Saturday 24Dec24 - 30Apr25
- Early Departure Penalty: 2 Nights Applies: Sunday - Saturday 24Dec25 - 30Apr26
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
3174 reviews
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Dec 02, 2024Meh
To start things off on a positive note, the beach is gorgeous. Soft sand, turquoise water, and a beautiful place to walk in the morning. Picturesque! Now down to business... Check-in was terrible. We were in line for 30 minutes. Doing the early check-in online made no difference. Normally in all-inclusive hotels, they provide you drinks as you check-in as a courtesy. That did not happen, not a big deal but just pointing it out. The rooms were not great. The AC's in the room don't cool very well and take away the moisture, my books and clothes were all damp. We had to switch rooms after the first night because the AC was simply not working, it was blowing air but the room smelled of mold and the floor was actually wet from all the moisture. In both rooms, some areas have mold, toilets dont flush well, but the showers were great. The toiletries provided are terrible, bring your own soap, shampoo, and conditioner. The liquor was bottom shelf at best. Most people are drinking beer and champagne for a reason. Very underwhelmed with the quality of drinks. Many of the drinks on the menu were not available. The drinks they do have all come from machines and are loaded with sugar. Food was pretty good. Buffet near the pool was great for lunch, skip all the other places. Burgers and hot dogs by the pool was gross and flies were everywhere and on top of the food. Dinner was OK as well, nothing spectacular. We went to all the different restaurants and nothing really stood out. No reservations needed here, just show up and put your name down. Water park was a good 15 minute walk. There are many Riu hotels on this property and the water park is shared by all. The park itself was fun. No alcohol or food at the park, just sodas. Both my husband and I were not happy with the staff. They follow you around wanting tips all the time and give you an attitude if you dont give them money. This is an all-inclusive, I am not walking around with money. I will tip on my last day if I choose to. The evening shows were terrible. I am not expecting broadway shows here, but comparing to other similar hotels this was sub-par. in summary, just OK, nothing spectacular. The hotel is very old and you can quickly tell it needs some TLC. For the price, there are nicer hotels in the same area that are in better condition. I would not come back to this hotel although would happily be back to Punta Cana in the future.
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Dec 01, 2024Great Resort
I was a little skeptical due to others reviews, but I am glad I went to see for myself. Customer service was top tier. The servers remembered you and had your drinks ready in the main dining room. I am not sure where others ate but the steak house and japanese restaurant were delicious with the same phenomenal service, even the buffet items were good. There were a few items that were hit or miss and breakfast meats were cold the 1 time we did try breakfast but overall the food was tasty and warm. Pools and beach were amazing. Only disappointment was the small dated disco.
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Nov 29, 2024Shocking and if u want to go on a diet go to rest here u won't put on any weight because food is not eatable
Nort 1 star food shocking they can't cook all food undercooked no management on site assistant manager runs away American dinner visit if u want to be ill and visit doctor and pay £400 we was told the cook is not a chef understatement we was told that after 3 hrs save ur money and stay somewhere else avoid like the plague u will hate it let's hope management contact me I'll keep u informed
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Nov 28, 2024Very disappointed, won't be returning
Well, where do I start? This is a really nice hotel but, unfortunately, Riu seems to be letting things go downhill. We've stayed at other Riu Palaces before and had always been met by someone serving a welcome drink - not here. Not a big problem, but it was just an indication of things to come. One of the receptionists, Esmailyn, was very helpful and helped my husband to book a mobility scooter (although it was very expensive at $35 a day and a total wreck, so beware). Some of the other receptionists were very offhand at times - I often had to go and report a broken lift on our block, and one of them had a very patronising and supercilious attitude. For goodness sake, I was trying to be helpful. The lift was out of service quite often which meant we had to retrace our steps to find one that was working. The room was fine, with a view of the east side of the hotel but, as we didn't spend a lot of time in it, that didn't really matter too much. The a/c was very cold and we ended up having to turn it off, as the thermostat wouldn't adjust (we did report it, but it was never fixed). This meant that everything felt damp in the room, but it was either that or freeze during the night (even with the added blankets). Our cleaner was fantastic and kept us well supplied with towels and seemed to change the bedding every day. She also decorated the beds and sinks with flowers! The electric sockets were awful, because we were having to use adaptors for our UK appliances, they just hung out of the sockets and didn't connect. One day we had the mobility scooter plugged in to the socket by the coffee maker and, when I unplugged it, the whole socket came out of the wall - very dangerous - I reported that and it was actually fixed. The only other one we could use was where the standard lamp was plugged in. The sockets next to the bed on either side just wouldn't work. There were USB ports on one side of the bed which meant we were having to take turns charging things up. The bathroom was getting a bit shabby, but the shower was lovely. The toilet wasn't great, you could never guarantee that it would flush properly so wasted a lot of water having to flush and re-flush. The buffet restaurant was great, lots of choice and I always found something I liked. A big thank you to the lovely Wilson, the omelette man, who always seemed pleased to see me and remembered my omelette order. The waiting staff were just great, especially little Tatiana who always greeted us like long-lost friends. Rubi at breakfast made sure we got our favourite table and was very helpful, efficient and friendly too, as was Linares. We usually ate lunch at the restaurant by the beach and that too was pretty good - it was so nice to be able to sit outside dining in the warmth. None of the speciality restaurants were worth returning to - Krystal was the best but, to be honest, the food in buffet was better. The coffee shop by the pool was a good choice for a quick break mid-morning. We sat by the big pool, but it could get very noisy with the music from the adult only pool and, as for the so called aqua-aerobics, well what a shambles. The girl who did it a couple of times was ok, but the young guy was hopeless, he didn't seem to have a clue what he was doing. The sunbeds are so uncomfortable - it was torture to lie on them, you would think that Riu could invest in some padded beds - my husband has back problems and he was in agony after trying to lie on these. The waiters round the pool were very attentive and one of them was a real entertainer, singing all the time. A couple of people also seemed to think that the rest of the folk round the pool needed to hear their choice of music and played it loudly. This is so rude, put headphones on if you want to listen to your music, don't force it on the rest of us. One American woman, in particular, did this for 3 or 4 days running, it was awful, everyone was moaning about it but I think we were all to scared to confront her as she looked drunk. The sunbeds on the beach are very broken down and dirty, and the sand under the trees is full of rubbish, cigarette ends and empty cups which were still there on our last day. Is it too difficult for someone to take a rake and collect it all? Apart from the fact that lazy folk shouldn't be chucking their rubbish about anyway, it looks pretty disgusting. The rest of the hotel grounds are kept immaculately though. One of my biggest complaints is that, because the only soft drink that my tee-total husband likes is alcohol-free beer, they ran out of it on our third day and we had to ask the manager to get some more - I think he got another 10 tins - so, for most of our (very expensive) holiday, the only soft drink he could get was some vile orange concoction (we called it agent orange). We spent about £5000 on this holiday and they couldn't even supply him with such a simple request - I'm sure he's not the only one to drink this. If I'd been the manager, I'd have asked the other Riu hotels if they had any they could spare (or simply ordered some), instead of more or less not bothering. The staffing at times was a problem - the poor waitress in the coffee shop would sometimes by inundated by customers and she was left alone to deal with it. We did walk along the promenade to see the other Riu hotels and, apart from the renovations at the Bavaro, they do seem to look rather dilapidated. We'll definitely not be returning to this hotel. We stayed at the Bavaro 5 years ago and it was much better.
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Nov 27, 2024
Poor
- It was very nice and modern hotel, however far too big, it was just too busy everywhere - the pools, the beach, breakfast etc. - For dinner the booking process is ridiculous, despite paying for all inclusive restaurant access, there’s unlimited waiting time to get in every night because unless you’re an “elite member” you can’t make a reservation and then it’s first come first service for other guests. - The room service was a pain, always forgetting fresh towels, filling up the fridge. - Overall not that great of an experience.