Excellence El Carmen Reviews

Room Number:
6015

Room Block:
Building 6

Arrival:
We stayed at this resort from December 10 - 17, 2016.

Excellence El Carmen is a new adults only resort that opened September 1, 2016. It is located in Punta Cana, just a little south of Excellence Punta Cana and Sirenis Resorts.

We booked our package with Transat Holidays, club class seats. Flight was great, everything on time, and we had private transportation to and from the resort included.

Rooms:
On arrival we found we were unable to get a room in the location requested, but were upgraded to a swim-out junior suite. Generally I’m not a fan of swim-out suites, but this one was perfect. Room 6015. Huge deck with double lounge bed under cover, a table and chairs, and 2 lounge chairs at the end of the deck that were always in the sun. We were in Building 6, which is very central, just a minute to the beach and a minute to the restaurants.

The room was very comfortable. Open-concept bathroom and a Jacuzzi on the other side of the room by the patio deck. Mini-bar stocked with pop, beer and snacks. There were also 3 bottles of liquor in the room. I requested a couple bottles of wine instead, and they were promptly delivered. The room service menu was quite extensive, although we never used it except to get milk for our coffee.

We were not in the Excellence Club. The EC rooms are at the beach. Maybe when the hotel is full it might be beneficial to be in EC, but we never felt a need to be. The occupancy was around 70 per cent when we were there.

Restaurants and Bars:
Lots of choices for places to eat, and you do not need any reservations. Only once did we have a half hour wait (and they give you a beeper), and that’s because it was after 7:30 p.m. Food and service was good for the most part. There was one restaurant where we didn’t get our order and we ended up leaving and going to another restaurant. All of the other restaurants were fine, though. A couple of times during the week they had dinners at the beach. We went to the Dominican dinner at the beach and it was really good – a buffet. They go all out with decorations and entertainment. There was also a barbecue at the beach one night that we didn’t go to.

Beach/Pools/Grounds:
Getting chairs at the beach or even the pool was never a problem. If you enjoy long walks on the beach, this is the place. Ocean was a little rough most of the week, with the red flag out every day, so not great for swimming. Pool area seemed a little small, but we are beach people and always had a spot in the shade. Lots of palapas and palm trees.

Activities on and off the Resort/Hotel:
They had shows and entertainment every night, although it was usually too late for us as we are early risers and were usually in bed by 10:00 p.m.

There is an on site spa which I used once for a massage, it was very nice.

Other Comments:
The staff at Excellence El Carmen were terrific. Always pleasant and asking how everything was. We had a couple of minor issues with our room, and after notifying them they were fixed immediately. Each building has a concierge on duty during the day.

In summary, I would not hesitate to recommend this hotel to anyone.