Excellent trip all around. No problems at the airport going or coming. Transfered super quick etc. Flight back super crowded, one of the worst flights I have ever been on (Air Transat)

Resort super clean excellent in all respects. Those who cannot find something to do or eat at these resorts should just stay home and quit your whining.

You are not that important. Consider yourself fortunate that you can travel and stop talking down to those who cannot.
The staff is kind to a fault.
Windsurfed till' my arms gave out. I noticed there are some reef and coral not to far from shore for those who want to snorkle BUT you MUST have a "diver down" inflatible bouy (to make yourself visible) due to the odd boat/water taxi that is present on occasion.

Walked to the market down the beach. It can be seen from the Bahia Principe. The walk takes exactly 30 min. Be patient when you barter and above all do not make the salesperson loose face. 3 to 5 min of pleasant banter and I assure you, you will come to an agreeable price. Bought some cigars there (and elsewhere), very satisfied. Tip: Shake the salespersons hand upon entrance to shop and upon completion of transaction.

Bavaro Runners Safari Adventure tour:
Excellent all day tour. They feed and water you (excellent buffet). You see sugar cane (taste as well), Coffee, Cacao, native house, rice fields, cave, local store, horse back ride (optional), beach /pool swim (optional) and get to see a "cigar factory".
Bought cigars there, they where excellent.

Rum: Buy your rum at the Pueblo Principe on the resort. They had the BEST PRICES. Do NOT buy at the airport, prices there are inflated by at least 3.5 times. Pack your rum in your suit case!!! NOT carry-on.
MamaJuana: Bought at Pueblo Principe small bottle for ~ 3 US. Got the bottle filled at the bar. (I would NOT try this with a Large bottle do not jeapordize the bartenders job!!). Be sure that lid is secured and pack in suitcase.

My wife and I booked our vacation through Apple Vacations and flying with their recommended carrier USA3000. I was very happy with both. The flight was uneventful, you have to pay $5 for a breakfast sandwich, fruit cup, and shortbread cookie. You have to pay for this using a credit card, because cash is not allowed. Normal drinks are free.

Arrival at the airport and check in were efficient and acceptable. Check in as 3:00pm, but if they have a room ready the will check you in earlier. We had a nice lunch in the buffet, and had some drinks in the lobby bar. The lobby is nice, lots of marble, and open air. It can get a little warm and humid, but the tables that line the outside of the lobby bar have fans a get some breeze. We had a wonderful waitress named Juana, who was the best. We tipped her regularly and she really appreciated us. On our second to the last evening she surprised the women in our party with gift earrings. They were not the most expensive earrings, but they gesture greatly appreciated.

The food was very good in my opinion. The resort served lamb chops in the buffet, along with a large assortment other great foods. We went to four Alacartes: The Gourmet (French), Mexican, Japanese, and the Steak House. The Japanese and Steak House were my favorite. The Japanese has good food, but you do not get the big show that you see at American Japanese Steak Houses. I got a tasty Rib eye at the Steak House. The only place to get lobster is The Gourmet restaurant. It is part of the Surf and Turf, but you can ask them to give you double lobster instead of the turf. The lobster is decent, but it is warm water lobster. I expected this but some people are still shocked by this. The poolside snack bars were decent as well as the breakfast buffets. I have seen from past posts that the burgers in the snack bars were rare because they looked red, but this is just the color of the meat when it is cooked. I saw the staff on several occasions check the temperature of the food at the outdoor buffets.

The room was large and sufficient. The satellite TV has a lot of Spanish language channels, but there is a fair number of American channels. The bathroom is nice, and all marble. Be careful with wet floors, the glass to keep the shower spray in the tub only goes like 5 feet. Word of caution, try the beer in the fridge before asking for more. I liked the beer in the bars (Presidente), but the beer in the room was kind of perfume like. We had a fridge full of beer that we did not want to drink. I took a pad of paper, pen, scotch tape, and key Spanish phrases. We requested more pillows, water, and unfortunately beer using by taping a small note to the fridge along with our daily tip. Worked wonderfully. There is a series of trams that run all night, very efficient. It is amazing the sheer manpower that is spent keeping this resort so beautiful. There is a constant buzz of workers cleaning, polishing, and trimming.

The beach is wonderful! Nice white sand, turquoise water, and a decent beach bar. If you do not want to be around the activities and music around the beach bar you can head to the left of the main pool and use the beach. The snack bars serve drinks as well as food. The sun is very hot, but a good breeze and some shade make it decent. Bring lots and lost of sunscreen, we used 4 large bottles of No-Ad. The water is clean and refreshing. We live in Maryland and frequent Ocean City regularly. The undertow and waves we a step under anything on the American eastern seaboard. Woman of all shapes and sizes will sunbath topless. The resort was at about 3/4 capacity. We were always able find shade, and we arrived at the beach at around 8:00 am every morning. You get used to it. The pool bars are a fun break from the beach. John the bartender is very entertaining.

We were in Dominican Republic at the Bahia Principe for 2 weeks April 30 to May 14. The resort itself is amazing and I personally would recommend it to anyone thinking of travelling to Punta Cana.

Just returned May 14th from the Bahia Principe /Bavaro . A truly beautiful resort that is well maintained by its’ staff. A day didn’t go by where we didn’t see staff cleaning something or trimming a garden. We stayed in unit 28 of the Diamond Club and were pleased with the accommodations, although if going there again I would request an upper floor as we did here children in the rooms above us.

Diamond Club – it was worth the little extra. Registration was a snap and the facilities provided like the Diamond Club pool, the buffet in the Italian restaurant, and the internet service were nice added touches.

Food – if you can’t find something to eat here then there’s a problem. The buffets offered a wide selection, and the specialty restaurants proved good food as well as service.

The Beach - we spent our afternoons at the beach and had no problems finding chairs or space. I am assuming we were now vacationing in a non peak period. We have been twice to Cuba and thought their beaches were impressive, to our surprise Punta Cana was even better.

A large group 27 enjoyed this resort.... Here is the Good ,BAd Ugly...

Arrived in Punta Cana ,airport was a breeze... check in to rooms was done on bus... We were in Golden Club...

Our room location was awesome... Building 60 justs steps from Beach,and about a 15 min walk to main lobby..

we had third floor with partial ocean view.. Lots of steps!!!!! wouldnt reccomend third floor for anyone with mobility problems...

Room
Rooms were the nicest we have had....very spacious,Lg Bathroom with jacuzzi tub,separate shower..
King size 4 poster bed...
TV,clock radio,coffee Maker,Iron, Ironing board,umbrella
also had robes and slippers, fruit tray every other day,mini fridge well stocked..

we were given 2 T-shirts,2 ball caps,

Resort
Very Large,but amazing... a lil confusing at first...
2 identical Lobbys,with 2 identical buffets..

Tram system is great if you dont like to walk,it runs probably every 3 to 5 mins...

grounds were immaculate,beautiful.

several pools,only went once but bartenders were a hoot... very friendly...put on a good show..

Beach What can I say.... Amazing,clean,the Astron Wreck is offshore,directly in front of resort...

Food
several specialty restaurants to choose from.. Buffet as well
Food was best I have had in my 10 years of travel..
Buffet had anything you could think of,and was quite tasty..we had 27 in our group,2 weeks,no one became ill,we tried just about everything...really enjoyed the Japanese restaurant...

Nite Life
Typical resort shows in evening,we enjoyed the Lobby bar,and entertainment,also liked the kaoke bar..

Resort
Resort is beautiful. The resort is large but the tram runs from the beach to the front lobby almost every five minutes but it was only about a 10-minute walk. We were booked on the Punta Cana side but were in Building 64 on the Bravaro side so we tended to use the lobby and buffet on that side. Even though the resort was large – it was manageable and you really didn’t notice that there many people there.

The grounds are beautiful and everything is so clean. We had great weather overall - you know it is hot when the workers are carrying umbrellas to keep the sun off! A few rain showers and one day of rain – hey, we were in bathing suites anyhow – so it didn’t matter.

Rooms
We were in the Golden section in building 64. The room was nice and the air conditioning was great – much appreciated after a long day in the sun. Large bathroom with big soaker tub, separate shower, separate toilet with frosted glass door - great water pressure and lots of hot water for the shower – always a plus. King size bed (mattress was a little hard) but not a major hardship. Room was always clean and we always had clean towels. The maid service was great.

Beach and pool
We enjoyed being close to the beach and pool. The beach was awesome although the water was a little rough. The pools were nice - never full - interesting entertainment at times. A little jockeying for chairs and shade but that is to be expected. The pool bars were good. Not a great selection of drinks or alcohol but we are not drinkers so it was not a big deal to us – just enjoyed getting a cold drink.

Food
We ate breakfast at the main buffet and enjoyed the food. We tried the breakfast buffet by the pool once but not enough selection. At lunchtime, we ate at either the pool grills/buffets (not great but okay) or we went to the main buffet. No major complaints about the food - it was as we expected for a buffet.

For supper, we did five a-la-cartes. Japanese - excellent, Garden Grill another favourite – great menu and a good cold/hot buffet - service was excellent at both. Gourmet and French were okay – same food at both – not a lot of selection – service okay at French much better at the Gourmet. BBQ was terrible and service was poor – 9:00 reservation so maybe they just wanted us out of there. Supper at the main buffet was fine – good selection. Breads were fantastic – many sweet breads. Desserts were good too.

Reservations were hard to get and mostly late at night 8:00 to 9:00. We usually arrive 30-45 minutes early and got seated in 15 minutes or so – restaurants were always half full. The wines were a hit and miss. Some of the white wines at the restaurants were okay others were like vinegar.

Staff
Staff were helpful – a little problem with English but otherwise okay. Found the maids and ground staff was friendly and always greeted you. Waiters and waitresses, bar staff all friendly. Oddity was that for some of the staff the better their English the poorer the service. Having said that, we had some dealing with some of the shift managers and we had some good laughs – Juan in particular.

Entertainment
Entertainment was as expected – it is not Las Vegas. They really work hard and try their best. The shows were good. We saw the Lion King and it was well-done – think high school production. They even included the kids from the Kids Club, which was a nice touch. We went to the Karaoke bar and had a good laugh. Also, went to the Disco one night just for the experience. Saw one show at the Pueblo with a bit more adult content - it was a good laugh with audience participation.

Shopping
We took a walk to the market on the beach. Be sure to haggle with the vendors. TA advised us to pay ¼ of what they ask. We checked the prices at the Pueblo before hand to get an idea of the prices which made haggling a lot easier. Use US dollars not pesos.

We just returned from a second visit to the Bahia Principe, Punta Cana. We enjoyed our trip this year as much, if not more, than last year. The Hotel is very large, but incredible. The beach area is probably the only place where we really noticed the number of people staying at the hotel. Other areas were never really crowded. The work ethic of the Dominican people is something to be admired. Every worker, from Chef to groundskeeper did their utmost to bring us the best experience in their country. We enjoyed every aspect of the Bahia Principe. Food was excellent, rooms were again above expectations. To be perfectly honest the only downside were the tourists visiting the Dominican Republic. Some seemed to be a little inconsiderate of other visitors - it seemed as though they really took advantage of the unlimited alchohol.

We were situated in building 62, and did have an issue with the air conditioning. We spoke to Customer Relations and they did their best to rectify the situation. We did end up spending one night without air conditioning. We felt it would be helpful to have screens on the balconies, therefore we could have kept the door open. We did survive the night, and requested another room the next afternoon when we still did not have it fixed. Servicemen were working on the problem and fixed it before we had to move. To compensate we were given a spa treatment.

We are from New Hampshire and this was our fifth trip to the Dominican Republic.We have been to following resorts so that is what I will be basing my comparisons on. Costa Caribe Coral(Juan Dolio), Gran Ventana, Iberostar Costa Dorada(2x) both in Puerta Plata.

So this was our first trip to Punta Cuna. My brother and his wife and my 75 year father joined us. This was the first trip to the DR for them. Our rooms were in building 8 and 6 which are near the Golden section and a short walk to pool and beach. Rooms were awesome and check in was easy and quick. I did have problem as soon as I got to room with programming safe and was anxious to get to beach. I called front desk and they had tech to my room in short order and re-programmed safe code....no further problems in this area.

I think the best summary of any review is would you go back..our answer is yes , absolutely! So please don't take any of my observations out of context as this is a great resort. I just want to share some of our thoughts as I researched this site before leaving and found all the comments and input to be valuable.

Yes, resort is huge and from a physical standpoint as I like to walk and explore I found this was not a problem. The tram is easy and very efficient and was great for my Dad to go around the resort. the only problem I had with tram was the smell of diesel fuel in the humid air as they went by...smelled like a city bus station at times....they should tune up the vehicles...not a huge deal , just a comment.

Beach is fantastic and the large pool right near beach is great. The towel game at beach is a pain and it would really be good if these places could fix this problem. We never had this as an issue at any of the other Resorts we have been to. I get up early and knew of this problem because of this site so each morning I would join in the "game" at 6 AM and even at that time could rarely find a palapa that was not saved and usually ended up under a palm tree which was fine. You need to always make a good situation out of this stuff as remember you are on vacation. Many mornings as I was strolling with towels in arm I would smile as others loaded with towels would rush past me as if I was heading straight for their spot. Most mornings I would take sunrise pics and chat to other guys that I met on beach and have a chuckle watching others do what we had just done.....when in Rome! Just one other comment on this is that some people would use one towel draped over three chairs or one sandal each or one book each on four or five chairs. On one particular busy beach day some people had no chairs any where near where they wanted to be so many were lying on beach with their towels on the sand. Same thing goes on at pool.

Just get up early and enjoy the Day.

Food at buffets were good and we liked eating lunch at the beach grills. Nice atmosphere! We did three ala cartes and enjoyed the change from the buffet.(Brazilian, Japanese, and Mediterranean)

Overall service was very good and but as resort is so big there were a lot of people and lobby bars and buffets were always very busy. Grounds and everything about the place is kept very clean and they are always keeping it up.

If anything we missed the getting to know the employees that we had at the smaller resorts but we still had a blast. We did the snorkeling off the beach for $31 and it is well worth it , just go to water sports shack as you need a reservation. We also did the parasailing which was also was awesome.

One last comment it that if you like to kayak as we do, you also need to reserve these in advance. At other resorts this was never an issue as they were as mentioned smaller and you most times could freely use them. Not a huge deal , as once I knew what needed to be done, we would simply reserve them ahead , but I do feel for so many people they need more kayaks as the only have a handful for thousands of guests. It is a great place to kayak as it is neat to go out to shipwreck.

We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe from April 13- 19 and loved it! The resort is immaculate and has everything you could ask for. We had perfect weather every day (about 85 degrees and sunny). The only day that it rained at our resort, we had taken the Saona Island trip (about two hours from Punta Cana ­ see below) and avoided the rain. We booked through Apple Vacations and we had access to the entire resort (Bavarro, Punta Cana and Premier sections).

AT PUNTA CANA AIRPORT: They make you purchase a Tourist Visa for $10 at one counter and hand it right back at another counter, pretty silly. Once you get your luggage, you proceed to the exit, that¹s where the baggage guys are that want to help you ­ avoid these guys as their only concern is getting money from you. They see your travel agency sticker or tag and yell it out, making you think that they¹re representing the company. We fell for it and they just led us about 20 feet to our Apple Vacations counter.

AT BAHIA PRINCIPE: Check-in was quick and easy and we made sure to pay for our room safe at that time ­ about $35 for the week. Our room was beautiful and in a great location, about midway between the lobby and the beach ­ central location was perfect because this resort is enormous! We had some gifts waiting for us in the room ­ T-shirts, rum, trinkets, etcS and the view was very nice from Villa 10.

Tip the chambermaids everyday (we left $2) and they will gladly replenish your mini-bar with your requests, turndown your bed, leave fresh flowers and plenty of water bottles and towels.

FOOD: Make any dinner reservations for the specialty restaurants first thing. There are 8 at the resort and they all fill up. We loved the Seafood restaurant, nicest staff, best food and atmosphere.

When you make reservations at Guest Services, they give you reservation tickets. Bring these with you to the restaurant ­ we didn¹t the first night and the hostess at the Dominican Restaurant didn¹t know what to do without it. We always tipped a few dollars after our meals but I noticed many guests did not.

The buffet restaurants are all great, literally anything you can think of was offered. We had access to the Premier Club located at the front of the resort and we liked that buffet best ­ less traffic and quieter. We also like that pool the best for the same reasons.

My boyfriend ate anything he wanted and never had a problem. I have a more sensitive stomach and did need Imodium once or twice.

TRIPS: We took the Outback Jungle Safari day trip and loved it. We had a great tour guide, Eddie, who knew everything about the island of Hispanola and taught us a lot. We visited a typical home, a grade school, and cocoa and coffee plantations. You end the trip boogie boarding huge waves on a beautiful beach before heading home. It was very educational and nothing we would have seen had we just laid on the beach all week.

Our other excursion was the Saona Island trip. It¹s advertised as a day on a secluded island with virgin beaches and relaxation. Reality is, it¹s an hour and a half bus ride to a catamaran, and an hour and a half boat ride to the island where you only have two hours to relax and you¹re with at least 300 other people. The bus ride back is even worse because you¹re wet and tired. It makes for an extremely long day and it¹s really not worth it. We both agreed that we would have rather relaxed poolside at our own resort.

TIPS: We read many reviews before leaving, all said to pack bug repellant for the ³horrible mosquitoes² -- we didn¹t see any. Every night we would eat outside and walk around the resort and never had any problems. We never did walk on the beach at night though, maybe that¹s where they are.

We also read that the chair reserving was a big problem and that if you wanted good ones, you had to be out there at 6am. We would stroll out to the beach or pool around 9am and never had a problem getting good chairs.

The restaurants say formal dress. They ask that men wear pants (no jeans).
We dressed accordingly but saw many people wearing whatever they wanted. No big deal.

Be sure to pack enough sunscreen and aloe lotion. I ran out of my sunscreen and stopped in the lobby shop to pick some up. What is normally about $6 in the states was a $20 bottle of sunscreen! I thought it was a mistake, but evidently not.

Don¹t buy cigars or shells on the beach. Our travel agent told us that often vendors walking around on the beach are actually selling dirt wrapped in banana leaves. There is a perfectly fine cigar shop at the resort. There are many vendors selling beautiful Conch shells ­ customs won¹t let you take these out of the country. Same for 151 rum.

My boyfriend speaks enough Spanish to have a conversation and they loved that. I would see some people blatantly saying ³no Spanish, only English² which I thought rude. It¹s clear that they appreciate any effort on your part to speak the language, even if it¹s just por favor and gracias.

Before I begin to rave about the Gran Bahia Principe, I would like to give a general tip about travel outside the US:

Passports: Check them now, especially your child’s passport. I always refer to Trip Advisor before booking a vacation, but it was Debbie’s Dominican website that saved our trip. She has a travel check list and she says to make copies of your passport, leave one copy of each at home and bring 2 with you. On Thursday afternoon, just two days before we were to leave, I made copies of our girls’ passports and saw that they had expired. I thought children’s passports were good for 10 years, wrong, they’re only good for 5 years. Fortunately I found a phone number on the passport website and got an appointment at a regional passport office the next day. We were lucky, we had to drive 100 miles each way to the Norwalk CT office but by 4:00 on Friday we had new passports for the girls. It was amazing how many families were there with suitcases in hand because they were not allowed to board the plane since their child’s passport had expired.

If you find yourself in this situation here is info to help you. The website travel.state.gov/passport/about/npic/npic_898.html has the following info and phone numbers:

If you are leaving, or you need your passport for a foreign visa, within 14 days and need to make an appointment at a Regional Passport Agency: Automated lines to make appointments are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The best time to call is between 8:30 p.m. and 9 a.m., Eastern Time.

Telephone Number: 1-877-4USA-PPT (1-877-487-2778) Customer Service Representatives and Operators for TDD/TTY are available Monday-Friday, 7 a.m. to midnight, Eastern Time, excluding federal holidays. Representatives are also available for limited weekend hours for emergency situations in which travelers are leaving in 7 days or less.
Automated Information available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you have a travel emergency, please call the Center to speak with a customer service representative. Do not e-mail.
You can print the passport application at this website: www.state.gov/documents/organization/79955.pdf

I will briefly repeat what we felt was important information, then list info don’t remember finding before our trip.
- Suntan lotion is $22.00 a bottle
- To get into the country you have to buy a tourist pass for $10.00 each
- If you are going to drink wine, order a bottle. The house wine is not very good, however I did enjoy the red wine in the Mexican restaurant
- Dinner reservations: Book as soon as you get there because reservations go fast. If you like to dine after at 8pm you don’t want to be left with only 6:45 seatings.
- Japanese and Gourmet were by far our favorite restaurants. Total sit down meal, no getting up to go to the buffet for appetizers or desserts and the food was excellent, from presentation to flavor.
- You have to reserve your lounge chair by 7AM, especially at the beach pool, if you want a palapas. It is a pain especially if you been out until the wee hours of the morning.
- Get a room safe. It’s extra but worth it. We never had anything stolen but it was nice not worring about our valuables, especially our passports.

My best advice is to go to the Bahia Principe website and print out the “general” information section. It describes everything you need to know about the resort. I brought it with us and read it after we were there a day. It made much more sense reading it when I got there because I had begun to become familiar with the resort.

Booking Your Trip: We were very pleased with Apple Tours. The airport porter saw the apple tags on our luggage and took us directly to the Apple desk. If you use a porter you don’t have to go through immigration. The representative had all our travel info and within minutes we were in a van and on our way. We were golden club but since we were in a van rather than the bus we had to check in at the Golden Club reception desk, which was not a problem at all. We liked taking the van because we did not have to wait until the bus was full before it headed to the hotel. At the Apple orientation a representative verified all of our travel info including our return flights. On the day of departure a representative verified our info again and drove with us to the airport. Apple made this trip very easy and I would recommend them or another reputable tour group. I wouldn’t want to make all of the arrangements myself.

Orientation Talk: We booked with Apple and they held a ½ hour orientation talk. I don’t know what other tour operators offer or if the hotel itself has an orientation talk, but it would be worth it to find out. This talk helped immensely. Petra (Apple employee) explained the resort layout, hotel amenities, do’s and don’ts and described the excursions. One family we met did not go because they thought they would be pressured into signing up for excursions. There was no pressure what-so-ever. Petra did give her opinion on which excursions were the best and the worst. This orientation will help you make the most of your stay.

Hotel Layout: The Bahia Principe resort has two main lobbies: Bahia Punta Cana and Bahia Bravaro. They are mirror images of each other, which can be confusing at first. They both have a buffet restaurant, A Japanese Restaurant and a lobby bar. Get a map when you check-in, this will help you understand the layout. The shuttle trams drop you off outside the theater. The Punta Cana lobby is to the left of the theater and the Bravaro Lobby is to the right of the theater. You can print out a copy of the resort map on Debbie’ Dominican website.

The Staff: Absolutely fantastic. Everyone and I mean everyone had a smile and a hello. From the gardeners to the maintenance workers to the food service staff to the executives, all took the time to say hello. They take their jobs seriously and you really get the feeling that they like making the guests happy. They appreciate it when you speak to them in Spanish and they help you if you don’t know the correct pronunciation of a word.

Tipping: Do it! Bring lots of $1.00 bills. If you run out, go to the bank and get more. The entire staff goes out of their way to please the guests. The average Dominican earns $2500/year, which is less than it costs the average family to stay at this resort for a week. You don’t have to tip a lot of money. Even $1.00 is greatly appreciated. Also, little gifts are greatly appreciated. Each day we left a tip and a little gift for the maid: Nail polish and file, candy bars, note paper and a pretty pen, bath products, coloring books and crayons for her children. We left a larger tip on the day we checked out. We tipped $1.00 when we got drinks, and left tips at every meal. They will remember you.

We were told that the employees are searched when they leave, to make sure they have not stolen from the guests. When we gave gifts to the staff we included a note with the date, our name and room number and a description of the items. We did our best to write it in Spanish as most of the maids did not speak English.

The Language: Most of the bartenders, waiters and lobby desk personnel speak English. When you make a call within the resort they will answer in Spanish but will quickly change to English when they hear you speak. All of the resort managers speak fluent English as well as the staff in the golden club. You can’t miss the managers, they all wear a tie.

Money: Yes, you can get US dollars at the hotel and it is very easy to do. There is a bank located between the check-in desk and the lobby. It is open 7 days a week. You can cash traveler’s checks for US dollars, break large bills for any US denomination you want ($1, 45, $10, etc.), and you can use your credit/debit card to get cash. You can also do the same at the casino, which opens at 4pm). Also, if you booked through Apple Tours you can go to their office (located in the Punta Cana lobby) and cash traveler’s checks. If you use the ATM, which I believe only takes cards with the Mastercard logo, you can only get Pesos.

All of the stores and the vendors give you change in pesos so be sure to bring lots of small bills. Most of the shops take debit/credit cards but some have a minimum purchase amount. At one shop I had to pay cash, they only accepted credit cards for purchase amounts above $25.00.

Excursions: Based on Petra’s (Apple Rep) opinion we did the ½ snorkel trip and it was fantastic. She said that the dolphin encounter is not worth the money. The ride there is long, and you only spend enough time with the dolphin get your picture taken. She said the dolphins were confined to a very small pool, which was cruel to do. You can rent horses directly on the beach, which she also said not to do because the horses are tied to trees all day long in the hot sun, they are very skinny and are not taken care of. What she did not tell us is that there is a very nice ranch only about 10 minutes from the Bahia, where the horses are treated very well. They only allow riders once a day, in the late afternoon. We did not go but people we became friendly with did and said it was fantastic. They started out at the ranch, rode to the beach and back. They were very familiar with the care of horses and said they were well taken care of. I don’t remember the name of the ranch, it might have been called Grey’s or the Sea Ranch. However you will see a gentleman (his name is Santana) walking around the pool by the beach with numerous excursion brochures. You book the riding through him.

Beware of the parasailing. A week before we arrived a girl lost her finger doing it.

Entertainment: The daily activites at the pool begin at three. It begins with water aerobics, followed by some type of group game, a dance lesson and then the Gran Bahia Song and Dance. It’s fun. Entertainment goes on earlier at the beach. The nightly entertainment – they try hard, it’s not excellent but there is some good dancing.

Hair Braiding: Go to the Bahia Pueblo Market to get it done. When you enter the market area you will see a robin’s egg blue shop about 4 shops to the left of the outdoor stage. For braiding the front part of the head, 22 braids, she charges $20.00 - $25.00. She charged my friend 20, and received a $5 tip. She charged me $25, pocketed $5 for herself and told me to give the $20 to the shop owner. She said she needed the $5 because the shop owner gave her no food, no fan and no water. Who knows? I would have given a $5 tip anyway. There is a hair braiding stall on either side of the beach pool. Don’t go there. They charge $70+ for the same thing. Do the hair braiding near the end of your trip or bring a hat to protect the scalp from sunburn.

Shopping: We thought the shops at Bahia had the best prices. If you want cigars, get them in the Bahia lobby store. They are less expensive than the cigar store in the Bahia’s Pueblo Market. We walked to RIU, which is about a 20 min walk down the beach. They had all the same items at higher prices. They did however have a shop that had a better selection of LaCoste and Polo shirts (about 23.00 – same price as Bahia but Bahia had none for men and RIU did).

Casino: Slots open at 4pm and tables open (I believe) at 8pm. It is rather small but it was sufficient to have a good time. There are about 30 slot machines, mostly nickels. I have to say that the payouts were pretty good. Lots of hits and some were rather large. If you put dollars you get dollars back when you cash in your tokens. You get pesos back if you put pesos in. You have to pay for drinks in the Casino, but we never did. Instead we walked to the bar about 5 doors up and ordered drinks there.

Golden Club Rooms: Definitely worth the upgrade, if you get one of the villa rooms by the beach. Some of the Golden Club rooms are not right by the beach and main pool, which means you have to walk or take a tram. However, villas 1, 20, 21, and 60 are the closest to the beach and to the main pool. Villas 1, 20, and 21 are 2 stories with 24 rooms each. Villa 60 is newer, with 3 stories and 32 rooms. I think villas 60-64 were built within the last year because it is omitted from the resort maps. So if you are looking at the villa maps from Debbie’s Dominican site, villas 60-64 are across from villas 20-24.

Room Air Conditioning: I read about this in at least one review but forgot about it. When you enter the room there is a key holder to the left of the door with 2 room keys in it. Don’t touch them, they control the lights and the AC. To keep the AC running you also have to keep the patio/balcony door shut. When you open it the AC goes off. After 2 days of trying to figure it out we finally called the front desk and they explained it to us.

Cleanliness: The cleanest resort we have ever been to. The maid scrubs your room from head to toe every day. The pool personnel literally scrub the patio with bleach every morning. We saw a maintenance man dusting the wrought iron railings along the walk way and even saw someone dusting the light bulbs in the outdoor lanterns. A grounds keeper was using gardening sissors to manicure the edging along the garden. Absolutely amazing how beautiful they maintain this resort.

Group of 8 of us headed to the resort from Halifax, Canada and after a 12 hour delay there due to a winter storm arrived in Punta Cana the next morning around 8 a.m. at the resort. The airport was very straightforward and quick as we were the only flight in at that time and the bus ride to the resort was pleasant. The weather was 42-43 with humidity everyday, with not a drop of rain for the whole week.

CHECK IN
Check in didn't take long at all. The lobby was huge and we were on the Bavaro side. The lobby is amazing, marble everywhere including the bathroom stalls, lots of chairs/couches to sit down as well as cold and hot drinks. Once we were assigned our rooms, we were taken on a tram(these are used to transport you all around the resort) and were upgraded to the Diamond area. I recommend this to anyone planning on attending this resort, as the perks of a extra a la carte, semi-private pool and restaurant as well as being located right in the middle of the resort make it a valuable upgrade.

ROOM
The rooms were very nice, spacious, marble bathrooms, Jacuzzi tubs. We were in section 29, on the first floor. No problems with noise or bugs. Very clean. Overall pretty standard and no complaints. We left each day $1or $2 for housekeeping with a little gift as well as putting a dollar or two in the mini-fridge. It was well stocked, each day with 4-5 pop, 3-4 beer plus 4 bottles of water. We never ran out, and by the end of the week I had enough beer to open my own bar. One thing that was hard to come by were facecloths. We had been warned about this by previous visitors, but forgot to bring our own. The one day we asked we did get them, but it wasn’t a huge deal really.

The buildings are very nice, walkways are wide and clear with lots of plant life and trees around. The tram was very efficient, great way to chat with people and I have no idea why people in the past complained about them.

RESTAURANTS
We booked the Italian, French, Mediterranean and Mexican. The A la cartes were all very nice and professional, however the French restaurant would be something I would not recommend overall, unless you are used to a lot of raw foods. The Mexican was very good as was the Mediterranean. However, the buffets were very good as well, with lots of choices, grills, fresh fruit and vegetables and amazing desserts. Most meals at the buffet I had to go back 2-3 times it was so good. No complaints at all. The breads/rolls at the Bahia are amazing, so fresh and many choices. We also ate at the beach snack bars on a couple of occasions. Very good as well, but much much busier, nosier and often a wait for food or line-ups for the popular items.

BEACH
Beach was amazing, white sand, lots of huts and chairs but the towel game was played. As long as we were there before 7 a.m. we were ok with finding a hut and chairs for 8. Lots of action on the beach with water sports, activities, and not much toplessness that we saw as we had read in previous reviews that it seemed to be quite common. For our week, it was much more the exception to the rule.

POOLS
This is where we saw a big difference between the diamond pool and the beach pool as well as the other public pool. The beach pool and the other public pool were very loud, busy, most people crowded around the swim-up with no room for others. The would sit there so long that by 2 or 3 in the afternoon you could see how red/sunburned their backs were. The is also where the aerobics took place and water games.

The Diamond pool though was much quieter, never a problem to get a seat at the swim-up and RAUL was the greatest bartender you could ask for. Our bubba's were topped up with our drinks before they ever were empty. Plus he would go around the pool once a day with a cart full of drinks and pass them out to people lounging in the chairs. You had to be diamond club to use this pool and we didn’t see too much abuse of it. The pools had some islands in them and we spent the majority of our time in the pool on our floaties.

NIGHTLIFE
The shows that were put on in the ampatheatre were very well done. We saw the Michael Jackson show as was recommended by most. The only complaint here was that the area was very big, took awhile to get drinks and they were quite strong there. We spent most of our time at the lobby bar, where EDWIN was a great bartender flipping bottles, lighting drinks on fire and spoke quite good English which was a bonus.

Once the lobby bar closed around 11pm, everyone headed to the square. They had nightly shows there, as well as a karaoke bar that was air conditioned and had great drinks and fast service. Then around midnight the disco opened. A great club/bar with 2 separate bars at either end. The played local music for the first hour, then switched to top 40/dance. Was a great club, good light show and a fun place, although by around 1:30 or so it was pretty empty.

EXCURSIONS
We went on the Outback Jungle Safari . Was a fun filled day with lots of information, fun and drinking. Would recommend it to anyone, well worth the $80USD as it included all your drinks, lunch buffet and boogie boarding at a scheduled beach. Felt like I could be on Baywatch for 5 minutes it was so fun!

OVERALL
This trip and resort is amazing. It was a great experience from the food, to the activities, the bars, pools, bartenders and the people we met.

We are looking at booking for next year already and would not even think about going somewhere else at this point in time.

We just returned (April 22nd) from a one-week stay at this BEAUTIFUL resort!
This is most definitely a FIVE-STAR PLUS resort!

We booked with Transat Vacations through Canadian Travel - excellent price and excellent service. We flew WestJest - again, wonderful service - they are efficient, professional and FUN!

We are a middle-aged couple and we went with three other couples of similar age in order to attend one of their son's wedding at this resort.

Now for the Review!

Service: Excellent all around!!! Everyone we met who works at this resort works very hard and they all had smiles, cheerful words and greetings. Language was no barrier at all - and in case I am not understood or in case I can't understand someone, I always carry my trusty Spanish/English book (from the "Lonely Planet" - it is indispensable!). My husband and I love experiencing and learning about other people's cultures - which includes language! ... for us it's all part of the vacation!

Room/Location: Excellent! We were in Building 61. Just a few minutes from the beachfront. A few minutes from the various pools. A 10-15 minute walk to from the Main Lobby of both the Punta Cana and the Bararro side. OR, if you are tired or wearing heels, there's always the tram / trolley that runs all around the resort - the bus stop is just outside the building.The rooms are HUGE, the jacuzzi tubs wonderful, the water pressure was perfect (in the shower) and the balcony was very, very nice. AND no matter what was going on outside, when you closed your door and patio, it was nice and quiet in the room!

Food: Excellent. The Punta Cana main buffet was wonderful. We did not make it to the Bavarro buffet. The beach and pool snack bars all had good food - something for everyone. We went to the Japanese a la carte during our last night there - it was a wonderful experience and the food & service were superb.

Ocean: Excellent! We had green flags 5 days (green = good for swimming) and yellow flags for 2 days (yellow = swim with caution - strong waves!) Lots of fun for jumping around in, but hang onto your glasses!!!

Pools: Very nice. I only spent part of a day in the pool. I personally prefer the ocean and the beach - the pool areas were very well kept and very attractive!

Activities / Night Life: Excellent. There are many things to do, no matter what type of vacationer you are! There are day trips (I didn't go on any this time, but will next time - and there will be a next time for this resort!) - there are exercises and dance lessons on the beach, many activities run by the animation teams all over the resort (these guys are fantastic!), there is an on-resort pueblo (village) that has all sorts of shops if you are a shopper, local vendor-carts if you are a shopper who likes to bargain and barter, a piano bar, lobby bars, cafe's/pubs, karaoke, disco, indoor theatre and outdoor theatre, huge paths for walkers, casino, ETC.

My wife and I headed south to Punta Cana over the March Break. This was our second trip to an all inclusive resort. Our first trip was to the Iberostar Lindo in the Mayan back in 2004. We travel with another couple and both of us leave the children with the grandparents for the week. I’m not sure who is getting spoiled more - parents or children?
We referred to this site on both occasions and used information found here to help us make our final decisions.

Travel
We flew with AirTransat out of Toronto. With some advice from a co-worker we decided to pay a little extra and prebook our seats. This turned out to be a good idea as some people were separated and scattered throughout the aircraft. When first booking the trip we contemplated upgrading to the Club seating but declined. A week before our trip we changed our mind but at that time Club seating was long sold out. AirTransat has been the only agency we traveled with so we cannot compare to Sunquest, etc. Although we are not big people (5’10 and 5’4 with average build), the aircraft had comfortable seating by our standards. Do not forget that the airline weighs your baggage and will not deviate from the posted tolerances. Cost is $10.00 for every kilogram over weight. Ouch. We were on the hook for $50.00 by the time we returned to Toronto. A digital fish scale may do the trick prior to leaving home.

When we arrived in Punta Cana airport the weather was slightly overcast but much better than the -10C we left at home. Even though two aircraft landed and passengers entered the airport at the same time, the trip through Dominican customs was quick. After locating our luggage we headed over to the AirTransat/Nolitor tour booth. The agent gave us our bus passes and pointed us in the proper direction.

We confirmed that our luggage was packed in the bus and we boarded. The bus trip from the airport to the resort was approximately 40minutes. The road is very rough so pack some gravol if you are susceptible to motion sickness. Only one complaint……they did not serve beer on the bus. One of the many advantages that come with Club Golden was that as soon as the bus was underway, the tour guide handed out envelopes with our names. In this envelope contained the room number, two plastic key cards, resort map, and restaurant information. We did not have to stand in line to check in upon arrival. Great Idea!

Upon arrival, we got off the bus and located our luggage. Our luggage was tagged with our room number and quickly shuffled off to a small passenger cart with a luggage trailer. This was the bus boy service. When you see the size of this resort you will understand why this is such a great service. We got on the cart and were in our room within 15minutes from the time we arrived by bus. Excellent!

Room
We were assigned to building 60 and our room was on the first floor. Our room had a king size canopy bed, sitting area, safe ($30.00/week), stocked bar fridge, TV, balcony, etc. The bathroom had separate jet tub and walk in shower. Very impressive. One small complaint…..Why is there a cost to use the safe? We tipped the maid everyday with U.S dollars. My wife brought pencils, crayons, books, lipstick, lotions, soaps, etc from Canada. We put out a few of these items everyday as well.

The bar fridge is re-stocked everyday but if you require more beer, pop or water, just leave a note for the maid and most likely you will have extras by the time you return to your room. There always seems to be employees around the building so if you need anything just ask. The people working for the resort are very friendly and make every attempt to speak English. In return we made attempts to speak Spanish which seemed to be appreciated.

Restaurant
With Club Golden we were allowed to eat at the a la carte 4 times. We booked the Mediterranean, Italian, Japanese, and Steak and Lobster at the beach. My wife and I both agreed that the Japanese restaurant was our favorite. There are actually many more to choose from. Buffet dinners are not our favorite but the resort did a nice job of keeping up the quality and variety. There was a different theme at the buffet every night. We would recommend the option of a la carte every night. This was the difference between the Iberostar in the Mayan and this resort in Punta Cana. The Iberostar offered unlimited a la carte.

Beach
We found the beach to be excellent. This in our minds was the highlight of the resort. Each morning one of us would get up early and make our way down to the beach to reserve our loungers. Having an eastern exposure was a great plus. The sunrise was beautiful. If you are in the mood for local markets you can make your way down the beach to haggle with the Dominican people. There always seemed to be something going on at the beach such as beach volleyball or aerobics. The bar and grill was a short distance from the surf and if you are patient enough the waiter will be by your lounger to take your order.

Water sports
There are many water sports included in the price of your trip. You need to reserve the water sport early. I think the catamaran could be reserved one day in advance. We enjoyed the catamaran and sea kayaks. The usage is based on weather so if it is too windy the operator cancels all reservations.

Pool
The pools, as everything else in the resort were very beautiful and clean. We spent most of our time at the beach but a couple of times we would head to the pool around 4:00pm for happy hour. Lots of people, loads of fun. We tried to get a lounger around the pool at that time but they were still scarce. Apparently it was very difficult to get a lounger around the pool anytime of the day. The resort is presently building a new addition and a new pool in the Club Golden area. This should address the overcrowding issue. The pool bar was a lot of fun and the bartenders definitely increased the party atmosphere. Great job.

Nightlife
The resort did a great job of providing good nightlife. The show started at 9:00pm and finished at 11:00pm. From there you could head over to Puebleo Principe. This is a courtyard located just a few steps from the lobby. It contains vendors, bars, restaurants, and another stage show, and an internet café. We spent most nights at the lobby bar where they had live music. Alexis was our bartender each night. He does an excellent job. Anything at the bar is included as well as meals and drinks in Puebleo Principe. Another suggestion we have would be to provide Canadian rye whisky. Here they give you their version of scotch. But really…the scotch did taste good. The only place that food and drink is not included is in the casino. If you are looking for entertainment, it can always be found.

We're excited to have finally been to the Carribean and can contribute to your site.

We went to the Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro for our belated honeymoon for a week at the end of March/ beginning of April.

The weather was fantastic throughout our stay. No rain and lots of sun shine.

The resort is huge! It probably has about 3,000 - 4,000 guest capacity! Despite being large it still felt very welcoming and in most cases personal. We liked the way they had split everything into 2 to make it seem less overwhelming. e.g. 2 receptions, 2 buffets etc. It can be pretty confusing though if you walk into the wrong reception as everything is exactly the same but in the opposite place to the other one....

The beach was lovely and very big. Plenty of chairs especially if you go out towards the edges of the beach. The water was clean and clear but the sea a bit rough at high tide.

There were plenty of lunch options which was nice (either the buffet up the top or 4 different places down by the beach). The food overall was very good. The steak was great. If you go to the main buffet make sure you circle through it a couple of times to check everything out before you start taking food, that way you don't miss out on anything really good!

The best bit for us was the Honeymoon upgrade to the Diamon Club section. If we'd had to pay for it it would have been worth it. The Diamond Club group get their own pool (with swim up bar) and their own buffet for breakfast and lunch in one of the a la carte restaurants. It was much more relaxing and plesant than the general buffets or the rowdy general pools.

The drink of the day was always the best on offer. Our favourite was definitely the Titanic. Its pretty strong though so don't drink it in the pool as you will certainly be in danger of sinking!

The resort is quite large so be prepared to walk. There is a trolley bus though for those less mobile. We rather rudely labelled it the "Whale Bus" though based on the people riding it.

The service was really good. We really liked our maid who was very polite and thorough. The only service complaint we had was about the Lobby Shop staff who seemed more interested in ripping people off than providing a service.

A group of 16 of us flew down to the Gran Bahia Principe Punta Cana from March 29th to April 5th for my wedding. Here is my review.

Flew Air Transat : No problems at all recommending them. Smooth flight. On time.

Check in : A bit confusing as we were in Royal Golden, but we got our information and bracelets in the bus on the way at the hotel. Royal Golden has a seperate front desk/guest services office. Very confusing when checking out, making dinner reservations.

Food: Buffet was supposed to have themes. They really didn't, it was the same food all week. Greasy and a bit too oily for me. Great presentation though. Fancy for a buffet. A la carte restaurants : Mexican was disgusting. Could not even finish our plates. Garden Grill was excellent. Good choice of food, great service, really good portions and it was just a good experience. Japanese was also very nice, but the portions were small. Italian was bland, but better than the buffet.

Grounds and hotel: Excellent. Could not say one bad thing about cleanliness and the impeccable staff at the resort. Very nice grounds, well maintained. HUGE resort so be prepared to walk (or take the trolley). Great rooms, luxurious surroundings, you could never tell you were in the Dominican Republic.

Wedding: Well I had no expectations going there so I was not let down. Mariana was nice, but not overly concerned with what we wanted for our special day. Choices are limited so be prepared to ask for specific things if you have an idea of what you want. Hairstylist don't speak English or French, so either bring a picture of what you want, or choose from a hairstyling magazine they have there. She did a good job with my hair, but $50US is a bit expensive for a nice ponytail with a few ringlets. Wedding package is very expensive and I am not sure why. We didn't have anything spectacular and we felt that the wedding package price was more than enough, so we didn't tip Mariana, like other brides do. We didn't feel her service justified a tip. Mariachi band was really cool. Great fellas and they were very nice. The photographer was nice, but worked very fast...felt rushed and the pictures, while being high quality, were a bit non original. I tried to negotiate the price of extra pics (only 24 of the wedding ceremony came with the package), but the photographer, Jorge Allocco, wouldn't budge at all. He charges rediculous prices for his photos. We ended up only getting a total of 50 photos, it's all I could justify paying. In my opinion it was a rip off, but now it's done and I paid for them. He was nice, but not well dressed at all for a wedding. He could have been more prefessional in my opinion.

Beach: Great beach. Nice long stretches of sand. Ditry, seaweed infested waters though, but great view of the shipwreck. Warm waters and fun to swim in .

Night shows and enteratainment: Not bad. Not great either. Michael Jackson show was too long and tacky. He didn't even sing the popular songs. Entertainment team was ok.

We had some complaints but we had a good time, the resort was huge and beautifully kept. This was our second time in Punta Cana, the first time we stayed at Paradisus. We have been to many 5 star resorts and we did not think it was as good as other resorts. We paid extra for the Golden Service, we found that pre-check-in was really the only thing you paid for. There were many small things that were irratating, paying extra for premium liquor, people hogging beach chairs and not showing up for hours, at other all inclusives we were allowed to order multiple entrees to try at dinner, we were drinking Stolinachya Vodka at the lobby bar they ran out and could not get another bottle, "Come on!". If you stay in buildings 61, 62, 63, 64 be prepared NOT to sleep in, the banging doors and noisy speaking workers(I don't think they realize how loud they really are) is unbearable, the sounds echo through the halls and this starts at 7:00 am. Some days I wouldn't mind sleeping in, good luck, 3:00am a door may slam and it would sound like a small bomb!

I just want to say that the emplyees do a fantastic job and keep the resort in beautiful clean condition. I just wish every vacationer would dig a little deeper and tip these hard working people. There were so many people I saw who ate and drank and did not even leave a nickel, just sad.

This is our second vacation with Bahai Prinicpe; the first time was in Riveria Maya. I'll just provide basic info since the posted reviews do give an accurate overview of the hotel, different people with different experiences and tastes. We travelled with Air Transat and upgraded to Club. 2nd time we have done this and again appreciated the extras, regardless of the supplemental costs - it's just soooo stress free and quick. We e-mailed the hotel before hand and requested 1 of 4 specific buildings with an interior view. This was accorded and we were in room 21201 (great view and location - right by the beach & in front of the Mexican restaurant - was the best selection for our needs).

We greatly appreciated the effective check-in on the bus. Upon arrival, we were immediately placed on a trolley and brought to our room with our luggage. On our bed was a towel folded as 2 kissing swans and a brown bag decorated with ballons (contained 10 oz of rum & 2 Bahai Principe tee-shirts). Within a few minutes, a waiter arrived with a plate of fruits. Room was great - same concept as in the Riveria Maya with lots of marble. Never had any water presssure or water temperature problems. Room regularly cleaned during the day, mini-bar always refilled, bed turned down at night, nightly chocolates given. On one occassion, we came back to the room early and the maid was cleaning the bathroom. We went onto the balcony to read and have a drink while she worked. When we heard the door close, we went back into the room & found the maid had poured a bubble bath for us and left flower petals surroundings! What was really good was the fact that they leave a large umbrella in each room in the event of rain, very convienent!

Food at the buffet was good (large selection & nice presentation) but even seemed better the second week that we were there. Sometimes the food in the buffet wasn't that hot. We booked 3 restaurants the day after arrival and then booked the remainer after about 5 days. We tryed the French (very good), Japenesse (very good but it was rushed and the "show" was almost non-existant), Italian (very good - the wine man kept us laughing throughout the meal), BBQ (good but still it's a buffet although at a beach location), fish restaurant ( I don't eat fish but it was reccommended for it's steak by this site so I tried the steak and was very happy with it), & Steak House (excellent! food was great with less pretention).

Drinks typical to all inclusive but better in most cases. Lobby is where to go (have flamed coffees, cappichinnos, bubbly white wine, & more authentic mixed drinks). Yostina was a fabulous waitress who kept us laughing (people probably know her as "Miss Mamajuanna"- which is a local drink). At the beach, the number of places you can get a drink is great - never too far from where you're sitting. This hotel had the least wait period for a drink than any other we went to (longest wait time is at the official beach bar - there are 3 or 4 restaurants that serve drinks for the beach during the day). On ocassion, we also had some beach waitress service and once a week, a speciality drink was made on the beach in coconuts. Overall, the wine in all the buffets is not good - in the restaurants and lobby, they are better.

Beach is fantastic and that is why we go to Punta Cana (see of reviews). We only went to the pool once to have a few drinks at the pool bar and to say we actually went into the pool!!

The site is big/deep & it took us about a day & a half to adapt. The trolley is almost there all the time so there is no real wait period. If you have children, limited mobility, or frequently like returning to your room, you should really think twice about this resort and plan your room selection accordingly (Although it is wheelchair accessible, some common areas had slopes that were very steep).

My wife and I got back from our two week stay at the Bahia Principe Punta Cana last Sunday (March 18th). After getting settled into our regular work routine again, I finally have time to write a review of our stay at this hotel.

There are good things to report and unfortunately, some bad things. I will start with the good things first.

The staff at this hotel genuinely want you to enjoy your vacation and will do what they can to make your stay pleasant (when they can). Most of the staff seem to be very happy and you often hear them singing as they work. I don't think that we saw anyone in a foul mood during our entire stay (except maybe for some guests!).

My wife and I feel that the best quality of this hotel is the food and the people in the food services. I have to rate them both as outstanding. We both enjoyed the variety and quality of the food in the main buffet restaurants. They have different themes every night so you will have different choices for supper every time you go in.

We also had occasion to use room service and received prompt, friendly service from Fausto. When Fausto learned that my wife wasn't feeling too well one day, he went out of his way to go and bring back a remedy that he guaranteed would make her feel better. The next day he called our room to check how my wife was feeling. This was totally unexpected and was greatly appreciated.

The hotel grounds were very well kept and quite beautiful. There were lots of gardeners working hard to keep the hotel looking it's best.

Okay, now for some of the not so good stuff.

When we first arrived at the hotel, around 1:00 PM, we tagged our luggage with our room number and them brought them over to the bellboy station. By this time we were pretty hot and obviously not dressed appropriately for the weather. We wanted to get our room keys and get to our room to get changed. The problem was that we had no idea of how to do that. No one told us that we had to go to the Gold Room to check-in or even where this might be (it's at the very front of the building by the way). The other couple that we were travelling with had been to the hotel before and so we found out from them what we needed to do. When we got to the Gold Room, the place was crowded with all of the other Club Gold guests that arrived with us and only three people were waiting on everyone. By the time we made our way to the front of the line, we found out that our room wasn't ready yet and to come back by 3:00. We then stood in another line to pay for our room safe. After doing that we decided to go get some lunch at the buffet restaurant to kill time until we could get our room keys.

On the way to the restaurant, I had to use the washroom. The washroom was quite beautiful with lots of marble tile everywhere. It was neat and clean and was missing only one thing; toilet paper!
Unfortunately, I found this out when I needed to use it, which makes for a very interesting experience. I won't go into the details of how this worked out, but I must say I have had better starts to my vacation.

After eating lunch, we returned to the Gold Room at 3:00 and were told that our room still wasn't ready.
We were told to come back in 15 minutes. We came back in 30 minutes and the room still wasn't ready. We kept repeating this process until 5:00 when the room was finally ready. When we got to the room, we found that we had been placed in one of the brand new buildings, number 60, which is right next to the beach. We also found out what the delay was in getting our room. The ceiling was falling to the floor and the maids were trying to clean it up! They gave up trying after a while and let us into the room. The ceiling continued to peel off in large and small chunks for the rest of our stay. It appeared to me that either water had come through the ceiling making the stipple come off, or perhaps the ceiling wasn't properly primed before the stipple was applied. We were glad to just be able to get into our room and be able to change into beach clothes and cool off a bit.

Speaking of cooling off, that brings me to the next problem that we had; our air conditioning. We had none. I made sure to set the temperature to a comfortable level right away so that the room would be cool when we got back from the beach. I also knew that our balcony door had to be closed in order for the ac to work, so I made sure it was closed and locked before we left. When we got back, the room was just as hot as when we left. I checked the air vent and found that no cold air was coming out at all. We called the "Express Service" desk to tell them about this. This was on the Sunday that we first arrived. We called the "Express Service" desk several times every day until the problem finally was fixed on the following Thursday. Believe me, you need to have your ac working in your room if you are like me and can't sleep in a room where the temperature is 25 degrees or higher! I believe that the problem in getting it fixed was the lack of communication between the service desk and actual service people who do the work. Somehow the message wasn't getting through to the right people. We managed to get the problem fixed finally, when we noticed some repair men across the hall from us in another room. We called the service desk again and told them that the repair men were across the hall. Edwardo on the service desk made sure that the repair men came to our room after they were finished.

The next problem in our room was water dripping into our bathtub from the ceiling. We could hear that the guests in the room above ours was running their jacuzzi tub at the time, and this was the obvious source of the water. We dutifully reported this problem to the service desk too, but nothing was ever done about it the whole time we were there.

When you check into this hotel, you should receive a package of very useful information about the hotel.
Look in this package and try to find the "passport"
booklet. This booklet tells you lots of things about the hotel that you really should know when you first check in. We didn't read ours because it was in Spanish. I didn't think that it was a big deal until I came across an English "passport" in the Gold Club Internet room. We found out answers to many of the questions that we had when we first arrived. Things like dress codes at the restaurants, when they are open for the various meals, when the Gold Room is open, how to make restaurant reservations and when, etc. If you don't get a passport or get one in the wrong language, go to the Gold Room and request one.
When reading through the passport we found that as Club Gold guests we were supposed to receive bath robes and slippers. We had to request these from the service desk and had them for the last few days of our stay.

Okay, last gripe about the hotel. There are rules listed in the information given to guests and on signs posted around the hotel, but they might as well not exist, because none of them are enforced. You see lots of people doing things that are listed as prohibited, but nothing at all is done about it. I feel that this lowers the class of the hotel. For example, it really looks bad when you see towels and bathing suits hanging over guest room balconies. Oh, and if you want to have a lounge chair at the beach, then you better get up by 6:30 to reserve one with a beach towel or you will be out of luck. Same thing with the lounge chairs at the pool. This practice is not supposed to be allowed, but if you don't do it, you will find that all of the lounge chairs have been reserved with towels and you won't have anywhere to sit.

Now, here is something that I didn't like, but was really no fault of the hotel's. We were there during the first two weeks of March and all of the Punta Cana hotels are absolutely packed at this time of year.
This meant that long beach walks were more like walking through a busy mall the week before Christmas with the only difference being your feet would get wet and sandy and you could get a sunburn! I couldn't believe the wall of humanity for as far as the eye could see up and down the beach! There was no escaping it. We were told that our hotel alone had over 5000 guests in it during our stay. I would not consider coming again during this time of year. Perhaps we would come again in the off-season when it is less busy and cheaper.

Many people have commented in this forum about the size of this hotel and they are right. The hotel is much deeper in length than the other hotels in the area. This makes for lots of walking or riding of the trams. It was unfortunate that our villa was the farthest away from the lobby and the main buffets, since we always seemed to have reason to go there. Oh well, it helped to burn off a lot of calories.

Overall, I would rate the Bahia Principe Punta Cana a 4 out 5. It would be a nice place to relax when it is not so busy. The staff are so friendly. Learn a few basic Spanish phrases and you will have no problem in the restaurants. The servers are really happy to see that you are trying to speak some Spanish and might even give you an impromptu Spanish lesson.

My husband, our daughter, her boyfriend and I vacationed at this property from Feb 24 - Mar 3. In the last 10 yrs we have travelled to Cuba, Mayan Riviera, Costa Rica, Jamaica and been on several cruises. We always stay at 4.5 - 5 star resorts. We found this resort, Bahia Principe, Punta Cana to be a definite 5 star. Quality and value for your vacation dollar is well spent here.

Rooms: We had our travel agent email ahead and request 2 adjoining main-floor rooms in buildings 60-65 (newest buildings, Glub Golden) and we received exactly what we requested. The rooms are large and very well appointed. I would say the nicest rooms we've ever had at an all inclusive resort. A fruit basket and bottle of rum were present upon our arrival as well. Housekeeping service was great - always fresh towels, flowers, water, pop and beer in the fridge. Turn down service with fresh towels and chocolates was a nice touch too. We left tips daily for both services.

Beach - Amazing white sandy beach that goes on for miles. Great for beach walkers. Turquoise waters were the perfect temperature for swimming with some waves to play in. Lots of palapas and palm trees for shade. Keep in mind that the reserve a chair game is played here. I would walk down to the beach at 7:30 every day and reserve 4 loungers under a palapa for us. There are bars near the beach with good service and self serve pop/water machines.

Pools - There are two large pools near the beach. They are never crowded inside and are the perfect water temperature for cooling off. Again, the loungers were always reserved here so we would leave our things on the beach and walk over to the pool for a swim. The swim up bar had great and friendly service with or without tips. There are 3 other pools further away from the beach, one for Club Diamond guests only.

Restaurants - The main buffet restaurant had a good variety of food for all meals. Every night at dinner they had a different theme to change it up a little. Service was very good in here and they were very well organized. The house wine was terrible so don't even try it. We usually ate lunch down by the beach which was ok - less variety but we liked the location. We enjoyed 5 a la cartes - Le Gourmet (French - the best), The Italian, Mexican, Japanese and the Beach Grill (skip this one). All had beautiful decor and excellent service. The house wines were much better here. Wine lists are also available and reasonably priced.

Entertainment - Every night there was a show at the Tropicanna Theatre. We only saw a couple of them and the only one I would recommend is the Michael Jackson show on Friday night. The lobby bar area is the favourite hangout before and after dinner for a drink. The atmosphere is great as well as the drinks from this bar. A couple nights when the lobby bar closed and the shows were over we went out to the Pueblo Square to check out the entertainment there. They had a Mr Principe contest which was hokey, but funny. They do ask for your room number here when you order a drink but you do not have to pay for drinks here. They are just ensuring that you are a guest at the resort. A casino and disco are located here too. We usually used this time to scan the shops and email home so we could maximize our time on the beach during the day.

We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe in Punta Cana on the Bavaro side of the resort the first week of February 2007. We had an amazing vacation and highly recommend this resort. This is a beautiful resort and we were very pleased with everything it had to offer.

We had absolutely no complaints at all about this resort. We are a couple in our mid 30s and our son is 11. I found the reviews on this site to be very helpful, so I wanted to post a review, in hopes that it will provide some useful tips for future guests.

Tips to get the most out of your stay at the Bahia:
-First and foremost, you’re on holidays…relax and enjoy. Remember that you’re on “Dominican Time” and in a different country, so things won’t be exactly like they are at home. (Which is the great thing about holidays!).

-When booking meals at the a la cartes, 8 pm is a good time to eat because this allows you more time at the beach before it’s time to get ready for supper and then when supper is finished, it’s almost time for the nightly shows to start. It works well.

-Cappuccinos at the lobby bar after supper, before the nightly shows, are a must

-You can book massages at the Club Diamond Pool and the beach. You just book an appointment right there at the beach or pool and have it added to your room. When we checked out I paid for my massage in Pesos, really easy process and no need to use a credit card. The massage was amazing and the prices comparable to what we would pay at home. The Spa looked great too.

-Walk down to the end of the Bahia Resort beach and check out the free water sports that are available. They also have a variety of (not free) water sports/activities that you can book. We booked a snorkeling tour for our last afternoon, but were disappointed when we got there and were told that some other (unknown) guests who had also booked the tour had gotten sick, so there wasn’t enough people to take out the boat. We were impressed though because the employee at the water centre phoned around and really tried to get us on a snorkeling tour, but it just didn’t work out. So, I would suggest if you’re booking a tour/water sport, don’t leave it until the last day just in case something happens, that way you’ll have another day to re-schedule. We ended up taking out the banana boats. Those are the big yellow “banana” looking things that you ride on while being pulled behind a boat. They were fun.

-Get up at least one morning during your stay to watch the sun come up. Amazing!

-The lobby bar makes the best drinks. Be sure to try the Miami Vice and Dirty Monkey drinks. A Dirty Monkey is a great “after breakfast” drink…tastes just like a chocolate milkshake and has rum, bananas, chocolate and coconut milk. I’m not a big fan of banana drinks, but this one was really good.

-The resort has a Photo Centre and their staff are out every day offering to take photos of guests with the usual monkey and parrot, but they also take some fun photos with Dominican dancers and other neat photos. We would have liked to have gotten our photos taken on the beach and with the Dominican dancers, but didn’t realize that could be done until it was too late. So, if you want some great photos, I’d check out the schedule in the Photo Shop in Pueblo Principe upon arrival.

Packing Tips
-Even though they do have lots of (good quality) beach towels, we found it handy to take our own beach towels from home

-If you’re a coffee drinker, take a “To Go” mug with you. I made coffee in our room early in the morning and then took it down to the ocean every morning to watch the sun come up and read.

-We took some Pringles chips with us and we were glad we did. They were the perfect beach snack and went great with our “happy hour” drinks before a later supper.

-Sunscreen: make sure you take lots of it. It was very hot when we were there and I was glad I had taken along lots of 45 sunscreen (even though at home it’s usually 30 that I use).

-For reading, I’d recommend any book by Jodi Picoult. She’s a wonderful author. I just discovered her last year and already own eight of her books. They’re books that you just can’t put down once you open that first page. If you’ve read a Picoult book, you’ll know what I mean, if not, pick up one of Jodi’s books. You’ll be glad you did!

Club Diamond: We stayed in the Club Diamond section. I’m not sure how much extra we paid to be in Club Diamond, but we enjoyed the benefits that it offered, including a pool and restaurant for Club Diamond guests, private check in in Club Diamond and free internet access in the air conditioned Club Diamond lounge. It was nice to be able to check e-mail and read newspapers in the Club Diamond lounge (which served drinks too). As part of Club Diamond we were informed that we could request housecoats in our room. We asked for them several times, each time being told that that would be no problem, but they never did arrive. No big deal. (Remember you’re on holidays, just relax). Also, one of the perks of Club Diamond is that the beach towels are to be in your room upon arrival. There were no towels when we arrived. (Again, you’re on holidays, and if you go with the right attitude, these little things will be just that-little things). We never did see a beach towel until our second day and we just asked for some at the pool. We hadn’t been given any towel cards so the staff member just had us write our names in the book. It wasn’t a problem.

Arrival: When you get to the hotel, the bellman will take your luggage off of the bus. Club Diamond guests, turn to your right and walk down the hallway to the Club Diamond lounge to check-in. Check in only took about 20 minutes and they gave us a cold rum punch drink while we waited. You pay for your safe at check-in. It was $4 a day and well worth it for the peace of mind. The safes are a fairly good size and will easily hold travel documents, cameras and assorted other personal items. You use your room key to initialize the safe, and then after that you use a code, to open and lock the door. After check in go back to where you left your luggage and the bellman will load your luggage on a trolley and you will ride on the trolley to your room.

Rooms: The room was very spacious with a king size bed and a separate couch/bed. There was also a table and a couple of chairs. Lots of drawer and closet room. A good variety of tv channels with good reception. The bathroom is large and beautiful. Everything is marble, including the marble Jacuzzi tub. We had excellent water pressure and temperature. Our room was located on the third floor in Building 31. We thought this was an excellent location (room 31301). It was a corner room and our balcony (which also had a table and two chairs) overlooked the Club Diamond pool (very nice view) and the wedding gazebo. The bus stop (where the trolley stops) was just outside our building too. It was just a short walk to the Italian restaurant, where Club Diamond guests could have breakfast and lunch in the air conditioned restaurant overlooking the Club Diamond pool. When we arrived our room had fresh flowers and the sink in the bathroom was decorated with flower petals. The maid made us swans out of towels and one day fashioned one of my dresses into a neat decoration. She also left us chocolates and lots of water, Pepsi, Sprite and Beer. Every day I would leave the maid a few small gifts in a gift bag and a couple of dollars. I had made up cards and signed them. The cards said (in Spanish and English) that the gifts were to say thank you for the excellent service we received. (I had read on this forum before we left that this is a good idea, so that they don’t have any problem leaving the resort with the gifts). You need to have your room key (or a piece of paper works too!) in the slot to keep the air conditioning running and to have power. I should note that because our room was near the bus stop, at night we could hear the late night crowd coming and going from the bars, and some were feeling pretty good and being a little loud after an evening out. It didn’t bother us, but others might not enjoy this room location because of that.

Beach and Ocean: Beautiful. It looked just like a post card with powdery white sand. The water was warm with just the right amount of waves. Not too big, just enough to make it fun. Lots of palapas and lounge chairs, but the best spots filled up early. I’m a morning person so we had no problem getting a good location. We left our towels on our chairs while we went for breakfast and they were still there when we returned an hour later. Even on the day we got to the beach later in the afternoon it was still easy to find a lounge chair (and the resort was full the week we were there). The Friday we were there they served drinks out of coconuts with little umbrellas on the beach. One day at the beach a staff member took drink orders from the guests in the loungers, but otherwise, it was just a short walk to the beach bar(s).

Pools: There’s three large pools near the ocean. They are very nice. Water temperature is great and they are very clean. The Club Diamond and another Club pool (I can’t remember the name) were in a separate area, side by side. We found the Club Diamond pool to be the quieter pool (which we preferred), but a few times we did go over to the other Club pool just to check it out. (Especially the afternoon when one of the guests brought some music from the ‘80s and the pool staff were playing AC/DC by the pool, so that was fun!). I guess technically the Club Diamond and the other Club pool are designated for those guests, but I really don’t think anyone would mind or even notice if you had the wrong colored bracelet on and were in either of these pools. Of course each of the pools had a swim up bar.

Buffets
The food throughout the resort was good to excellent. No complaints at all, although they certainly don’t overcook the meat. Lots of variety at the buffets. We preferred to eat breakfast at the Club Diamond restaurant or the buffet restaurant on the beach, rather than the larger, busier lobby buffet. We especially enjoyed the seafood paella and pizza at the beach buffets and the fresh pineapple. (Take dental floss because it does get stuck in your teeth!). One day there was fresh croissants with chicken salad and tomatoes in the lobby buffet which were really good. One morning for breakfast there was sort of like mini Eggs Benedict on baguettes. Really good. There was even good cabbage rolls on the buffet. Our son was thrilled the first night we arrived and they cooked him a steak at the lobby buffet. As I said, lots of variety and you’re sure to find something you like at every meal. We did find it interesting to note though that we’d only ever stayed at one other all inclusive resort, that being Breezes in Puerto Plata, which is a 4 star resort. We much preferred the food at Breezes. But again, it’s not a complaint, just a comparison. I enjoyed the red wine at the Bahia (never tasted the white). It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but it was enjoyable.

A la Carte Restaurants
Our package included four a la carte restaurants, but when we went to book them, the staff member from the Bahia said we could have five. (We didn’t ask for the fifth one, she just offered it to us and said it was no problem). We went to the French (Gourmet), Italian, Seafood, Beach Barbecue and Japanese. All of them were excellent. We love seafood, but this restaurant was our least favourite. (Even though it was really good). The service was slow (not that we minded because we’re on holidays and on “Dominican time” and they were particularly busy the night we were there). It’s basically a seafood buffet unless you order the lobster off the menu. The food and atmosphere at the Japanese restaurant was really good. We didn’t feel rushed at all in any of the restaurants, as others have noted. They bring you warmed towels for your hands at the start of the meals in most of the restaurants. We really enjoyed the beach barbecue night. It’s at the restaurant by the ocean and included all you can eat steak and lobster, really good nachos and cheese, baked potatoes, potato wedges, potato salad, just a really good barbecue. Our best dining experience was on our last night, in the Italian Restaurant. The food was amazing and the service was excellent (the service at all the restaurants is good, but staff at the Italian restaurant really went out of their way to ensure you enjoyed your meal and the evening). We were given a welcome drink and they made Flaming Sambucas at our table. Just little extras to make the meal and dining experience stand out. It was the perfect way to celebrate our last night in Punta Cana.

Nightly Shows: We thought they were great, especially the Michael Jackson show (not to be missed, even if you’re not a Michael Jackson fan).

Tours:
We went on the Monster Truck Safari tour and would recommend this tour because it is a great way to see how the Dominican people live, away from the resort areas. It is a full, but very enjoyable day. We were able to tour a Dominican home, a school, and a fruit plantation, among things. We took along a lot of gifts for the Dominican people. For me the highlight of the entire week was getting to meet the children and see their joy at receiving these gifts. I had taken along a baseball glove and ball and will never forget the big smile from the boy who received it. You will see lots and lots of children on the tour, so I would suggest saving some of your gifts for the last few stops on the tour because I’m sure they are the ones who get the least because it’s easy to give out all your gifts in the first few stops. These are some of the gifts that we gave to the Dominican children and the moms and grandmas: toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, lipstick, lotion, coloring books, crayons, pencils, children’s clothes, small toys, shoes, towels and facecloths. The bus that picked us up for the tour got to the hotel at 6:55 am, before the breakfast buffets opened, so the day before we took three muffins from the buffet and put them in our bag to take with us on the tour. We were sure glad we did this because we didn’t get lunch until 3 pm on the tour. (And they’re pouring Monster Truck champagnes all day!), so it was nice to have had something to eat. The drive from the Bahia to Higuey where you get on the Monster Trucks is about an hour, so I would suggest you take your morning coffee with you, sit back, relax and enjoy the sights along the way. Take along some Kleenex or toilet paper and liquid hand sanitizer because there’s a good chance the bathrooms along the way won’t have toilet paper or running water to wash your hands. (Don’t let this deter you though, they look after you good on the tour). Also, something I should mention. Our tour guide told us to get out our cameras because we were coming up to a good photo op, and then the Monster Truck drove through the water and covered everyone, including our cameras, with water! We couldn’t figure out why he would tell us to get out our cameras if he knew we were going to get wet. (It was hot, so we didn’t mind getting wet, we just shouldn’t have had our cameras out!). Anyway, all in all it was a great day. I will say, however, that we went on the Outback Jungle Safari in Puerto Plata, and even though both are fantastic and similar tours, we found the Outback Jungle Safari to be more comfortable and just generally a better tour.

There are a lot of different tours that you can take in Punta Cana. We would have liked to have gone on more tours, but because we were only there for a week, we didn’t want to give up a beach day to go on another tour.

Hi I have read many of these reviews over the past few years and have been to the Dominican three times and would go back in a heart beat. My wife and I have always travelled with a group of friends usually numbering between 8 to 12 couples. I can honestly say that it is not always easy to get a consensus as to how things are in any resort, but the Gran Bahia Principe was great. Let me change that to Fantastic. We were there for a week from the 3 of March to the 10th. You could not of asked for any better service. Food was good, drinks were great and the weather was pushing 30 degrees each day with nothing but sunshine and blue skies. The resort is very large, but if you are able to follow a map and get yourself on one of the trolleys you'll have no problems. If you can't do this, tip one of the workers and they will show you the way. We stayed in the GOLD club and were close to the beach.....and what a beach it was....paradise. We have previously stayed at the Bahia in Puerto Plata and had a great time, this past trip was no different. We have definite learned something from going to the same chain of resorts twice.....if you find somewhere that is good......keep going back....don't look for trouble, because there is a lot of it out there. We made the mistake two years ago to stay at another resort close to the Bahia in Punta Cana and 10 of the 12 people who travelled with us were ill. Not the case at the Bahia, everything is clean and workers are always eager to help you out. Just be a little calm and remember that you are not in North America and things move a little slower in the sunny south. If you are looking for a restful vacation away from the snow and cold, look no further than the Bahia. What a spot!

We just returned from the Bahai Principa resort in the Dominican Republic where we spent two weeks.

While this resort is very beautiful and does all the pictures on the internet justice, we would not choose to return to this site.

Specifically, we found the food less than acceptable - we used four of the specialty restaurants and in none of them did they measure up to anything we would find acceptable here at home. While the presentation was often very nice, the food seldom was hot and occasionally not even warm. We finally gave up on the specialty restaurants, and used the various buffets and found that to get a meal that was properly heated, you had to use of the pasta startions.

Also, when we booked our trip through Apple vacations, knowing that this site was not adults only and very large, we were told that by upgrading to the Golden service our location would be more isolated and we would have the use of a private pool and dining room - neither of these were available. We were also told we would be supplied with robes and slippers, (so we didn't bring them) and when we mentioned this we were told to get them you had to specifically ask for them. Also, we were told that to use the in-room safe, we had to pay a daily fee. We had specically asked for a first floor room, and when we arrived were given one on the third floor, and were told that to change rooms would take 2 or three days.

The largest problem was the lack of personnel who could speak even basic engish. We are well aware that this is not an English speaking country and don't expect fluency from all staff, but even those who need such skills, such as check in staff or the concierges seemed to have few such skills.

The site is just too large to allow for the kind of service we had come to expect - you had to take a trolley car to go from one area to another especially for dinners, and they are expanding from the already large 1560+ rooms.

As this is supposed to be a family oriented site, i was surprised at the fact there appeared to be no special services for children. Our area had three large pools, and none were children specific nor was one designated adult only.

Once again your website helps me every time I plan a trip so I want to leave my reviews again to try to help others plan their trips.

This review will be a short one because I already left a review for this same resort in 2004 when we were there in April. All I have to say this time is that things were even better than our first time there. We were returning guests and were treated like royalty. Little things go a long way for us because we tend not to ask for much to prevent being seen as pushy so we did not ask for any special treatment being returning guests, we got it anyway. Rhum in our room upon arrival, fresh fruits well prepared in a nice arrangement upon arrival, bottle of wine, golf shirts and caps delivered to our room during the week etc.....we were very happy with the little things they did for us, greatly appreciated.

Let's talk about the food here, I gained 5 pounds, no need to go any further, the 5 pounds explains it well!

The rooms were very clean, a few ants here and there but our deet did the trick. Our room maid helped us out with that also so just ask and they have the products to do the job.

Pools were all very warm and clean, beach was still amazing.

Over all, everything was wonderful. We were 7 in our group(3 kids) and they enjoyed it. I think the resort would need more stuff to do for the kids. We had to entertain them most of the time, to bad they don't have slides or a wave pool. The resort is very huge so if cozy is your thing, this resort is not for you. There was approx. 5000 people the week we were there so it's very big.

My wife and I stayed at the Gran Bahia, Punta Cana, March 5-12 and here are my thoughts.

As an overall rating, I’d give the place a 4 out of 5. The place is very nice, very clean, but just too damn big for everything to be perfect, in my opinion. I’ll break it down:

Room: We were on the third floor of building 64. This is a new building, to the right of the main resort if you were looking at the resort from the water. Our room was facing north, and we had a very nice view (sarcasm) of a huge gravel pit where they’re gonna put in even more buildings. I didn’t care much, as the room was nice, and there was a nice ocean view as well. I prayed that my wife would not complain and want to be moved (more hassle than what it’s worth imo) and she never did. Phew. At least it was a quiet sandpit. I’d have been pissed if actual construction was going on. And it looks like there soon will be !

Beach: Gorgeous. From our building it was a 2 min walk to the beach. I felt kinda bad for the people who were not near the beach, as you pretty much have to take the s