Just got back August 26, 2006, six hours before Hurricaine Ernesto hit.
Flight: Air Transat from Toronto. Plane was delayed due to customs problem coming back from Amsterdam. Then they needed a new part that had to be flown in from Montreal. Four hour delay.

Check in: Picked up at hotel in a nice large, ice cold bus, was very hot and humid all week. Unloaded us right to the lobby. Check in was relatively quick. They gave us two rooms at the very back of the resort.Main floor. Very quite, but long walk to anywhere. Nice rooms but not what we ordered. We complained, but it was late and they said they would take care of it tomorrow. Went to the introductory lecture by our Norlitours representative. She took care of it. You have any problem, go to your tour rep. They gave us adjoining rooms on the second floor, right beside the main pool. I was apprehensive because of the noise. The room was quite. More noise came in from the slightly warped front door. Rooms were fair size, clean, fittings looked like they were installed by Tim the Toolman. Bed was rock HARD. My back was killing me all week. I'm a Chiropractor and Iwish there was one there, they do have masseuses. Bring a foam pad or air mattress. Tip the housemaids and be nice and polite. Most speak some English, French, Italian and German besides, you need to practice your Spanish. .

Restaurants: Three sit down restaurants for dinner. We loved the food at the Mexican (the guacamole!) and Japanese (not bad sushi, good fish dinner), the Caribe was good too. Need to were dress pants for men. This was rough , as it was very hot and humid all week. The Caribe restaurant was the only one air conditioned.
There are three buffet restaurants. The main restaurant was large and clean. Lots of food to chose from. Lots of tourists, will cut in front, get in your way, ignorant. It amazes me how stupid and rude some people are. The staff was great. Pick a section you like, with us it was the section closest to the bathrooms. It faced the pool area and the cool ocean breeze, ( did I say how hot it was?) Be patient with the staff, they work 16 hours a day, for 12 days, then 2 days off. I brought $60 US in one dollar bills, just to tip. I left a dollar each time I ate, more at the Fancy restaurants. Coffee would be there before I sit down with my meal. Practice your Spanish. The Maitre Colibri is named Alejandro Cedeno. He is incredible. He rules the restaurant with a firm hand, making sure you table is cleaned and your coffee is hot. Tell him Dr. George sent you. He is expecting it. We gave him a large tip and school supplies, last day. Bring lots of small gifts for the workers, housemaids and school supplies you can pass onto Alejandro or your tour rep. The children in the villages are desperate for them, or mail to Alejandro Cedeno, Hotel IFA Villas Bavaro Beach & Resort, Playas de Bavaro, Higuey, Republica Dominicana

Beach: White, white sand. Cool on the feet. Lots of people, lots of chairs, all taken. Got to get up early to save a chair by the pool or beach. People will steal your chair. (Like I said, some people are ignorant)
Every beach activity is available. If it goes under, on or above the water or in the air, they have it. Some activities are free, lots want money. Did not find a submarine to rent but I wasn't looking. Beside the resort is a big flea market. Over three hundred people work there. Over 40 large stalls, jewelry, liqour, cigars, coffee, arts and crafts, clothing, paintings.
They will have a big smile, shake your hand, offer you free small gifts to fish you in. Pick out everything that you want from that vender, they will put it on a plate. Then barter HARD. Don't be afraid to walk away. The next guy has been listening and might give you a better deal or the first one might drag you back. Bring only US dollars. Lots of. You get ripped off if you bring Canadian or Euros. The hotel rips you off on the exchange, and they really devalue Canadian dollars. If you must use Canadian ( we had some as backup, which we used), don't change to pesos at home or there. The venders will give you a better rate than the hotel will. Dominicans love US dollars. Barter, Barter, Barter. The hotel stores are more expensive.

Excursions: My daughter loves horse back riding, my son loves dune buggying and ATVs. Queen's Ranch had both. We paid for two hours horse back riding, we only got one. But she got to ride in a dune buggy there and back from the drop off point. Still got ripped off $20. They gave us a $10 credit towards the video of the rides.

Weather: Sunny, hot and humid. Bring your sunscreen, Lots of burnt people. ( Did I say how stupid some are). We got the rooms down to 64.5 degrees F. when we went outside, the glassed fogged up. Thunderstorm of five minutes one night. Last two days were a touch less hot and humid. Touches of cloud. Rained the last night for a half hour. the nightly show went on after. Started to rain on the day we left. Missed the hurricane by about six hours.

We just returned from 2 Fantastic weeks at the IFA Bavaro Resort (Villas,Village,Ocean) from Feb 16-March 2.

Flight: left Vancouver,BC on Air Transat,great flight and just over 6 1/2 hours with the jet stream.Went thru customs no problem,grabbed ourselves a cold Prsidente cervesa (beer) just outside the airport for our bus ride to the Resort $3 US.The ride was only 20-25 minutes.

Check In:We were pretty much first in line and got a room on the 3rd floor 3800 block Ocean section which was a nice room with high vaulted ceilings.Got settled in room and headed to buffet for a bite and then to the Village Pool Bar for some cocktails.We did move 2 days later as we wanted an ocean view but ended up on 2nd floor with a partial ocean view which was really nice in room# 4414.

Restaurants: You really can't complain about the food as there is lots to choose from. Breakfast there was lots of fruit,yogurt,smoothies,meats,cheeses,french toast,pancakes,croissants,sausages,bacon and they would have a station to make you omelettes or fried eggs.
Lunch there was 2 Buffets with lots of meats,salads,fruit,cheeses,pasta,chicken etc.We would mainly be at the beach where the Beach restaurant had great hamburgers,hotdogs,salad & fruits.They also had a Calamari dish that looked like Paella, alot of people were eating it but we never tried it. Dinner you had a choice of the 2 Buffets which had lots to choose from or 4 a-la-cartes,Mexican,Japanese,Caribe and the Beach (International) restaurants.We never tried the Japanese but the Caribe & Mexican were great and we wished we had tried them sooner.You do have to line up to make reservations the day before at 3PM in the main lobby to reserve and we didn't want to make many commitments of what time we were to eat or do anything.

Rooms:In our first room were a few ants but hey you are in the tropics on a beach and with a quick call you can have them spray.People do bring food and sugary drinks to the rooms so that can bring them in.We made sure we did not drop crumbs or leave dirty dishes or glasses around.The second room did not have any ants and was quite nice.Our tub was not peeling like some people have said it only had one chip that had rusted (god forbid).Our air conditioning was great but we mainly just left the fan on.Our little fridge was COLD which some other resorts I have stayed in were not.We even had a little freezer.Our fridge was never stocked as we kept our same water bottle and refilled it at the bars.We also kept our snacks in there so as not to attract any ants etc.My only complaint was the lighting in the room was low and with 3 females in the room the bathroom mirror had a line-up but no big deal.

Beach:What can I say "AWESOME",best beach I have ever been to.I have been to most resort areas in Mexico including Cancun,Playa del Carmen,Akumal,Varadero Cuba and this one beats them all hands down.

Excursions: We only went on the Saona Island tour and that was a memory I will never forget,what a day! Caught our bus from the main lobby at 8am and went through the countryside passing Higuey (a small little town) and the farm lands.We saw sugar cane,orange trees,farm land with cattle,horses.This was about 1 1/2-2 hours but we also had Alejandro(our tour guide)telling us all about the area which I fully enjoyed.We then left from a Hotel (Grand something?)on a speed boat out on the Caribbean Sea which was awesome.We then stopped in the natural pool in the ocean which is waist deep and swam around while they handed out rum & cokes.There was a guy videoing the whole thing and after you can purchase the DVD for $40 US.They also take your picture before you get on the speed boat and put it on a bottle of rum which you can purchase for $12.We then took off to Saona Island for a few hours for a great lunch more rum & cokes and to wander the beach and swim in the rolling waves.Then on to the Catamaran to sail back.On the bus ride back we stopped at a market where you could buy all sorts of paintings,carvings,rum,vanilla,etc.We got back to the Hotel by 7PM.This was $85 US and well worth every penny to me.

Weather:Sunny and hot pretty much every day.There were clouds and a nice breeze which gave some relief from the heat.It spitted rain outside on 3 different days for 5 minutes or so but did not bother me when I was walking the beach or out at the pool.It also rained quite hard one night that I was told about cause I never woke up to see it but by morning it was hot and blue skies again.

We are a couple in our 40s and have been to Punta Cana about 20 times and 6 time to this resort. This place is excellent value for the money.

Flight: We flew out of Ottawa with Canjet. Our flight was uneventful other than we were delayed 1 hour, going and coming. We had misplaced our "free luggage" letter and to our surprise the checking person, who was very pleasant said "don't worry I have it on file you have a free bag". The plane was a 737-500 which seats 118 people, we sat at the exit window and enjoyed the extra leg room. It took 5.5 hours to fly to Punta Cana which I found long, smaller plane I guess. The crew were great and made our flight very enjoyable.

Arrival/Checkin: We had previously sent the Resort a request for a room 4330 top floor with an ocean view. The responsible person/manager had already notified us by email that we would get the requested room. So when we arrived, we simply mentioned our names and signed a form, off we went to our ocean view room in the Ocean section - no problem. The only problem with this room is you are facing the disco and it can be loud.

Rooms/resort: This resort was recently bought from Barcelo, they are in transition. They are adding a new Spa and want to build another 500 suites on the beach.

The rooms need to be upgraded, they are basic but everything worked fine. When we arrived the air conditioner sounded like a freight train, a simple call to reception and they came and repaired it (I think it was the fan rubbing on something). The bathroom tub had previously been painted??? and was chipping. We mentioned it at the reception and they asked if we would mind men working in our room, we said "No we wouldn't mind", but nothing ever happened???

There was a mini fridge in the room and was stocked with water, coke and sprite (no cervesa), was replenished everyday including bottled water.

The maid did her basic job, we gave tips and things everyday.

Food: There are 2 buffets which serve the regular stuff where you can always find something to eat. We found the food to always be fresh. At breakfast they have 4 different kinds of fresh juice, it was delicious. I noticed most would go to the dark orange juice fountain, we figured it tasted like Tang, not our favorite.

My husband is very creative at the buffet, for lunch he would toast a long bun, dress it up with chicken, oignons, tomatoes, lettuce and peppers and called it his version of a sub sandwich. Yummy!! He also ordered some garlic (ajo por favor) one evening and made us garlic bread to go with our spaghetti. They brought us the garlic all chopped in olive oil, he toasted some bread and spread it over it ;)

Ala Cartes: They have 4 AlaCartes, a Mexican, a Japanese, The Caribe Steak restaurant, and one the Beach (don't remember the name). Our favourite was the Mexican, then Caribe, then Japanese, our least favourite was the beach ala carte.

The beach: For us this is the nicest beach, it is wide and long. We snorkelled right off the beach with our own gear. It was ok.

Beach Chairs: We arrived at the beach on our first day at around 10a.m. , there was not 1 chair to be found. The next morning my husband got up at 7 a.m. to go and reserve a place and found it a challenge to find a free chair, people must get up around 6 or 6:30 to go reserve.

We had our chairs taken from us 3 times, they simply ditch your towels on another chair. One day they took the chair and the towel, we found this to be very rude. We do not really agree with reserving a chair with a towel - unfortunately we could not find any other option.

On our last week there they were replacing all the older hard plastic chairs with brand new soft ones and added extras.

The disco: We met some fun people and went to the disco on a couple of nights. It was a good time. The disco usually closes at 2a.m, sometime later. There are no cover charges and drinks are free.

Excursions: We have done most of the excursions on the Island, for the most part - they have been good.

During this vacation - we were 3 couples all from Ottawa, all going to different resorts. So we decided it would be fun to go on a quiet excursion by ourselves just the 6 of us. We had pre-organised this from Ottawa. We all met on a specified day, time and place. The captain was great and very knowledgable, he was a very safe driver and helpful. We anchored the boat right next to were most snorkle excursions were at. The fish were far and few apart, in one spot we saw a large Baracuda roaming, we figured he scared most of the other fish away. We had lunch at Cabeza de Toro's Pulpo Cojo restaurant in a little fisherman's village, it was cheap and good.

At the end of the excursion on our way back to the hotel we all went for a swim and cervesa in the natural pool, fun fun fun. Then the Captain dropped us all off at our resorts. All in all it was a pleasent afternoon, everybody enjoyed it.

Hubby & I just returned from one week at the IFA Bavaro Ocean Beach Hotel Nov 24-Dec 3 2005.

Flew out on Skyservice. Flight was uneventful. We lined up early at Pearson and managed to secure emergency exit seating for maximum leg room. Food was ok and the movie was entertaining.

The airport was chaos. It seems the green tourist cards are non valid and they take them from you only to issue blue ones that require the same information to be filled in as the green ones. Then you turn in the blue ones for a small “business” sized card that is stapled to your passport. Same procedure on the way back. Fill in a blue card to surrender to customs so that they can now remove the small card from your passport. Hopefully all will be organized to run more smoothly in the New Year.

Hotel check in was quick. We arrived at approximately 10:30pm. The porter was quick to take us up to the room which was clean and looked like it had been recently upgraded (Dominican Style). There were new tiles on the floor and in the bathroom but the bathtub had been painted with latex paint and was now peeling. No worries, we were only there to clean up, change & sleep in the rooms. No bugs. The mini fridge only contained water and the safe (which we paid a deposit for) seemed a little flimsy with the locking device but it was adequate. The beds were our biggest complaint. Hard, hard, hard mattresses. By day 3 our bones and muscles ached so much that a good nights sleep could only be obtained by over indulging in alcohol before bed or a good dose of Ibuprofen to relax the muscles.

The air conditioning worked well as did all the plumbing. We had hot water each day. The maid missed doing our rooms one day. A call to guest services had our room tidy and clean by the time we returned from dinner.

We only went to one ala Carte restaurant. It was a steak house type of restaurant and the steak was perfect. Nice atmosphere too.

The grounds are very well kept. Walkways are hosed down every other day. The pools are clean. Abundance of loungers. The only mess is the one made by all of the plastic drink cups blowing around. Another reason to bring an insulated mug to cut down on the garbage. The towels were worn but clean. We didn’t care. We were there for the weather and to relax.

We did tip the bar tenders and the servers even at the buffets. They worked very hard to please us and to keep the tables clear and your drinks topped up. We heard a few people complain. They all were from the same decent (as noted in the forums…no surprise there). These people are always the rude ones, but, a smile to your server and a kind “muchas gracias” and soon the others begin to wonder why their plates aren’t cleared or their drinks aren’t topped off with the same service as are yours.

If you’re picky about sharing your dining area with the local animals… don’t go to the Dominican. The open concept dining areas of the buffets allowed for brave blackbirds to fly in and try to coax a crumb or two from the diners. The staff were diligent at chasing them out whenever possible. This place is not for you if you are queasy about the possibility that a bird may have walked across your table.

The food was plentiful. There was even something to eat on the days when my tummy just wasn’t up to a full meal. We ate fresh fruit & veggies, pasta (with the cream sauces), meats, cooked veggies, tried the Dominican local fare, breads, pastries… you name it. We did expect the possibility of having a little gastric displacement and brought the appropriate cure(s). (Imodium & Pepto).

The beach was beautiful. The weather was perfect. A few short rain showers followed by sun, sun, sun. The ocean water was warm. There were a few days where the waves were coming up onto the shore quite high, but by mid afternoon the waters calmed down and it was prime for swimming and snorkeling. We took a long walk on the beach each morning passing workers cleaning the beach and beach vendors. We befriended one vender at a beach market. On each subsequent visit we just told the vendors that we were there to see Eddie Montana. Knowing that we were only buying from one person there seemed to make everyone back off and not pressure you into their section of the beach market.

we just returned from ifa's village beach resort may 1st after a weeks vacation. we are from rhode isalnd (usa). travel down went very smoothly and quickly. no delays at the airport. very speedy check through and onto the bus to ifa. half hour ride to ifa from the airport. we arrived at the hotel @ 12 noon. the room was ready and check in only took 5 minutes or so. porter took our bags for us and we were off. our room was in the 4400 block. room 4425 the last building before you hit the beach path. the room was adequate. nothing fancy and the bathroom could of used i little updating. toilet cracked /shower stall had an old rotted soap dish in the stall that a child could have cut themselves on. we didn't spend much time in the room so all was well. towels are at a premium. it was like pulling teeth to get an extra towel from the maid. nice balcony looking out onto a lawn and the beach grill. they do a great job with activities. the animation staff was wonderful. they work hard to make your stay fun. lots of games and competitions on the beach everyday. 10 am stretching class was fun 12 noon water aerobics, darts, horseshoes, boche, volleyball you name it. afternoon they have funny games and sexy sexy contest. the beach is soft white and pink sand that doesn't get too hot. the animation staff also does shows at night at the stage in the villas portion of the hotel. some were good some amateurish but overall fun. the villas has a beautiful huge pool w/ a tiki bar elevated in the middle. very nice the villas lobby is beautiful w/ a nice bar. couches and comfy chairs. we spent a lot of time here. the al a carte restaurants are all located in the villas section of the complex also. mexican was good and so was the dominican (order the rice pudding). we did not enjoy caribe at all. the beach grill is ala carte and is @ the beach and later @ night turns into the disco. beach grill wasn't bad. you make reservation for all the al a carte restaurants @ the guest services desk in the main lobby. it would be wise to book a couple of days ahead. off the main lobby there is a large pool with a tiki bar. animation team does activities here all day as well as @ the beach. alot of kids at this pool. this is the busiest noisiest pool. nobody @ villas pool ever! and it's beautiful. village pool is the smallest and pretty quiet. there is the lobby bar right off to the side of the village pool. great coffee and espresso machine also. there are 2 buffet restaurants, food so so. fill up at breakfast. lunch at buffets or at the beach grill. pizza not bad . plenty to do or not to do, your choice. take a sailboat , a banana boat ride, snorkel... many possibilities. americans are in the minority here. very helpful to speak a little spanish. there were many canadians and italians, german and spanish when we were there. canadians are a fun bunch! the staff was very friendly and try to be as helpful as possible. i would return in a minute. we found no need to cash dollars into dominican pesos. they love the dollar and it's excepted everywhere. if you go off site for meals the langosta beach restaurant( 5 minute water taxi ride) was great fun. the hotel can make a reservation for you. the boat picks you up on the hotel beach. 2 lb lobsters w/ shrimp calamari etc dessert all your drinks etc. 50.00 dollars 3 piece band to serenade you go in your bathing suit if you like and stroll after lunch or go shopping on the beach. we went into the kitchen it's very clean. this is a better deal than captain cook's restaurant.

Our vacation was Mar 24 - 31. We are from Nova Scotia, Canada This was my daughter's (12 years old) and my second time at this resort. We had stayed there early last May with my brother-in-law and his finance. We had a great time then too. This time my husband and my mother came with us. My husband has only been to the opposite side of the Island so he found this a little more laid back and relaxing. It was my mother's first trip and she thought it was great. While my husband slept in we went to the beach at 7:15 every morning and tanned until 10:00. It started getting a little too hot to just be laying there after that. We'd then go for a swim in one of the pools or at the beach. Sometimes we'd wonder up the beach either way. To the right on the beach there is a large shopping area with local trinkets, cigars, coffee, clothing, and art as well as computer access and a pharmacy. To the left and up a little is the Jellyfish bar and restaurant and next to that is a Plaza with more shopping.

Rooms: We were on the third floor in a building between the swim up bar and the lobby bar. It was always clean and the maid stocked the fridge with bottles of water every day. Our phone was broke but that was a blessing because on the second to last night there a large group of Brazilian's (early 20's) came in a partied hard until dawn and were making random calls to rooms and hollaring in the phone at all hours of the early a.m.

Food: The food was always great. I tried a few different things and really enjoyed the omlets that were made to your request for breakfast. George A. is an awesome waiter/bus boy. He always had a smile and my daughter thought he was such a hunk. He works in the buffet before heading down to the beach.

Bars: Most of the bartenders knew what they were doing. Some were new and tried very hard. I only drink beer so it is not easy to mess up but my mother and husband were trying a variety of mixed drinks and sometimes, once they found something they really liked, they'd order it again and it tasted different. Oh well, they had fun trying. My daughter loved the bahamamama's without alcohol. We mainly went to the Lobby Bar (which is not near the lobby). We sat under the roof in the shade and just people watched and relaxed. Tito would stop by and tell us about himself and his life in DR. We are not sure what exactly he does there but he could be found in with the girls in the hairdressing shop or talking to the ladies at the photoshop or at Nathalie's shop. Guess they were his friends. One time he told us he was married but had lots of friends (with a wink). Jose and Jorge are two of the bartenders at this bar.

Pools: The pools and pool decks were cleaned early every morning and always looked beautiful. The pool by the Margarita bar was by far the busiest and most beautiful as there were all kinds of flowers and plants close by.

Most of the staff could speak English or broken English and those that couldn't would try to help as best they could. It didn't bother me they were always friendly and hey we were in their country.

A few tips. Imodium is always a must. I haven't had any bad experiences but last year 4 out of the 6 of us that went to a different resort were really happy that everyone brought large supplies. It helped them through 4 sucky days. If you plan on getting your hair braided shop around for prices. To put extensions in my daughter's hair on the beach was $200 US in the hairdressing shop by the Lobby Bar it was $100 but be prepared. It took 4 hours to put in extensions and braid them. In January it took 45 minutes without getting extensions and it cost $50 US. The exchange rate in the lobby is lower then if you go into Bavaro Plaza. We were getting a rate of 17.5 at the resort and at the Plaza it was 21 at one exchange and 21.5 at another. The Plaza is only a 15 minute drive away. Just grab a cab ($10 US) and you could wonder around and shop the whole day or explore.

Excursions: We only did two excursions. My husband and daughter did the 1/2 day four-wheelers. They went to an abondoned resort and the beach, and a few other places. They video tape this and will sell you a DVD of it if you wish. While they did that my mother and I went on the 1/2 day catamaran trip along the Bavaro beach coast. We went in the afternoon. I was beautiful but long. We stopped at a major snorkeling area and many of us got out and snorkeled. The fish were beautiful. I was upset when our guide, Lorenzo, pointed out that the large dock looking thing had two baby dolphins penned in it in a small area of water no deeper than one meter and they were charging people admission to "swim" with the dolphins. This was more like get in swim to the other side and get out. Manati Park is also a beautiful excursion. We did it last year. It can be a long day in the heat though. Take lots of water and sunblock.

Flight: Flew out of Calgary with Skyservice. I actually found this plane quite comfortable with lots of leg room. The flight crew was great with good service and average food. We caught some great tail winds and got there in less than 6 hours. The return flight wasn't so short (7.5 hours) and a bathroom was broken. But great nevertheless.

Hotel: After a very scary ride from the airport....those drivers are CRAZY, we checked in with great ease. We were the only ones checking in. We asked for a top floor room near the beach but instead were given a bottom floor. We asked to change and quickly were given a top floor room. We stayed in room 4334 which was in the building closest to the beach but faced the pool instead of the beach. The room was nice although in need of an update. The bathroom was kind of rundown and it was like winning the lottery if we had hot water. The view was nice and we were happy with it.

Pools/Beach/Grounds: There were three pools, one in each section of the hotel. I found that the pool near the Villas was the most beautiful although all 3 were nice. The Village pool was, by far, the busiest and where all the action was. I loved how there was lots of palm trees and greenery on the grounds. It looked very lush. The beach was simply AMAZING. I am still speechless when I think about the white powder soft sand and the green blue water. It was great. I spent as much time as I could at the beach.

Food/Drinks: The rum was TOP NOTCH. The food was average although beautifully presented. Banana Mamas and ChiChi's are a must try! We spent alot of time at the Lobby Bar. The bartenders there were great. Watch out for the Pina Coladas .....a natural laxative.

We enjoyed an afternoon of bartering at the beach market which is to your immediate right once you get to the beach....everything you could ever want is there....and we never paid anything more than a 1/4 of what they originally asked for it. We also walked down the beach to the left for about an hour and got to Capt Cooks restaurant. Very cute little area....and right behind the restaurant is a little mini village with a pharmacy, grocerys and market. It was a little scary but we got some great items.

Just back from 2 weeks. I'd go again, somewhere else in Dominican Rep or maybe Cuba. Beautiful place, lovely beach, nice climate for the tropics. Sea breezes keep it cool and almost bug-free. We saw only one mosquito, used the recommended Muskol insect spray, and got only a few bug bites around the ankles that you get anywhere walking in the sand.

IFA working hard to upgrade after recent purchase - all Ocean and Village buildings newly painted, rooms in very good order, spacious, big balconies. Ocean buildings closest to beach. Resort is narrow and long - further back you go, longer to the beach, but they have a shuttle bus. Disco on the beach lights up late - 1130, but didn't stop us sleeping. Before that does a la carte dining by reservation, beautiful setting, and simple beach food during the day - burgers, salads, and open bar.

3 good pools, 3 open bars, really quite good bar drinks and beer (premium brands available for a charge but expensive). 2 pretty good buffet restaurants, food more than fair, plenty of choice but like anywhere gets repetitive. Masses of fruit, salads, baking, meats - grills and roasts, even duck and whole pig sometimes. Evening entertainment tries hard, sometimes a bit amateur, usually the Animation team who work flat out all day at activities, beach games, dance and exercise sessions.

Best way to see the country is the excursion to Higuey, the provincial main town which has a quite spectacular basilica, with lunch stop at the restored 16th century village of Altos los Chavas, and passing through plantations on the coastal plain where sugar cane still hand cut and carried off by ox carts. Well worth the $30 cost (other excursions all very expensive, and we didn't bother). Best way to sightsee locally - Flying Boats: zodiac inflatable attached to an ultralight, operating flights over the local area from the beach with pilot and passenger. $60 though!

Only disadvantage we found was only a few English-speaking guests. Many different European languages makes communication difficult, but the staff try hard although only a few understand anything other than Spanish - take a phrase book! Smiles work well.

We've stayed at IFA Bavaro Village Resort from Feb 10 to Feb 19, 2007. We were in Punta Can few times already(at Barcelo, Sunscape, Natura Park, Allegro).

Arrival: We've booked the vacation via Apple Vacations(including airport transfers). The flight arrived to Punta Cana on time at 4:30PM. We were met by the Apple representatives outside the airport exit door(just ignore the annoying people trying to pick you up inside the airport building).

Hint: when filling the immigration form on the flight to Punta Cana or upon arrival to the airport, fill two identical forms for every person: one copy they will take upon the arrival and another one you would be asked to fill when you going home/leave Punta Cana during the check-in. Also, be prepared to pay $10 for a Tourist Card upon arrival to PC.

The mini-van delivered us to the hotel in about 30 minutes. We were given the room key right away- Room #3624 in the Village section of the hotel.

The hotel itself consists of three sections(as many other reviews already mentioned). The Village section we've stayed in is located in the middle of the territory right where the main swimming pool/towels/reception area are.

Room: I can't say about the rooms in other sections, but our room #3624 was very depressing-looking: very old rundown furniture, broken lock on the balcony door, old corroded refrigerator with two bottles of water...no other drinks are given...), bed covers with wholes in them, dim lights and peeling paint on the walls. Everything was very old and needed replacement/repairs. The bathroom looked even worse: corroded bathtub(never seen one like that even in cheap motels), weak water pressure, no hot water on many days.

The air-conditioner was producing more noise than cool air. You are only given one room key...so you would have to plan your activities correspondingly if more than one person is staying in the room. We've talked to few people in other 3xxx buildings in the Village section - they were all very pretty unhappy about the room conditions. The rooms in the Beach section(4xxx) looked slightly better than in Village or Villas sections.

Beach: it takes appr. 15-20 minutes of fast(I mean fast..) walking from the Village section to the beach. The hotel is NOT located on the beach!!! Other hotel on both sides(Barcello and Melia) do have some sections right on the beach. IFA doesn't have any buildings near the beach. There is a little shuttle truck that runs from the reception area to the beach(it takes 5-7 minutes to get to the beach). The beach itself has very nice white powder sand, the ocean is very nice and calm; due to the reefs, you would hardly see any significant waves most of the time.

Shade on the beach: don't be fooled by the pictures on the IFA website: despite the large number of palm trees, there were almost NO shade areas on the beach; there were some areas away from the beach, most of the trees were too tall or too small to create a consistent shade during the day. We had to wake up at 7AM to go and put the towels in those few spots with the shade. I am not sure why the hotel can't build something like Melia did to provide more shade. In addition to not having shades, there were not enough sun-beds in general on the beach. If you come after 9AM - you would NOT find any available ones at all. We've seen on multiple occasions people fighting over the space on the beach.

Also, for some unexplained reason, the grill and the bar with drinks are located only on one side of the beach....so if you are on the other side(closer to Melia) - you would have to walk a good 500m to get a drink or food during lunch.

Food: do NOT believe when you read that there are 4 buffet restaurants at IFA resort. During breakfast, there are only two buffet restaurant open: one near the reception area(usually very crowded) and the other one near the sports bar in the Ocean section. For lunch, there is one buffet place near the reception and a grill on the beach(serving only hamburgers, sausages, salads, hot-dogs, rice or pasta). The grill doesn't have enough tables so usually people waiting for a long time to get a table.

Another buffet place is always closed for lunch. There is also a bar near the swimming pool that serves pizza during lunch time. So, to call it "4 buffet restaurants" would be really pushing it.

There are also 3 a-la-carte restaurants in the Villas section open for dinner only(Japanese, Mexican and international).

Breakfast: pretty good selection of cold cuts, tomatoes, cucumbers, hot dogs, mashed potatoes, beans. There is a omelet station with one cook ...usually gets pretty crowded... Watered-down orange juice, milk, selection of cereals, fresh fruits(bananas, mango, papaya, pineapple, melon, watermelon).

Lunch and dinner: at least one fish dish, grilled pork or beef, rice, pasta station, potatoes, few salads, two soups, lots of breads, veggies. Most of the dishes are not very tasty...some look and taste really scary. But I have to admit we never felt/got sick during our stay - so the sanitary conditions looked pretty good.

Japanese place - nothing special...average food(avoid Marinated Fish Dish with Fish), good service. Mexican place...again nothing spectacular. International place-nothing special as well. Make sure you reserve them as soon as you arrive....usually they were booked pretty early.

We've stayed for 10 days - there were no 'Manager's parties/receptions' that are usually pretty common in most of the resorts.

Sport activities: there are some games being played near the pool(darts, water volleyball), there was some beach volleyball at the beach and some dance classes as well). I have not found the promised ping-pong tables, there were no basketball. Tennis courts were in the Villas section and your would need to reserve them ahead of time. Overall, not much organized activities compare to other resorts.

Entertainment: the entertainment teams consists of about 12-13 young people....they produce the evening shows every day. Some shows are better than others; pretty good dancers and couple of average singers. The themes are mostly Dominican/Carribean. Don't get me wrong -we do have a sense of humor...but many of the jokes/comments/acts were really indecent considering there were lots of kids present during the shows. For some reason, most of the jokes and action were associated with imitation of sexual acts(TACA-TACA using the entertainment team jargon) and discussions about sexual powers of the entertainment team. The "Mister Bavaro" show was really over-board with respect to its indecent content.

Disco: it starts at 11:30PM on the beach(where the grill is during the day). They play live music until about 1:30AM-2:00AM mostly Dominican...then some other tunes..nothing to be excited about...pretty lame. They do serve hamburgers/hot-dogs all the way until 3AM...

Bars: the drinks they serve were really bad! All watered-down, only local beer(Presidente), don't know how to make some drinks at all...and most of them really tasted bad...The best bar was in the Villas section. Also, they all expect to get tips..otherwise you would be ignored for long periods of time..

Shopping: There were several little stores at the resort that sell everyday items, sun block, drinks, candies, souvenirs, clothes, paintings, vases, etc. Most of the items were 3-4 time more expensive than you would buy at home. There were no newspapers sold/provided anywhere at the resort on any day.

Service overall: I would give a 2-3 stars at best; a lot of them look not interested unless you tip them. Some are just rude(reception area would be a good example).

Touristas: most of the people were from France, Germany, Canada(French portion), Portugal and Italy. There were very few people from US.

Nov 4th we left from Toronto, Air Transat. Unfortunately they do not fly out of Hamilton until mid Dec. The weather forecasts were rain or scattered showers for the whole week. Never trust a weatherman, it rained a bit 2 nights, the days were sunny.

This was our 3rd visit to this resort complex. Lots of staff changes, we really missed the old animation crew of 2 years ago. Lots of changes, a new gym that they call a spa, Looks nice but I never used it. They are remodeling the activities center inside and out. Grounds keepers are fewer but they have gone to less maintenance vegetation by getting rid of hedges etc. The maids work harder and longer, they start at 7:00AM by washing down the walkways and pool areas and our maid came to do our room at 7:45 PM one night.

They have tried to keep birds out of the buffet restaurants by covering the sides with netting and it has reduced the number of birds. They got a lot of nice new lounge chairs for the pools and beach. They bolted them in place by the pools to keep orderly walkways open and there was never a shortage of lounges at the beach. They now have an ATM outside the lobby but it did not work for 3 days that I know of, not the hotels problem as it is owned by Banco Popular.

Walking the beach in both directions we noticed that this resort has a much lower vacancy rate than the higher classed resorts around it, it is a great bargain and is very popular with an international client el. If you want room service and 5 star treatment, open your wallet and go somewhere else but if you want a simply good time , this is the place!

My husband and I just got back from 2 weeks at ifa bavaro in Puta Cana.We had a wonderful time.

The beach was wide and longer than we could possibly walk.The beaches are 5 star.

The food was okay. There was a pretty good variety . As usual , the breakfasts are great. Lunch at the beach was good and dinner was a little disappointing. 3*

To go to a al a carte rest. you have to line up for about 30 minutes in the front lobby to get a reservation at a reasonable hour.We enjoyed the Mex. ,International, and you have to go to the Caribe just to read the menu ;it's really funny. Their english translation is almost as bad as our spanish translation.

The bars were great. The booze is DOMESTIC. If you see something at the bar that you can get at home it is not domestic. We saw a guy order a black Russian ( Absolut vodka and Kailua ) . That cost him $14.00 U.S. So if you want to drink something like bailey's get it at duty free on your way down. The house wine sucks served warm or cold.The good news is they have diet coke . The beer is great and their rum drinks are good. Try a few different drinks and see which is your fav. We saw about 4 mosquitoes and they seem to like to hang out in the bathrooms. No big deal. They play local music at all the bars and restaurants which sounds great , but it is very loud and plays very early until very late. We stayed in a building close to the ocean. We were in room 4318 , which is 2nd floor , beside one of the two buffet restaurant. Every thing worked and our room was very nice. Our maid was almost useless. She emptied the garbage , made the bed so when you try to get in it, the sheets all come out and she swept our floor. We left her a dollar, lady bic razor,colorful hair tieback and a perfume sample each morning for 3 days. When she set a new roll of toilet on top of an empty roll , we decided to clean our own room and save some money and give all our goodies to the people cleaning public bathrooms and gardening staff.

The music starts at 8:00 a.m. until 11:p.m. Then the disco by the beach is running from 11:00 p.m. til 3:00 a.m. It seemed the best buildings to be in are in 3100 to 4300. They also have a huge area which is all 1 story bungalows. It is a very very very long walk to the beach. If you get to beach and have forgot something , you're going to be very upset. You can call for a little truck to come and pick you up and take you to the main lobby and then get on the big truck which will take you to the beach.

We had once heard that the staff make about $13.00 per month. That's not true , so pay for good service and not for lousy service. If they made that little the service would be better.

We went on a snorkel tour called marinarium. We enjoyed it but when we got to the shark and ray "reserve" we were a little disturbed. It seems caged means reserve in their eyes. Other than that it was alot of fun.

We also went on the Outback Jungle Safari which was also very good. Our tour guide was Kevin. His English is very good and he was very informative.We enjoyed our day. We booked through our rep. so we had no worries , but it was expensive.

There is quit a bit of topless at the pool and the beach. Probably 20 % of the women were topless and about the same for men in Speedos .

I have never written a hotel review before but I feel I must this time. We are 2 middle aged couples who have been in Punta Cana 10 times in 9 different all-inclusive resorts. We went to IFA Village Beach Resort November of last year. I must say this is by far the worst hotel we have ever been there.

The day we arrived the other couple had to get their room 3704 changed in the middle of the night because their air conditioning didn’t work. Because of the rush they left a full bottle of shampoo in the washroom. Next day they asked for it but it never appeared and nothing was done about it. We were assigned room 3703 on the ground floor. On the third day I woke up walking on the sewage of the rooms above because the sewer was blocked. They had to change us to a room on a second floor.

Some other details about the rooms and accesses: Public walkways had the lights removed (I guess to save electricity), actually ripped right off the wall. You could see on the walls where they had been. Same thing in the balconies. Twice they put towels ripped in half in the bathroom; one half for each person. The pillows were very old and full of matted balls. In regards to the rest:

Clean beach towels were never available.

70% of the reclining chairs on the beach were broken. The gym was a joke.

Non motorized sports were not free. They charged us US$15 for the use of a hobbie-cat for an hour. There are no pedal boats. The food was the worst we have ever had in the Dominican Republic: Juices are fake, marmalade and jam of the cheapest kind available in the country, same for all alcoholic beverages. Oil was un-edible, one day at breakfast the milk was sour. At the Caribean a-la-carte restaurant there was no regular wine available. If you wanted to drink wine with your dinner, you had to pay extra. The service at that restaurant was so lousy we stood up and left after 10 minutes. Buffet food was poor to say the least.

All in all a hotel without love, without care for the customers. Please take notice that all 4 of us are South Americans, therefore it is not a matter of cultural differences. Also what I said at the beginning; we are comparing this so called 3 1/2 or 4 star hotel with 8 other all-inclusive hotels in the same area and with the same number of stars.

First of the beach is the best you will find anywhere, its worth the price of the resort. We have been to this resort four times, the most recent visit was October 16th to the 23rd 2005. The weather was perfect, resort very nice. Rooms are spacious, not overly beautiful but nice for the week or two week stay.

The service personnel are accommodating, although the breakfast buffet service could have been better, a little slow.

The pools are beautiful, beach the best, the bars are excellent, make sure to ask for alcohol in your drinks or you may not get it. Tip them a dollar or two every so often, it makes them remember you and you get quicker service.

The beach restaurant and bar is the best for lunch because of the spectacular view of the ocean and the activities.

The tours they suggest you go on are all overpriced and not worth the money, the best deal is the $15 or $20 dollar snorkeling tour off the beach, the guy is in the small shack on the beach, he is very accommodating and its the best trip you will do for the cash.

The safari, and shark and dolphin tours are not worth it, the booze cruise boat is also a ripoff, stay away from these, enjoy the beach.

The food at this resort still needs improving, its boring and uneventful, standard buffet stuff, but its OK for a week or so, drinks are always plentiful. The place needs things such as ice machines in the building lobby's, better maid service, fizz in the soft drinks, and some snacks, such as chips or pretzels at the bar, bring these with you if you like them.

As I said the food needs work, make a reservation at the Japanese restaurant, its very good and a change of pace from the buffets. Any questions you may have just email me and I'll try and answer them.

Beware of the beach front shops, the guys will try and rip you off, pay a third of what they are asking, no more.

We returned from a week at this hotel recently (October 9-16th). Although we had booked for the Villas, we were actually in the Village section once we got there. For a 3.5 * hotel, we were very pleased. You have access to all of the facilities at all three hotels regardless of whether you stay in the Villas, Village or Ocean section. The food was good with lots of selection. The Japanese, beach, and Mexican a la carte restaurants were very good also. At present, the Dominican a la carte is closed for renovations.

If you are looking for good offshore snorkelling, perhaps Punta Cana is not the place for you. We found only a few fish directly off shore. There are 3 trips available from "Aquatica Watersports" on the beach. Talk to Stephan - he is very informative. The "Reef" trip goes to an area with fish, but little coral for about $15 U.S. (1 hour plus 15 minute boat ride). The "El Nino" trip goes to a reef area for $20 U.S. per person (1 hour snorkelling plus 15 minute boat ride). The trip we wanted to go on, "Catalina Island", was cancelled twice due to bad weather (it rained 5 1/2 days out of the 7 with alot of thunderstorms) It is a cross country trip by bus to the south coast at La Romana. From there a boat takes you to the island for a day of snorkelling in two locations and lunch. The island is a protected marine area, so is not overfished. This trip was $79 U.S. per person.

Just returned from the IFA Bavaro Village and i am already looking for sales on the internet again .

Me and my friend both females 37 from nova scotia canada went there from April 26 - May 3 , it was my first time going to the Dominican and it won't be my last ,

This resort has three sectons to it ,villas, village ,and ocean you have access to all three i highly recommend the village that is where we stayed it is located in the middle and it was a blast we stayed in room 3111 ,it was the bottom floor facing the lobby, we could set out on the balcony in the morning with our coffee and see the pool bar the lobby plus the buffet resturant,it was nice especially if you are sociable to wave and say hi to people walking by in the morning or anytime during the day, if i go back to this resort again i will ask to stay in the same room ,it was very clean the service was wonderful and if you needed anything all you had to do is ask and you recieved.

the village was in the middle of the three and we had noticed that this is where all the action was, we noticed alot of people from the ocean and the villas gathered at the village pool and the bar,even though the villas and the ocean had pools,there was a disco everynight starting 11pm at the beach it was alot of fun there was three buffets to choose from and there were also resturants you could make reservatons for ,we ate one time at the beach to celebrate a birthday with one of the new friends we met while we were there and it was very nice the cordon bleu and the calamari was divine.

The buffets were very good i have no complaints at all with the food i enjoyed it very much there was alot to choose from i especially enjoyed the pastas and deserts.

we also went on a safari excursion while we were there it was fun and very enjoyable nice to see how other people live and how the make there living it was a eye opener .

Flight:
We flew to Punta Cana with Transat Airlines. We were served a rather tasty meal, the movies were reasonably current and there was a pillow and blanket for every passenger. The only complaint would be that in 7 hours of flying they only served drinks twice (ie:2 cups of fluids in 7 hours). We were dehydrated by the time we arrived.

Hotel:
The hotel was reasonable for a 3 star. I wouldn’t expect much more – or be happy with much less. The rooms were basically clean except that the walls didn’t appear to have been washed in a while (the remains of squashed bugs were still stuck to the walls and ceiling). The room had full width patio doors which let lots of light. The downside is that our particular room backed on to a grey-water lagoon which had an unpleasant smell at times (the 3500 block, avoid it). So we didn’t use the patio or keep the doors open as much as we would like to have.

Pools/beach:
The pools and beach were excellent. The beach has the softest sand we have touched– and we have been around the world. We never had to fight for chairs but that was because we were usually ahead of the crowd. I imagine anyone who came mid-afternoon might have trouble finding an empty one. There is a beachside bar and grill for mid-day drinks and meals. To get to the beach we walked 100m to the end of the hotel, another 50m through a sandy, well treed area and then maybe another 20m to the water. There are much closer rooms but the closest ones are close to the disco and hence, are more noisy at night (so we have been told). Somewhere in between might be a good compromise.

Drinks:
Drinks were served fairly strong – much stronger than Mexican resorts and a bit stronger than North American standards. Rhonda ordered hers with “poco” alcohol. I was impressed that they served the best quality Bavaro rum made on the island if you ordered it on the rocks. It was smooooth… like drinking good scotch with a rum flavour. It became Dale’s favourite and he bought two bottle of the rum to take home.

Excursions:
As far as tours go, we hit the jackpot. Based on another review here at this site we contacted Wim Goessens {cell: (1) 841.72.41 or email: wimpyja@hotmail.com}. There were six of us travelling together and he took us on 2 personal tours (we had 8 on the second as we invited another couple we had met). Each was a full day (8 AM to 6 or 7 PM). Wim’s tours allow you to “experience” the country as opposed to just seeing it. Where the Jungle Safari takes you to a school that has been set up to accommodate tours, Wim takes you a remote school where the children don’t see many visitors. I’ll tell you… DR kids are not well behaved.

We visited the home a several real REAL DR families, not actors paid to entertain tourists; and we experienced two home cooked typical Dominican lunches (except that Wim made them include vegetables, which are not a part of a regular DR diet). We fell in love some of the children. Knowing what I now know about what happens to girls when the become “of age” I wished I could adopt the daughter of one of these families – she was so bright and could have a great future – if she was given half a chance. It won’t happen in DR.

Win took us snorkelling to a less used site (albeit, the coral was noting compared to other places), swimming in a local river (some local kids joined us– we taught them how to skip rocks and they caught a tarantula for us to see), to a natural grotto (where it looked like we were about to be robbed until Wim pulled his gun out of his pocket and tucked it into his belt where it could be seen) and to a beach where the waves are much bigger and we could go body surfing. We also visited a waterfall (rare in this part of the island) and walked down the creek for a so called “jungle walk” (more arid than jungle, nothing like central or South America).

Wim’s stories are very interesting, It was such an eye opener. He has been on the island for 10 years, most of which was as a manager at one of the resorts. He knows how the resorts work. He was also one of those so called “hosts” for one of the airlines at one time. What a scam. They are sales people there to sell tours, not provide service. They get HUGE commission and send you with a local tour company contracted to them (the tour company only get 50% of what you pay). These same local companies aren’t allowed to take you directly as a client but there are other local companies or guides (like Wim) who can. These are more personalized tours and charge less ($300 for the six on us on the first tour, 20% less on the second). The sales people (oops, I meant hosts/hostesses) will discourage you from booking with these local companies for obvious financial reasons. The only complaint about Wims’ tour was that when we paid him in peso’s at the end he ripped us off on the exchange rate – getting ripped off is a true Dominican experience.

Food:
The best food by far was at the Caribe restaurant (poor service, but great food). The DR restaurant was a close 2nd (make sure you order the rice pudding) and the Beach Grill 3rd (best service overall, but not a great menu). We didn’t like any of the 6 dishes we ordered at the Mexican and the buffet tended to be mostly bland food – although they would sometimes have something good frying on the grill.

Flight (*****)
We booked our flight through American airlines, which connected in Miami with a one-hour layover and then flew into La Romania airport. Everything went smoothly. There were no delays or issues along the way. We saved about 200.00 a person by flying into La Romana rather than the Punta Cana airport. After, having experienced both airports, this airport seemed to be much less busy, and easier to deal with, than Punta Cana.

Ground transfer/Check in (***)
Upon arrival at La Romana, we received our luggage in about ten minutes and then it took us about 20 minutes to clear immigration and customs. The line going in was long, but it seemed to move quickly. You are required to purchase a traveler’s permit upon arrival, which will cost you $10.00 a person. You must hold onto this until you leave. At departure the immigration officer will collect it.

Our Apple ground transportation was waiting as soon as we exited the airport. We had a private van the whole way to Bavaro, which is about an hour and forty-five minutes away. The driver was very nice and it was a very pleasant ride. The two-hour drive allowed us to see a lot of the beautiful countryside and also part of Higuey, which is a city that is close to all of the resort areas on the east coast.

Once we arrived at the resort, check in was very easy. We asked the reception guy for a room close to the beach and he assured us that it would be.

Room (***)
It turns out that there are actually two resorts in one. There is IFA Ocean Village, which is in the back of the property and about a fifteen-minute walk to the beach and then there is the IFA Beach Resort, which sits in front of the beach. Apple only has a contract with Ocean Village so our room was very, very far back from the beach contrary to the reception guys opinion. The room was modest and needed a little cleaning and updating. The tub had a leak in the soap dispenser so soap ran down the back of the tub all of the time. The room was very starkly decorated with two double beds and a squeaky ceiling fan. The outside was very cute because it was set up like a village with little bungalow type houses for rooms all of which had small patios in the front.

We were also told that there would be a mini bar with beer and soft drinks and also bottled water by our booking agent. After a long and exhausting journey, we opened the fridge to find two bottles of water and nothing else.

We spoke with a young German woman at the front desk, who was in charge of guest services (and should NOT have been) and explained our situation and she basically said sorry, no beer and soda for you and promptly dismissed us and returned to her conversations on the phone! End of story! She was very short with us and not the least bit friendly. We also asked her if she had a guide or something for the restaurants and how we were to make reservations and where and when to make them. Again, she was short and rattled off the names and times and said we don’t have a guide! You should have got that on the bus! We spoke with our Apple rep, Juan, who ended up transferring our room to the front of the resort near the beach and was very helpful, so all ended well with the room. The better room was much more spacious, cleaner, and had a nice patio overlooking the grounds. Still no beer and soft drinks though. I guess when IFA took over the resort from Barcelo they changed some stuff.

We were also told that there would be a free safe in the room. Again, things weren’t as promised. It’s a fifteen-dollar fee for the week to get a lock for your safe according to Nurse Diesel in charge of guest services.

Entertainment (*****)
There is a large stage near the first pool that had some pretty good entertainment nightly. Some nights were hokey with the guy on stage turning the meringue music on and off and on and off making the guests do silly stuff on stage, which was quite annoying. Several nights they had actual shows with professional entertainment. We watched a dance show one night, which was awesome, complete with costumes and smoke effects. We felt like we were in Vegas. The shows are nightly from 10 to 11 p.m. There is no listing as to what the show will be so you will just have to take your chances.

For other activities, there are a variety of things such as meringue lessons, volleyball, kayaks, small boats, speedboats for rent, diving lessons, etc. My partner and I did go kayaking one day. All non-motorized stuff is free as are the dance lessons and the diving lessons. The pavilion on the beach has all the info about that type of stuff. There is also a myriad of side trips and snorkel excursions that you can take for varying fees. I would recommend talking to your tour rep.

There is a disco at night on the beach which runs till two am. The music is mostly American and not many people were dancing.

Beach (*****)
I have been to the Dominican three times and to the east and west coast of Mexico as well as all up and down both coasts of the U.S. and I have to say that this is the most beautiful beach that I have been on in all of my travels. It is white powder and VERY wide loaded with coconut palms and azure blue water! It looks like something right out of a post card.

There were an ample amount of beach chairs so you didn’t have to fight for one or get up at six a.m. and throw a towel out like most resorts.

If you go to the beach and walk to your right for about twenty minutes you pass all the other resorts and have nothing but wild beach and jungle behind that. We spend most of our beach days down there because someone had managed to drag two lounge chairs way out there so it was like having our own private beach. Ok, so we were evil and hid the chairs in the jungle so we would have them each day but you gotta do what you gotta do! Most people are too lazy to walk that far, so if your want privacy you will only see a handful of people now and then. If you walk farther you will come to a sign that says do not cross. Well everyone did as did we. You will come to a point that is rocky and if you walk a little farther there is a nice wide pristine beach with even clearer water. There is a sand road that winds through the palms. We met a guy on a donkey collecting coconuts and were offered one. I traded a cigarette for a coconut! He was very nice! Farther down there was another guy who said hey, get my photo climbing the tree for you! I told him, I don’t have any money to tip you. He said that’s ok and climbed way up to the top of a coconut tree and was hamming it up for the camera.

Food (*)
Well, to be blunt…the food at the buffet was for the most part, horrible. I have traveled a lot…both to Europe and to the Caribbean and all over the states. I know that you can’t expect food like you get at home nor do I want food like I get at home. I want to eat what the locals eat and try new stuff. Im not one of these tourists who gets upset because there is no pizza and burgers and hard rock cafes all over the place. I travel to escape that! I love to eat and I appreciate all kinds of food, as does my partner who has also traveled extensively to even more exotic places than I. I would have loved to have actual Dominican dishes on the buffet but unfortunately most of it was not.

Most of the food on the buffet was either very greasy, or very dried out and had no flavor. The seafood smelled and tasted like it had been lying on the beach for WAY too long. We ended up sticking to the pasta, which was marginal at best, and to the fresh fruits which were very good. Some of the soups were ok too. Breakfast was decent. You could get fried eggs or an omelet. They usually had a lot of fresh fruit, hot chocolate, and a very tasty Dominican porridge.

There are four restaurants in addition to the buffet. We ate at three out of four. There is a Mexican, the beach restaurant, the Dominican restaurant, and the gourmet restaurant. You must make reservations for the Dominican, Mexican, and gourmet one day ahead of time at the front desk with the militant German woman. For the beach restaurant, you must go at lunchtime and put your name on the reservation list.

All of the restaurants allow you to choose an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert. The gourmet restaurant is 80% inclusive. You have to pay for certain entrees and for any wine you consume. The rest of the restaurants are all free.

The Mexican restaurant was the best out of all of them. They gave you a buffet type appetizer bar and you could make your own fresh burritos, which were very good. The entrée was mediocre. Most of the desserts listed were not available you had your choice of flan, flan, or more flan.

The gourmet restaurant was also very nice. We bought a bottle of champagne for our last night to celebrate. The lamb chops were very nice but the portions were tiny.

The Dominican restaurant was somewhat of a disappointment. I was hoping to get some good local cuisine. We had goat, which was tasty but also very bony and the appetizer bar was mostly pasta again!

We did not make it to the beach restaurant because we were always busy and never seemed to get there in time to make reservations.

The snack bar at the beach was nice and had hamburgers, pizza, and fries if you were hungry and didn’t want to miss beach time.

If you get hungry after hours, the buffet hut near reception serves till one am. Its mostly staff eating but you are more than welcome to join in as we did many nights.

Bars (**)
There are five bars at the resort. One also serves Dominican coffee in the form of espresso, cappuccino, and late. The coffee bar was very good and a nice relaxing place to hang out in the evening.

Again, I don’t expect TGI Fridays however I do expect at least something tasty. All of the tropical drinks were very watery and VERY sweet. They use mixes for everything. If you get a pina colada….It's a mix. If you get a rum punch…it’s a mix. Cuba Libre's seemed to be the most palatable although the soda was flat. My partner ended up drinking Gin and tonics all the time because they were about the only thing not loaded with sugar. The beer was also decent.

The bartenders and all of the staff at the resort were very nice and very friendly. The one bar, called the lobby bar (which was no where near the lobby) seemed to be very loud and very obnoxious most nights with drunk American’s being rude and boisterous. The other bars were more laid back.

Pool (****)
There were three pools, which were medium in size. The large one has a bar on an island in the middle of it. The pool bar (swim up bar) was never open the whole time we were there. Both of us are beach people so we didn’t really spend any time in the pool. From what I could see they were very clean and very pretty at night.

Grounds (****)
The grounds were very nicely maintained and clean. They were working on re-landscaping parts of it since IFA is upgrading it to a five-apple resort. It’s a very, very long resort with a lot of property to cover. All of it was very clean and tastefully done.

Shops/services (****)
There are several shops on the grounds all of which are VERY pricey. There is a cigar shop, a mini mart, and three souvenir shops with paintings and things like that for sale. I bought a bag of chips, a cigar cutter, and a pack of smokes. It came to thirty dollars. BRING EVERYTHING YOU NEED WITH YOU, OR YOU WILL PAY BIG $$!

If you do decide to go off the resort to shop for souvenirs there is a market/tourist trap if you walk to the right on the beach. It’s between IFA and the next resort and its located right on the beach. You will know when you reach it because you will be accosted if you come within fifty feet of it. They are very aggressive and will try to drag you into every one of the shops and if you so much as glance at anything they will try to pressure you in to buying it and will start off at some ridiculously high price hoping that you will be dumb enough to buy it. If you actually manage to get under their radar and enter the shops you will be swarmed like a bleeding fish in a shark tank. If you like this sort of thing by all means enjoy!

We arranged a trip via a taxi to a small town off of the resort, which, according to our tour operator, was not supposed to be a giant tourist and trap locals shopped there. We had originally wanted to go into Higuey and just do some shopping there since there are not many tourists and locals really do shop there! The rep informed us that it would cost around 40.00 for the cab ride and that we would be better off going to the local area. Well, we paid $20.00 roundtrip for the cab and got to the small town and found out that it was almost as bad as the trap on the beach. We were SWARMED! We ended up seeking refuge in a cigar shop where the very nice proprietor didn’t hassle us and ended up being friendly and walking around the shops with us to look for stuff. Since we had a local with us, not a soul bothered us and we were able to shop in peace. Side Trips (****)
There are numerous side trips that you can take. This time we took the trip to Saona Island, which is on the southern coast of the island. I have gone on this trip before and enjoyed it a lot so I knew what to expect.

They pick you up at around 7 in the morning and bus you to a central meeting spot and then on to Bayahibe, which is the town where you catch the catamaran to the island. The last time I went we were on a very large catamaran with lots of netting to lie out on. This time we were cramped onto a tiny catamaran with no room to move. That was a little disappointing. The boat takes two hours to sail to Saona. Once you get there they feed you and you have about two hours of beach time. You take a speedboat back and stop along way to jump in and play with the starfish. We had a good time. The food was very good (ten times better than the resort) and the beach was even more spectacular on the island (if that’s even possible). My only complaints were the cramped boat and the (again) obnoxious, loud, American tourists (and I’m an American! Come on guys…try to have some bit of tact.).

The last time I took the truck tour, which I highly recommend. You drive around in an open bed military type jeep and tour the towns and mountains. You go to a sugar field, a farm, a school, Higuey, and to a fruit farm. They also feed you and you get to go swimming at a river, which is crystal clear. It gives you a chance to see life outside the microcosm of the resort and see what Dominican’s really live like.

General Tips
This is a third world country. Remember that, and don’t expect everything to be like America. That is the reason for traveling to a different country, to experience different cultures and to have fun. These people don’t bite; in fact they are some of the nicest people that I have encountered. Treat them with respect just like you would want to be treated. They don’t have much, but they work VERY hard for what they do have. Don’t be afraid to explore. The Dominican Republic has the lowest crime rate in all of the Caribbean and is a very safe place to be. Again, no one is going to bite you. Just don’t be stupid and wander into alleys and down dark beaches at night and you will be fine. It’s all common sense. Most of the tourists there are from Europe, Canada, or South America. You will be the minority if you are from the States. It’s actually refreshing. Most people do speak some English. We had no problems with communication. You just have to be patient. Again, you are NOT in the States and Spanish is the national language, NOT English. You are a guest in THEIR country so don’t get upset if they don’t speak English all that well. They will go out of their way to make you happy and to try to help you if you show a little patience and understanding.

As for other tips…. I would bring a long any kind of toiletry item that you are going to need because if you purchase it at the store on the resort you will be ten times what you should. Things aren’t cheap there because they know that you need them and probably don’t feel like taking a two-hour bus trip to Higuey to get them. Also, the sun gets very hot there so bring lots of sun block. It’s sunny almost every day with a nice breeze and 85-degree temps. Bring lots of Imodium too because the food and water tend to bother your stomach if you aren’t used to it. We had little problems but its better to be safe than sorry. Stick to bottled water and if you go off th