I stayed at the Grand Palladium Palace after much research on this website and chose the GP Palace.

I am 40 years old and went with my 62 year old mother . The Palace seemed to have the best shot at getting a close room to the Beach and pools ( With her not being an avid walker)

We arrived and recieved a room in bldg 91 and it was a few feet from t he beach and pool. I'm not gonna repeat everything I read Just points didn't read.

The entire Palladium complex is beautiful. I would really have choosen to stay at the Bavaro section. The Barvaro Lobby area had everything for at night. It has the lobby bar, Koi pond,Entertainment, the sports bar, shops and theather all in one main area . ( very easy for my mom to take the train to get there) Food for an all inclusive was very good, and I've been to many countrys. I've been to mexico, Bahamas, puerto rico, Jamaica, caymans, st Lucia, Aruba, Curacao, Maragrita island,antigua, st thomas, st martin and barbados. This hotels food was very good for an all inclusive. Plus you get for a week 3 nights of ala cartes usually most hotels give one. I did go to the mecian restaurant 2 xs. we loved it. The key to the buffets are looking at every kiosk before making your selections. Alot of seafood, paella, Steaks, swordfish salmon. One corner has Itlain, pasta, pizza. One section has an area to choose you fish, steak or chicken and they cook it for you. Friday gala buffet was very good. Fridays have every type of meat from roast beef, pork, turkey, duckand seafood.
The menus for the specialty reastuarants are posted in the lobby areas. As are the themes for the buffets each night. No problems with reservations at all.

Water is every where all bars and restaurants just ask. They will serve you bottled water at these areas.

I am american and us americans do not specialize in learning alot of various langauges or cultures. Beware if you are not interested in trying to speak another lanaguage or get impatient if someone does not understand you, this hotel may not be for you. Alot of people from various countries stay here, not many americans. This for me was the reason I came to this hotel I always want to see other cultures.

The rooms- I was cold every night, my bed consisted of a sheet and bedspread no blankets.

Now the one bad experiance, at the lobby of the Palace is a pond outside. My mother ate breakfast one morning and brought bread back to feed the fish, as she was feeding them a rat came swiming up to her. Later that night as we got off the train, a bus had ran over a rat in the road by the pond. Hopefully that was it, for this reason alone I would stay at the Bavaro section.

This was our first time to the Dominican, and the reviews on this site helped tremendously. We travelled with another couple and were in separate villas, but about a block away from each other so it really wasn't too bad. We were in room 4116, which was always very clean and absolutely no bugs. We usually left gifts and/or tip for the maids everyday. Bring plenty of single $1's for tipping everyone.

Buffet always had plenty to choose from, and we tried 2 ala carte restaurants. Only setback - we booked 3 ala cartes on the second day of our stay. After 10 minutes, I went back to change the time of our last choice from 630 to 9. I watched him change the reservation, but he didn't change the time on my confirmation slip. When we arrived at the restaurant at 9, we were told we were late, our reservation was for 630. When I tried to explain what happened, their very limited English became very convenient for them. In the end, we enjoyed a late-night buffet dinner which still had plenty to choose from near closing time.

The list of Spanish words on this site was most helpful, and all you really needed to know in the end. We did take the Bavaro Runners tour and while informative and interesting, it ran too long and thus ran out its welcome by the end of the day. Be prepared for stops to their sponsored schools, bring pencils, crayons, school stuff to leave behind. This is a safari type ride, if you have a bad back, you won't be comfortable.

The beach was absolutely gorgeous, the only negative thing we would comment on are the cigarette/cigar butts left behind on the beach. Just past the Royal Suites is the unguarded vendor area. If you are intimidated by aggressive vendors, walk in the water - it seemed most of them wore shoes and didn't want to get wet. If you were near to the sand than the water, they'll grab your hand and pull you into their store. Better yet, say no gracias and walk a bit to part of the beach with tables/chairs, restaurant setting, walk through there to a street, and you will see Los Pinos store. The store has everything the vendors do, with set prices, no haggling and it's fairly reasonable to the beach vendors. This handy hint also came from this site. One night a week (Thursday), the vendors are allowed on the property and set up at the ampitheatre, but are as aggressive as they are on the beach.

I will add our 2 cents. I really don't want to repeat what previous posters have already said.

We are in our late 40s and have traveled to Punta Cana many times. We try to go as often as we can.

Check in at the Dorval airport was easy, security no problem, we had advance seat reservations and the flight with Air Transat was a breeze.

We arrived in Punta Cana - Customs and luggage was also a breeze.

We took a taxi to the hotel. We requested a smooth taxi driver, we wanted a slow ride ti the hotel and not just a blur. The taxi ride there was most enjoyable I looked at the speedometer and the driver was going 60 kilometres/hour the entire way.

Reception:
We had already sent an email requesting an ocean view room. When we arrived at the front desk seeing it was our second time there and it was off season, we were hoping they would accommodate our request...

Room:
The first room they gave us had a loft, I (rachel) didn't care for it as there were no bathroom up there, just a bed. I could see this being handy if you had children. Upon viewing the regular deluxe room I preferred it. We could stay together as opposed to one up and one down. Another thing if you need the toilet in the middle of the night you have to go downstairs. So we ended up getting a lovely deluxe room with a Jacuzzi and a view on the gardens and close to the beach, we were in bldg 9200.

During our second week we were offered an ocean view room and the only difference was you could see the ocean from the top of the tropical bushes. The room had an identical set up as the previous room.

There is a coffee machine in the room and the coffee is always replenished. My husband filled an empty water bottle with milk and stored in the fridge, that way we could make our coffee early in the morning and go watch the sunrises on the beach with it a nice hot coffee.

Tip:
1: When we first got in our room we noticed that the electrical plugs were sunken in a bit. Then we realized we had to purchase converters for 3$US each. I checked with reception and was told there is one American plug behind the very heavy TV cabinet. Luckily my husband had packed a small extension cord power bar (he is always prepared). That was so great -because the American connection is very hard to get at, with the power bar we were able to have everything plugged and easy access to them all on the table in our room, batteries, walkies talkies, alarm clock, curling iron etc….

2: They do not have a long mirror in the room, I found that unusual, most place have a long mirror in the room for the ladies, no big deal though (sometimes that can be a good thing).

3. We brought our water noodles to float in the ocean, it was very welcome as the water was so warm. I'm not the best swimmer and was able to float far out near the ropes. You can just lay back on the noodle and your feet will float. We spent hours in the water, my husband actually fell asleep on his noodle. They pack well and weight nothing, they came in handy when packing all those bottles of Brugal in our suitcases.

Pool:
From what we saw the pools and swim up bar were well kept. We never made it into the pools.

Beach:
We are beach people, we spent our entire 2 weeks in the same spot. We sat right next to the royal suites where there is a small grouping of tropical trees and bushes that separated the RS and the Palace. Very nice private spot with a tall palapa.

Food:
We are not fussy eaters so we found the food good. I really enjoyed the lunches, the pizza's with or without meat were awesome - to which I always added more stuff.

You can always find something; my husband was creative and made himself some beef or chicken subs with mushroom, onions, salad, tomatoes, cheese and pickles. He would get the guy to toast his bun on the grill.

Ala Cartes:
We enjoyed the new way of booking the ala Cartes, no more line ups. You get 3 vouches per week in your room and you can book the alacartes easily at the Public relations desk anyday before noon.

Our favourite was the Italian "Mare Nostrum". I loved their Mozzarella Pasta.

The ala Carles were ok, we preferred the buffet, you can choose what you want as well as portion control.

Massage:
We booked a wonderful massage one evening, when a huge thunderstorm came unexpectedly. We were facing the ocean and could see the slighting and thunder then came the rain. All 4 of us agreed that we would outlast the downpour. It was quite windy and rain was blowing into our massage palapa. We felt a bit awkward for the message girls, they were wearing rain caps and made sure we did not get any rain in our faces - not that it would have mattered it was so warm outside. The massage was relaxing.

The service:
For us the service was exceptional. We have to thank Neil, Rodolpho, Francisco, Domingo, José, and Juan etc etc….and the list goes on.

The weather was nothing but sunshine everyday. From our experience in traveling during rainy season is that it only rains in the evening and at night which is fine with us.

As a side bar: We went for breakfast one morning at the Catedral buffet in the Grand Palladium Bavaro section and found this part of the resort to be more lively, we preferred the Palace section for it’s tranquility.

We are looking forward to stay here again, soon.

My husband and I flew home yesterday, after spending 4 days at The Grand Palladium Palace in Punta Cana. We were on our honeymoon. What a wonderful place. The service is the best, they never made you wait for anything!

We flew on USA 3000- Apple vacations, we highly recommend them. I stayed at the Palace when it was the Fiesta Palace in 2004, many improvements.The resort is so well taken care of, the pool and beach were always clean. We both had massages on the beach- heavenly!! The food was O.K., you do need to remember you are in the Dominican Republic, the buffets always had a large variety. We enjoyed the fresh pineapple and mango. Please try the coco-loco's, my husband loves them. He tried them last year on our visit to the world's worst resort in Punta Cana, IFA Villas Bavaro-- PLEASE stay away from this resort!!

WOW! Another two weeks in Paradise! We just returned from our 7th trip to the Dominican and our second stay in the Grand Palladium complex, last year staying in the Bavaro section, this year the Grand Palladium Palace.

We were there from April 10 - 24 and had a fabulous trip. From the moment we stepped into the lobby until the time we left we were treated absolutely wonderfully by everyone... We are already planning our trip back for next year.

Arrival- We arrived at 11:00 pm and were greeted with cold drinks, a band playing in the lobby and everything ready for us.

Room - Absolutely spectacular! We were located in building 86 overlooking the pool in a large room with king size bed and Jacuzzi in the room. We found the location to be prefect as we were close to the lobby, pool, restaurants, and the beach. The maid kept our room totally spotless and placed flower arrangements around the Jacuzzi and on the bed everyday. We received t a bottle of rum and a fruit basket twice during our 14 day stay. We found this to be a very special and unexpected pleasure.

Pool - We enjoyed a morning swim in the pool and a couple of drinks at the swim up bar but found it too hot to stay at in the afternoon so we spent most of the time at the beach. The waiter/waitress staff around the pool was excellent. The bartenders, especially William and Julius Caesar, made us feel very welcome and never forgot what we were drinking. They joked and laughed with us every day. My husband gave them Canada Hats and they absolutely loved them.

Beach - It was everything that I remembered from last year. Pure white sand and amazing palm trees. We never had a problem finding chairs with some shade no matter what time we went. There were three beach bar huts located along the beach. The water was a beautiful green with small waves most days. There were two days that it was a little ruff but it just made it more fun for us.

Weather - Out of the 14 days we only had one day of rain and a couple of night showers while we slept. Perfect! On the day that it did rain we still swam in the pool in the morning and spent the afternoon at the Lobby bar as the entertainment crew put on all kinds of activities there instead. They made it a great time for everyone no matter what the weather.

Entertainment - These people never stop. They are so friendly and make sure to include everyone that they can in every activity. They go around the pools and beach every day just to say hello and ask if you are enjoying your stay. There is everything that you can imagine to do if you wish to participate. There is painting, archery, basketball, volleyball, minigolf, badminton, soccer, ping-pong, darts, aqausize, tennis, etc. At the beach there is windsurfing, catamarans, kayaking, boogey boards, etc.

Restaurants - We went for breakfast at the buffet each morning (Las Torres), the beach restaurant for lunch (El Bohio) and then alternated our suppers between the buffet at the Palace, the buffet at the Bavaro (the Cathedral) and the Specialty restaurants. We never tired of the food and found most of it to be quite delicious.

Specialty Restaurants - We went to the Mariachi (Mexican), the El Quijote (Spanish), The Mare Norstrum (Italian) twice, and the Bamboo (Asian. We enjoyed every one of them for their food selection and their ambiance. We also found the service to be excellent and the staff very friendly. A special thanks to Julio from the Bamboo restaurant who had us laughing the whole time. We usually spent two hours or more at each as you start with their buffet, appetizers, main meal and then dessert.

Bars -We spent most of our evenings at the lobby bar at the Palace but also went to the lobby bar at the Bavaro when we went to the Specialty restaurants. Each of these bars had live entertainment each night.We also went to the Piano bar on the Bavaro side on many occasions. Don't miss this bar as they serve the best drinks on the whole complex!

Shopping - We shopped on the Bavaro side and the Palace side. The shop on the Bavaro side displays prices in US and the Palace side in Pesos. The Bavaro shop was less expensive. We also went to the village right beside the Royal Suites section. To avoid the aggressive vendors, walk down to Captain Nick's Seafood Restaurant. Go up through it and you will come to another street, there is a shop called LOS PINOS that have set prices (very cheap). They do not barter there and give you unbelievable deals. We bought enough souvenirs for 12 people, including bottles of rum, jewellery, and paintings and did not even spend $100US for everything.

We did not go to the theatre or disco as we have seen them all before and we are early risers (6am) so are in bed by 11:00 or so each day.

We did not do any excursions either as we have been on all of them before. We walked the beach for miles each day and loved comparing our resort to the others along the way. We found our beach area to be the best with hardly any seaweed and so much cleaner than all of the others. There were also many more chairs and palapas on our beach compared to the others although they could still use more as the resort was pretty well at full capacity so they were taken very early and very fast.

Don't forget to use one of the trains on your first day to get acquainted with the resort as it is a very large complex and you may miss out on some of the facilities available to you. The trains stop at every lobby, restaurant, the sports bar, and the sports complex so take advantage of it.

Check-out: - The check out was very fast and our bus arrived exactly on time as indicated by our tour rep. We were thanked for staying and told that they hoped we would return next year.

We live in Northern Ontario and stayed at Grand Palladium Palace in Punta Cana from March 22, 2006 thru April 5, 2006. We have visited Punta Cana before and other various Caribbean islands since 1981.

Overview: This resort is four resorts all next to each other. (Grand Palladium Bavaro; Grand Palladium Punta Cana; Grand Palladium Palace; and Royal Suites). It is huge. There is a tiny train to take one around – use it to get to know all of the areas of this resort and where the restaurants/shops/sports centre is. (Best value shops are the ones in the Bavaro resort section.) Most of the guests are either Italian/German or French. Not many Canadians or Americans when we were there.

Flight: took only 3½ hours from Toronto –customs fast and bus ride of only 45 minutes to hotel.

Reception at hotel: Fast and efficient. Envelopes with room keys and info about resort was all pre-prepared. Since the renovation in 2005 they have taken three blocks (numbers 67, 68 and 69) that were previously under the Punta Cana resort section and they now label these blocks as Grand Palladium Palace. These three blocks are in the very noisy area of the night time entertainment area. (If you want to party – great – but if you want peace avoid these rooms.) The blocks for GPP are numbered in the 80’s and 90’s.

Rooms: all rooms have a whirlpool which the resort refers to as “hydro massage spa”. The cleanliness of all of the rooms and grounds in the entire 4 resorts is spotless. If I were giving out stars I would class the hygiene of the rooms/grounds/restaurants as 10 star. The rooms have a mini-bar that is stocked with water/pop/2 beer every two days. (Note: I would not bother to pay extra for any of the rooms in the “Royal Suites” section. Firstly the buildings are 4 stories high – lots of steps! Secondly they say “no kids” but we only counted in the GPPalace area 3 kids. The other “advantage”? to the Royal Suites is free champagne and a small buffet continental breakfast around the pool. One still has to go to the other resorts for all of the other meals.)

In each room is an electronic safe – you code in your own password. This is very nice as no keys needed. There is air-conditioning and a fan in each room. The balconies were really nice also. While we were there it rained 9 full days out of 14 days and all of our clothing, even in our room closets, was wet and damp for days on end. It was so rainy that the Entertainment group was giving lessons in the main lobby area during those days.

Beach and Sailing: The beach is fabulous – wide and soft and the sailing, when the wind is down, is great. You have to book your sailing time 24 hours ahead for each day. The one bad thing is that there is not enough lounge chairs all along the beach. I had to get up a 5:30am to walk down to the beach to put towels on the lounge chairs under shade. By 8:30am all lounge chairs were taken. The blue beach towels, if lost or taken, cost $20 each so take care of yours. We take down old t-shirts and towels to place on our chairs. Early one morning the t-shirts were taken and never to be seen again. It really is unfortunate that more shade palm thatched huts are not built. People get quite possessive about their shade huts!!!! Many people were laying on their towels on the sand. There are beach bars for drinks but if you want some peace stay away from them as they blast out noise all day long. The beach in front of the Bavaro resort was especially crowded as that resort has many rooms and many people there.

Pool: we never use pools at busy resorts. It is so hot around the pools as no breezes reach them and all of the people at the swim up bars spill their drinks in the water amongst other things. Plus it is just so very loud and noisy with the so-called “Entertainment” – but lots love that so glad it is at the pool area. So we only use the ocean. Again not enough lounge chairs around the pools. Many were laying on towels on the grassy areas around the pools.

Entertainment: Very well attended by many. But why they have to scream and turn up those noisy music speakers all day long till 6pm I don’t understand.

Shopping and Village: On the resorts ground there are two shopping areas. The best is in the Bavaro place near the Sports Bar. Facing the beach, to the right of the Royal Suites is the tiny village/market place of El Cortecito. There is an excellent beach restaurant there called “Captain Cooks” that sells a great variety of seafood. Lobsters are $50 US each there. There is a small (only one person) bank in the village where you can get money in Pesos from a credit card as long as you take your photo ID or passport. They you can change the Pesos into US currency. But the line-ups are long!!!! We waited 45 minutes in line. And the people selling items in the stores were very aggressive and it was not nice – you had to barter for everything. We found items in the Bavaro store lower priced than items in those shops.

Security: This resort is very safe and secure. Uniformed guards patrol all over day and night and even some “plain-clothed guards”. They, like everyone on staff, are very nice and helpful in any way.

Tours: We never bother as they are all the same everywhere. On the beach there is Para Sailing/Banana Boat rides/ and other things to do.

Free Trip to Santo Domingo: Guests were offered a free bus ride to Santo Domingo and free overnight stay at a Hotel there. Firstly the bus ride each way was 3½ to 4 hours and the hotel is not on the beach. The hotel is a high-rise with only a pool. Just not worth leaving the resort and beach for!

Now for the Food: The food display is tops – if only it tasted that way! We seemed to live on soft ice cream and produce for days at a time. If your eating habits are McDonalds/Wendys and pre-prepared frozen package type of supermarket foods then you will probably like the food at the resort. But if you cook your own food from scratch and use herbs and spices then the food at the resort is boring/tasteless/tough and dull. I think that the reason is that so much is cooked in a cheap vegetable oil and is served cold and slimy. At the buffets, as they put out the food at least a good ½ hour before the doors open, the food is cold. Most of the foods were in a tomato type of sauce and the food was from frozen packages and tasteless. There were lots of high carb breaded foods and tons of rice in everything. Many guests were amazed at the lack of seafood available. Examples: the Roast Duck was only the backbones and legs and wings – no breast meat. But the display was excellent. They actually served my husband a back!!!!! The “Shark Fin Soup” was just broth with soya flavouring and frozen vegetables and the “Won Ton Soup” had no won tons! There was rarely any mango or payaya’s and no coconut even though coconuts were everywhere overhead in the resort! One good fruit was their Passion Fruit. No garlic is used at all. On the Friday “Gala Night” tons of meat available but all tough and tasteless. The “beef” whether roasted/hamburg/sliced was rubbery, tough and horrid. The joke going around was that it was ground up rubbery goat. The buns on the hamburgs were about 3” thick – again tons of carbs and fillers! The best night is Sunday nights at the buffets where they serve ribs – the only edible meat besides the lamb. And one day they had fried chicken at the lunch grill – that was good. Each day is a different “Potato Salad” – the mayonnaise used is horrid and the potatoes tasteless.

At the Friday night theme night they have one tray with ½” thin slices of lobster in it. They tray is hard to locate! But as usual the lobster/meat is cooked so far ahead of time and is tough and rubbery.

There is a Saturday night beach BBQ – but as it was so windy and rainy we cancelled as not our idea of eating food with sand in it sitting on a wet beach.

At the beach lunch grills – some “peel and eat” shrimps on sticks were served and they were not cooked long enough on the grill. The two types of cheese available was tasteless as was the Gouda but at night blue cheese was presented and that was good.

The desserts were nice with a good variety but the soft ice cream was the best. At the station that cooks up pasta – well the pasta is very “al dente” – most North Americans like their pasta cooked more. So what I would do is have the cook heat up a half portion of chopped seafood in a white sauce and then use that over other food.

I have no idea what they made their “sausages” out of but they were the worst we have ever eaten in our lives. The breakfast “ham” was that extremely thin sliced cheap type that was burn to a crisp – as was the bacon.

Boose: no name brands but their beer is super. Lots of “Cerveza” pronounced “Sir-veza”. We found the nicest bar to be next to the Punta Cana reception. It was quiet and peaceful with lovely comfortable chairs.

Sports Center: Lots to do here: Tennis; Mini-putt; badminton; air-rifle shooting; ping-pong, soccer; basketball, archery, etc. And even oil painting around the pool.

Leaving Dom. Republic – make sure you put aside $20US each for departure fee at the airport.

Overview: If you love noise and frenetic activity and have children/teens to be entertained then this is the resort to go to. For us we just found it too noisy and crowded. No peace at all. Just one continuing loud party place.

My wife and I just returned from the Paladium Palace where we stayed from March 16 to March 30. This was our third time in four years to the Domincan Republic, our first time was to the Bahia Principe at San Juan and two years ago at the Iberostar Dominicana at Punta Cana. There are mostly German, French and Spanish tourists here with probably english speaking as the fourth language spoken.

Here is how we would rate the resort.

The Resort- 9
The resort is beautiful and well looked after. There was always someone maintaining the grounds. Coming from a winter climate it is always appreciated to see palm trees and tropical plants. The resort ( all three are adjacent to each other) is well laid out however it is quite a long walk from one end to the other. They have a train that follows the pathways through the resort that comes around about every half hour. We used this fairly often especially in the evening to go for dinners at the various restaurants.

The Rooms -9
To our surprise, the room was more than we expected. We stayed in a deluxe room and it was very spacious. We had a whirlpool tub in the room, kingsize bed and a decent ocean view. Everything worked well with no problems. The doors and furniture were all solid mahogany wood with marble floors everywhere. The rooms were cleaned daily and they did a great job. The fridge in the room was always stocked with water, beer and pop daily. Our only complaint was the extra pillows we had asked for had a musty smell that was annoying.

The Beach -10
Anyone who does not like this beach has a problem. The water was warm as usual and the sand was as white and soft as we remembered it. For those who do not know, there is alot of topless women on the beach, some that perhaps shouldn't be. We had about four days of rainy weather (some heavy down pours), which is unusual for this time of year, but because we were there for two weeks it didn't ruin our holiday. We still went for long walks on the beach in the drizzle just to be outside. It was still warm out and we did not mind.

The Food- 7
The food was very good.... remembering this is the Dominican Republic. Remember that everthing is grown or raised locally with very little being imported. We were amazed at the scale of how much food they prepare for the number of guests. There was always lots of variety and the theme nights in the large buffet restaurants were great. We ate at the Catedral restaurant one night but found it was too big, a bit noisy and felt abit like a large cafateria. We ate at Las Torres where it was smaller, quieter and did not feel like a buffet. We went to 5 ala carte restaurants and liked them all except the Asian one. The food was great but the service was lousy and very disappointing.

When we arrived at the resort, we noticed that the staff seemed unhappy and they were not as friendly as other resorts in other years. The management handed out comment cards in the second week we were there and I think alot of people complained about the service. The next day we noticed big improvement in the service and we received alot more smiles. I think they would receive alot more tips from everyone if they tried to be more friendly.We know they do not make alot of money working long shifts so we tipped the room cleaning staff and the waiters at every dinner meal although they say you are not obligated to.

My biggest complaint was the staff working in the resort store Supermarcado (Paladium Palace). Every time I went into the store I was basically ignored by the two girls at the till. They were always chatting behind the counter and treated everyone like they were below their standards especially other Dominicans. I wanted to remind them that they are working in a small resort store not at a Prada or Guicci outlet like they thought they were. They were very snotty and rude. - 3

Tours - 6
We took the Bavaro Runners tour this time. It was quite similar to the one in Puerto Plata. We went to the sugar cane fields, a cigar museum, through the countryside to a Dominican farm and then to a secluded beach for lunch. The trip was great and a great experience to see the "real DR" however our guide started drinking too much and was getting obnoxious towards the end of the tour. He was partying it up with a few of the women on the tour and sort of ignored the rest. He wasn't very professional and started to swear and make lurid comments to the women while around a teenager and his Dad on the truck. He kind of ruined a great day.

I read all of the reviews on your site plus other sites. We just returned from 5 days at the Grand Paladium Palace. We went with only expectations of a beautiful beach, blue water, lots of sun, and great people. We found all of that and more. Here is what I think:

Five days is not enough

Apple tours are great

Grand Paladium is everything you could want. You can stay in your section of the grounds or explore the other two areas.

The food is not awful as many say. It is not wonderful. It is ok. We always found something that we enjoyed and were never hungry. Be flexible when you travel beyond your own boarders.

We liked having different nationalities around. If felt more like a get away. If you only want Americans then stay in America.

The hotel is everything we wanted. Clean comfortable rooms, great service, lots of bars and food areas.

The very best thing about Punta Cana is the people. I know that many have said that before me but I can’t believe how wonderful the people are. They are always smiling, energetic, upbeat, helpful, and friendly. They made the vacation for me.

From 19 Feb – 5 Mar we spent one week at the Palladium Palace and the next at Bahia Principe. I chose Bahia second as I thought it was going to be the nicer of the two resorts, was I wrong. In Punta Cana we have stayed at Punta Cana Princess All Suites, Caribe Club Princess, Barcelo Bavaro Beach Resort, Occidental Grand Flamenco and our favorite in PC Riu Taino (Palladium now ties). We have also stayed at Sandals Royal Hicacos Varadero, El Dorado Seaside Suites Mayan Riviera, Sunscape Casa Del Mar La Romana/Bayahibe, Tryp Cayo Coco, Grand Flamenco Occidental in Puerto Plata, Sun Palace Cancun and Aventura Spa Palace Mayan Riviera my two overall favorites with the latter being the nicest yet.

We flew Air Transat and arrived on time. We were one of the first flights so we quickly got through the airport formalities, got our luggage and found our bus. Even with no problems we landed at 11 and it still took till one to get to the resort. Our room was not ready but we were told to grab some lunch and our room would be ready in half an hour. It was!!! The room was more than adequate. A king bed (as requested) and a jet tub in the room. Lots of amenities, free safe, iron and board, blow dryer, coffee maker, shampoos, soaps, combs, Kleenex (no face cloths). Some pop, beer and water in the fridge. Lots of mirrors, magnifying mirror. The sink area was very small but the desk had a mirror, light and plug so was useful for hair and makeup. The bed had only two pillows, we requested two more at the front desk and they were there before bed. We mentioned to the front desk our air would not go below 24 degrees. We were told that is normal. We would have liked a cooler room and even with the fan on thought it was warm. We usually sleep in a very cold house summer and winter. We didn’t pursue this complaint any further. The only other complaint was the light over the sink and the light in the separate toilet area were on the same switch so anytime either of us got up during the night we blasted the other with light. At first I did not like our room location ground floor. I was worried about bugs crawling under. This did not occur. Later, I realized our room was close to the beach (no views) and went back to it to do my business during the day. The toilet just down the beach had only two stalls, very busy and usually by afternoon one was out of order. Our mini bar was restocked every couple days. The room was usually cleaned in the morning. One day our card for the air was out and stuck in behind. There was no clothesline.

The beach: This is why we go to Punta Cana. This resort covers a kilo of beach and beyond in either direction miles and miles of white sandy bavaro beach. We put our towels on chairs before breakfast to reserve some shade. By just after nine most of the shady spots were gone. The resort was at full capacity. There are lots of drink shacks along the beach but more toilets wouldn’t hurt.

Bars: There is only one drink at the lobby bars that are blended the rest are from slushie machines. Ask if you want with alcohol. I tended to drink more beer this trip and found the beer very light and refreshing. On the bavaro side between the pool and lobby is a Piano Bar (minus piano). In the evenings it was quiet with delicious blended and mixed drinks using premium brands, air-conditioned and smoke free. A great place for a nightcap. The Palace lobby in the evenings was quieter. Bavaro almost like a pick up bar some nights. Lots to watch. The wine at times was O.K. at other times very pucker power.

Grounds: Very clean with lots of landscaping. With the four resorts the walking is quite pleasant there is always something you come across such as a pool, restaurant etc. Lots of flowers and paths and lots of walking within the resort. If you take the train don’t let it influence you. The grounds are big but not as big as the train makes it feel. We would usually take the train to dinner and walk back once it was cooler.

Sports Bar: I really like the idea of 24 hrs drink and food. You can set your own schedule. The sports bar, although a little way from us on the Palace side offered pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, popcorn, nachos, salad and my favorite soft ice cream. Soft ice cream was also available in most the buffets.

Restaurants: This was a pleasant surprise maybe because I wasn’t expecting much. We found for every meal whether it was buffet or a la carte we got very good drink service. The coffee service was a teeny slow a couple mornings but never more than 5 minutes wait. The sugar water oops I mean what they called orange juice was the worse. They were constantly checking food temperature and handing our surveys. For lunch after trying all the choices we settled on El Behique (hope that is the right name) buffet in the middle resort. Seemed less busy, good service, good food choices and the whole restaurant was glass looking onto a pool. The dinner buffets were good. After trying them all we never found one was better. We could always find something to eat and the foods were the right temp. The gala buffet Fri was excellent offering duck, roast beef, rabbit, turkey, prawns etc. The themes were Sun BBQ, Mon Mexican, Tues Oriental, Wed Italian, Thurs Dominican, Fri Gala, Sat Spanish. We booked our three a la cartes the first morning. The desks to book are next to the lobby and are open in the morning and again in the evening. The menus to each are on a board behind. We told the three we wanted, the preferred time and we were booked for the week. We chose Gran Cantina Mariachi Tex Mex Mexican, Bamboo Asian, and El Quijote Spanish. All were all right food, very good service and better than the feeling of eating alone at the buffets.

Some of the workers who spoke English were surprising – a groundkeeper, egg guy and than some at the bars spoke almost no English. We kept our request very simple and usually only a word or two and had no problems.

Recommendation: We would definitely recommend this resort to our friends! We had lots of laughter, soaked up the sun, relaxed and carefree. We left the kids at home (although we did see a few kids at the resort, vacationers were mostly adult couples). Many Canadians and Europeans .. not as many Americans as we expected. Everyone was friendly and readily shared advice of what they had enjoyed at the resort. Our orientation session was also worth attending!

Resort: The landscaping is very lush, green and everything is kept very, very clean ... including the washrooms by the pools and restaurants. The resort is very large and while there are large glassed in maps around the resort the maps do not provide a "you are here" feature. We found the small train that travels around the resort in 20 minutes to be an excellent way to get our bearings and learn where the various buffet and a la carte restaurants, bars, supermarket, stores, disco, spa and lobbies were.

Room: We stayed in the "loft suites" at the Palace and loved our room. The main floor had a washroom/shower, jacuzzi tub, living area with pull out sofa and tv, mini bar, closet to hang all of our week's clothes (with an electronic safe large enough to hold our cameras, papers and jewellery). The second floor loft had a king sized bed, dresser, tv and mirror. Both floors were air conditioned. The floors are marble and the rooms are kept very clean. One really nice touch was a magnifying mirror that was attached to the wall near the bathroom vanity mirror. We were on the 2nd floor with a balcony (two chairs, small table). We brought a clothesline (purchased at the dollar store) and it came in handy to string across the balcony to hang our bathing suites, etc. It is humid and everything remains slightly damp. The towels were very plush and were restocked daily as long as we left them in the tub. Two bathroom towels and two hand towels. There are no face clothes and soap is hard to come by. We left one of our room cards in the electronic slot at the door (activates the lights and air conditioning) throughout the day so that our room stayed cool all the time. We tipped our maids with gifts we had brought down (leaving them on our pillow with a note identifying our room/names). We spoke with them (in our limited spanish) and they were very gracious and appreciative and always showed us with the excellent service they provided to us. We especially enjoyed the towel creations (swans, hearts, etc.), fresh flowers by our jacuzzi, and restocked mini-bar. We also tipped the bar tenders, gardeners, bell boys ... bring lots of US $1.00 bills.

Food: The food is different but good. There are many "made to order chef stations" at the buffets and always plenty of variety. Everyone of all ages could definitely find a meal that pleased them (e.g. pastas, roasts, vegetables, salad bar, dessert bar, ice cream machines, fresh squeezed juices, etc.). We tried to visit each buffet restaurant but never did get to all of them. We booked our 3 al la carte restaurants immediately upon arrival (as they book up quickly). We enjoyed 2 of the three (mexican and italian but did not enjoy Laouba). The buffets had theme nights so we got a chance to sample the food that the al la cartes were serving. All restaurants provided fresh linen tableclothes, china and wine/water glasses. Spoons seemed to be in short supply. Two of the four of us did get diarhea (4 days into the week) but we are not sure what caused it (food, sun, rich foods, fruits, etc.). The water/ice is filtered but the tap water is not to be drank/used for teeth brushing. We lived in our bathing suites and sandals (and used syrongs and t-shirts) to get into the breakfast/lunch buffets. At dinner we did wear long pants/dresses. We tended to eat at 8:00 p.m. so that we could enjoy the sun until dusk (6:00 p.m.), shower/dress and enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail. Breakfast was 7-10; Lunch 1-3; Supper 7-10. Sports bar served food all day.

Spanish: The staff speak spanish and some of the main bartenders speak english. We had downloaded common spanish words/phrases and found this very helpful to have. Next time, we would bring a small phrase book to communicate even better. It took us a while to figure out how to ask for "cold milk".

Tours: We went on the two most popular excursions: Marinarium was a half day snorkeling day in the ocean on a ecological reef. The ocean was wavy so it wasn't ideal for snokeling but there were certainly lots of fish. We also were able to view sharks/stingrays in an enclosed caged area on the reef. We then spent the remainder of the cruise boozing and dancing along the coastline. Bavaro Runners was a full day and took us across the eastern point to view sugar cane, rice fields, cigar factory, a farm in the upper mountains, horseback riding. Our tour guide "Juan Julio or nicknamed Montesoumi" was fantastic and spoke excellent english. He took the time to teach us many things. He helped us hand out gifts to the children that we had brought (school supplies, hot wheel cards, ball caps, etc.). The kids were so excited to receive gifts - it's very touching! It was disappointing to observe garbage everywhere on the island (except our resort which was spotless). The Dominican people have not yet embraced recycling, etc.

Beach: The beach is fantastic and kept clean of seaweed. The sand does not retain any heat - it's white and powdery. There are security guards which ensure that no one is bothered. It was 85 degrees and beautifully sunny the entire week and the beach offered a welcome breeze. There was lots to see (topless women, parasailing, boogie boarding, sailing, etc.) ... but no sea shells unless you wished to buy them from a merchant. There are stores at the ends of the resorts as well as a shopping area. We went a couple of times and the merchants were not aggresive ... they just wanted us to come in to their shops and offer a price on their goods. We bargained at least 50% of their asking prices and found the items to repeat in each shop. The resort also had some of the finer merchants on site on the Thursday night for guests' convenience. The sunrise (around 7:00 a.m.) was well worth getting up to see. Sunset is on the other side of the island so we couldn't view it. We went through lots of different levels of sunscreens at the vacation progressed (60, 50, 45, 15, tanning oil).

Phone/Internet: We saved money by calling direct from our room (9-1-area code-number) and paying the bill at check out. We made 4 phone calls about 5 minutes each to Ottawa Ontario and it totalled about $14.00 US. We also purchased a card at the Internet cafe $8 US for an hour. We then were able to pop in to the cafe and check our email periodically or send messages (the hour doesn't have to be used all at once). We had set up a "hot mail" account with a mailing list prior to our trip just for this purpose.

Fun: One of us enjoyed a "hot stone" 50 minute message. It was well worth the $70 US dollars. Two of us enjoyed "parasailing" for 15 minutes. It was well worth the $70 US dollars and offered wonderful aerial views of the beach and resorts. If we were to do this again, we'd bring a disposable camera to take aerial photos. The guys also went golfing for a day at "Punta Cana Golf Club". It was 30 minutes away ($30 cab ride each way) and cost about $160 dollars each for 18 holes. It was a beautiful but extremely challenging course. We found out later that there were several other courses which were closer by ... but this was the only one where we could book a tee off time on the internet prior to our vacation. It is important to golf very early in the morning because of the heat. At night we road the tour train, walked the beach, and enjoyed the lobby entertainment. The disco opened at 11:30 and we found that too late. The theatre entertainment which began at 10:00 p.m. was mostly audience participation and majic shows and we tired of that quickly. The week goes quickly and in hindsight we wished we had lived each day like our last full day - don't waste a minute with trivial things - get out and enjoy what you want most to do.

Souvenirs: We brought back rum, cigars, vanilla and coffee - these are Dominican's exports and all great quality.

Airport: This was our only complaint. We had to wait in line for over 2 hours at the Punta Cana airport to check in. It was simply volume of people leaving on afternoon flights. We were very glad that we had dressed in our shorts and t-shirts and then changed on the airplane back into winter clothes. Other than this, we did not experience line ups or waits anywhere.

On Feb 3- Feb 9, 2005 we stayed at the Palladium Grand Palace Resort and loved it. My husband and I are 40 somethings from Atlanta GA who are both avid scuba divers. We’ve been to the Riu’s in Playa Del Carmen Mexico and there are some differences between those resorts and the Palladium at Bavaro Beach DR.

Resort: We loved the resort and the staff are very friendly. You are going to another country so don’t expect everyone to speak or understand English. Most of the other guests are from Russia, Germany etc so there are lots of languages being used and the staff can’t possibly know them all (which irritated a few people). Unlike Mexico where 80% of tourists are US, we are a minority here. You can always find someone who speaks English if you really need something and learning Spanish was part of the fun. The staff do love to help you learn their language buy the end of day 3 I could easily order my morning coffee “mas café con porquito leche”aka much coffee and a little milk. The grounds are lovely and the beach is beautiful. I thought the beach was prettier than Riveria Maya’s. We had a deluxe room with a partial view of the ocean. All buildings in the palace section are 2 stories and the rooms are large and well insulated, you don’t hear too much hallway or outside noise. This resort is HUGE, I recommend you take note of your lobby then on day one take the train around the entire place just to get an idea of what is there.

Service on the resort could be bit slow, especially beverages at meals. We would get our drink order half way through the meal but relax, they are on island time. We always got our drinks quickly at the many bars. Food service was excellent and the food was good everywhere we tried. Don’t forget to reserve your alacarte dinners on your first day. I highly recommend the Spanish, Dominican and Seafood restaurants. The Dominican style lobster at the Seafood restaurant is an extra $25 us but it’s excellent.

Diving: Day one we tried an Atlantic dive with Dolan Divers on the resort. We were told the seas were a little rougher than usual, but it was really rough. The dive shop was fine, the dive was not. The visibility was limited, 20’ or so and the reef and sea life was not impressive at all. Two of the five divers including myself got sea sick.
If you’re going to try the ocean diving take Dramamine, between the ride out and the surge pulling you to and fro it’s a rough dive. On day three we took a van ride to Bayahbibe (spelling?). We went with Pellicano Explorers who are located about a mile down the beach and picked us up at the hotel (35 min late but they got there) then the van took us to Casa Daniel Divers in Bayhabibe. Warning- do not pay for dives at Pellicano Explorers with a credit card, they overcharged us about $50 on top of their 8% credit card fee, pay in US dollars, they also give unfavorable DR peso exchange rates. As for the dives in Bayahbibe, we did a wreck and a reef and they were awesome. Better than the reefs off Riveria Maya. Amazing corals of all colors, lots of interesting fish. If you are a diver you can arrange a van ride to Casa Daniel and go on some amazing dives with them, plus the 2 1/2 hr ride through DR is interesting.

If you want to go whale watching in Jan –March make sure you check with the Funjet or Apple person on your first day, we found they only run tours twice a week and we missed it.