June 07, 2005
08-09-2005 6:40 pm
June 07, 2005
color=#0000ff> Iberostar Message BoardWe just returned from Punta Cana Bavaro and mention some comaparisons between Mexico and D/R in our review. I am sending the review below. If you have any questions, please e-mail us. We are veterans of the Mayan Riviera Iberostars so we do offer a fair opinion. We went to D/R expecting as good of an expeirience as Mexico but just did not get it. Our review follows in its entirety:
Hello, or Hola, we just arrived home yesterday from a 7 night stay at Iberostar Bavaro. This was our 6th Ibeorstar property visited and first time to the Dominican Republic. Another very nice Iberostar property however I must say that we were not nearly as happy with the Dominican Republic properties as we are with the Mexico facilities and people.
We watched the weather forecast for two weeks prior to arriving on May 29 and the outlook was terrible. It called for heavy rain everyday. We considered canceling last minute and rebooking but could not make it work so we just took a chance. Luckily the weather people are as bad at forecasting other countries as they are back here at home because it rained for about 5 minutes during the day on Friday and that was it except for a couple of times at night when we slept. The rest of the time was clear. Let me tell you something right off the bat, it is freaking hot!!!!! Way hotter then Mexico. Upper 90’s during the day and high 70’s to low 80’s at night with about 90% humidity. It was smothering. A big complaint we have about this property is the air at the restaurants. It was terrible. The only one that was half way decent was at the Pagoda at the Dominicana property. That was a relief. The rest had air but you would be sitting at your table and could feel the sweat forming on your body. I assure you it was not just me. It was a routinely talked about subject around the complex. The air in the room was another story. Very good!!!! This property is old. Dominican Republic was the first area that Iberostar expanded to after they originally opened in Spain so this place has been around a while. The air conditioning in the room was a simple switch. High/med/low and stayed on all the time so when you got back to your room it was very nice. The newer properties in Mexico etc. have thermostats that only allow the temp to be about 74 and it goes off when you leave the room. It took some time to cool off when you returned. There is a trick to that: Attach a string to the pull cord on the ceiling fan and hang a piece of paper on it so that it flutters around under the fan which you leave on when you leave the room. It will fake out the motion sensor and keep the air on.
The beach was fantastic!!!!!!! No waves to speak of because the entire Bavaro beach is secluded by a reef about a half of a mile out. The waves break over the reef and are very gentle by the time they reach shore. If you are looking for big waves to body surf or boogie board on, this is not the place. There is great snorkeling from the beach in front of the hotel. Lots of smaller reefs in the swim area and I saw a huge assortment of fish including barracudas and permit. We brought light fishing tackle and got raw shrimp & squid from the buffet each night to use for bait the next morning. Shrimp was the preferred bait. We caught permit, snapper, small grouper, needle fish, parrot fish and stuff we were not sure about. Great morning fun before the oven turned on around 10:00. Also, there is an excursion that we took that was set up by the Apple Vacation guy were we snorkeled in a protected area and then got to be in a fenced off area with huge nurse sharks and rays. Afterward you were taken to a secluded beach to swim before being taken back. I think it was called Mariana or something like that. (They also included sandwich’s and drinks).
We tried deep sea fishing too but that was a bust. There were people on the boat that had fished the previous day that were staying at our hotel and they said that they caught 3 Marlin and some Dorado (dolphin fish). It just was not that way the day we went.
We thought that the buffet food was very good and preferred it over all of the restaurants except the Mediterranean and Gourmet however you were not give a choice of entrée at the gourmet. Not that lobster was upsetting to us but there are lots of people with shellfish allergies that would have a problem. The gourmets at other Iberostars offer a choice of meat, pasta or fish so I do not know what the difference is here. I know people knock the buffets at all inclusive resorts but you have to remember that they are trying to please people from many countries and the things that they like would make us turn up our noses and vice versa. They also have to make things that kids will try. That is why they have pizza, burgers, dogs etc. I would find it hard to believe that you could not find something to your liking. There is a grill area that had steaks, chops & chicken all the time so you could have a nice steak every night if that is your thing. There was always a big cut of some kind of meat that was carved to order too. We loved it. BEWARE, the buffet is not air conditioned. Go early because the food sits out in the heat. Things like cold salads, cheeses, lunch meats etc. do not stay chilled for very long.
The property was very itself was very nice. The rooms were in groups of 4 (if I recall correctly) in small buildings. They were all connected by a common walkway that leads back to the main lobby and restaurant area. The Dominicana and Punta Cana properties were very different. They were each one large building with all the rooms in them. Not our cup of tea. We are glad we picked this one. Also, if you stay at Bavaro you can eat at the others but not vice versa. There is a casino at the Punta Cana if that is your thing but it was very small. The pool and swim up bar was wonderful and warm. Because the property is so old, the plant life is very well established. There are huge towering palm trees. We saw a guy at the show area get hit in the head by a coconut that fell from a tree that had to be at least 50’. The next day there was a guy climbing the tree and other ones nearby to cut down the coconuts and trim back the branches. It was interesting to watch the guy climbing the trees with a rope sling arrangement between his feet. The shows were good and a nice change from the Mexico area. We went to Mexico 5 years in a row and stayed at a different property each time but all Iberostar. Del Mar, Cozumel, Lindo, Quetzal and Maya. The shows were identical at all of them. There were a couple things that were similar but the rest was new to us and a welcomed change.
There are some shops on the beach down from the hotel about a quarter mile if that. The beach area between the hotel and there is pretty polluted with garbage and really needs to be cleaned up. It would take 4 guys an hour to do it but they do not because I suppose it is not their property and therefore not their problem. There were guys raking the sea grass on the beach each morning and a bulldozer that would come down for them to shovel the grass into the scoop to be taken away. Why not keep going and pick up the trash? You would probably only have to do it once a month or so. Just a thought. There are also many stray dogs on the beach that are harmless and will beg you for food if you have it. We saw a mom with 5 puppies that were very friendly. There were also stray cats and kittens that roamed the property itself. Not many indigenous critters though. I was expecting iguanas and lizards everywhere like Mexico but we only saw a couple small geckos. There were some interesting birds. At night there were owls that you could see once and a while and lots of stuff during the day. The Peacocks made a sound that we swear sounded more like a cats meow then any cat could ever make. It was weird and they got going pretty early every morning. We are morning people and are up by 5:30 so no big deal to us but I bet there were a few people that would have rung their necks if they could.
The people did not seem as friendly here. The Mexico properties seem to have more people willing to help. We noticed a few times that we were bothering people if we asked something of them. We noticed it a couple of times and never at the Mexico properties. The internet café arrangement had me fuming. You buy 30 minutes at the desk at Bavaro and they give you a sign on name and password good for 30 minutes. You then have to walk all the way to the other end to the Dominicana property were the café is located. We had trouble signing on and needed to get another password. We went to the front desk at the Dominicana and explained the problem and were told that we would have to walk all the way back to the other hotel to get another password. I asked if we could just call over to get one or just buy 30 more minutes from them. We were told no and with an attitude I might add. That to us was stupid!!!! As we were leaving to go back I glanced back and the person had a smirk that I would have gladly smacked off his face. Anyway, that was the only occurrence of that sort.
Overall the Bavaro was nice. It does not compare to Pariaso Lindo or Maya and probably would compare more to Quetzal or Tucan in Mexico. We chose Bavaro because we found it on sale and got a great price and thought it would be nice to try something new. You cannot go wrong with Iberostar. If we had not gone to the other locations we would probably have thought more of this one. I would not say that we will never go back but if given the choice, Pariaso Lindo & Maya in Mexico will get our vote every time!!!!!
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