July 18, 2005

Iberostar Message Board

Just returned from a stay at the Iberostar Bavaro with my wife and I would say that we had a great time. We are 34 and 33 years old and celebrating our 5 year anniversary and stayed from 7/13 - 7/17.

The trip down... We booked our vacation through American Airlines vacations so we did not have a direct flight. We flew into San Juan, PR and took a puddle jumper to Punta Cana from there. Flight was smooth with the exception of my wife being a little nervous on the smaller plane, but it was fine. Arrived at the airport and paid our 10 dollars a piece filled out our cards, got our bags and were on our way. Our transfer was through Prieto tours and the lead guy told us to go with another guy to a van. We were on a cramped van with 3 other couples with a driver that spoke zero English. We stopped at a local establishment to get some drinks and were on our way. The roads in this country are terrible and the drivers are even worse. I would say we were in near miss accidents at least six times. Then I knew I was in trouble after 1 hour and 15 minutes we pulled into Secrets Resort. The other 3 couples were staying there and we were not, the driver thought we were. After much confusion we got back in the van and headed another 40 minutes back to the Iberstar Bavaro. Not a very good start to the vacation.

The Hotel... When we finally got there our check in went very smooth. The lobby is very beautiful along with all of the grounds on the property. They spend a lot of time and effort maintaining the grounds and it shows. We stayed in room 2581 which was 5 units off of the main walkway close to the Lobby, but pretty far from the beach and pool. We had a king size bed, and the room was very clean and had no funky smells as reported in other reviews. AC worked great and we were very satisfied with our room.

The Service... I can not understand how people could not be satisfied with the service at this resort. Just about everyone that worked there went out of their way to make us happy. At first our room keys would not work, maid let us in to use phone to call front desk, new keys delivered in 10 minutes. We left 2 dollars a day for the maids and some small gifts and our room was spotless, fridge stocked, and fresh flowers with towels in the shapes of swans everyday. The bartenders and waitressed were all very nice and willing to serve with a smile on their face. Franklin at the Lobby Bar was our favorite but they were all great. The one exception to this rule were the dealers in the casino, all female, and all very unfriendly. I do not know why, it was weird, as if they were instructed to be that way. Also, be prepared for some language barriers. Most do not speak much English with the exception of the front desk people. I did not see this and being bad, it was actually kind of fun to try to speak Spanish with them and again they all tried very hard to keep everyone happy.

The food... I was very afraid of the food situation from some of the reviews that I read but was actually pleasantly surprised. The buffet had numerous choices and breakfast and dinner were excellent. Lunch was not as good but still ok. The beach barbeque lunch was excellent, more seafood than you can imagine. We ate at the Japanese restaurant. I enjoyed it, my wife did not, personal taste i guess. My wife did get sick to her stomach the last day. Not sure if it was something she ate or just the accumulation of 4 days of eating and drinking non stop.

The beach and pool... They were absolutely beautiful. The pool was huge with a really cool shaded swim up bar but it was difficult to get chairs by the pool unless you got up early. The beach was great and not too hot due to constant breeze coming off of the ocean. There were some topless women but not too many. Much easier to get a chair with a hut on the beach. No problem getting beach towels but they did run out late in the afternoon.

The Casino... Very small, but it was air conditioned. 5 Black Jack tables, 2 Roulette tables, 1 Carribean Stud, and 1 3 Card Poker table (always very crowded), and about 30 slot machines. I lost about 200 dollars and like I said the dealers were very rude and did make a few mistakes. I did meet a lot of fun people there though. (Hello "Crazy Patty" and the gang from Cleveland)

The Disco... Went for about 5 minutes, very hot, very smokey, and very crowded. Not my cup of tea anymore (I am 34) but if you were in your late teens or early 20's it would probably be very fun.

The negatives... I know this is going to sound stupid and there is nothing the resort can do to fix these things but i want to mention them as a point of interest to people thinking of vacationing here. It is very hot, I know it is the Caribbean and it is supposed to be but even at night I sweat my butt off. All of the night time activities are far from the beach in the lobby and there is no breeze at all. Also this a big resort and expect to do a lot of walking. They do have shuttles from the Lobby to the Dominicana hotel next door to ease some of that.

All in all it was a wonderful vacation and I would definately recommend this resort to anyone.

SAVE UP TO 70% ON THE IBEROSTAR HOTELS

HOT DEALS AND SUPERSAVERS   CLICK HERE!

This review is the subjective opinion of a Iberostar-Reviews.com user and not of Iberostar-Reviews.com.