Grand Bahia Principe Bavaro - All Inclusive

Wonderful beach, although very crowded. Delightful water--quite warm. Very difficult to get reservations to Non-buffet restaurants. Food in buffets sub-par & a la carte certainly not 1st class. Wait staff provided good service. Rooms often not cleaned by 5PM. I would never give this resort 5 stars[...].

From check in to making dinner reservations, everything was difficult. Property is huge and we were nearly a mile away from the beach. Food was only average and the buffets were very crowded and much of the food was cold. We take a winter vacation each year but will never return to this resort.

Service was not good at all- had to make multiple requests for things like an iron and a coffeemaker in the room, which were clearly missing in the first place. Front desk very unresponsive to any request- no maps available for example. Reservations for special dining were difficult to obtain. There was a cockroach in the room. The maid failed to replace all our towels more than once. This resort was clearly the lowest priced within the property, and it showed. Buffet food was merely adequate, and again service in the dining room was a problem- getting hot water for tea took three or four requests on average. Would NOT return to this hotel or recommend it to others.

THE HOTEL WAS WAY TOO BIG AND IMPERSONAL. THE STAFF WAS RUDE AND NOT VERY HELPFUL AT ALL. BESIDES THE FACT HARDLY NO ONE SPOKE ENGLISH THEY WERE UNCARING AND NOT FRIENDLY AT ALL. WE HAD GONE TO CABO LAST YEAR AT THE DREAMS AND THE STAFF AND HOTEL WAS WONDERFUL.IT WAS ABSOLUTE HEAVEN! THIS TIME WE WENT WITH 12 PEOPLE BUT WE COULD NOT GET DINNER ACCOMADATIONS TOGETHER. THE FACT THAT THEY ADVERTISE AS AN ALL INCLUSIVE RESORT IS FAR FROM THE TRUTH. WE WERE NOT ALLOWED IN MANY OF THE RESTURANTS BASED ON THE COLOR OF OUR WRISTBAND. THIS WAS NOT MAD CLEAR TO US BEFORE WE BOOKED OUR RESERVATION. ALL INCLUSIVE TO ME MEANS WE ARE ABLE TO USE "EVERYTHING" THE HOTEL HAS TO OFFER. THIS WAS NOT THE CASE. WE BASICALLY ATE AT BELOW AVERAGE BUFFETS THE ENTIRE 5 DAYS. HOW THEY GOT A 4 STAR RATING IS MIND BOGGLING. BETWEEN THE RUDE UNCOOPERATIVE STAFF, THE HORRIBLE FOOD AND THE AMOUNT OF WALKING U HAD TO DO TO GET FROM OUR ROOM TO THE BEACH I WOULD HAVE TO RATE THIS AS ONE OF MY WORST VACATION. IF IT WASNT FOR HAVING GREAT WEATHER AND BEING WITH WONDERFUL FAMILY AND FRIENDS IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A TOTAL DISASTER.

Got an free upgrade to Ambar which is quite and close to the beach and private pool. No drink service at beach. Quality of food is good. Warning do not use CoCo Tours as your transporation. CoCo Tours will waste a lot of your vacation time.The complex is too large, it takes a couple of days to figure out buses and hardly anbody speaks English.

Here's what I did not like about this resort: 1) It was too big. Had to walk a long way to the beach or pools or front desk. 2) You could accomplish nothing from your room. If you wanted to do anything, even call to make a reservation for dinner, you had to go to the front desk. This was annoying because the front desk is a 20 minute walk from the beach and 5-15 minute walk from your room. 3) The food was subpar. They had a buffet with a lot of options, but it was not good. The meat was dried out, there was only limited seafood, and it was always crowded. 4) Could not get a chair at the pool or the beach. There were two pools near our room. We could never find an empty chair at them. We would then have to walk to the giant pool at the back of the resort and often not be able to find a chair there either, especially in the shade. Hard to find chairs at the beach too. 5) Staff was not very nice or helpful. The problem with all inclusive is there is no accountability. You have limited options, and no one really tips there, so the staff has no reason to go out of their way for you. 6) I honestly didn't like the guests who were staying here. Most guests apparently come from cultures where standing in lines is not the norm and where it is okay to shove or bump into people without even acknowledging their existence. Part of the reason there were no chairs was because guests would get to the pool at 8am, drop off a towel to claim their chair and then take off to do whatever. They would occupy the chair all day while only using the pool for an hour. Or one family member would reserve 8 chairs, just in case other people showed up, but most of the time they didn't.

Our room wasn't ready when we got there, the bed was like sleeping on a rock, the comforter smelled like urine and the ceiling above our shower leaked when the people above us were using their shower. The food was very bland, and I'm not a picky eater. The breakfast was the best. The meat was over cooked. The individual restaurants really were not good. The pool was awesome, Henry and Lorenzo were the only thing the Hotel had going for it.

While the Bavaro beach area was splended, the hotel food was not. The same food every day and sometimes not hot! The coffee served would be cold. The villas all look the same so at night it was difficult to get @ (if you didn't use the bus). I would not recommend this hotel.

This was both my first time as well as my boyfriend's first time at an all-inclusive. We did not go in with any expectations but left deciding this type of service was not for us. Everything from eating to getting to the beach was a little too cumbersome. We did enjoy relaxing on the beach and by the pool, but we always had to go get our drinks and try to remember which location it was okay to do so. It was the same with the food. We would go to one buffett area and they would tell us no we had to go to the other one 100 yds from there. The water is beautiful and the fact that there are people from all over the world is great.

We shopped down the beach at the markets, parasailed, went to the manati park. Sunbathed on the beach and the pools. Went to the evening shows and disco, gambled at the casino.