Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana Resort - All Inclusive

We were pleasantly surprised when we checked in and found out that the hotel had been upgraded for free to the new addition "Esmeralda".This was our second vacation at Bahia Principe. We loved everything the first time but this time was unbelievable.The pool at the new wing "Esmeralda" is not to crowded, beautiful rooms, gourmet food and wonderful presentation at the restaurant. The service is excellent also. Very friendly people. There were 15 people in our group and besides the fact that the pool closed at 6PM nobody had anything else to complain about.The beach and the water couldn't have been better. Loved it. I will recomend this all inclusive resort to everybody I know. Carmen, Strongsville,Ohio

We went on Valentine's Day and stayed for a week, and we loved it! Maybe it's because it wasn't the busiest time of year, but I don't understand how other people had such bad experiences. The hotel is REALLY big, but the tram is comfy and convenient, so we didn't really do much walking. Everyone, and I mean everyone, on staff was incredibly nice, even to an English-speaker. And, yes, most people spoke very good English. The resort itself was incredibly clean and beautiful with foliage and roman statues and such. There were a lot of pools, so if you don't wanna hang out in the main pool, there's always a smaller (but still expansive) pool for your part of the resort. The main pool had fun activities throughout the week, so I never went elsewhere. I'm a complete foodie, and I wasn't disappointed!! The first night was Valentine's Day, so we had an incredible seafood meal with lobster and crab. ~yum~ The paella was incredible. The a la carte restaurants were ok. We chose the Japanese and Italian restaurants, and the Japanese one was just like Benihana, and the food was decent. The theme nights at the buffet rocked! My only issue was the cheese... either rubber cheese or really really potent blue cheese. Oh, well. At least all of the drinks were strong! :) You have to have to have to check out the Michael Jackson show if you're there!!! I'm not a crazy fan, but the show was cool. It even had breakdancing! Go to the second show since it'll be less crowded and "humid". The karaoke bar and dance club were fun, but the casino was teeny tiny and not worth it. All in all, a great trip for the price! Don't even need to travel outside of the resort.

the esmiralda - the 5 star section of the resort was where we had reservations for our trip. the service there was top notch! we had friendly staff, never ending drinks, great food, amazing rooms. The rest of the resort is HUGE - a bit too large, but esmiralda was very small, 4 buildings that housed the jr suits, a large beautiful lobby, a private buffet restaurant, a outdoor/open air full service snack bar, and an italian sit down restaurant

We were a party of 9. When we arrived we were all in different buildings. The place is huge so we were all so far away from eachother. Asked if we could get upgraded and instant response was no. They finally gave us a room in one of the other couples building and was told to go to the pool and they will make sure our bags were transferred to the new room in an hour. Well after a day at the pool we went to our new room to open the door to a naked woman, oh not fun, very embarassing. Went to the front desk to discuss the situation and they tried to blame it on us saying that we were suppose to come back at 6pm and we didnt so they gave the room away. Bad communication at front desk. They would not accept their mistake. Finally got put into a different room, meanwhile listening to people say that they were overbooked and being shipped to a different resort which we should of done. At least this room was nicer than the other one,disgusting and smelly. The transfer from the airport to the hotel lost one of our luggage and finally found it at another resort and was told that we had to pay for it to be brought back. There were 9 of us and all in different parts of the resort, which was huge and confusing at first. Trying to figure out the trolleys were confusing. You would get on one to be told that they dont go to your building????? After the first couple of days after going around in circles you can finaly figure it out. Prior to arriving I read reviews on reserving dinner prior to arriving, good luck with that. You can only do it by email but you are unable to get an email out of anyone, one of us called and spoke spanish and was told that we didnt have to reserve prior. We would all be able to dine together once we arrive. Not so much. A few couples were in diamond so pretty much when we tried to all dine together our dinner reservation sheets were thrown back to us and said no way possible. So we all dined separate. We got three dinner reservations that they chose for us. We had to eat at the buffet the rest of the time. Which was awful. The food at the main reservation restaurants were good but besides that the food was awful, dont worry about gaining weight. The drinks were awful also. One kind of beer and if you want top shelf you will have to pay extra. The one pool that we were allowed to go to was divided so you would have to stay on one side to be by the bar. The other pool only allowed diamond members. Bring your own raft, resort doesnt have them and make sure you go out early to get a chair by the pool or beach. The beach chairs are so close together,the beachfront is not that big, overcrowded.One more complaint...the fire alarm went off in the building next to us one night all night long. Everyone evacuated to a false alarm that went off all night into early morning. Very noisy resort maids arrive early and are very noisy. also alot of children. The wait staff was the best thing at the resort and of course the weather was gorgeous. We all loved the area but pay a little more and pick another resort.

pleasant

nice location / beach; a large and busy resort, but not so extreme as to be unpleasant; multiple internal shuttle services made the deep, narrow site reasonably convenient; our room was large and well-kept; soft mattress stressed my poor, aching back; dim lights stressed my poor, worn-out eyes; friendly service; not really enough beach chairs; limited watersports [4 hobies and 3 windsurfers], and a beach site not really conducive due to space committed to swimming area; buffet food was ok with very good variety but was extremely bland - byo garlic! price among resorts of this class was a factor in our choice, and we have limited resort travel experience, so we were reasonably satisfied.

My husband an I stayed at this beautiful hotel for almost a week. We enjoyed the amenities of the all-inclusive, great drinks, good service, many activities, clean and efficient junior st. room and enjoyed it very much. On the down side we encountered with the problem that there are not enough beach chairs for all the guests, and so, you have to get up early to get a spot (or look around for a while). Also we felt that the hotel was prepared enough for the amount of guests they have and so, the food was not great. Sometimes it was over-cooked, and sometimes it lacked flavor. But, the variety was great. My main complaint has to be that none of the websites I checked specified that you have only a specific amount of a la carte restaurants that you can choose. Since I did not knew this, we got there only to be surprised that they choose two restaurants for us and when we wanted to change, I had to fight with like 4 different staff members to get a restaurant that we liked (they told us there was no availability) and by the time we seriously complained to speak to the manager, were we able to get reservations. After this complaint, the staff was really great in trying to accommodate us (apparently, the word got around and many people knew about our issue)and we focused on enjoying the rest of our vacation. In general, this hotel is amazing, beautiful and full of activities for its many guests, just understand that you are in a different country, with different service and ways of doing things and make sure that you reserve the restaurants beforehand. If you have this in mind, you will enjoy a great time in a great Caribbean location.

After reading so many negative reviews before our trip, we were so happy to have had the experience of such a wonderful place. We couldn't find anything wrong with the hotel, the staff was super friendly and very helpful with doing reservations for the restaurants and any questions or concerns we had. The French and Japanese Restaurants were wonderful, the buffet food was sometimes bland but they had so much variety that you could find something you would like. We had the experience of putting the wrong tag on the door "do not disturb" and left for a day trip, when we got back we realize our mistake, our room was cleaned, when we left four dinner, left the tag to clean room just in case. We had a great surprise when we got back the room was all cleaned. We highly recommend this hotel.!!!

This was the best resort we've ever been to for the price!

I was disappointed with my stay at this hotel. The hotel is comprised of four or five hotels! The size is absolutely massive. Some of the hotel structures are close to the beach and others require the use of a shuttle to get to the beach. Check in was extremely slow. I wound up with two double beds instead of a king bed on my honeymoon. The hotel staff was unable to explain how the mix up happened nor were they able to rectify the situation because the hotel was sold out.