Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda Don Pablo Collection- All Inclusive

the overall experience was average and not at all what was reported before I booked the trip for my family and I. The resort was fine, staff was courteous enough but hardly spoke english. The food was monotounous and everything was overcooked!!. could it be possible that this is the only island where they eat nothing but sweet or bland food, The only thing I could mask the flavour with was Tabasco??. God forbid if you ate anything but meat or seafood morning till night. How can the Italian restaurant not have decent pasta?. The liquor was b- grade. They kepy pushing the cheap stuff. I Would not recommend this to anyone else. Would not go back to Dominican republic if this is any indication of their overall cuisine/lack of enthusiasm to accomodate for anything that is out of the ordinary for them. has completely put me off all inclusives. Had a very average time there, skip it and do an allinclusive in Mexico/somewhere else if you have to.

This wasn't the vacation I thought it would be. It was very boring. All there was to do was go in the pool or the ocean. There were no activities and if there were our group never found them. Compared to other vacations, there was always something going on in the pools or on the beach but here there was nothing anywhere. The food was good and the rooms were clean but some from our group were greeted with fruit baskets and liquoer and we got nothing so what was that all about? I wouldn't recommend it seeing I've been to much nicer and more active and fun resorts. Sorry!

It was very complete all inclusive resort great food. Warm water, nice rooms excellent service beautful pool. Private restaurant. Weve been there twice and would go again.

Our experience at the Grand Bahia Principe Esmeralda was pretty much great although there were a couple of tweaks. First off, the hotel cost was very high but, it was worth it. Also, a group for the Grand Bahia Principe which were advertising for Punta Cana tours were very unorganized, ruined a partial fraction of our entire vacation and definitely brought a bad image to the hotel. The food was a bit repetitive, but very good, my family and i personally loved it but began to realize it was practically all the same kind of food. In addition, there was an inconvience with the room request we requested , they gave us a different genre of a room that we did not plan for to get, also with the room, we requested additional towels( we had a family of 4, we only got 2). Other than those negative comments, the hotel was very good, service was wonderful, the food was acceptional and everyone there was very friendly. It was a great experience. Lastly, there are always something to occupy the guests at the hotel including: a live theatre, karioke bar, so many various restaurants, so many bars, mini golf, a spa, even a kids club, and much much more.

difficult to get poolside chair lounges, taken by 8am difficult to get restaurant reservations very regimented not flexible to your needs

This hotel in the Gran Bahia Principe would be my recommendation for your vacation. The location to the beach and food are easily accessible. There is more than enough to do for families at this resort.

Service was great and food and drinks delicious. Hotel was amazing and pretty. Views were breathtaking. At the Jasmin Buffet there was a server that his name is [...] and he was the best server ever and the rest of the crew were really nice too.

The hotel was awesome! When booking I noticed several Gran Bahia resorts, there are about 4 resorts located at this property. The Esmerelda is the best-you are literally just steps from the beach. The Punta Cana and Bavaro ones are much further away. As mentioned we were just steps from the pool, buffet and beach. You could also easily walk to the main pool where there was a lot of action. It was very easy to walk or take the train to the front to go to the shows in the Teatro Tropical or go to the little town with the casino, shops, etc. The food in the Jazmin buffet was actually pretty good as far as all inclusives go. If you want to try the al a carte restaurants be sure to book them on your first day-they will set up some for you but if you want others do it right away. We had some reservations but we ended up eating mostly at the buffet as we would have days where we just didn't feel like being ready in time for the reservation. The staff is very attentive and were always available and the majority of them were really friendly and seemed genuinely happy to be there and help you out. The place is very clean and kept up very well. Very relaxing, the beach is just fantastic! The sand is white, water pure blue, very unspoiled. Don't pay much attention to the weather forecast unless actually late in hurricane season. We were there the week of June 20th and the weather was perfect everyday even though weather forecasts predicted 60% chance rain on some days. I've heard it is pretty much always nice there except late into hurricane season so google and read up on that. We had a wonderful time and very positive experience. Great for families and couples alike. I would only recommend that you not book ground transportation. I did thinking it would be easier and it was when we arrived but then the tour group, COCO tours wanted us to go all the way up to the main lobby at 10AM on our first day there to get our return trip to the airport-what they really want to do is sell you on excursions so we did not go. On my last day I had to spend the time going up to the front to arrange the transportation and [...], the coco tours rep, was very rude to me since I hadn't bothered to visit him previous to this. It was a real hassle to have to arrange and deal with this and they ended up late to pick us up and we almost missed our flight home, even then [...]was still extremely rude to us. I suggest looking into a safe way to get a taxi from the airport then having the hotel call you one when you leave-dealing with these tour reps is not worth the hassle and they don't make it easy on you.

This property is magnificent down to the last detail. Cleanliness is of the highest degree. The staff bends over backwards to insure that all facilities are painted and groomed. Gardens are manicured daily by hand and fresh flowers are placed in all rooms. We ate most days at the buffet (Jasmin) for all three meals. The food changed daily and was well prepared with excellent flavor. The allacarte is too much of a hassle if you haven't prearranged before your stay. Room service was unattainable and my only complaint. Although I saw room service being delivered daily, everytime we called the phone rang off the hook until I eventually hung-up. The biggest complement I can give is how friendly the staff and for that matter all the Dominicans we encountered were. Everyone goes out of their way to help you. Staff greets you when you walk by and offers to help if they think you need it. This service was of the quality of Ritz Carlton resorts that we have stayed at. One thing that no one else mentioned is that it is possible to get rooms with an adjoining door. This makes it much easier for a family to have seperate rooms while still keeping some privacy. I highly recommend this resort for couples and families alike.

This hotel is absolutely beautiful and the food is very good. The bar is well stocked and we had no problems with any drinks. We did not enjoy the Don Pablo Gourmet restaurant that we booked a la carte but all other restaurants were very good. But I would book this directly through the hotel. An online travel company was little to no assistance with our reservations, most everything that was booked through them - transfer and 2 excursions we had little to no information and had to try and track down information while we were at the hotel. I was given inaccurate information when making my reservations saying we could book 4 in a room when we tried to add our 4th person (by paying the all inclusive price for a person) we were told we could not add anyone and that the hotel was sold out. We booked directly through the hotel for another room. Luckily many times the staff was friendly and would point us in the right direction but with the transfers the only reason they worked is because I booked my son through the hotel directly along with the transfer and the driver didn't mind taking us as well - for a nice tip.