Iberostar Bavaro

2 readers found this review helpful

We stayed at the Iberostar Bavaro for two weeks, and it was everything we had hoped it would be.
All the staff were really friendly, and couldn't do enough for you. our rooms were very clean, there was maid service every day.
The hotels grounds were beautiful, and i have never seen such white sand or blue seas.
It really was like paradise.
The resturants had a large selection of food and drink all day,and room service 24 hrs .
We would definately go back.
WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE HOTEL

1 reader found this review helpful

My husband and I went for our honeymoon and we loved it....in fact we are planning to return in 2008 :)
We had never been on an all inclusive holiday before and would definately recommend it at this resort....there was so much choice of food and drink and when you stay at this resort you also had use of the other two Iberostar resorts which are next door.
The staff were brilliant and were always smiling.....the entertainment was good as well. In fact one day the staff did a show in the swimming pool and dressed up and acted as super heros all trying to save the damsel in distress - it was very funny and entertaining and made evryone laugh!
Our room was clean and really spacious and the mini bar was topped up every day with water, coke, sprite and beer :) Also the air conditioning turns on as soon as you shut the doors and so it was lovely after being in the hot sun all day.
The time of year we went there were not many children which was also great as we wanted a nice romanti honeymoon and thats what we got.
We loved Dominican Republic and this resort and would recommend to everyone!

My wife and I stayed seven nights at this resort for our honeymoon.
We were there from July 12 to July 19. We were told that we would get a non-smoking room on a second floor with an ocean view. When we arrived, we were told that none of the rooms were non-smoking and we were placed on the ground floor.
The first evening we noticed that our sliding patio glass door did not lock, so I called guest services to complain and they said they would send someone immediately. We waited an hour and then I called back. They again said someone would be there immediately. We ended up falling asleep holding our passports and valuables. The next day we marched to the front desk and demanded another room. We got one then.
This room was better, and the sliding door locked. We wanted to use the safe, but the bolts were out and we needed someone to reset the thing for us, so I called and it took two days to fix that problem.
The food was alright, but nothing to brag about. For an all-inclusive resort, it sure was limited. The room service was included, but only had about five items on the menu. The best meal for dinner was a hot dog or hamburger. We were told we could snack all day long and have all the drinks we could drink. This was true, but all the drinks had to be consumed at the place you got them at, and the snacks were not what we call snacks. They were hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, hamburgers, and fruit. I was expecting Doritos, candy bars...junk food snacks. All of the food, including the "snack food," had to be eaten at the restaurant/bar where you got them. Nothing could be brought back to the rooms.
The grounds were beautiful, with flamingos and peacocks walking around. There were man-made ponds with tons of fish and turtles. That was the best thing about the place.
The beach was nice, but not as beautiful as one would have been at Aruba or the Bahamas.
The worst thing about this resort is the customer service. The place had tons of activities, with maps in the rooms showing where they were, but if you needed any clarification or wanted to know what the schedules were, they wouldn’t tell you. They’d just say, "there’s a board way over there....just look for yourself." The staff never went out of their way to help at all. Very disappointing. For it being a 6-star resort, I thought the Days Inns here did better jobs.
The weather was great, and only rained one time during the day. When the walkways get wet, look out. It’s dangerously slippery. My wife stubbed her toe while coming down the stairs. It started bleeding, so we went to the front desk. When we asked for some first aid, we were told that there was none. They told us to walk over to the supermarket and buy our own supplies! Nice service. When I walked over to the supermarket, I learned that they didn’t even carry Peroxide, rubbing alcohol, or Band-Aids. The next resort over had a pharmacy. I walked the 5-minutes over there and found out that they were closed. My wife was bleeding and this place had nothing to stop it, or prevent it from getting infected. Thank God she didn’t seriously cut herself...she would have bled to death!
The resort would send us free mini bottles of rum with a fruit plate almost every day because they messed up, but that didn’t satisfy us. They even had the maids leave us tee-shirts with the resort logo on them. Yeah...like I’ll be wearing those any time soon. They’ll make good rags though.
The resort offered free transportation between the three Iberostars that were next to each other there in Punta Cana. The first time we did it, the staff was very quick and we got immediate service. That was the first night though. The other six nights we found that if anyone was busy, you ended up waiting a half hour (10 minutes to them) for someone to take you anywhere. We ended up just walking to the places. The only problem with walking was that it was so humid there, that if you walked any long distance, your clothing stuck to you with sweat. I lost five pounds being there seven days from sweating so much.
All of the building are open except your sleeping room. At night you would sit there eating dinner or waiting for a ride for a half hour and just start dripping with sweat. I constantly had to dab my forehead and face with a towel or napkin to soak up the sweat. My face broke out with acne because it was so oily all day long.
Their restaurants were buffets, and if you wanted the nice places, you had to make reservations with the guest services. Then they would only allow you to make THREE for the seven nights you were there. Not very unlimited all-inclusive as we expected.
You can’t drink the tap water or you’ll get sick. We used bottled water to brush our teeth.
We took an excursion outside of the resort and realized that this country was pretty bad off. The people live in little sheds with tin roofs and the thing that got to us the most was the amount of trash that was everywhere. There are literally no trash cans in the whole country. As you drive along the roads, there is trash lining the sides. The yards of the homes had trash all over the whole yard. People just lived with it there. They have their own cattle, which they butcher and serve hamburgers from. That may explain why I got diarrhoea from eating a hamburger for lunch on our fifth day there.
Their fancy steak house had like five steaks on their menu. No Filet Mignon or Prime Rib. Just chop steak, rib eye, and some other steak I had never heard of. There was also a chicken breast you could get.
If you didn’t know Spanish while there, beware... The locals hardly knew any English. People we spoke with who didn’t know any Spanish really had a hard time. The wait staff and store employees didn’t know any English. My wife, thank God, knew Spanish. I felt as though she was my translator. I know a little Spanish and was speaking it mostly.
There are mostly Germans, French, Italians, and Americans at the three Iberostar resorts there. It’s a family resort with little kids running around, so if you want some place romantic, don’t chose this place.
In the Caribbean there are these tiny ants that are almost transparent. They are literally everywhere. In your sleeping rooms, restaurants, everywhere. We were eating at one of the fancy restaurants one night and got to the dessert. My wife noticed these ants crawling all over it. We both lost our appetites and left.
The Go Go Tours was terrible. We felt as though they were rushing us to our destination and back in order to get to more tourists. All for more money. One of our excursions was ruined when nobody picked us up at our pick up spot. After we got our money back, we were told they went to another resort and picked everyone up there. We were repeatedly told to meet them in front of our Bavaro Resort.
Overall we were disappointed in the resort and will never return for any reason. And we plan on writing a letter of complaint to the corporate headquarters. :(