Barcelo Capella Beach Resort Hotel

My wife and I have stayed at the Barcelo Cappela Beach Resort twice. We like it very much. Those who are not ready to be in another person's country should stay home. You are not in the USA! We found the people to be charming and some a little shy. Spanish is their language, and their culture is different. I would say that the resort is beautiful and very clean. On both trips we got above average treatment. The food is OK but not great, but at $600.00 for airfare, hotel for seven days, food, drinks, entertainment, it's a good value for the price. I would recommend this hotel for anyone who wants to spend only that general amount of money on a trip. Dfiveoh -- MA

Travel dates: August 12 - 22, 2003 The hotel isn't 5 stars (expedia shows 3), and my wife and I knew that. (If you want a super vacation, go to Bavaro Beach in Punta Cana, Dom.Rep. There we stayed at Barcelo Bavaro Beach. Awesome! It does cost though.) Anyways, we were not expecting a whole lot. We didn't go there to spend hours in the room, gym or anyplace else, we went for the beach and sea. The room we stayed in was in the far back of the hotel. We actually liked that fact; everyday we took a walks through the wonderful gardens to get to the beach. The room was quiet and clean. It had a TV, coffee machine, mini fridge with (free) water and cola, iron and ironing board, and blow drier. The beach is really beautiful. A bit rocky in the middle and has plenty of coral there as well. There were sea urchins in the water so be careful. However, if you love snorkeling and love to watch the beautiful tropical fish, this is a wonderful place to go. But, if you like to stay near the shore, grab some water shoes. My wife likes to sunbath, and there were plenty of large beach beds. It is even okay to go topless (plenty of Europeans). The food was.....okay. I have had better, but we liked the mangos they had. YUM! I would stay away from anything you can't recognize or that seems not fully cooked. Oh, try a cocktail called "Coco-Loco". Very Good! Very Coconuty! Another fun thing to do is go scuba diving! We got certified right there at the hotel with a company called "Neptuno" and became: full open water divers. WHAT A BLAST! For those not interested in doing a full course, you can still go diving. Just take a educational pool lesson and you are ready to go diving! Also visit Catalina Island, beautiful! In short my wife and I had a wonderful time! I would go back again if I could. You can e-mail me and if your nice I might send some pictures of the place! :) Also check out Hamaca Coral by Hilton. It seemed nice.

What a great vacation. The service was excellent, and the resort was very clean and beutiful. They had numerous clean pools and buffets to choose from. The staff was very professional and took care of us throughout the entire trip. Even when our air conditioner broke, they helped us change rooms immediately. I would definalty return to this resort.

i read some of these negative reviews before i went and thought, "what a bunch of spoiled brats". even when i arrived to the resort, i thought how beautiful it looked with it's spanish architecture and manicured grounds, even four flamingos in one of the small pools. but when i saw (and smelled) my room for myself i couldn't wait to get back and spred the negative word left and right. we paid $1000 for a week in this resort so maybe that was the reason why our room stank like a fungus farm. the bedspread was damp - thank God they had the fleece overthrow on the bed otherwise i would have slept on the veranda couch. we couldn't keep the a/c on because it kicked out wet, funky air. to open the window, only one side functioned. while in the room and awake, keep the entry door and window open for some air circulation. don't turn on any lights or bugs will swarm. the floor was slippery (gross) and the bathroom was filthy. the bathroom was OK, besides the slippery door, grimy door and filthy tile wall in the tub. the beach was really crap. i know some of these resort beaches are converted coral reefs but i haven't seen anyone clean insane amounts of kelp. the vendors WERE annoying but not because they were persistant but because there was so many of them ALL THE TIME. entertainment was cheesy but i am really not there for that. taxi fares were outrageous at $55 to santo domingo and boat to catalina was $70 per person. gym was a shack - horrible and spa was a joke - $25 pedicure, buahaha! i agree that people who loved this place haven't seen any proper resorts. service was b/s too, males would throw perverted looks and women insisted on speaking spanish; acted like they couldn't understand and we got as respectful as we could, leaving tips and trying not to insult them because they are not earning much.... that was such b/s. never going back again!!! i'm booking st. john just to rest from this crap trip.

My boyfriend and i went to the barcelo capella last june and we had a wonderful time. After reading wome horrible reviews, we were not expecting much but the place was very beautiful and the grounds were very well kept. The rooms were bigger than the average rooms and kept very clean and the staff were eager to please. As with most all inclusives the food wasn't that great but we got by and the tours were really great especially the Saona island tour. A little far but definitely worth it. All in all it was a great deal for the money.

I recently visited this resort with a tour and upon arrival thought it was beautiful. But, as we arrived in our room we were greeted with the stench of mildew and saw that the whole room was covered with mildew. The shower curtain, walls, and counters in the bathroom area were covered. Throughout our visit our floor was continually soaking wet also. The food was, to say the least, disgusting. I, along with most others in the tour found the food horrible. The fruit was sometimes ripe, but sometimes more than ripe or not ripe at all and it was also surrounded by bugs.

My wife and I had an excellent time on our recent visit to the resort. We received the room type we requested on our reservation; this is not always the case. You should bring your Spanish A-Game. The resort workers are very eager to help you regarding your requests but they do not always understand. I made out pretty well knowing 20 words of Spanish. We found that a $1.00 tip for the room attendants each day worked wonders. They stocked our refrigirator with double water and sodas. We found the staff to be very friendly. All equipment in our room worked properly but we did experience a lack of water pressure one day which was promply corrected after a call to the front desk. The food was traditional resort fare but was very well prepaired. My wife found out that with a request and a smile the chefs at the grill would prepare their meal specialties to order. I found out that with a small tip at the bar each day you would get special treatment, by the head bartender, regarding your drink requests. The grounds are very pretty with several different types of plants. I read in previous reviews that the beach and water was not up to par. I disagree; the water front was partial old coral in front of the resort but there were areas at each end of the beach with sand right to the waters edge. The water in front of the resort was very clear but there are ereas of kelp. The beach ares was cleaned and raked each day. The pools were very clean and well maintained. I also read in one review that the resort did not really want you to check out the non-motorized equipment. We did not find this to be the case. We had access to all the equipment for a 1 hour duration. Regarding the vendors; there were a number of vendors attempting to sell you something. We only experienced one vendor that was pushy. Security, which there were several along the beach, quickly made him move on. The vendors here are no worse than other resorts we have been to in Mexico. In conclusion, I feel this is a very good resort and well worth the money.

My mother, my aunt and myself stayed at the Barcelo Capella Beach Resort for three days while visiting family in the Dominican Republic. I must say that unlike some of the people that wrote reviews I don't have many negative things to say about this resort. June is considered low season, so the hotel was not even at 30% capacity, which was a blessing since we wanted peace and quiet. We arrived at midday and were taken to our room immediately, I had requested an ocean view, which I got. The room was spacious, clean and stocked with coffee, water, sodas and even a complimentary fruit basket and a bottle of rum. The resort is very large with many well groomed gardens and beautiful paths surrounded by exotic flowers and fruit trees. I observed butterflies, birds (the resorts has its own flamingos and a peacock). There are two pools and a jacuzzi, which is where we spent the day because the beach is rocky and the water is not terribly clean, however we cannot blame that on the hotel.The resort staff was friendly and pleasant, never rude. They went out of their ways to make us comfortable. The food was resort food, nothing out of the ordinary, although at the buffet they did have a pretty good pasta station. We dined at two of the specialty restaurants, the best of the two was the French, which by the ways is $20 per person. We had a five course meal with wine, I would say that is pretty good for $20.Overall the experience was good, and for someone who lives and works in New York the pleasantry and stress free environment was more than enough to make up for whatever else was missing, which was not much.

The first thing that every visitor to the Caribbean should know is that there is an underdeveloped economy that sometimes spills into the resorts.For instance, in the Capella, the employees are paid monthly and morale suffers from this accounting quirk. Nonetheless, everyone is polite, hard working, and always ready to smile and laugh so long as you dont come off like youre a King or Queens and they are peons.I saw this mentality surface on behalf of some Russian and an African American guests. As a result, nothing satisfied their rarefied tastes. Thus, their grandiose expectation set them up for a huge disappointment.My advice, when in a foreign country, get a feel for the countrys vibe, customs, and social etiquette. Then join in the fun.Complaining about having to take a power boat to a catamaran, or that the other guests are drinking alcohol or that one lady decided to go topless, well why travel to a foreign country if you cant get loose.Once your attitude is properly set, the hotel is of moderate size which fits into some peoples idea of fun. I would have personally enjoyed more activities, but I must admit I came home so relaxed it took me a week before I could get back up to New York speed again.Everything was close by and the folks who were there to have fun (versus complain) were very nice.The room was clean and the AC worked well. I did hear of one room with an AC problem. The folks in that room asked for and had their room changed.The food was very good after the first couple of days. I can only imagine that the full time cook had taken a couple of days off.There are two dining rooms and two pools. The atmosphere in one set is very active, raucous almost, the other pair is so quiet you would think you are in a private club.The grounds are beautiful with Flamingos as an additional decoration.If you go anywhere, you should of course take at least a couple of excursions. Our excursion to Isla Saona was beautiful with a stop on a sandbar in the middle of the ocean that was magical.WARNING,Saona, take mosquito repellant as the mosquitoes really get stirred up after it rains. As a general idea, you should always carry a can of OFF whenever traveling to the Caribbean.So, if your looking for a moderate sized hotel where you can really relax, this is a perfect place to go to.If youre going to complain, stay home and let the rest of us enjoy the world.

We arrived on April 6, 2003 The safe in the room was broken, patio door locked you out on the patio 4 stories up, toilet broken. We called they sent a repair man he said it was fixed it was not. We did not tip this man because we felt we do not tip for repairs to the room we just walked into. It took three phone calls to the front desk and a visit from us to get another repair man. The safe finally worked the patio door or the toilet did not work. Pillows smelled bad, bed linnen not clean bath tub has hair left in it overall not clean. Bathroom fixtures rusted and broken. The food was innadequate we ate only what we saw cooked in front of us. Several couples got sick!Little white Bugs and black ants all around the sink in the bathroom and on the floors.We left a three dollar American tip, hand cream, pencils and books for the maid every day I dread to think how bad the cleaning would be if we did not do this. It was poor when we did this.The beach was very poor not much sand and a lot of coral the venders were very very bad non stop no peace lying in the sun every few seconds they bothered you with the goods they were selling!Pools very old we were afraid to swim in them did not appear clean.The air condition system, there was no provision for exhust air, the room was very damp. We did not unpack a suitcase.I would strongly not recommend this resort!