Holiday Reviews > Caribbean > Dominican Republic > Puerto Plata > Puerto Plata Hotels > Playa Naco Golf & Tennis Resort > Read Reviews
Playa Naco Golf & Tennis Resort Reviews
| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
Oct 2006 |
| Tour
Operator: |
The Holiday Place |
| Submitted
By: |
Mrs J Gamble |
| Overall
Rating: |
3/10 |
| Comments: |
Just returned from two weeks at Playa Naco Hotel, did I enjoy my holiday I don't know how to describe the time spent there! One of those annoying all inclusive places where you wear a colour coded wrist band, unless you're lucky enough to 'lose' it somewhere.
Booked two weeks before departure for 4 adults and 1 child. Out of 4 restaurants, only one was open. No child club, no child play area. No entertainment day or night. No nothing!! How do you describe nothing? As for the meringue lessons and scuba lessons promised - where were these? But apparently it was 'off season' so we kept being told and that was supposed to halt our disgust at not being told this two weeks ago when we booked?! Apparently high season starts 1st November, funny because I've been in the Caribbean the last two years in November and it's been just as quiet, perhaps there's only one season all year. Wonder what the hotel staff get paid for doing in 'off season' then?
Luis Cepedo, General Manager and 'Animation' (er, that's entertainment to the rest of us), and his two helpers, seem to get paid for doing nothing, day after day. Yes, no entertainment, sorry 'animation', day or night, except, of course, at the weekend when we were invaded by Dominicans who apparently can stay every weekend of the year for what we English pay for our two weeks. (Best of luck to them I say!).
After a week everyone (English & Americans) got together to complain. The hotel agreed to open another restaurant but served exactly the same food as in the buffet restaurant, so all we got was a change of scenery. Lunch at the beach bar was actually quite good in fairness the hotel and is right on the beach. Breakfast was substantial enough avoiding the ants, mosquito's and birds. The evening meal, although always very nicely presented, appeared to be yesterday's left overs regurgitated, day after day and coupled with the ants and leaking ceiling in the buffet restaurant after the almost daily downpour around teatime, was enough to put anyone off the food, and so we ate out 3 times.
According to Playa Naco website there is also a Dominican Chocolate House, we could see it from our balcony but hasn't been open in two years.
Drinks were included but wine and cocktails (no fruit or umbrella's) were served in plastic vending cups. Food was only available at meal times and no snacks in between which meant that very young children couldn't get food after lunch until 6.30 pm by which time they were falling asleep.
After the complaints, Luis started offering evening entertainment of just one hour each evening: one hour of Mr Macho, one hour of Karaoke, one hour for any woman stupid enough to get up on stage and wiggle her bits in front of the entire guest list, one hour of pop quiz, one hour of 'culture' quiz, and three nights where there was one hour of local dancers. One of these night he organised the dancers in the upstairs theatre and promised to follow this with a disco till 1 am, (there is a nightclub, theatre and disco at this hotel though none were open), but the records (not a proper disco) were switched off at 11 pm and as the bar downstairs (the one and only bar) closed at 12 anyway there was never going to be any chance of a disco till 1 am.
Good points for this hotel? We upgraded direct with the hotel to a 2-bedroomed duplex apartment and they didn't charge us for it! This accommodation was superb though we were bitten to death the whole holiday in the bed even though we sprayed everything every night. The food, though repetitive and regurgitated, was well presented and I'm sure in 'high' season when everything is fresh each day, it could be quite good. The hotel was directly on to a superb beach, and what few customers they had had been spread throughout the hotel so there was absolutely no noise from neighbours.
Other hotels in the same holiday village (approx 14 similar all inclusives within walled grounds), although more basic in accommodation all boasted superb restaurants serving lobster and steak and a full entertainment programme even though they too had very few guests - no one else complained except guests of Playa Naco.
Playa Naco has the basics of a good hotel, accommodation, scenery, location, get the other main bits right, the food and the entertainment and the Animation team, and you could find yourselves scoring 8 or 9 out of 10.
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| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
Aug 2006 |
| Tour
Operator: |
The Holiday Place |
| Submitted
By: |
Miss A R Forrest |
| Overall
Rating: |
4/10 |
| Comments: |
I have just got back from two weeks in Playa Naco. The hotel was clean, apart from the pool, a few bugs but nothing more than the average hotel.
The food was vile and everything tasted of cinnamon, but the Tex Mex and Caribbean restaurants were good and there were a few friendly waitresses around.
The hotel was extremely biased towards local visitors, of which 90% of the guests were at times.
I was shoved around at meal times by local women and the staff very rarely served us if there was a Spanish speaking guest waiting too.
The room was good, air-conditioning a touch noisy, and the hot water temperamental, but overall ok. We were woken by the maid everyday at 7.30 and woken again every half an hour afterwards until we got out of the room which became intensely annoying after a while.
The hotel was ok, very dull in the evening and definitely not 'English speaking' friendly.
Would return to the Dominican again, but not Playa Naco.
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| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
Sep 2005 |
| Tour
Operator: |
First Choice |
| Submitted
By: |
Mrs Carole Happy Holiday Maker |
| Overall
Rating: |
8/10 |
| Comments: |
I put 2005 THE YEAR IN AS IT WONT TAKE what should have been IT WAS 1999 AND IT WAS A PERFECT HOLIDAY THE SECOND WEEK WE WERE THERE WE HAD A HURRICANE BUT IT PASSED WITHIN A MATTER OF DAYS THE STAFF DID A WONDERFUL JOB THE REASON THE PLAYA NACO IS NO LONGER IN THE BROCHURES ITS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY TIMESHARE AND THIS HAS SPOILT IT SO THE STANDARDS HAVE DROPPED ,IT WAS THE FIRST TIME WE HAD BEEN TO THE DOM-REPUBLIC BUT WE HAD A WONDERFUL TIME AND LOOK FORWARD TO GOING TO THE SAME AREA BUT DIFFERENT ACCOMADATION AS I SAY PLAYA NACO IS NOT IN THE HOLIDAY BROCHURES, SO UNLESS THEY PULL THE STOPS OUT THEY WILL NOT GET MANY TAKERS AGAIN, WE ARRIVED ON THE 20/09/99 AND DEPARTED 14 DAYS LATER DIDNT WANT TO GO HOME HAD WONDERFUL TIME FOOD WAS GOOD ACCOMADATION PERFECT BUT TIME HAS PASSED ON SINE THEN Regards Carole,
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| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
Aug 2005 |
| Tour
Operator: |
The Holiday Place |
| Submitted
By: |
Miss J Sykes |
| Overall
Rating: |
8/10 |
| Comments: |
I returned from the Dominican Republic just this morning. I read some of these reviews with my mum before going and have to admit we were quite worried. We have never have any bad problems with holidays before and travel often. It took a few days to get sorted into the hotel, but once were we had a great holiday. I really don’t know what people are talking about when they say the place was covered in insects we saw one cockroach in 2weeks.
The hotel is spayed every Wednesday. 5 of us travelled, we ended up with a two level apartment, in wonderful grounds. New Italian Management took over in dept 2004 and it is the only hotel I have ever stayed in that we could see a member of the management team everywhere checking things out. There are 3alacart restaurants all with excellent food and the buffet is served on the beach twice a week, the food is not excellent but no complaints and the setting is lovely. There is a shopping mall with restaurants, shops and bars. Entertainment in the hotel finishes at 11.20 but they have a disco and the local mall within the complex approximately 4min walk.
It’s not a 5star resort but there have been alot of improvements, all the staff are lovely, helpful, game for a laugh and speak English. There are alot of Dominicans in the hotel at weekends but we found that it made the entertainment better as they join in whereas as the British don’t normally take part. All in all you’ll have a great time don’t be afraid to talk to people.
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| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
May 2005 |
| Tour
Operator: |
Thomas Cook |
| Submitted
By: |
Mrs L Hughes |
| Overall
Rating: |
1/10 |
| Comments: |
On first arrival the resort did not look that bad but within 2 days we had to be moved rooms as we found faeces on the bed and bedside cupboards.
The next room they gave us was spacious but smelt musty and the beds were damp, We had roaches running round the cooking area and little insects all over the kitchen worktops. We complained about this and was basically told 'well you are in a tropical country'.
The third day there i went down really ill with dioreah and sickness and was ill all holiday, going for three weeks didn’t help matters.
The food was awful partially cooked or raw in middle, rehated food for breakfast from evening meal and there were insects and birds just helping themselves to it. None of the food was covered.
The staff hardly spoke any English and were quite abrupt if you complained as for the waiting staff we had to wait sometimes until we were on pudding before even being offered a glass of water.!!
The plates and cutlery were filthy, my list could go on and on.
We came home and I was still ill so had to see my gp who confirmed after testing that I’d had been and still was suffering from salmonella.
Suffice to say I will not be going back to Dominican Republic again.
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| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
Apr 2005 |
| Tour
Operator: |
Airtours |
| Submitted
By: |
Mrs D Fisher |
| Overall
Rating: |
8/10 |
| Comments: |
After reading the previous comments I have to say that we were moved from a hotel in Caberete that sounds as bad as the reviews written here.
This hotel has new management and can honestly say that if the reviews are true it has improved 100% The rooms were large airy and spotless, no problem with aircon, hot water or bugs.
The cleaners were constantly around the resort. The food was although repetitive which you expect in all-inclusive but well cooked, hot and very tasty. The staff were friendly and helpful they made you feel very welcome.
The drinks were not watered down at all, beach was spotless and being constantly cleaned by beach staff. The General Manager was seen many times during the day checking things out.
So if you have booked this hotel be assured you will have a wonderful time here.
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| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
Sep 2004 |
| Tour
Operator: |
Airtours |
| Submitted
By: |
jayjay |
| Overall
Rating: |
1/10 |
| Comments: |
After being forcibly removed from Jamaica, due to hurricane Ivan we were dumped in what has got to be the worst hotel on earth.
Playa Naco was an infested health hazard. You name it this place had it, rats, flees, ants and other thing that we have no idea what they were. Birds that looked like crows shared our food, they were the only ones to eat it as it was foul. As you may know the water is not to be drunk and so had to be bought at 197 passos (£3) per bottle, as there was no in the hotel to buy it.
None of the staff spoke English. It was horrible. On our last day we were joined in the pool area by the Dominican police complete with guns. We were moved to occidental grand flamenco better but anywhere would have been. What can I say management deciding when to open the bar, flooded room and a closed beach. Not only that one day no matter were you went in the hotel there was the overwhelming smell of sewers, nice.
Glad to be home!
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| Board Basis: |
All Inclusive |
| Date of
Holiday: |
Sep 2004 |
| Tour
Operator: |
Airtours |
| Submitted
By: |
Miss G Edwards |
| Overall
Rating: |
1/10 |
| Comments: |
The first two days of our holiday was going fine and the hotel was lovely. But because of the hurricane we were moved to the Dominican Republic.
We eventually arrived in the Dominican Republic after midnight where we were then taken by coach to our new accommodation. As we arrived the complex looked shabby and parts had been knocked down, other parts were still being built. We hoped it might get better once we had seen our rooms; we checked in to the Playa Naco Hotel and went to our rooms.
They were filthy, and smelt awful; insects were running everywhere, in the beds, all over the kitchen, the floors everywhere. The bathroom was dirty and had mould on the windows and walls, there was a filthy dirty, grotty kitchen at one end of the room this was too dirty to consider using even if we had wanted to. The main patio type window was hanging out, we went back downstairs to tell the rep we were not happy, the rep assured us that the window would be repaired as we were worried about it as we were on the ground floor, it was never repaired! We were also told that there was a meeting in the morning with the reps for us to attend. I tried to clean the bed as best as I could for my daughter to sleep, my partner and I sat up as we felt vulnerable without having secure windows.
In the morning we tried to go and have some breakfast but the eating area was really filthy dirty as well, the crockery was dirty and the food was uneatable, there were flies and birds on the food we were supposed to eat. By this time we were really hungry as we hadn’t eaten since moving so we managed to buy some crisps and took our packed suitcases to the lobby. We went to the meeting with the reps but it was just a waste of time, they just informed us that we wouldn’t be moved and would have to stay there for a minimum of four days. . We were shown other rooms but they were all much the same filthy dirty and had not been maintained, (not what you would expect when you pay for a 5 star holiday)
We then asked the rep for complaints forms but he firstly refused, then said he didn’t have any then he said we would be issued with standard letters; we still have not received any!
The reps were unhelpful and at times quite rude; one rep even said our holiday was officially over as soon as we left Jamaica!!!
By this time we were really hungry so we decided to try and find a restaurant, we found one and we managed to eat out from then on as the food in the hotel was so disgusting. The rest of the complex was just as bad; it had been partly knocked down and looked like a building site. From then on I tried to get a complaints form every day and the reps assured me that they would try and get the food improved but it didn’t get any better.
we were so glad to get home it was the worst holiday we have ever had
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