Reviews of Blue Bay Getaway Villas Doradas Hotel, Playa Dorada

I just came back from my first carribean experience and I loved it. It was the first time being away without no children. Everything about the island and the people on it were fantastic. I got engaged out there and we are definitly going back for more next year.

me and my girlfriend went to the blue bay on july 2008 for two weeks, she was a bit worried it was going to be a rowday because it was "adults only" sh e actualy thought it was going to be a swingers hotel lol, but it was one of our best holidays, the staff were first class the hotel must be the cleanest i have ever been in they are constantly cleaning, painting and renewing any thing that looks worn or tattered, the best thing i would say about it was the anamation team "the crew" they are the funnyest people you will ever meet, the shows they put on is slap stick comedy but you will be falling about laughing they'v all got mad names like; james bond, tony montana pinnapple ect. the food is great but u get board with it after a while same stuff usualy at the buffet but their are three a la carte resturants they are good also. the beach is to die for when the sun comes over it turns pure blue/ green. dont go to the flee market its the same stuff in every stall, u will get it bettet price on the beach any way, and if your doing any excursions do it with your rep its safer, the outback safari was amasing get to see the country and culture. well 10/10 from me, enjoi your holiday.

Stayed at this hotel for two weeks. The food was amazing... beached was a mazing weather was brilliant.. until the day we left... as we left just before the hurrican season. ach day had a different food theme. The best was the American lunch (hotdogs burgers chips) and the mexican Dinner. Breakfast was good and ulimited drinks all night. The beach restaurant was FANTASTIC! When we first arrived we had fied chicken and chips right by the beach.. an amazing start to the holiday. Always somehting to dowith all of the entertainers. Sports on the beach fun by the poolside and in the pool!



Amazing holiday

Definetely recommend it!



There was two downsides but didnt affect me or many people.

One person woke up with a man holding a gun to their head! not sure if it is true.

Also this is truee... a women went to the toilet and can out and got grabbed by a Greman man she got away and he got arrested.

She was fine.

But apart fromt hat Best holiday ever! x

just came back from bluebay in dominican it was fantastic,weather very hot even though it is their rainy season, the hotel was lovely the rooms were clean maid service everyday animation team never stop from early morning till well after midnight i dont know where they get the energy from ,but they cannot do enough for you they were brilliant and very funny,my husband and i upgraded to the vip suite for our last week

of a two week stay and it was pure heaven you were treat like royalty it was amazing

i would recommend this hotel to anyone it was brilliant

what can i say? excellent!!!!!!!!

the hotel operates a 24 hour all inclusive policy. over 18,s only.

food was very good. staff were very friendly and very helpful. the animation team were tireless with fun from 10 am till 12. then they took you to a casino if you wanted. the beach bar was open 24, food and beer at your request, plus entertainment as well.

the trips out are very good. the dolfin encounter is excellent, all day there so it was a long day.

only one downer. that was the blueshirts!!!!. these people swear blind that its not timeshare that they are selling. you find out when they get you to the meeting so beware. just say no straight away.you will see them hanging around the pool area

we will be going back soon

We stayed at Blue Bay at the start of May 2008 and had a fantastic time. The room was lovely; fresh towels and beach towels every day, bed sheets changed every day! The food was excellent in the buffett, a fab choice and great service. The al a carte restuarants were good; the seafood being the best and the service there was exceptional. The pool areas and bars were very clean and the provided great service (a waitress attending the pool area so you didnt have to get off your lounger for a beer!!!!)

What made the hotel extra special was the entertainment team "animation" friendly, fun and genuine nice guys. They were always ready to involve everyone in the activities, get you up to dance etc but all with no pressure - super!!!

Can highly recommend the Outback Safari adventure and the Paradise Isalnd trip for snorkelling - had a really great time.

If you stay here you WILL have a GREAT time!

The food here was excellent. There was a good choice at the buffet and the grill and particuarly the oriental restaurant were also very good. We did go to the seafood place once, and I have to say that the food and level of service there was very poor compared to the other eateries. PLEASE BEWARE THE MEN IN YELLOW T-SHIRTS (they are hotel time share sales people)!!! Please also be wary of people ofering welcome packs and free gifts. This is a timeshare sale, nothing else. They will tell you anything to get you in the door. We were totally disgusted at this. It is something you expect from outside the hotel, but not from the staff inside the hotel. There is a little hut just after the bridge before you get to the beach. DO NOT GO IN! We were told that we would go in there to recieve out welcome packs, free T-shitrs etc. We went inside and were given a presentation on the other Blue Bay hotels and they tried to sign us up to a 25 year time share membership! They are very, very pushy and lucklily we are very strong minded people and are not persuaded easily, although I can see how people would sign up because of how push they are. We did not even recieve our so so called welcome pack or anything else from them. The animation team are full of energy and try very hard, although they too can be a little pushy and won't take no for an answer when you do not want to participate in their games. We ended up staying on the beach instead of sitting by the pool so as to avoid being harassed by them. The linen on the beds were holey and stained some nights and we had to request that the sheets be changed. I wouldn't even expect this from a B&B. Despite these issues we did have a fabulous time. I took my partner for his 40th birthday and we were very happy. The grounds are lovely, the beach is lovely, especialy the 4 poster beds on the beach (get up early to catch these). The staff are very warm and friendly and helpfull. The weather was fabulous and there are excellent day trips and excursions available. I don't think I would go again, but we did enjoy our time there.

I got a last minute deal as single traveller, a bit nervous about the accomodation as i read mixed reviews, was a 9.5 hr long flight, upon arrival the staff were friendly, the hotel exceeded my expecations, i was on ground floor but asked for a top floor which was changed easily, the pools were lovely, the food was great, nice beach, lookey lookey men got a bit annoying, very chilled out, not a busy in your face hotel, glad it was adults only, Ofelia gives a great massage, was very happy and had a fab time, nice bars, shopping centre 2-3 mins away, i dont know what people moaned about, if you want 5 star pay for it!

Definitely not the place you want to be if you are not a drinker. Our biggest complaint is the very uncomfortable beds. As our flight left our city at 1:00 am and we did not arrive at the hotel until after 4 in the afternoon we were understandably very tired. We tried to have a nap before dinner and found that the bed was hard and lumpy, the pillows were very lousy and there were only a total of 3 in the room. Before we were able to fall asleep we would both have to shift positions as our limbs would go numb or ribs would ache. We were unfortunate enough to arrive as sub-tropical storm Olga blew in, so we were pretty much confined to the room. Even though the room was quite spacious the only thing other than the bed to sit on was a backless desk-type bench-chair.



So there we were stuck in this room with rain blasting down, winds blowing like crazy, and sitting on a very hard and lumpy bed watching TV. Dinner is served starting at 7:00 pm so we waiting for a small let-up on the downpour and ran to the main building to eat. The dining room is quite nice but you sit on whicker chairs with no padding so not comfortable there either. As exhausted as we were I really thought we would be able to sleep through anything but as it turned out, the bed kept us tossing and turning all night, as neither one of us got any rest.



The next day we asked reception for some padding for the mattress. Later we did find a regular mattress pad on the bed, I'm not sure if it was there before or not but it made no difference anyway, we called and asked if there were better beds in any of the other rooms so that we might switch and were told all the beds were the same. My husband then called room service and requested 6 blankets! (I laughed as who would use blankets in the DR) anyway, it took a couple of hours but someone eventually showed up with 3 fleece type blankets that looked brand new so I guess they sent someone into the city to buy them. We tried doubling up these blankets to cover our torso areas to hopefully pad it well enough that we could sleep; I think we were able to get a couple hours here and there that night.



As for cleanliness, not bad but as we've seen those hotel expose's on cleaning of drinking glasses in the rooms....bring some dish soap. The room was otherwise cleaned quite well, except for the lump of mud/grass stuck to the bathroom wall that was there when we got there and there when we left.



Anyway besides the very uncomfortable beds, we found that this type of hotel is not for us as we no longer drink and there is absolutely nothing else to do. We have never done the all-inclusive thing before and didn't expect to get our money's worth because of the drinking but we didn't realize that if we slept in (as we like to on holidays) that we could not get any breakfast and pretty much no food until lunch was served.



The 24 hour snacks they claimed to have are only at the beach bar and what my husband said consisted of a 1 inch square of bread with a tomato slice and a piece of fish or something on it. When I went to see, it appeared they were setting up for dinner and there was nothing available. Trying to get a coffee or something other than an alcoholic drink was difficult. Staff seemed irritated by it. We found that even only after a couple days of eating in the main dining room the food was too much the same and far from wonderful. Lunch often appeared to be dinners left over’s, served in a different sauce or gravy.



I am the type of person that tries to make the best of any situation but as my husband does not do well without sleep and was extremely unhappy with the way things were going he was on the phone with the airline begging to have our flight moved to the soonest one out. We arrived Tuesday afternoon and left Friday afternoon. We did not get a chance to try any of the 3 restaurants so we can't vouch for them, but we learned that this was not the place for us.



My husband thought we should stay in the adult only resort so we wouldn't be woken up early by kids, but instead we got to listen to doors slamming during the wee hours of the night and phone calls in the morning asking us about the problem with the toilet that we had to tell them on 3 separate calls that we never called about a toilet problem.



If you don't drink there is nothing to do when the weather is bad, as it was. Had we gotten some rest maybe we would have felt up to taking a taxi ride into the city to shop but with the language barriers in the resorts themselves we didn't feel comfortable heading into the general population. When we left the hotel to venture to take a walk up the main road or go to the shopping centre, we were constantly harassed to take horse and buggy rides, taxi rides etc, etc, you were stopped constantly by people wanting you to check out their resort for your next visit, check out their wares etc. We were followed around in the shops like we were thieves and even within the Blue Bay itself we were stopped on our way to the beach by a Blue Bay employee asking us if we were on our way to our meeting - what meeting we asked and we were told that we should go to a meeting about other Blue Bay resorts.



So after taking my holiday 6 months later than I needed it, waiting 6 months to finally get it and having to leave days after getting there I can honestly say this was one of the biggest disappointments of my life.

When I arrived at the airport I wondered where the hell I was. It was sheer madness as the locals try and grab your bags to carry them to the coach for money, and they don’t take no for an answer, which is not good.



The hotel was actually lovely, the rooms were pretty big, and they have everything needed to make your stay enjoyable.



I have no complaints about the hotel staff as they were always cheerful and they never moaned if I asked for something. Also the maids do a fantastic job and my room was always spotless with plenty of clean towels.



If you travel here, make sure you sign up for some trips. I recommend the trips that take you upto the hills to see how they live etc. I went on a catamaran trip and if you’re queasy then I suggest you don’t go on this.



The outward trip was fine as it was lovely and the waters were still but we had high seas coming back and there was only 2 people out of 30 that were not sick. It was not a pleasant at all. However I did manage to see some kids aged about 6 or 7 catching fish with spears which was cool.



I don’t think I’d come back here but it was a good holiday.

We went to the Dom. Republic for Honeymoon and I have to say we were quite disappointed with the place that we had booked.



The hotel Hoteteur Villas Doradas was not as nice as we had expected and we both wished we had chosen somewhere else.



The hotel was fairly clean and the staff friendly, but overall was shabby and in need of overhaul. The food was pretty poor and wasn't to standard that we would have expected.



WE did enjoy the excursions out to the surrounding areas, but to be honest spent quite a lot of time at the beach, which was very pretty.



I would recommend the Dom. Republic to others, but not this hotel. I would also advise that it is very warm and humid here in September.

Spent a week here last Christmas when I managed to get a late deal with my mate. It’s quite a long flight but it did not seem as long as it actually is as it does pass quickly.



I got quite worried when I looked out the window before we were due to land as you really do land on a dirt track in the middle of nowhere. Think I expected a big airport etc but I was definitely mistaken.



The hotel itself was good but I was disappointed with the weather, it was absolutely pouring down and out of the whole week we only had one half day of scorching sunshine. Its mainly cloudy but warm etc. You could sit out and go to the beach but I do like the sun so was not amused.



The food was ok, better than the army food I have lived off but I was ill after eating at the grill house, however this may not be down to the food.



We went on a quad bike trip which was good, we went up into the wastelands to see how people live. It does open your eyes as many houses are built up from old deckchairs and cardboard, yet all the children are spotless and dressed immaculately.



It is not really a place I'd go back to but I was thankful of the break.

Flight was very good. We arrived early and time passed quickly. The hotel room was clean and spacious but as we were on the ground floor we had no outside space. We spent most of our days on the beach as round the pool was very hot, nice breeze on the beach.



We found the food good plenty of choice but some of the meat is very tough! The grill restaurant on the beach was not too good but the fish restaurant was excellent didn’t try the Chinese as we got bad comments from most diners. We thought we’d make our own way on the local bus to Playa Dorada don’t bother as they are rickety dormabiles and cram as many people on as possible.



Catamaran trip fantastic crew great and worked hard all day. Also Outback Safari very good see how the locals live and more of the island. Evening entertainment was good but finished at 10.30 and only the bars are open after that. Take plenty of mosquito repellent, room sprays etc and you'll be ok we won't be going back as we have seen as much as you can see as there aren’t many trips to go on but glad we went this time.

We booked this holiday as a last minute and it was fab.

We had never been long haul before and with a 4 year old can be quite trying, but it went quicker than expected.



On arriving I was surprised with the airport, it was clean and spacious compared with Greek airports anyway.



After getting our luggage we were greeted by our driver who was mmm unusual.



We arrived at our hotel and it was lovely, our room was huge airy and clean. with this being our first long haul we retired to bed early that night but couldn’t wait for the next day.



The next day we had our usual noisy round the hotel to find our feet and was amazed how lush and green this place was the whole complex was so beautiful and peaceful, the people so happy to see you and talk to you.



All I can say about this hotel was the staff were friendly, polite, happy people always happy to help. The food was good not fantastic but good, the bar and grill was good as well as the Chinese - try the lobster in the bar and grill its beautiful, the staff are hard working good fun happy people and this was the most fantastic relaxing enjoyable holiday I have ever had I would definitely return.



The trips are also fantastic we visited paradise island and it was paradise laying on a white sandy beach with clear waters lapping at your feet drinking rum and coke eating pineapples, coconuts, bananas amazing...................... ENJOY.

I was very nervous about going on this holiday as I had only booked it the week before I went and had never been on a long-haul flight before. However, it was fab! i didn't know what to expect from any of it but the flight, transfer and resort were all great. The only thing i really didn't like were the porters at the airport who grab your grab and take them to the coach, for a tip- so have some change ready!



All members of staff at the hotel were polite and welcoming and when we got to our room I was presently surprised, it was clean, fresh and airy. The air conditioning system was very loud but I did get used to it, that didn't really matter though as when you come in from the outside the room is as cold as a freezer- fab!



The whole area was clean, tidy and well presented, there were flowers and plants everywhere! The 2 pools were clean and the bar in the bigger pool was brilliant. The main food area was cool and airy, the food was nice- not brilliant- but then again i would have just been happy with chips, burgers and chicken, but the food was different everyday and quite adventurous with lots of different salads, fruits, fish and meats, somebody else would have loved it. However, I was happier in the beachside grill- chips, pizza and fried chicken!!! yum!! There was also a seafood restaurant, which i didn't try, and a Chinese restaurant (which everyone has a voucher for a free meal), which i loved- the food was just like at home. We thought the food would have been very expensive but our whole meal came to less than £10, so we could have gone there every night!



Me and my boyfriend didn't drink much as we were so hot in the nights that we just wanted to go home and sleep, but if we would have been in a big gang would definitely would have taken advantage of the drink and entertainment!



If you are going to Villas Doradas, I am very jealous of you!! Relax, I had so many worries but i needn't have because everything was great, HAVE FUN!!! :)