Occidental Allegro Grand Flamenco Hotel

Just a brutal vacation. This is no 4+ star resort. It would be hard to rate this a 3 star. The first Room they put us was in a dead end portion of the complex, it smelled, all the furniture fixtures were broken, and the washroom was in horrible conditions. We immediately went back to the front desk and asked for a new room. They gave us a bit of a run around, be we told them we would not leave until they changed our room. They gave us another room in better location and it did not smell. However, as we found out it was infested with bugs and ants which ultimately made their way into the bedding. The rooms were not cleaned very well. The furniture in this room was also unusable. We lived out of our suitcase for the week. The food was horrible. Making reservations to eat at one of the 4 or 5 a la carte restaurants was a night mare. I personally do not go on vacation to stand in line each day for a couple of hours to ensure that I can eat at night. On many occasions the restaurants booked qucikly, yet when we went by to see them they were half full. Even one night when we managed to get into the Italian restaurant it was half empty. Staff and service was non existant. This was not an all inclusive resort. It's the only way that we have ever travelled and it was really disappointing and frustrating. The beach was disgusting. Trash and garbage all over the place. Plastics, glass, feces, condoms...you name it..you could see it. And the pool although pleasant to the eyes was cloudy. They needed to use more chlorine and chemicals with the number of people in there everyday. It was not clean. Be prepared for lineups everywhere and very little help from the staff. They seemed more intent on talking with each other than providing any kind of service. We watched screeming matches evey day during breakfast lunch and dinner due to the inneficianes of the staff. They were slow, unprepared and unconcerned. If we could give this place a zero rating we would. We complained to our travel agent immediately after we got home. This place had no redeeming qulaities except for perhaps it Vegas type entertainment. Now if they could put some of that effort into taking care of their clientele then maybe something could become of this place. We spent a week there over the Christmas holiday 2003. My wife had gone to the Dominican Punta Cana Sunscape two months earlier and could not say enough good things about the place. We were eager to go back but could not get into Sunscape over the same period. With the Flamenco rated a 4+ we thought it would be safe. Wrong!!! P.S. Our luggage and knapsacks were infested with ants and insects..we saw all these little bugs coming out during our plane flight home and at home. We will never go back there again and have told all our friends to stay away.

We just returned from one week at the Grand Flamenco in Puerto Plata and were very pleasantly surprised with the resort after reading some negative reviews on this and other sites. Most negative reviews mentioned the refurbishing of the main buffet, but the restaurant construction is now complete and the buffet and all a-la-carte restaurants are up and running. We saw several airline flight crews at the resort, which tells me it is probably the best in the area.CHECK IN:I ve encountered the same problem with the last three resorts I ve visited in the DR; rooms are assigned as they become vacant and you re keys will be waiting with your check-in form. This sounds like it would make for more convenience but if you ve done your research (like you re doing now) and know which buildings are best, you may find yourself disappointed in your building location. We were given a room in the building furthest from the beach, pool and restaurants (this is not a sprawling resort but we still wanted to have a good location). The gentleman who checked me in insisted the only way to change rooms was to go to the room and return later in the day to ask for another room assignment; I m a little more on the ball than that, so I figured out who the desk manager was and asked her for a room change. Within a couple of minutes I was on the way to the building I had been hoping for. The key is to remain calm and respectful, but to politely insist that you would rather be in building X. Two years ago at another resort, I had to have the tour rep get our room changed, so that works as well. Many of these reviews mention e-mailing requests for rooms; I tried four different addresses for this resort (including the one from their website) and got no replies.THE ROOMS AND BUILDINGS: The best buildings are 11 and 12. Very close to the pool and the beach, and much quieter than the ones near the stage. All seemed to be in good repair. Building 10 is overlooking the entertainment area, so can be quite noisy until about 1130 PM. I didn t go into Club Miguel, but the pool doesn t seem much bigger than a large hot tub. The room was very nice; good size and well kept. The bathroom was huge!! Like every other DR resort; the beds were two doubles, facecloths were rare, there s no alarm clock, and the air conditioning will drip if you run it 24/7.THE POOL:Huge! There is no true deep end, only 1.2 meters at the deepest point so safe for kids and easy to carry drinks across. But: the pool bar does not serve liquor in their drinks; only juice, virgin coladas and beer! I assume that is to discourage the folks who sit at the bar all day without bathroom breaks, if you know what I mean. The resort was very busy for three days of our stay and they actually had a lifeguard by the pool for a bit of safety and control. There s also a smaller pool near the lobby, which seemed to be a little less busy.THE BEACH:Best in the Playa Dorada complex. About 75 meters wide from the trees to the water and stretches the beyond the length of the resort. In fact, you can walk 20 minutes along the beach in both directions from the resort. Being on the North coast, the sand is brown. The beach is raked every day and is fairly clean except immediately after high tide. The water drops off fairly slowly and is not rocky at all, so is good for kids and adults. Because the beach is sandy, you will have to go somewhere else if you want to snorkel. The catamaran excursions leave from this beach (69$ US if booked with your tour rep) so you don t have to sit on a bus for hours to get to the starting point. There are the usual all-inclusive watersports (snorkels, windsurfers, and sailboats) as well as pay-as-you-go scuba, parasailing and jet-skis. There are lots of Europeans on the beach, so you will see some topless sunbathing; if that offends you, there is much less by the pool.RESTAURANTS: Every restaurant requires men to wear long pants for dinner! This is not a huge inconvenience, but I witnessed many men harassing the staff to let them eat in shorts. The meat at all the a-la-cartes was salty. The food at the main buffet (700-1030AM, 100-300 PM, and 700-1030 PM) has lots of variety and is cooked right there so it doesn t get cold sitting around. Lots of food choices and great desserts. Because you re waiting for the food to be cooked, however, there are short line-ups at the meat grills. The seating area has lots of room. Unfortunately, the actual food line is very poorly laid out and is in the form of two concentric circles. So to get your salad, you must go through the folks waiting for hot food. A bit too chaotic for me. The Pool restaurant (11AM-5PM) has burgers, hot dogs, and usually one other meat choice (like ribs) as well as fries and ice cream. In fact, ice cream is available almost everywhere. It also has a full bar, but please don t stand there in your speedo while I m trying to eat. At night it becomes the a-la-carte Mexican restaurant, not great or too disappointing. The beach restaurant (1230-300 PM) has a bit more variety and another bar as well. Very casual, many diners in their swimsuits. Le Fontana is an open-air pizza restaurant (630-1100 PM) with bar service as well. The Oriental a-la-carte has very good food, but with a bit too much salt. No kids are allowed and reservations can only be made the day you intend to dine. The other a-la-cartes allow reservations three days in advance. All have 7 and 9 PM sittings. Las Reses is the Steak restaurant. The room is beautiful (as is the Italian next door) and the food tastes great. But, both times we ate there were followed by a case of the runs. Via Veneto (Italian) was quite good as well. BARS: They re everywhere (and usually co-located with bathrooms which is very well thought out). They use local brands at all bars, but the lobby bar has premium if you ask for it. The drinks are Holy S*#^ strong; which isn t a bad thing if you re a responsible drinker, but I saw a few patrons who may not have utilized all their self-control. As with every DR resort, the slushy drinks only have alcohol if you ask for it (ie with your pina colada). I didn t check out the disco (beach bar), but apparently the drinks cost extra. The house wine is quite good as well.ACTIVITIES:They seemed to have fewer daytime guest participation activities than other resorts, which was fine with me as I usually find them noisy and intrusive. There were the standard pool aerobics and dance lessons. Apparently the kids club is quite good. There is a free horseback ride once per week, but it seems underutilized so I suspect you may be able to go more frequently if you re the cowboy type. There is a shopping mall just outside with 20-25 stores and several companies where you can book excursions. Never pay the advertised price for any of the artwork in the stores there!! In fact, never pay more than 1/3 the asking price to the beach vendors. You can actually rent cell phones at the Mall for a day or week; I plan to do this the next time I m there. There is a small massage hut on the way to the beach and you can get one hour for 25$ US. There s also a Tennis academy run by one-time world tennis champion Guillermo Villas if you want to take lessons from a former champ.NIGHTLY ENTERTAINMENT:Sucked. What would pass for pre-show warm-up at other resorts (ie audience participation) had to suffice as the main show for five of the seven nights we were there. The show was adequate for the two nights there were actual presentations, but the expert choreographer has the dancers doing awkward and often embarrassing dance moves and positions. I have always enjoyed the amateurish nature of these shows at other resorts, but here they are just not entertaining. That being said, the house band and the singers do an incredible job and deserve much more credit than the hosts and dancers.Canadian Sunquest Visitors; The two Sunquest reps seem to be based out of the Flamenco, they are in the tour rep office most of the time. Just nice to know.

My husband and I spent 7 days at this resort from November 24-December1/2003 and we had a wonderful time. The Dominican Republic is the most amazing place, the people were amazing, on and off the resort and we will definitely be back. Our only complaint was that we didn't take our children. This is only our 2nd travel experience, our first was to San Andres Island and it was horrible, we were very ill after the vacation, couldn't eat the food and they had no real juice on the whole island so I didn't get the drink at all because I don't do pop with drinks nor do I drink Cervaza. Anyway, the resort was ready for us when we arrived at around 12 noon, we didn't have to wait till 3 to check in although I thought we would have to. I had requested a certain building with a king size bed, and we didn't get that but they had that fixed within an hour or so and that was fine. The room we had was in building 10 and had a king size bed, was enormous with a great bathroom and very clean. They were renovating the main buffet room when we arrived, but truthfully, we didn't even realize that when we got there and there was no inconvenience as we had the buffet in the Italian restaurant and all was well. A couple evenings we had to wait about 10 minutes for seating, it didn't bother us, this was about 3 days in and by then we were working on their time and if you don't let things bother you, they won't. There is a great Mall by the resort, and although things were cheaper in town and at the end of the beach by Jack Tar Village on the Beach (called the Orange Market, ask for Mr. Cheapy Cheapy) we didn't find anything there expensive. Necklaces, black lava stone and beads were cheapest at the Orange Market, we paid 50 pesos each for them which was about $1.25 American. Even Pringles were the same price as what we pay here. Anyway, the food. My hubby didn't care for a lot of it, they cook in oils, he enjoyed the pasta bar, and frankly I booked this hotel because it had one. I on the other hand loved the food, couldn't get enough of the different tastes and fresh fruits. We took Immodium before we left home for a couple days and then 1 per day while we were the re and we were fine, a bit the last day or so, but not like our first trip. I think people who travel and don't expect a bit of the trots when eating and drinking in the heat in a completely different culture are fooling themselves. The beach was a bit of a mess while we were there, and I have been told that Punta Cana has a better beach, but they had just had 5 weeks of storms, a hurricane, the dirt has to come up somewhere. They raked the beach 2 times per day, we enjoyed the pool though, it is enormous and the pool bar was fabulous. The drinks there are very good, slushy mix is available in 4 different flavors, try the San Francisco, it is a bit more tart than the Banana Mama and good with rum or vodka. The Mexican Restaurant was my favorite a la carte and my husband enjoyed the Steakhouse, although he missed out not ordering the TBone thinking it would be small and it was the full size of a plate. The staff were very good, a small complaint was that I would have liked to be waited on more and they had no staff to do that, but I suppose, in an all inclusive they don't cater to the bring me a drink thing, although I really would have enjoyed that and tipped for it. Tipping is crucial to me, they make so little and we went and saw the areas they lived in. They have the most wonderful children, we brought crayons and candy, coloring books and toys for them. Cabs are not cheap, barter, they will take you for less, and unless you want to go where the drivers and tour guides (be careful you don't get both, don't book one the day before, just go get one and make them take about 10 or 12 American for a return trip) tell them where you want to go. They take you to places they know people and get a commission if you buy something. Ask to go to the flea market and to Central Park to shop, not to the more expensive shops that they will take you to first. There is one store they all take you to and the stuff and the Mall in the resort was cheaper. We paid 100 pesos each for t-shirts for kids, be careful and tell the drivers what you want. Our maid was great, they love shampoos and soaps, bring sample bottles and leave a tip everyday. Our room got towels in shapes of swans, others we met did not, don't be cheap, they work hard and really love Canadians. We met some amazing people there from all over the world, it was an experience we can hardly wait to do over and do bring your kids they will love it. Another small hint, we did the Paradise Island trip, we got it for cheaper than advertised, $40 for us both, but, we spent over 6 hours on a very small bus going over some very rough roads, and the snorkeling was not great. The pictures of the island as very deceiving. It is only a sand bar in the middle of the ocean, very small, no shade, lots of people, and the all inclusive lunch and drinks were far from that. Be careful booking a trip, talk to others at the resorts who might have already done it. Paradise Island was a pain in the butt, the ocean was beautiful, but, do Sosua Beach 30 minutes away, save your whole day.

We are a family of 4, two small girls ages 20 mo. and 4 mo. who stayed at the Hotel for a week December 2003, This is a great hotel, and a secret among many Americans. The Hotel: a large hotel, with many diffenent buildings, ours was close to the beach and more quite which was great for kids, (building #12). The Staff: very friendly and helpful at all times. The Pool: huge, swim up bar, and many chairs. Allinclusive: you really dont have to leave the hotel or take any money out of your pocket, everything is taken care of, entertainment every night and sun by the day. The beach: not the greatest, id rate it a 3, b/c of the weeds and brush and constant vendors, who are polite, but frequent. I only left the hotel twice to go diving, the diving was good, not great in Sousa bay. The food: the buffet is fine, the hours are a little late, dinner isnt until 7, and if you want the Mexican, Oriental or "Meat" restaurant you have to make reservations and they are not open every day. The rooms: nice, clean what you would hope for, but not dream of. babysitting: only 5$ per hour for two kids, which for us meant that we tipped over 100%. I recommend this hotel for families, couples or singles it has a lot to offer for everyone and other people who have been giving this hotel bad reviews are full of it. Ive been to so called 5* star hotels in the Caribbean where the price tag is over $500 per night (not all inclusive) and this place was much better for 1/4 of the price, cant wait to go back.

I stayed with my wife from 12 Dec to 21 Dec 2003. I would say that the trip was quite good. I arrived and was given a map/guide pamplet/remote and was booked in quite swiflty. They take you and your luggage to the room via golf cart. The room was spacious and clean and the TV had about 40 channels or so. The only thing it might have used is a little touch up remodeling in the shower. There were some tiny sugar ants in the bathroom, but after living in Panama before for 3yrs I can say by experience those things get into everywere from 1st class places to no class places. They are harmless. I must say that in all my travels that I have never met a staff who works so hard for so little. They are always friendly and professional. The only guys that were bad were the hotel staff selling time shares they needed a few xtra NO's before they got the idea. For the American tourist, be warned. Lots of Euros in Speedos and Topless women so if you cant deal with that dont go. I found it to be more of a laugh than anything. Also go open minded and flexible, you have to get in a short line at 9am to make reservations for dinner and you cant reserve for other rooms. But its easy and the food is fair and quite filling. But if you want five star/vip service go some where else and pay VIP prices. If you want an affordable vacation with good friendly service stay at this hotel. PS Rent a car (all u need is a map, easy to get around dont pay for tours), learn some spanish (get a dictionary), and see the country it is poor dont be suprised but its absolutley beautiful. I am going back again this time to Sosua, lots more to do outside the hotel there.GOOD LUCK, STAY FLEXIBLE, HAVE FUN

I have read a few of these reviews and especially the complaints. We stayed at this hotel between 28 nov to 12 dec and we thought it was very good. Sure we also had some troubles to find our way around the area, but that was for the first 2 days and after asking for a map (yes, they do exist) it was no problem. There was no remote, but guess what we did? We asked for it in the reception and we got one... and we had 50 channels, mostly english speaking. I would not call that "very few channels". We gave a big tip to our cleaning lady (100 pesos/day) and voíla, they folded the toiletpaper, made butterfly shapes of my wifes nightgown and always gave us extra towels even though we had hung them up to use them again. There were fewer restaurants due to the construction, and the buffé was not that great, but the menu food was always very good and they were always fast with both drinks and food. Again, this could of course be a result of our generous tips (for them I might add, a can of coke for us). Put something on the table when you leave and they will give you the royal treatment next time. I have experinced way worse service in restaurants here at home. Of course we found the vendors on the beach a bit disturbing but saying no works, and they are not as persistent as they can be in other countries I have visited. I can also recommend to take the hoteltaxi to Puerto Plata if you want to go there. For 15 dollars return trip you get your own guide who not only carries all your shopping, but also shows you the stores and keep all beggers and vendors well away from you. And you don´t even have to bring any money. You can pay everything with your creditcard when you get back to the hotel. Very convenient. Although there is not very much to spend your money on. All stores sells the same things so we did the trip mostly just to see something else but the pool every day. All in all the hotel is very clean and serviceminded. I am amazed how small things like a missing TV remote or the lack of room service could ruin a whole vacation. Things are different then at home and that is the charm of travelling. If you want to know something, ask. Don´t always think that all information will be thrown at you all the time.

Nov 29 - Dec 6, 2003 My boyfriend and I were supposed to arrive at the hotel at 11:00am but because our plane was delayed, we didn't arrive until 2:00pm. On the bus ride to the hotel we were told that check-in time was at 3:00pm so rooms may not be ready until then. Upon our arrival at the hotel we were the only couple that had to wait for our room. After asking numerous times at the reception for somewhere to lie down because my boyfriend wasn't feeling well, we were told there was nothing that could be done and that we would have to wait. Finally around 4:30pm we were escorted to our room (Bldg 1, Room 1205) which upon making my reservations I had upgraded from 2 twin beds to one double - just to find out that we were given the room with 2 twin beds!!! I was exhausted and decided to have a shower and deal with that problem later.....when I walked in the bathroom the counter was covered with tiny bugs!! The window in the bathroom had a shutter, but no screen or window!! The shower leaked all over the floor all the way to the bed!! There was no remote for the television and there were very few channels to watch. The air conditioner barely blew out any cool air and the ceiling was so high thta even the fan didn't make a difference. It took 4 days for us to get our room changed it wasn't until we went to the Sunquest Representative and she got it changed right away. The room that we were moved to was a definite major improvement (Bldg 11, Room 128). We were much happier, even the end of the toilet paper roll was arranged like a fan....it was hard to believe that we were on the same resort!!! The resort was under pretty major construction which I was not told when I made our reservations. The hotel had 6 restaurants La Giralda and Via Veneto (which were both for the same buffet or you could make a reservation and order from the menu). Las Reses is the restaurant by the beach and you need to make reservations and it serves grilled meat (probably the only meal we both thoroughly enjoyed). La Fontana is the resaturant by the pool and it had a Mexican menu which wasn't all that great. D'Oriental was closed so we never got a chance to eat there. There are no restaurants open between 5:00 and 7:00pm which shocked us! The food was very bland tasting at the buffet which is where we ate most of our meals! The beach not very impressive and it was hard to enjoy just lying under the sun because every couple of minutes you had someone coming up to asking you if you wanted to buy from them....everyone one used the same line.....lookie, lookie is free!!!!! They were very persistent when you would say no to the point that we decied to stay away from the beach! I could go on and keep complaining, but I think you've all gotten my point! WE WERE NOT IMPRESSED AT ALL!!!!

I just returned from the hotel and really loved it. My husband and I spent a week and arrived back home Dec. 1st 2003. The only real downfall was the weather was really only good three days. When we arrived we were not happy with our room in block 10 so we switched to block 11 room 115 and it was the best!! It was right near the pool and the first room on your left as you entered the block so it was great because you had the option of getting to your room in 10sec. Unfortunately right now the main buffet restaurant is closed but honestly we were not inconvienenced at all. The hotel allows you to dine in the other restaurants because of this and it worked great for us. We ate ala carte 5 out of 7 days. The resort is remarkably clean. Working in the hotel business we were impressed. We loved the pool yet we were not happy with the beach at all. We met a man who had stayed 12 times and he said that was the worst he's ever seen the beach. The hotel staff was very nice and Magdalena the Guest Service Manager was very helpful. They have a new Oriental Restaurant but you need to get up early to make reservations but its worth it!! You will find staff around the hotel trying to sell you time shares...I just told him I wasnt interested and they left you alone. The shows were OK but they had one night as a Karokee night and it wasnt good at all. We didnt take any trips only becuase we were only there for a week. My husband and I like to travel to different locations each year otherwise we would go back in a heart beat and our only regret was we only go to stay one week.

My boyfriend and I researched many different resorts in the Puerto Plata area and chose this hotel because we thought it was the best and had the most to offer. After checking in, we quickly realized that we were mistaken. First of all we arrived at the hotel after 3:00 pm and checked in. We were escorted to our room - with no remote for the television and no tour of the grounds. The resort was under pretty major construction which was not indicated anywhere when we made our reservations. We were taken to our room, and had to wait outside for about 15 minutes while they were finishing up our room. The whole resort did not even look that full- so it is a wonder to me that we should even have to wait- considering that check - in is 3p.m and it was well after that by the time we reached the room. The shower looked like someone had scraped the bottom off of it and there were no shower amenities except for a bar of soap. We finally found out that we needed to request the remote at the front desk, the following day when we went to inquire if we could change our room from a 2 double bed room to a queen size bed room. This was done -no problem. We walked around the grounds -which we had to do because of the construction that was blocking the main walk way from the reception area to the pools, rooms, restaurants, etc.. We were trying to locate the restaurants. The hotel write up boasted 6 or 7 restaurants. We spent 2 entire days (with the map offered by the front desk and also asking people) trying to locate these restaurants. Las Reses sign is upstairs outside on the wall of what is actually La Giralda, and, Via Veneto (which is indicated as needing reservations and apparently doesnt require any) is attached to it which makes it seem as if its all one restaurant. Las Reses is actually on the beach which we had to find that out by asking some other hotel patrons. I never even saw La Fontana-this is apparently another restaurant to choose from. We tried to make reservations on Sunday after arriving on Saturday- only to find out that Las Reses, DOriental, and La Hacienda are only open certain nights. So we never even had an opportunity to eat at DOriental because it was only open Tuesdays and Saturdays and it was booked for Tuesday and we were leaving on Saturday. Most of these restaurants were not even completely full when we ate in them. There is no restaurant open between 5-7pm in an all inclusive resort- this seems very strange to me. We arrived and got settled on Saturday after a full day of traveling and did not have a place to eat in our all-inclusive 7 restaurant hotel!The second room that we stayed in was very nice (building 10 room 301) but after the 2nd night of heavy rainfall, the roof leaked and we had to move the bed over to avoid getting rained on. Granted this did not last long but still this is not what one expects from a resort of such high standings. Daily activities and games were not even posted anywhere until the fourth day of our stay. This kept us from participating in many of the activities which the hotel so highly boasts about. The shooting gallery was pathetic and the fun club person assigned to that area was about as fun as a nail going right through your foot. The beach just a bit away from the resort was full of trash- very unappealing. My boyfriend was able to use the windsurfing equipment that is offered for free- but do you offer lessons or anything- apparently not. And apparently no-one is responsible for making sure that he knows a little about windsurfing before sending him off with a life vest, board and sail into the lovely coral reefs so nearby. In my first trip to the Dominican Republic, I stayed in Cabarete and although I was not part of an all inclusive plan, the hotel offered an hour free of many non-motorized sports. One of these hours included free group windsurfing lessons. You might want to think about this since the beach/ocean in that area has a lot of coral reefs in it. This is probably the reason you ask people to sign waivers that if there is any damage to the board or sail, we/they are responsible for paying for that damage. We wrote an email to the hotel before our departure inquiring about a gym and were told that there was not a gym on site, but that one of the sister hotels had one available and we could use that with no problem. Well when we asked about the gym, we were told that in the morning at 10am we could check with the bell man and he would call to see if there was an opening and then he could drive us there.I am not one that is inclined to listen to reviews by other people in relation to pretty much anything. I realize that people can be very demanding and have very unrealistic expectations. I however do not. I researched this hotel and I thought it to be the best out of the many and I read the things people had to say about it and kept an open mind. But, I do have to say that in the future I will take these reviews more seriously because some of the complaints were very similar to what we experienced.

Pros: The weather was better than NJ even though it down poured 2.5 days out of the 4 we were there. Cons: The rooms/service were inefficient. No instructions, maps, information on the resort, phones, area are available. Hardly any one spoke english. Our room leaked and was crawling with little tiny ants. The drinks were either too sweet and/or watered down. The food was absolutely HORRIBLE and was only served at designated times. The Beach was not pretty and full of pestering vendors. And watch out for those European women who have no problem with walking around the beach/pool area topless. Picture trying to relax with someone like your mother and/or grandmoter walking around topless. UGH!!!