Reviews of Occidental Allegro Jack Tar Village, Puerto Plata

Before booking with this hotel my boyfriend and I considered a few other nearby hotels and, after looking at reviews, decided to try the Jack Tar and decide for ourselves and this is what we found...



The bad points were; the mini fridge was never stocked for us and hardly seemed to work, though in fairness when we complained someone changed it for us immediately (however the replacement was not much better), we had read about the empty fridges in other reviews and so were expecting it and did not let it get us down. The evening entertainment was repetitive and very, very poor as was much of the buffet food. Some staff were very pushy in trying to get us to visit other hotels (don’t do it- it’s a time share thing) one even emotionally blackmailing us with "please, do it for me, my boss said I’ll get $5 if you go which isn't a lot of money for you but a lot for me" - we gave him the $5 in the end to get him off our backs!! The rooms are NOT what you may expect from a 4 star hotel but the air conditioning is very effective and the maids keep the rooms spotless. Booking into the speciality restaurants can be awkward as you have to find the hotel services lady between particular hours but it is nowhere as difficult as most reviews imply. At night the bars are understaffed and the drinks are not very strong so getting drunk is not an easy task. I had a huge problem with getting the hair dryer in my room replaced when it broke and was fobbed off with 'in half an hour' or 'tomorrow' for 3 days then was told the house keeping lady had seen that I had my own- it didn’t work as the voltage is just 110 there and I was furious that she had been paying so much attention to my personal belongings, once I pointed this out I was finally given a replacement hair dryer (which they had been claiming at one stage they didn’t have any spares of though the hotel was by no means full). Though this is by no means the hotels fault mosquito bites is a major problem for British guests, I was one of many who ended up having to visit the hotel doctor for an injection after getting nearly a hundred bites in 3 nights! Don’t rely on bug spray it just doesn’t work, the rooms are so well air conditioned that you can sleep in long sleeved and long legged pjs and a pair of socks, then use the spray when going out at night- it seems the best way to avoid getting bitten and I can’t recommend doing this strongly enough- or invest in a plug in repellent devise (keep in mind it’s 110 volts there). Beware of the onsite shop, it’s VERY pricey infact it seemed as if, whilst being all inclusive, they try and get as much money out of you as possible for example if you lose your wristband it’s a $30 fine, if you lose a beach towel or your beach towel card also $30 although they have no qualms about casually shrugging when they (very often) run out of beach towels!



Now for the pros- the majority of the staff are lovely, truly lovely- security, maids, waiters, everyone will give you a huge smile and warm 'hola' when you walk past them. 2 decent pools (adult pool especially) and a beach (with bar and food hut). Food in the speciality restaurants beach food hut and the pizzeria is good. Had previously never been to a casino before but visited the hotels one 5 of our 11 nights- it’s excellent- perfectly air conditioned too (bet in pesos not dollars as smallest peso chips are 5 pesos (about 10 pence) and smallest dollar chips are $1 (about 60 pence)) drinks in the casino are the strongest and best quality on whole resort and if you pick a favourite waitress and tip her they’ll get even stronger (only place I managed to get drunk) it also offers a better exchange rate at the cashier desk (don’t have to gamble the money once changed up) than the hotel bank - an extra 3 pesos to the pound. During the day there are fun activities such as volleyball, which admittedly are poorly organised, but it gets you talking to other guests. Some fab excursions - do ocean world and the VIP yacht- avoid the bounty/Bacardi island trip as you’ll spend 8 hours on a coach!! Also ignore what you hear about the water and ice- the hotel use purified water for everything- including ice.



Recommendations-



Take any mosquito precautions you can get your hands on!



Try the pina colada with or without rum- it’s fab!



Book excursions as leaving the resort is not wise- except to visit the (very pricey) shopping plaza- and you WILL get bored without the excursions!



Take both dollars and pesos but make you get your dollars in the uk as in Dominican republic you’ll be charged the exchange rate from sterling to peso then peso to dollar and you’ll lose money!



Take snack foods and all toiletries needed as shop is over priced!



Cigarettes are cheapest on the plane!

This was the holiday from hell!! Both myself and my 13 year old son had accidents at this resort and ended up in hospital.


We spent 12 days of the holiday in a dirty dinghy room. Alive with mosquitoes in the bed covers and ants everywhere! The food was disgusting and made us all VERY ill, including a 6 year old!


The pool was always dirty and not at all what it looked like or was described as in pictures on the net or in brochures.


We were told we could get 24hour drinks which was not true as the the lounge and bars shut at 2am.


The only place that was air conditioned was our room and the dinner room was too hot to eat their nasty food in!!


We lived on chips, bread and biscuits, then to top in all the last week they decided to start building right out side our balcony at 6am. I strongly advise people not to go to the Jack Tarr not unless you want, food poisoning, getting eating alive by mosquitoes, bored to death and spending 3 hours a day on the loo. give this place a miss it is in no way as described both on the net and in brochures!!!

We booked this holiday as our honeymoon, at first we chose this hotel as it was advertised as an adults only property, however after booking we then received a letter advising it was no longer only available to adults. As we were going out of school holidays we decided to stick with it.


On arrival we were welcomed with fruit punch at reception while waiting to check in to our rooms, there was a delay of about 1 hour before our room was ready but it was well worth the wait.


We had a superior room (however not the same standard as a superior room in England) it was basic but very comfortable and spacious also with a stocked up mini bar for those times when you cant be bothered to leave the room!! :0)

Hotel is excellently situated right on the beach and has everything you need to keep you entertained. For those of you who still enjoy time away from children there is a pool which is specifically for adults, this pool also has a swim up bar and a warm Jacuzzi.


The hotel staff were all extremely friendly especially Diego (the egg man) in the restaurant. Also they are always cleaning it is a very clean hotel and complex.

Anyone choosing the Jack Tar Village will not be disappointed I am looking forward to returning very soon!!

We booked this holiday 14 months in advance as it was our honeymoon. This was meant to be a very special holiday for us and we saved hard for it. We paid £2400 for the holiday in total we had asked and paid for an upgrade. When we arrived we were put into a low standard room. We then had to wait a day to be moved. We then had to wait hours for the room to be cleaned.



We had none of the extras we were promised. We had to wait 8 days and complain on a daily basis for a mini bar. The fruit never arrived. The complex was over run with locals every weekend who took over and were noisy.



The first week was spent dodging sales people trying to get you to buy into the hotel chain timeshare scheme. I frankly got fed up of saying no. I do not expect to go on holiday and be pestered in the hotel.



I could not fault the food or the waiting staff and the bar staff were very friendly. I did not feel that I got what I paid for and came away feeling as if our honeymoon was spoilt.



The rooms are very tired and shabby looking and could do with an up-grade. On the whole this experience has put me off the Caribbean and will be returning to Europe for my next holiday. We had a lovely wedding and we were both looking forward to our holiday and feel that first choice need to re think about Jack tar and it’s star rating.

I stayed at the Occidental Allegro Jack Tar Village for 2 weeks on an All Inclusive basis. The apartments were very basic but clean and the maximum number of apartments per block was four, so they were very private.



The food was outstanding! There were five or six different restaurants to choose from each serving a wonderful array of food.



The location was superb. There was a golf course on site and it was a minute’s walk through glorious greenery to get to the beach.



The staff really made my holiday! The bar staff were very friendly (both night and day) willing to make whatever concoction you desired and the water sports team were entertaining for the whole two weeks.



I would definitely stay at the Occidental Allegro Jack Tar Village again and I would like to return for longer than two weeks.