Reviews of Grand Paradise Bavaro Hotel, Playa Bavaro, Dominican Republic

Thought I was spending 21 days...

Overall Rating:

3/10

Board Basis:

All Inclusive

Date of Holiday:

Oct 2007

Tour Operator:

Booked Independently

Submitted By:

Mrs Tina Thomas

Comments:

Thought I was spending 21 days in paradise!



Due to several sites being under refurbishment/re-construction, which we not informed of, there were at least four separate areas around hotel, so you could not get away to enjoy peace and quiet!



The workmen were there at 7am.banging,knocking,etc;four of the restaurants were only open alternate days!



The temporary tent "bar “was muddy and dirty, the "slops" were just thrown on grass/sand at side. After a few days of this, you can imagine the smell!



Tried to complain, fobbed off! Rooms not cleaned properly, were fumigated every 7 to 10 days, due to amount of various "insects"!



Had cocktail at one bar, to be told could not order next one, as the bar only had one cocktail glass, so had to empty that one first!



Watch out for persistent time-share reps, they don’t give up easily!

This place was so much fun and...

Overall Rating:

8/10

Board Basis:

All Inclusive

Date of Holiday:

Jul 2005

Tour Operator:

GO GO Travel

Submitted By:

Ms PC Paola

Comments:

This place was so much fun and good to me that I'm returning to it next week. My mother and I travelled last year for a week to Grand Paradise Bavaro and had a blast!



The beach is super clean and the staff keep all cups and trash out of the beach and of people's way. You might want to get there before 10 a.m. though if you want an umbrella. Not a big deal if you ask me.



The Buffet was amazing...not sure what people expected, but I was very much satisfied with the food there and my mother never got sick...and she suffers from heart burn and not once felt ill. She had their fish and roasted pork and felt fine.



The room was kept very clean and was always re-filled with towels. The cleaning staff were super nice and always met our needs. You have to remember these women have not only your room to attend to...so be considerate.



The bars were very accommodating and always offered a nice variety of drinks. I LOVE beer, so for me it wasn't a big deal that international drinks cost money. I stuck to Dominican Rum and Presidente and loved it!



The entertainment at night was super fun and the disco was small, with a small crowd, but fun nevertheless.



The only problem I faced was with our trip back to the Airport, but that is most likely related to the guy that was supposed to schedule our pick-up. We didn't miss our flight, but we did spend a few minutes in panic over how we were going to get to the airport.



This time around, I know what to expect, so I most likely will be very clear with the guy that drops us off at the resort and make sure he understands I need him there on time!



All in all, an amazing experience. I leave in less than a week with my fiancé. Let the fun begin!

Our first trip to the Caribbean...

Overall Rating:

0/10

Board Basis:

All Inclusive

Date of Holiday:

Mar 2005

Tour Operator:

Thomson

Submitted By:

Mrs V Redmond

Comments:

Our first trip to the Caribbean and a celebration for a special birthday. On arrival we weren’t disappointed. Visual first impressions of the Grand Paradise hotel foyer and grounds were stunning. The pools looked clean and inviting and the beach is less than a minute away from the rooms.



The rooms were adequately furnished, although lighting was dim and we did have difficulty in the evening, but it wasn’t too much of a problem as we had planned to be outdoors most of the time.



Staff were generally friendly and most were helpful. All were courteous. As this was an all inclusive basis, we tried to make reservations at the a la carte restaurants for the week we planned to stay but were unsuccessful - everyone was fully booked. They do not operate a cancellation procedure.



By day two of our holiday my partner became ill with fever, stomach cramps, headache and severe diarrhoea. We had been warned by the travel representative on the transfer coach that "travellers tummy" was common and if it struck then the treatment was to drink plenty of non alcoholic fluids and it would go within 24 hours. It didn’t and he deteriorated so much that he was admitted to a local hospital and had to receive antibiotics and rehydration therapy by intravenous drip. It quickly became apparent that several more people became afflicted by similar problems and were hospitalised, or confined to bed in their rooms with antibiotic therapy either by drip or pills.



The numbers of sick and ill people increased daily and it wasn’t until his discharge from hospital the day before we left for UK that it became apparent how many people of all nationalities were affected - we had been told by hotel staff and reps that it was a thing British tourists were susceptible to.



For me, alone at the hotel, the buffet meals quickly became boring - today’s lunch a re-hash of last evenings left overs - and as reservations were nigh on impossible to make at the other restaurants, dining was an unpleasant experience, coupled with the anxiety that I too may become infected.



The facilities at this resort are extensive, but the noise was at times unbearable - loud music around the pool areas throughout the day and evening. The beach was quieter if you could get a beach longer away form the immediate pool area.



The corridors in the accommodation blocks do not lend themselves to quiet transfer, and were very noisy most nights as residents returned to their rooms. There were several problems relating to the cleaning of rooms, in particular the regularity and timing of the service.



The trips seemed expensive and not particularly good value for money. There was nothing to feed your interest of the local culture and history of the island.



Due to the illness and its symptoms, we had a very worrying journey back to UK, where treatment continues. At least we made the flight - some didn’t and remained in hospital still under treatment.



Would we go back again? Probably not and definitely not to this resort.

We travelled with our 2 children...

Overall Rating:

7/10

Board Basis:

All Inclusive

Date of Holiday:

Sep 2004

Tour Operator:

Thomas Cook

Submitted By:

Joaquim Carvalho

Comments:

We travelled with our 2 children (ages 1-5) Sep. 1-8. This was our second visit to this resort the first trip was in November 2003. We found there had been some changes including the addition of a sister resort (Club Grand Paradise). The addition of this sister resort (still under construction but open for business) caused the Grand Paradise to be over-crowded with many people who demanded to be moved since there were no activities available, problems with construction noises and this resort was sold to them as 'on the beach' but this is not the case. It was almost impossible to get reservations at the a-la-carte restaurants. Until this hotel is ready to accommodate the additional people it will be a disappointment to those travelling there. We were lucky enough to be able to eat at all three a-la-cartes because our Sunwing rep was able to make reservations for us (only tour operator able to do this at the Grand Paradise). The sister club is not on the beach so we found that our resort was heavily crowded during the day. This resort might want to look at implementing a reservation system for the pool tables in the sports bar since my sons tried repeatedly to get a table but they were occupied for hours at a time by the same people (you have to reserve for the restaurants and the water sports...it would seem simple enough for them to do this at the sports bar as well).


Our room was in building 6 were granted and we enjoyed a partial ocean/pool view). We did find the noise at night to be a problem, the hallways echo noise terribly and inconsiderate neighbours made for one sleepless night as they yelled and carried on 2:15-5:45am. It was a basic room, with poor lighting but we didn’t spend much time in our room anyway. We could expect that they were always clean by mid-afternoon. We left a tip and small gift in our room for the maids along with a little note (translated into Spanish).

The beach was as beautiful as we remembered and the waves made for great fun. As long as we got our chairs by 9am we were able to get an umbrella. The poolside chairs were normally taken rather quickly but this wasn’t a problem for us as we prefer the beach anyway. The weather was great with the odd rain shower, which never caused us to miss out on the fun. The beach is why we came and we enjoyed every minute of the sun and sand.


The food was as I expected it would be from our previous visit, we were bored by day 3 with the buffet. We ran into a problem with a reservation our Sunwing rep made for us at the Italian a-la-carte when she mistakenly made a reservation for 2 (instead of 4) and the restaurant would not accommodate us, we went to the buffet as a last resort that evening and we were faced with a selection of octopus, squid, shrimp and fish (as we don’t eat seafood or fish this was a real problem...it seemed to be for many of the people there that night as there was a ridiculous line-up for the pasta bar). However, we were able to make do and nobody became ill during the week.



We went on a day trip to Saona Island and we would not go again. The cost was $83US PP and we were very disappointed. It was definitely not a trip for a family with a large part of the day spent on a bus. We were supposed to have an opportunity for shopping (ended up being a total of 30 minutes) and 3 hours on the island (actually ended up being about 11/2 hours). It did give us the chance to see more of the countryside but the kids were bored. We also did the 1-hour horseback ride, which everyone seemed to enjoy.



Overall, the resort was clean and the staff was friendly and did their best to make our stay pleasant. Would we go back? Definitely to Punta Cana...probably not to this resort