Sirenis Cocotal Beach Resort

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In February, my fourteen-year-old daughter and I went to the Sirenis Cocotal Beach Resort, which was situated in the Dominican Republic. We had an excellent time, before we went away we were a little worried by some of the reviews we had read about our chosen resort.
Although alarm bells started to ring on the outbound flight the fortnight we had at the resort was excellent. Regarding the flight I paid a £70 upgrade for us both to get extra leg room (I am registered disabled having arthritis and after a bad accident having part of my knee cap removed and therefore have restricted movement). As I have always been spoiled flying to the USA with Virgin Atlantic it was a shock using a basic no frills airline that were intent on screwing every last penny out of you even charging for water and coffee! It turned out that the seats that we had paid extra for were right next door to the toilets and throughout the flight I was disturbed by people knocking and walking over my feet. The flight seemed like an eternity because of the operator and although I will go back to the country and probably the resort, next time I will fly to the USA using Virgin have a week or two in America and then get a shorter flight using an American airline to the Dominican.
Arriving at Punta Cana airport from the UK, there was dedicated staff at the airport removing from us $10 US each for the entry visa. Be aware, on the way out you need to pay $20 US per person otherwise they will not let you leave!
A lot of passengers were tired and had small children and like us had travelled for more than twelve hours'. So what followed next was not welcomed. The most appalling airport 'scramble' for cases and for available trolleys - Punta Cana airport it seems was attempting to cope with more than 1000+ passengers and luggage from all nations...say no more. The taking away of the occupied luggage trolley out of the airport door prior to the exit of the airport was forbidden but it turned out that trolleys were not needed as the walk from the baggage reclaim area to the front of the airport and holiday rep was very short and the subsequent walk to the welcomed air conditioned bus was even shorter.
After the usual long tiring journey to the resort, it took well over one hour on roads, which were so bad you would believe that you had arrived in war torn Beruit or Iraq. I have never seen potholes so big. The Rep informing all visitors not to hire a car because the Island residents were not licensed or insured informing us that holding a bottle of rum was the equivalent of a licence. We therefore were extremely pleased to reach the hotel.
The first view of the hotel was quite impressive, with the large airy foyer and immaculate grounds. Check-in was fairly routine but very quick despite three coach loads of tourists arriving within the space of ten minutes. By the time we arrived we just wanted to get to our room. We checked in and you can leave your luggage in reception for the Porter to take to your room. The bellboy who was very cheerful considering the amount of luggage he had to shift delivered our luggage to our room within minutes. Upon arriving on the island you can plainly see the poverty of what still is a third world country. We were informed that wages are very poor, finding out later after speaking to very friendly members of staff they are paid only $100 - $150 US per month. So on giving our porter a $10 US tip the smile on his face was huge and well worth every cent and every time we saw him during the next two weeks he always enquired if we were having a great time and was there anything he could do to make our holiday more enjoyable. Again as we later found out the customer service relationship was superb even if you didn’t tip the staff. You will find all staff there are friendly and always smile and say 'olla' All of the staff seemed to make a fuss of the children.
Our room was spacious and airy with two double beds, en-suite bathroom mini-bar (no alcohol) and balcony with a sea view. It was kept very clean during our stay being cleaned everyday and we were given fresh towels all the time. Our ‘maid’ was called Lorenzo, he was 25 and already had 5 children, and he must have had his first when he was thirteen! Again a $15 US tip at the start of the holiday saw him treat both myself and my daughter like visiting royalty however after speaking to other guests I don’t feel as though we were treated any differently to other guests. A few days where I wanted to keep out of the sun and on days that my daughter wanted a break out of it he would come back two or three times a day and replenish the mini bar (soft drinks only). My litre duty free bottle of Irish did just about last the two weeks! One day we had Swans on our bed made up of shower towels from Lorenzo, which was a nice, little touch.
As our body clocks had not had chance to adjust to Dominican time we went to bed almost immediately and woke early on our first day. This allowed us to tour the hotel grounds and beach. The grounds are very well kept, as is the beach (a walk along the beach in either direction will show how much cleaner the hotel beach area is). The pool is a good size with nice shallow areas for the children and two bars that you can swim up to.
The hotel was quite busy during our holiday, which meant there was a shortage of sunbeds. Some mornings you could still get one by 9:00 am other mornings the all seemed to be occupied by 08:15. Most of the palopas on the beach were taken by 08:00 or so. The resort has planted additional palms that are lower to the ground to provide shade.
The weather was very good with a couple of good storms in the evening. Two days were overcast but otherwise it was hot and sunny.
The shops attached to the front of the hotel are very expensive with limited choice. The medical facilities were excellent as I can vouch for as despite using plenty of sun block I got extremely sunburnt on my ankle and leg on only the second day. (The doctor put it down to medication that I was already taking – so people on medication beware – speak to your GP). However after a couple of injections over a couple of days and loads of anti-histamine cream I was soon on the mend.
Some of the themed restaurants were very disappointing. In the Pizza/ Italian they had limited menus and below average food. However the Chinese, Mexican and Steakhouse restaurants were excellent. Sadly after ten days of the fortnight we got fed up eating and drinking, I suppose that happens when you go all inclusive! The booking system for the restaurants is awkward, having to queue at two points in the reception area during breakfast time, and having to book a night or two in advance. But generally the feedback from other guests was that they could dine either that night or the following night where they wanted (if they were going to the themed restaurants). The two very spacious buffet
Restaurants were also used for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the variety of food was excellent. Starters, main courses sweets coffee as much as you wanted and most countries dishes to suit all tastes and generally of a very good standard.
The hotel is not a 5 star hotel by European or North American standards but can this be expected in a third world country? Having not stayed in the Dom Rep before I have nothing to compare this hotel to. Although I have mentioned some negatives, the positives of the helpful staff, good location, hotel and grounds, beach and weather all made our stay very enjoyable. My daughter loved every minute and misses the friends she made whilst on holiday.
During the daytime you can do a lot or you can do very little, we went for the very little option as we were just in such a chilling mood in the sun.
We spent our days on the beach, by the pool which was magnificent or on very long late afternoon walks on the beach in either direction. The beaches were deserted; it was like being on a desert island. Jurassic Park was also filmed nearby. The sea was turquoise blue and very clean. This Serenis Cocatal resort itself in my opinion has one of the best, safest and most beautiful beaches on the island
The poolside is nice with many sun beds with plenty of cover all around. The pool itself is very big and has 2 bars in it were you can chill out and have a few drinks up until 6pm when the pool closes. We spent most of our time on the beach its great with lots of space. Water sports and snorkelling gear is at hand which is good as there are some nice fish to see all around the coral.
At one of the many bars there was a very extensive choice of drinks, cocktails, soft drinks spirits, coffees and much more, the bar staff were mainly male all of which had a wicked sense of humour and all had the eye for the pretty ladies.
Evenings were good as you could go watch a show or even go to the on sight Casino or even just chill and chat away too many people. It’s a real nice feeling there as everyone gets on and you always seem to have people saying hi.
We also went on two ‘day-trips’. The first I re-named the booze cruise, drinking very strong rum punch while on a sail boat then a bit of snorkelling, sunbathing on another deserted beach then a boat ride back to the main area where the music was loud, the dancing was wild and the women who somehow out numbered the men 3-1 left little to the imagination!
The other trip we went on was similar to another area and deserted island and both trips were certainly worth the extra money ($150 US for the both of us) and broke up the ‘monotony’ of the all inclusive resort.
The day before we were due to leave we had a note shoved under the door from the rep. The note stated that the plane that was due to take us home had to be serviced and a replacement plane from another airline would be used. The downside was that we were going to be delayed by nine hours. At the start of the holiday if you had asked me if I would like 15 days of an all-inclusive holiday for the price of 14, I probably would have said yes. But having to check out of the room early (we did a deal with Lorenzo and it was one of the last rooms he did that day meant that we stopped in the room being able to shower and chill out whilst fellow passengers got hot in the reception!) Having to wait a few more hours at the airport where the facilities were awful, then getting back in the UK nine hours late meant hitting the M25 during the evening rush hour and delaying the onward journey home to the Midlands was an absolute pain.
Would we return? Maybe but as I said earlier not flying from the UK or using My Travel! Would we recommend this resort to a friend? Yes.