Barcelo Bavaro Grand Resort

Paid premium level adults only. Great concept but we were in the 4000 rooms with the beach right out our patio but so were the kids at the next resort. All of 4000 building and into the 3000 building beach were yelling and crying kids. Not want you would except for adults only. I was told the beach is PUBLIC. WTF? Only to hotel was adult only? Who just stays in their damn room for adult only. Everything else would of made it a 5 star. People who pay for adult only need adult ONLY beach as well. Will not return due to this. Need to post that it is a public beach!! Read less

My husband and I just vacationed for a week with another couple. We stayed in building 4 of the Barcelo Bavaro Beach Adults only oceanfront suites premium level. I was worried about all the negative reviews I had read prior to our trip. I have so many positive comments I won’t be able to list them all. First, a shout out to their amazing hardworking staff!! The gorgeous sunrises, the beautiful sparkling pristine pools, daily housekeeping, multiple bars, multiple restaurants with so much variety. The special room called La Cava at La Comedie was a very special treat and so worth the couple bottles of wine you purchase to enjoy this delightful private room. My personal favorite restaurants were, La Comedie, La DolceVita, Mexico Lindo and Chez Gourmet for dinner and we loved Las Brisas for lunch. Our waitress, Yarelis, would see us coming and go out of her way to seat us and make our lunch an event! We enjoyed communicating with her through my English to Spanish App. My husband and his friend golfed 3 of our days there and they raved about the golf course. Oh yes…can’t believe I am leaving this for last..The Spa! On one of the guy golf days, the ladies went for a 50 minute massage. We left our massage totally relaxed and enjoyed a 30 percent discount due to premium level. We left with fond memories we will cherish. Read less

This is the most amazing hotel in Punta Cana! All inclusive resort with wonderful staff. Everyone is extremely friendly and Rosa provides the best of main pool side service I’ve ever received! The entertainment guys are amazing! The restaurant, personal services, the staff off beach pool , Eden pool staff with Estephanie are exceptional. Gabino pool concierge department is very friendly and provided great recommendations! Read less

Check in was easy and room key is now your resort bracelet, which is great. Payed for an ocean view and got 3rd floor looking over the ocean! The room was comfortable, with plenty of room. The bathrooms need to be updated though. Staff was friendly and accommodating . The food was good and the wait staff was excellent. The restaurants were our favorite. The beach was spacious with plenty of chairs and beautiful palm trees. Nice and quiet. Access to the busier palace was great. Just beautiful grounds. Did a lot of walking. People who complain about the food, must be super picky. There was such a variety on the buffet! Will definitely come back. Read less

Travel Agent: Corina Benson at Maritime Travel was amazing and most helpful throughout this process. We also booked with Maritime Travel our very first vacation which was at this same resort for our wedding 20 years ago! Flights: 3 attempts before successfully checking in with WestJet was a pain -2hours. Overall as expected. WestJet gave us a shout out on the way down (TO to Punta Cana) which was very nice. There was no closet for my dress or hubby’s suit but they did offer to help lay them over the carryons. On the TO to PuntaCana flight, the attendants Melany and Michael were awesome and served us Botega and for Jason Botega and OJ to make himself a mimosa 😊 Super nice! The first 3 flights the WestJet attendants gave each passenger Lysol wipes (if any of you are worried about that stuff). DR will not allow you to checkin and select seats for the return flight, luckily the private shuttle got us there a bit earlier than others so we did get seats together. The layover in TO was a bit of a downer (at that point you just want to go home LOL). The TO airport/Canada Customs asked for passport and ArriveCan QR/green sticker/customs machine paper a LOT. The Doubletree shuttle was a breeze and the hotel was very nice, clean, had very good check-in cookies, and a restaurant on site for dinner -made it easy. The following morning we checked in to print baggage tags at WestJet kiosk and it asked for Provincial proof of vaccine (not expected but we had them printed/on cell phones). T.O. Terminal 3 very long security lineup was stressful -hubby says he doesn’t want to do anything but direct again if we can help it. He was also mad they charged us $60US in DR and another $60CAD in T.O. to get our bags home from Punta Cana -without the original immediate connection on our vacation package because WestJet cancelled our return flight extending our airport layover to 13hours. Transportation from the airport: we hopped in with other guests in their private van (same for return). It was quick but we did miss out on any transportation guide travel tips and meeting other people (if any). 4 other guests used the included transportation and had only one stop before their drop off and said everything was great and very quick. Check in: was a breeze at the Premium Lounge. We booked ocean front premium. We didn’t get an upgrade with wedding package but our room was definitely ocean front as booked -what a frickin view! The beach and view are a WOW factor! Others mentioned how sometimes a resort will say ocean front but it’s actually like an ocean glimpse, we really couldn’t get any closer! Room keys: Everyone (including myself everyday) commented several times about how wonderful the bracelets were! The bracelets had a small keyscan type of card which were coloured with your package (premium a different colour) and coded as your room key; so no one had to worry about locating and taking a card to leave the room, also no worry about losing the room key/card or finding it in your beach bag, no need to take a purse to dinner, etc. One couple’s bracelets were deactivated a day early, after the second visit to the premium lounge, maintenance changed batteries and the premium employee tried and card wouldn’t work but the maid card did -kind of a pain in the arse because they had to go back a third time to get new bracelets (after 2 days of rain on their 5 day stay, they were looking forward to sun). The rooms: my sister and her husband were in building 4 adult side ocean front suite; it was BEAUTIFUL, they did not have the fabulous bracelets. The remaining 8 of us were in building #6 beside La Brisa lunch buffet/Mediterranean a la carte. The rooms were a bit worn but for the most part clean. Maid, mini bar, and turn down services were great and as expected. They did change the towels every time they came into the room -at least twice each day -not necessary for us but I know some like that. Our beach towels were in the room as per the premium level -this avoided the card exchange which was nice but it did cause some confusion for some guests who weren’t aware of the package difference and towel employee asking guest if they wanted a card lol One person out of 10 of us got a few bug bites on the lower legs -this person was on the ground floor and went outside on their lounge chairs in the morning -so not sure if it was the aftersun lotion that attracted mosquitos/mites/whatever, or just the damp morning grass. The hotel: the upgrades in the past 20 years are absolutely beautiful. The facilities and grounds are very clean and absolutely beautiful. TONS of activities to do rain or shine. They have trains, golf cars if you’re late for dinner, and covered paths to get you just about everywhere by foot. There is so much beautiful green foliage, it’s breathtaking. The beach is beautiful, they clean seaweed every morning. Groundskeepers keep everything trimmed and clean. There are elevators in each building for those who require accessibility. Very few individuals put their stuff on chairs early morning which was very nice not to have chair wars LOL. Lots of shade and sun options at the pool and beach. With so many palm trees on the beach, it was very easy to find natural shade if needed. Entertainment was good and as expected; we had a live merengue band on the weekend -it was great to see so many local couples and people who could actually dance! The disco was closed during our stay so we didn’t experience that this time around. Premium Level: This was as expected except for the bar. The bar did not have premium alcohol for me. Additionally, some alcohols on the menu were not available (No Bailey’s -had their own version, good vodka like KettleOne or Ciroc being my preferred vodka or Grey Goose was not available except at one bar on the palace side had Grey Goose, and on the menus but nowhere available was Grand Marnier). I don’t like sweet drinks or cheap wine; I tried absolute vodka and soda water but it’s really not great. Hubby often opted for beer or rum and coke. We did buy Grand Marnier and we had that after dinners. Jose at Mamey bar made us some faux/very close B52 shots when we brought our own Grand Marnier to the bar (thank you Jose). I say faux because they were missing real Baileys (they did have plenty of Khalua). We didn’t take advantage of the hydrotherapy, kids water park, or golf. We pre-booked our a la cartes the week before we arrived, so we got the restaurants and time reservations we wanted -which was absolutely amazing because usually a la carte availability is too early or late, and they had much better house wines The buffet wine is not good but if you like very very light wine you might like it. Food: we thought overall it was good, a little better than expected -especially the a la cartes where food and service was great. Breakfast was usual fried eggs, omelets, fresh fruit, pastries. Lunch buffet was usual -if you can get there when they have fresh meat it is amazing (example fresh bbq chicken, fresh pizza from wood fired oven at Caribe). Room service (included with premium, otherwise $) was very good but way too much food -especially the romantic breakfast. The romantic breakfast was a show and delight for sure but no way 2 people can eat that much food. A la cartes we enjoyed: Kyoto (teppanyaki), Sante Fe Steakhouse, Chez Gourmet, La Dolce Vita (Italian), La Fuente (Spanish), La Brisa (Mediterranean). Don’t expect good coffee at this resort; the Coffee cigar bar is not open until 4pm and it’s on the palace side. Otherwise you’re looking at bring-your-own-mug machine coffee at LaBrisa or the premium lounge; the buffet serves regular coffee. Mamey could make you a Spanish coffee after 10. One guest is lactose and gluten intolerant, but he did enjoy their food options for his diet; he also ate some of their fresh bakery rolls which didn’t bother him. Another guest is a vegetarian and had no problem finding/ordering plenty of options. Wedding: Our vow renewal package was the $800USD blueberry (which is now $650USD on the hotel website) with a $250USD set up fee/surcharge to have the location on the beach. There was a $300 deposit required and wire transferred before our arrival (which wasn’t reflected on our bill at check out -however later fixed by Premium employee calling someone to fix it). Although we agreed not to cancel our vow renewal due to rain and go with their plan B, they refused to reverse the $250 beach set up fee. It was a downpour of rain all day on Sat April 30. They are very sticky on their packages and difficult to change. Although the ceremony was indoors in the amphitheater (Gran Teatro) hallway, overall the ceremony was absolutely beautiful, the coordinator Jennissferl was great, and their officiant was amazing and made the renewal personal for us! We’re still waiting for pictures from the hotel photographer Tropical Pictures. We selected and paid on Tuesday but I have yet to receive the link to download the purchased photos:”; I’ve emailed a reminder today. Photographer was very nice and did a great job. You can find their store in the Palace side shopping area. Last comments: A few mentioned they would like to go back to the palace side with their kids. One said he gave the resort complex a 10 out of 10. We would go back someday in the distant future if they had direct flights and after the adult side rooms renovations are completed. Read less