We have just returned from our third visit to the Victoria (our second this year), and yet again had a wonderful time. I will keep this review much briefer than my last one from May 2008 (“Second visit – definitely not our last”), but I felt compelled to write a review after the ridiculous and unfair review that has been posted on here.

The review complaining of bad rooms, poorly stocked bar etc is very unfair and I can only presume that people were so cross at their delay they tried to find faults? The rooms at the Victoria are beautiful, large, clean and fresh. As we are repeat guests we do get upgraded to superior, but it is very cheap to do this anyway, about £50 a week I think. As for the food not being 24 hour, well no it isn’t but people booking this hotel book it because it is a small hotel where you are treated as individuals not a blurred face in a large crowd. Food is pretty much available from 7 in the morning until 10 at night and I believe that this is more than adequate for anyone.

Anyway, I really hope nobody is put off by the previous review by somebody who stayed at the Victoria unexpectedly for a few hours as opposed to me who has now stayed there for a total of 5 wonderful weeks.

I know it repeats what everyone else says but the staff at the hotel really do make your holiday, they are unbelievably lovely and helpful and funny- they are the sole reason we and many others keep returning. One member of staff said that the Victoria is not a hotel where she works; it is a big family of staff and guests- and I would say that is a fair description. Many staff there have worked at the hotel for over ten years!

Whilst there this time we did the Catamaran trip which was quite choppy with about 50% of the guests throwing up (not pleasant) but fantastic snorkelling at Sosua beach. I also went horse riding at a different ranch to those previously attended, and my partner made the most of the reduced rates for golf for Victoria guests!

Mention has to go to Alix, Jhony, Winston, Eddy and He-Man on the animation teams, they really are brilliant guys who yet again ensured we had a very mad, fun (and sometimes drunk) week!!

We flew Thomas Cook and had the same rep as last time, Paul, who is just lovely, especially when he told us we were delayed coming home but could spend the delay in our hotel rather than the airport!!

Any questions- please ask!

Hi all, we have just got back from the Victoria golf and the reason that I I am writing this is because i'm on the net having a few ciders and looking at where i with my family and friends were yesterday and i wish i was back there now .
We loved it, the kids loved it, the management and staff were fantastic. What can I say.
Go on the waterfall trip with Eddie and Edward the Papperatzii ( is that how you spell it?) You will remember it for always. There is also an excellent horse riding ranch close by . The go carting is brilliant and never ever if you have kids pay full whack for the banana boats, you will end up skint within 2 -3 days.
Take wine and spirits if you go as they are very expensive there.,£20 for a couple of not to great bottles of wine. £ 3 for a small cider at the bars.
Thats all folks i'm saving up for next year.

My partner and I stayed at the Victoria in May 2008 for two weeks and I have to write a review to dispute the terrible one that I have just come across!
We arrived at the Victoria after a short transfer from the airport and were greeted with ice cold fruit drinks whilst ourselves and two other couples were being checked in.
We were shown to our room - the most basic and cheapest. The room itself and bathroom were fine but we were not happy about being on the ground floor and overlooking the road into our complex and the hotel next door. As this was a holiday of a lifetime we upgraded to a larger room - about £85 for the two weeks.
This room was spectacular - a stupidly large bed, our own private balcony overlooking the golf course and lots of storage space. A definite recommendation to upgrade to this for such a little cost!
Our room was cleaned to a high standard on a daily basis and we left a tip for both the cleaner and the "drinks lady" who refilled the mini bar - this meant that we occasionally got more water, juice and beer!
There are two pools - one adult only and the main pool. We never went near the main pool - to avoid the few children and because it played constant cheesy music. The adult pool was excellent and the bar was fully stocked with every kind of drink possible. The daily cocktail was a favourite and if we tried to walk past the bar to our room without trying it, the barmaid scolded us until we did!!!
The food was a true highlight for us since it was what we were most worried about. Breakfast - a vast choice of fruit, breads and hot cooked foods. Lunch - lots of salad choice, hot dogs, burgers and various other cooked foods. Dinner - changed its theme every night but was always something - even for my sometimes fussy partner!
We also ate in the pizza place on our first night - freshly cooked pizzas in the traditional stone oven with tasty salad and an interesting dessert.
Down by the beach (take buggy first time to find it) was an excellent Mexican restaurant with table service. Very good choices and always a great meal.
The beach area itself is wonderful but I would recommend going early to get a good spot - the only bother we had was trying to avoid the smokers - disgusting!! The sellers are not too bad and happy enough to leave you alone once you have said no. They are quite entertaining at times!!
We also ate once in the a la carte restaurant - where there is a dress code of sorts - bascially men must not wear shorts or flip flops. The food was lovely and we paid extra to have an excellent bottle of wine to celebrate our anniversary.
I would also recommend the upstairs bar in the evenings - again we were not there to watch the entertainment etc and plenty of comfy seating and a pool table room.
We went on one day trip - the whole day tour to Puerto Plata, up the mountain and to the beach. I wouldnt really recommend this trip - perhaps a half day is all that is needed. The cable car up the mountain was a highlight but everything else was not very impressive at all.
Overall we enjoyed an excellent holiday and staying at the Victoria was an absolute dream. All the staff were extra friendly, the food and drink brilliant and our room was amazing.

We will return again hopefully!!

Can I just start by saying we were transferred to this resort for one night due to a delayed flight and as such, it's not as detailed as the other reviews. Normally it wouldn't be worth writing a review for one night, but we had such a bad experience that I felt the need to.

We arrived at the Victoria resort (there was about 30 of us) and it took us over 2 hours to get checked in and get our bags. That said, the bellboy was a nice guy, but that was about it.

We were shown to our room which was nice enough. Left our bags and headed to get something to eat. As we had been transferred there from the Iberostar up the road (flight was 11 hours delayed and Iberostar couldn't keep us all an extra night), we hadn't had anything since breakfast and it was now late afternoon.

We arrived at the buffet to discover no food was being served. No food in a 24 hour all inclusive?! Instead we were shown to a seating area with a tea/coffee machine (which was broken) and shown a little sign that said "Tea time" and the times which you could have your cup of tea. There was also a plate of biscuits.

We sat, and sat, and sat. The adult swimming pool is absolutely tiny, the main swimming pool is not much better. We resorted to going to the shop on site to buy something to eat and spend $3 on a single bag of crisps. Some all inclusive when you actually have to go buy food.

That night, when dinner was served, it consisted of a choice of pasta, chicken, bread or goat in rum. Maybe we had been spoiled at the Iberostar, but we were shocked at the sheer lack of choice for an apparently good hotel. It was at this stage we were joking about grabbing our bags and wandering en masse back to Iberostar to let us sleep in their reception as opposed to a night at the Victoria.

Decided to get a few drinks from the bar beside the pool. One coke please. They only had diet coke. Any tequila? No tequila. I'd like to say they stocked the basics but I can't. They didn't even have normal coke!

Finally we headed to our room and dug the pillows out of the cupboard. The pillows smelled so badly of dampness I couldn't use them and instead relied on rolled up bath towels. I was further suprised when we pulled back the duvet to discover that our sheet only covered 3/4 of our mattress. The bottom was bare mattress. We spent the night lying on top of the duvet, with the throw as a cover, using bath towels as pillows.

At 4am the next morning we went to check out. No staff on reception or the check out desk. Our bus arrived. No staff to check us out. We waited, and waited. Eventually the found a member of staff to check us out. We asked the others about their pillows, and they all said theirs smelled badly of dampness.

In less than 24 hours that we were there I was disgusted with this hotel. Most would be glad at a free night in the Dominican but to be honest, a lot of us said we would rather be at the airport.

Maybe we only got rooms that were hardly used as we were only there for one night but that one bad experience meant I will never, ever return and have advised those I know who visit the DR on a regular basis not to go there.