My family and I stayed for a week in early august.
General:
The temperature was in the mid 80's and it was very humid. There were many Europeans and people from Spanish speaking countries. Very unlike Mexico where virtually everyone speaks English. At night the sun goes down, but the temperature never drops.

Room:
After a quick check-in and getting to our rooms, our luggage arrived shortly after. The air conditioning didn't seem very cold, but after putting it on setting 1 (the coldest) it quickly cooled down. The room had two full sized beds and one couch set up with sheets to make a third. Inside the room was a mini bar that didn't seem very cold stocked daily with water beer and pop. The bathroom was nice, it had both a shower and a bathtub. Our room wasn't a far walk from anything, although it was right next to the construction. I could sometimes hear hammering noises in the morning it wasn't too bothersome. The worst thing was hearing a rooster (which roam free) crowing one morning.

Food:
The food was very good. There was somewhere to eat every day, I was never hungry the entire trip. I enjoyed the buffets and could have eaten every meal there. I ate at 3 of the restaurants: Japanese, steak house and cajun. Personally, I enjoyed the appetizers at the Japanese and cajun the most. The ribeye was great at the steakhouse. The service wasn't the best at these restaurants but didn't bother me much.

Pool:
The pool was a nice size and had a beach effect which I liked a lot. The swim up bar never seemed too crowded, resulting in fairly quick service. There were always open chairs but it was sometimes difficult to find spots for 5. Something I did not enjoy where swarms little kids screaming and running into people. It seemed as if their parents just let them run lose.

Beach:
The beach was very nice with ample seating. It was clean, but nothing compared to the beach in Cancun.

Staff:
The staff was amazing. They made virtually every request you made. Spaghetti was one of the greatest entertainers. He always remembered you.

Entertainment:
Some of the shows were very good. I preferred the ones with just the entertainers singing as opposed to the shows with audience participation. After the shows I frequently ventured to the casino, just a 3 min walk away, or 30 second golf cart ride. It was air conditioned. I was very surprised to see that it had poker. I visited the disco one night. I did not enjoy it seeing as it seemed to be filled heavily with Europeans and played only techno music.

Conclusion:
I enjoyed the trip very much, and would definitely go back with my family, but I don't think I would want to stay for more than a week, being that it was so hot and humid. This was a great place for relaxation, not somewhere for 18-30 year olds to party and get drunk.

After staying an Iberostar in Mexico last year, we choose to stay again at an Iberostar based on our experiences. Compared to the Iberostar Paraíso Lindo in Riviera Maya, the Bavaro isn't quite as good.

Airport
Breezed through customs in minutes and the walk from baggage to the shuttle company counters is literally feet. No need to pay someone to assist you with that. It took about 30-40 minutes though for our shuttle to be ready. That part seems a little chaotic.

Returning to the airport 'porter' grabbed our bags before we could say no. This turned out to be a good thing. While it wasn't far from curbside to check-in, the airline counters weren't labels (overhead monitors were not turned on) and we wouldn't have know which ones were USAir. The porters also cut in line so our wait was much shorter than if we had been on our own.

Ride to the resort
While I've had some cab rides in the US that have been more hair-raising, the ride to the resort is something of an adventure. The first part is on a two lane, fairly straight highway but with no lines between lanes, no lights at crossing intersections and plenty of slow moving construction vehicles to have to pass, it can cause you to hold your breath at times.

The second half of the ride is on a twisting local road with many potholes that our driver had to cross to the other side of the road to avoid.

The resort
It's as beautiful and clean as all of the other reviewers state. There seems to always be someone sweeping leaves or dirt off the paths and the beach is swept throughout the day.

Room
Nice size but we never had more than 5 minutes of hot water in the shower per day and the mini-fridge never cooled beverages below luke-warm. Lost power twice in the room during the day (we were at the pool so it didn't impact us) and once during the night after we went to bed. Reminded us that we were in a 3rd world country.

Pool/Beach
Pool is nice but not huge. If you want to sit in the shade, you'll have to get there before 9:00 so so. Beach is extremely nice; best sand I've ever seen. We headed to the beach after lunch each day and never had a problem finding spots in shade.

Food
Somewhat disappointing overall. Breakfast was very good with anything you could imagine. Snacks at the pool were plentiful. Lunch and dinners at the buffets were ok as well. The buffet at the pool for lunch seemed to have a greater variety then did the main buffet.

We ate at several of the specialty restaurants. The Japanese was the best of the bunch. The Cajun was disappointing as the meat was overcooked and tough. We were going to make reservations at the steak house but folks behind us in line said don't bother. In general we found the meat to be of poor quality (when compared to what we get here in the US) and overcooked. The Hard Star Cafe was ok as well.

Check In/Out
Both took just minutes and went smoothly.

Overall
We had a good time (family of 4 with 2 adults and 2 teenagers). Not as good as Mexico though. We didn't encounter any issues with the resort or staff (they were friendly and eager to help) and were able to sit back and relax for the entire week.

I recently stayed at the Iberostar Bavaros for a week and it was great experience.

Besides the amazing beaches the service and the food in the hotel were espectacular.

The buffet had a varied selection everyday and the quality of the food was excellent. The rooms were clean and they keep the resort immaculate.

I definitely will recommend this resort to anyone who is going to Punta Cana.

Karla Zuniga

My wife, 18-year old daughter, and I just returned from a week at the Iberostar Bavaro. Our experience was very good. The grounds and the beach are beautiful and VERY clean. The staff was excellent, everyone was friendly and helpful. The food was good, but not great. I would put it a notch below good cruise ship cuisine. But you can still eat well there. We found the Steakhouse and the Japanese restaurants to be quite decent. The regular buffet has a wide range of choices. We especially liked Dominican night when they served grilled giant prawns.

Here's what we found to be the pro's and con's:

Pro's - Beautiful and clean grounds, nice rooms, great staff, lots of available activities, good (but not great) food.

Con's - Mattress was terrible (but a few after-dinner drinks solved that problem), the exercise facility is an open-air building; try working out at 90F and high humidity, the "free" catamarans were in rough shape so we ended purchasing the optional damage insurance for $15 since we didn't want to get hit with their inflated damage costs if something broke.

One final note. Some previous reviewers on TripAdvisor reported having intestinal problems. We didn't hear anything about illness during our stay. You can drink the water served at meals and the icecubes in drinks are also OK, but do NOT drink the tap water in the rooms. We just brushed our teeth using bottled water from the mini-fridge, which was refilled every day.