Catalonia Bavaro is a great, beautiful, and very clean resort. Although the staff speaks mainly Spanish, they are very friendly. There is a wide variety of food. The buffet is excellent (grilled meat, lobster, chicken, seafood, paella). We miss the daily breakfast at Catalonia. Don't forget to try the pizzas at the snack bar near the nice swimming pool. The pizzas brought back memories of delicious tuna pizzas that we have had in Southern France. The room that we had was pretty clean. Although seaweeds appear at the end of the day depending on the weather, the staff cleans up many times on a daily basis. The water is clear. My husband saw many colored fish, octopus, lobster amongst others. It could be a good thing to reserve long chairs around ten to seven if you prefer a shady place; otherwise, there were plenty of spots. I thought it was unacceptable to stand people smoking beside pregnant women and kids during the shows in the evening. The resort needs to work on it. Despite this one drawback, we fully recommend this resort.

A group of 6 of us travelled to this hotel with Nolitours. First off, let me say that Nolitours turned out to be a pretty great tour operator. I had heard some horror stories about them in past (even from my parents) but they were great for us. Very friendly and informative tour rep. Also, one of us lost our luggage upon arrival (great way to start a vacation for a first timer) and thankfully through the diligent work of the Nolitours staff, my friend had her luggage back in her hands that same evening!! We also flew with Air Transat, and even though my personal experience with them in the past has be horrible, this time everything was on time.

For the resort itself I find it easiest to breakdown into sections.

The Hotel Itself/Grounds - Very clean, and well maintained. Beautifully kept grounds, and friendly staff. As many others have said, the language barrier is a bit difficult, but just be friendly and patient, and they will try their best to accomadate you. The layout was excellent in my opinion. The Lobby, Casino, Shops, Main Restaurant, Stage and Disco were all located in the one centralized area, which made it easy to go from one spot to the next without having to walk a great deal to get somewhere. I find some resorts when they are overly spread out is a bit of a nuisance. All the rooms are located on your way to the beach from the above activity areas. About a 5 min walk. The pool is right by the beach, which was nice to get the breeze off the ocean, and there is also another small restaurant by the pool. Some people have said the water in the pool was cold. I personally did not have a problem with it. A little frigged to begin with, but once you are in, it's fine. For me I prefer to be re-freshed then be swimming in something that feels like bathwater, but that's just me. The pool was very clean though.

The Beach - Not the nicest beach I've seen (especially for Punta Cana). There was quite a bit of seaweed, but they did try and keep it as clean as possible by combing it each morning. The water itself was beautiful though, great temperature and fairly calm. If you go to the right once you are on the beach past the Bavero Royal and up a little walkway there are some vendors there. Friendly people and good prices. Most are willing to barter, and if they are being difficult then just move on, you'll likely find the exact same thing in the next shop.

Rooms - Not a huge fan of the room set up. I enjoy the villa style, however I found the rooms themselves a little cramped. Beds were ok, but only singles. Also, the jacuzzi style tub I thought was a waste of space, and not very practical. I would have prefered to have a bigger standup shower then the huge oversized tub (which takes a day to fill!) The maids were very nice though and we just left a little tip each day. Rooms were kept clean, and the mini-bar was well stocked at all times. I would recommend asking for the top of the villa though. Sound was an issue. It sounded like the people above us had about 8 children that enjoyed jumping around at 7am each morning!

Food - Since I've travelled to the DR mulitple times, I have a bit of an expection regarding food. This resort did not really meet them. We ended up having to eat at the buffet every night because none of us were patient enough to wait in line to make reservations for the a la cartes. It was basically the same type of food every night, with a bit of variation in the meats department. Good for kids though, because hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza, and french fries were always available. Don't get me wrong, none of us starved or anything, and none of us got sick from the food (just booze :D). It was just a little bland after a whole week of the same thing. I did hear the a la cartes were quite good, so if you have the patience to stand in line I would recommended it just to break up the week.

Excursions - We all did the ATV's and had a blast. I highly recommend it and it's only a half day. Well priced for what you get. You get to go to a local beach that has the bluest water I have ever seen, and sooooo warm for the ocean. A couple of others did the swimming with the Sharks and Stingrays and they all had an amazing time on that half day excursion as well. Some of us did the full day Catamaran, and even though they said it was fun, a lot of the time is spent on a bus going from one spot to another, and they didn't feel it was worth the money they paid for what they did.

Overall - I would recommend this place to a friend if they are looking for a fairly inexpensive holiday to relax. You get what you pay for. If you have have high expections, or like to be pampared, DON'T go here. We are all fairly laid back people and had a great time, just cause we relaxed, drank and ate! You are on vacation, enjoy!! Hope this helps :D

Just got back from a 4 night stay at the Catalonia. We stayed from July 17th to the 21st. Me, my husband and a 5 year old. We didn't plan alot it was a getaway we managed to sqweeze in. Actually I read reviews concerning the kids club, nobody mentioned that the kids had very little to do, coloring can't be fair for someone who has traveled so far. So we stayed with him at the pool and beach most of the time. The pool was huge, the beach is beautiful and so are the hotel grounds. The hotel needs remodeling and maintenance urgent. It's a very old hotel, something that has not been said either. The rooms need to be updated and cleaned. We joked at the fact that a dead cockroach stayed at the room with us the whole time, always missed by the housekeeping personnal. We had termites in our bed board and my husband ended with several bed bug bites in his head. We told the front desk who suggested to the see a doctor in the hotel, The consultation cost $90.00 dollars and he was prescribed calamine lotion. One week after returning we are still dealing and concerned about the bites since we've seen no improvement. He has been on antibiotics, has done blood tests and we are waiting to see results. We've traveled alot and have other experiences to compare with. The food was fine, didn't hear much merengue or bachata considering I was in Dominican Republic. The only thing I learned about their culture was constant story telling about needing money, it was awful outside the hotel it seems they aren't very proud about who they are, but very aware that a little story could get you to bend and
help out. I suggest that if you can spend a little more to stay someplace else... if you do want to stay inside a hotel your whole stay, but places like Cancun, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cozumel will have you returning. Though not all experiences are the same, sadly this is ours...we will not return to Dominican Republic or the Catalonia.

The Catalonia Bavaro Beach Resort is a fabulous resort choice because it essentially caters to all ages. The resort grounds are quite large but as a whole, are very well laid out. Use the Resort Map that comes in your Room Package or the large version just past the wooden boardwalk outside of the lobby in order to get your bearings on the first day.

ACCOMMODATIONS:
The room was beautiful but was not perfect. Our room was in a villa situated across from the pool and only steps away from the ocean. The maid service was very prompt -- they were at the room by around 9-10a.m. each morning. If you are a late riser, you can ask the maid to come back later in the day, or you can put a "Do Not Disturb" tag on the outside door handle. We left $2 each day for the maid and she left full cases of water next to the fridge, on top of stocking the fridge with beer, soda, and individual bottles of water. While the service at the resort OVERALL was not 5-star by any stretch, the maids were excellent. There were minor issues with the room (the TV picture was fuzzy and the bathroom door did not fully shut) but then again, you are probably not about to make a carribean resort selection based on TV quality. One hammock for every room is a nice touch; we used ours daily.

BEACH/POOL:
Both were stunning. The water temperature of the pool was perfect and there was plenty to do for all -- whether lounging in the shade of a beach/pool hut, napping in the hammocks or on the lounge chairs, getting involved with water activities, or seeking shade at the swim-up bar. Compared to other resorts that I've stayed at, there was a considerable amount of seaweed the routinely washed up onto the shoreline, but it was regularly collected by a beach maintenance crew every few hours. Don't miss the beach stretching/exercises that start out in the ocean at around 11/1130am or the "Beach Crazy Game" that starts just prior to that.
There are kayaks, catamarans, and snorkel gear that can be rented out at no extra cost. Catamaran lessons are $25 and then guests can take them out on their own.

FOOD:
The nice thing about the Catalonia Bavaro Resort is that guests are entitled to FOUR a la carte restaurants -- as opposed to the normal 1 or 2 depending on where you stay. The Japanese, Italian, and Mexican were all fabulous with terrific service. The American a la carte was the only shortfall of resort food for the entire trip -- even still, it was not that bad. If you take a particular liking to any one of these a la cartes it is possible to exchange reservations at Guest Services (ie: you might be able to eat at the Mexican restaurant twice instead of opting to eat at the American).
There are two main buffets (one situated next to the pool and the other situated near the lobby and main entrance. The lobby buffet is superior in selection and food quality but both were pretty good. Like anything else, it is probably wisest to stick to safe choices for food. However, nothing that we ate made us sick over the span of the entire week.
The snack buffet serves fast-food type foods and is located on the other side of the pool. The Pizza Buffet was a mainstay for many people for lunch. The pizza was possibly the best I've ever had.
Points worth noting: the pasta chefs cook up excellent pasta at main buffets; ditto for omelettes.

RESORT GROUNDS:
The best-kept resort I've ever been to. The plantlife, birds, and water-life will blow you away. There are plenty of places to sit and relax although most of our time was spent at the beach and the pool.

ENTERTAINMENT:
Caught 3 out of 7 shows for nightly entertainment at the main theatre. The 'Michael Jackson Show' was terrific and all of the shows featured many of the activities crew that ran activities throughout the day. All of them work extremely hard to ensure that you enjoy yourself, and many went to the disco later in the night to get things going on the dance floor. Really enjoyable people to be around.

CASINO/GOLF:
As can be expected, the casino is small. There slot machines and a few tables, but don't let this feature be the selling point for your resort decision. The golf course looked STUNNING and under-used although we didn't get a chance to play. I believe that it cost ~$65 for 9 holes and ~$85 for 18.

OTHER:
Internet on the other side of the lobby is $5 per half-hour. If you are bringing a lap-top, there is free WiFi in the lobby but only in the section closest to the front desk. Be sure to sit in one of the couches nearest the front desk in order to get access.

OVERALL:
As mentioned before, this resort has a little bit of something for everyone. There are ample tours that can be booked with any of the tour operators in the front lobby. If you plan on booking ATVs, do not book with "Club Caribe" because you will end up driving them for less than half of the amount of time that they promise. Your best bet for ATVs and Dunebuggies may be NolitTours but there are plenty of other tour operators that you can talk to. In addition, there are local shopping huts off of the resort property if you walk in either direction down the beach. Once a week there are vendors that come in and you can purchase items from them. Don't be suckered into buying anything -- especially an item that you don't really want. They can be very persistent and, more importantly, annoying if you don't put your foot down. This was perhaps the only thing that truly bothered me on the trip.

I would go back to the Catalonia Bavaro Beach Resort in a heartbeat. In terms of food (most items), resort cleanliness, water & water activities, staff, and entertainment, you will NOT be disappointed. This is a phenomenal resort in terms of value for your money, and the resort itself is absolutely beautiful. Don't think twice about visiting the Catalonia Bavaro Beach Resort, and make sure to check out the traveller photos on this site if you need any more assurance!

Cheers