We planing to stay in this hotel for 1 week but we stay just 1 night. This hotel do not have an idea what cleans means. We arrive at 5:30 pm to the hotel and we were hungry, the picnic area near to the pool has a bad chicken and the pool has green lime, at dinning a roach hide in the cheese, the cheff look the roach and did not even change the cheese, at night my daughter wakes me up because her bed has ants. The TV at room did not work. At morning there was no water or light in the hotel. The light coming early but still no water in the room.

The only thing was good is the beach.

We ask for the refund but they can not help us.they apologized but only offers a better suite. We are a family with kids in ages 10, 14 and 17 and even they do not gave us the refund we decide to move to another hotel. Thanks God we arrive at Magestic Colonial, this one is very different clean, beautiful and friendly.

Think before you go there, you can be sick. Bad food, not friendly persons, no service.

Just returned from the Catalonia Bavaro Resort. The resort was rated a 4.5 star but I would not even give it a 4. The resort itself was nice and fairly well maintained. The room was dated but generally clean. We lucked out and got a room by the ocean but the problem was that the air conditioning only slightly worked. After asking for repair twice we gave up. The service staff were all friendly and for the most part tried to give you what you ask for but you occasionally found that you got something completely different because the person didn't understand.

The biggest problem with this resort was the food. It sucked to say the least!!! Sick for 3 days from it. Now it could have been the fact that the buffets were open air and when you dine you dine with the birds that are nesting in the rafters and coming down to help themselves to the food. Look up people and you will see bird dung on the rafters, now that said if it is on the rafters I am sure it makes it down to the food. It seems sparrows love fresh cakes and pastries as they really seemed to prefer this area of the buffet.

The beach area was nice but the seaweed was a little much in the area. The pool was great but very warm.

The drinks sucked unless you like sweat sweat drinks. Full of sugar and nothing blended in front of you. In fact I never saw a blender at any of the bars

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