Hola,

This will be a summary of our trip to Punta Cana with the occasional comparison to the Grand Palladium Riviera Maya. I wanted to get things down on paper, or cyberspace as it were, while they are still fresh in my mind.

Who am I? I am a 51 year old American male from Forest Hill, MD, which is about 50 miles north of Baltimore. I traveled with my wife and two sons, ages 20 and 18, to PC from July 16 thru July 23. Our family has previously stayed at the GP Riviera Maya (Colonial) in 2006 and 2003.

Disclaimer: What follows are my personal opinions/observations.

Departure: Booked an Apple Vacation through Judy and Maria's Travel (on-line...they have a very informative website) and I highly recommend them, and no, I do not work for them or have any vested interest. We left BWI on Wednesday morning and the Airbus A320 actually left the gate 30 minutes early...sweet...early arrival meant extra beach time! Flight was not full and had plenty of room to stretch out and stow carry-ons.

Arrival: Arrived at PC airport 20 minutes early; loved the open air design and appearance. We got through customs and immigration and were on the van to the resort within 30 minutes. Much easier and quicker than the Cancun airport. Ride to GP took about 30 minutes. Not much to see. The whole country appears to be under construction. My impression was this was not a locale where you would be anxious to rent a car or scooter and tour around on your own.

Check-in: Got to the GP Bavaro around noon. I had requested two second floor junior suites near the beach; got two 1st floor junior suites in building 42, which is between Hemingway’s and the Bavaro lobby. Oh well. Was initially disappointed, but not enough to request a different room, and as it turned out, the location was fine. Did I mention it was close to Hemingway’s? One room was ready immediately, so we dumped our luggage, changed into our swimsuits, and went in search of lunch. Found El Arrecife at the beach, ate lunch and hit the sand.

Beach: Ah, the beach. Lovely, and superior in every way to the beach at the GP Riviera Maya. There was a bit of seaweed to be found every day in the surf, and the water was a little choppy at times due to the sea breeze, but all in all quite nice. This was not the tranquil surf we had when we were in Negril, Jamaica ( I would rate the beach in Negril ahead of PC), but the view, and weather every day, were outstanding. As to the weather, my wife and I both thought the weather in PC was not nearly as hot, or humid, as what we experienced in Mexico. Every day was sunny and clear, with a nice breeze. The evenings were comfortable, and we did not notice any bugs/mosquitoes at night. Every day there are vendors trolling the beach with carvings, cigars, trinkets, etc., but they are unobtrusive and a simple shake of the head and a “no gracias” is all that is required. The hotel photographers also wander around with parrots, a snake, iguana, or a small monkey in search of a photo op. I went with the parrot, who happened to relieve himself on my shoulder at the precise moment the picture was taken. As they say, “priceless” and I have the $10 picture to prove it.
Yes, it is a topless beach. Not a big deal, and even my two testosterone-laden sons were matter of fact about it. Most of the women who went topless shouldn't, but to those select few who should, and did...thank you!

Room: As noted, we had two Junior Suites, one with a king bed, and one with two doubles for the boys. The mattresses were quite comfortable and we had no trouble sleeping. We found the rooms to be quite spacious, and the bathroom was really nice, with two sinks, whirlpool tub (which we did not use), separate shower stall, and separate toilet w/door. I am 6’ 1”, and one of my pet peeves when traveling is a shower head that is set too low, forcing me to bend over to wash my hair, rinse, etc. No problemo in the junior suite, as the shower head was height adjustable. Nice.
Wifey felt the bathroom could have used more light, say one over the shower stall, as well as an exhaust fan, but these are just minor quibbles.

Grounds: I could not get over how beautiful the property was, not to mention how well-maintained. The different types and sizes of palms, varieties of flora and fauna, all seemed to be integrated well with the buildings. It just seemed “natural”, as opposed to my recollections of the GP Colonial/Kantenah in Mexico, which also was attractive and well-maintained, but seemed to me to be “constructed” and not as naturally beautiful. Personal preference I guess. We found it quite easy to get around the Bavaro side of the complex, but did get confused on our occasional forays to the Punta Cana and Palace sides. We walked up the beach looking for the new spa one afternoon (whose location does not yet appear on the map by the way) and only stumbled on to it after asking 3 or 4 employees for directions. The spa is very nice, and we took a quick dip in the pool/lazy river, but did not avail ourselves of any extra services. The spa was not busy. As others have noted, there are two trains (green and red) that make a continuous loop of the complex. We utilized the choo choo a number of times from the Bavaro lobby to the Mare Nostrum ala carte, which is on the other side of the complex. The train takes you past the sports complex, the Punta Cana and Palace lobbies, the Casino, the Spa (so that’s how you get there!) and then runs along the beach for a spell, stops at El Arrecife, and then continues back to the Bavaro lobby. The train was always crowded, especially at night.

Pools: The pool at the Bavaro was nice, unless you have seen the pool at the GP Colonial/Kantenah in Riviera Maya. The clear winner here is Mexico. It seems to me the pool in Mexico is the centerpiece of the property, and that the rest of the resort was developed around it. In Mexico, I also liked the fact that the pool was much closer to the beach than in PC. The pools in Punta Cana were OK, swim-up bars, etc, but my wife missed the submerged loungers that she fell in love with at the Colonial. So, if this is important, go to PC for the beach, go to Riviera Maya for the pool. Having said that, we stopped at the pool each afternoon on our way back from the beach, floated over to the swim up bar, and watched the last of the pool games/activities.

Restaurants/Food: I find it quite amusing to read posts on Trip Advisor, Debbie’s Dominican, etc. from people complaining about the food at resorts such as the GP. It makes me wonder just what they are eating at home. They must be doing way better than I am. In my opinion, if you cannot find something to your liking at the breakfast, lunch, or dinner buffets, then you are some kind of unreasonable moron. My wife and I usually prefer the ala cartes to the buffets, but in PC the ala cartes were just OK. We hit the El Quijote (Spanish) twice, the Mare Nostrum (Italian) twice, and El Arrecife (Seafood) once. The ala cartes were never crowded, and we arrived at prime time, 7:30-8:00 PM and were always seated immediately. We went back to El Quijote for the garlic shrimp appetizer, which was the single best thing we had at the resort all week. The other appetizers were good as well. The main courses were a little uneven. My sons said the chicken was good, but the beef dish, which was advertised has filet, was more along the lines of an Outback sirloin. I usually stick with fish, and they seem to do grouper pretty well in PC. I love salmon, but did not care for it here as it was always full of bones.
Mare Nostrum was OK, and El Arrecife was good, but the service there was very, very slow. This is not the fault of the employees, but the night we ate at El Arrecife, there were literally no more than 10 people working the entire restaurant, including waiters, beverage servers, hostess etc. They were running themselves ragged. My wife and I felt bad for them. Some patrons got a little testy, but we just had another glass of wine and rolled with it as we had no where else to go and all night to get there (apologies to Styx). The beverage guys at both Mare Nostrum and El Quijote were outstanding and our wine glasses were never empty. The house wines, both red and white, which are Spanish, were medium dry and pretty decent. I’m not a beer drinker, but my son informed me that the local brew, El Presidente, was just OK.
Every night at the buffets is a theme night, and the two nights we ate there was American and Asian. We all thought the food at the buffets (La Catedral) was quite good, and my sons ate at the Gala and Italian night buffets as well and had kudos for both.

Entertainment: We tried the shows on two different evenings and just couldn’t get through them. The staff was trying hard, but it just didn’t click with us. We preferred to end our evenings at Hemingway’s, which we did every night. It was never crowded, the air conditioning was kicking, and it was a nice place to wind down. There is some top shelf liquor to be found here, Kahlua, Frangelico, Johnnie Walker, SKYY, etc. and they make a real nice mojito, with fresh mint.

Disco/Sports Bar: This portion is brought to you courtesy of my sons. The disco was apparently the place to be from 11-2 each evening. It is two floors and rocked every night. When the disco closed, I believe the party moved to the sports bar next door, which is open 24-7 and where one can get nachos, hot dogs, burgers, fries, popcorn, etc. I also heard tales of 4 AM swims in the pool, which I’m sure is not encouraged by hotel management, but it didn’t seem to be prohibited either. Ah, youth is wasted on the young.

Excursions: We did not leave the property so I can offer no advice here. My son and I did rent the two man speed boats for the two hour guided snorkeling tour, and we had a blast. It was $60 per person. You get the boats right on the beach and follow the guide up the coast to the snorkeling spot.

Sports Complex: Every day at 5:30, my sons (both college soccer players) would head over to the sports complex for the daily soccer match. There is a quite nice field turf pitch, and as this resort is heavily marketed to Europeans, these games were a veritable United Nations experience. Spaniards, Germans, Brits, Canadians, Poles, Russians, Italians, Americans, French of all ages (12-50?) would gather to partake of the beautiful game. Fast friendships were forged here, regardless of language barriers, and plans made to meet up later at the sports bar/disco. My sons hooked up with some lads from Newcastle and Leeds in the UK, and one of them may come and visit us next summer. So not everyone hates Americans these days.

Staff: We found the staff to be by and large very friendly. Dust off your high school or college Spanish and give it a go. My goal was always to speak Spanish and have them answer me in Spanish. I was told by one of the staff that I did not have an “American face”, and that only encouraged me more. A smile and an unsolicited “hola” go a long way. You get what you give. Please, if you are an ugly American and expect everyone to speak English, do us all a favor and stay home. The PoPs work their butts off all day in an effort to get everyone engaged. There were aerobics on the beach every morning, silly games of all types, salsa lessons, etc. My losing venture at horseshoes turned into a dance lesson (think Elaine on Seinfeld) which I am sure caused nightmares for anyone unfortunate enough to witness my moves.

Final Random Thoughts: Americans are definitely in the minority at the GP Punta Cana. My estimate of the clientele in descending order of percentages is: Spaniards; Germans; Canadians; British; Italians; Americans; others. I would guess Americans were less than 20%, at least the week we were there. That was not an issue with us, as we like to experience a little cultural diversity, and my sons enjoyed it greatly. So, caveat emptor.

The resort was no where near at capacity.

Europeans still smoke like fiends. Apparently that surgeon general’s warning hasn’t made its way across the pond yet. While all the air-conditioned restaurants and bars are non-smoking, the open air lobbies are not. So be prepared.

My wife and I both thought it would be nice if they had someone playing a piano, or maybe an acoustic guitar, at Hemingway's.

My son and I picked up a case of the traveler's quick step while at the resort. It was inconvenient, but didn't stop us or keep us in our room. I went to my doctor when I got home and he wrote me a scrip for Cipro, which is now generic and cost a whopping $4.00. That and a bland diet for a few days seem to have knocked the bacteria out of my system. My doctor had an interesting take on "traveler's diarrhea". He said that whenever he travels to the Caribbean, Mexico, or even Southern California, near the border, he takes a pre-emptive dose of Cipro. He starts the day before he leaves and takes it the entire time he is away. He told me that if I had called him and told him where I was going, he would have called in a prescription for me and I could have done the same thing. Interesting...I would like to know if any other "addicts" have had this same conversation with their doctor.

OK, here it is. Americans are fat. There is no way to sugar coat it. The more you travel, the more you notice it. Walk around a place like the GP Bavaro and then compare it to a walk through Wal-Mart or your local mall. My eyes, my eyes!!!

Thanks for listening.

This resort came highly recommended by our travel agent, and we were thoroughly impressed. It's not perfect, but it's definitely a beautiful resort with clean rooms, immaculate landscaping, excellent food, and an amazing beach.

Some of the slightly negative parts we would be:
-sports bar is pretty pathetic
-reception staff isn't incredibly helpful
-nightly entertainment was very good, but a little repetitive, and the theatre gets very hot and stuffy
-no snack places close to the beach or pools

Some of the highlights were:
-amazing food at all the buffets and restaurants we tried
-great drinks
-beautiful grounds with covered walkways so you don't melt in the heat while walking around
-lots of shady spots and beach chairs available at the beach
-beach and ocean are clean and beautiful
-our room was immaculate (just a regular room with king-sized bed)
-since we went in low-season, we could go to the à la carte restaurants without reservations (although the buffets were so good, we usually ate there). Service was always good wherever we ate, and we didn't even tip!
-not too many vendors on the beach, but you could walk down the beach just past the resort to a market and get all your souvenir shopping done much cheaper than at the gift shop
-disco was alot of fun at night
-hardly any bugs/insects at all (I think we saw 3 mosquitos all week, and no flies in the restaurants)

Any of the negative things we encountered had absolutely no effect on our holiday. We would definitely go back to this resort.

we are a group of 3 young couples age 24-37 who went to this resort in February 2008. Before going we read all of the reviews and did our research. Other than a few little things, our week was great!

We booked through Transat Holidays who actually hire westjet as a charter. we were provided with a boxed lunch on the way there and on the way back. The flights were great, the punta cana airport a breeze...The transport to and from the resort were great too, big comfy air conditioned busses!

Check in was fast and efficient. we arrived in the evening around 9pm and were exhausted from a long day of travelling.

We got to our rooms and hit our first problem. I have asthma and so I requested all three rooms to be on the top floor due to the musty smell you usually get on the bottom but they weren't, our room was on the bottom and our friends rooms were on the top. The ones on the top floor were absolutely gorgeous with pillars in the room, a jacuzzi tub in the room, and a king bed...whereas ours was just a standard room with two double beds even though we requested a king and it did have a musty smell. We went to the front desk immediately and were told the only other room available was on the other side of the resort so we decided to stay where we were and I just took my puffer all week.

The resort grounds are absolutely beautiful and they are always working on them. The staff works hard to maintain the resort. There were covered walkways, tall palms, ponds with wildlife in them, and of course, the beautiful beach which the groundsmen are constantly cleaning up!

The beach....would have to be the best beach I have been on in my life and I live on the ocean! it has tourquoise waters, soft soft sand...it gets busy during the day but it is sooo big that there is lots of room for everyone. Be sure to take a walk on the beach in the moonlight...it was full moon when we were there and my boyfriend and I went for a walk on the moonlit beach and the moon was so bright you could see your shadow.....perfect for him to propose which he did!!!

Pools- There are a lot of pools on this resort, we usually spent our time at the pool that's right by the beach. There is also a small restaurant there that serves buffett lunch so it was very convenient. There is a swim up bar in every pool ans we always made use of them! be sure to bring floaty toys and pass them on to someone when you leave!

Lounge Chairs- we never had trouble finding 6 lounge chairs, they may not have been altogether but that doesn't mean they weren't moveable it never took us more than 5 minutes to find chairs. We usually got up at about 8am and put towels on our chairs before heading to breakfast (it's a horrible thing and I hate it but you have to play the game if you want chairs!) It's those that put towels on both the beach and pool chairs that I can't stand!

Drinks/Food- The drinks were great and plentiful. if you want more alcohol, ask for Mucho Rum or Mucho vodka! Banama Mamas were the best as well as coco coladas! For premium drinks, there is a path right by the main buffett restaurant la cathedral, this path goes through the woods and leads to a wonderful bar called Hemmingways where you can sit in airconditioning or outside (we chose to be outside). This bar is the resorts best kept secret because hardly anyone realizes it's there. we found it on night 3 and made a point of going back every evening after dinner. Here they serve kaluha, bailey's, frangelico (yum), cosmopolitans made with SKY vodka, Johnny Walker, Jim Beam...lots of premium drinks you won't get anywhere else! The bartender is great and knows how to make a wicked cosmo!
The food on this resort was very good and plentiful. We went to the mexican and seafood a la cartes. The Mexican was delicious the seafood I wouldn't recommend although my meal was good...others didn't enjoy theirs. One person from our group got severely sick from the seafood (clams) this was no fault of the resort as when we returned home, we learnt there was a problem with the clams all throughout Punta Cana and they just didn't catch it in time. The resort staff was very good and even made a tray of food for us to take to our sick friend when she couldn't get out of bed.

Excursions/Shopping- The shopping at the market down the beach towards the flags was great. be aware of lots of shop owners hassleing you to shop at their store....cheapy cheapy just for you! They are just trying to make a living so keep an open mind and remember to barter you can usually get something for half the cost...the paintings are absolutely gorgeous and we bought 6! There is also shopping on the resort but you can't barter here. I bought Puma sneakers for $60 which isn't bad considering they are $100 here for the same ones. As for excursions, us gals decided to keep our butts in a lounge chair in the sun but the guys did a deep sea fishing excursion and quite enjoyed it. The only thing was that it was extremely rough on the water that day so if you don't have your sea legs, you might feel queezy (we are from a fishing village so our guys have their sea legs but there was another one that almost went overboard!) While the guys were on their excusion, us gals had a little photo shoot on the beach...this is fun and the pics are $7 each in the photo shop out by the little shops. If you want to get your hair braided to go the first shop in the market on the beach and ask for jizelle. she braided all three of our hair and did a great job and she was cheap! only $20 for a whole head or $15 for half....be sure to barter because she starts off much higher than this.

All-in-all, except for a few little things, this resort is great and I'm sure we will go back! probably in 2009!

I hope this helped calm anyones nerves...feel free to e-mail me at [----] for more info.

HOTEL/ROOM

Very smooth transaction from Punta Cana airport to the hotel where we were met by Bell Boys who took care of our luggage, while we checked in & were given a much apppreciated cocktail. We then got taken to our apartment by the bell boy on a little buggy thingy along with our luggage. We where very impressed with our spacious room with king size bed, and a large bathroom, we stayed in block 21 room 1211 which is ideally located near a pool and not far from the beach. The rooms are air conditioned & also have ceiling fans. The mini bar is stocked daily with beer/coke/sprite/fanta/water. Towells were changed either every day or every other.

BEACH

The 1st morning we awoke very early and decided to walk to the beach to watch the sunrise. The beach is lush, around 7ish people started putting towells on sunbeds which had umbrellas, which was the same most days, we however didn't bother with an umbrella as you found in the afternoon, some people thought it was perfectly acceptable to invade your space and join you under your umbrella (spanish people) There are plenty of palm trees on the beach which provide you with as good shade. You do get lots of looky looky men on the beach selling the usual jewellery, hats, paintings etc. but they are not overly pushy and will generally accept a polite no thank-you, there is no need to be rude! The other sellers are the guys from the watersports centre selling trips, banana boats, parasailing etc. who are totally trustworthy and polite. The Kayaks/Windsurfing/Pedlo's are free on the beach for as long as you like.

POOLS

We found the pools at the Punta Cana/Palace Resort alot better than the Bavaro as this was very crowded & got loud around 4pm when the enteraintment team played very loud music for games etc. The Palace pool has a restaurant that provided a lunchtime buffett.

FOOD

We found the food superb at this hotel - Catherdral restaurant is buffett breakfast (so much to choose from) cooked fresh in front of you - omlettes/pancakes/waffles & the usual fried breakfast/pastries/cakes/fruit/cereals/yoghurts/smoothies etc.
This restaurant also does evening meal buffett which is a different theme each night, Spanish/Mexican/Oriental/Dominican/Italian/American.
There are 6 Al a carte restaurants which you didn,t have to book, and you could use as many times as you wanted, they have a Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Dominican & Sea food, we only tried the Mexican/Japanese/Italian which are all fantastic.
At lunchtime The Arricife restaurant next to beach does a superb buffett. There is also a 24 hour air conditioned sports bar which provides Pizza/Burgers/ Fries/Nachos/Hotdogs/Popcorn/Ice-cream/Soft Drinks & Alcoholic drinks. There is also a pool table & table football for free use.

TRIPS

There are plenty of trips to do - the one I especially recommend is the Monster Truck Safari which we booded through our tour operator (Thompson) at the hotel. This trip you get to see the poverty of the country/a look at a typical dominican house and the way they live, this trip includes a meal, lots & lots of rum/beer or soft drinks, while bumping around on a gigantic 8 wheel drive, many thanks to our tour guide (Joselito) who was great fun & spoke amazing English.
We did another trip to Dolphin Island, where you get to swim with Dolphins/Sharks & Stingrays, this we booked through the hotel.