November 17, 2003
My husband and I stayed at the Iberostar Dominicana from 11/8-11/15.
This was our first all inclusive vacation, so we have absolutely nothing to compare it to.
We thought the hotel was amazingly beautiful, the ocean was awesome and the excursion to Santo Domingo was simply breath taking. If you get a chance to go to the city to see the Cathedral--it's worth every penny!!
We went to the Disco a couple of times and had a lot of fun--we were with a group however and I can see that if you were alone you might feel uncomfortable. Don't expect that they are going to play American music all night--a
lot of European and Salsas.
If you're going for the drinking--WOW you're in for a real treat!! You can drink from sun up to sun down--It's all inclusive 24/7!!
We did get tired of the food, but one thing to keep in mind is the first thing that we saw coming into Punta Cana--right down the drive way of our Hotel was a SYSCO semi. Now I know that SYSCO is headquartered in our
neighboring town, so a lot of the food that us Americans are complaining about could just be from America! The meats are preserved with salt--it was quite the site to see when we went to Santo Domingo and the water even
bottled is softened with salt. I was quite bloated from all of the sodium for the first couple of days but when I got used to it the retention went down. I ended up coming home needing
Imodium, but it's probably not because of a bacteria or bug--it's probably all of the salt I ingested mixed with all of the alcohol!!
We took Travelers Checks and should have just taken Cash--there was absolutely no reason to fear any of the staff or locals robbing you.
Our Apple tour guide made a good point--If we went back home and told our friends that we were robbed in the D.R. they are going to tell all of their friends and then the locals that are making a mere $148/month
(or less) are going to start making even less because tourism is their top revenue. Our Tour guide told us he was more likely to be robbed than one of us, and I totally felt safe when we were in the City and at the Resort.
If there was ever a question of cleanliness in our room it was taken care of immediately without any questions asked. There is maid service on the grounds for at least 18hrs. a day--their lights to the maids quarters were on 24hrs a day.
The specialty restaurants were O.K. but try going to them early in the week otherwise you'll be disappointed no matter what. By the end of the week you just want to eat something
familiar and most likely nothing is going to be excellent unless it's a grilled hamburger or fresh chicken like at home. The Mexican
Restraints was our favorite, but the staff was very rude in that particular
restaurant. Everywhere else the staff was very pleasant!!
If you are planning your vacation and have not yet set the dates plan around the full moon!! The tide is high closest to the full moon--we got there the day before full moon and there were several days when we were not allowed to kayak and the snorkeling wasn't good. But the day we left the tide was down and people were telling us how great the snorkeling was. The staff did refund us for our snorkeling excursion that was a $20 deal about a half of an hour off the shore of Iberostar Dominicana.
The pool was clean and relaxing!! We played water polo and at times found our selves lost in time just sun bathing next to the pool. We got great color in a week--and it was over cast almost everyday with rain briefly but the sun always came out!!
I have to say that I will never forget our first all inclusive vacation and I'm glad that our party chose Iberostar Dominicana!! We are considering to take our children with us next time--it
definitely had family oriented qualities.
More
Iberostar Resort Photos and Reviews
Tucan
| Paraiso
Del Mar | Paraiso
Lindo | Cozumel
| Hacienda
Dominicus | Costa
Dorada | Bavaro
| Dominicana
Destination
LINKS
Resorts
by COMPANY
|
|