Royalton Bavaro

The hotel is beautiful. The staff are friendly, for the most part. The food is good in 4 of the restaurants. But there is nowhere, except paying for spa services, to get away from the noise. Constant booming music at the pool area which is not far from the beach. Sometimes two different sound systems competing for attention. Every afternoon there is some kind of “let’s get this party started” activity at ear-piercing volume. If your room faces the pool area (for more $) you are doomed and can’t get away from it. Our first room did not face the pool area but had an adjoining room. First few nights were fine until loud neighbors arrived. We could hear every word and loud music which meant we had to pack up and change rooms. The Rio Brazilian Grill and Hunter Steakhouse were the two best restaurants with Rio being the better of the two. I don’t eat pork or beef but still found better options at these two than at the others. Grazie Italian was pretty good for pizza. Bon Marche has a great buffet breakfast with something for everyone. Oceanside was terrible as was Zen, the teppanyaki place. Another insanely loud place with all the waiters making some kind of bizarre chant of “Yeah Baby. Woot woot” while the chefs clang their spatulas and knives. Awful grizzly sushi. We really enjoyed the lazy river. Always found floats. A bit away from the main noise. The beach had tons of kelp at water’s edge. Once past it, the water was lovely and warm but a stroll along the water is impossible. The beach chairs in the non-Diamond Club area are jammed together. Again, you can’t help but overhear other people’s conversations, music, etc. I don’t really know what else you get for the Diamond Club fees but being farther away from the masses and noise would have been reason enough to pay for it. Some of the things I thought were included were not. There is a kids water park but the one for adults is not onsite and costs $35 pp. The surfing wave simulator is $150 for 30 minutes. Every building has a “concierge” whose only purpose, as far as I can tell, is to lure you into having a 90 minute long sales pitch to become a Royalton regular. Ours said it was 20 minutes and that I would get $100 spa credit. Only to find out it was 90. I left after 20 and still got the credit. Annoying though to be misled about the time. The only other time I asked the concierge for something it didn’t happen. The rooms are large and lovely. Very cool modern design. Nice beds. Kept very clean. All with jacuzzi tubs. Large two person walk-in showers and balconies. Mini-bar well-stocked with canned beer and soda and individual, sealed water bottles. There are no movies in the rooms. Only regular TV. Not even an option to buy something and no on-demand. You just have to watch whatever is on at whatever point it happens to be at. With all the media surrounding the deaths in Punta Cana we purchased our own liquor at the airport but didn’t really use it. Mostly bought bottles of wine or had beer at dinner. However, there were tons of people drinking from the bars with no issues. We did two excursions booked by the tour agency Nexus, which is located in the resort. Snorkel and snuba. I will review these separately. On Saturday the hotel allows vendors selling all sorts of things to set up their tables. That would be fine but they are extremely aggressive and try to herd you to their tables. I literally had to hold my hand up and say Stop more than once. Not what I want to deal with on vacation. I had a massage which was also ok. It was supposed to be deep tissue but the woman didn’t speak English so she didn’t understand me asking for more pressure. The spa is gorgeous however and you can use all the facilities when having a service. Steam, sauna and a hydrotherapy pool with jacuzzi. There is a nice little gym and a Coffee/Ice cream place that makes good lattes, espresso etc. I wish I could say we enjoyed it but we will not be coming back to the Dominican Republic. Loud music and the resulting necessity of yelling to each other seems to be the norm, not just at the resort. On the boats. In the transfer vans. Absolutely no escaping it. Caused me to be stressed and pissed off a lot. Not relaxing at all. I hope the resort reads my comments and makes some adjustments.

We Our Very Very Disappointed ☹️ with Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa Dominican Republic We Will Not Be Returning Ever. We went to Hideaway at Royalton Saint Lucia Resort two years ago fantastic 5 all the way no complaints just praise how great it was but not Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa 3 all the way at it’s best. Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa is 100% 3 star but with 5 star $ / £ prices First day on our arrival we went to our room it stank of damp and a mouldy smell. The mini bar in the room was empty on our arrival we had to complain every day to get it filled up its if the hotel was budgeting the beer in the rooms mini bar the hotel wouldn’t fill the mini bar unless we complained. No shower mat we had to use one of our shower towels as a shower mat in case we slipped over coming out of the shower absolute joke we paid nearly £3’000 for one week with nearly empty mini bar every day and no shower mat and a room smelling of damp. Restaurant food mediocre and very bland definitely not 5 star food more like 3 star food. The breakfast buffet the servers never smile very rude and are very very slow when serving you and when getting your tea, coffee, and water unless your are Latin America and speak Spanish then you get a big fat smile and quick service this is what we had observed every day in the buffet breakfast. The head servers who wear the green jackets are very rude to you unless your Latin America and speak Spanish then you will get 5 treatment with a big fat smile if your not Latin you get a fat rude look and 3 star treatment this was our observation at the breakfast buffet. Breakfast buffet one day we asked one of the head waiters in the green jackets and this particular head waiter had a bald head with a big fat rude look on his face we asked for some orange juice no smile and was very rude maybe because we are not Latin America and don’t speak Spanish and are not in the Diamond Club he went off and did nothing just completely ignored our request so we went to get some orange juice in the buffet area there was no orange juice and when I asked the lady behind the counter for some orange juice in a rude reply she said there is no more orange juice and I could clearly see more orange juice right behind her it seem as the hotel is budgeting on certain drinks like beer in the mini bar and orange juice in the buffet breakfast disgusting service we had that day in the buffet breakfast all the servers need better customer service training that’s for sure and to treat all there hotel customers with the same so called 5 customer service no matter what your nationality is. Hotel vendors twice a week trying to sell stuff around the pool area’s they are a complete pain in the ass hassling ever body you can’t avoid them they are positioned so you can’t get away from them and as I have read from a reviewers reply from the hotel management is that it is the Dominican Republic culture to hassle hotel customer. But it is also paying customer culture to have a relaxing hassle free holiday and not to be pestered by hotel vendors these hotel vendors should be on the beach with information in customers hotel rooms on these hotel vendors being on the beach on certain days if you want to go and take a look and buy and not around the pool area’s hassling hotel customers you won’t get any of these hassling hotel vendors in the Hideaway at Royalton Saint Lucia Resort so if you want a hassle free holiday don’t come to Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa Dominican Republic. I Recommend you not to come here unless you like being hassled by the hotel vendors and being budgeted on by the hotel management i.e mini bar not filled daily and being limited daily on orange juice in breakfast buffet and the hotels rude servers unless your Latin America. Ocean front restaurant in the evening advertises lobster but it is never on it is substituted with prawns another hotel cut back to save on expenses and how I know this is true is that it has been complained about on other reviewers complaints so if the restaurant isn’t going to have lobster then please remove it from the menu it’s so simple. We went to the Zen restaurant with some friends the waitress was very unfriendly with no smile when taking us to our table. When serving us I observed her behind my wife talking about us to other servers then I saw all three of them looking at us talking at the same time and then all laughing about us for some reason we couldn’t understand the joke it was the first time we saw any waiters and waitress with a smile on their face’s so it proves they can smile but only to make fun of you between themselves the hotel servers are so rude and unprofessional what five star hotel restaurant would allow three servers to stand right behind their customers and talk about their customer behind their customer backs and laugh about their customers me and my party all observed this and was disgusted by it maybe its because we are not Latin America and cannot understand Spanish so can be made fun off by the hotel servers behind our backs. The waiters and waitress are in our opinion inexperienced and amateurs at Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa unlike the waiters and waitress at the Hideaway at Royalton Saint Lucia Resort their a different class of waiters and waitress they are all very perlite, they all smile all the time and are very professionals at their jobs it’s there culture in Saint Lucia unlike the culture at Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa Dominican Republic were their culture is not to be perlite or smile only if your Latin America or if their selling you something that’s their culture as we see it Dominican Republic. It looks like this hotel has had a cost cutting management team in to tell them where to cut corners and savings on hotel expenses. Our experience of this so called 5 Star hotel but in our opinion 3 and half at best. Only good points lazy river and pools, and the beach would be good if it wasn’t full of seaweed all this for nearly £3’000 for one week we fill like we have been rip right off by Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa Dominican Republic. We 100% recommended anyone reading this to go to Hideaway at Royalton Saint Lucia Resort it is truly a fantastic 5 hotel two years ago so don’t waste your money at the Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa Dominican Republic your be disappointed and we can’t believe the different between the two hotels as they are both Royalton Resorts it’s unbelievable.

We had a great time. You can do as little or as much as you want. People are very friendly here. Dc is the way to go... lots of amenities. You really only need the Butler for dinner reservations or any questions you may have. We had Michael . We researched before we came! Beach does have a lot of seaweed. You can visit other royalton resort, which you can walk to from the beach and they have a small waterpark for kids. It’s free if you are DC. Many restaurants to choose from. Food was ok. Hunter and zen were the best for us. Grounds were kept clean. We felt very safe here and would try other Royalton resorts at another destination. Monkeyland is a must. Just didn’t like how long the drive was and told us 30 minutes, which was not true. More pros than cons at this resort. I just wish the beach was better!