Journey to the Caribbean

Written: 10 january 2013
Travel time: 26 december 2012 — 7 january 2013
Who does the author recommend the hotel to?: For a relaxing holiday; For families with children
Your rating of this hotel:
7.0
from 10
Hotel ratings by criteria:
Rooms: 7.0
Service: 6.0
Cleanliness: 8.0
Food: 6.0
Amenities: 8.0
Dedicated to all those who want to know the whole truth and the freshest first-hand impressions about the IberostarBavaro 5 * hotel ...I just returned with my wife from the Dominican Republic, we rested there from 26.12. 2012 to 6.01. 13. The hotel was chosen for a long time, in the end we settled on IberostarBavaro, the reviews were very flattering and the rating of the hotel turned out to be very high. Unfortunately, expectations were not fully met. It all started in Domodedovo. "Beloved" Transaero delayed the flight by almost 4 hours, and all this time we were sitting on the plane! ! ! As a result, instead of 11.5 hours of flight, we spent 15 hours in a Boeing! ! ! Our seats were in the middle of the cabin, out of 4 toilets, 2 were clogged and were closed while still on the ground, as a result, the queue for the remaining 2 did not dry out until Punta Cana itself. Because of the delay, we landed in the evening, and we wanted to have time to swim on the first day!
At the airport, we faced another problem - they forgot a fountain pen in the cabin, as a result, we lost 40 minutes at the border control to fill out an entry ticket, we could not get or buy a fountain pen anywhere, as we did not ask! Finally, after all the ordeals, we met with a representative of our Biblio Globus travel agency, from whom we were horrified to learn that the road to the hotel by bus would take 2-2.5 hours, because our hotel is the farthest and they will bring us the latest. As a result, we refused the bus and decided to go by taxi. The cost of the trip was $ 38, but after 40 minutes we were at the reception, where we were given the keys to the room and cards for beach towels, which were issued and exchanged for clean ones from 8-00 to 18-00 near the pool.


Now about the hotel itself. A huge area with three five-star hotels: IBEROSTARPUNTACANA, IBEROSTARDOMINICANA and our IBEROSTARBAVARO.
In the first two accommodation in 5-storey buildings, and in our hotel in separate 2-storey cottages, 4 rooms on each floor. There are about 60 such cottages in total. The contingent is mainly Americans, Canadians, Spaniards and Germans. Before the New Year, there were very few Russians, after January 2, our brother became much more numerous. Throughout the common territory, you can move on small electric cars, for just a dollar you will be taken with the breeze to any place in the territory. The residents of our hotel have the right to visit any bar and restaurant of all three hotels. The beach is also shared, separated only visually by flags. Close to our hotel is a premium class hotel IBEROSTARGRANDBAVARO 5*+. There is no fence between the hotels, but they are no longer allowed to enter the territory or the beach. If, WARNING!
, our hotel can be safely called as a FAMILY hotel, intended primarily for families with children, as well as tourists over 40 and the disabled, then the GRANDBAVARO hotel is only for adults, there are no children there, the age limit is +18, there is a casino on its territory. We got room 2367. This is the first line of cottages - 5 meters from the beach, from the window there is a side view of the sea. Two steps away is a swimming pool (rather shallow) with a bar and a fountain, a children's pool with slides nearby, 2 bars next to the pool, a restaurant-dining room (only breakfast and lunch, dinner only on the ala carte system, early booking), so I had to go to dinner in the main the restaurant is next to the reception, it's a 10-15 minute walk from us. People occupied places by the pool from the very morning, hanging towels on sunbeds, so after breakfast there were no empty seats. But we didn’t even try, flying 12 hours to the Caribbean and splashing in the pool is, in my opinion, a perversion!
The room itself is not bad in general, it can be seen that there has recently been a facelift, and although the furniture and plumbing are a bit old, everything works properly. There is a closet in the corridor, inside there are a lot of hangers and shelves, a free safe, an iron, 2 clearly washed bathrobes, an ironing board and 2 large umbrellas. The bathroom has a bath, shower, hair dryer, a large mirror over the sink, which wobbled suspiciously. And, finally, the main thing that surprised me was the absence of an air freshener, shaving accessories and ...a toilet brush. Also, there are NO slippers in the room, so do not forget to take a razor from home with you. What pleased me was the bed - it's just HUGE! There is also a coffee maker, coffee and tea bags, a free minibar with beer (3 cans) and soft drinks, 32 LCD TV (50 local channels and ORT in Russian), a spacious loggia with upholstered furniture. Questions about cleaning.

The bartender appeared first at 10 am, restocking the minibar, but the room itself came to be cleaned only at about four o'clock in the evening! And two hours later they came to change towels, make the bed and leave a couple of chocolates with good night wishes. Very inconvenient cleaning schedule, agree! And I’m generally silent about chocolates, I opened it once, inside there was clearly expired chocolate with a white coating. But tips were regularly left for a dollar, two.

Now about the Internet - gentlemen, in my opinion this is a robbery! Wi-Fi is paid, 1 hour - $ 7.2 hours - $ 10, a day - $ 13, and the quality of communication leaves much to be desired, catches only in the area of ​ ​ ​ ​ the lobby bar and reception. There is no connection in the room and on the beach! We bought, where to go? But for a hotel of this level, tearing three skins for such an Internet - let it remain on their conscience.

The food was the most frustrating thing.
The premises of the main restaurant are huge, there are always free tables, but the buffet itself is located in a small hall, there were a lot of people there, there was a crush and queues. A large number of pastries, freshly squeezed juices Good wine is served for dinner and lunch, very fragrant coffee for breakfast. Sea food lovers are unlikely to enjoy the rather meager selection of shells. For 12 days, four times they spoiled large shrimp, a couple of times there were lobsters fried on fire to the utmost (who cooks lobsters like that? ? ? ). There were also semi-finished fish products and that's it ...All kinds of meat, but you can only chew chicken, pork and lamb. Beef is cooked in front of you, but it always turns out NOT fried and tough, you can leave your teeth in it.

They say that they cook it especially for the Americans, who are the vast majority here, and who behave like ours in Turkey, constantly sour, yell, Tagil, in a word, there are 80 percent of them here, they love meat with blood. There are also queues for pizza and pasta, a lot of salads, but they have a rather peculiar taste, in general everything is very bland and tasteless. And the menu itself can not be called diverse. Of the fruits, I liked pineapples, grapes and melons, but watermelons, although red, are not sweet. All other fruits are optional. So, in terms of variety and quality of cooking, Turkish RIXOS is an order of magnitude cooler! But of course you won't go hungry. The main attraction of the local restaurant, of course, are pink flamingos and herons, which you can treat right from the comfort of the tables. And tame peacocks constantly live near the lobby bar, they love cookies very much, they eat right from their hands.

Now about the most pleasant - it's the sea and the beach.
The sand is the most delicate, almost perfectly white, it does not heat up at all in the sun, the same smooth sandy bottom is pleasant to the touch. The water in the sea is unrealistically warm, quite clean, although on the 4th day of our stay a rather strong wind rose from the sea, waves rose, and algae began to nail to the shore from the bottom, but not everywhere, it was easy to find a clean entry into the sea. And jumping on the waves was even cool. From the sandy spit, on which the waves rolled, it was impossible to take your eyes off at all - beauty! Be sure to take sunscreen, with a breeze in the sun, you will burn unnoticed.

The animation is generally pretty good. Every evening different entertainment shows, first for children, then for adults. Animators walk around the territory all day long, organize all sorts of competitions, and in the evening the winners are awarded, very similar to the distribution of Oscars, there are many jokes and jokes, but, of course, in English and Spanish.

About souvenirs.
From the Dominican Republic, they mainly bring coffee (the aroma is unsurpassed), cocoa, local cheaper and expensive Cuban cigars, the local MAMA JUANA tincture (very tasty, ancient recipe, from all ailments) and of course RUM! I have never tasted such delicious rum in my life, it is a local relic, like lard for crests. All this can be bought in souvenir shops on site, here you are insured against fakes, here you will be issued checks. Perhaps you should not buy only small souvenirs in the store. Very expensive! The cheapest magnet costs from $4 to $7, and clothes are also expensive. For all this, go to the local market, which is located on the beach on the right side of our hotel, just behind GRANDBAVARO. You will see, there are such sheds, we called it “minicherkizon”. There, among the tents along the coast, find a collapse with an inscription in Russian “GLORY TO GOD, YOU CAME! ".

Dominican Seryozha trades here, he speaks excellent Russian, he gives everything to try, everything is cheaper with him than in a store, you can safely bargain. The same magnets for $2.5, rum and cigars are also cheaper, but no one is responsible for the quality and no one will give you checks, so decide for yourself! We personally bought rum with liquor from Seryozha in the room for New Year's Eve, and bought it at the store for home. All drinks and cocktails in the hotel bars are rum based. We liked CUBA LIBRE (rum with cola and ice), COCO LOCO (rum with coconut milk and all sorts of additives), DAIKIRI (rum with lemon, lime, tonic, whipped ice), and of course MAHITO!! ! local beer - SUCKS! Even our 3rd Baltika is even better!

And finally, about the most unpleasant. These are excursions. The main disadvantage is the price. The second is the very organization of these excursions. I'll tell you on the example of an excursion to the island of Saona. Gentlemen, this is a real divorce in Russian.
This voyage to the so-called uninhabited island costs $350. What it includes is a visit to the ancient church where Michael Jackson married his daughter Prestley, then a boat ride to the bay with starfish, then we sail to the border of the Caribbean and the Atlantic, after lunch with a lobster on a small island, and finally a visit to Saona Island with the promised blue sand, pristine beach where the Bounty commercial was filmed. On December 30, at 6.30 am, we set off from the hotel by bus and collected our tourists from the nearest hotels for an hour and a half. There was a group of 19 people in total. Then another 2 hours to the same church. In general, the place is really beautiful, there is a famous amphitheater, several old buildings, shops and cafes. We took a picture for about 45 minutes and down a very steep stone staircase to our boat.
By the way, we also got the cap, he squeezed everything that she was capable of out of the boat, he tried to overtake everyone, the poor vessel was thrown on the waves with hellish force, we all beat off our asses, the boat itself was open, there was no shelter from sun, wind and spray. Thank God, after about an hour we arrived at the starfish. But at that moment there were so many boats with tourists in the bay that we were dropped off somewhere on the side, where there was no smell of any stars. After searching unsuccessfully near the boat, I myself went to other boats, found a couple of stars there, dragged them to our boat myself, where everyone began to take pictures with them. What if I didn't go there? True, I was most struck by the water in this place, I have never seen such clear sea water! ! !

Further, from a distance of about a kilometer, we were shown the confluence of two water elements - the Caribbean Sea (azure) and the Atlantic Ocean (dark blue, almost black), then to the island, where a small buffet awaited us with huge delicious lobsters cooked in contrast from the hotel in accordance with all the rules (one per brother) and champagne, which, for some reason, they reluctantly poured into very small glasses for us.
And finally, we sail to the long-awaited island of Saona ...Seeing the coast of this island, our jaws dropped - instead of an uninhabited island with a wild beach and blue sand, we saw crowds of tourists, a huge number of boats, dirty yellow sand interspersed with shells, everywhere rubbish, cups, watermelon peels, knee-deep water in the toilets, clogged sinks, instead of the promised shower - a hose with cold water nailed to a palm tree, scattered building materials and food leftovers a little further inland! ! ! Fine? Plus, the weather turned bad, clouds came up, the time to stay on the island was strictly limited, and an hour later we were already moving back, and another regular boat with ours immediately moored in our place. In general, they put everything there on a terrible conveyor to collect money, while stories about the beauty of Saona remained only in brochures! As soon as we sailed, a tropical downpour covered us, because.
the boat was open, and the speed was outrageous, we were all wet and cold through and through! Again, we were the last to get to the hotel, it was already dark, if it were not for the local rum, we would probably have caught a cold. As a result, after conferring with my wife, we unanimously abandoned all other excursions, deciding to devote ourselves entirely to a beach holiday at the hotel. Gorgeous beach and warm azure sea, what could be better?




Bottom line - in January, you can hardly find better beaches and a warmer sea than in the Caribbean, the best service is in Indonesia, food is in Turkey. If you are under 30, you are without children - this hotel is NOT FOR YOU! You are better off at GRANDBAVARO. As for the flight - it's better to take a business trip, or a regular flight through Paris - more expensive, but more comfortable. The overall rating of the hotel is a solid four! It is definitely worth flying to the Dominican Republic, you just need to be very careful when choosing a hotel! Sorry for the long story, I tried to be as objective and impartial as possible.
Ask questions. I will answer with pleasure. Alexander
Translated automatically from Russian. View original