I go to the islands once or twice a year so I have stayed at a number of all inclusives. The Occidental Grand Flamenco in Puerta Plata would have to rank as one of the worst I have stayed in. For the first 4 days the food was awful. I mean who ever heard of burnt pasta? As for burgers , MacDonalds taste like filet mignon in comparison to what was served at lunch, and since when were hotdogs a breakfast food?. I will say that for the last 3 days of the vacation they seemed to get the message and the food improved greatly.
I had a "deluxe" room but again I think their deluxe would be equal to a standard room with no view at any other hotel. Definitely would not pay extra for the deluxe. 2 of the hotels pools were put out of commission during the trip as in midweek they decided to renovate them. The beach in nice and the water fine for swimming, although you will be bothered all day long by "authorized vendors" trying to sell you local handicrafts (junk).
The guests were an interesting mix of Russian mafia (complete with body guards, no kidding), Brits, Germans, and a few Canadians and Americans. I definitely will not be returning to holiday here but you can make up your mind for yourself.

Just wanted to give people a quick review of this place during our vacation.The grounds were kept okay not alot of flowering shrubs.The smell of sewer crossing over some stagnet water on the only walkway leading to the beach was horridness. All I could think of,while holding my breath, was all the things growing in the water below me. The beach was full of debris.Now, I realize that this is a part of natue, but the other resorts,down to the left of beach and around some coves, were able to maintain this problem.We walked 30 minutes each way daily to enjoy the beach and decent water. The staff spoke very little English which made communication almost impossible.The speciality restraunts reservation plan some other type of system.It did not open until 3:00 and you had to be in line by 2:00 to make your reservations.Don't believe them if thet tell you they are booked up at some of the restraunts.Usually there are many tables waiting to be filled.Our room was clean and free from bugs.We did have some issues with our refrigerator.I had made several phone call and the evening of our second night,someone was there to fix the problem.Our wall switch for the T.V. was not on.Surprisingly,the T.V. and the refrigerator were the same line! How silly of us !!!!!!!!!!!!
. HOW SAD!!It had rained one day and heard alot of complaints that there were leaks everywhere in the rooms. We did not experience that. We were in building 11 and was pretty much satisfied with it.
I do believe that the Vacation Express rep. could have been more useful in selection of excursions. We booked the "Monster Truck" because it was supposed to be adventurous and did alot of riding in the water and rough terrain We were very dissappointed.The truck did not full advantage of it's capilities and only crossed 3 streams and drove in the water about 50 feet. The rest of the time was spent over seeing the depression of the country. Too many stops were made to show you how bad they have it. I was thankful that we brought candy, pencils,crayons and pens for the children. I did notice that a father was shoving his child, after they sat down to eat some candy,to ask for money from the people. Very depressing of an excursion. Before you book,ask everyone you see first.They will be your decision maker.If you plan to shop,or even go to Sousa don't book a trip.Check on catching a bus. You will save yourself alot of money.
I hope this has helped you and you have an enjoyable vacation.

I rate this review as average because it is the first trip we have made to carib. We were a part of a group of 6 that were scheduled to go to Cozumel on 22 Oct, 2005. But due to Wilma we were changed at the last moment to Flamenco Beach Resort two days before our departure. That was actually great work by the Allegro Staff. The only problems we encountered were minor ones. Expect to be greeted outside the airport by a host of "porters" who will not take no for an answer. Very irritating to me and they expect a large tip. Expect the same on the way back and it appeared to me that they only moved luggage about 30 feet and expected another large tip ($5.00 American or more). Once at the hotel we were well taken care of. The receptionists were expecting us and everyone was very friendly. Our rooms were OK, remembering that you're not in the US or the UK, and they were clean. We expected a bug and or mosquito problem but had none. The pictures of the hotel in the advertisements are very good indication of what it looked like when we got there. One problem of sorts is that it appeared to us that local Domincans used the hotel from Friday evening til Sunday evening and they bring a lot of children and seem use the hotel as a baby/child sitting service. It wasn't bad but we weren't prepared for the change from relaxing to watch where you step cause you might be stepping on a kid. We took the Catamaran Cruise, which I highly recommend to anyone, We were on the Banana Boat and were well entertained, snorkeled,swam, had more than enough to drink and eat. The water was not as clear as I expected but you could enjoy snorkeling. We also went on the 4-wheeler tour which was a bit of a disappointment because you don't tour much and on the two stops we made we were inundated by locals selling mostly junk who didn't take no very easy. My 4-wheeler broke down and was replaced but all the 4-wheelers were old and not in very good condition. The rest of our stay was made very relaxing and what

Brief background needed first. We had a quick last minute 4th of July trip planned. We were able to book a three night stay at this resort. The trouble started with the TransMeridian Airlines Charter flight from Cincinnati to Sanford/Orlando FL. A 10 hour delay in Orlando. We had a connecting flight there which was due to leave at 11:05 a.m. After numerous lies and no communication from Vacation Express, we finally left the runway at 9:45 p.m. Needless to say, we did not get to our hotel room until 1:15 in the morning. We lost that afternoon and evening. So far no return calls to my messages and no compensation. Since we go in so late, nothing was available as far as activities or dinner reservations. or so we thought. We were in the Royal Club section which. we found out on the last day, had some ammenities that we could have used except for the fact that our Coco Tour guide, Roomy or Romy, would not/did not inform us of this, even though we had the red wrist band which would identify us as Royal Club guests. He told us no activities were available and no dinner reservations were available because of the late arrival. Imagine my surprise, when I went into the Royal Club office and made reservations at 5:30 for 7:00. I suppose since he was not making the reservations he did not get a commision. A very rude, unhelpful person. He told us they would pick us up at our room for departure. After two requests and ten minutes past when the bus was to leave for the airport, we finally hauled our own bags across the pool area to the lobby to board the bus. Check out was okay except for this hotels obession with their pool towels. When you arive at this resort you have to take a piece of paper to the dive shop to get two towel cards. ( we found out that the Royal Club occupants received towels with no such BS.) Each time you went to get towels, you would give them the cards, return the towels and get your cards back. Upon leaving, you could just not give the front desk your cards. I had to literally run back to the dive shop, wait in line while other people were inquiring on dives etc. (Remember the bus is waiting all the while.) Get a green slip of paper which they could not find because they had the wrong room number on it, run back to the front desk and give her the green slip, releasing us from the towel contract and finally get to board our bus to get the --- out of there. The towels did not have gold leaf in them or even the hotels name, they were old and faded. I cannot imagine why the towels are such a big deal there. Othe resorts you just get towels and then put them into a laundry basket when your finished. Pretty simple. Entertinment nightly was poor. The last night we were there, they had men from the audience dressed as jungle men, squatting in the corner of the stage simulating going to the bathroom while the emcee made flatulence noises, they then picked up a small man dressed as a woman, ran across the stage and simulated kissing her and was more like simulating ---. Maybe once was funny but five times?? Benny Hill type humor. We left. A lot of small kids in the audience. How about nightly childrens pagents? Lame. Food was average for an all inclusive. I only have Turks and Caicos to compare to an all inclusive. This did not even come close. The people in general at this resort speak only Spanish and don't really understand much else. I would never go back to the Dominican Republic, this resort or any other there. I will never fly Trans Merdian as well. Very stressful for two days.