This was the first time I have travelled to the caribbean and I found this resort to be amazing! The food was great and the staff couldn't do enough for you.

We absolutely loved our stay except for one major problem - SUNBEDS!!! We walked down the beach at 7.30 am and couldn't find any free sunbeds as they'd already been reserved with towels. This also applied to the the pool. We could only find sunbeds in the blazing sun but the sunbeds in the shade were often reserved with towels and then not used all day! Where were these people???? This was frustrating for everyone around the pool and when we finally did get sunbeds in the shade somebody actually removed our towels and bags to steal our shaded sunbeds while we were eating lunch beside the pool! Very annoying!

For this reason we would not return to this resort. So unless you're ready to get up at 5am every day then you'll have the same problem finding sunbeds in the shade.

This is the only problem we had with this resort, everything else was completely 5*.

April 18-25th

Arrival-We arrived at the resort about 10pm and being the only ones on our flight arriving at this resort we were quickly checked in and taken to our room, the porter was very good at showing us were the mini bar & safe were and answering any questions we may of had.

Room- It was very musty upon entering and seemed to be that way for most of the week as you had to remove the card when you left the room which turned off the air conditioning....I don't like it cold cold in the room but I like the air circulating which helps with the mustiness. We had two 3/4 beds, the one was ok but the other had springs sticking thru and very uncomfortable, the pillows were manageable, the sofa in the room was like sinking into a black hole. A very nice roomy bathroom & plenty of mirrors which you don't always find. I was disappointed by the lack of towel art & fresh flowers in the room and I did tip everyday. I started out with $3/day but after a couple of days dropped it down to $2 as other than the beds made & fresh towels nothing else was really done.....the bathroom vaniety I don't think was cleaned the whole time I was there and the floors were barely swept. After the first night and hubby drinking the 2 beers in the fridge we left $2 in an empty bottle in fridge and received 2 more but hubby was able to chase him down along the path and get a couple of more for another couple of dollars, 2 days later we left another $2 in fridge and they took the money but did not restock the fridge.

Food- We ate at all the ala cartes except for the chinese, I would not of bothered returning to the Italian but the Dominican, Mexican & American were all worthy of another visit if we had of been there longer, there was only 1 night we had to wait for seating in the alacartes and ironically it was the Italian which we enjoyed the least. Hubby really enjoyed the grilled Lobster and is definately worth the few extra dollars.
The buffets both at lunch, supper & breakfast provided enough variety that you never had to go hungry but admittably most of the meat seems to taste like fish and I don't know if its the way its prepared or if they use an oil maybe that has a fishy taste to it.

Beach-Well you can experience these beautiful white sands if you are an extremely early riser...I woke one morning and was on the beach by 7am to play the towel game to get some loungers under a cabana and was out of luck. These people must go right from the disco to the beach to save their chairs...for me I am on vacation and having to get up before sunrise to save a chair on the beach is not worth it. One afternoon we were fortunate enough to get a couple of chairs back a little bit and could get enough shade by a couple of palms but this was the only day out of 7 days that we used the beach (and we are usually beach over pool people).

Pools- There are plenty of pools and we were always able to find loungers, we could never find cabana's but we were always able to find some shade under the palms. The pools are kept sort of clean....first thing in the morning they are spotless but as the day progresses and flowers or leaf's fall into the pool they never seemed to be skimmed and removed (very unusual to other places we have been). The swim up bar staff certainly looked after us well and seemed to be the only staff anxious to do their jobs.

Animation team- We didn't go to many nightly entertainment shows but what we did see certainly didn't leave a lasting impression....we much preferred to sit in the lobby bar and listen to the entertainment as it was much better than what we seen of the animation team, as well we did not find them overly active in the daytime and anxious to get people involved.

Service- When in the Dominican do as the Dominican's do and take it all on slowwww time. If in a hurry for a drink don't sit and wait to be served. For the size of this resort they certainly do not believe in a large staff and when you only have 3 people working the floor why would you have 4 bartenders??? Of the 4 times we visited Hemmingways for an after dinner cocktail twice we got up and left due to the fact that we had no service...they had 2 waitress's, 1 for inside(which has about 10 tables) and 1 for outside (which has about 14 tables) and the one night we did get served of 4 orders she had 1 right LOL. The alaracartes as well have a relaxed service atmosphere but it was ok as we wanted to enjoy our meal and not feel rushed.

Overall I would return to this resort if I got a steal of a deal but I think there is lots more resorts out there deserving of the dollars it cost us to visit this resort.

We just returned from a week at the Grand Palladium Bavaro Resort and Spa. April 20 to April 27 2008. It was a great Vacation!!! It was my first trip south and All inclusive, so I have nothing to compare it to. It was a little confusing the first morning, but by day 2 knew where everything was. It seems a lot bigger at first, but once you get familiar it really isnt that big. We stayed right it the middle of the resort, villa 72 (Rm #7219)so maybe that is why it was so easy to get around. We walked everywhere, not very far from anywhere really. The room was really nice, king bed, Jacuzzi tub right it the room. Very clean . I thought I would have a hard time with the food because im very picky, but I always found something. I loved the pizza, the Al la carts that we went to were very good. Men have to have closed toe shoes and long pants. The beach is truely amazing, very beautiful. The pool was fun and clean. We were a group of 10 that went, 2 other couples booked in the punta Cana section, but were staying basically a few steps from our villa. I dont know where the line is between the 2 resorts because I would have said we were at the same resort. According to their map we were in the Punta Cana section. (villa 72) Its basically all the same anyway. We went on the full day Bavaro Runner excursion, It was a lot of fun. Mimi was our tour guide, very funny. I would recommend this excursion. The service was slow by times (at the bars) depending on where you went. No matter what worker walked by they were always saying ohla. Most of the tourist are not very friendly . We met a lot of Canadains you know who they are because you here english, its nice hearing English because 90% are spanish speaking tourist. Some of the workers speak a little English, I know nothing in spanish excet Hello and thank you and got by without any problem :) I would recommend this resort definaly. The beds were too firm so us, but we have a soft bed at home, was hard to get use to, I did get 3 extra pillows too because they were to flat.

This was our first trip to Punta Cana & it was an awesome vacation. The Grand Palladium Bavaro Resort was great. We stayed from March 20th to April 3rd Spring Break of 2008. The beach was paradise. Just warning everybody that there are a lot of topless women at the beach/pool. The food was good especially the seafood & japenese a la carte. One thing you should know is to get chairs early in the morning if you want a spot. The disco was awesome & a great way to meet new people. Everything was fine up until my last night when someone stole my camera.. it was horrible. If anyone knows anything about my lost camera please email surfer_babii@hotmail.com, it was a silver nikon coolpix camera & on the side it was a bit damaged from being dropped. All i want is the pictures! Other than that, the resort was very nice.