My wife and I have just returned from a great stay at SivOry Punta Cana. I can only tell you we found any negative review of this property to be mostly unfounded. Yes, to achive the privacy & seclusion SivOry strives for, it is located at the end of an unpaved road. However, I have been on worse roads in the Carribean. The reception area, the rooms and the grounds are lovely and well maintained. Our suite was well designed and quite comfortable (the AC works great). While it 's a somewhat small pool, it's a small hotel. The pool area like every other area of the hotel is beautiful and well maintained. The staff was friendly and attentive. The food was great- some of the best we've had in the Carribean. The hotel is purposely remote and quiet. That was fine with us. It gave us the opportunity we wanted to enjoy the beach and the water and to relax & recharge our batteries.

We would reccommend this hotel without reservation to any one looking for a quiet, romantic hideaway. I will concede that the hotel could a better job of policing the beach. One word of caution-there's bug spray provided in your suite, use it. The no-seeums are ferocious. A small price to pay for a wonderful stay.

Where do I start? We just returned from the resort yesterday and couldn't wait to write this review. We chose this resort largely because of it's seclusion and was looking for rest and relaxation. I'll break this review down into categories
Location - the resort is the last of all the resorts in northern most part of the Punta Cana strip. It is approximately an hour and a half from Punta Cana airport. Traveling by car is very uncomfortable given the poor conditions of the roads - pot holes, rough roads. I would recommend the helicopter flight to the resort, but this service is very unreliable given its tardiness.
Excursions are a distance away, but i'm guessing that's the point for this resort as i'm thinking seclusion is the idea.
Food - I have to agree with one of the reviewers in that the food is very dormitory. There are three restaurants with all the food being nearly the same. The asian theme restaurant serves nothing remotely resembling asian cuisine. You'd be lucky if you got exactly what you ordered. A hint to the hotel management - 90% of your clientele is english speaking. It would be a good idea to hire english speaking servers.
Spa - $400 for two facials!?!?!
Mosquitos - need I say more? Spraying the ground would be a good idea. We stayed at Tides Riviera Maya last fall. Set in the jungle and not a single mosquito bite. A day at Sivory - 28 bites on one foot. The leg is another story. Consider purchasing insect repellant.
Rooms - Very contemporary. Well appointed. Would not recommend staying in the lower rooms as the people upstairs have full view of what you are doing in the plunge pool. Ocean view is hardly a view of the ocean since palm trees obstruct most of the view. Hot water needed adjusting.
Service - what service? No one checks on you while you are at the pool or laying on the beach. Takes longer than usual to get room service. 24 hour room service lags after 9pm.
Scenery - as usual for a tropical resort. The resort does nothing to enhance the scenery. Infiniti pool is dirty. Not refreshing. Unusually warm.
Overall the resort is a far cry from the four diamond award they have hanging at the concierge desk.

Our problems started at the airport. Our luggage did not arrive for over 24 hours. We unfortunately did not pack any extra clothes or toiletries in our carry on, which was our mistake. The taxi service offered to take us to somewhere to buy a few items. We arrived at a typical tourist shopping area, which was closed. The store owners opened the stores for us. We then were sold a couple of T-shirts that were at least 3x what I would have expected to pay. The taxi driver was then given a kickback from the store owners. The whole situation made us uncomfortable, but we felt obligated to purchase the items and in no position to negotiate. We then continued on the road to the hotel. The earlier reviews discuss the conditions of the roads. The roads are not marked and would be difficult to manage in a rental car. The road was reasonable for most of the trip. A short distance leading to Sivory was a bumpy gravel road, but overall tolerable. Once we arrived at Sivory we were welcomed. The staff were very friendly. The hotel was nice. The pictures on the website are very accurate. The beach outside Sivory is beautiful. However, you are cautioned not to walk further north because people can be mugged along that stretch. We had wonderful strolls to the south of the property. There are areas that could use improvement between the semi-groomed hotel properties. There were areas with lots of trash along the beach. You can walk along the beach to other hotels. The Sivory is isolated but not completely. The hotel is very focused on service. . . almost to a fault. Our lost luggage finally arrived. My husband went to retrieve the luggage. The staff told him not to take it and allow them to bring it to the room. Thirty minutes later we still did not have our luggage. That may seem harsh, but we had been without our clothes and toiletries for 36 hours. We were getting desperate. He went back to the lobby and got the luggage, which was just sitting there unattended. We were finally starting our vacation. The pool was very nice. We had a very relaxing time, reading and lounging by the beach and pool. The food was good. It is a bit overpriced but at least good quality. We also had difficulty with checkout charges. We had the European plan. Breakfast was included. We had kept our receipts to track our spending. The final itemized charges were all listed under the same restaurant and with the subtotals. Occasionally, when you did not receive a receipt from the bar or a restaurant. We were not provided with an itemized list until our taxi arrived. We did not have time to go through each one, but I am suspicious that we were overcharged. If you choose to go to this hotel, I recommend obtaining an itemized list from the desk the night before. Also, when you arrive you have to provide a credit card and sign for $500 charge, which I though would be applied to the final bill. Instead, you have to get that credited back. There were a few great things though. They leave coffee, juice, and pastries at you door in the a.m. We had no problems with the wireless internet service. Our hotel room was in great working order. We would not return to the Sivory, but it could be a great place for a romantic vacation, particularly if you can afford the Sivory meal plan ($150/person per day). We did not eat or drink nearly that much. Overall good but challenging experience.

My wife and I stayed at the Sivory Punta Cana in April of 2007 in for our Honeymoon and found it to be an amazing experience. Upon returning this week (April 08') we have experienced much of the same joy. I feel it is important to recognize that we have celebrated both our honeymoon and 1-year anniversary at the Sivory. So as you can imagine we arrived on both occasions in great spirits. The high point of the trip is the room for it has a number of modern ammenities and is quite large compared to what you find in the states. The shower is glorious, the bed comfortable and two couches are available for in-room lounging. The chaise chairs available on the balcony allow for you to listen to the waves and read a book or perhaps use the wireless internet as I am now. The pool is great, however the (2) times I went swimming this week I found myself removing leaves as I swam. Not sure what it was like last year but the pool is very much "under their control" as opposed to others complaints about the beach and choppy waters. The staff is by far the best I have ever experienced and I spend 100+ days a year on the road. My wife would guess that we encountered over (25) staff while spending (7) days in paradise this week and they have all felt like friends and family. We mostly relaxed, played tennis, worked out, and enjoyed Mojitos. All is well and I will attempt to give "constructive criticism" and compliments where necessary.

On both occasions we purchased our package through Luxury LInk which included breakfast, a four course dinner and various spa treatments well below the face value. I will begin by addressing the Spa, the staff is extremely courteous, however as someone mentioned their training and knowledge is on the lighter end of the scale. We received pedicures, manicures, exfoliation treatments and an (1) hour massage during our recent stay and enjoyed them all. However, if I were to pay the face value for any of those treatments I would have been disappointed - mainly because I'm cheap. The reality is many of the services (food, beverages & spa treatments) are not worth the advertised cost - such is life!

The food is the greatest area of concern for if you are staying more than (3) days then you ned to bring your own personal chef. I believe the Chef's are better classified as "Cooks" versus actual Chefs. The food is very average if not disappointing at times. The staff however is so amazing that you give the "Cooks" a pass. The price of the food however is absolutely ridiculous. They force individuals to purchase the meal plan and which ultimately leads to individuals eating (poor food) and drinking (great Mojitos) all day to trying to get their dollar's worth. The breakfast is easily the best meal of the day however, breakfast who can't make eggs, hash browns and sausage. The menus as someone touched on earlier are the same dishes that were on the menu as last year. None of this would be a problem if they didn't bill themselves as serving "art cuisine' and asking entirely too much for "dorm-like" food. Again, the staff is amazing and I suspect that native Chef's of Punta Cana may not know the difference for they have never left their country. Where would they go to be trained? Who would conduct the training? (another native of Punta Cana) To end a long story, the flavors could be much better as the presentation is very art-like however the food is extremely poor and the selection is limited. After (3) days you are out of options as we ate possibly (5) bacon cheeseburgers last year. This year I will add that I asked for Fried Chicken (I'm a southern boy) and French Fries on my birthday and they happily obliged. Today as well we made a request completely off the menu and unique to Texas and they did a great job of re-creating the dish based on our explanation. The moral of the story if you are disenchanted with the selection - offer your own suggestions for they truly due aim to please!

My wife and I truly love the staff and will come back on our (5th year anniversary) simply to re-live our first (2) experiences and see how things are going for it feels like family when you are at the hotel. I am going to miss everyone and hope they are able to maintain their level of service for I foresee many issues arising over the coming years. Hotels are high-maintenance are its remote location and limitations in a country such as the Dominican Republic present challenges. It will continue to deteriorate before I see them upgraded or improving for the hotel is less than (3) years old.

I can't conclude without recognizing the cab ride. The drivers take on the road like no one I have ever seen and I have been to New York over (30) times. My wife and I thought we would die or at least (7) times on in route to the hotel. We only hope our travel back to the airport is less eventful.

Note: Bring as many snacks as possible for a bottle of wine and your favorite snack is the perfect substitute for a meal at any of the three restaurants. If you are traveling to the Sivory Punta Cana have a wonderful time for as you may have noted above we will be back!