Every summer my family and I travel to another country to relax and enjoy our vacations. We have been to the galapagos islands (which is the best place we have ever been), europe, australia and many others. This year we chose Punta Cana, Dominican Republic and let me tell you how BAD our experience was.
First of all the staff is TERRIBLE. They are not polite and hate their job. They hate americans and tourists.
Second, we stayed in the Bavaro Palace which is supposed to be a 5-star hotel. For us, it was like a 2-stars hotel... it looks like a big Econolodge hotel.
Third, the food if TERRIBLE too. Flies are everywhere and even the breakfast cereal tastes like its been out of the box for months.
Fourth, the pool is dirty.
Fifth, The a/c lowest temperature in all rooms is 24 degrees which is HOT for most of the people from other countries.
6) If you decide to drink from the all-inclusive menu you will be soon enjoying your vacations in the restroom.
7) Dont expect to see good looking people there. 90% of the tourists are cubans and mexicans.
8) EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE HERE. DONT BOOK THIS HOTEL IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A 5 STAR HOTEL.

On the flip side, the beach is nice but nothing like australia or the Galapagos... if you are looking for an out-of-this-world experience go for the Galapagos Islands... and stop in guayaquil for a few nights...people are great!

My husband and i went to Barcelo Punta Cana with our 13 year old daugher and quite enjoyed ourselves. I have read the reviews from some people and some things i agree with but others i dont think are justified, especially from the american and canadian people, they seem a bit far too fussy and obviously used to more of a higher standard than the british. Yes there were a few areas that need to be addressed ie food, entertainment, language barrier, but we are in their country not our own, and of course food is not going to be too great,. Whilst we were there we didnt starve, there was plenty too eat, although the main buffett restauraunt wasnt great there were the speciality restauraunts to choose from ie Roma, Tokyo, mexican Mirador and Marlin. On arrival they already have the restauraunts booked for you and you are given the slips on check in, so you dont have to mess around trying to get them booked early in the morning, unless obviously you want to change them. The staff are very nice, helpful, and accomadating and will do their best for you, and work really hard all day and through to the night. Beach is gorgeous, not enough shaded areas, but all the same very beautiful. Pool areas very nice, childrens area with slides, but only for toddlers mainly, but does have lifeguard supervising at all times. The grounds are very nice with lovely shrubbs and palms. Entertainment is not too good, considering they have a large ampitheatre, and very nice it is too, you would think they would have proper acts etc performing on it, but it is the animation team, and sometimes usually miming, so this could be addressed for the future. If you dont like birds, like myself, one or two do fly in the buffett restauraunt, ,steal food and fly off again, but if you sit close the the back they dont tend to bother you. We stayed in one of the renovated rooms and was pleasently suprised very nice with air conditioning, fan and proper shower. There is a hotel shop, but beware as it is very expensive and if you pay in dollers and they dont have change they will give your change back in pesos at a bad rate for exchange. Also get up early in the morning to reserve your sunbed and shade, or you wont get one, as we found out. Locals do come to this hotel for the weekends and it is crazy for the few days in the main buffett restauraunt and around the pool areas(be smart and book yourself the reservation restauraunts at this time to avoid the caios. At the bar areas there is plenty to drink, cocktails, cuba libre, and most of all Baileys and they were not watered down, if anything they were too strong. Tips do help with service, but not all the time, use your judgement. Trips. We done the Monster Truck Safari with Thomson, which i would fully recommend great day and plenty to drink with our guide Horselito, who was good fun. Cost $83 each but well worth it. It is the same price as every other rep in the hotel, so dont think you can get it any cheaper. As for the other trips we did, we booked with the hotel rep by reception and if your cheeky enough like my husband you can do a little bit of bartering re prices. We also did Manatarium, swimming with sharks & stingrays in a enclosure at sea, and also Sanoa Island, full day, travelled to the shallow waters in the sea by speedboat, and swam and drank Rum & coke on the floating bar, then onto the Island, had Lunch, relaxed and danced, then for our Journey home onto a catamaran, for more music dancing and drinking. Do not buy the dvd on this trip we did and luckily enough we had taken our portable dvd player incase of any bad weather, and tried it out when we got back, but it only played a introduction into the carribean for a few minutes and paused, and nothing else happened, husband saw rep, we booked the trip from and with a bit persuasion, he gave a refund for the dvd. Overall this was a great holiday, but it is also up to you to make it that way, afterall we go for the sun, sea, fun.

Punta Cana is one of the most BEAUTIFUL places I have EVER seen. Barcelo is a nice place to stay for the money- and if you mostly just care about being outdoors. I am 22 and my boyfriend and I just went there to celebrate graduation. Our room was REALLY nice, I def. have to give the room 4 stars. The a la carte rest. are for the most part good, esp paris and tokyo. Beware of ITALY - took us FOREVER to get service and the food was YUCK. the buffett just simply SUCKS. so if you think you are going there to pig out think again. BRING A FLY SWAT. because its semi-outdoors and those little creeps are everywhere. So are birds, but they were cute.
The shows are okay. The theatre is cool. Pools are very nice and the AMARETTO SOUR Is the best drink there. THE BRUGAL (RUM) is YUMMMMMM.
BEWARE OF THE CASINO. They hand out little free bingo chips. We lost about 1700 dollars on one game of BINGO. Just save yourself the pain and dont go no matter how bored you are.
Try really hard to get a ocean front room. The side view is not very good.
BRING LOTS OF SUNSCREEN AND BUG SPRAY. Little sand fleas at night are [--] and will make you miserable.
But other than that....o yea...keep your doors closed. Things tend to crawl in.
I would go back here. But I would bring my own food.

We stayed at the Barcelo on the second week of June 08. It was our fifth trip in an all included resorts and second time in DR (other 3 trips in Cuba 4 stars).

ROOMS: First off: don’t go there thinking that you’ll have a gorgeous “renovated” room (bloc 1-2-3) for the same price unless it’s written “update to deluxe room” on your travel voucher. As I found out, they’re taking advantage of the 2 standards made by the fact that they now have half the hotel renovated and half in “real need for it” by asking you to pay an upgrade for the renovated room! Don’t ever try it… they’ve placed, during our stay, an advertisement right on the lobby counter to promote the “deluxe room” for 20 dollars per person per night for ocean and 15 dollars for garden view. The older rooms are “subpar” (you can compare to a very old 3.5 star in Cuba – very bad smell-
sheets with remaining stains and not large enough for the bed…) so you won’t want to stay there unless you came prepared for a 3.5 star. We paid the upgrade and got one of the most gorgeous ocean views possible, sleeping about 100 meters from the water in bloc 3. Be aware of the rooms in the same building as the Alcazar restaurant (buffet), as the entrance to those “upgraded” room in the center part of bloc 3 are on a mezzanine overlooking the buffet! So you’ll end up hearing ocean sounds from one end of the room and dishes sounds and at the other…not to mention cooking smells… not so dreamful… then again, it’s difficult to have a better room, since the other ocean view “deluxe-renovated” rooms were overlooking the pool first, then the beach… so you end up hearing the pool’s water jets and activities around it more than the ocean. The ocean view is gorgeous though.

GROUDS: The hotel surroundings, grounds, beach access and pools are all 5 stars. The building itself is spectacular. Rock climbing wall and trapezes are also nice features. Be careful though with the trapezes as, even with safety net and all, it’s still a tough challenge for your body and you can get hurt, as it has append for us. If you don’t have an athletic background I would strongly advise not the try the trapezes. The staff ate the trapezes are professionals and very friendly and they are not physical educators using pedagogic methods. Therefore, you will most likely get confused up there and hurt yourself.
Beach: like many other resorts, the Barcelo lacks umbrellas, so you have to get up hurly to get one. The beach itself is wonderful and Punta Cana gives you miles and miles of beach to take long walks. Not much marine life to see at the beach though… you’ll have to take a tour to do snorkelling.

FOOD: don’t waist precious holiday time at the Canuco restaurant, it’s not good and you’re in a room in the center of the main building with nothing nice to see or enjoy (same situation for the Italian restaurant – but we didn’t go). The Japanese restaurant is really good, but it’s so hot (like a sauna) and smelly in there that you’ll want to get out as soon as you’re finished. The Marlin is “so-so” and the buffet very average. The only real good food experience on this resort is the Tex-Mex restaurant (seems to be brand new) and the burgers at the beach snack bar for lunch. Speaking of burgers, I saw the cook measure the temperature of the meat before serving it, so they do take care of this.

SERVICE: I’ll put it that way: I can count with one hand the “welcoming smiles” we’ve received during the week. The service at the buffet is poor… waiters seems to be spending more time preparing tables for the next meal than serving you. Also, half of the seating space was “off limit”. Since they don’t use all the seating space, you can end up waiting at the buffet door to get seated!! Then again, they will likely assign you a table at the back of the room, since the good tables have already been used and prepped for the next meal! – not so nice. The service at the bars during day is good and, unlike Cuba, they have real Coca-cola so you can truly appreciate good Rum & Coke. Later at night, they only let one lobby bar opened… and the service was absurd… very long and confusing…

Will we go back to the Barcelo Punta Cana? The answer is no. More than great surroundings, we like feeling welcomed and to receive good service. We didn’t felt at home even the last day at this resort. To bad, because this place – the renovated blocs, beach and the surroundings – are just gorgeous.