Though it's a 3 hour drive from the airport, the route is scenic and it's well worth it when you get there. The resort is beautiful, quiet and very well kept. The staff are friendly and the food was really good. Great for couples.

Transfer to the hotel was easy, lots to see on the 1 1/2 hour bus ride. You stop at two Baha Principe hotels along the way to drop off guests. Check in was done on the bus so when you got to the hotel you went directly to your room. We did not like the location of our room (too noisy) so we requested another room and was accomodated. The rooms are beautiful,,, certainly earns the 5*. All rooms are oceanview and ours faced the sunset... breathtaking. Lots of chairs available near the pool, no need to reserve. Pool bar is great, close and never busy. Although the sand in not white and the water is not turquoise, the waves were great for boogie boarding and body surfing. The ocean was warm, the beach was clean and always lots of lounge chairs available. We did not try the a la carte restaurants, there was always good variety and good food at the buffet (and you get to sit in the open dininning room watching the ocean). The staff was very friendly, but left you alone when you did not want to participate in the activities. The spa is exceptional. I got a manicure and it was reasonably priced and proffesionally done. The gym needs some improvements. Most of the cardio equipment (bikes and treadmill) were broken. And the rest of the equipment was minimal. We had an enjoyable week with lots of sun, food, swimming and relaxation.

If you want a quiet, enjoyable, relaxing vacation this is the place to go.

The GBP Samana is a wonderful hotel to rest and relax. It is intimate because only 108 rooms. But this makes your stay even more enjoyable because there is always room around the pool for chairs, the staff knows you well after a day because not so many guests. Since hotel is small, only 2 a la carte restaurants are available but the buffet is so good, it doesn't matter, even fussy eaters will be happy!

As usual, with GBP hotels, the common areas and the rooms are always spotless and very clean. The rooms were very nice with 4-poster beds and I had a room with a balcony facing the ocean and the sun would set there at night, it was marvelous!!!

The staff whether it be the animation team (Yordy, best bachata professor), the restaurant team (Marisol, hostess with the mostess), the bartenders (Juan, my Capriña especial) or the administration staff (Andrés, the best concierge): all of them are so nice and they want to make your stay very enjoyable!

So the beach is not white sand or the water turquoise but the waves are fun and the sea is great. When you've been all over the islands, this place is special and should not be missed. The hotel's architecture and the fact it is up on a little cliff makes it look so wonderful!

I would back anytime for sure!!!

My husband and I stayed at this resort for a week beginning Feb. 4th. I researched resorts in Samana and the Bahia Principe Samana seemed to be what we were looking for: quiet, romantic, reasonable price, ocean views, a beach with waves, close to some of the most beautiful beaches and scenery in the world (all true). We booked the later flight from Toronto on Monday and arrived at the hotel at midnight (our flight was an hour late). I had requested a quiet, non-smoking room. If you have a choice book the earlier flight as they assign a room for you before you get there. All the rooms were booked when we arrived so there was no chance of switching rooms. There are several rooms situated around the lobby and bar. Ours was on the second floor right above the pool and bar. It was the noisiest room in the hotel. They gave us the option of moving to an inferior room on the fourth floor with no balcony and no discount or wait until Friday to change rooms. Oh, the lock on our door was broken and we couldn't get into our room at all that night! There was no apology, no discount, and they even tried to charge us$40 for late checkout. (They want you to leave your room at 12 noon and the bus does not leave until 6 p.m. We decided to stay in the noisy room and kept busy outside the resort until Friday. We wore earplugs to sleep and rest. Apparently the internet site we booked through did not come through for us. The requests did not get to the hotel. I never did find a non-smoking room in the hotel and if you are a non-smoker, because the resort is small, it is hard to get away from all the second-hand smoke. However, the restaurants are all non-smoking and I never got sick from the food as they use purified water for everything now. The resort is very close to the road and you can hear the traffic as well as smell the pollution from it. The sound of the surf drowns out most of the noise however and almost all of the rooms face the ocean so it's not a huge problem.

It may sound like we had a miserable week at this resort but on the contrary the positive outweighed the negative. The location is beautiful. The view from the rooms is stunning. The service and staff were out of this world. The rooms were immaculate. The beach was ideal: never crowded and enough chairs and shade. Our trip to Rincon and Playita beaches was amazing. We were able to take the free shuttle from the hotel to Cayo Laventado Island. (It goes three times a week). They won't allow you to go into the Bahia resort there, though.

If you are prepared before you arrive you may be able to avoid the problems we had. We will likely go back to Samana but will probably stay at a larger resort as there is nowhere to walk after dinner. They discourage walking outside the resort at night. If you haven't visited the DR before be prepared for extreme poverty and garbage everywhere. A friend of mine said he would never go back because he couldn't handle seeing so many skinny dogs. On the other hand, the tourist industry is bringing a much higher standing of living to these people and most are extremely grateful.