This was our first trip to the Dominican Republic and it was real value for money. We found the food was wonderful and the main restuarant had different themes every night. They still catered for the "normal" foods as well on these evenings.

They have provided anti bacterial gel at all the entrances to the restuarants and everyone is encouraged to use it on their hands before they enter. In the two weeks we stayed there, we never experienced any stomach cramps etc. and thoroughly enjoyed the variety of foods available.

We went on the fiesta night, Laguna Trek and did the dolphin swim. Each activity was enjoyable, entertaining and memorable. The one thing that could be improved is the quality of food provided by the offsite restuarant when doing the fiesta night and Laguna Trek. But I think the large variety at the resort probably spoilt us!

The resort is rather isolated from any nearby towns and we needed to take a taxi with at least half an hour's drive to reach the nearest town. This isolation was one of the major drawbacks for the resort. It meant that we could not just walk off the premises and go shopping or sight-seeing. The shops available on site are obviously more expensive than what would be available at the many markets offsite.

Another drawback was that the main bar closed at 11pm. This meant that you had to walk up to the Hard Rock Cafe if you wanted to carry on socialising and drinking. The resort does provide a cart service which can be used by one and all to catch a lift to the Hard Rock or to take them back to their rooms after a long night at the Hard Rock! This is an invaluable service for anyone with a hip problem, limp, etc. (It just takes a call to reception asking them to send the cart up to the cafe or catch it just outside of reception.) But still, the bar could have remained open until at least 1 or 2am.

The entertainment shows were another area that could be improved. The staff are friendly and really try hard. They are talented and beautiful. They just a better choreographer!

The rooms were clean and comfortable. The mini bar is a bit of a joke as it only had one sprite, one coke, one lager and water. These get replaced every day. But hey, ho! With all inclusive this really was not a major issue!

We really missed not hearing the latest music while in the resort and by the end of two weeks we were tired of the local music. We thought that they could have varied it better e.g. played international music during the day and local music during breakfast, lunch and dinner. (The disco played the latest international music so it is not as if they did not have access to any cds.) It would have been nice to sing along and relax to music we knew while swimming, sunbathing, sitting and drinking, etc.

Overall, we would rate our stay there 8 out of 10 and definitely would go back again. It was a wonderful holiday at a wonderful resort with wonderful staff.

Just returned from a 2 week trip to this hotel. A little teething problem at the start - room had 1 bed and we asked for 2 beds - only took them 3 tries to get it right and the room we ended up with couldnt be faulted.
The hotel and its grounds are lovely, but the Prinicpe Shopping Street was very disappointing. Everything was very over priced - obviously to get you to spend your holiday money as there were no other shops/malls in walking distance. I paid £1.00 for a Twix - oh well what you have to do for a bit chocolate! You are warned - you must only stay at this hotel if you are looking to just relax and unwind for the 2 weeks as you are 1hr 15 mins from the airport and you are in the middle of a field!
The buffet food was nice, but a bit repetative and their 'themed' nights a bit pathetic. There was always a queue for the bacon on the days that they had it, but all in all you couldnt fault the amount to choose from.
The Mediteranean restaurant was nice and the food there was lovely, although not a lot of choice for starters and desserts. The Italian restaurant was dire - buffet for starters and sweet with your main course being served to you - you can get the exact same pasta dishes every night at the buffet, but it was nice to be served part of your meal.
We never managed to watch the nightly entertainment - passing and watching them entertain the kids was bad enough without the thought of having to go back at 10pm to watch them try and entertain the adults - mainly full of people drinking to excess and people wanting to ignore their kids for a few hours.
The staff are very helpful and courteous - we had a good laugh trying to hide from the guys who were working at the Scuba Centre - in the last week we had to run into the sea to get away from them, but they were polite just a bit full on.
We did the Carribean excursion - we were flown in a 16 seater aeroplane, bused to an old sugar plantation, walked down 200 steep steps (you dont have to climb back up them though), on a paddle boat for breakfast (we had been starving before this as it was now 10.30a.m. and we were picked up from the hotel at 5.30a.m.,) picked up by speed boat out onto the Carribean - this was superb and the speed boat captain was good fun. We stopped at what they called their public baths where we swam in crystal clear water with white white sand - looked at starfish and fish, then off to Sanoa Island for 3 hours where we were wined and dined then back on a catamarran with more alcohol then off to another beach (it did start to rain then, but we had enjoyed ourselves so much on Sanoa Island that it didnt matter) back to airport - got to hotel at 9.00p.m. all costing $309.00 - very good value for money although the tour guide was dire and managed to speak german much more fluent than english!!!
All in all this holiday and hotel were really good value for money and I would advise anyone that is looking for a lovely relaxing 2 weeks away from it all to book into this hotel. Oh and one more thing remember to take some nappy sacks as you are not allowed to flush your toilet roll (I thought yeuch when I had read this in other reviews, but it actually wasnt bad and there were no smells coming from our bathroom!!) If you are reading this review enjoy your holiday and ignore anything said about people pinching from hotel safes or food poisoning - the people and resort are very friendly and keen. Just make sure you give them a tip at the end of your stay - they really really appreciate it.

Came back my holiday from the Dominican at the Bahia Principe about 3 weeks ago with my Fiance and 4 year old daughter. Took us a few weeks to get back to normal. Didn't want to leave as it was so good and never feel like this about holidays, we are normally glad to get home. We even hoped my flight would get delayed.
The Hotel was cleaned every day, the mini bar was filled every day also. The staff and people couldn't be nicer.
There was 4 restaurants, one big main buffet restaurant, a Mexican, an Italian and a Meditteranian. The food was delicious.
There was 3 pools, mini golf, tennis court, Casino, quite a few different bars, even a swim up bar, a disco, a kids club, swingpark and the beach was literally at your door.
I could go on and on. We enjoyed it that much that we are thinking of going back next year to get married there.

We have just returned from our two-week holiday in Bahia Principe and we had the most wonderful time. Before we went I was a little concerned after reading a few negative reviews but we found it to be a lovely place and did not have any complaints whatsoever.

We arrived late afternoon and were greeted in reception by the entertainment staff dressed in the native outfits who performed a traditional dance routine which was great. We were then handed a cocktail which was very much appreciated after a long journey! I read on other people's reviews that they check you in on the coach before you get to the hotel however this wasn't the case with us so I presume this must be based on which company you book with - we were with First Choice. Check-in to the hotel was smooth though and we weren't kept waiting very long at all.

Our room was lovely - quite basic which is to be expected in my opinion but exceptionally clean and the bed was huge. Air conditioning is provided as standard and I must say that our system was a bit temperamental, switching itself on/off during the nights! However when we eventually mastered the switch (which was about 100 years old), when it was on it was very good. And it switching itself on/off during the nights didn't bother us too much else we would have complained about it. Apparently other people complained that their air con wasn't working and the maintenance staff came and fixed it straight away so it's not a problem. Your safety deposit box is available for 50 dollars but we didn’t bother and didn’t have any trouble at all. The maids work hard to keep your room clean and tidy and often left us nice towel art on our bed or in the bathroom.

The food is great, it's not the same quality as the food you get here but you have to remember that you are in a different country and the way they cook is different. It is very pleasant though and once again the standard of hygiene impressed us as you have to use the hand sanitizer on entrance to each restaurant. The main buffet is very good - the variety is fab and I should imagine that even the fussiest eaters would find something they liked. Breakfast in particular is amazing as they serve everything you can think of - pastries, full English, omelette, cereal, pancakes, crepes, toast.
You can visit the a la carte restaurants up to 6 times over the course of the two weeks but we only managed to visit them 4 times in total as they get booked up so quickly and I think they are slightly reluctant to book you in to them to be honest but once you get there they are nice and the food is good.
The snack bar is great - especially for those with children as they serve pizza, chips, burgers, hotdogs etc, and it's right on the beach which is a nice setting.

The staff at the hotel are so polite and very friendly, they cannot do enough for you and the entertainment staff in particular work so hard. They are always coming up with things to do during the day to keep you occupied and on the days it rained (we had 2 days of rain in total) they found loads of things to invite you to join in with. If, like my boyfriend and I, you just want a chill-out holiday they totally respect that and if you say a polite no to their invitations to join in they accept it and move on with no questions asked which was a relief! However if you do like to join in and/or have children with you then there is constantly something going on by the main pool.
I can't say much about the evening entertainment as we didn’t catch it very often; the only entertainment we saw was for the children which seemed quite good - not our sort of thing of course but the kids seemed to love it.

As I said before, the main pool is very busy and lively which is great if you like that kind of thing but if you prefer a more quiet and relaxed atmosphere then there is a smaller, quieter pool which is where we spent most of our time.
The beach is also very nice, not pure white sand but it is lovely. We were warned about sand-fleas on the beach in the evening or when it rains but we didn't experience this luckily.

We did two trips – Ocean World where we swam with dolphins and the Catamaran trip. Both were fantastic days out and the reps on the coaches keep you entertained on the journeys. The Ocean World trip did not include food but the café there was reasonably priced and the food was good. The Catamaran trip included your food and drink and once again they provided great variety and catered for all tastes and ages. We booked both through First Choice.

Overall I would definitely recommend this hotel as it exceeded our expectations and we had a fantastic holiday. People who have written complaining of food poisoning etc were probably just over-indulging as this place is so clean and hygiene-conscious. With the food and drink that they offer it is easy to be tempted into eating more than you would at home!
A piece of advise which is not relating to this hotel but for anyone travelling abroad – when you check-in at the airport check your boarding passes for your seat numbers – we didn’t think to do this and later discovered that we were not sitting together even though we checked in together, 3 hours before departure. By the time we realised it was too late to try and change it so consequently spent the 9 hour flight sat next to strangers.
Another piece of advice that I was given before my holiday is that Avon do a range called Skin-So-Soft and their moisturising oil spray repels mosquitoes. We took a bottle and wore it every night and did not get bitten once, while others at the hotel were bitten multiple times wearing their standard insect repellent. So if you have access to Avon then I would recommend you use this as it’s cheaper and smells much nicer than the insect repellents you buy in the shops!

Hope you have a great holiday, I’m jealous of anyone going here as I would love to go back!