My husband and I traveled to Puerto Plata April 1-8th, 2008. Just to let you know, we have traveled a fair bit, everything from luxury cruises, 5 star resorts, to mud huts in Africa, and every type of accommodation in between. We rented a 3 bdrm villa from an owner on the internet.

Upon our arrival at the airport, the person who was sent to pick us up had been told there were 12 of us – not just the 2 of us. No amount of persuasion on our part could convince them we were it, so we had to wait until the whole airport cleared out before they would believe us. Finally they got us a taxi and took us to the resort. Nothing fancy here.

Check in was OK, no one seemed in any hurry. There was no great welcome, or drinks offered or anything like that. We paid our $37.50 US pp/day for the all-inclusive fee. No amount of asking would get us a golf cart. Only the owners they said. We were told our villa wasn’t ready so we went off to find something to eat. It took many hours before the villa was finally ready. This would have been OK except that it was pouring rain, and we really couldn’t find anything to do in the meantime.

When we did get to our villa, number 18B, I was somewhat disappointed in the furnishings etc. Some of the furniture was broken and worn out (arms on chairs, finish coming off the dining table etc). Because of the rain, one of the beds in the upstairs bedroom was soaking wet from a roof leak. It’s a good job that wasn’t where someone had to sleep as there was just the two of us. The floors, which are ceramic tile, were wet in many places making them very slippery both upstairs from the leaking roof and downstairs from the rain coming in under the doors etc. Villa 18A was attached duplex style, but the people beside us were very good.

With regards to the chef who comes to make breakfast, he only showed up the first two days and then stopped coming. No explanation given. No big deal, we just went to the buffet, but if it is part of what we paid for, then we should have had that service.

Speaking of service, it was like grand central station at our villa. There were always people coming in the house and grounds. The pool boy would be by to clean the pool daily, the grounds keepers would appear to rake the leaves, maids were in and out all day long. The guy who fills the fridge would come in. The paperboy would come right in to deliver the newspaper. It didn’t matter if you locked all the doors, there were always people in the house! Once I went into the kitchen and some shuttle driver was helping himself to a soda in our fridge because he was thirsty! And he wasn’t even shuttling for us! And did I mention the continuous flow past our villa of golf carts driven crazily by kids. They would be kids of owners of course, as we mere renters couldn't have a golf cart. I truly believe that there should be a golf cart per villa regardless of who is staying in it. We walked by the "garage" where they kept the carts and there were lots of them not in use.

On top of all these people, we had the timeshare salesmen. Now, as I said, we’re pretty used to them around a resort and are pretty good at spotting them and avoiding them, but when they attack on your own turf, that’s too much. One morning we were sitting there having breakfast and this guy was looking in the patio door at us. He came right in and started his pitch in our own place while we were eating! Two days later my husband and I are in the pool at our villa, and along comes another salesman who would not leave us alone! We feel we are fair game while roaming the resort, or even sitting by a public pool, or coming out of a restaurant, but this was just too much! One interesting thing we did find out however, was that we had rented a VIP Gold villa, but he told us we were only in a silver and why not go along with him to see what we could get if we bought Platinum. Silver? Silver? No where on their site does it say anything about a silver level. Guess that explains the disrepair/shabbiness of the villa. He also mentioned that we were to be out of the villa as they had 6 new people coming in. this was on Sat and we were booked until Tues. We told him he'd better find somewhere else to put them. Nothing ever came of it however. Now don’t get me wrong, it was impressive to a lot of people. We happened to meet a couple staying at the resort in a hotel room from our hometown. They were blown away by our villa. They took pictures of every room and said they were going to come back and ask to rent the same villa they were so impressed. So, I guess it is based on your previous travel experiences. If you haven’t traveled much, you will probably think it is awesome.

I won’t go into the VIP beach and pool area as many others have written reviews. They were a neat touch. It is nice to have your drinks brought to you. Don’t bother getting them to bring you food though (other than nachos) as it is stone cold by the time it gets there, you might as well wander over to the restaurant yourself. For the last couple of days we actually parked ourselves on the outside of the VIP Beach wall and stayed on the resort side near a little beach bar. If you’re looking to meet the most enthusiastic and entertaining fellow at the resort, stop by there and visit Pedro.

We thought all the restaurants were fine. The gourmet was certainly the best. We caution taking a seat outside at the early sitting as all the workers and their smelly diesel trucks are leaving for the day and driving by continuously while you are eating.

If you have trouble walking, be aware there is a lot of it to be done if you don’t get a golf cart. The sidewalks are all too narrow and made of uneven paving stones and are very poorly lit at night.

My main complaint was that there was no evening entertainment offered other than a “theatre” show that lasted an hour. The disco was supposed to open at 10:30 PM but a few times we looked in, there was no one in there. We were told that it was very loud and hot inside the disco whenever it did get rolling. No where was there a band playing that you could listen to either during the day or in the evening after dinner. Even the lower end resorts we’ve stayed at have all had a house band. It is rather boring after dinner. I know our teenage kids would have been very bored here. For 3 days it rained, and that knocked out the satellite TV so you couldn't even watch TV. There was one day that the power went off around 7:30 am and it didn't come back on for about 12 hours, and it was not one of the rainy days.

All in all, the place was fine; neither of us got sick, it’s clean, renting from an owner off the internet went fine. It was our 4th time to the Dominican. I don’t think we would go back to this resort, but then we’ve never gone back to the same place twice. I’m sure anyone would have a great time there and I wouldn’t hesitate to send anyone, as long as they know what to expect. Like I said there’s nothing horribly wrong with the resort. But it wouldn’t take much to make it a lot better. We started playing a game called "if I owned this place, I would...." and talked about inexpensive changes that would make a huge difference. If you would like more info, feel free to email me at hooktravellers@sympatico.ca

Food Very Good
Accom Good
Entertainment Poor

We came to this resort as a result of an RCI trade. We bought the upgraded VIP package before arrival.

There is a true cast system in place. Lifestyle owners (automatic VIP status), who get additional privledges, such as (use of golf carts); followed by others who upgrade to VIP status (our situation-no golf cart), but use of a shuttle service, followed by those at the resort without VIP status (these may be the walkers from the review below).

VIP(ers) get access to a special beach, and pool area, each with beds available to lay out on during the day, special towel and waitress service, and upgradged top shelf alcohol at each of these locations. Lunch menu's with food delivered (mostly burgers and chicken sandwiches which were not very good), sushi (cooked) which was good. You're probably better off going to the buffet for lunch, which we did a couple of times.

Grounds and villa's were beautiful and having our maid in every morning to cook breakfast was outstanding. (Thanks Christina-very well done!!).

Guards stationed around the complex made all feel secure. Feel free to drop them off a bottle of soda...they truly appreciated it.

Check in went smoothly (once we got there) thanks to Junior, a new employee who made sure he did everything possible to accomidate us. (Thanks Junior-much appreciated. Keep those dollar coins safe!!)

We had arranged thru RCI for a taxi to pick us up at the airport, but it never showed up. Leaving us to fend for ourselves with a pack of.........wolves......If you end up in this situation expect to pay $45 American for the ride (30 minutes) to the resort. Everything is negociable!!

RCI did make good with a comp'd return ride (we knew we'd have to pay one way, just didn't expect it to be on the way in)....

Employees are truly very friendly and genuine. It would help if they had better English language skills, but on the same token, we need to be a bit more fluent in Spanish.

They began a demolition project there this week, removing the pink 2 bedroom bungalow's which will be replaced by more villa's. Roads were torn up, and there were some construction trucks in and out, but overall it wasn't too disruptive. Amazing how quickly the workers can remove these buildings using simple hand tools.

If you book a villa, bring pool toys & floats as they are not provided.

Service requests (bag of ice) were met, but results were much slower than expected.....add a day or two.

If you want a bed at the beach, expect to get up early and be in that area by 7 a.m. Most were "reserved" (place a tee-shirt on it) shortly after that. Did loose one t-shirt, as the wind must have blown it away......hint hint...and others were using the bed when we arrived.

Overall food quality was good to very good. Belini's (Italian) and the VIP Gourment were my favorites, but for the most part, I always found something on the menu to enjoy. If not satisfied, you were always allowed to make a second selection. I even ordered two dinners at the same time one night without any problems, and this was at the white glove gourmet resturant. We ate Mexican, Blue Lagoon, Chinese and the general buffet resturants. All were pretty good in my opinion.

Night entertainment was almost non existant other than Sunday night (VIP dinner & show) and a Thursday night VIP excursion to Ocean World next door. VIP disco was a CASH bar which still doesn't make sense to me, when a few steps away I could get the same beverage for free.
Around 4 people in the place the night we stopped by (11 p.m.) anyway.

Tipping a dollar or two was always appreciated and brought a bit more attention from the service staff. Those folks work hard and deserved it.

I'd give this resort and my vacation experience a 88 to 90 out of 100. It wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable!!

We booked a 4 bedroom villa, with VIP status, from a Lifestyle Member listed on eBay.

Upon arrival at the resort, there was confusion, due to a reporting error of the size of our party, (which was provided on 3 separate occasions) to be 3 adults. This obviously caused significant problems, due to fact that the resort was expecting a party of 8 adults. They negotiated us a counter deal to take two one-bedroom apartments and to cancel our 3 VIP inclusive fees to compensate our loss of the 4 bedroom villa.

The Residence apartments were somewhat dated, but comfortable, except for the concrete couch and bed, which were very uncomfortable.

The resort grounds were beautiful and very well maintained by a large staff of service people. However, unless you had a golf cart, you were forced to walk, typically 2-3 miles per day to visit beach, shops or restuarants, which created some safety problems during the nighttime, as the sidewalks and stairways were not well lighted and the walking surfaces were uneven.

The best restaurant in the resort was Bellini's, the worst were VIP Gourmet and Blue Lagoon. The lasagna, pizzas and spaghetti dishes and services were excellent at Bellini's. We waited for several nights to obtain a treasured reservation at VIP Gourmet, which proved to be a lot of hype of upscale dining, with exclusive dinner choices, but proved to be one of the worst meals during our 7 day stay. We all ordered the VIP Filet, which came with much culinary fluff and frills, but with little inspection, we found that what appeared to be a 2" beef fillet mignon, ACTUALLY was a 1/4" sub-quality, fatty, tough piece of beef, sitting on 2 pieces of vegetables. The entire meal was of poor quality and entirely unsatisfactory. The second runner up of worst meal is awarded to Blue Lagoon - - billed as an exclusive steak and seafood resturant - - of which they failed in both cases. Again, the beef fillet was fatty and could not be consumed and the fish selection was poor and prepared inadequately.

I have made two trips to Lifestyle Resorts - my first & my last..

We booked through an owner, a 3 BR villa.

Villa
The villas was not a newer villa but in decent shape. Everything worked and no need for immediate repair. The beds are very uncomfortable as well as the furniture. You will go home with a sore back. In fact the beds on the beach were more comfortable than the villa and the kids were asking if they could just sleep on the beach. We brought in the pads from the lounge chairs to sit on in the living room, as they were more comfortable than the seats there. The air worked well, the pool and kitchen fine. The air conditioner was very loud when turning on and off and would wake you from your sleep, also the windows had shutters on them without a screen or exterior window so the bugs had free access to come in through the slats. We didn't get too many mosquitos though. The fridge was always stocked with drinks. We left a note for more beer and water and it was stocked right full. Our maid was prompt for breakfast and made some wonderful eggs and juice every day, we stopped that service near the end so we could try the buffet for brunch.

Beach and Pools
Renting from an owner and having VIP access is the ONLY way to go! We were treated like royalty on the beach and pool. The VIP beach was easy to find a bed everyday and the drinks and snacks readily available. We spent most of our time at the VIP beach but also tried VIP World (pool) it was great as well.

Food
We ate at the VIP gourmet three nights, food was excellent there. We also tried the Mexican, Chinese, Italian and buffett. Italian was not bad, the rest were absolutely horrible. If we had to eat the buffet everyday we would have suffered. Only could find one or two items that we could even eat. The breakfast buffet was good. Suffered stomach and "bathroom" issues upon leaving and coming home.

People and place.
The employees at the resort were fantastic, tons of workers everywhere and all had a smile on their face and eager to help. We tipped well but witnessed others who did not and couldn't tell any difference in service to them. We were approached 7 times to take a timeshare tour. Their methods were progressively more aggressive, so if this bothers you, be prepared. They offered free tickets to the beach party and Casino show( which you get free anyway) free photos, etc. We were prepared and refused the "10 minute" tour. When I offered to pay off the man, he finally left us alone, another started up though, probably looking for the payoff.

Other
The shuttle from the airport was ready, as we were an hour late arriving, and whisked us off to the resort. The drive there and back was frightening. No road rules exist and our driver was speeding through town, intersections, pedestrians, and scooters. It is best to shut your eyes until you arrive.

When we arrived at the resort, we were offered a deal to switch out of the villa into a junior suite and we would receive a free vacation and our money back on this vacation, we refused.

We went to OceanWorld and had a great time doing the Dolphin swim and Sea Lion Encounter

Overall we had a great time, we would recommend it to others as long as you are prepared but won't go back again.