We stayed at the IHD for a week, joining my dad and step mum for their wedding there. The wedding could not have been any more perfect - it was the only one was saw there, and it was obvious alot of thought had gone into the wedding by the staff.
The hotel is beautiful, the food is fantastic, the cocktails are great and the beach bar is wicked! The staff are all very polite and friendly and obviously love their jobs, which makes your stay more enjoyable.
Word of warning - the hotel does not like to take Dominican Peso's, they much prefer American Dollars out there (better exchange rate) so don't even bother to change your pennies into Peso's, not worth it. The cash point at the hotel only dishes out Peso's too (which my dad found out) which he then couldn't spend in the hotel on their wedding photos! Make sure you take enough Dollars with you. Ended up using our peso's as tips for the waitresses and in the shops on the beach.
The rooms are lovely and spacious with air con and a ceiling fan, pool is fab (good workout out too as it's huge!), and the beach is beautiful.
I would definately go back myself one day (for my own honeymoon!) - such an enjoyable holiday. Recommend to anyone.

We arrived viia Santo Domingo airport which intailed a two hour drive to resort. This airport was very easy to use from arrival to departure we would consider again in future. Now on to review. The resort itself was very nice property wise and location as being in close proximety to the beach. The rooms are a little bit tired and show signs of needing updating although extremely clean all the time. The pool area has to attended to as from our observations and green algae on the walls of the pool seem to be of more importance than missing tiles in pool as stated in other reports. There tends to be a very strong septic smell from the time the sprinkler system goes on till it shuts off, thus leadinding us to believe that they use water from the septic for this watering. Hence the green in the landscape. The problem is when the wind blows the mist your way, disgusting! The beach that goes along with this property is probably one of the nicest in the caribbean. It has the clearest water and gentle waves for all swimmers especially the kids. You can take bread from the buffets and feed the fish out by the coral reef, it's amazing how they swim right u to you with no hesitation. Now the down fall to this resort, the food. The buffets are the most repetitive as far as offerings go, the same everyday with the exception of the ocassional miancourse changing at the dinner buffet. The ala-carte resturants you get three reservations a week and if you get more you will find they aren't much different with the El Colonial being the best quality wise. The Dominican people who work here are very nice people for the most part but seem to cater to the europeans. These people (europeans) are pushy and rude to even the children that get in their way in any type of line or formation. Drinks at all bars are good and if more spirits are needed just ask. Yan the bartender at the beach bar is the best they have with a smile and welcoming helo everytime one approaches. As far as Iberostars go this paticular resort is one I would not return to unless definite upgrades are made. After staying at the Lindo & Maya in Mexico this property is a real let down except for the beach.

This is a good hotel, IF you don't get bumped. We were there for our son's wedding and his brother/best man was due to join us for the wedding which, because of residency requirements was in the second week of our stay.

His flight arrived on time but despite us checking with reception several times he didn't arrive. We were told after several hours that he was going to a different hotel although the Hotel and the First Choice Rep must have known long before. We were told the hotel was full but 4 coach loads booked in the same day after the time our son was already at the other hotel. Clearly First Choice was not the first choice at this hotel. We were not the only ones this happened to.

He eventually arrived the next day somewhat tired as the alternative hotel was way below par and he was put in a block undergoing refurbishment.

He had lost 2 days of a weeks holiday and was offered $50 dollars and a massage in full and final compensation - way less than the cost of the room he had already paid for but not stayed in???

In most other respects the hotel is good and I will write a full review once our dispute is settled. Two words of warning take plenty of Mossie spray for the rooms and the air conditioning goes off if you stop moving, making for a hot nights slumber.

A group of 16 ages ranged from 2 years to 72.
Out of our group, we would only have one negative, and that is the Pool could do with some attention. There are some missing tiles, and some poor repair work has been done in some areas, however we did not let this spoil our brilliant holiday. We also found, that some swim clothing did turn green in areas, this only happened when we had spent the day at the pool, never down by the beach. From my experience the green colouring does wash out. We had no experiences of ear infections in our group, most of our time was spent in the pool, six of our group are children and spent allot of time in the pool and no problems.

On a high note, we would all strongly recommend this hotel, the service, the staff, the food (buffet & Restaurants), and the rooms where all first class. An exceptional hotel!

We would like to give special thanks to Nina the kid’s club entertainer, she does a brilliant Job of looking after the kids and the kids loved her. Our children only went to the centre in the afternoons but would have happily gone all day. The kid’s mini-disco is not to be missed.

I would certainly not hesitate in revisiting