Great place if you just want to sit around for the sake of sitting around doing nothing.

There were some tours offered, but not a great selection of exciting things to do. It was a bit of a pain to book since we were supposed to book with our own travel company at selected times of the day/week when she was at our hotel.
Many of the exciting things to do that we saw on the internet were not available from our hotel, and we had to pay to use to the internet to try to book these tours online.

We did book the Crazy Wheels, 4 wheeler/dune buggy trip from the hotel. It was the most 4 hours of fun we had the entire week.
Be prepared to get really dirty. Great off the beaten path view of the countryside and the small towns.

Took the catamaran/speedboat trip to Saona Island. Went over to the island on speedboat, so that we could sit on a different beach for 4 hours doing nothing before returning home on the Catamaran. There were more people on the island than I had expected and each "tour" has it's own slice of beach, chairs and picnic tables, but you are free to walk the whole beach. The island food was really terrible, the "complimentary" drinks they served in little 4 oz cups and sometimes they would give you 2 at time if you tipped them at every trip. The cat ride home was nice. It was a pretty trip while the sun was setting. The rum comes out as soon as you arrive on the boat. Again in the little 4oz cups where one person walks around handing you cups and pouring rum into them, while another person follows behind and fills up the cup with warm coke. Great if you like rum and coke...there was some semi-cold beer at the back, and warm water but that was about all to drink.

The grounds were pretty, the room was clean, our view was excellent. The bed was hard and uncomfortable, but the pillows were fantastic. The mini bar never got above warm.
Loved the shower and had great water pressure.

All I craved the entire week was a COLD beverage.
They have "slushy" machines which dispense those sweet coladas and fruit punch, but they needed to add ice cubes to the supposed slush that was coming out of them and even then the drinks never got that cold. Granted it was very hot during our week, but they don't refrigerate any of their mixes. More than once I ordered a rum and pineapple or rum and OJ and the juice was sitting out and HOT and they would just pop a couple cubes into it. I would compare it to getting hot tea, adding rum and then throwing a few ice cubes in. NOT refreshing at all.
I'm sure the rum was watered down, even though I saw them open "new" bottles.

The beer in the main afternoon buffet area did come out cold some days, but again with the teeny tiny glasses. They have lots of ice near the soda machines in the buffet rooms, so it helped to offset the chilled (but not cold) soda being dispensed.

Buffet food was pretty good with initial variety, but alot of the same served every day. They do change food themes every night at the main buffet, but there is a still a standard same old selection of certain items. The variety was decent but I can't say that it was always hot either. The Churros are to die for and are available at the morning buffet.

The restaurants we booked, Japanese, Mexican and French all had hot food and were very good, however you are only "allowed" to book 3 al a carte meals during the week.

Hard to find anything decent to eat after 10pm at night.
At midnight they have a small buffet that consists mostly of shredded cabbage as salad, olives and some rubbery cheese that has been left over from the afternoon buffets. I think it's around 11pm, they bring out stale-ish sandwiches at the main bar. It's also really the only bar that is open after the pool closes at 7pm. And speaking of 7pm.. WHO closes down a pool at that hour ?

Actually there is another place to drink after 7pm and that's in the this crazy lounge with the WORST entertainment ever. Other than the karaoke night which was a train wreck, it was a big waste of time.
Watching "actors" lip sync even the speaking parts to Chicago and then try to dance, was painfully pathetic. Had the rum been full strength, I might have been able to sit through more than 15 minutes of it.

Went to the spa. Would recommend the 4 handed massage, it;'s a great value at $80, but I had the worse manicure ever and would not recommend. It's too humid for nails to dry even after 90 minutes !

Tried snorkeling, nothing much to see at the beach.
Could have gone parasailing or tube riding, but been there done that and I didn't feel like paying the extra money since it wasn't included.

All that being said. The resort was pretty, but it was pretty boring. There was nothing to do but sit around.
The beach was nice, the pool was nice, never any shortage of chairs, but occasionally hard to find shade.

There were some activities in 30 minute increments...like Spanish lessons, ping pong, aerobics, etc. but the only schedule was on a big board that you had to either memorize, or write down what you might like to do and when. I went to the activity center to inquire about an activity and ask some questions, no one spoke English, so that didn't help me much.

While some people might like the mindlessness of sitting in the sun for a week with nothing to do, it's not my cup of tea.

And if I thought it might be something I would like to try again some day, it would not be at such an expensive resort.
To sum it up - For all the money we spent ($3800 plus another $600 on side trips), I was bored to tears, slept in a hard bed, ate cold food, drank warm beverages and after 3 days gave up looking for anything else to do because we had already done it all....

Overall it wasn't a bad resort, but I think a 3 star rating is more appropriate. I think I was honestly expecting more after reading all of the glowing reviews on this site, but was instead let down in many ways.

For starters, the ride from the Punta Cana airport to this resort was terrifying. It made my daily commute on the Jersey Turnpike feel like a stroll down a country road. We did it at night which probably made it worse. If you can fly into the La Romana airport, I would definately reccomend it. Another family we met from NJ actually was involved in a scary accident on their way in involving a dump truck.

The beach was absolutely beautiful and the water was calm. Definately a highlight.

The pool was also nice. At one point however my husband stepped on three seperate tiles that must have fallen off of the side. We never had a problem finding lounge chairs by either the pool or beach.

The rooms were "OK" They were clean, but certainly outdated and definately not 5 star. I found the bed to be uncomfortable (although everyone likes something different). To top it off our mini bar would never get cold so warm water and soda were our choices. Our Air conditioning also had a habit of turning off in the middle of the night making the room very uncomfortable. When you leave you hotel room here, or keep the patio door open, the AC immediately turns off. You have to wait quite some time for the room to actually cool off when you return from being outside. One nice thing is that we were in building 4 overlooking the pool. I don't know if this is because I requested in advance or slipped the check in guy thirty bucks.

The grounds were lovely as were many of the grand rooms near the main lobby. One thing we could not stand however was the stench of sewage. I don't know how people with rooms nearby could even stand to sit outside. It was awful and the smell lingered. We would have to figure out different ways to walk back to our room/the pool so we wouldn't get sprayed.

Lastly, if you speak only English you are definately in the minority here, not just among other guests, but among the staff as well. We found very few employees that were able to speak English or understand us very well. I asked a bartender for a "Margarita" several times and he didn't understand what I was asking for until someone "translated" the word to him. For the tourism and service business, I thought the comprehension among staff would be a little greater. I don't want to sounds egocentric in the fact that everyone should speak English....certainly not what I am saying at all. However in comparisson to the other islands and countries we have visited, we had the most trouble with translation in the Dominican.

The food was also average with the exception of the Japanese Restaurant which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Overall, not a bad trip, but definately my least favorite. If I could plan it again I would go somewhere else. I don't know if we will be returning to this Island anytime soon.

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.