This was our second year at the Hacienda Dominicus.It was even better than last time.Its a very elegant hotel without being stuffy.Its very easy going and appeals to any class . We found the food was very good and the staff very friendly. The grounds were very well maintained and the staff went out of their way to find fresh coconuts if you wanted one.The pool is lovely, although it is missing a few tiles. The beach is great .The sand is so white and fine,and the sea is so safe.
We love it so much we are taking our son and daughter in law and grandchildren next year. Cant wait.

We arrived in the DR via cruise ship in April where we had decided to book a day pass at the Iberostar. I had e-mailed Britta at the Iberostar prior to leaving and preregistered (it did take a couple of tries to get a response back from her but after the initial contact she was always quick in responding to my questions). We were instructed to bring our passports and a print out of her e-mail confirmation. We were able to depart the ship at 11:00. When we exited the ship we walked out a bit and were directed off to the left to wait in a line for a taxi. The line moved quickly. There was a group of nine of us going to the Iberostar. At first we were told that it would be $15 per person. When we stated that we wanted to be picked up at 4:00 we were told that the cost would be $20 each including the tip. This was a little strange since our driver wasn't going to be waiting for us while we were at the resort but there was no room for negotiation. We made sure that payment would be due when we were returned to the ship. I would NOT recommend renting a car here on your own. The driving is totally crazy. Our ride to the resort took about 20 minutes but I suspect it is really a forty minute drive. Cars, vans, and trucks use the third lane (a.k.a. the center divider line) to continuously and randomly pass each other. It was interesting to get a glimpse of some of the country on our way to the resort. There is a great deal of poverty but also some beauty along the way.

When we arrived at the resort, the guard did not ask to see any of our confirmation papers. The check in process was SLOW. There were only two parties in front of us but it took at least fifteen minutes to check in each party. When it was our turn, they couldn't find our registration so we had to fill it out again. The $45.00 fee (children up to age 12 are ½ price) did include all taxes etc. We paid in cash since I've read that there has been a great deal of credit card fraud in the Dominican Republic lately (of course we had our card # lifted right here in the US last year). We also brought our beach towels from the ship. They did have a service where you could put down a $10. per towel deposit and check out one of their towels. After we checked in they finally had some other staff come out who seemed to do a much faster job of checking people in. I only had to show them one passport for our party.

The inside buffet didn't start until 1:00 so we decided to head down to the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. Along the way on the walk we saw many gorgeous trees, flowers and also a pool of bright flamingos. There were lots of chairs but most of the palapas (palm leaf umbrellas) were taken. We were able to find one though and this is where for some unknown reason my teenagers spent most of their day. It was probably for the best since with all their late nights, I'm sure they needed some rest. While they lazed about, we went down into the refreshing water to enjoy the waves.

Around 1:00 we headed back to the inside buffet (it's a bit of a walk back to the check in building). The tables were elegantly set and a waiter took our drink orders. The buffet was quite extensive. There were carving stations, a made to order pasta station, paella, pizza, salad bar, fresh fish prep station, and a large variety of other foods available. There was also a fruit and desert bar with delicious chocolate covered bananas and tasty gelato with shaved coconut for a topping!

After filling our faces and our bellies, we headed back to the beach. We tried to snorkel here. It was pretty wavy so it wasn't so easy. After swallowing quite a bit of water while trying to get my snorkel gear on in the waves, I did manage to see a few fish by the man made wall. It was fun but exhausting. My husband and I took a short rest on the lounge chairs while my sister in law took the kids over to the little vendor area on the beach. After this we headed over to the pool. The pool was beautiful too and very large. There is a walk in section that is great for young children. There were plenty of seats here too. We swam up to the pool bar and did ordered a drink. The drink was supposed to be a non-alcoholic Strawberry Daiquiri but it was the worst thing I've ever tasted. After a couple of sips we left them there. After a short swim it was already approaching 3:30. The time went by so quickly, I could have stayed an extra couple of days! I wouldn't recommend a 3:00 pick up because it would seem you're leaving just after arriving! We never did have time to try out the free water craft or check out the rest of the resort. On the way back to our van, there were a few more vendors trying to sell things and although they were a bit pushy, compared to the ones in Haiti, they didn’t seem too bad. Our driver was waiting for us right in front where he told us he would be. He also had left us a couple of his business cards when he dropped us off in case we needed him. After another wild ride back, we were on the ship by 4:30.

Although the kids really didn’t do anything here, they said they enjoyed their day. At least we all enjoyed a nice lunch together and I’m glad they came along. We were able to not only experience a beautiful resort but also had the chance to view a little bit of the Dominican Republic! I think this is a great option for cruise passengers who only have a short time to spend in the area!

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.