Just came back from one of the most enjoyable holidays we've ever had. We stayed in the "Royal" section of the Catalonia Resort and it was absolutely worth it. Royal guests have access to the entire resort but have there on little corner of paradise to retreat to.

The staff are extremely friendly, professional and were a large part of the reason we had such a good time. They work very hard and deserve your gratitude.

The Royal Section is for adults only and has it's own lobby & front desk (airconditioned) with bar, & free internet. It also has it's own restaurant which has quite an impressive menu.

The Villa rooms are large with a king size bed, 2 person tub, a LCD TV, a sitting area, A/C, balcony with 2 chairs and a hammock. Only thing missing was an iron and a room clock. The bathroom had a large shower stall with lot's of hot water and good water pressure.

There is a seperate pool and swim up bar for the Royal Guests
and they seem to have a better selection and make there drinks a little fancier.

The beach at the resort is very large and beautiful and there is a private section for Royal guests only which allows you to have some quite time to relax. Special note: topless sunbathing is common at this resort.

The choice of food was large and it was all extremely good. The Grand Caribe buffet serves breakfast, lunch & dinner and was just a fun place to eat. There are 4 theme restaurants (Mexican, Steakhouse, Italian & Japanese) and they all require reservations so book as soon as you get there. All these restaurants were fun to eat at and offered excellent tasting food,. Enjoyed the Japanese the most as they had cooking tables and our chef Juan was funny and put on a great show.
There are 2 restaurants at the beach one is a full buffet and the other serves chicken, burgers,hotdogs,nachos and some of the best pizza you can find. There is a crepe & ice cream restaurant in the shopping concourse that is just right for your sweet tooth.

The entertainment staff looks after beach activities and puts on a stage show every night. The shows at night were good and they had audience participation games which turned out to be very funny. These guys are crazy and keep you laughing.

My son (19) went to the disco a couple of times and said it was a good place to meet people from around the world.

Casino is small but offers those die hard gamblers an opportunity to play there games.

The shopping mall has a selection of stores for buying all your
gifts and stuff. Tobacco shop with a large selection of good cigars. Also a medical centre just in case.

Wanted to golf but never got the chance but heard that the 9 hole
course was in excellent shape and the new 18 hole course has amazing greens but needs another year or so for the fairways to grow in.

Tips for this resort.

1/ Bring a travel iron and clock.
2/ Lot's of sun tan lotion. 1 week 3 bottles for 2 adults. Make sure you use it. You can burn in 15 minutes at midday.
3/ A/C works only when room sliding door is shut.
4/ DON"T drink tap, shower or pool water. Water at restaurants & bars is OK and ice for your drinks is safe. Bottled water is available.
5/ Leave a couple of dollars daily on bed for maids. They work hard and deserve it.
6/ Learn some very basic spanish it will go along way.
7/ Book your evening theme restaurants asap. Spaces are limited and go fast.
8/ Tell bus driver your going to Royal side of resort or he might drop you off at wrong Front Desk.

You get back what you put into your holiday here so be friendly
and SMILE SMILE SMILE

HOLA!

Our group of 6 just returned from a week at the Catalonia Royal Bavaro (April 26 - May 3rd 2008).

We read many reviews and had it narrowed down to Catalonia Royal Bavaro in Punta Cana and Paradissus Princessa in Varadero...Punta Cana won out due to lower price and better flight times.

We booked with Sunwing (this was our 2nd trip with Sunwing), and once again were very happy with Sunwing's service, the flight, and Sunwing's rep at the resort.

Arrival:
We arrived at the resort at 11 am...and expected that our rooms might not be ready. We were greeted with a glass of champagne, and were told that one of our rooms was ready and the other 2 would be ready within the hour. We stored all our stuff in the one room, changed and headed for lunch.

Rooms:
As requested, we were all in the same villa (villa 46) and on an upper floor. The rooms are very spacious, clean and modern, with a very comfortable king size bed. The air conditioning works very well. There is an in-room safe that you program yourself (no charge), a mini-bar stocked with water, beer and pop (refilled daily). The balcony has a table ahd 2 chairs and a hammock. Pool towels are in your room and are re-stocked daily - no need to line up at the towel hut. A couple of things to note that are NOT in the rooms: a clock, and an iron (didn't matter to me but I know others would want to know). Any minor issues/requests were dealt with very quickly.

Royal:
There are only 4 villas on the Royal side and they are all very close to the royal pool which is a lovely pool (with swim up bar and pool bar and a fantastic bartender by the name of Carlos), the spa with 2 outdoor jacuzzis, and royal lobby which houses the Thalassa restaurant and lobby bar, free internet room. This was my first time in a "Royal" section at an AI. I loved the Royal side and would highly recommend it for several reasons: You still have access to the regular side and all the animation, but you can always return to the Royal side which is much quieter. There is never a shortage of lounge chairs at the Royal pool no matter what time of day. The Royal side also has it's own beach with lots of chairs, its own restaurant, free internet, and room service.

Main Resort:
The main resort is also very beautiful...the grounds are well kept. Within the main resort there is a main buffet restaurant, and smaller beach buffet, a snack bar with excellent pizza, and four a la cartes...Japanese, steakhouse, Mexican, and french. There is also a shopping plaza which houses the creperie, some souvenir shops, tobacco shop, drug store, medical centre, jewelery store and a mini-mart. There is a casino on site and it iis bigger than some of the other resort casinos I have seen. IThere is an ATM machine (although I could't get my bank card to work in it) as well as a bank that is open from 9 - 4 pm in the main lobby. We were able to change Cdn money to American at the bank. They also take Visa or mastercard if you are looking to get a cash advance. There are a lot of washrooms throughout the resort - and they are very clean and modern.

Food:
For dinner we ate at the Thalassa twice, and once each at the Mexican, Japanese, and steakhouse. You can also eat breakfast and lunch at the Thalassa without a reservation, but you do need a reservation for dinner - which is easy to get even at the last minute. For the other a la cartes you should book in advance. Some of the appetizers at the Thalassa are a little different, but it was interesting to give them a try. I enjoyed both the Lobster and the Mere (fish) as main courses...and the 5 chocolate dessert is delicious!! The champagne is free flowing...as is the wine. The white wine is the not the best...I much preferred the champagne. The red wine was decent. We also enjoyed the Japanese show cooking...the food was very good, except for the soup which was sub-par. The food at the steakhouse and Mexican are also quite good. Service for the most part was excellent, the exception being at the Mexican were our waiter was not as attentive.

Also for dinner one night we went to the beach party - it was amazing!! All the tables are set on the beach with linens, lights, decorations etc. Then there is a buffet with all kinds of salads, bbq meats, desserts, and of course a bar!! Our server was Elizer - who was excellent!!! He kept the drinks flowing, took pictures with us, and had a great sense of humour!! There is a live band playing at the beach.

For lunch we tried both buffets as well as the snack bar. The pizza at the snack bar (which is at the kid's club end of the main pool) is delicious!! You can also get the pizza at the main buffet which is near the entrance of the resort. The smaller buffet is at the beach end of the pool. All the buffets are open-air which means you will see birds landing on/near the food...which may be an issue for some people. The buffets were standard buffet fare...with less selection than I have seen at other buffets. At lunch one day at the main buffet our waiter was Alcedo who was excellent!!! He was very attentive and spoke very good English - unfortunately the tip we left him was picked up by another waiter.

For breakfast we ate several times at the main buffet, a couple of times at Thalassa, and once had room service. They have a habit of undercooking the made-to-order eggs...so if you want them well cooked make sure to tell them. At the Thalassa you can also get Mimosas and Bloody marys at breakfast!
We tried the creperie twice and were a little disappointed...the chocolate sauce on the crepes had a distinct burnt taste, and the crepes were not as good as in the buffet. The creperie is open from 4pm - 11 pm daily.

Bars:
There are bars everywhere - you will not go thirsty! The drinks do vary a little from one bar to the next...but no big deal. My personal favourites were: Ron Sour, Sex on the Beach, and Long Island Ice Tea - which is not on the menu but ask Carlos at the pool bar for one and you won't be disappointed!!

Pool:
The Royal pool is lovely, a nice size with lots of loungers and palalpas, and was never busy. We spent a lot of time at this pool we enjoyed it so much. There are 2 jacuzzis near the royal pool, one is warm (not hot) which we enjoyed, and the other is colder. The main pool is much bigger, we only went once. It is showing some minor wear and tear, but nothing serious. ..

Beach:
The Royal beach is to the right of the main beach and has a separate bar and nicer loungers. The beaches are the same other than that... there is some seaweed but it is still a beautiful beach and fun to go in the water. - we spent 3 half days at the beach. The water sports centre is between the 2 beaches. We took out a 2 person kayak which we enjoyed.

Animation:
The animation team works very hard. Our gang took part in beach volleyball, aqua aerobics, merangue lessons, and kayak races, and had lots of fun.

Entertainment:
Varies from cheesy to good. Fairly typical resort type shows.

Excursions:
Snorkelling: From the resort we went out on a hour and a half snorkelling tour for $25/person. You go out on a glass bottom boat on a 15 minute ride and them snorkel for an hour. They give you bread to feed the fish and they will eat right out of your hands! They will also nip a bit so be careful! There are so many fish to see as well as coral...it was definitely worth the $25.
Shopping: Our Sunwing rep arranged for transportation (free of charge) to a local cigar factory and shop. It is about 10 minutes from the resort. You see cigars being made by hand in the factory and are given free samples to try. Next door in the store you can buy cigars (not just the ones made on site - many other brands), as well as other souvenirs such as coffee, rum, jewellery, t shirts, paintings etc.
Dune Buggies: 4 of us went on the Dune Buggy tour...this is a half day tour. We were picked up at 7 am by bus and driven aprox an hour a way to a ranch. It is also a good opportunity to see some of the countryside. The day we went it had rained overnight and also rained for an hour or so that morning...which was a real bonus as it is much more fun to dune buggy in mud than in dry sand! There are 2 people per buggy and you can take turns driving...they have both standard and automatic. The roads you drive on are full of potholes and lots of mud - great fun! After a half an hour or so of dune buggying, the first stop was at Macao beach which is amazing...but a very strong undertow so be careful. There are also vendors on the beach which I was not quite prepared for and didn't have much money with me. The 2nd stop is at an underwater cave where you can swim, and also more vendors. Finally back to the ranch for a half hour of horseback riding. Cost of trip was $65/person and was definitely well worth it! Note they take your picture on the dune buggys at the start of the trip and have them ready for you to buy at $7 each by the time you get back...they are nice souvenirs.

Weather:
We had rain a couple of times in the evening during dinner. The only time we had rain during the day was dune buggy day. There were times were it was overcast, but for the most part was very hot and humid - easy to get sunburned!! Did not see many bugs. The only time I used bug spray was on the dune buggies.

Departure:
Be ready to pay a $20 american departure tax per person. Also, when arriving your picture is taken with a local Dominican girl and can be purchased for $7/photo at departure. There are the typical duty free and souvenir shops as well as fast food outlets - Wendy's and Baskin and Robbins. The airport is modern and clean, including the bathrooms.

Well, my husband and I and another couple spent April 25th through May 2nd at the Catalonia Royal Bavaro and had a wonderful time. After reading review after review for months prior to our trip, I can finally say that the ones that have compliants just don't know how to relax and have a great time. The staff for the most part go out of their way to make you happy, we absolutely loved Carlos (pool-side bar) Angel and Juan from the Thalassa rest. and there are so many others that made our trip amazing.

The rooms are very spacious and defintely clean, our maid was great we stayed in 4632 (we never met her) but we could come in the middle of the day relax and shower and go out for the evening and when we returned our room was made up again. I have to point Angel from the Thalassa rest. he had the best smile and was just a delight. Carlos at the pool-side bar made the afternoons very joyful.

The food was very good and there was plenty of choices for everyone, I have to say its not what we get in the States but we weren't in the States so we were satisfied. The pizza from the pool-side bar on the family side was absolutely the best and the effort that the whole staff put into the Beach Party on Monday night was wonderful.

The workers at this resort deserve every penny that they receive and I truly hope that visitors to have respect and tip the staff.

This trip was a surprise for my husband for his birthday and I must say it was a wonderful vacation and one that we will never forget and we do plan to return in a few years after we visit some other locations.

But to anyone reading the reviews before you go please wait to make your own opinion on this resort, it is all what you make it, if you go looking for disappointments you will find them. Just remember these people are trying to please hundreds of people from all over the country and that just isn't possible, so if you're high maintenance then do the staff a favor and stay home they work very hard and deserve all the respect possible.

ENJOY ! AND BE HAPPY ! DRINK MAMA JUANA !!!

From Virginia, United States

If you read any negative reviews about this place then I don't understand where the people are coming from. We loved this place. This was our second time to Punta Cana. Last year we stayed at LTI and had a great time and this year found this place even better.
The room was fantastic - nice and big and clean and a bit tub and great shower. Always had lots of clean towels.
The beach was beautiful and we enjoyed having our own private adult side.
The food was great especially at our own Royal side restaurant. They take very good care of you there. We went to the French as well and really enjoyed it. We generally had breakfast and lunch at the buffet by the beach as the view is spectacular.
The staff were friendly and love it when you try to learn their language.
The drive there is only 15 mins away so you're the first to get dropped of and last to get picked up which was great.
The weather was consistent and hot every day - not a drop of rain.
Our own private pool was great and generally we only went there between 4-5 pm a we were on the beach from 7am-4 pm and got down there around 6:15 am each day to put our towels on our chairs under a hut.
If we go back we hope to go here again!!!