We arrived at Samana airport on February 11, 2008. The airport was clean and air conditioned and the baggage came through quickly and after a short line up we sailed through customs and boarded the bus for Cayo Levantado. Our tour guide briefed us on the short 1 hour trip and we were soon sipping cold Presidente beer and eating barbecued chicken on our scenic bus ride to Paradise. Upon arrival at the dock we received our room keys and details then boarded the boat for a short ride (5 mins) to the island.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the management staff for a short reception then taken to our villas via estate service. Our luggage followed shortly thereafter. By the way villas 8, 9 and 10 are truly magnificent. Our villa was #9 with an amazing view of the ocean that was incredible while sitting in the hot tub with a glass of champagne looking at the stars. Our maid was meticulous and the room service was prompt at all times.

The food was excellent. We got to know the head chef who prepared special appetizers for us at Don Pablo restaurant. The lobster at the seafood restaurant was especially memorable. The buffets were great with fresh food throughout the day. The wait staff was always smiling and happy to serve. As the week progresses you get to know them, Lourdes, Marie, Peter, Kelly to name a few. Adan and Walky were also awesome bartenders. Walky works at the pool bar, ask him for a ‘Super Walky’ drink special! They do appreciate tips.

We took advantage of playing tennis with the most lush vegetation and views we have ever seen around a tennis court. The Bahia gym was great with new weights and very clean. There are bikes to tour around the grounds if tennis isn’t in your plans.

The beaches and pools were all fabulous. If you like body surfing or just wave jumping you will love the water. The public beach is a bit calmer and there is a diving dock to swim out to. Great place to suntan. The beach gets pretty crowded on the weekend but definitely worth spending some time at during the week. A cruise ship pulled in to port on Saturday which was spectacular in the water but about 1000 people descended on the public beach. There are locals selling their goods and local food to experience but busy when the ship comes in. We scurried back to paradise. The public beach is just a two minute walk for the main hotel so you are never far from any body of water.

We brought our own snorkeling gear and used it a couple of times. The water was only cloudy one day but the snorkeling was fun on the other days. There are plenty of towels and loungers and space on the beaches. Go exploring and find your own private beach, there is a lot to do and see. Wind down the day in the Jacuzzi pool before getting ready for dinner.

There are shows after dinner which are entertaining but remember you are at a resort not Las Vegas. There is dancing and music at the public beach for ‘guests only’ at night. That is a lot of fun and the only type of evening entertainment. We were so busy during the day and preferred our outdoor Jacuzzi and star gazing at night but did venture to the beach parties a couple of nights. This is truly a relaxing resort with top notch service, clean grounds and lots of sunshine. We cannot comment on the tours as we stayed on the island and enjoyed everything it had to offer. It was very difficult to pack and take that boat ride back to the bus and then the airport!
Enjoy!!

I am writing this as an overview of eight separate visitors sharing the same experience on a visit to this resort. We are all seasoned travelers. I am reviewing this resort based on our experiences at other five star resorts and as a counter balance to many of the glowing reviews. If you are used to living and traveling in relative luxury you will be disappointed. If you usually vacation at two to three star properties you will be happy. A five and a half star rating as shown on many publications and internet sites is extremely misleading. Many reviewers make excuses for the resort based on its island location in the Dominican Republic. Five stars should be five stars anywhere on the planet.
The good things are that the location is beautiful, the rooms are large - in other words the visual aesthetics are all there.
A summary of the disappointments:
Lack of service. If you asked anyone for anything they either did not understand you or the answer would be no, it would have been nice to here a yes to a request . Some examples would be that if you ordered room service the meal would arrive incorrect and cold after one hour. Nachos would run out at lunch and five requests were made to five different people the first three said there were none left the last two said they would have some - one hour later they arrived. I would at least expect the bar tenders to know rudimentary English so that if you were to order a drink they would no what it was. I had to ask three bartenders for peanuts and was told they had none and after talking to the guy at the front desk they had some. No chips and a fight to get peanuts at the bar. I find that to be unacceptable for an all inclusive five star resort. Speaking of the bars,... all of us felt that the liquor was very diluted. They say that Premium liquor is available but we only found it at the main bar in the main hotel - definitely not where you spend most of the day.
As a couple we spent about three hundred dollars in tips and did get preferential treatment from what I could see around us. An interesting note is that our friends left five dollars taped to their minibar (above what was left for the maid) and rather than the two tiny bottles of liquor and two beers they were always given eight liquors and four beers. This is more what I would expect when they advertise a stocked minibar. If you consider a two ounce bottle of whiskey and one of vodka along with two beers and a couple of soft drinks to be a a fully stocked bar in a five star resort you will be happy! Although I requested potato chips and was told there were none that extra five dollars seemed to make them appear for our friends on a consistent basis.
Now on to the food. If you are used to fine dining you will find the food in the a la carte restaurants to be largely inedible. One night at one of the restaurants we were happy to meet some friends that we met on the beach sitting at the table beside us and asked to have our tables joined together and again rather than a yes to the request it was a NO. Again another irritation not expected.
The buffet food is better with all of the food being overcooked and often kept lukewarm with the warmers not on. If food was served in this manner in Canada the health inspectors would close the restaurant.
Men should be made aware that any variation from the dress codes for lunch and supper will be refused service. Women on the other hand can wear anything. Men must wear full short sleeved shirts for lunch , but a woman in a bikini top seems to be very acceptable. If a man was to wear long Bermuda shorts to supper he would be refused service but if you were a woman hot pants are alright. The resort needs to be a more rational in its dress codes and there enforcement if it wants to have them at all. It all seems a little overdone for a tropical resort.
A comment on the rooms would be that you should be prepared to have your keys fail a couple of times in a week. The beds and pillows are not up to standard. It took about three hours to fill the hot tub and when full it was found to be brown. The toilet room is non vented.
There are usually only one or two staff people that can speak fluent English at the Resort.
There is no internet in the rooms and the wireless service in the lobby is extremely slow and you are restricted in your usage. Again this is not expect in this supposed class of resort.
It seems strange that there is only one free shuttle onto and off of the island per day.
Five star service? No. Five star accommodation and food ? No.
This is a nice place to visit but do not e mislead into thinking that it is a fabulous Five star experience.

I agree with much of what is set out in other reviews: gorgeous grounds, huge and lovely rooms, friendly and helpful staff, almost magical island location.

The property has two significant drawbacks, both of which could be easily fixed. First, it desperately needs a decent kitchen. Because of the island location, you are hostage to whatever they serve. In most cases the food is merely bland. Unfortunately, the food was worse in the ala carte restaurants to the point of being inedible. At least at the buffet there was more choice. My strategy was to eat a high protein breakfast, and subsist at lunch and dinner.

The second and more surprising issue was the comfort of the beds. Pillows resemble cinder blocks in size and comfort. I didn’t enjoy waking up with a backache every morning from the poor mattress. Management would be well advised to look at what major chains do to make their beds comfortable.

Other issues were minor but annoying in a property that I wanted to like more than I did: oversweetened drinks, cheesy entertainment, unvented bathrooms, housekeeping being consistently late in making up a room.

This hotel is like an over-decorated cake: pretty but unsatisfying. Fix the cooking - maybe an upcharge for palatable items - and the beds and we’ll be back next year.

We were there Jan 28th to Feb 4th 2008. The resort was beautiful and the rooms were georgeous. I have been in Cancun, Punta Cana and Cuba this was the nicest room I had ever stayed in. All the reviews are accurate about what they say. The food was great and lots of variety. The weather was a little rainy when we were there. It rained about 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes at night. It was a bit overcast most of the days. But when the sun was out for the full day it was hot. Although there were a few people who spoke a bit of english, I wish I had brushed up on my spanish. Special regards to Gabriel who gave me a tennis lesson, he spoke the best english, Miky at the beach bar who was going to be a new dad the day we left, and also Adan at the lobby bar, great bunch of guys. There was no night life and we had wished there would have been more at the water sports hut. Communication wasn't great there and they didn't offer alot. The snorkeling was not good, the ocean was too rough and cloudy. The best spot we found for snorkeling was on the south side of the public beach which was beautiful. We saw mostly starfish, conch and a few unusal fish but nothing colorful. The only problem we had was the key card to our room kept failing, so we were frustrated from time to time.