We had made reservations at Catalonia in Bayahibe a month in advance and when we got there we were told our reservations of four rooms had been cancelled because we did not RE-CONFIRMED. We already had guaranteed these rooms. The resort was overbooked. We asked to speak to the manager and we were told he/she wasn't in. Only the front desk manager Gemma Huerta was available at the time. She was no help at all because she basically told us that the only options we had was to stay at the resort next door where she had already made reservations for us at a higher rate that was not in our budget or head back home!. We had never ever been treated so poorly by a hotel manager. She has no clue how to treat guests. We did not received an apology on her part and at the end she just walked away from us and did not come back out. Please DO NOT STAY at this resort. We ended up staying at Iberostar and we do not regret it at all. The service at Iberostar was excellent, we noticed the difference as soon as we walked in.

I especially loved this hotel's location. The ground's were nice and I loved their food especially the fish although quite expensive. There were plenty of things to do: catamaran, jungle or river excursions snorkeling, pic-nics and some water sports.
I spent most of my time at the beach so although the hotel was good I cannot overly comment on it's services as I used very little.

Careful though as at the beach there are some thieves which can easily be driven away. And also if you are a beach lover please be prepared for a crowded and littered beach on the weekend as it is a locals' weekend getaway beach as well, however the rest of the week the beach is quiet and clean. Also there are thousand and thousands of crabs (that do not bite) but they dig through the sand and can show up next to you. I had fun playing with them.

it was a good resort ,good food fun entertainment ,lots of italian people so there was alot of italian food so if you are italian you will like this resort because most of the staff understands the language. Clean resort needs a little bit more exciting breakfast food. There was a lot of pizza and pasta which was good ,beautiful beach area and very beautiful pool area.

We visited Catalonia Gran Domincus December 2007 two adults and two 11 year olds.
We had an excellent holiday on all accounts. Though we heard little if any English all week (it's a resort frequented by Europeans primarily Spanish and Italians) it provided even more of a sense of getaway and the language challenges easily overcome with a little French and perseverance. The staff is very helpful in finding someone to communicate in English if required.
The rooms were very clean and tidy, lots of hot water, towels and the A/C worked perfectly. The gardens and the beach immaculately kept and lovely to walk through.
The food was equally pleasing from a variety of daily homecooked pastas and wood-oven made to order pizzas daily in al fresco Pasta/Pizza Bar restaurant to a wide good tasting variety of food choices on the main buffet in the other dining room.
The two a la carte dining rooms which guests are allowed to visit on two occasions during the week were average and we preferred the other two dining rooms.
There was a snack shack on the beach where you could sit down and dine on finger foods or salads, burgers and hot dogs or fruit all day long if you didn't want to get out of your swimsuit and leave the beach.
Towel serice was excellent and orderly.
Though there was a daycare-program for young children up to about 6 years of age , the older kids had no program to attend so my 11 year olds entertained themselves which wasnt' too hard to do there. The pool was an amazing massive compilation of about 5 pools in one, very big and at various levels of depth. There are a lot of lawn chairs about the pool to hang out on all day. The main bar close to the pool is always staffed by friendly and attentive staff. It provides a lovely area to sit and read and sip an expresso or cocktail The quality of the wine and beer is excellent, wine being European, Spanish in fact and beer Presidente. Snacks are out at the pool side bar for most of the day too from cake to cookies to sandwiches if you want.
The entertainment in the evenings was quite good though from a rendition of Grease to Top 40 hits by the very hard working young staff members. The internet cafe provided a link to the outside world if' that was your wish for a modest fee.
We would willingly and happily go back to Gran Dominicus Catalonia DR for a holiday. It was very low-key place which provided a quiet holiday if you wanted and had a outdoor disco that ran well into the wee hours of the morning if that was your style. Roving resort photographers took excellent snaps of guests and sold them at a very reasonable price. Not a ton of bells and whistles at this resort like some of the bigger and newer ones out there but lots of opportunity to sit back relax and enjoy the tropical sun and surf.
One of my children has special medical needs and the staff was always helpful no that front and accomodating to make sure her medical needs were met. Overall the staff was spectacular in terms of attentiveness and friendliness.
We took a beautiful catamaran trip to a nearby Island for about 90 dollars a person. It was worth every penny. And I would recommend it to people with children over the age of 7 years.