Weare Bayahibe

Worst Vacation
First some shared info in general that I always try to share at the beginning of my reports.

Use a certified travel agent. They are your first recourse when something goes wrong and they will advocate for you with the carrier.

USE YOUR ROOM SAFE. At all times. Do not leave your room unless you have cash or other valuables locked in the safe or on your person. Many of the reasons people report bad experiences is due to bad service or theft. The hotel will not take any responsibility or replace what you claim was stolen.

Don't drink the water while in the Dominican Republic. Don't even brush your teeth with it. It is not potable at all on the resorts. Chances are if you hear of people getting seriously ill they drank the water. The sites and carriers don't advertise the fact. If you go to your orientation once you get there they do tell you. So don't skip your orientation. If you arrange your stay yourself, i.e. don't use a carrier, I'm strictly talking all-inclusives here, use some common sense. They give you bottled water not just as a courtesy but out of necessity. Drink the bottled water until you learn the lay of the land. If you go off resort and aren't sure then drink Coke or beer. The only all-inclusive I stayed at that I didn't have to drink bottled was in Panama. But be careful.

Don't flush the toilet paper. Throw it in the trash. They are not connected to city water and it clogs up the plumbing.

Do tip. This is a poor country. The people work hard and make way less than anyone in Canada makes for sure. It doesn't always equal better service but at least we are helping these people out.

Be polite, a Hola or Buenos dias, tardes or noches goes a lot way. So does por favor and gracias. Everyone should travel with manners.

Arrival: Arrival was quick as there was only four arriving. But we were greeted with neither a cool towel or drink.

Room: The basic room is what they call a Studio. It had neither a patio nor a balcony. It's an enclosed hotel room with a kitchenette. Bathroom with tub but no stopper in case you want to have a bath. A free safe, a TV, wall A/C. Just very basic. Basic wouldn't be so bad if they actually cleaned it. The bath tub had never seen a sponge and cleanser, it was black. A dead bug sat on the floor of my bathroom all week. The fixtures were not made to shine. The shower head was clogged and could have used some CLR. Most egregious was that the shower liner was black with mould. In short it was kind of disgusting. There was spilled nail polish on the floor, wall and door when I got there and no effort had been made to clean it up. Don't the cleaners have supervisors or heads of housekeeping that check their work? I'd be embarrassed to charge for a room that was this dirty. The minibar was supposed to have water, soft drinks and beer. There was only 2 bottles of water. As well there were supposed to be 2 beach towels in the room. There were not. After my orientation when I mentioned these things, that changed. But c'mon they had 4-5 hours to get the room ready and create a good impression.

The food is horrible and repetitive. The fruit juices were never cold. It was never hot. They don't have proper chafing dishes to keep things hot and as it is open air there are a lot of flies, etc. There is also no ice cream. The desserts were not cold and melting. They do pizza very well and on my last day there they had incredible fried chicken. But nothing is labelled in English so it is hard to tell if it is not obvious what you are eating. Saturday night they had a fish night and nothing was labelled. I had no idea what I was eating. If I had had an allergy to shell fish I would have been in trouble. They have nothing really guaranteed gluten free. They have one a la carte which only seats 20 people above the lobby. You have to be at reception at 7am to book it. The one night I went it was Chef's surprise. It's a 3 course meal. It was ok, although the menu had very bad English translations and the steak was grisly. We didn't get a steak knife. And still had paper napkins.

They used to have a coffee shop but the shop front was empty. I have never had to buy snacks at a resort before but I did at this one.

The service in the restaurant is slow to non-existent. It was hard to even get your water glass refilled. One day after about ½ hour I went up and filled my own water glass. They didn't like that so much. They spend most of their time taking away your dishes. I suppose because I was a solo traveller they felt I wasn't worth their time. The grounds themselves are kept nice. As I travelled there in July there was never any problem finding a seat at the beach or by the pool which was nice. But there are so many flies, mosquitos and small almost invisible flies that are there to bite you! I came back with so many bites!

The bar, unlike many AIs, did not have a specialty drink. Some of them have their own cocktails. When I asked the bartender if they had a special drink he didn't understand me or pretended not to know so I ordered a pina colada.

They didn't seem to have any activities. There was a water activity pool for kids with a slide etc. but it looked pretty decrepit. No animation crews. At night they had a sax player around the one bar outside of the open air buffet. There were excursions you could book and I did book one but it was to Soana Island which is a tourist trap really.

However I did have 3 problems that they were able to resolve. First problem, I had no hot water in my shower for a couple of days. At first I thought it was just the time of day and they ran out, then I thought I had to let it run for awhile. Nothing worked, so I mentioned it to the front desk and it was fixed by next day.

Second problem is that Canadians like to use wash cloths. I know it's mostly a North American and West European thing. Anyway I had to ask for them a couple of times. The second time I Googled the Spanish translation, wrote the maid a note and got 3 the next day.

Third problem was that one day my A/C just quit. I called and they sent someone right away but they could not fix it. The front desk person told me that a specialist would be there the next day at 9am to fix it. And it happened. It was fixed.

Another strong point is that they have free WiFi on the beach, by the pool, the buffet and the lobby.

Departure: Departure was uneventful and smooth. Although for some reason I was on a flight that flew in and out of the Punta Cana International Airport. It left later in the day. On the morning of my departure I was eating breakfast and had not packed and a man came from the hotel and told me my bus was at the front. I almost had a heart attack. I thought that maybe my flight had been changed and no one told me, although I had checked the book in the lobby the day before. So I told him I was flying out later and he put the rep on the phone. I told her that I was leaving later and she realized I was on the other flight. Nothing gets your heart started faster than thinking you only have 10 minutes to pack!
At any rate I will not be going back. It was pretty much the most miserable vacation I've had.

As a solo traveller there was absolutely nothing for me. [Details]

Not a luxury resort but quiet and kids friendly. The water park kept them busy and the kids really enjoyed. We all loved entertainment group. Francisco was awesome. He was funny and very friendly. Also chicken we loved him.

Overall trip was good. We had difficulty with our room first night but they changed our room. [Details]

Enjoyed our week away.This is an older resort and quite small which we liked.Small things need to be upgraded.eg.Tiles by Pool and flag stones on walk ways.Very clean every where,All employees were extremely nice and helpful.Our room was located a couple of minutes from the Beach which was great but it was a studio apt.with the bed being up a wooden staircase and bathroom downstairs.We are seniors and didn't really like this.However as we were so close to Beach and Restautant we did not ask for a change of room.Buffet was small but adequate for us.They did run out of some food and never enough plates available at any sitting but the food and plates were replenished..Food was good but there was no information on exactly what most dishes were.Overall we were quite satisfied with everything.Shows were a little haphazard so,didn't see any.No cultural shows as far as we knew.
. [Details]

Second time in this beach area, first time at this hotel. Our family had a lovely time and the weather was great. [Details]

We have done quite a bit of traveling and were excited to go to the DR. Hotel is small which we knew and we were excited to stay at a smaller resort then we usually do, but there was not a lot to do, not a lot of entertainment. Most of the staff were not friendly and made you feel like you were not welcome. Food was so so and there was not a huge drink selection, rum, beer and pina coladas basically. Beach was breath taking, private pier was fantastic, snorkeling right off the beach in the coral reefs absolutely amazing. [Details]

We arrived at the hotel late night,first when we got in the room there was horrible smell..We were very disappointed! The food the same every day , no activity's, so. The next day our air conditioner broke., and we ask a manager to change our room, so we had to change three rooms, cause every room had problems such: a .mold on the wall, covered with the black dirt air conditioner, then just dusty and stinky rooms. we are not recommend this hotel to anyone!! [Details]

The Cadaques was very clean and the room was large as the bathroom was updated.The food was good and buffet could have been warmer. Getting a lounge chair at the ocean was hard to obtain probably be there
by 7.00 a. m. [Details]