We had the pleasure of staying at the all-inclusive Barcelo Punta Cana this week. The resort is only 25 minutes from Punta Cana’s Airport and offers American standards of comfort with European flair in service. The public areas are attractive and clean. There is an abundance of lovely, well-manicured gardens. The dining, activity, and public venues are close together and are easily accessible for the physically challenged.

ROOMS
There are four connected low-rise towers set near the beach in this S-shape family-oriented resort with 587 standard rooms, 155 ocean view rooms and 53 suites. The lobby, shopping area, and restaurants are in the center. The standard rooms are more than adequate for two people with adjacent room accommodations available for families with children. We stayed in a deluxe (newly refurbished) room on the fourth floor and enjoyed the ocean and pool view from our balcony. The downside of the top floor rooms is you can hear everything that is being said next door (a big plus for a family with adjoining rooms). The room had bathrobes and an easy-to-use new safe.

There are three room categories - book a Club level suite if you can - and it’s luck of the draw how close or far you are from the action in the plaza, the two main pools, or the dining venues. All suites were booked throughout our stay so we cannot comment on them. The Concierge Lounge and service staff for the Club level is outstanding offering an open bar with top-shelf liquor, fresh hors d’oeuvres from morning until night and complimentary Wi-Fi internet access.

BEACH and POOLS
Situated on Bavaro’s beautiful long, clean, wide beach with powder white sand, a few palm trees and “palapas” for shade, the resort has more than enough lounge chairs both on the beach and at the two pools. Our family had difficulty finding shaded space on the beach; lounges in the prime shady locations were reserved by guests as early as 5:00am.

With a barrier coral reef and gentle surf, there were good snorkeling experiences at the beach. There is a dive shop on the beach with many water activities available including: SCUBA lessons, kayaking, windsurfing and sailing. There are no itinerant vendors on the beach to bother guests. Jet-ski rental and parasailing is offered at your own risk.

There is an adult pool, a family pool, and a new shallow wading pool with terrific waterslides and sculptures for climbing and fun for children of all ages.

ACTIVITIES
There is an enthusiastic group of social coordinators organizing daily activities including a terrific circus trapeze, trampoline lessons, a rock-climbing wall, beach and pool volleyball, water aerobics, and group games. The Kids’ Club is a supervised program and babysitting is available in the evening.

The small full-service spa has an adequate fitness center, a good Jacuzzi and a sauna. The big theater has seats for everyone and offers nightly local entertainment with lots of involvement of the staff and guests. There is a sports bar with internet access for a very reasonable charge, a small casino with humorless dealers, and a kickin’ disco.

DINING
The quality and variety of the food and beverages is better than we expected. The small open-air “Alcazar Buffet” offered good but boring food for all three meals. The service staff is very friendly and anxious to please. The Alcazar is not well lit and the traffic pattern is a bit chaotic when full. We predict that this main buffet will be upgraded in the near future. NOTE: Get used to Nescafe if you require decaffeinated coffee - they did not brew it when we were there.

Use one of the six excellent a la carte specialty restaurants for dinner. These six require reservations each day (for only that day) and you can go as many nights as there are tables available. The Japanese-themed “Tokio” is teppanyaki style, El Mirador is Tex-Mex, the El Marlin is the “Grill Fish and Steakhouse,” “Roma” has outstanding Italian menu, and “El Cornucu” serves authentic Dominican style. Our favorite dining spot was “Paris,” an air-conditioned, refined French dining experience. It is a bit small and is usually the first of the dinner venues fully booked.

LIQUID REFRESHMENT
Barcelo Punta Cana has seven bars including a swim-up bar at the beautiful adult pool. All serve local beer, blended drinks and house brand spirits with friendly bar staff. Every room has a refrigerated mini-bar restocked daily with bottled water, soda, and beer. Unlimited bottled water is available throughout the resort.

This resort is part of the worldwide Barcelo chain of hotels; every attempt is made to satisfy guests’ needs. The management staff is excellent and we will be recommending it highly to clients of our travel agencies who are looking for great value in a quality, Caribbean, all-inclusive family resort.

Please contact the travel agents below to book your perfect Punta Cana, Dominican Republic vacation:

Sue & Marv Weber, owner/mgrs
Marvelous Travel, Inc. and
Cruise Planners, an American Express Agency
2 Allandale Road
Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462
610.277.6165

Tags: all inclusive, Barcelo, Barcelo Punta Cana, caribbean, Club Level, Dominican Republic, Family Resort, Premium, punta cana

This entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 9:43 am and is filed under Hotel Review, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.