Iberostar Bavaro Resort Hotel

, Higuey, Dominican Republic
Review this Hotel
Popular Travel Destinations

Recently Reviewed Hotels Around Higuey

Iberostar Bavaro Resort Hotel

, Higuey
Playa Bavaro - Higuey - Dominican Republic Hotel Website | 809-221-6500
1765 Traveller

Reviews - Iberostar Bavaro Resort Hotel

Historical Traveller Reviews of Iberostar Bavaro Resort Hotel

Save your Money

from A TripAdvisor Member
I just returned from a trip to Ocean Bavaro and i can tell you it was
truly the worst experience i have encountered while on vacation. When
we made our reservations we specifically requested that our rooms be
located together because we were a party of 8 with 4 elderly people. To
my dismay our request was not granted although our rooms were booked
well over a month in advance by Sears Travel.
To add insult to injury our rooms were placed in 4 opposite corners of the hotel. An elderly lady who had knee problems was placed on a second floor with no elevator access. When we requested a wheelchair for her we were told there would be a charge or 30 american dollars per day to rent a wheelchair!

Now here is something that you would not know unless you are travelling as part of a large group. We all payed the same rate, yet of the 4 rooms assigned to us one had an acceptable view and had a fruit bowl there to welcome you the first day. The other room for the same rate had a view of a wall and no fruit and the air conditioner had a fould stench.

After complaining to the front desk for quite a while we were moved to a batter room temporarily for one night to then be moved again closer to the other members of our party.

We were told there would be 5 restaurants a la carte there we only found one buffet restaurant that simply changed the name on the front entrance every evening from mexican to chineese ect..... There is one dedicated mexican restaurant than can hold around 50 people maximum. A number that is not acceptable for a hotel of this capacity. There was one italian restaurant where you can not enter to eat because as was explained to me by a staff member the owners of the two hotels are at odds with each other (As if that were my problem while i am on vacation).

Our final room would have been acceptable were it not for the fact that you could peek right in through a crack on the door about 1/4" wide and the fact that i could enter the room by sliding the credit card on the side of the door (not a great deal of security there).

Simple but skip the dump as i was told by the bus driver on the way back to the airport it is the lowest quality hotel out of all the hotels in the area. I have more nightmares about the hotel but this should give you a general overview as to how bad the service is.

Great Value, But Not Perfect (Of Course)

from A TripAdvisor Member
Last year I went to an all-inclusive resort in the Riviera Maya (Paradisus), and I knew that because of the price difference (This place is much cheaper) it would not be fair to expect the same from both places. I came to realize that it is just a different atmosphere in the Dominican than in Mexico. First of all, in the Dominican you have much more of a melting pot of world cultures. As a result, Spanish and French are the majority languages, with English a third and German a fourth. Luckily there are many foreigners who speak English as a second language, so we could make some sense of each other when we would try to talk. Contrary to other reviews, I did not find the French to be rude at all. My biggest advice would be to learn how to say "Please, Thank You, Hello, Good Morning, Sorry, Excuse Me, Your Welcome" in French, Spanish, and perhaps German. Being able to say these things will go a long way in showing them that you are not so ethnocentric. While I'm mentioning the nationalities, I want to add that the place is peppered with naked breasts. This could be a major factor if you have children, or just don't want to be around that. It also got kind of annoying that the animation team had to repeat everything in about four languages, and English was rarely spoken. I might as well just mention the bad things while I'm on it. I believe the place to be a bit understaffed. At the pool bar the one bartender was taking care of the people in the pool and those out of it. In Mexico they had 3-4 bartenders in the same type of bar. We had to wait a while for our drinks. The front desk was a bit hectic as well. I sometimes had to wait a long time just to get a simple task accomplished. And now for the good stuff. The place was beautiful. The beach is among the best in the world, the water clear and sand white.
The room was clean and nice, though a bit smaller than our last resort.
The bathroom was spacious and clean. The grounds crew is on top of everything, it's as nicely manicured as a country club. The restaurants don't take reservations, so as long as you beat the European crowd (which eats after 8), you're sure to get a seat. The food is good. I would not recommend the Mexican restaurant though, I ordered fajitas and they came out as a non-sizzling plate of meat and two tortillas.
That's it, no tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, guac, etc. The other restaurants were awesome though. The Brazilian allows you to get side dishes and a salad, and every five minutes they bring you a sample of some kind of meat fresh from the fire (very tasty and varied). There were plenty of activities to do, including snorkeling, windsurfing, kayaking, ping-pong, pool, volleyball, darts, bocce, soccer, and whatever random contest the animation team is running. One nice feature was a "siesta" time from 12-3pm where they would have no activites so people could rest on the beach or do whatever they want. However, once 3 rolled around, the speakers were pumping music again and the animation team was recruiting people again. Don't worry there were secluded parts of the beach for those who desire quiet. The nightly entertainment was great, and one night featured a beach party with a professional stage, numerous vocalists and a band, and a respectable fireworks show. That was perhaps the highlight of our trip.

Overall I found the place to be well worth the money. If you are wanting a good value and a good time, I highly recommend this place. If you have been to a few all-inclusives, and you are going to compare them all, this may not be the best one. My attitude is this, just compare it to a hilton, or just everyday life, and you will never be dissappointed! I would go back.

If you do go, I highly recommend bringing some immodium and perhaps some antibiotics. If you want to snorkel for cheap just ask the locals with a boat (you will see them saying "snorkel taxi") and for 10-15 bucks you can go snorkeling for an hour or two. Going through the hotel will cost you over 50. If you go to the nearby market place, visit a store called "los Pinos Plaza." They do not barter there, and as a result, they do not jack up any prices. I know it's fun to talk a local down from $20 to $8 for a small painting, but we bought two at los Pinos for $2 each. All of their merchandise is at rock bottom prices, and good quality too (it's the same artists who paint all of them).

Have fun.

Not really what i was expecting

from A TripAdvisor Member
The rooms were not clean and have problems wirth the bathroom. called about 3 times for repairs , they never showed up. Food was excellent.
Most of the activities are dedicated to tourist from europe. Outside the hotel people changes prices and they try to explote the visitors money for activities that are not really good. Manati Park Sucks!

Beautiful

from A TripAdvisor Member
I thought the resort was beautiful but the service was poor. English was lacking everywhere we went on the resort. That should be a requirement to work on the resort. The food was good but my friend was sick the last 2 days of the trip. I wasn't effected at all and ate everything. Gorgeous landscape. The pools were nice except the one with the swim up bar, there were bugs and hair all in the water. Chlorine was not in either of the pools which is frightening. Overall I would go back to this resort but after a few spanish lessons.

Better than expected

from A TripAdvisor Member
After reading the negative reviews, I almost switched hotels at the last minute. The grounds are beautiful and the beach is very nice. We never had a problem getting chairs at the beach or pool. The pool by the way does have a large swim up bar. Apple vacations web site stated that it did not. There was a large variety of food and it was good. My only complaint is the front desk service. Check-in was chaos. There was no organization at all and the people working the front desk barely spoke English. One more complaint. The majority of the people who stay at this resort are French. Enough said.

Medical Care

from A TripAdvisor Member
Hope that you do not require any kind of medical atttention on the resort...Unfortunately, I required medical care on the last day of my stay as a result of food poisoning from seafood I ate at the resort. What a horrifying experience. The medical care provided by the resort was inadequate and it was apparent that the medical care provider was not trained to handle what I have been told is a very common problem at these resorts. Fortunately there happened to be a doctor as a guest at the resort who took complete charge and was obviously a trained professional. Make sure you have travelers insurance or that your health care insurance covers you outside the US...if not you will be forced to pay up front. They even charged me for the medical services or lack thereof at the resort. The ambulance was not equipped with the proper equipment and the ride took almost a half hour...riding through countless speed bumps. To add insult to injury the public relations representative from the resort advised me, in an extremely rude and abrupt manner, that the resort would not assume any responsiblity - they claim I was the only guest that got sick - she even went as far as to advise me that if more guests had gotten sick then the resort would have assumed some responsibility. This unfortunate incident cost me 3 days in the hospital, 2 additional days out of work and US$2,500.00.

Beautiful resort, but...

from A TripAdvisor Member
We found the H10 (whick is now called Ocean Bavaro, by the way, since being bought by a new owner) to be beautifully landscaped, the beach is great, rooms were nice. The food was good, we thought, with a lot of variety. We had little problem with language the whole trip, from the airport on down to day trips. Our biggest complaint was how crowded it felt. They were booked to capacity, so there were tons of people. There are not enough beach chairs, so you have to "claim" yours early in the morning by putting your beach towels on them, or you are out of luck. The second worst part is how loud everything is. We go to the caribbean to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. You WILL NOT find that here. The Europeans must have to be entertained 24/7 because there was constant games, aerobics, dance lessons, water polo, more aerobics, more games, on and on and on. All with the PA blasting music and the instructors with microphones. I swear every day at 5:00 they had dance classes with only 10 or 15 people participating, but had a guy with a microphone blasting at ear-splitting volume going "one-two-three, uno-dos-tres, one-two-three" constantly for an hour straight.We did a couple of the day trips: Monster Truck Safari is great. You should definitely do that to see some of the Dominican Republic. Also did the Saona Island Catamaran. For the most part that was okay too, but they neglect to tell you that Saona Island is a mosquito infested hell-hole. We couldn't do anything but stand in the water to keep from getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. We have friends whoe also went to Punta Cana, stayed at the Melia and had none of these issues, so I guess you get what you pay for.

This Is a Deserved Review

from A TripAdvisor Member
Not knowing what to expect after seeing the reviews posted, I was anxious to find sun and fun, yet a bit apprehensive. I found most of the prior reviews to be pretty accurate.The food was edible, but that was about it. If you like fruit, you will be happy. Their version of beef and pork seems to have a game flavor. I found the bar staff and restaurant staff to be very friendly and helpful, yet the front desk personnel seemed to be less helpful. Sometimes even annoying. They were the ones who spoke the best English, and weren't too willing to help. Communication was difficult for the most part, because most of the tourists were German, French and Italian. We had to play a lot of charades to communicate. This was kind of fun, but did get old after awhile. We didn't encounter any problems with the toilets leaking or the lack of hot water as mentioned in other reviews. I did have to chase down a housekeeper for towels after they took our dirty towels and left none. They also de-activated our key card 2 days early. Which meant we had to interrupt our day and get that problem solved. We didn't even get an apology which is the LEAST they could have done. The grounds and beach are absolutely beautiful with beautiful sand and are always clean. One warning is that when the floors in the hallways and walkways are wet, they are extremely slippery!! I felt myself slipping quite often, and noticed others doing the same. There are enough things to do to keep busy. We were unfortunate in that we didn't have the best weather. It rained 1/2 the time. That is not the fault of the resort, but it kept us from doing more water sports. All in all, This was a fun trip. I would do it again.

iffy

from A TripAdvisor Member
A beautiful place with average food. however, we were forever having to get out room pass re- scanned, the toilet was not working right, instructions for resturants and activities are not well posted and few of the help speak English. I dont want to seem like the crude American, buuut, tourism is their bread and butter. We were there the week of March 18, 2003

Great Value

from A TripAdvisor Member
Booked the H10 Bavaro through a travel agency. This was our 2nd trip to this resort. Flew out of Boston, MA. Trip went without a hitch. Weather was great (2nd week in January 2003) for the 1st 5 days, then the last day and half, weather was stormy with rain. If the weather is bad there is not much to do. Resort was well maintained, food was very good. Beach well maintained. If you want a good spot on the beach, should get out there before 8 or 9AM. Clientele predominately from Europe and Canada. Very clickish but OK. The last couple of days, had some problems with our room. The shower head was not working properly, but after calling, this was changed quickly. Also had a water leak, by the toilet. The maintenance men tried to fix the problem, but broke the pipe and it took two days to correct the problem. Also towards the end had a problem with the Air Conditioner. This was corrected in about one day. During this time, we did spend one night in another room. Outside of the above problems, we had a good time, and would consider going back.

Top Local Tips for Higuey

Weather & Time of year.... The weather was gorgeous! We had 80-90 degree days everyday and we went in late Feb. It only rained 1 time and the sun came bursting out 1 hr later. I advise you to start off with 45 SPF sunscreen as we used 30 and we still had a burn. The sun is VERY hot so be careful. Go anytime between November and April as the other times of year are susceptible to hurricanes.

be respectful that your in their country Try to learn a bit of spanish just basic words like hello thank you good night, in advance ask about phone chargers, and the shows and the club is fun the workers are really friendly(not too friendly)

tipping at all inclusives you dont have to spend a penny at an all-inclusive. but leaving a dollar or two on the table after meals, or when you get beers at the bar, or a few bucks for the maid each morning...is really just a nce thing to do, you'll never miss 1 or 2 bucks, but they will really appreciate it!

(hotels)loading

Other names for Iberostar Bavaro Resort Hotel

  • puta cana
  • punta cana ocean bavaro
  • ocean bavaro spa beach resort
  • ocean bavaro spa & beach resort
  • ocean bavaro spa
  • ocean bavaro punta cana
  • ocean bavaro
  • barcelo punta cana
  • barcelo hotel dominican beach
  • barcelo dominican beach
  • Address: Playa Bavaro - Higuey - Dominican Republic
Travel Library Traveller Rating?
6.0/10

See All 1765 reviews

Review this Hotel
Candid Traveller Photos
  •  Loading Image...
  •  Loading Image...
  •  Loading Image...
  •  Loading Image...
(hotels)loading

Hotels Near Iberostar Bavaro Resort Hotel