T C
Beautiful spot. HIGHLY recommend the beach side over the palace, however I wish there was a swim up bar on the beach side. Amazing service from Luis and Franyer Fransua (blah blah blah), they were great and very entertaining. Buffet was consistently good. The view from our premium room was breath taking. Fresh coconuts and pineapple drinks were so great. Room service deliveries were delicious and timely. The A/C on the rooms was an absolute life saver, the sun was STRONG during our stay. I would 100% come back here.
Teresa Feser
Really enjoyed a recent stay at this resort. The property is well kept and the staff are great. The food at the buffet was actually better than the specialty restaurants in my opinion. The food was hot, there was a lot of variety, the buffet area was kept very clean, nicely presented and well stocked. We had less reliable experiences at the specialty restaurants.
We enjoyed the golf course, and the beach and pool areas were easy to get to and well cared for. The room was a little dated, but clean and comfortable.
The staff were very nice-- and I appreciated how helpful and reliable they were in arranging transportation.
I would return!
Tracy Winter
Bed was comfy. View from room was wonderful. Bathtub/shower drain was disgusting and constantly clogged. Premium Service Desk representatives were sometimes rude and not helpful - they mixed up our spa reservations. Pickup and drop off from airport and resort was very organized by Delta and much appreciated. Food service was awful at buffets and reservation-only establishments. Quality of food was fair, but below the standard I was expecting. Would have liked to know of the various activities available throughout the entire resort on day of arrival versus having to explore and find out coincidentally on our own. The pools light up beautifully at night. Tight security was much appreciated. I felt safe at the resort.
Rasheedah Hancock
My travel group had high hopes for our experience but there are definitely some opportunities for this resort to improve. The location is great as it's not too far from the airport and depending on your package, you have easy access to the rest of the resort by trolley.
The support that came with the premium package was great, Lesa was amazing and so patient with our group. A highlight of our room was the swim up pool and outdoor patio area, which still make it somewhat worth it.
What was lacking was ...the food was not great at any of the restaurants, the fruit was the best thing available. The rooms were very dated and in need of some basic maintenance. The beds only came with sheets, no duvet or comforter, and our room phone did not work, nor was it replaced when we mentioned that it did not work.
Also worth mentioning, the family pool areas at the Barcelo Bavaro Palace seemed to have much more of a party vibe over by the swim up bar, if that's what you're looking for. It felt like they have definitely invested more on the family side, than on the adults only side.
Kiara Morales
We went on vacation with 5 people for my cousins' 30th Birthday at this Adults Only All Inclusive resort. I'm going to give a run down of our experience. We were there from Wednesday-Sunday.
PROS:
-Most staff were very friendly
-Buffet was good, maybe the lunch time needs more variety
-Pool and Beach are clean and beautiful
-AC in the rooms are lifesavers
-Clean beach/pool towels
-Little train that runs from 3pm-3am to and from the Palace side of the resort
CONS:
-NO EVENTS or fun activities besides the one hour every night they have "entertainment"
-There's no music playing, ANYWHERE. It felt more like a retirement resort. We were told that we couldn't play our speaker because people didn't want the noise. But the staff and other guests were dancing and having a good time when we played music. Everyday we had people telling us to play music and that they were disappointed there was no entertainment in the ADULTS ONLY side of the resort.
-If you think you're going to be around other adults that include adults in their 30s, you're mistaken. It's mostly catered towards older adults and the "younger" adults didn't hang out in the pool or beach because there was nothing going on, they mostly went to the Palace side. Which should not be the case, there should be fun activities for all adults; especially in the adults only side.
-The Casino and Club and any late night bars are all on the other side which is Palace. We were all hanging out in the bar by the lobby one night with other people and they shut the lights off at 12am. No warning. We all then took the train to the Palace side to keep hanging out.
-Some staff definitely treated us differently then their other clients, and we spoke Spanish. It seemed as soon as they heard us speak, their level of customer service went down. Which definitely should not be the case.
-They did not have a clear schedule for room service. Our room went two days with no clean towels. They would come at 8am, 11am, and once at 6:30PM????? and then just never came back.
-You need to reserve the specialty restaurants (which are 95% all located in the Palace side) ahead of time or you're just stuck eating the buffet every night. The buffet at the palace side had way more variety. We tried to reserve the Kyoto restaurant from the first day we were there but it was "fully booked" for the entire time we were there. Wish we would have known ahead of time. Try reserving them at least 1-2 weeks before your stay, I guess.
I'm just going to end this with saying, if you're selling this side of the resort for Adults Only, you should be more clear in what that means. Most of us wanted to come to this side because we didn't want to be around children when we're on vacation. This was mostly catered to older adults and it should not be that way, we also paid money to come here. There should be music, activities, entertainment and a snack bar because it's annoying to have to go to the palace side EVERY NIGHT in order to see any type of life. They have a huge stage in the beach side with so many chairs and space. It's sad that it's only used for one hour every night and that's it. They could do so much more. They definitely need to put in their description, "NO SPEAKERS, NO NOISE, NO MUSIC". Even though we lowered our speaker to be more respectful and never was drunk and loud around other patrons. The only time they had some kind of "pool party" was on Saturday and it was also for one maybe two hours. Then it was done. Sad.
Would not stay here again. Or if we did, we would rather deal with children and stay in the Palace side.