Gran Bahia Principe Punta Cana, SALVALEóN de HIGüEY

The food was absolutely horrible!!! I finally thought we would have a great meal at their more executive resturant to find little sugar ants crawling all over the table and just so so food. I just expected so much more for the price we paid. Also, the people were not friendly unless you tipped them up front. We were more then willing to tip but you tip for good service. Even when we tipped the service wasn't that great for the exception of the gentleman at the main bar, he was always friendly and attentive. We also left the maid extra money in hopes of getting some extra beverages but that didn't happen either. We went to the spa and did enjoy one of the packages with the sauna and hot and cold pool but the massage was not worth it (it was very cheap, so i should have known). I am glad i didn't pay much becuase I don't think these ladies were trainned. They just rubbed lotion all over you, so basically you pay for someone to rub there hands on you. If that is your thing, then you might enjoy this spa but when I get a massage I like some pressure. On a positive note, The place is exceptionally clean and the drinks are amazing (they use real fruit juice). I can even deal with the service if they would up the quality of the food, it is pretty much not edible. The other nice thing was this is an adult only resort and we had access to the other resorts but they did not have access to our resort. We tried to use the other resorts pool but eneded up right back at our resort because the other pools were crazy with kids and over crowded. The adult only resort always had open huts to lay under and plenty of room in the pool. I enjoyed the Micheal Jackson entertainment and the circus one but besides that the entertainment was lacking and they didn't have much scheudled. The place does have potential, if it mainly ups the quality of food, services, and entertainment.

We(13 people) just returned from Gran Bahai Principe, in Punta Cana.What a great week.We went on the Outback Safari, an all day adventure with Jesse as our guide.He knew all of our names within 10 minutes of the trip.great day!!!!!!! ( tell him Maria reccomended him to you) I would highly reccomend this to anyone.The beach is beautiful, it goes on for miles. If you walk far enough up the beach, you will find a dominican shopping mall, where you can barter with the locals. It was well worth the walk.We went to 4 a la cartes.I highly reccomend the Japanese and the Garden Grill(the steak was delicious).Cesar was the waiter, ask for wine to go. We did not find the italian so great.It did not have much menu selection as the others. The Santa Fe was ok.We went the same resort in Samana last year, it was a smaller scale of this one, . Both give exceptional service,we were in villa 14. The maid service was awesome. The buffet had a great variety.If you go looking to have a great time ,you are sure to find it here .Small things can go wrong ANYWHERE. Don't sweat the small stuff, life is too short. Smiles and dollar tips go a long way here. In our books this resort was 5 star all the way. These people work very hard to please us.let them know how grateful you are.

In my overall experience I felt that it did not meet my expectations due to the following experience that I had: 1) There was a confusion with the room I was given instead of the I paid for. 2) The safety box was not working properly. 3)The food was dry, cold, uncooked, and in one of the Spanish festivity there was not enough food. There response was that they were not expecting that many people. 4) The fridge was not working in the room. 5) No Iron or ironing board in the room, and the list goes on. However, the workers were very pleasant, the environment was beautiful but the ambiance lacked cultural live music.

We arrived to PUJ from ORD on May 10 for 7 All inclusive days! We did a 5 Apple "Square Deal" where you know you will get a 5 Apple Resort but you don't know which one until you check-in at the Airport all for a low price. We have done this deal many times with great success but this time we were not happy with what we got. The hotel grounds are beautiful, the resort is a HUGE complex that have 5 hotel areas in the complex. We arrived around Noon so we didn't expect our room to be ready and it wasn't, so they sent us to eat lunch with was ok because we were starving. By the way it was my husband and myself on this of many trips to similar A.I. resorts throughout PUJ and Mexico and the Caribbean. We were brought up to our room after we ate but the maid was still cleaning so we sat on the sofa in the room.We tired to have a conversation with her but she didn't speak any English, my husband tried Spanish and she understood but was not very friendly. After she left we changed into our suits and hit the pool. Pools were all very nice, many to choose from throughout the complex. Through the week we had issues that I will tell about. The Food: It was terrible! we have been to many A.I. and have never had so much repetitiveness in the food. It never seems hot or cooked enough also. For a 7 night stay you can only have 3 specialty restaurant reservations so after talking with people at the pool we made our reservations at the Japanese, the French, the Garden Grill. 1st was OK, Not much of a habatchi show. 2nd-the Grill was ick! The texture of whatever kind of steak that was meant to be was gross. The French was rancid! When you walked in it smelled like a sewer, how appetizing is that and it lingered through the whole 3 hr meal... The Safe didn't work after we paid for use of it. They had to call someone to come fix it after waiting 2 hours for him to come and several tries he got it to work, no refund for lost days of use. 5th day in the locks stopped working on our rooms door. Maid couldn't get in, Supervisor couldn't get in, they had to call a locksmith and he had to replace 4-AAA Batteries that power the thing as it had corroded out.. Not good in that climate.The entertainment shows they put on nightly were terrible.Lost in translation too, We have seen many different one from other resorts and again this was the worse all the way around. Alcohol quality was not good unless you ASKED for the premium liquor brands, but not in beer they only a 2 local brands which were ok. I didn't feel the staff was very hospitable or outgoing or engaging when you tried to speak to them. The resort had at least 80% Europeans, 10% Canadians, 10% Americans and you could tell they catered to them in all way throughout the resort. The weather was good the entire week, sunny, humid, hot BUT we learned during the day they manually SHUT OFF all the air conditioners in the buildings because people are at beach, pool, excursions etc, so they don't cool the rooms until after 4pm.Not always good when you are sick in room with food poison, sun poison, sick in general. We will NOT go back to this resort, IF I go to PUJ again but I would recommend the RIU, IBEROSTAR, DREAMS, Any 6 Apple resort- 6 Apple- nothing less!! P.S. Dont drink the local drink called " Mommawana" it is like Vicks Formula 44D cough medicine & White Lightin and will make the strongest stomach get sick and you know what I mean! U have Been WARNED! Keep Having Happy Travels!

The good news is the weather is just beautiful in Punta Cana. The hotel is very big and can accomodate all. The flight was not a long one approx 3 hours and 50 minutes. The food is average on a scale of 1 - 5 I give it a 3.5 The bad news is the check in was a disaster. It only took about 3 hours to get our room key and the islanders do not know how to own a problem. It takes 3 people to handle one problem. They were not nice and gracious. The only workers who smiled were the chambermaids and the bartenders and they hardly spoke english so if you plan to visit, learn spanish first. The waiters in the restaurants were on top of things. When we arrived we found out that 3 nights of the 7, our dinner arrangements had already been made for us and the times too. i don't know about you but I don't want to eat at 9:30 at night. We had to change all of that ASAP. I have been to the Iberostar twice and Secrets Excellence once. I would go back to the Iberostar in a heartbeat. The workers were much friendlier and I heard they now have Adult only. If I go away next year to Punta Cana it will be at an Adult only inclusive. I need quiet time on vacation, not drunk kids that the parents have no regard for. I don't go on vacation to work and watch other people's children, I go to relax. i couldn't relax at the Bahia Principe. Parent's were off doing their own things while leaving their 18 - 20 year olds to party hardy... not my style of vacation. We had to leave to go to the airport 3 hours in advance in Punta Cana. Never again. I will call a cab the day of departure and arrive 1 hour prior to leaving. Don't let them fool you...If the peddlers would just leave you alone there, maybe they would find that more people would buy what they are selling., If I were to stay at the Bahia Principe again it would have to be at the Ambar, adult only. On the internet it didn't exactly describe this hotel well. In fact I didn't know that there were like 4 resorts on the 1 compound till the 3rd day we were there.

I stayed at the Ambar section in April of 2009. We loved it..but... Great experience except for the burglary and robbery. ff I read a few other reviews and now know that I'm not going crazy. We put money, passports, cameras, etc. in the safe. When my girlfriend returned one night, she noted that she was missing money. She told me that she had two 50 dollar bills that she got from her friend that day. At first I thought she just misplaced it. However, she persisted that somethign was missing. We ended up going to the front desk to complain. We were treated like liars and it gets me crazy reading these other reviews about people having similar stories. We were escorted by a manager and security guard to our room where we opened the safe and showed where the money was. The security guard put some machine up to the safe and indicated that it was impossible to open the safe after we entered our pass code into it. I find that to be hogwash as what would happen if a visitor locked the safe and then left????? They must have access. Anyway, we made a complaint and were basically told we were making it up. After reading the other reviews about something similar, I feel much better knowing that my girlfriend is not nuts. Either way, the place is beautiful. Beach is clean. Drinks and food are good....not great. We are actually going back but plan on hiding our valuables. Please...if anyone else has had a similar situation, please write about it. I think others should know.

We took the trip with a group of approximately 20 people for a beach wedding. The facility was beautiful. The wedding was beautiful. The service was excellent. The beaches were the best. Food was great. The down side to the trip was things kept dissappearing. We had three watches taken from our room. A couple of watches they had to dig through my underwear drawer to find. We also had a brand new pair of tennis shoes taken. A friend had blouses and diamond earrings come up missing and another had tennis shoes taken. When you go to customer service to report it they offer you a dinner at a restraunt wich costs nothing to go to in the first place. Don't waist your valuable time going to customer service because nothing gets done. Just enjoy your time on the beach. It sure puts a damper on the rest of your stay when things come up missing in the first few hours of arriving. We would not go back and would not recommed this resort to any of our friends

The complex is HUGE... One of it's downfalls. The facilities and site was very clean. The Beaches beautiful. I'm absolutly sure that if our Apple Vacation Representive was there at the resort to meet us as we got off the bus, things would have been much smoother. We would'nt have had to stand in the wrong line to check in, could have been told were we could eat our first day there, where we were not allowed to go in an all inclusive resort, and basically not lied too. First off I've read past reviews about how great the food was. NOT! Did you know the HOT food is prepared at the two buffets located at the main entrances and the shuttled to the other eateries located throughout the complex were the breakfast and lunch is usually cold. No hot eggs, hash browns, bacon, saugsage ect... That could explain why the satilite resturants were empty during the morning and afternoons. The lunch areas at the pools were okay, the most popular hot item there were the french fries. The other problem with food was that you had to eat at the times they set, there were no snack bars that you could get a quick snack like pizza, fries, hot dog, burger ect... when you felt like it. Don't ever complain about something that you feel needs to be addressed, if you go to maid or call the front desk, first establish if they speak english and they say they do, yet once they figure out your not happy about something, they don't speak english after all and then the run around begins. We paid for upgrade service and room, this ment that the room would be ready at arrival, and when we got to our room, the door was open the power turned off, no air conditioning running, ceiling fan didn't work, no towels in the room, dirty linen on the floor and frig not working. I was so upset, that the hotel up graded my stay from Gold to Diamond because I wanted them to book me on the next flight out of there and to return my money. I need to mention this was only day two. Alot of people go on these vacations and never say anything bad about the service they recieve and normally I'm one of those people. You see I've stayed at other Grand Bahia's and had a wondrful experiance and why I booked this one. Is this nuts or what? Why would you shut down one of your largest pools that has the kiddie section at 1 p.m. for cleaning when it could be done after 6 p.m. when the pools close? Now you have twice as many people in the other pool. Now speaking of pools, don't get caught using a pool (Diamond) your not suppose to or they will kick you out rudely. Now why do they mention all these all inclusive pools and then you can't use them in this compex, they didn't mention that in the travel guide, you paid to go on vacation to be told not to use a one certain pool which happens to be right next to each other, and then they close the biggest one in the middle of the day, go figure. If you go to the beach, you need to get out there by 6 a.m to put out your towels and what-nots on a lounge chair in a good spot or good luck trying to find one after 8 a.m. Everyone is packed so close to each other out there that one you can't see the water cuz of all of the people standing around or ones that have lounge chairs stuck in the sand on edge used as sun shades and two, you can't hear yourself think becuase of all the noise, Am I lying? if you've been there you know what I'm talking about. If you book diner reservations for an evening meal outside of the buffet and I suggest you do, book it on your first day there. Those evening meals were good. After and only after my issues were addressed properly, did we start to enjoy our stay. I'm not telling you NOT to go here, the place is beautiful, I'm just saying don't let the service staff get away with sub-par performance and rude attitudes, after all your suppose to be at a 4 plus star resort and you paid to enjoy yourself and they are there to insure that it's going to happen. Happy vacationing folks.

I am coming here with 2 other families all of which have children. My friend and I are 18 and wondering what there is to do. Also, what activities are there to do for kids ages 12-15?

some of the complaints that i have read makes me realize that some people must have nothing to do in life but complain. the matress is to firm???? the people don't speak your language????? oh, and this one i couldn't believe, we had a few days of rain. i think that maybe you should stay home and sleep on your own matress, talk to your neighbors in your own language. by the way, nobody can control the weather. we went in november of 08 and we found the people amazing, always smiling and greeting you. it will put a smile on your face to see them so cheerful. the food was wonderful at all times. the employees go around and try to get everyone involved in having fun. i cannot say enough on how much fun my family and i had. we are going back for easter week "09". hopefully we'll be able to return in 2010 2011 2012. we had a blast!!!!!!!! a little warning to family members with kids in the 8-14 bracket. they will see plenty of breasts and i know that my 12 year old grandson was uncomfortable for the first day. after that, it was no big deal. if you can bring a colored towel, it will be helpful to spot your chair in the midst of blue towels.