Barcelo Bavaro Palace

By • A great vacation

Overall Rating: 10   Location [10] • Room [10] • Service [10] • Value [10]

I really loved the resort.

The check in was pretty fast. And the place was always clean. The location was beautiful, with clear beaches and lots of vegetation. The mosquitos were really not a problem until the last two days, because there was alaways a nice breeze. And even yet, they were mostly just fruit flies.

They pool is great, and if you go with a family the ba... [more]nana boats are always fun. They also give you the option of going on various excrusions.

As for the food, in my opinion it was great. The spanish restaurant was nice, and so was the seafood one too. The mexican one was also good but there is always a line to get in. If you are at the palace, you have acess to all 5 resorts. And all of their restaurants, bars, ect. [less]
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By All-Caribbean User from Weehawken, NJ • Don't waste your money here!

Overall Rating: 4   Location [6] • Room [6] • Service [2] • Value [4]

My husband & I travel to the Caribbean at least once a year. This was by far the worst vacation we ever had! We have never experienced such rude, inept, slow service in our lives! The staff at not just the Palace, but all Barcelo resorts in Punta Cana went out of their way to make us feel totally unwelcome and were simply down-right rude! This, despite the fact that we continuosly tipped, smil... [more]ed, and attempted to make pleasant conversation. One evening at dinner, I attempted to pour my own water, so as not to disturb the waitress. She came running over to me, yelling in spanish while grabbing the bottle from my hand. Then she said something to the porter, including the words "las animales" in her tirade! I responded politely that I hope she wasn't calling us animals. Her reply was that she was calling the porter an animal. You figure it out! We also noticed an obvious different attitude toward the Spanish-speaking tourists. The food was awful! My husband was sick to his stomach one day after lunch. Thank God for the $8.00 U.S. bag of potato chips! On a more positive note, the beach & ocean was gorgeous and the pool was nice too, though not much shade is provided on the beach and no shade at all at the pool. It was a real disappointing vacation considering the price we paid! [less]
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By jjrwgarcia from Miramar, Florida USA • Great Family Vacation

Overall Rating: 10   Location [10] • Room [10] • Service [8] • Value [10]

The palace was wonderful. The staff was super friendly. Most spoke English but the majority only spoke Spanish which is to be expected in a Spanish Speaking Country. We made our complete resservations including air and transfer with MK Tours. We left Miami on time on a Falcon Air flight at 8:00 AM on June 11th, 2005. We were served complete breakfast on board. We arrived two hours later and ... [more]were greeting by two ladies dressed in traditional Dominican attire. They possed for a picture with us. (This picture is taken of everyone arriving at the Punta Cana Airport and sold to you at the airport on your departure date for $7 USD.) Our next step was to purchase a $10 Tourist Card per traveler. Then we picked up our suit cases and proceded to the MK TOUR booth where we were directed to the MK Tour A/C bus that tooks us for a 20 minute ride to our hotel. When we arrived to the PALACE our suit cases were unloaded and we were directed to the main lobby where we recieved our wrist bands which identified us as PALACE guest. It was about noon and our rooms were not going to be ready until 2:30. We then went to the buffet to eat lunch. After luch we changed into our bathing suits we had in our travel on and enjoyed the pool until our rooms were ready. During our week stay we ate at every possible resturant. We learned that the food in the buffet is the same as in the sit down resturant and there is not wait time. We travel with 14 people including four children. The kids seemed to fall asleep before eating when we ate at the sit down places for dinner. After 2 days we began eating dinner at the buffet and trying the different resturants for lunch. The food was great! My only wish is that the pizza take out was in all of the hotels. We had to go to the Beach Hotel to get the take awat pizza. It was yummy, but we had to leave the PALACE to get it. Everything was super clean throughout the resort (sort of like Disney) I loved the fact you could go to the grill sttion at the buffet and get your meats, poultry and fish cooked to order. Tip: Bring lots of one dollar bills for tipping. Bring sun lotions and inflateables from home they cost a lot in the hotel. Verizon wirless cellphones work. You can shop for gifts at the little flea market located by the Pina Resturant, but haggle. Take 75% off any price they give you!
As far as a good value for your money this is. The total cost of airfare, transfers, and hotel stay for two children and two adults was $3800.00 including taxes and tips. Also if you go in the summertime with MK Tours you get invited to a concert at he convention center whci normally cost $50.00 USD per person! [less]
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