Rating:

Review Date:Apr 7, 2009

Luxurious territory

We spent 1 week in this hotel in March. When we arrived to the reception we were given a room at the crossroad near the parking. As we had been warned that Dominican hotels prefer to give bad rooms if possible, I looked at the map immediately, holding my wallet in my hand and asked for a better room. So they gave us a room deep inside the hotel’s territory with almost ideal location in return for a small tip. When going to our room, we were impressed by the luxurious territory full of exotic trees, bushes and flowers. The territory with its curve pathways looked very cozy. The room was clean but old with noticeable smell of mould. It was very surprising for a 5* hotel. This would rather correspond to a 3* hotel. The equipment functioned well. The beach was beautiful. In a few days after having walked in the both directions along the beach for about 5km, we found that our hotel was located in one of the best places. The main restaurant buffet was various and the food was of good quality. But the wine was obviously diluted sometimes. We had two special dinners (Mexican and Dominican) in another restaurant of the hotel. There was a buffet there as well. It was similar to the main buffet but there were some special dishes of course. The food was ok. We could eat whenever we wanted during a day in special restaurants. Two times we ate in neighbor hotel RIU Bambu as we had the right. The food was absolutely the same as in RIU Taino but Bambu’s main restaurant was a bit more luxurious. The main pool was not too big but very cozy. Unfortunately the water was a bit cold. Swimming in the ocean was nice but snorkeling had no sense as the water was a bit muddy because of the sand and strong waves. Not all personnel speak English. One day I left my beach shoes near my sun-bed by the main pool. In several hours after having dinner I remembered that and came to the pool. The shoes weren’t there. That evening and on the next day I asked the reception and the pool team whether they had any info. They didn’t. I don’t believe a tourist could take them. Then it was either a thief from outside or from the personnel. I’m happy that I didn’t leave e.g. my camera there. Beware! Stealing is common in DR. In all other cases the hotel team was friendly and helpful. An advantage was also that we didn’t have to wear any wristbands. Unpleasant thing was that despite that the gym was located almost on the beach, it was not allowed to use it in swimming wear. It was not surprising that usually the only person present there was the lonely trainer who didn’t speak English but showed at the picture with sport uniform. We bought an excursion for two hours of horseback riding. It turned out to be not too interesting as the countryside isn’t too picturesque beyond the hotel reservation in Punta Cana.

Alexander Shtannikov