Barcelo Bavaro Palace - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

32698 reviews

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  Fantastic vacation

  The best vacation spot ! It’s paradise! The staff the food the activities all fantastic! Can’t wait to go back next year!

  Feb 13, 2026
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  Overall -- Good experience

  Overall a very nice stay here! We stayed in a Premium Level Junior Oceanfront Suite in Building 5 for 8 days/7 nights with a 4 year old and 11 month old. Here are the Pro's/Con's from our personal experience: Pro's: - Check-in was smooth in the Premium Lounge. (We also did a Wed/Wed and noticed Sat/Sun were the heavy transient days and could experience delays checking in/out). - The grounds are immaculate and a nice welcome coming from a long winter! - This is a mega resort and you will easily get 10,000 steps in a day without any additional recreational walks. We didn't mind! - Lots of cleaning staff everywhere - Oceanfront room was very beneficial with little ones knowing we would be spending a portion of our mornings and afternoons back at the room. If this was an adults only trip, we agreed would probably save the money as it would not be much benefit as then you don't come here to stay in a hotel room. - Very family friendly. Drinks were good and did not see anyone drunk. Maybe the party crowds stayed over at the adults section. Recommend bringing a Yeti Tumbler to eliminate several trips to the bar, especially if you are on the beach. Plus it cuts down on the plastic waste. - A couple of the restaurants were great! See con's for other comments - Room was very clean. The only downside is the open-bathroom. I really don't like to hear my wife go #2, vice versa. The shower water is very very hot! - There is almost no trash or flies on the property. Likely from the strict no to-go food from the buffet. No complaints about it Cons: - The only real paint points are the food and restaurant reservations: All the dinner restaurants were booked for several days. - The "two" buffets are actually the same, very large and joined together. They are extremely loud, chaotic and overstimulating. Food is just okay. Luckily we found as premium guests for breakfast we could go upstairs which offered a MUCH quieter experience and the breakfast food tended to be fresher. Kyoto and Mexico Lindo were excellent. Mexico Lindo staff receive the service award! Coral Seafood was awful from service to food that we walked out before entrees arrived and went to the buffet to attempt to find something to eat. - 95% of the buffet food is not labeled. Wasted a lot of food experimenting trying to find something I liked; or made a wonderful salad and put what I thought was balsamic on top, to sit down and find it was teriyaki/soy sauce. Too many times saw people in front of me at a dish picking up food with buffet utensils, smelling it then putting it back. Needless to say I moved on to try and find a different item - We drink a lot of water. The mini bar refilling was pretty hit and miss. OTHER: If you are coming from the USA, brush up on your Spanish as it will go a long ways and offers some respect to the staff. Most staff know very little to no English. I honestly was shocked to find the overwhelming majority of guests were (>80%) Latin American, so no fault of the staff at all. The rest were European/French/French-Canadian. We only met or overhead a handful of conversations that were English. Other than that, almost all the staff were extremely pleasant and kind. There has to be 1,500 employees working on the property at any given time -- they are everywhere. So if you come across a few with an unpleasant attitude (which we did), extend some grace when you look at the scale of this type of operation that there might be a few bad apples, even as frustrating as it can be. Also, we hardly saw anyone tipping or leaving gratuity.... We brought $300 with us in 1's, 5's and 10's and it goes a long way in rewarding good service. I speak decent basic Spanish and can hold my own when ordering drinks etc. Both my Wife and I noticed how many bartenders or servers seemed very appreciative of tips. After getting our drinks I would say "Mucho Gracias!", they would always respond in English and say "Thank you!". Do better people! No, this is not the Four Seasons or Ritz Carlton type 5-Star resort.... But I think we still got enough value and found some work arounds on the food. Such as asking the buffet pizza maker on the last day to make and give us a whole pizza to take to our table. Should have thought about that sooner! Again, luckily we stayed for a week and finished strong. If we were only there 3-4 nights and were excluded from the restaurants that entire trip, I could see it having been a huge disappointment. So with all that to say, for this being our first-time to Punta Cana, if we decide to make a return trip to the DR, I'm sure I will explore online a little bit more and consider a few other properties now that we have a better jist of things, but think we would be happy to come back here as well. P.S. If you got sick a couple days after you got home, it's likely not "from the food" but likely from touching the same tongs that 5,000 other people have already touched at the buffet. Who knows where their hands have been! Be sure to wash your hands frequently and bring hand sanitizer ;)

  Feb 13, 2026
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  Great resort,

  Staff is amazing. Golf was great. French restaurants were fantastic. Could not beat the bar staff at bar Cielo, so quick and friendly.

  Feb 13, 2026
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  Must Stay

  Absolutely Amazing from the transportation to the entire resort experience 8000 building manager is the best plus her entire staff did an awesome welcoming

  Feb 13, 2026
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  Disappointing vacation

  1. Room hygiene and cleanliness - Upon arrival, the bed sheets were visibly unclean with blood stains - The room had noticeable dust throughout - The jacuzzi was dirty and unusable 2. Food safety and dietary concerns - Buffet food across the resort was not labeled properly, with no ingredient, allergy, or intolerance information - There was frequent cross-contamination, including shared serving utensils - Staff were often unable to clearly explain food ingredients due to language barriers 3. Health impact - We experienced ongoing stomach issues and symptoms consistent with upset stomach after eating at the resort, which significantly affected our anniversary trip. 4. Religious dietary violation - We clearly informed staff that we do not consume pork or alcohol for religious reasons - Despite this, on 7 February at approximately 9:00 PM, during our reservation at Coral Restaurant, we were served soup containing alcohol - My husband consumed it unknowingly and felt physically uncomfortable afterward

  Feb 12, 2026