Coral Costa Caribe Resort

I had a great trip overall! There were a few things that did need improvement. I'll go into a few details below. I traveled by myself for this trip. I stayed 5 days/4 nights (Sunday through Wednesday). The resort itself is small and intimate, which I liked. However if your intention is to meet a lot of new people and go clubbing, this isn't for you. My room was sparse which I actually thought was fine- I was barely in the room anyways. It looked like all the rooms had little balconies too (which was crucial for me to dry my bathing suits out there during the day). I was able to get a hot shower a couple times, but mostly I had cold showers. But I was overeager and got a sunburn the first day, so a cold shower was actually preferable for me. The beach was lovely: clear water, clean beach, and most of the rooms were close to the beach as well. The only downside was the vendors- I was approached maybe 1-2x per hour by various vendors (massage, hair braiding, cigars, sarongs, etc) I just politely declined each time, since I wasn't interested, but it did get a bit tiresome after a while. The resort food was OK. I did not try to make reservations at any of the restaurants, my goal was just to relax and lay on the beach the majority of my time. I did not do any excursions either, so I can't attest to those. The staff was all very nice, though some did not speak English very well. (And i don't speak Spanish either) We still managed to communicate though! Also, I did purchase the shuttle transfer to/from the airport, I just find this is easier than flagging down a taxi. The only hiccup was that I was not allowed to dial out from the room to set up my return shuttle. If you want to use the room phone to call someone locally, you need to pay a fee at the front desk to do so first. I just ended up using my cell phone to set up my return shuttle to the airport. I did workout a couple times in their fitness room. It's a small space but they've organized it well to get a variety of equipment in there. If you are someone that relies solely on static machines for exercise, you may not get the full workout you were hoping for. They do have free weights though as well. And lastly, in case of emergency they do have a little store onsite. I ran out of sunscreen towards the end of my trip so I had to buy some. They have snacks, t-shirts, hygiene products, magnets, and other knick knacks etc in there as well. Overall I had a fun time, I definitely succeeded in doing what I went there to do - relax! :)

Overall good time. Price was right! If you are looking for a 5 star this is not the place for you! Pros: beach was beautiful, pools okay, drinks good, dining was good, room air conditioning excellent, entertainment good they did something every night and they are amazing dancers- they included guest in their shows and prizes given to winners. Loved the reservation suppers but had to reserve everyday at 9am but one day he did let us reserve the day before because we were going to be gone all day on an excursion. Staff were friendly. Cons: snack bar was not good, no coffee maker in room, personally did not like the coffee when available, had to pay to have lock box in room, shower temp varied but okay, beds very hard. Room overall little below average but we didn't spend our time there. Lots of people on the beach selling stuff and they were annoying. If you are like us and enjoy excursions I would recommend staying in Punta Cana as there is not alot of options and the ones they had you available you had to travel which will cost you.

Things I liked about the resort Beach was great weather was perfect Santiago was very friendly Internet was good Room was ok Things I didn’t like ; Most days no hot water , Food was not that great , No Diet Coke to drink ,Unable to communicate with anyone language barrier was terrible , very little English. Cheap Caribbean was not on site for excursions planning Never did see or able to make reservation for Italian restraint was there one??? No I would not return!!!!

This place is a great example of a resort to go to if you can't afford to go anywhere else. Bear with me for this review, I have a lot to say. I'll start with the food. Every day they serve the exact same thing with slight differences, like the sauce or the seasoning. Breakfast is the same every day. Lunch at the buffet is the same every day. Dinner is the same. You have the option to eat at 3 restaurants if you get your reservation in to guest services before 11. A Mexican restaurant, a Dominican one, or Italian. The Mexican restaurant was the only one worth anything. There's also this joke of a snack bar that's open between meals, it offers the same thing every single day- pizza similar to Totino's (but really not even as good as that), hot dogs, hamburgers, and french fries. Now for the drinks. There is ONE beer option at this resort. Its the local Dominican light beer- El Presidente. If you squeeze some lime and sprinkle some salt, it's tolerable. Everything else they have, all of the liquors, are the bottom of the barrel well drinks. Don't order a margarita, it's basically a shot of tequila. I mostly drank pina coladas and "banana mamas." If you really want to get crazy, I dare you to order a "Mama Juana." Bring a Yeti cup, the cups are the size of the little dixie cups you pull off of a water tank. Customer service- Most of the people here speak terrible English. The service everywhere was pretty terrible. We sat in line just to check into the resort for like 30 minutes because apparently Europeans don't understand the concept of waiting in line, and no one at the service desk enforces it, so several people just walked in front of us and they served them first. When it was time to check out, I nearly missed my transport to the airport because the woman at the desk would not check me out without my room keys and towel keys, and you MUST check out, or the transport will not let you get into the car. I had left all of mine in my room. The room- The plumbing here is a joke. I understand that this is not a wealthy country but wow. Also, if you want to take a HOT shower, do it in the middle of the day when everyone else is at the beach or super early in the morning or you will be taking a nice chilly shower but no matter what, the water pressure will be a joke. The plugs cater to Europeans except for ONE outlet in the bathroom, so make sure you bring a plug that converts to European outlets. The beds are HORRIBLE and the pillows are little tiny sacks of cotton, the only way to sleep here is to get trashed enough to be able to be comfortable anywhere. I will give props to the air conditioning unit, you can keep your room a chilly 52 degrees if you so desire. Also, I understand that no one goes to a resort to sit in your room and watch tv and use the wi-fi, but the WiFi is an absolute disaster. It rarely worked. And our TV had to be serviced because it never worked either. And bring some bug spray because there's mosquitoes everywhere, even in the rooms. Now for the rest of the resort. If you go to these things to see cool shows at night time and enjoy some entertainment- don't go here. The show is the same every night, and it's just random people at the resort dancing with the customers or playing with the kids. I've been to other resorts and seen fire dancing or heard amazing vocal performances- not here. They have a sports bar with two pool tables that are in the corner of the bar that offer no space to even shoot pool, no chalk for the cues, and balls with dents in them. The pools here are really nice, but they close at 6:30. If there was a hot tub at this resort, we never found it. The beach and the ocean are AMAZING, we spent all of our time here. HOWEVER, they allow the local vendors to walk the beach here and try to sell you cigars, paintings, hair braiding, massages, etc and they will hound you ALL DAY LONG. Maybe don't bring your kids here either, because they allow nudity. We saw lots of female naked parts. One of the biggest disappointments was that when you go to a resort, you expect a level of exclusivity. Don't get me wrong, I love locals. But this resort sells a day pass to Dominican locals and we happened to be there on Dominican Independence Day and they completely filled the pool and were acting a fool, yelling and spilling beer in the pool and just being absolutely obnoxious. We had made some friends from Canada, some young girls, and they were being harassed by these Dominican guys all day that didn't speak enough English to understand that they weren't interested. All in all, if you're not the type of person who can make the best of out any situation and have fun anywhere, don't go to this particular resort. Go to Punta Cana and stay at a nicer one.