Hideaway at Royalton Punta Cana

The Hideaway at the Royalton at Punta Cana was a wonderful experience. My husband and I wanted an adults only all inclusive and the Hideway gave us everything we were looking for. Although part of the resort is kids friendly, the Hideaway was adults only. The service was excellent as were the restaurants. Food was plentiful anytime you wanted to eat, there was definitely something for everyone's taste. The resort itself was so clean. The pools looked nice and clean although we spent all our time on the beach, which is what we were looking forward to. A nice quiet getaway. But there was always something going on if you were looking for activities and night life. We were extremely impressed and look forward to our next visit to the Dominican Republic!

Brand new wonderful facility Poor orientation Fair service Administration can be much kmproved

In the end we had our time in the sun, and it wasn't bad, but my review here is about expectations based on the description of the property, therefore promises made by the resort. Let me begin with our expectations: first time in PC, looking for a relatively quiet place where we could relax/recoup after 14 months of work. We decided to give the Hideaway a try because the Royalton reviews regarding service and quality of food. That, paired up with the promise of an adult-only section, and the possibility of a swim-out room that on the Royalton properties' website is mentioned in both Luxury rooms and Diamond Club. We decided against Diamond Club because it looked like the only pluses were the butler service and top shelf drinks, both uninteresting to us. Check-in took longer than expected because the first room we were assigned smelled really bad - a mixture of mold and chemicals. We were given a room across the hallway, with a view towards the main pool. Other options were a view of a back road and neighboring hotel. We are told that swim-out rooms are Diamond Club even in the Hideaway section (!?!?) and they are an additional $90 or $95/ night. And let me explain the setting, hope this will help other travelers with their expectations: if you look at the resort map there are three buildings on each side of the pool(s). These are pre existing buildings that have been newly designated as the Hideaway amd Diamond Club. This is the first misrepresentation of the Hideaway, as it's introduced as "the new Hideaway". On one side, buildings 1 and 3 are the Hideaway, building 2 is Royalton. On the other side of the pool is the Diamond Club. So, according to the statement the front desk made, in the Hideaway you also have Diamond Club, which sounds untrue. The front desk manager has a tremendous attitude, even for Newyorkers like us who are used to being given the stink eye or ignored at best. The concierge at check in, Jaimy, seemed to not be able to do anything without asking for a second opinion or permission. The only person at the front desk that was nice and helpful was Jenny. The snack bar behind the front desk had snacks almost all the time, from cold cuts to pastries to fruit. Coffeemaker with decaf coffee only though. Thanks for worrying about my blood pressure. And btw, the coffee in the room is surprisingly not good. The cheapest tiny kind of coffee maker, sort of Motel model. We had to make a run to the coffee shop every morning for a decent coffee. Privacy not to be expected. The terrace/patio whatever you want to call it on the 1st floor is entirely open, no fence/rail nothing that would give the slightest idea of privacy. A couple of yards of grass and the alley where of course people of all ages constantly walk. The table on the terrace is a small coffee table, unsuitable to have breakfast outside - which, in that setting is not that appealing anyway. Also, the pool we were facing is a Royalton pool so there are kids of all ages, from newborns to teenagers. The Hideaway pool is fenced though, but is kind of small. The rooms are nice, bathroom very small, if someone is at the sink and another wants to get in the shower they have to squeeze by. For couples it promotes intimacy, so that's a good thing. Hideaway beach is separated by the non-adults-only beach by a rope. Not enough chairs. Second day there we figured that we have to get up at 6 am to get chairs as by 7 there's not much availability. I really didn't go on vacation to get up at 6, so I found this very annoying. You also better have your towels at 6 am because they bring in the towels at 8 am. Too many worries to have to be able to enjoy the beach, I think. I also wish I had a view of the ocean on the beach, but it's only a partial view because of the cabanas. That no one rented anyway, as long as we saw. The Hideaway beach is also where the Waters Sports booth is, so kids do occasionally pass by. Sometimes running, but that's alright, nobody died from that. Much more annoying are the adults that crowd up and chat on several voices loud enough for the entire section to hear. For hours. But that's alright, it's a resort beach. I won't mention the hotel doors being slammed, and the echo of the corridor because we didn't spend much time in the room, mostly when we were sleeping. Obviously, I don't blame Royalton for this, just saying. Food was indeed good, the buffet is decent. The Hunter steakhouse good, so was Dorado. Jade has a mix of SE Asian dishes, and it fails miserably. The other Asian restaurant we didn't get to try because we hadn't made a reservation, however we found out that their sushi counter would be available with pay. Everything closes at 10 pm except the sports bar. On the website is mentioned that men should wear long pants/slacks for the restaurants, however in Hunter I noticed a couple of gentlemen wearing cargo shorts and flip flops. They were wearers of the Diamond Club bracelet, so maybe that's another perk of the DC. Service was very nice everywhere except the buffet, where it varied in all kind of degrees from very nice to rude in one case where our soda glasses were slammed on the table with no reaction, not even eye contact, at our "gracias". And this brings me me to the ability to communicate with the staff. Very few of them speak or at least understand enough English, and to me this is very unusual for a resort where the great majority of guests are from US or Canada. Even the guests from Germany or Poland or Russia were trying to communicate in English. I do think that when you visit a country you should make an effort and learn a bit of their language but let's be fair here and not make this a requirement for a week spent in PC. Oh, and the wifi that is promised to be property wide is really bad to inexistent outside the room. I mean out on the terrace outside. We never got the beach bag promised, or credits at check-in. All in all, the Hideaway pretends to be a classy resort, but for us it barely made it to 3* and I really think we overpaid for this pretense.