Luxury Bahia Principe Bouganville (Adults Only)

With all the negativity there’s been in regards to the Dominican republic I wanted to set the record straight. The people, the service and the resort itself could not have been better. All of the staff went out of their way to make our vacation exceptional. If you’re thinking about going to the DR I highly recommend it… A lot of what you’re hearing in the news is just hype… Please remember thar the resort staff depend on tourism to feed their families!

From the moment we entered the resort we felt very welcomed, I found almost all the employees to be kind and generous, throughout my stay, I got to know so many of them, Jade, Josephina, Carlos and Santos were the best, Jade in particular grew on me quickly, one day I chose to pay for a Dominican civilian to come in and spend a day with me and our group, I learned so much about him and his family, the day before we departed, one of the house keepers gave me his baseball trophy as a token of his appreciation for treating him and everyone else on the resort so kindly, that night in the lobby, I teared up and hugged most of the workers, I gave Jade my American sunglasses and she gave me a key chain and told me not to cry, this was my first time outside of the USA, as well as flying, I can honestly say this wasn't a vacation for me, but rather an education on how we as Americans need to be kinder to everyone, the food was great, the drinks were perfect, and I HIGHLY recommend the Saona Island adventure, Tito was our tour guide, he was the BEST! I made friends with people from the Dominican, the UK, Argentina, Germany and France, I will certainly be back, if you like a vacation spot where you can laugh, love, and smile, this place is for you!!!

Overall, for what we paid for this vacation, it was well worth it. The buffets were much better than any others we’ve encountered, with plenty of great seafood options. The Don Pablo restaurant was good, but the Japanese restaurant was average at best. The service at the restaurants was mostly terrible, with the exception of Hector. There weren’t many options for nightly entertainment at Bouganville but you could still have a drink and enjoy the live music on some nights. The entertainment team at Bouganville we’re very pleasant, but the team at the sister resort were so bad we wouldn’t even try another of those shows. I’ve never seen a worse bunch of people dressed as superheroes who seemed to hate every minute of their job. The spa was nice. Our hour couples massage took an hour and a half! The beach was nice and I enjoyed the calmness of the water, even though it was murky. Our time in it was cut short though because of the onset of jellyfish (I was stung twice simultaneously). The pools were nice though, and we spent most of our time at the quiet pool. We had read before that walking to the beach club just 5 minutes away would bring you to the turquoise waters, but not so. The bars mixed some good drinks, but again, the service was not great. I did not find the smiles we were accustomed to from previous visits to this country. The room was comfortable although nothing special. Housekeeping did a wonderful job though. I detected a musty smell in the room, but the butler service provided a scent to mask it. The day before we left we scheduled to have our bags brought down. They didn’t show, and after then asking them to get them and bring them to the sister resort to meet our ride (so we could get breakfast before traveling), they again failed. We hurried to walk back over and get them, and were fortunate that they had brought them down and we were able to get a ride back over. All in all, you get what you pay for, and we greatly enjoyed relaxing, eating the seafood and the mangoes, and the drinks.

The grounds are very well kept and the service is good. The Santa Domingo airport is a nightmare making it hard to consider going back. This was our 4th time here and between the recent events and that airport it is probably our last!