Bahia Principe Luxury Esmeralda - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9546 reviews

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  Amazing Time w/ Room for Improvement

  Visited The Bahia Principe Esmeralda the week of November 3rd and had an amazing time and will try to be as detailed as I can below: 1) Arrival: We booked through Air Canada and the flight, etc. was all good and well and finding the transportation at the airport was easy enough and directed appropriately. Once arrived at the hotel, you are actually arriving at the Bahia Principe Fantasia and from there you need to take one of their “trains” (different sized golf type carts). So, just be ready for a bit further wait to the Esmeralda lobby which can be frustrating as it could take 5-15 minutes and if you are dressed warm, it’s just something to be aware of. 2) Check-in: The lobby desk is a round desk with lines not really marked well and you have the usual people that do not respect social norms and cut you off, etc. Bahia Principe needs to better mark where lines begin behind each desk for better crowd control and further frustration. If you did the pre booking within the 10-day window before your trip (recommended as you can book à la carte restaurants before the trip on their app and if not, on your trip all times will be taken.. which we did not know) it’s a quick process and you are good to go. 3) Rooms: I believe this hotel was renovated 2- 3 years ago maybe, but it shows, all bathrooms and finishes are pretty nice and clean - excellent here. The staff even pulled out the couch for us since we had two children and we essentially had 3-beds. 4) Resort Layout: Loved the way the Esmeralda (and Bahia Principe resort in general, which is like a 6-hotel complex that feels like a city within a city) is arranged. There are two pools (one quiet and main plus a hot tub type pool in the middle - so there is something for all. Plus, a small slide shallow pool area for children right next to the kids club and restaurant where breakfast buffet is served. The pools both have wet bars plus the lobby bar, sports bar, so you are not far from a drink at any time. 5) Restaurants: I enjoyed all buffet restaurants and the à la carte ones. I highly recommend the Italian at Casa Bella and Dominican at Taino. The night buffet was both hit and miss and breakfast is always great (as long as you have bacon and eggs, fruits and pastries, what else could you want). I cannot speak to the steakhouses as they were 18+ and could not go with the family. However, avoid the Mexican and Japanese (which are located at the Punta Cana hotels, not worth your time). 6) Kids Club: I only dropped of our daughter twice in our 8-day holiday for the full day but she had an amazing time. They always make friends and the staff were amazing (Karina, the manager is friendly and professional, same goes for The second Karina, Guadalupe and Camila). They keep the parents informed via WhatsApp and they have a full schedule of activities visible for parents to see. I did hang around the general area of where they took the kids (wearing kids club jerseys for identification) and they generally do keep track of them well. In addition, they seem to truly care for the children and constantly communicate with them, hugs, etc. all very friendly). I highly recommend the club if you do have kids and want some hours to yourselves as parents. 7) Entertainment: the entertainment is great here with a variety of shows throughout the week (plus other options at the other Bahia Principe hotels, which esmeralda guests have access to), so you will not be bored. However, the highlight is the entertainers themselves. I specifically recommend you seek out Carlos (Bubalu), Tania and Wendelson (sp? - aka King Kong) as they are too funny and attentive to all guests, which makes your stay that much more enjoyable. 8) Beach: The beach was excellent, lots of chairs available to you but the ones closer to the water will fill out quicker. There was some seaweed but nothing detrimental to the experience. There are your usual vendors roaming around so be prepared that if you do engage with one and pay for service, others will gravitate to you and does become annoying. Otherwise a polite no works well. 9) Gym: Very nice gym with a good selection of equipment. I managed to sneak in two days for a weights work out and one HIIT. The area is large enough, good condition on the equipment and clean. 10) Service: this is the one area where overall they need to improve. I read a negative review somewhere and it read that servers ignore you while breaking dishes and seem busy but nobody knows what they are doing. While I slightly agree, you have to manage your expectations. This is not Mexico where service one of the best anywhere in my opinion. This might be a culture thing but yes, servers generally are not as proactive and attentive as I would like but do they ignore you completely? No. Also, there are always a few that do go above and beyond and a good tip will go a long way to those individuals. Overall, I highly recommend this resort for the additions of all its positives it offers. It is definitely on the list of places to return to.

  Nov 12, 2025
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  Great hotel. Great experience!

  A lovely resort. Clean, good food, nice people, great experience. The bed was super comfortable (I have back issues so this was a great perk), the room was lovely, the staff were also kind and knowledgable and helpful, the grounds were beautiful, the pools were wonderful, the splash park was a big hit with my 6 year old. The beach was beautiful, the water warm. We swam every day. Yes, it's weedy, but that's the ocean. It wasn't nearly as weedy as Mexico. It was a beautiful vacation. I really loved that the greeters at the buffets had hand sanitizer and had everyone sanitize their hands before entering. This made me feel more secure in our health and welfare by reducing chance of illness. The only very minor complaints are (and I only say this to make the hotel aware and none of these aside from the trek from airport to hotel, impacted our vacation): - The "loud" pool was kind of dirty at times (something very difficult to control with so many people in it and with people drinking in it all day). It was also deafeningly loud, not an issue for most, but just walking past on the way to the beach or lunch buffet, I noticed many people plugging their ears as the passed by. - The buffets were great, however the main one often didn't have plates, bowls, or spoons available if you arrived the second half of when it was open. I believe this is a supply/demand issue. Not a big deal. - at breakfast, I had to seek out someone to serve coffee (I'd be happy to get it myself, but that wasn't an option). Only one day, did I have a smiling server who offered me coffee without my needing to flag someone. Not a big deal, but I like to have coffee with my breakfast, so I suggest that coffee be self serve. - Nothing to do with the resort, but if you fly through expedia (Flair), keep in mind you need to arrange for your transport to the hotel from the airport (and back again). This proved to be a huge pain. We had arranged transport via Expedia prior to our trip, however when we arrived, there was no car waiting for me and my three children and no one was answering the phone number we received on the itinerary. It took an hour to get another driver to take us there (and an additional $35 USD) - something I didn't anticipate. The driver was a maniac and the whole drive there, I was clutching my seat and scared for our lives. My husband (not on the trip with us) eventually managed to reach Expedia about this, but has yet to hear back from them, despite them assuring him they would respond within a couple of days. This was almost 2 weeks ago). So, this delayed our arrival by a couple of hours - not a nice way to arrive with three very tired, super hungry kids (there aren't many options for food to purchase on the plane - my son wouldn't eat the pizza so he was especially cranky). By the time we finally arrived, it was getting dark and we still had to catch a trolly from where we were dropped off (Fantasia) to our resort (Esmeralda). The concierge at the desk who was the liaison to Esmeralda was less than helpful and just kept telling me "5 minutes" without looking up from his phone. It was more like 30 minutes. So not a great start. We thought we would arrive between 5 - 5:30 and didn't arrive until 7:30. Our plane was also over an hour late leaving Pearson, so I felt like we completely lost half of a day. Returning to the airport was a breeze as the bellmen at the hotel arranged it for us the day before and all went smoothly (my fault for travelling with Flair, I guess - cheaper isn't always cheaper or easier). I gave the hotel 5 stars because it deserves 5 stars. The few minor complaints were just that. Minor and petty, but I feel like (aside from the coffee being a peeve - mainly because I was there with 3 kids and needed my morning coffee) nothing was really a problem at all. I hope to return again one day :)

  Nov 12, 2025
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  Amazing and wonderful trip

  An amazing, enjoyable family trip. Every thing was spectacular. The people at the lobby very kind, the food and the thematic restaurants delicious.

  Nov 11, 2025
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  Our Caribbean experience 2025

  We were a family of 3 generations 13 in total we had a fantastic holiday from start to end everything about the hotel was fantastic . Service was perfect. The food at the main buffet was not the best towards end of the second week but generally nobody starved the day time buffet at the pool restaurant were excellent the lady cooking the fried rice and noodles worked so hard in such heat. She deserves a metal also the guy doing the fresh steak and lamb cooked to perfection as was the pasta bar our children loved it All the staff are very hard working we had a fantastic time always getting us table together All our à la carte experiences were truly authentic and very enjoyable. The staff in the Dominican were a little bit miserable and we found them very intense by which I mean they didn’t give us time to relax standing by the table waiting for plates before we even finished and because of that we did not tip them and we’ve never did that in any other restaurant The sports bar staff were fantastic very attentive and nothing was too much trouble. Generally all your staff are excellent the one person that stood out and probably does to everybody that leaves a review was your entertainment guy WANDERSON he was absolutely fantastic He runs your whole team and as I said there were 13 of us and he knew all our names and addressed us individually. I hope you’re paying him enough because he definitely deserves it. Thank you for hosting a wonderful family holiday

  Nov 11, 2025
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  A poor hotel with many safety flaws

  Right from the start, my experience was poor. The queue for the check was only about 4 families long, yet it took us around 45 minutes to get to the front of the queue. The lobby was very open, so it had no air conditioning, and we got very hot and sticky. That was the first sign of poor management at Bahia Punta Cana. The room, however, was actually very nice. The bathroom was a decent size, with a large bath which had some jets. The beds were comfortable enough and there was an amazing amount of storage. The air conditioning worked fine as well. However, the charging sockets were very slow and turned off as soon as you leave your room, so you have to charge them at night when you are in your room. There was a significant health hazard present on the door: the fire escape route. It showed incorrect information, telling us to turn left, where there was a dead end. No secondary route was present or information on where fire alarms were or where fire extinguishers were located. I think this is very disgraceful, considering the whole area was refurbished 2-3 years beforehand. The pool facilities were very nice. The inclusion of a swim - up (wet) - bar was very much appreciated. The area was quite quiet and there was a good mix of in the sun/out of the sun loungers. The only thing I’d say is there is some marble stripes on the ground which me and my family nearly slipped on. I did see a few people end up in wheelchairs for the rest of their holiday because of this. The food on the resort was okay. The buffets had quite nice food, while some of the al-a-cart restaurants were not so good. The Italian restaurant was one example. They did not have a proper pizza oven and the dough was too thick. This made it so the dough was basically raw, despite me sending it back because it was undercooked. I did end up getting slightly ill the next day. The Rodizio and Teppanyaki restraints were actually really nice, and I would recommend them if you still end up going after this poor review. The service on the resort is generally poor. Staff obviously don’t get trained proper waiting skills and can only handle base level waiting skills, like getting you a drink. As soon as something is wrong, they have no idea what to do. Unfortunately, this is present everywhere on the resort. The spa at the resort is very nice and relaxing. It had a calm feel, and the staff were nice. I had a great message and facial there. It was definitely a great experience there. On the 4th day, we got the back-end of the hurricane that I am sure you’ll have heard off that struck Jamaica in October 2025. The drains got backed and many building on site leaked. We also, for some odd reason, lost all hot water for around 1 and a half days. This was not ideal. The plaster ended up coming off the ceilings as well. Luckily, this wasn’t in our room but in the corridor. Overall, I cannot recommend this hotel at all. The whole experience just felt worse than when I came in October 2024.

  Nov 07, 2025