Grand Bavaro Princess- All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

17332 reviews

• 

  Horrible and arrogant marketing team- never seen such rude reply from a team - would not come close to this place!

  I wrote a review of property how overall nice it was and staff amazing. Then mentioned how terrible the wifi was , and terrible staff trying to stop me from taking food to sick daughter in room. Then I get a rude , arrogant reply from someone in marketing team, writing something to prove a point for some reason, all they had to do is reply nicely and say the internet is terrible and apologize that I could not get ahold of sick daughter who was scared in room as someone as at door, but instead writes an arrogant reply. No my daughter was not ok. You didn’t even reply to my question but took the time to try and brag and be arrogant how nice a place you have? You said I come from a snow covered blanked freezing country? You really said this? Whoever this person is must be talked to by management and owners, it’s incredible how arrogant and ignorant this person is for guests. We live along the Mediterranean coast with no snow or freezing temperatures if you may ask, our country has same beaches and amazing weather, But the difference is we are safe. You brag about your hotel being so good, but your safety is terrible, at the gates people coming to you asking to sell drugs? And you are writing how beautiful your country is and all this stuff and saying we are coming from a snow covered blanked freezing country? You thought I would not reply? You are ignorant and have no common sense or customer service and because of what you replied I would never recommend your hotel. Not supporting our daughter with food and terrible internet caused so many problems and all you had to reply is sorry and you will fix issues and thank us for coming , as we just wanted to visit and try your country as we have no need to come for weather or beauty as we have both at home. Now I wish to know your name and for someone to deal with you for replying so harsh and arrogant to us, and also we will send this to your ha to get an Anders. Whatever you do do not stay here, as per the reply you will read you can see how terrible guest services and marketing team are .

  Jan 13, 2026
• 

  Third consecutive December stay

  We have been returning every December, for 10 days, for the past 3 years. Here is how we personally experienced it this year: The good: The resort is beautiful and very green. We love the 3-floor villa concept, as we cannot imagine a huge, tall building fitting into the Caribbean landscape. The grounds are very clean and well maintained. We have written about this before, and it remains true. The beach and the sea are amazing, definitely the best beach in the area — and we have walked for miles. Beach service in the Platinum area is very good. Thank you, Sugar, always around and on point. Room cleaning was good and done on a daily basis, like every year. We have read conflicting opinions on this matter, but we never had any issues. The Platinum upgrade was, for us, definitely worth it: • Chopin is the buffet restaurant for Platinum guests, with an absolutely stunning setting and design. We had breakfast and lunch here on most days. • Rooms are close to Chopin and the beach, so not much walking is needed. • Sauna and jacuzzi are included for Platinum guests, and it is a very beautiful and private spa, as it requires a reservation, so you will have it to yourself. • À la carte restaurants are all easily booked for Platinum guests through the app. • PBG was good for dinner and lunch a couple of times, right on the beach. • The PBG rooftop terrace is beautiful. We don’t drink much, but the view is amazing. The Capuccino has good drinks and tasty crêpes for an afternoon snack. Wasabi, the Italian restaurant (thank you, Chef Enrico), and the teppanyaki were very good. The just OK: It is a mass-market hotel, albeit classified as a 5-star one. If you are looking for luxury and high-end service, this is not the place for you. The price-quality ratio is somewhat fair. If traveling from Europe, as we are, the expensive flight changes that ratio quite a bit, however. Staff is nice enough and hard working. Exceptions exist, but in such a massive resort I do not expect perfection. At times it is slower, especially at the Capuccino, when it gets crowded, but we were on vacation and not in a constant hurry, so it wasn't that much of a problem. The Platinum beach has much more comfortable sunbeds, with very comfortable mattresses. They are a bit too close to each other, and there are fewer palm trees here than on the regular beach, but it is still nice. The Soho restaurant was a bit of a letdown, for the second year in a row, both service- and food-wise. The lighting is also very strong, cold, and unpleasant. The Chopin buffet, although beautiful, had a somewhat limited food selection compared to Hispaniola. One would expect it to include the best dishes from the main buffet and some extras, but that is not the case. PBG for breakfast would be lovely, right on the beach, but the selection is extremely limited. We could not get a tomato or an avocado for the eggs or for the jamón. The bad: It is a great resort if you don’t need anything from anyone. If you do face problems, you are pretty much on your own — and that really is a problem. Of course, realistically, we are not expecting the general manager to walk around greeting 3,000 guests. This is not a luxury boutique hotel, and management availability is limited, to be fair. However, no one from Guest Relations is available for assistance if needed. We did have, for the first time, an enormous cockroach in the room, spotted at 11:00 PM. Aside from the fact that both my wife and I have a severe cockroach phobia, we had no insect spray to get rid of it, and sleeping with it in the room was certainly not an option. We called and asked for a spray, explaining the situation, and were told someone would come immediately. We are still waiting, one month later. My wife managed to chase it into the hallway and kill it. It was still there, dead, two days later. Really? Our TV broke down one evening. Same situation. We called, were told someone would come immediately — no one ever came. That is what I call the “Platinum experience” at its best. The resort was completely renovated 5 or 6 years ago, and we had a great room, thanks to Arnaldo, who has made sure for two years in a row that we receive a beautiful room. However, many rooms show signs of wear and tear that are simply unacceptable: mold, mildew, cracks in the ceiling. Not to mention the doors, which are about an inch smaller than the door frame on every side. We are not afraid of lizards, otherwise this would have been a real dealbreaker, as they can roam around freely. Of course, this is a humid and difficult climate, but room maintenance should be immensely improved. The TVs are smart, but no streaming option is possible. Not even from your phone, using your own streaming platforms, connected by cable. This is a huge downside and downright ridiculous, as we do not drink or party and usually retire early with a movie — or at least that should be the case. The resort’s management policy blocks all streaming services: Netflix, Disney, Prime, HBO, you name it. We brought a cable that connects our iPhones to TVs and works on every continent and in every resort — except here. The buggies circulating around the resort are impossible to catch at dinner time and made us late for dinner on several occasions, which caused delays in being seated, and so on. The vehicles should also be electric, not constantly polluting such a green and beautiful setting and disturbing both guests and wildlife. Smoking: my God. Never in my life have I had a more difficult time staying away from smokers on a beach. And in no resort or hotel have we encountered a smoke-free beach policy. My wife has asthma, and this was truly problematic — and unacceptable. That being said, we had an overall somewhat pleasant stay. Would we return this December? If Arnaldo is still there to help us secure a good room, and if Guest Relations becomes at least slightly more present in solving issues that sometimes arise, then yes. This is our “before Christmas” vacation tradition, and we would hate to change that. However, if management and Guest Relations do not become more involved with yearly returning Platinum guests, we will sadly close this chapter. We do have the means to travel around the world, and the way we are treated and cared for goes a very long way in choosing our destinations. Thank you, Arnaldo — you are the reason we are even considering returning.

  Jan 11, 2026
• 

  Good but not great resort

  This is my first time writing a review and hope this will be helpful for other families considering this resort. I booked this resort as a last-minute getaway over the holidays (Dec 30-Jan 6). I went with my husband and 12-year old daughter. I'll start with the positives: 1. The resort is immaculate. It's beautiful and very clean. Lots of beautiful wildlife and harmless wildlife with lots of peacocks, ducks, and other birds, even saw a parrot. 2. Friendly staff - everyone we interacted with was polite, helpful and provided good service even if they didn't speak English. Be prepared to tip, which is accepted and appreciated. 3. The New Year's celebration was great. It was a dance party with performers on stage. They gave out celebration light sticks, face masks for women and kids and hats for men. It was lots of fun. 4. The room was clean even with a powerful A/C, which we had to turn down from time to time because it was so cold! I will say, some may find the layout a bit odd especially if you have kids (I'd suggest the Family section of the resort in this case). 5. Beautiful beach - there was a bit of seaweed, it wasn't too bad. Now for the negatives: 1. The food at the buffet was ok but was repetitive. Usually this doesn't bother me, but it really did get tiring after a few days. A la carte restaurants were nearly impossible to get into. You make your reservation on their app, but only for the next day or two in advance. The restaurants were almost always fully booked. I was only able to get one restaurant, the Pizzeria. Someone told me to book through Guest Services, which I did and was able to get into the Italian restaurant. I didn't get to go to the Teppanyaki restaurant, which I really wanted to try. 2. Holy smokes! If you are a smoker, this is the resort for you. If you're not, stay away. I'm not a smoker and was bothered by all the smoking around me. With the exception of the restaurants, there was smoking everywhere. For this reason alone, I would not come back here, even if I could live with everything else. 3. Entertainment was subpar - while the New Year's Eve celebration was fun, every night was the same thing, a DJ playing the same music, with some live dance instructions for those interested on going on their makeshift dance floor. It was the same thing every...single... night. The location would change from the lobby to the beach on Sunday night, but it was the same thing. If I hear YMCA one more time, I'm going to scream! No other type of nightly entertainment. Now, we did notice that the following week's activities after we left seemed to have some variety, but I really can't say what exactly that entailed. Additionally, for those with pre-teens/teens, there was nothing for them to do other than the beach, pool or offsite excursion ($). If you have children in this age group, be prepared for them to be bored. I wish they had a teen club or some activities targeted for them. This resort has a kids club but it's resort that's either for families with small children or for adults. 4. The resort is huge - while this wouldn't normally be a negative for me, the layout of the resort was simply inconvenient. You were either close to the lobby and most restaurants, which we were, or you were closer to the beach and a few other restaurants, which was mostly reserved for Platinum Princess guests. The distance is about a 10 minute walk to the beach. They did have shuttles, but at times we could walk to the beach before we saw a shuttle. 5. Beach chairs were incredibly difficult to get - like many resorts, people grab their chairs early and hoard them for the entire day. No different here. If you're a latecomer to the beach, it'll take you a long time to find a beach chair. 6. Housekeeping - while our bed sheets were changed regularly, I must say they were stingy on the towels so be prepared for that. They also only replaced sheets/towels and supplies; not sure how much "cleaning" was done. Overall, it's a good resort, but for a 5-star resort, the value wasn't quite there. It was great to getaway for the holidays, and I think this resort has potential, but just a few things for them to pay attention to: improve variety of entertainment and expand offerings for pre-teens/teens; make a la cartes more accessible; have designated smoking areas. Unfortunately, because of the smoking and the overall experience, I wouldn't come back. Sorry for the long read but hopefully it's helpful!

  Jan 11, 2026
• 

  dangerous resort for falling

  Place is a death trap for seniors. Just skip this resort. We had just arrived settled in our room. We had brought my mother with us. She is 79 in relatively good health. We decided to go get dinner at the buffet. At the step up going in the main buffet near the entrance of the resort , my mother had a terrible fall. The step was in disrepair so my mom went step on the area that looked more stable. As she stepped the tiles were loose dislogded and she fell dislocating her shoulder. There wer at least 30 peaple there that saw including the staff that seats you at the buffet. They were quick to help us get help and to a doctor. The Doctor was helpful and got us to emergency at a private hospital nearby . The care was very good at the hospital. The Resort immediately the next blocked off the area and reparied the entire step. My mother wore a sling and was in pain for the whole trip. She may need orthoscopic surgery back home to fix a possible fracture in her shoulder. I was very upset about the broken step and asked only for the Resort to pay for her medical expenses. They refused and offered only room service for her food. This is unacceptable. Why did my mother have to fall dislocate her shoulder and put her life at risk for them to fix that step. Unbelievable. Do not go to this resort with seniors , even younger ones could fall. Falling is a leading cause of death among seniors. I am at total loss why this very nice resort would allow such disrepair. Go somewhere else

  Jan 08, 2026
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  Amazing experience

  A group of 5 of us stayed in the Platinum Club for 2 weeks last year. The resort is phenomenal! The staff are friendly and very helpful. Ledesma in the Italian restaurant and Deograsia in the breakfast buffet were outstanding. They both went above and beyond to ensure a memorable vacation. The food, the beach, everything is amazing! We are all going back for another 2 weeks in January 2026. We can’t wait!

  Jan 05, 2026