Grand Bavaro Princess- All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

17264 reviews

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  HONEST REVIEW

  WHAT I LIKED The hotel itself is genuinely beautiful with a very natural, tropical feel. The beach is stunning with white sand, no seaweed, and it is well maintained. The property is also very large with plenty of walking space. The room was spacious, comfortable, and well presented. The mini bar was included and stocked with four bottles of water, two Cokes, two Sprites, and two cans of beer, although there were no sugar free options. Housekeeping was quick and efficient, usually taking 5 to 10 minutes, though the timing was extremely unpredictable. Sometimes they came at 10 AM and other days as late as 4 PM. There is a good variety of dining locations including buffet restaurants, food trucks, bars, and à la carte restaurants. The drinks were generally good with generous alcohol pours, though you rarely receive the same drink twice even when ordering the same thing. The bar at the relax pool was by far the best with excellent service and the best bartender on the resort. Service during the first day or first few hours after arrival was excellent and very welcoming. WHAT I DISLIKED Unfortunately, the food was the biggest disappointment. We are not picky eaters at all, but the buffet food made us extremely ill with stomach cramps and diarrhoea for nine consecutive days. The buffet had very poor variety, an unappealing salad bar, warm cheeses, stale bread, and cold meats left warm and exposed to flies. Even some of the fresh food appeared questionable. The à la carte restaurants were an improvement in terms of quality, but still nothing higher than a 6 out of 10. As someone with a culinary background, I noticed multiple hygiene and food safety concerns throughout the resort. Service consistency was another major issue. We do not speak Spanish, but we tipped whenever possible. Despite that, service felt very biased. Some days we were treated well, other days we were completely ignored. Even ordering food or drinks could take 10 to 20 minutes just to be acknowledged, and staff often appeared unwilling to help. At the Hispaniola buffet, we were told off for sitting at a table meant for three to four people despite all tables for two being either taken or dirty. When we sat at a dirty one, we were never brought cutlery or napkins and had to eat breakfast with our hands. Drinks at the buffet consistently arrived 10 to 20 minutes after ordering, often after we had already finished eating and dessert. Prices inside the hotel and on excursions were extremely inflated. The hotel shop charged 20 dollars for two packets of crisps, 60 dollars for a vape, 15 dollars for cigarettes, 5 dollars for a Gatorade, 7 dollars for a Kinder Bueno, and 17 dollars for a mini Pepto Bismol. Small souvenir items were 45 dollars and above. We also experienced bugs in our room, and money went missing. We were not informed about the safe or where it was located, as it was hidden behind a picture frame. The hotel took no responsibility due to this and offered no compensation, goodwill gesture, or resolution. The attitude following this incident felt noticeably colder toward us. Room service was also disappointing. A 20 dollar pizza arrived undercooked in the middle, cold due to a very thick unmelted cheese layer, and with raw mushrooms on top. Ironically, the takeaway food we ordered on the final day outside the hotel was what finally settled our stomachs. One evening at the Focaccia restaurant, we were seated directly in the middle of a wedding reception. The staff were clearly overwhelmed, which we understood, but other couples were seated in quieter areas while we were stuck in the busiest possible location. We also booked a sixty minute private jacuzzi and sauna session at the spa and were specifically told it would be private. However, twenty to thirty minutes into our session, other guests were brought in. Due to our stomach issues, we avoided ice and any non bottled water. Despite repeatedly requesting no ice, drinks often arrived with ice anyway. I would also urge caution with fruit. At one point they even ran out of bananas, despite bananas being one of the safest foods for upset stomachs and an ingredient in half of their drinks menu. The resort also operates a constant buggy service using golf carts for very short distances. While convenient for some guests, they are extremely frequent, loud, and often get in the way of pedestrians, even for distances that take less than five minutes to walk. This quickly became disruptive rather than helpful. FINAL THOUGHTS If you are travelling from the UK, in my honest opinion, this hotel is not worth the ten hour flight. For a little extra money, there are far more reputable resorts with better hygiene, food standards, fair pricing, and consistent service.

  Dec 05, 2025
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  Great service, thank you Javier

  I want to take couple minutes to say thank you to Javier from Royal holiday butler, he made our vacation so great, he’s so polite, hope to see him again in our next vacation.

  Dec 03, 2025
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  Nice and large resort, but somewhat impersonal at times

  Normally we visit Cancun but decided to try Punta Cana this year. The resort is very large and very pretty--lots of lush tropical foliage and there is a bird sanctuary there, so there are a lot of peacocks and other birds, as well as a lot of turtles and fish swimming around. I'll give the positives and negatives of our experience as well as overall impression: POSITIVE-Platinum upgrade--we did this before we came to the resort. It gives you access to another pool, some additional restaurants, a special section of the beach, and the rooftop bar. Overall we thought it was worth it. NEGATIVE- Platinum reception area. They have two people working, and when you have large parties checking in, and lots of people at once, it is frustrating to have to wait. We waited about 30 minutes to check in. POSITIVE- Main pool is very large with lots of space. Platinum pool is smaller, but more private and obviously less people. Also has a pool waitress which main pool doesn't have NEGATIVE--does not enforce the "no saving chairs" rule that they have posted everywhere. Not sure how early you need to get to the pool or beach to get the best spots, but its earlier than we got there. Often times people would not even show up to the spot they had reserved. Very annoying. POSITIVE-Resort has lots of good food options. Buffets are fine, average buffet food, but the a la carte restaurants are great. You use the app to book your dinner reservations, or you can have your butler do it for you if you are platinum. NEGATIVE-Most restaurants only have dinner, so if you are there for a week like us, you will have to pick and choose. Also the app doesn't work a lot of the time. OVERALL--Overall we enjoyed the resort. Since it's so large, it does feel somewhat impersonal at times, and service can be hit or miss. We did have great service from Javier, our Royal Holiday Butler, as well as some others I will mention. One thing to mention is there is no place that is only for adults so there are kids everywhere you go. There is a golf cart train to take you around the resort, and sometimes you need to wait because one is full already. If you are thinking about visiting here, you definitely should as it was a great time. Standout service from Orlando, who usually helped us for breakfast at the PBG Grill and also for dinner in Soho, Yasmeiri who helped us for lunch at PBG Grill and in Il Tartufo, Adriani in PBG Grill and Chopin, Nayeli in Chopin, bartender Marino in the platinum pool, Tony at the platinum beach bar, and Ishmael in the main pool bar.

  Dec 01, 2025
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  DIRTY BED BUG RIDDEN HOTEL DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE “NICE REVIEWS & PICTURES” !!

  Do not be fooled by the lovely pictures and “positive reviews” like we were! Dirty bug infested hotel major problem with cleanliness! Wouldn’t recommend . Do not be fooled by the good reviews and nice pictures because in reality you’ll be faced with dirty bed bug infested rooms covered in bug stains everywhere even on the sofa on iron board . The place is riddled with bugs! In one of the rooms they was human faeces on the bed that hadn’t been cleaned from the previous guest. We were moved into multiple different rooms and every room had problems when it came to cleanliness. In one of the rooms we were put in they was water leaking out of the ceiling from the light in the bathroom every time it rained! The towels in the room are not cleaned they are reused from the previous guest. Every day the hotel reception would lie and say that they would change your room to a cleaner room even in the platinum section but every time you went back, they would say the room wasn’t available. Rooms had a horrible mouldy damp smell and pool isn’t the cleanest either! See pictures. Do not be fooled by the nice pictures of this hotel !

  Nov 30, 2025
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  Great family trip to Grand Bavaro Princess

  We just returned from a Thanksgiving week family trip with our 2 grown children. We booked a private shuttle roundtrip from the airport and it worked out great. We used High Quality Transport. Grand Bavaro Princess did not disappoint. I was really concerned with some of the reviews we had seen. Pay no attention to those, some people can't be pleased. From the time we arrived, we were treated great. We booked the Platinum level and it was excellent. Our suite was very close to the beach and was only a short walk to the pools and the beach restaurants. We had 2 rooms in the same villa and the staff was great about putting us close together per our request when booking.Our room was nice and clean but nothing fancy. There was a bedroom and sitting area and also a nice balcony. We mostly just slept and showered there. There are shuttles to move you around the resort and mostly we were able to get on with no problem. It does get really busy around dinner time. The Platinum level allows you acces to the Platinum pool and the Platinum Beach Grill which are both close to the beach. We spent a lot of time at both places and met several new friends.The beach was cleaned every morning and there was very little seaweed. We enjoyed the Platinum area on the beach and were able to find nice cushioned chairs everyday. Check out Luna and Jose Luis over at the Cafe Del Mar bar. We found it a couple days after we got there. They were great and provided excellent service. We ate dinner every night at the A la carte restaurants. We used the Princess app and made reservations for each night the first day we were there. We really enjoyed the Mexican, hibachi, Italian and steak house food. We ate breakfast at the PBG almost every morning. There is entertainment everyday at the main pool around 4:00 pm. Party time! The White Party on Sunday night was fun and there is something going on every night by the main lobby. We went to Rebels 24/7 bar a few times to watch sports and they have karaoke every night. We didn't really enjoy the food there but it was a great place to hang out and meet new friends.We went to the casino a few nights and had fun playing but didn't win any money. We like Blackjack, but the dealers did a few shady things so we didn't go back. After reading the reviews about the resort we brought cold medicine, Pepto Bismol and bug spray. We did not have to use any of them. We didn't notice any bugs that were biting. My wife and I took probiotics for 2 weeks before coming and we didn't drink or brush our teeth with the tap water. We did drink the water and ice that was provided in the restaurants. Bottled water is supplied everywhere on the resort. Our daughter did start brushing her teeth with the tap water on about the 3rd day and she got sick on the day we left. We brought small US bills for tipping and the staff were very appreciative. We really enjoyed the resort, the staff and new friends that we met. Everyone was so nice. We will definitely consider Grand Bavaro Princess for another vacation.

  Nov 30, 2025