Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

9985 reviews

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  Wonderful sisters trip to DR!

  We loved this resort from all aspects! Beautiful, clean, food was good and the workers made our experience absolutely wonderful! We went on a sisters trip with 4 of us. They made us feel at home and special from the time we arrived! Yajair, Yamibel, Mario’s in star prestige were great! Everyone there was wonderful, unfortunately I did not note all of their names! Henry, Joselito, Miguel at beach bar were great! Valentin with security was so nice!! Julian, Sesa, Hilario were all fun bar tenders!! We will be back!!

  Jul 07, 2025
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  Very good resort. Be warned that the weekends become unbearable.

  The Iberostar Costa Dorado is the #1 high end all-inclusive resort in Puerto Plata. Yes it is showing its age, but it is well maintained by the staff and grounds crew. It is not a 5 star, and probably not a 4 star hotel, but it does the job of having a decent buffet, snack bar and 3 specialty restaurants. The reservation system to book those are a bit difficult. The pool is huge and enjoyable. Right on a gorgeous beach. The entertainment is good, but it certainly caters to the Dominican clientele…. which is the largest downside to the property. Not to be a snob, but the resort completely fills up every room on the weekends to local Dominicans. That’s ok. What is not ok is that they are rude, entitled and ruthlessly pushy. Oh… and they pay less then HALF of what you pay for your stay. That’s the unfair part. I was able to solicit comments from staff when I commiserated with them of how badly and with such disregard the “rich” and rude Dominicans treat them. A very sad situation. My advice to Iberostar is either charge me what they charge the Dominicans per night… or charge the Dominicans what I am paying per night and that would elevate the caliber of clientele that stay at the hotel. Overall the hotel is solid with great service and good food. Just brace yourself for the onslaught of “questionable” clientele who show up on Friday and leave on Monday.

  Jun 23, 2025
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  Fabulous - Wish It Did Not End

  My family of four stayed at Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada for 1 week. It was absolutely fabulous and I will be recommending it to all of my friends. We did not rent a car and simply used taxis and tours for the times we left the resort. From the moment we arrived, everyone was extremely friendly and made all of us feel welcomed. The resort itself is beautiful. There is a garden onsite, peacocks roaming freely, food aplenty, large pools, tons of cabanas, water sports options, kid camps for the young ones, pristine beach with powdery sand. Iberostar is serious about reducing waste so you will not find one-time use plastic which I appreciate. This is my family's first time at an all-inclusive and I loved it. Almost everything is already included. Anything that is not included and costs extra is obvious. We had everything we needed and more. I will definitely stay at an Iberostar resort again. Peter greeted us at the front desk and explained everything to us. Every time I needed something at the front desk, he remembered my name and room number. He was always upbeat and handled every customer with care even when it was busy. I know he at least spoke Spanish and English fluently. I felt confident in all communications with him and his customer service was impeccable. Next person of note that we met was Lucy, who guided us to our room and explained the grounds and offerings to us. Again, she was fluent in English and wonderfully friendly. We saw her often around the resort and she was engaging with everyone, exemplifying the ideal concierge. Her personality was warm and welcoming and I am confident she could have handled any request. The availability of excursion options in the lobby was perfect. We were able to sit down during our first full day and figure out a schedule for the excursions we wanted. He was patient while we tossed around several options so that we had the right mix of fun and lazy days. We knew we wanted to mix up our week with some days just hanging around the resort and other days exploring Puerto Plata and the surrounding area. The tours we selected included transportation. The tours were well planned, professional, and safe. The tour guides explained sites we were seeing along the way which was extremely interesting and felt like an added bonus. We decided to Zipline with Mega one day. We also went to Monkeyland, the Waterfalls, and Buggy rides with Runners Adventures (those reviews are separate, but I would highly recommend both companies.). One day we hired a taxi to take us around to the city of Puerto Plata, the fort, partially up the mountain for views, a few small museums, etc. This was again a safe and very affordable option. The restaurants on the resort were also great. We especially enjoyed the Japanese restaurant. The hibachi style meal was fun and lively. The chef entertained us the entire time and the food was delicious. We mostly ate at the daily buffet for breakfast and dinner. I visited Pedro every morning for my made-to-order eggs. He helped me order in Spanish but completely understood when I had to resort to English (I wanted to order in Spanish). I looked forward to my interactions with Pedro, as he too was extremely welcoming. Iberostar Waves Costa Dorada has a wonderful entertainment and activities line-up. The entertainer that added immensely to our stay was Ninja. We started participating in the events a few days after arrival and I recommend looking at the schedule of "How to Have Fun at the Hotel" which you get access to via an app once you check in. We played bingo, archery, danced, exercised, crazy pool games (frisbee bowling, soccer bowling, etc.), Ping-Pong, and took in some of the nighttime shows. If I were to do it all over again, I would participate in more as it was always fun. Ninja's personality is absolutely perfect for his role as an entertainer. He makes you feel like friends from the moment you meet him. His smile is contagious. He is also fluent in at least Spanish and English. When he saw us around the resort, he would let us know what was next as he could see we were enjoying the activities. It was laid back and easy. No sign-up required. If you were there and wanted to join in, Ninja made that seamless. I am confident the other staff members were helpful, as I have the impression that Iberostar takes great care in selecting their employees. Every single person from the front desk, restaurants, cleaning and grounds staff, entertainers, etc. were excellent and friendly. The individual people that I mentioned made our vacation absolutely wonderful. I am so glad we settled on Puerto Plata for our vacation as it was a mix of culture and adrenaline tourist stuff with the ease you want in a vacation. We felt safe the entire time and recommend this for families.

  Jun 13, 2025
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  Amazing resort

  The staff are the greatest. Yajara and Yamibel in Star prestige are amazing and the best. Yoselito, Henry and Miguel are wonderful down at the star prestige beach bar. All the staff are wonderful. They take great care of you. The resort was clean and beautiful.

  Jun 11, 2025
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  Great resort for the cost. Great resort for family of all ages

  Great size resort for family members of all ages. Decent activities and connections to puerto plata. My husband and I loved our room but our parents did not enjoy theirs as it backed onto the neighbouring resort with a terrible view of their fence & other maintenance buildings. The food was as expected for the cost and none of our party experienced any ill effects from the purified water they provided. The make your own sandwiches were a nice snack whenever we did not feel like the other food. Loved two out of 5 performances that we got to experience while there. The others were also interesting to see just not my cup of tea.

  Jun 10, 2025