We arrived at Puerto Plata airport and were directed to one of First Choice's awaiting buses to transfer us to the hotel. The transfer takes about an hour and a half, and the assistant on the bus checked us in on the way. This saved time because when we got the the hotel, we had the keys already and headed straight for our room.

The accomodation is designed in blocks of 4 rooms, 2 up and 2 down, and we were fortunate to get an upstairs room. The room was spacious with a large bed, minibar fridge, and TV. The bathroom was small but the whole room was always clean and tidy. The rooms have an aircon unit which was a must whenever heading back to the room, but while we were there, they had attached locks to the units meaning that you couldn't leave the units on all day, which I suppose is fair as their energy costs would have been huge. The rooms have balconies but we didn't spend any time there, as the pool and beach areas are 5 minutes away! The balcony sliding doors are a bit suspect however, and we had trouble locking ours on a few days, and the maintenance guys had to fix it. A few days later, there were some burglaries reported across the complex sadly, and they'd got in through the sliding doors.

This made us even more relieved that we'd hired the safe and kept everything of any value in that at all times, particularly passports, money, phones, jewellery, etc. Never leave anything out!

The complex itself is huge and well designed, and as other recent reports have stated, the place is very clean. We were a little nervous going after the reports from the poor people who got sick last year, but the hotel must have pulled their finger out as it was spotless, and the pools were well looked after. You can't turn round without someone mopping the floor or cleaning tables, and I don't know how many times I tried to use a public bathroom only to find a maid in there cleaning, in fairness. They also insist upon everyone using a sanitising alcohol-based hand gel before entering restaurants, and the gel is also in the public bathrooms too.

The food at the hotel was nice although the buffet did get a bit boring after about a week. You can however go for up to 3 a la carte meals per week, in one of the themed restaurants. These were nice, especially the mediterranean one.

After about 3 days though we both experienced tummy upsets and we had this for a week after returning home, but I honestly think it was just the different food types that did it, and not the cleanliness of the place. It made us a bit miserable for a couple of days but after that, we enjoyed ourselves none the less.

I also had to visit the hotel doctor for something else, which you have to pay for or invoke your travel insurance. The doctor (hopefully you won't see him) was pleasant, had a spotless surgery, and was very helpful.

Illnesses aside, we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the holiday but did get a bit unlucky with the weather in week 2, but that's just the way it goes. At the hotel though, there's always something to do, even if it's just sitting in the bar area playing cards. We went there for a relaxing 2 weeks, so that was fine.

We did 2 excursions, namely the Fiesta night and then the Paradise Island trip. Both were great fun, and I'd recommend them both. Other people that we spoke to went on the other excursions and we heard nothing but good reports in fairness. If you like the sea and a bit of snorkelling, you MUST do the Paradise Island trip, we'd not seen anything quite like it.

Always use mosquito repellent whatever you do. The holiday rep office sell citronella patches and they seemed to work for us, and we did see a lot of people that looked like they had measles because they'd been bitten all over.

We used the credit card phone in the lobby to call home twice, and the calls lasted no more than 1 minute each. The bill when I returned home was £25 per call, so I'd advise against this. I think the reps sell phone cards, which I think would be better all round.

I'd have to agree with some of the other reports, in that the lobby shop is extortionate, and pretty much every time we went to buy a soft drink with a $5 bill, they'd say they had no change and would try to substitute $1 by giving us a sweet instead. Ummm, no thanks. The shops that line the main road are interesting and you will find some nice souvenirs here. A lot of stuff however is expensive.

We played mini golf a couple of times and enjoyed it. As a golfer I found it hilarious that we were presented with brand new Callaway balls with which to play, I had to have a photo of that. (that's probably lost on you non-golfers, sorry). We also had a crack at kayacking and the pedalo's, which were great fun. We did some snorkelling near the hotel and it was great, we saw loads of tropical fish. One barracuda came for a look at me, which was a bit nervy but a great experience.

The nightly shows are a bit of a mixed bag really. The first night was awful, but they did a different routine each night and in fairness, some were good and a couple were exceptional. The kids show is from about 8.30 til 9.15, and while it's great to see all the kids having a great time on stage dancing and playing games, there's only so much "Aga doo" and "Saturday night" that any sane adult can take. Strangely enough though, we were there every night for 2 weeks and enjoyed it.

On the whole, as long as you look after your possessions, keep your hands clean, drink only purified water, use loads of sun cream (we saw loads of frazzled Brits), and tip the hard working staff from time to time, you'll have a good stay.

Hope this helps!

This was our 2nd visit to the resort and we found not a lot had changed in 5 years, which was fine as we enjoyed it all first time around. Biggest change we found was the hygeine - everywhere you go there were gel hand clean stations, reminded me off crusise ships....

Compimetary reviews peior to this one say it all - room was spotless, fridge refilled daily etc. Food as expected - absolurtely no reason to go hungry as the choices daily are large though repetitive.

If you are a returning guest - make sure you inform them at check in. You will be given a different colour wrist band with some extras..... you can book an extra speciality meal weekly for example, you are allowed 1 meal a week in the Diamond club buffet which I highly recommend, as its quieter with food cooked for you fresh etc. You will also get complimentary fruit , rum and t-shirts.... delivered to your roomplus, Discount on the spa facilities.

The Evening Entertainment this time around was not as good as usual for Dominican, we have seen a lot better at other resorts there, too much party game stuff made it feel a bit DIY entertaining - however they all try hard to please and are extremely friendly.

If you want a proper alchoholic dink while staying there - id advise you to bring your own duty free. Although the local rum is always good everything else semed a little watered down....

All in all it is a nice resort for you to relax in or you can venture further afield on excursions - Id recommend using the tour operator just outsid on the beach as they are half the price of Airtours and give you the same tours.

Funniest moment was waking up to find a land crab in the room.... best to put a rolled up towel across your door entrance if you are on ground floor.

and hey - its the tropics so dont forget your insect repellants.

Just got back from a 2 week stay at the hotel with my boyfriend and we both loved it. The place, the hotel itself and all the activities we took part in exceded all our expectations, as i had read some reviews on this site and didn't really know wether to expect good oor bad.

As soon as we arrived the mood was set for the whole holiday, the hotel was lovely, as was the room and the staff were lovely and polite. There were flowers in the room and the bed was huge!

The grounds are gorgeous and there is constantly gardeners of cleaners working to keep the place looking that way, and everyone is always polite and saying hello.

The staff are great, they work really long hours but are always lively and would do anything for you, especially the entertainment staff who are always jumping about and trying to get you to play games etc.

The food is great, even really fussy eaters can't go hungry. The buffet has tons of choice and there is a different theme every night so you don't have to eat the same things everyday, we definetly didn't. We went to all the a la carte restraunts and the Mexiican and Itailian were our favourites. The steak in the Mexician mmm.......

We did two trips, Ocean World and a catamaran trip, both were great. Swam with dolphins, which I have akways wanted to do and it is definetly worth the money. The catamaran trip is also really worth the money and the snorkling is great, there are loads of fish.

The only 'bad' thing that I could say about the hotel is the fact that it is quite far away from the airport and both of the locations of the trips which we went to. But thats not a major thing, you only go to the airport twice on your holiday anyway. And, as it is far away from other amemities, there is so much to do at the resort which is included in the all inclusive package. We learned to sail a catamaran, sailed a kayak, played mini golf and there are plenty of other things to do also.

I would definetly recommend this hotel as we both had a great time!

If you are thinking of going,you need to have a stomach of steel!!
This hotel has a serious stomach bug!
During our 2 week stay all 4 of us were ill. I have been seriously ill.,My own doctor thinks I have contracted food poisoning. We returned on Sunday and I am still suffering.
During our stay there were ambulances conveying guests to the hospital in Puerto plata daily, ( at of $95 each way). Take plenty insurance and more self medication.
Most of the other guests we spoke with at least had upset tummys!
If you have any kind of medical condition,this is not the place for you, as in my opinion you would be taking a very big health risk.
People cancelled trips because they were unable to attend because they were ill!!
We found out after we got there that this hotel had been closed for 3 months last year when 1,500 people took ill with a similar infection.
The pools are not self cleaning. There was a constant yellow, frothy scum on the "quiet" pool and the main pool was very unclean. As a result some of the small children, who were in and out of this water ended up with ear infections as well!
The beach has alot of sand flies and people were being seriously bitten.
The best part of the holiday was comming home!!