Not having been to Playa Dorada before, we were unaware that the resort consists only of hotels and nothing else. The only people you meet in Playa Dorada are people staying in the hotels, and people working in the hotels, so not much fun there. The rooms are pretty basic, clean enough but no frills. The public areas are well-designed and maintained, it's a shame they don't apply the same level of care to the rooms. The food was absolutely fine, there was plenty of variety each day, vegetables were nicely cooked (not mushy!) and there was always fresh salad and fruit. The bar was pretty pathetic, no decent cocktails - pina colada came from a kind of slush puppy machine. We ended up drinking the tiny plastic cups of beer. Bar staff were rude. Entertainment is brain-rottingly awful. You'd be relaxing by the pool listening to the 1 CD that they have, when they'd crank up the music and play the same song 5 times in a row trying to cajole people into the pool for "water aerobics". That was when it was time to leave. Evening entertainment consisted - every single night - of Agadoo and the Birdy Song. Music older than the hotel......
For 9 out of our 14 days stay, we walked up to the main road and got a local bus or taxi to Sosua or Cabarete. Much nicer resorts, with more to see and do, infinitely better beaches than the one at Playa Dorada, lovely bars and restaurants and - shock! - local people. And believe it or not, it turns out they're not all murderers and rapists, despite what your tour rep tells you. We booked a room in a little hotel in Sosua and stayed there for 3 nights.
All inclusive deals from the UK are pretty cheap, so we were happy enough to spend some money outside the resort. In fact, we spent only £500 between the two of us over two weeks, eating and drinking outside the hotel, which I think is a bargain. I would strongly recommend that people spend some time visiting one of the nearby resorts. Spending a week or two only in the Caribbean Village, or even just in Playa Dorada, I think you'd go completely insane!

As a relatively experienced traveller, I have stayed in a variety of places ranging from unrated to 5*+. When I booked this vacation, honestly, I was not expecting anything in the way of extraordinary, considering that the entire package was only costing me $649 Canadian, all inclusive. I read quite a few of the other reviews posted on Tripadvisor, and started to second guess my choice. What did I get myself into? Obviously everybodies expectations are different, as are our degrees of positive and negative. Again, being a seasoned traveller, I decided that I would not dwell on the comments of others (the negative ones in particular), and would draw my own conclusions.
So here we go folks. Just got back from a week at this resort, March 13-20,2008. The entire experience can best be conveyed as FANTASTIC.
The weather: Fantastic
The people: Fantastic
The hotel: Fantastic, clean, beautiful room with balcony, outstanding maid service, almost like being at home.
The food: Fantastic, outstanding quality, variety, and quantity. From bbq beef, chicken, etc., to the night when they served 2 roasted young pigs. The onsite gourmet italian and brazillian restaurants, which were included in the package, serve an outstanding menu, and it cost me nothing extra. (I lied, I left a $5 tip)

All the horror stories I read about the poor quality of the food, greasy fried, everyday the same, are JUST NOT TRUE. Folks the food is amazing. They even bring a complete hot and cold buffet down to the beach each day. What more do you want? Everything is fresh, well prepared and beautifully presented. OUTSTANDING!!!

The beach is just a sort shuttle drive away, or you can leisurely walk there in less than 10 minutes. If you don't want to go to the beach, they have a teriffic pool.

This resort is part of a 14 hotel complex. There are golf courses, a shopping plaza, 3 casinos, fantastic surroundings and amazing, polite, beautiful people, eager to make your vacation the best it can be. This is a no stress, no hard sell environment. If you say no to someone trying to promote other opportunities to you, they just back off with a smile. It is part of the rules of the complex. No one will agressively harrass you. Just say no.

Everything that has been said by others about ONY the bartender is absolutely true. He is an incredible individual who makes being on vacation at this place even more fun. There are a lot of others that strive to do the same. Thank you ONY and all of the other fine staff.

I am sure there is something negative that I could say about this place, but I am not even going to try to think about one. It is too easy to be negative. We got far more on this vacation than we ever expected for the price we paid. In short and in all honesty, this was POSITIVELY one great vacation, at a POSITIVELY wonderful place. Just ignore the negative comments, they are not worth your time or effort. I hope you get the opportunity to experience it, enjoy it and judge it for yourself.

Still smiling :)

H:)

We stayed at the caribbean villiage, it was a good hotel for the money we paid, it could use some renovations especially to the bathroom, some of the food was average while others were awesome. Even thought he hotel is not located on the beach it is only a short distance on the tractor.
We especially enjoyed the a la carte resturants.
The entertainment was great very happy people, the workers strive to please the guests.
We met some awesome people also from Newfoundland.
We enjoyed meeting the locals.
This was our first trip to puerto Plata and we cannot wait to return we plan to make this a yearly thing and would not hesitate to stay at this hotel again if we could get it for the same price as this year.

For everyone that thinks it's hard to get a good price vs value deal, this one is goanna prove you wrong!!!

We are a couple in our early 40's and travel a lot (4-5 times a year), we usualy book cheaper accomodation because the money we save on the hotels anables us to spend more outside the resort (we are generaly content with a 3-3 1/2 star resort). It's our 3rd time in that area of Puerto Plata. Previously we went to Victoria Resort on the Golf and Occidental Playa Dorada Beach and Casino Resort. This one is by far the best of the 3

The C.V is a 3 stars resort that holds the largest rooms we've seen for that category. We had a junior suite in building 14 witch is close to the exit gate and a 5 min walk to everything the resort had to offer. The room, bathroom and the huge balcony were cleaned every day to our satisfaction. The food was great and plentiful. The brezillian restaurant was the best out of the 2 (Italian was just OK). All the staff was ''FABULOUS'' and a special mention to ONY the barman at the pool's main bar for is devotion and quickness.

We rented a scooter for the week for (150$) and went to Puerto Plata 4 times, The mountains 3 times (with a local friend we made a couple years back when we were at the Victoria) and Sosua 2 times. We also were able to circulate in the Playa Dorada area with ease and security. We were able to go to the beach and back to the hotel every day without having to wait for the shuttle tractor to bring us.

Think about it...You get the whole deal for the price of the airline tickets.

For us, it was more than what we were expecting with the experiences we have. The people that leave negative reviews for this resort are not regular travelers and are expecting more than what they pay for. Keep in mind, they advertise it as a 3 star complex...and its more than that!!!