Travelled to the Dominican with my husband and his family between April 17 and April 25. It was my first all-inclusive experience. Stayed at the Riu Bachata for the duration. Overall impression was positive. Front desk was well staffed with multi-lingual individuals which made for fast and easy check-in and check-out. Buffet food was abundant with a wide variety of options at each meal. I'd rate the food quality as above average but not excellent. The food at the specialty restaurants (Italian and Steakhouse) was very good. All restaurants were clean and the staff was friendly. Bars were also well-staffed, but be sure to ask for alcohol in your frozen drinks or you will not likely get any. We did experience some anti-American sentiment from one of the pool bar tenders. There was a large European clientele, so the staff is likely accustomed to multi-lingual clients. Unfortunately, most Americans, (like ourselves), did not grow up in a culture where it is necessary, or encouraged, to know more than just the English language. (It's unfortunate, but true. We are a product of the environment that has developed in our country...please don't hold it against us as individuals). If you are American and have not travelled outside of the U.S., you'll soon learn that the world considers us "ignorant". At the pool bar, we attempted to order in Spanish and overheard the bar tender comment to another client that we were "stupid Americans". We were TRYING. Truly, that was the only negative part of our trip.

The entertainment was average at best, except for the Magic show, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We did not travel with children, but it seemed like the animation team keep the kids busy and happy all day long. I can't say enough about how hard the animation team works. They are there every morning with smiles and energy and they work LATE into the night (sometimes until 10 or 11 pm!) with the same level of energy. Amazing! We didn't participate in any of their activities, but everyone seemed to enjoy them.

Overall a positive experience! Would stay again!

Yes the Dominican Republic is not the most economically viable country in the world, but this is not an excuse for the Riu Hotel chain to provide what I would describe as an average experience. This is mine and my wife's 4th all inclusive (done Jamaica, Mexico and Cuba) and this was the least enjoyable.

Ill break my review into easy to swallow sections, that I hope will be useful to you, especially if you are travelling from the UK.

1) Arriving at Puerto Plata Airport - We had changed money into Dominican money but the Airport did not even accept money from its own currency, so I had to que up inside the airport to get US dollars.

2) Transfer to hotel - was about 40 mins, in an air conditioned coach - people want money for handling your bags for 10 seconds - its your call but be warned. Roads were fine.

3) Arriving at Riu Complex - We were actually booked to stay at the Riu Merengue and so we arrived there. We were greeted with a glass of fruit punch. We then had a small talk about the complex, and we were weirdly the last of about 15 groups to be given keys. We then got to our room to discover that it was already occupied. The people in room 1073 were out but we had been given their keys including their safe key. If we were didhonest we could have robbed the room and got easy access to the safe. We then went back to Merungue reception and were hot and bothered. They then offered to give us a room at the Riu Bachata, so we had a cab take us round, and we got room 241 in the Riu Bachata. We then had to wait about an hour to get our suitcases transferred to our room, and this was only after my wife walked back to the reception to say she would carry both herself. She is small btw but determined.

4) The Room (241 Riu Bachata) - The room was up two flights of stairs and at the end of the coridoor, but it had a nice (bit obscured) view of the ocean. The room was clean, with two single beds pushed together. Good size, with a small table, a balcony and a good sized table with drawers and good wardrob space. It had a fridge with Pepsi, Diet Pepsi local brand lemonade, soda and tonic, and a big 3 or 4 litre bottle of fresh water. Also there were cans and bottles of Brahma Beer. The Pepsi does taste very odd, not like UK or USA Pepsi. The Beer is OK. The room also has 4 full bottles of spirits, but they are Dominican Rum, Vodka, Brandy and Gin. They are nasty and were only used to clean our wedding rings.

5) The Maids - The maids worked hard, providing a fun shaped towel art each day, but they did fail to get fresh towels before 5pm on one day. They deserved tips and got some from us.

6) Food - The food was the biggest letdown of the entire two weeks holiday. Ill be balanced. The plus points were the fresh fruit (melon, pineapple, mango) the attentive waiters and waitresses, and the fresh salad including great beef tomatoes. The minus points were the awful lack of variety at lunchtime, the chips (french fries) that were cooked about 3 times, the lack of flavour on the sauces. The worst food was however the alleged 'speciality' restaurants - the Steakhouse and the Italian. The Italian food was disgusting, and we saw people walk out, as well as spoke to other guests who agreed it was terrible. The starters for both restaurants are shared - and included EGG AND ONION soup (i know revolting), Pizza slices and chips (french fries) that were EXACTY the same as those served throughout the entire day when the location is a buffet snack bar. The fillet steak in the Steakhouse is quite good, just navigate around the starters. The snacks during the day were some nasty undercooked burgers, some cheap hot dogs, left to stew in a pan, flavourless pasta and again disgusting chips (french fries). Stick to the fruit - its fresh.

7) Drinks and Bars - There are two bars near the stage left and right, and a dual sided bar at the main pool - They have a daily special drink - my favourite was the Passion ponch. The Pina Colada, Daqris were pre mixed from a slushie type machine, some thick, some watery. The white wine was watered down, and the spirits are 99% local. We saw one bottle of Smirnoff Vodka, but never saw one opened, so its likely that bottle was reused many times with local spirits. Ther is also no fresh fruit juice whatsoever, its a weird squash, watered down premixed drink, on orange, pineapple, mango flavours. The cocktails were average, and did not include any ice cream in the cream ones, or any cream.

8) Pools - The Bachata has a huge main pool with swim up bar. This is a problem however as the people from the other two Riu hotels come to it as it has the only swim up pool bar so it gets incredibly busy, with lots of kids and some loud people from around the world. The water is never more than waist deep - so there is no real deep end. To get a shaded bed around the main pool you need to get up at 6.00am to get a good spot. This is tough but its worth it. The pool does have a lot of dead bugs floating in it, despite the pool staff working hard cleaning it each day. The worst thing is the early afternoon, when you will be looking to relax either in or around the pool, this is shattered when the animacion team play ridiculous loud music speeded up and shout down a microphone. This forced my wife and i to go to the beach, and spoiled our relaxation. There two other pools - both for games, but the animacion staff also made the main pool a games pool area so there was nowhere to relax.

9) The beach - The sand is a light biscuit brown colour, and is neither golden nor white. There is a lot of coral where the water laps onto the shore, so its not very nice. Also the water is cold and the waves are strong, so not very good for swimming or floating on. The beach is long so you can find a quiet spot. There are many sun loungers, and lots of shady spots and more trees in the sand than i have ever seen. There is no beach bar so you cant get a drink at the beach.

10) Entertainment - the poolside entertainment was irritating, never allowing you to relax, but again the animaction staff worked hard, and its not their fault they only had one tape of music that included right said fred at three times its normal speed. The evening shows were what you call an attempt at entertainment - nothing offensive, but nothing special. The childs entertainment each evening was exactly the same and made you feel suicidal after 14 consecutive days of Agadoo doo doo push pineapple.....There is a little casino on site - which is fun - but dont get addicted. We won $120 on day one, but put it all back over the following 2 weeks.

11) Shop in hotel - Its good - has condoms, viagra, big bags of cheetos, souvineers, rum, cigars, cigarettes, and sweets, cards, and even UK newspapers and magazines. There is a shopping parade which has the usual tourist junk in it - but each to their own.

12) Trips - We did the Monster Trucks - a big open top all terrain vehicle that took us up the mountains and over rivers. Was a great day out, went in a local house and a local school and saw all diffrent trees growing amazing fruit. A great day out. We also went to Ocean World and did the sealion experience which was brillaint, and the dolphin swim. The dolphin swim was very brief and you only got to touch the dolphins for about 30 seconds in total - was a bit of a con, but if you have never swum with dolphins you will find it amazing.

Overall this was supposed to be two weeks of relaxation and fun. It ended up two weeks of never being able to quite relax by the pool as it was too crowded and too noisy. All the staff work very hard and deserve to be tipped, its the Riu management that are to blame, they have money and an excellent location, they just are not doing the best that they can possibly do, with not the best food, not the best entertainment and not the best drinks.

Here are some hints and tips

- You dont need to tip as it makes no difference in bars or restaraunts, you always get good service. Tips however help the staff to subsidise the small wages they get

- Bring an Ipod/walkman if you are by the pool/beach to drown out the mega fast and disturbing music that is boomed out every day

- Go on the trips they are great fun and you get a chance to explore the countryside

- If you have enough of the food in the buffet take a taxi to Playa Dorada complex and visit Hemmingways restaurant - great food.

- DO NOT ask a local taxi driver to recommend a local restaurant - we got taken to one - the food was awful and a table of 4 americans got charged $700 yes $700 for their lobster meal. This was a definite set up and con job.

If you get a cheap deal this hotel is ideal, but if you expect or desire 5 star food and 5 star atmosphere do not stay here - it never has, is or will be 5 star - its 3 star or 3 star plus at the best.

Please contact me on [--] for any further questions. I know it sounds like a really bad review but I have to be honest.

Would I go again - nope sorry. But for the last time the staff do work very hard keeping the place clean and tidy, they deserve better.

One final point - out Thompson Travel Agent at the hotel - Ellie - was all smiles but she did not want to help - she just grinned and did nothing - I will be having words with Thompson about her.

My husband and I stayed at the Riu Bachata the second week in April (our reservations were for the Merengue but they were oversold and moved us upon check-in). I was a little bit disappointed in being moved because I had researched the Merengue and it was ranked pretty high on Tripadvisor. We were in the end though pleased with the move as the pool area and food we found to be the best at the Bachata.

Overview:
- You can “stay and play” at all 3 except for dinner. Dining reservations are not worth it, just save time and go to the buffet. The buffet is nice but I would have liked to have had some dinning options to dress up and have a nice quiet dinner with my husband versus the loud crazy buffet room.
- The staff are all very nice and genuinely happy people. Bring one’s – five’s and tip those that go out of their way… which are many!
- We went on the Puerto Plata Adventure excursion. We climbed up 7 waterfalls and had to slide or jump in the falls to get back down them. It was so much fun that if we go back I would do it again.
- The air conditioning in the rooms does not work that great so the rooms smell very musty from the heat and humidity. Bring a travel candle if you are sensitive to smells .. or two or three. That was the one large negative regarding the room.
- The weather was fantastic! Bright sunny skies and hot temperatures everyday (we stayed 5 nights). We never saw a drop of rain while we were there.
- The Riu is ok overall. Not the nicest place we have stayed, but Puerto Plata is beautiful (we prefer it to Punta Cana) and the Riu met all of our needs aside from the musty room and the lack of dinner options. I would recommend to those wanting to travel to the Puerto Plata.

We stayed at the RIU Bachata from 31st March to 14th April 08 and we have to say it was an amazing experience.

The food was fantastic, the staff are always willing to help, one downside is that we aware of the high cost connected to using the phone in the room, although they explain fully how to use it, it never tells you anywhere that the rate is $2 a minute!!! I recommend that you buy a RIU phonecard, available at the front desk, but again there is a $1.50 connection charge each time you use it. Its virtually impossible to get a mobile signal at this resort so you are limited to there offered options!!

All the pools are clean and regularly checked through the day, the whole resort is spotlessly clean.

Be carfull in the Buffett resturant as the floor can be slippery and people have been known to fall head over hills!!! - me included!!!

Excursions are widely available, monster trucks and the Dolphin swim are an absolute must.

We would go back.