26Apr-3May08 We were terrified after having booked this vacation to read the reviews. It turned out to be a nice week. Checkin was a 3 hour process but you could roam the property. We ate, drank and were merry! The 2 bedroom Penthouse we got via RCI was great. Overlooked a wonderful pool. You will find that depending on where you stay - it could be a step out to the pool or a journey. Be prepared to walk a lot. We were also VIP members. That let's you use all the pools, top shelf liquor, VIP beach, gourmet restaurant. There is a welcome party that is wonderful! fireworks, sushi, food, carnivale dancers, bands. Timeshare people are everywhere. Just say NO! They are expensive $$$$$$$$. Granted - we are picky eaters and don't like seafood - but we appreciate good food. The food was ok. Everything is outside seating. Entertainment or resort events are not advertised very well. You must keep asking questions to the staff to get the most out of your vacation. THE POOLS WERE GREAT!!! The beach area is nice but it is not the clear clean water you think you are going to get. You apparently need to go to Punta cana for that. We took a couple of tours 1. Paradise Island and 2. city tour. The concierge organized the cab driver and escort for us. cost about $60 for the party of 4 in the cab. I could skip the town tour. There were a lot of lower income people that would swarm you at the tourist shops. Paradise Island is a MUST SEE! Look for the deal! Long day but beautiful!! Restaurants have a reservation policy. You must prebook your dinners. Buffet is always open. Our room was kept stocked with sodas, water and beer. It was a nicely kept resort. They had full beds at the VIP areas to use to sunbath. It was wonderful. Would we do it again no ... but are we glad we went YES!!

Well, i guess i should have read the reviews more carefully before booking this trip. I have to say, i am not a snob but I do expect a lot from a pricey vacation.

1) resort is HUGE. you must take a shuttle everywhere. sometimes you wait 2 minutes, sometimes 10. If you have kids and you forget something in the room, FUGGETABOUTIT!!!!

2) Food is mediocre at best. My husband is Dominican and we have visited the country MANY times. We stayed for 10 days and they never once had rice and beans...NO RICE AND BEANS??? what kind of dominican hotel is it. The typical Dominican food that they had was "ok" and after paying all that money for all inclusive, we ate out for the last week.

3) sales people everywhere. They are worse than the ants in the room. It is a timeshare-type property. All they care about is selling. We booked through an owner abd came as "VIP's" and that was a joke. Everything is a "big favor"

4) we stayed in a 1 bedroom suite. 2 adults 1 baby. How many towels do you think we needed??? Dont you think they have that written down somewhere?? without fail we got 2 towels a day maybe and 1 face towel and no washclothes. Coffee for the coffee machine, only after complaining. Air conditioning, only took a few days and some attitude to get it fixed. The cleaning crew sucks!!! i have never left such a small tip at any hotel!!! Everything was a treck. I am in good shape and having to go up and down those hills sucked!!

Do yourself a favor...find another hotel!!! you will regret it if you come here. I know some people loved it, although i am not sure why. I guess it could be a nice place. definately a better place for older people without kids but i would NEVER go there again!!!!

I stayed at the LIfestyles resort for one week with two of my girlfriends from college. We were picked up from the airport by a taxi that Lifestyles sent. They were waiting with a sign with our name on it and were immediately ready to go. The ride from Puerto Plata airport was very quick, only about 20 minutes.

The three of us shared a one-bedroom apartment suite. The room was perfect for us. We had a living room, balcony, small kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. The bedroom had a king size bed and the staff put an extra cot in the living room. We had plenty of room for our luggage and had no problems getting ready each day. There was a pool right outside our room and we were right next to the Bellini Italian restaurant. Our fridge was stocked daily with water, soda and Presidente.

We booked our trip through people that own a V.I.P. timeshare. Having the V.I.P bracelet was awesome. We had access to the welcome party on Sunday night, VIP beach, pool, cafe and gourmet restaurant. The welcome party was AWESOME. It was right on the VIP beach with a huge buffet spread. They also had a live band and fireworks. The VIP staff also assisted us in booking our rides to and from the airport and with day trips that we went on to the city and Ocean World (which were also both AWESOME)

The food was very good. We enjoyed the Indochine resaturant, Bellini, and VIP gourmet the most. The buffet was also pretty good, but we did get sick of it. The choices aren't bad though, there is always a pasta dish, some type of meat, vegetables, salad, bread, soup and usually some type of rice. We ate at the Indochine and Bellini resaturant several times and loved our food. For breakfast we ate at the buffet or at the Bellini resaturant which was right outside of our room. We heard that the Mexican resaturant was not very good, so we skipped that one.

We found the service to be excellent. This was actually my second time staying at this resort and several people that I had met the first time remembered me from the last time I was here with my family. Everyone was very friendly and nice. Whenever we called the front desk because we needed soemthing (like extra towels, beach towels, etc.) They were prompt with helping us.

As far as night life goes, it's definitely what you make of it. We are all in our early 20's and were lucky enough to meet other people our age that we ended up hanging out with for the week. A few of the bars stay open late, one of them until 7 am. There also is a bar/club that's like a 5 minute ride from the resort that apparently is a 20's crowd of people from all of the surrounding resorts. We also were fine with staying at the resort in the bars or going back to our room or the villas where we our friends were styaing.

While in the resort we definitely felt SAFE. We did go into the city one day with a tour guide and taxi driver. We were hassled a few times by people looking for money, but the tour guide and driver were very good about protecting us. Again, we were treated great and we enjoyed touring the city where we got to see the Brugal Rum factory, a cigar rolling factory, and various shops.

All in all, we had an EXCELLENT time staying at the Lifestyles resort. We are planning on going back again with a bigger group and staying in one of the villas. I would definitely recommend this vacation to anyone!

Just returned from Puerto Plata, DR. Had expected the worst after reading some of the reviews of Lifestyles Crown Residence Suites and Villas. Have done 5-star and yet we still throughly enjoyed this resort. Sadly, some reviewers had poor vacations, perhaps they expected 5-star. We enjoyed it here. We had a really nice 2 bdrm.-2 bath suite. The people were extremely friendly and helpful. Suite was fully stocked with clean towels and drinks daily...The food at the restaurants was good. Each has it's own theme and all asked we wanted a name brand after dinner liquor. Only the Blue Lagoon had lunches other than the buffet. They offered burgers, nachos and such. I will say, the resort should have other areas to pick up snack food when the buffets are closed for cleaning and setting up for the next service.The buffet wasn't bad at all, in fact some items were delicious. It's hit or miss depending on what you like. What do people expect from any buffet!!! Someone said they couldn't eat because seafood was next to other food types. Food allergies? Sorry, but don't go to ANY buffet! Another reviewer said they expected white sand beaches. I wish they were too, but I looked online before booking and none of the TripAdvisor reviewers of Puerto Plata photos showed that. If you researched you'd see other areas of the which were.The beach at the resort was still pretty and clean. Enjoy life more and relax!