We have just returned from a week at Sirenis Tropical suites and had a fantasic break. We have read a few of the reviews and can only say our experience was excellent. The journey from the airport was by direct transfer with VIP and took about an hour. It scared the living daylights out of us lol..... but this is how the Dominicans live! Not sure if there is such a thing as a driving test, but there was no road rage or stress....and no one was sick on our bus on either journey. It was worth doing just to see the old American MACK trucks with no bonnets and exposed wiring and the mopeds, one with two people on carrying a car bonnet and a chair cushion lol. ( If you are faint hearted I would suggest you book a hotel within the 10 min flight path of the airport to avoid this bumpy journey)

On arrival we were greeted with a cocktail ( the first of many that week ) the check in was swift and our cases taken to our room.

Our accomodation was spotless and air con and fans on for our arrival. The fridge was topped up daily with bottled water and soft drinks, And the towels and linen where changed daily also. In fact wherever we went there was someone cleaning or spraying.

Food is always an emotional subject as I think it is so hard to please so many nationalities all the time but I canot fault it, there was somthing there to cover all tastes. Also the level of service and attention to detail was something that could be taken on in the UK, after a few days the guys knew our names and what we where drinking. They always had a smile despite working some incredibly long hours. Jonathon who served in the Mexican buffet at lunchtime was great.

If you are going to book a trip try going on to the beach and hook a left, you will go off the private beach after a few hundred yards will come across Buddah, his trips are cheaper than the hotels...some said it was because he wasn't insured but we think the hotel only pumps the trips out to others anyway. We did the quad biking through the beach guy and he appeared to be the only person making you wear skid lids...so make of that what you will. Also Ian Wrights double is selling paintngs on the beach to...lol.

To comment on a previous review , we were not charged for drinks at the disco and a premium vodka eg Absolute(no measures here either lol ) and a bottle of sprite was only $6.

Try some Mamamjuana that has been soaked in the 'wood' we never could find out the origin of the wood but it is meant to be an aphrodizzyac just try it....cannot possible comment on its powers but have had to bring some back.

Which brings me to the airport. If you have bottles of drink put them in your case wrapped in towels or something as we had ours confiscated only to go to Duty Free and purchase again. Also heard about the dubious overcharging of excess bagage....it then happened to the couple behind us. Rumour has it if you ask for a receipt and can only pay by Credit Card they let it drop, but I would check out my baggage allowance and have back up documents with me to verify my allowance and argue the point.

We will be going back to this resort and taking family young and old with us and I dont think I can give a better recommendation that that.

Just got back from a thoroughly enjoyable stay at the Sirenis Suites. Temperatures got in to the 50c and pool temp was 31c. This would have been a problem if not for the fantastic areas of shade provided everywhere.
What you will find at the Sirenis is one of the best designed pools in the world. The pool was built to cater for everyone, easy for the kids and deep (over 7ft in places) for the serious swimmers. Two swim up bars catered easily for the June guests but I suspect will be under pressure in July/August when the silly season in on.

Time for some praise for the staff, in particular the Guest Services and a lovely lady called Iris. My advice to you is to make contact with Iris early on your holiday and do not be afraid to get her to sort any problems you may have. Iris represents the honesty and sincerity of the staff and the Sirenis.
Checking in after a long journey was a breeze taking only a few minutes, no long queues, no hassle, no big forms just a cool drink, a deposit for the safety deposit box and your in.
You will find speciality restaurants at the Sirenis. I tried the Italian, Japanese, Mexican and The Steakhouse. The Japanese food was far too salty but all the others were top class. I rated the Italian as the best of the lot, do make sure you eat there.

The Gardens around the hotel are well maintained and will ensure you get some good photographs. The Casino is small but enjoyable; the entertainment is what you would expect and the entertainment team very enthusiastic.
Security is good with extra staff throughout the night patrolling the beach area for added protection.

Trips. I took two boat trips. In particular I enjoyed the Tropical Storm catamaran and it certainly lived up to its name. We were caught in one. Paddy from Scotland, (don’t ask) looked after us and we made a day of it despite the incessant all day rain. The half day shopping trip which my wife and friends went on was a disaster. The men folk having made the arduous decision to stay at the hotel and watch the football were fairly rewarded for taking this approach.

There aren’t many places, if any, to go if not on an organised trip. The roads are bad and hiring a car and driving yourself is not recommended so be prepared to spend most of you stay relaxing at the pool or on the beach. I went for a complete chill out so I got exactly what I went for. Meeting new friends is a large part of any holiday in my opinion and I hope that you are as lucky as were were.

Now a word of warning for British guests who will travel with Thomas Cook. You will encounter two reps at the resort. James who is knowledgeable, interesting and helpful and Becky. You will recognise her by the jack boots. What she is doing there was beyond me. Arrogant & Ignorant are just two of her “qualities”. She should be shipped over to neighbouring Cuba in readiness for the departure of Castro.
Becky is not right for the job she is in as she cannot treat guests in a civilised manner so be warned, be very warned.

right!!
where do i start...Like everyone is saying the trip from the airport is awful, bumpy roads and very very wierd driving by people. over all the holiday was great, made some really good friends. weather 1st week was very cloudy and showery but still hot ish 2nd week after a massive storm which felt like it went on for days we had really good sunny weather.. and when it was hot god it was hot!
im a fussy eater and altho the food is good it seemed like each night at the buffet i was eating the same thing. come 10days into the holliday i was jus totally fed up with it.
hotel staff seem to work really hard and are always asking you if u want any more drinks. hotel was kept very clean with fresh drinks in our rooms every day.
i got bitten LOADS so be careful. it is warm at night but if u can cover up it worked towards the end for me. Entertanment staff where awsum, eddy chico and spaghetti!!!!! miss you guys!! loads of games going on during the day.
TRIPS: i did parasailing ($45 pp)but they take alot of you out at a time and if the sea is choppy like it was for us take some sick bags!! haah both me and my partner we sick as were other people on the boat. also did banana boating which cost $10pp for about 15mins! was great fun!!

over all a fab holiday topped off with meeting some fab people i would go on to name you all but you no who you are
Ginny & Joe
26th may 10th june! :o)

Date of travel 25th May 2008 for 2 weeks, Sirenis Tropical Suites.

An excellent hotel with good restaurants, good facilities, very friendly staff and located right on a beautiful beach. Unfortunately our holiday was spoiled by the hotel medical facilities which are a real tourist trap.


On Site Doctor
After a week or so my wife became ill with a high temperature. We went to see the on site doctor but and after an examination and a bill for $90 he said that he could not determine the cause and that my wife would need to go to hospital for urine and blood tests. He said he couldn't do this on site and the nearest hospital was 40 minutes taxi ride away. He even suggested we bring a change of clothing incase we had to stay overnight. We thought it very strange that he couldn't perform these simple tests on site and we suspected he was on a commission for any tourists he could refer. He was insistent throughout that we let him know which clinic we were planning to go to and he even suggested we bring a change of clothing incase we had to stay overnight. My wife chose not to go to hospital as although we had medical insurance we thought they were bound to question the need for a hospital stay just to have basic tests. What disappointed us the most was that after we told the doctor my wife did not want to go to hospital he offered no treatment in order to ease her discomfort. I believe he was hoping her condition would worsen to the extent she would feel compelled to go to hospital. Fortunately I happened to mention my wifes condition to a member of staff and he was able to tell us what it was. They call it Caribbean Fever and its just a type of flu that foreigners to the island are prone to. We went to the onsite pharmacy and purchased some tymanol and andadin which worked a treat. As there is malaria in DR we were worried it could be that but after looking up the symptoms on the internet were confident it wasn't. Obviously on our return my wife went straight to her GP to confirm this. While we were there we heard other of other incidents that reinforced our view that any medical treatment would be detrimental to your pocket. A friend with an ear infection was treated for a cost of £200. While we were there we heard someone had contracted gastro enteritis. The onsite doctor did manage to put this person on a drip, which is far more complicated than taking a urine test. Unfortunately this person didn't get any better and had to spend 3 days in hospital at a cost of £2000. I hope they were covered by their insurance. A rep also told me of some other incidents , I'm not sure if these are Sirenis specific. One of her guests was charged $500 to clear some ear wax. But the worst one was a woman who travelled to the DR 7 months pregnant and gave birth in her hotel room. The authorities would not let the couple leave the DR until they could prove the child was theirs through DNA testing. I suspect this was because DR has a history of child trafficking. This took a month and they were lucky that the hotel gave them free accommodation. Unfortunately their medical bill was 32,000 euros!

If you are planning to travel to the DR make sure you have the best possible cover and do not travel if you are pregnant or have any pre-existing conditions.

Obviously the fact that my wife was allowed to suffer needlessly for a couple days spoilt the holiday to a certain extent and we wouldn't go back to the same hotel after being treated that way. This is a shame as we thought the rest of the hotel was excellent. We were fortunate that although my wifes condition was very uncomfortable it was bearable. Had the same thing happened to one of our children we would have been completely at the doctors mercy.


Rooms
Hotel is split into two halves – cocotal beach on one side and tropical suites on the other. Its really one hotel with two types of accommodation as all the facilities are shared. We were in the tropical suites where the rooms have small lounge area with a sofabed. Useful if you have a party of three but we didn't really use it much as we were a party of four in two rooms. Rooms were nice, with two tvs and a fridge which was stocked with water and soft drinks daily. We were in block M which overlooked the pool and had a great seaview. The only thing I didnt like about the room was that the air con was very weak. Even though we left in on constantly it never cooled the room enough. I dont think it was a fault as we had two rooms and it was the same in both. The room was kept very clean and faults reported to reception were dealt with promptly. While we were there the water stopped a few times and we had power cuts. There are mosquitoes and we got bitten quite a bit. As well as spraying yourself remember to regularly spray the bottom of your door and the air vent in the bathroom.

Food
I wasnt impressed by the evening buffet, the choice and quality was not great. The staff were excellent though as they were in all the restaurants. Very friendly, very quick to supply drinks and tables were kept clean. The a la cartes were much better. Jade and the Italian were excellent I thought and a real surprise after the buffet. Bring a camera to jade as the chef will give you some good photo opportunities. We tried all the a cartes, didnt like the vegetarian, mexican or seafood. Steakhouse was ok. We tried the lobster restaurant which was $35 a head extra. The lobser was huge and we were glad we went. Lunchtime buffets were ok and there is a BBQ on the beach which I though was good for snacks. Tried room service one day but was disappointed to find it the same food as in the buffet even though you have to pay for it. I couldn't see the point of that.

One annoyance was the booking system for the a la carte. Basically the guest services team would lbe econonic with the truth regarding availability. They try to get you into unpopular times by saying the restaurant is fully booked when it isn't or they will say a particular restaurant you want is closed that night and point you to the Mexican. For example we were told we could only go to the Italian at 18:30 one night as it was fully booked. When we left at 19:15 there was only one other table occupied. On another night friends of ours were told the steak house was closed on a night that we ate there.

Drinks
I don't drink much alcohol so I cant vouch for the alcoholic drinks. I did notice they were using mainly unbranded drinks but I think they had branded if you specifically asked. The non alcoholic cocktails were great , a lot better on other all inclusives I have been on. The other major difference I noticed was that it was very easy to get served , there were no queues at the bars , probably because it was low season. Even at reception if you were not at the bar you would be frequently asked by waitresses if you wanted a drink.

Watersports
Windsurfing, kayaks, snorkel equipment and catamarans were all available free for a hour a day on all inclusive. For some equipment you were asked to pay $10 a day or $30 a week insurance. Other watersports such as scuba diving ,parasailing and banana boat were available for a fee. I normally scuba dive on holiday but didnt bother as I had read the diving wasnt great. I have dived other Caribbean islands before and they are not as good as the likes of the Red Sea or the Maldives. I did try sailing a catamaran for the first time and I was really glad I did. I was given a lesson one morning and then allowed to head off on my own. It is a bit difficult to start as the sailing area is shallow and full of corals so your endup getting grouded very easily. Once I was more confident I went into deeper water which was more fun, especially with the waves. I really enjoyed the sailing even though I did manage to capsize it one afternoon. The watersport guys were great and had a proper lifeboat to pick me up and return me to the beach. The watersports guys were all very friendly and helpful. I thought that once I had capsized the catamaran once they would be hesitant to let me go on it again as it was a hard work for them to get the catamaran back but they didnt mind and encouraged me to go again. The sailing was one of the highlights of the holiday for me.

Pool
Two big pools each with shallow and deep areas and a pool bar. The tropical side seemed to be quieter and all the activities and load music were on the cocatal side. We went during the low season so I would say only half the sunbeds were in use at any one time. Lots of beds were reserved under umbrellas but it wasnt hard to find one especially if you went on the beach. As there were so many empty beds every day I thought there was no chance of any squabbles over beds. Unfortunately I was proved wrong. We left towels on the beds only to find a couple had decided to take the beds and dump our towels. I really dont like arguing on holiday so I asked them to move and even though they had lost 2 of our towels which was going to cost me $40 to replace I didnt make a fuss. Unfortunately later in the day the couples French daughter and husband turned up and she launched into an almighty tirade against us because we had asked her parents to move. She was unbelievably rude, she swore at me and my wife and even at a little english girl that happened to be watching. In the end I decided that a shouting match was not how I wanted to spend my time on holiday so I wished them a pleasant holiday and moved on. I still cant believe how I managed to get into an argument over sunbeds in a half empty resort.


Location
Sirenis is about an hours taxi ride from the airport in a rural location. Apart from a hotel either side there are local shops or towns to visit so apart from excursions you are pretty much tied to the hotel. Because the roads are so bad it is not recommended to hire a car either. Local tourist sights seem to be either caves or coffee/cacao plantations.

Entertainment
The entertainment was probably the best we have seen on holiday. Daytime entertainment team were excellent. Very funny guys, especially Spaghetti. Eddie and Chico were also good. We had children aged 10 and 13 and although there did not seem to be activities directly for them they were allowed to join in most of the adult activities. The daytime entertainment was good fun and well organised most of the time. My only gripe was that the some of the entertainment team used language not suitable with children around.

The evening shows were performed in a very profession theatre with a large stage, lots of seating and good sound and lights. I was very impressed with the quality of the dancers , they seemed very professional compared to what I have seen elsewhere. Unfortunately a lot of the shows were dance themed so although very good they soon lost their appeal. There were a few shows with audience participation which although very funny again contained material not suitable with children in the audience.

I went to the casino a couple of times. Lots of slots and three tables. I played black jack and it must have been a training night when I went as there was a manageress overlooking the dealer and I have never seen so many errors in adding up or paying out before. Quite funny to watch, the manageress was livid when a dealer was going to pay out $70 on what should have been a $30 win.

My wife and daughter had some treatments in the spa and they said they were great.

There is a games room opposite the doctors which has pool, table tennis and pool tables. You have to pay for pool but the other are free. Open in the evening but the lights above the table tennis table are so dim you can hardly see the ball.

Excursions
There was plenty of choice for excursions, Swimming with dolphins, swimming with sharks and rays, helicopter rides, speed boats, zip lines, trips to islands, snorkelling, horse riding, Buggys and ATVs, Scuba diving.

After reading reports on the internet we did horse riding and ATVs with Ramone who can be found on the beach if you go left. A very nice man and we really enjoyed the trips especially the ATV's. We got to ride both the horses and the ATVs on the beach which was great. My daughter was not impressed with the guy that took us horse riding though.

Friends of ours went parasailing and they were in a group of about 8 people. As a result they had to spend quite a bit of time on the boat for every to have their go and a few of them were sick.

Tipping
I tipped a lot more than usual on this holiday and was happy to do so as the service was so good and the staff so friendly.

Reception
Spanish is the main language but most speak enough English to get by. Reception staff least friendly and helpful in the hotel I thought. When we arrived we weren't given any information other than where the room was and a leaflet. They did arrange a nice surprise for us on our wedding anniversary though free of charge

Shops
There are some shops at the entrance to the hotel and some huts either side of the beach. The shops sold beachware, batteries etc. If you walk along the beach you will be approached by locals to get you to go into the beach huts. They are polite though and will accept a no if you are not interested. All the huts sell pretty much the same things. On the whole they are a friendly bunch but you do have to haggle which fortunately I love. I went to most of the huts and my favourite was a Haitian guy called Emanuelle. His shop is the farthest shop away on the right hand side of the beach past the watersports hut. He was the nicest, friendliest guy of the lot and was a great haggler. What set him apart from the others was that if you wanted something he didn't have he would get it for you. For instance I needed some suitcase locks, he got them for me the next day and he didn't charge the earth.

Weather
I was expecting weather similar to Florida, hot with downpours of 30-60 minutes and then hot again. We had two or three days when it rained for all morning hours and was cool all day . We then had a really big storm that lasted a whole day after which it was really hot for the rest of the holiday.


Transfers
We booked transfers online at http://www.dominicanairporttransfers.com/ and were very pleased with the service we got. The website is very professional and easy to use. We paid $150 return for 4 people. The cars were very big, clean and had good air con. The drivers were polite, drove well and turned up on time. On the trip to the hotel we had an 8 seater and on the way back a 10 seater. The roads to the hotel are full of really big pot holes so we were glad we had a sensible driver. Other drivers were driving all over the road to miss the pot holes and were going too fast for the conditions.