This is not a 4 star hotel; more like 2. We arrived on July 11th, and I told my husband not to unpack. We had to wait for the travel company representative to come to the resort (approx. 5 hours) in the evening, and in the meantime had a meal which was edible, but nothing more. When the agent arrived, I told him I'm sure some folks like it, but not up to my standards. The room needed updating, the bedding and sofa were old and worn. I didn't even want to touch the furniture in my room (#2007).

Be careful when you book; there are 4 different sections of the hotel: The Royal, Bavaro, Palace and Punta Cana. The Punta Cana is the lowest ranked.

If you like: The Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Fairmont Hotels, etc. (4 star hotels), this will never do. If you like: Holiday Inns, Quality Inns, Ramadas, etc., this is your place!

Don't want to sound snobby, but my rule is that my vacation place should be at least as good if not better than what I have at home. This didn't cut it. I like a little luxury when I can get it once or twice a year on vacation. Nothing luxurious about this place.

Where do I even begin. . . . . . well to start, it was a beuatiful place,I will give It that ! Every thing you would want it to look like for the caribbean. Beaches that are absolutley breath taking. The rooms were nice except the shower leaked very bad, and would not always stay on. It was a detachable shower head so you pushed a button to kick it on. So me and my boyfriend held the button for eachother so we were able to take a shower. We stayed in block 2000 which was conviently located by the pool. We were not a fan of the rock hard bed and pillows. But we were on the third floor with a lovley few of the pool, only bad thing with that if you are sleeping in past 9:30 the noise was annoying. The staff.........the maids were awesome fantastic job and would always have a smile on there faces! Enertainment staff also a better part of the trip very friendly and the only people there who can somewhat carry on a converstation with you. The front desk was ok some were rude some friendly. It would have been nice if they would have spoke even a little english. Bartenders and waiters forget it the bad out weighed the good with them. The food was awful, terrible, disgusting!!!!!!!!!!! You also had to drink 40 drinks befor the alcohol would even hit you. So all in all are trip was not great this place should not rate a #6 thats hysterical. No one speaks any english and it seemed like all europeans vacationed here. Few Americans and Canadians to be found.If you are either of these i dont reccomend this hotel. We will never come back or ever travel to punta cana again.

We absolutely loved our stay at the Grand Palladium. I read a number of negative reveiws prior to leaving so I was really not expecting much. I would have to say the negative reviews are more a result of the reviewer than the resort. The entire time we were there we were treated like an honored guest with the exception of the casino. Most of the staff does speak spanish, but they understand many english phrases. It is a matter of finding the correct word. An important word to remember is toilet for the bathroom. I did not notice whether or not drinks were watered down, if they were it didn't affect the taste. We stayed in the Royal Suites and would definately go back. This is a quieter section of the resort which was preferred by us. We still had the option to head for the hustle and bustle if we chose to. We tried a number of restaurants and the food was good. I wouldn't consider it 4 Stars, but definately very appealing and tastey. We ate most of our meals at the Royal Gourmet as there was never a wait and we really enjoyed the staff there.

We gave small gifts to several staff members that left an impression on us. I made gift bags with shampoo, body spray, gum, hair accessories and money. I think I enjoyed their appreciation more then they enjoyed the gift. Tipping in the restaurants was quite challenging. We had an average of four five people a meal waiting on us. We learned from our host on the Bavarro Runner that if you leave a tip on the table it has to be split with the boss, if you give a tip to the boss he keeps all of it. The best advise for tipping is to give it directly to the person you would like to have it. I didn't notice tipping made any difference in the service we received, but it definately made a difference to the staff.


We did two excursions during our stay: the Carribean Festival and the Bavaro Runner. I strongly recommend the Barvara Runner to anyone visiting the Dominican. You tour the "real" Dominican. We had a superb host and we were able to see the country through his eyes. If you decide to take this excursion you will meet many people. Bring candy, coloring books, school supplies, clothes, etc for the children. They are so appreciative of the smallest gift. If you are going to take this trip, do it early in your vacation because you will appreciate the resort even more after the excursion. During the Carribean Festival we swam with sharks and stingrays and went snorkling. The sharks and stingrays are enclosed in the swimming area. It was fun, but the entertainment on the boat was definately the highlight of the trip.

Ok, I booked this holiday for myself, partner and our 4 year olf daughter. We thought it was going to be luxurious after looking at the pictures on the first choice website. This review is totally honest and i will go through the main pionts individually.

ok, reception staff - alot of people have complained about the reception staff as being rude but i only found one of them to be rude, his name was "jesus" funny enough. On arrival we were taken to our room in the 2000 block which was really nice. However, my daughter was provided with a couch pull out bed which would have been ok but the metal spings on the side of the bed were bent and so they stuck out quite danerously as they were really sharp. My little girl banged her elbow straight away and so we asked them to replace the couch bed with a normal bed which never happened. "Jesus" was extremely rude to me and I was not impressed by his attitude. my partner complained to the manager who dealt with the problem by offering us other rooms that were smaller so in the end we stuck with the room we had. We never got a replacement bed so I simply stuck towels around the shap parts of the pull out to make it safer for my daughter.

Rooms- really nice but the shower leaks terribly as the bath is too far away form the shower and so it leaks everywhere all over the floor leading into the bedroom. Apart from this the room was really nice, extremely modern and clean. We stayed in block 2000 which was close to everything.

The grounds - very impressive and well maintained. The overall grounds are lovely and it was nice walking in the evening to and from various buffets and theatres.

Food - ok, this is my main compalint. Bavaro buffet was the best and couldn't complain about a thing. For evening meal - go to this buffet as its simply the best with lots of choices available! Now the bad bits - Punta cana beach grill is awful, hardly any choice and on numerous occasions the chef on the grill would pick up raw meat and then pick up the cooked meat and put it on your plate. We compalined about this and was told he would be told how dangerous this was. however, this continued and so we didn't eat any fresh meat throughout our stay. i suffered a dodgy tummy the first week and suspect it was down to eating form the grill before I noticed what the chef was doing. I noticed the same thing in the bavaro grill as well.

A la cartes - nothing special to tell you the turth as most food in the a la carte restauarntes are available in the buffet restaurantes depending on what day you go as they have themed buffets, eg, mexican, chinese, etc. Went to the italian a la carte and was really enjoying being waited on when a massive RAT ran out in front of our table and sat in the corner of the restaurant! It was absolutely massive and came directly from the kitchen. My stomach turned and we walked straught out of the restaurant. no one esle seemed bothered about this which shocked us. Apparentely this happend on another night as well as my partner heard someone complaining about this and it wasn't on the night we went! This is not something you expect from a hotel that is supposed to be 4* to 5*.

Pools - been to lots of carribean hotels with lower ratings and cheaper than the palladium and was disspointed by the pool areas. All of the pools have missing tiles which would not cost hardly anything to fix. The Punta Cana pool has lights floating in it. The pavement around the pool has parts sticking up which could easily cause a serious accident. The palace pool looked nice but then half of the swim up bar has half of the marble covering missing which just looked really grotty. All the pools had dirty marks around the sides. The Bavaro pool was the worse - you can actually feel the grime on your feet inside and oustide the pool - it really lets the palladium down. The thing is that little things like this really let the hotel down as they are things that wouldn't costs much to put right.

Entertainment staff - the staff were lovely but English isn't their best language. i ofund they catered more for foreigh toursits. But they were always happy and fun! They worked really hard and were very nice to my little girl which was lovely. the theatres are too hot and stuffy especially the kids disco. my little girl looked like she was goingt o faint as they do it on the stage and the kids are sweating due to the powerful disoc lights on them.

Childrens club - staff weren't that interested in doing activities with the younger kids. i dont leave my duaghter with strangers and so go with her to the childrens club to watch her participate but the staff just sat round a table gabbing and arguing amongst theirsleves leaving me to find someting for my daughter to do. If your child is like mine and loves making lots of friends and having fun in the childrens disco then I woudln't go to the palladium as there was hardly any English and so my daughter had no one to mix with. When she did go to the kids club the staff's English was so poor they couldn't communicate with her so she was left out all the time.

All in all, i think the palladium could be improved a lot but i dont think they are interested in making improvements as our first choice rep passed on our complaints and nothing was done about it. If your wanting to fork out on a luxourious holiday i would presonally go somewhere else as I dont think you get value for money as we have been other hotels that were just as nice for half the price.