Here is an excerpt from the email I sent when I returned from my trip:

I am writing to attempt to express my displeasure with my recent stay at your resort. I purposely waited a few days to send this email because I wanted my anger to subside and I needed to get some rest. My accommodations consisted of adjoining rooms in the "Royal Golden Principe" for 4 nights. My situation is that I am a single dad with twin 8 year old girls and I traveled with my girlfriend and she has a 17 year old son who occupied the adjoining room. It was my first trip away with my girls and my gf and her son and it was very important to me. It must be noted that she has a background in the travel industry and researched the different properties and felt it was important, considering the situation, to spend a little more to ensure a great vacation. Collectively we have traveled to over 15 islands and our only other experience in the Dominican Republic was a great one in May of 2006 at the Secrets Resort. It will not be easy but I will try my best to keep this as brief as possible.
On the drive to the resort everyone was excited and the entry was totally disappointing due to the construction in the main lobby. Having been to many of the islands in the Caribbean I was waiting for the warm, friendly greeting and a refreshing cocktail and it didn't happen. We were simply directed to Golden Club and waited for the next available staff member. Immediately I became concerned because the gentleman seemed almost annoyed to check us in and gave us little to no information regarding the resort. We got absolutely no direction regarding the difference of being in the Golden Club versus the rest of the property. Simple questions such as; What hours are you open? How can we get access to the internet? Isn't premium alcohol served here, as advertised? How do we get a drink, there is no bartender? At that point we are told we need to pay to get a safe! Are you kidding me? I then ask about the reservations for the "Special" restaurants and I am told I need to come back the next day to make them. We are then taken to our rooms, After looking at the map and trying to figure out where the beach and pools are we walk around and try to get situated. After unpacking we head to the buffet. Let me clarify that. We attempt to head to the buffet. We have absolutely no idea where we are going and can't get a straight answer from anyone working for the hotel. After finally getting some dinner we head home to our room and get off at three different places without a clue of where we are before we find the room. At this point the kids are actually scared and just want to go to bed. After falling asleep, I wake up and realize the air conditioning isn't working properly and when I turn on the lights I see two large cockroaches run in front of me. I kill them and convince myself it is a one time thing and that the air is okay and I have a horrible nights sleep. In the morning we, once again, have a hard time finding it back to the Golden Club to complain about the roaches and the air conditioning and to make our dinner reservations. We are told that the problems would be corrected and that there is only two restaurants available on separate nights for dinner. We end up actually making one of the reservations at 9:30 because it is all that is available. Then it just gets worse.
We head back to the room and upon entering start to realize that the cockroach problem is real. I kill about 5 in each room in 10 minutes! By the way, the two adults are trying to kill them without the children knowing. At this point, I have absolutely had it and consider getting a flight home. On the third sleepless night I actually had a bug crawl across my head!
As I stated earlier, as hard as it is I am trying to keep this short so I am simply going to list some of the other situations we encountered;

- Garden Grill, every order wrong and no more churrasco!
- Towel service ridiculous, what is the service?
- No beach service for drinks.
- No proper air conditioning until 11PM on day 3.
- Total cockroach infestation that was never corrected!
- Japanese restaurant with my 8 year old girls sleeping at the table when the food was served at 10:15 PM.

Oh, I have to mention three other specific encounters. I go to return my 5 towels on the last day to get my plastic cards and I am told that they only have 4 cards available. I said I was checking out and I needed the cards and the response was, "You will take what I have!" Another really crazy situation was the last day when I tried to find out the status of my flight back to New Jersey. After being sent to 4 different people I was told that the hotel does not offer that service! I actually called home to have somebody check for me. Lastly, upon checkout, I ask to see a manager because I have some major issues and I am told I have to wait because he is eating breakfast! I didn't sleep for 5 days and I have to wait for this guy to finish his breakfast?
Needless to say, this was the worst trip I have ever been on.

We stayed at the Gran Bahia Principe, Punta Cana side for 2 weeks. We booked our holiday through Thomson travel agents.

When we first arrived to the hotel there were some maintenance works going on at the front which was really annoying because you couldnt hear the receptionist. But the reception is so far away it doesnt effect your stay. We went straight to our rooms on a little cart which was driven by the bell boy and our suitcases were on the back. They even took our suit cases up to the third floor which was handy. The room was nice and big, very clean and the air conditioning was brilliant as it was sooo hot!!!

First thing me and my boyfriend did was head to the beach to see what it was like. Amazing, clean and well kept. There are plenty of umberllas on the beach so you will find somewhere to sit as the beach is huge.

We used to sit on the beach in the morning and swimming pool in the afternoon. I must say every day you will see staff walking around picking up any litter!! They take pride on keeping that beach clean. Just annoys me when you see people leaving their plastic cups/cigarette buts on the beach...they get picked up very quickly though. And the same goes for the poolside. There are plenty of bins everywhere.

Poolside was a bit busier, but still we got there in the afternoon and we still found a lounger every day. We sat at the main pool near the beach.

Now down to the food. We went to 4 a la cartes. Mexican, garden grill, japanese and gourmet. The best was Garden Grill and Japanese. The Gourmet was a bit strange but still we tried it. We heard good feed back about the other restaurant el pascardor which is a fish restaurant. Shame we missed that meal due to being back late from an excursion.

The buffett is good, ive been to other all inclusives before and this one was by far the best. Breakfast was a selection of everything you can think of. Lunch we always had near the pool and the food isnt kept there for to long, you will always see them replacing the food with freshly cooked food. There pizza is really nice. Ok you will get board of some of the food but hey you got to expect that. I must say i did like the fact that every night in the buffett they will have a themed night, like Italian or Chinese.

The room was cleaned every day by our maid which was nice to always come back to after a day out. She done all her little art work with the towels and flowers which was nice. We left her $1 a day.

We went on 4 trips:

Soana island - amazing, the best trip of the whole holiday...get to go on a paddle boat, then speed boat and after you had lunch on the island you get to go back on a caterman.

Monster Truck Safari - really good, got to see different bits of Dominican and how they live. We visited a school and even a vodoo witch doctor which was a bit scary.

Ocean World (swimming with dolphins) - we went by aeroplane which was only an 18 seater!!! Swimming with dolphins was amazing. We saw the shark and sea lion show but there wasnt alot else to do there. We did get a bit board.

Speed Venture - you get your on speed boat per couple, my boyfriend drove it and thought he was James Bond...was really good fun and you get to stop off and swim with tropical fish which was amazing.

The hotel overall was very well kept, you will always see them keeping to very high standards. Staff were brilliant, there were some struggles with the language but us english are used to that going to other european countries. It wasnt a problem. Oh and they will give you a little passport which will tell you about the hotel and will have a map on. You will need this when you arrive as the resort is quite big. And to be honest it doesnt make any difference which side you stay on (Bavaro, or Punta Cana) they are exactly the same!!

Also if you are searching to find out what the weather is like out there,ignore the weather forecast's as it is always wrong apparently. Its boiling hot and sunny and you get the occasional storm which clears quickly.

If you are going to this hotel, enjoy....me and my boyfriend certainly did and we would recommend it to our friends and family so that must mean something.

My wife and I have just returned from Gran Bahia Principe we were ther from 19th June until 3rd July and we went with 1st Choice (from now on to be our LAST choice)

Flight over

We upgraded to Premier classas a special treat seeing as I was 60 this year. The brochure says you have priority boarding of the plane, this didn't happen it was a free for all. The plane was parked way out on the tarmac as far from the terminal as you could be and as soon as the doors opened to get on the buses it was a stampede. The brochure also states the meals were desingned by Aldo Zilli, well if thats he's ideas of decent food send him back to Italy. Your also get the choice of 16 movies noway it was only 10. The cabin crew were helpful and polite though.

Transfer to resort

We were booked in on the coach to the hotel by one of the reception staff which was helpful. She gives information about the resort which is very misleading. According to the 1st choice brochure you have 3 large pools to use, this is their first lie and it goes on from there don't believe all you read in the brochure.

Hotel

The hotel is 2 large resorts joined together with 2 smaller parts attached. The large ones are Gran Bahia Principe Bavaro and the other is Gran Bahia Principe Punta Cana, in most repects they are mirror imaged but you are not allowed to share each others pools. The brochure states you have all pools to use.

The resort is vast it took the wife and I an hour to walk around the perimeter. The grounds and all areas are kept imacculate and the staff work very hard. The beach is lovely but is restricked to a small swimming area. The large pool at the beach end does not have enough sun shades so if you don't get there early enough you miss out on any shade for the day and belive me you won't want to sit in the sun allday.

The staff are very friendly and helpful at all times and can't do enough for you. You don't have to tip but a dollar here and there is met with a lot of grattitude.

Restraunts

The main restraunt caters for all tastes and the food is nice. Plenty of fresh salad and hot meals of al sorts.

We only tried 3 of the 6 al a carte restraunts as I got a bad belly on the 6th day there and still haven't shaken it of. The garden Grill was very good and the Japanese was excellent. The gourmet is what gave my bad belly as I had Lobster and Chicken fricasse and it didn't taste that good, i've had lobster many a time before and never tasted like that.

Other Holiday makers

The resort was full of every nationality you could think of. We met one Canadian couple from Toronto who are from Pakistani origin who were lovely but forgot to get their email address. Also a Canadian couple from Toronto ( Christine and David) with 2 sons (Mathew and Michael) who were lovely people. Christine helped me out with some stomach bug medication again we failed to get email address. If you read this mine is tddavis@btinternet.com

There were a lot of yanks noisy and far over the top as usual. The other Canadians were more reserved as we have found at other resorts in the Caribbean.

Airport and flight home

The Airport was hectic, they were booking in 9 or 10 flights at the same time and our rep did not have a clue what line we should be in. It took over 1 hour to get from checkin to the depature lounge and it was hot and sticky no air con at all.

The flight home was ok until we got to Gatwick. We landed at 5:35 and had to park on the hard stand furthest from the terminal. The ground staff who were in charge of manouvering the steps into place didn't have a clue what they were doing, they eventually got the steps in and door open by 6am. We were not allowed to disembark until 6:20 when the one and only bus arrived to take us to the terminal.

Once at the terminal everthing went smoothly.

We have been on holiday to the North of the Island twice before to Playa Dorada and will go back there again but never to Gran Bahia as it too big.

Just returned from a lovely holiday with my partner; we could barely find any fault with the hotel. We paid £931 each, flying from London Gatwick, and I think the holiday was excellent value for money. I'd urge people to remember how reasonably priced the All Inclusive's in the DR are, and be realistic with their expectations: it's 5* Dominican Republic, not 5* London or New York!

I'll split my review into sections to make it easier to follow. And please excuse the length!

Travel agent/booking: we booked and traveled with Thomson's. This was the only major downside to our holiday! The rep was useless: she was never available, very patronising when you did corner her, and she didn't even let any guests know about departure details (what time we were being picked up from the resort etc). Absolutely appalling. I would urge anyone going from the UK to avoid Thomson's for this reason.

Flights: we traveled on the Thomson Fly airline, and I was very impressed with the flight. There was tons of leg room (don't book extra leg-room seats though as you can't stretch your legs out). Comfort packs were provided, as were earphones, and you had a personal seat-back TV, with a selection of music, games and films. You could upgrade the TV for £5 each way, which gave you a wider choice. The flights left pretty much on time both ways.

Check-in: a bit noisy, as there is currently some construction work taking place outside the lobby (they're re-doing the entrance). Very quick though. As soon as we'd checked in we hopped on a tram/bus with our cases and were taken to our room. We e-mailed the hotel prior to travel and requested a room away from the construction. We got a good room, third floor as requested, away from the construction, and in a good location, very near the beach and main pool (room 10301).

Rooms: lovely. VERY big and spacious, with a massive king-size bed, dressing table with TV and large mirror, and a large separate sitting area with two chairs and a table and a sofa. There was also a balcony with plastic chairs and a table which we rarely used. Wardrobes had plenty of hanging and shelf-space, there were also drawers in the bedside tables and dressing table. An umbrella is provided which came in handy a couple of times!

Bathrooms were large and marble, with a jacuzzi tub. There were plenty of towels, as well as face-cloths. I'd advise avoiding showering between 6 and 7, as the water-pressure wasn't very strong at these times, I'm guessing because everyone showers at this time. It was still fine though, just took a little longer!

The rooms were spotlessly clean and we only saw one bug (sadly a cockroach :-s) during our entire stay, which was dead (I think they must regularly put down bug killer as we didn't ever see any live ones!). The maid left us some lovely towel art and flowers the first few days, but it petered out by day 5 :-( The mini-bar was generally re-stocked daily, but a few times we didn't get any beers. This would be one of my complaints, it could be slightly irritating as you do pay for it.

The safe was $32 dollars per week, well worth it and hotel will not accept liability for any valuables not left in the safe. Warning: the safe was pitch black, I'd recommend bringing a torch if like us you put a lot of stuff in your safe!

Pools: if you don't have any upgrade (like Diamond club, Ambar etc) then you have a choice of two pools, the main one at the beach, and a smaller one towards the center of the resort. The pools were immaculate, very clean, and both had swim-up bars, which was cool. We preferred the smaller pool as it was quieter with fewer children. There were pool activities (like aerobics and bingo) throughout the day, but I didn't find it too obtrusive. Loungers could be hard to come by at the main pool, but we always got a lounger under a palapa at the small pool, even if we didn't get there till 11/12. The pools are quite shallow, not for big swimming fans, and could get quite warm as a result (I was struggling to find anything wrong, so this was one of my 'complaints'!)

Beach: stunning! White sand, clear turquoise water... Really lovely. It was busy near the pool and beach bar, but you could find quieter spots further away. We only used the beach a few times, but again never had a problem finding loungers and shade. Only complaint is that the swimming area was minuscule, and speed boats etc came FAR too close to swimmers. I've seen some nasty accidents caused by boats so this was a bit of a concern.

Grounds and common facilities: immaculate. The hotel really was spotless, marble gleamed, and the grounds were lovely, full of plants and flowers. A real pleasure.

Resort size: I really didn't think the resort was that big to be honest; it takes about 10 minutes to stroll from one end to the other. The larger size was a good thing in my opinion as it allowed for more variety, and you didn't feel like you were just stuck in a hotel block. I also don't understand why people find it so complicated, it took us literally 30 seconds to work out the layout! Basically, there's a central road with the reception and buffet restaurant at one end, the beach and pool at the other, and another pool in the middle. A la carte restaurants are spread out, but you're provided with a map, and there are large maps throughout the resort if you get stuck. Trams ran every couple of minutes, we did use these sometimes I'm afraid to say, more because of the heat than anything else; they stopped at bus stops down the main road.

Drinks: I thought the selection of drinks was excellent, there was a wide range of cocktails, plus beer, wine, spirits and international soft drinks rather than local ones. Cocktails at the pool bars were ready made (it would be impossible to make them all fresh!) and sometimes didn't have much alcohol. I'm not a big drinker so this was fine by me; I'm sure you could ask for a strong one without any problems! Bring a thermos if you can, bar staff will happily fill them and it saves a trip or two to the bar.

There were quite a few bars to choose from: two lobby bars, bars at the beach and pools, and the karaoke bar at the Pueblo Principe.

Food: I thought the food was very good, as did my partner. Breakfast was fairly standard: cereals, yoghurts, cheeses, fruit, fresh cooked eggs and pancakes, as well as sausages, potatoes etc etc. There was a wide selection at lunch, and you could eat either at the main buffet (with a larger selection) or the pool snack bar (smaller selection, things like pizza, pasta, chips, burgers etc, but more than enough choice). There was also a big selection at dinner (the desserts were fab!), there really was something for everyone. Food was generally hot and was being constantly replaced and replenished. Oh, and there was Heinz ketchup in packets for Heinz fans!

Drinks service in the main buffet could be patchy, sometimes you were waiting a little while. I didn't really find this an issue, and the staff work very hard, they're rushing about non-stop.

We tried several a la cartes, and here's my opinions on them:

Le Gourmet: nice, but a bit too 'fancy' for my liking; I prefer simple food that speaks for itself. The octopus salad was overpowered by too many herbs, and I wasn't keen on the corn mash; the beef was lovely though, nice and tender.

Garden Grill: my personal favourite. Buffet starter and dessert, and I had the tenderloin steak for my main which was DELICIOUS.

BBQ: OK, nothing special. Nice change from the buffet though.

Italian: awful! Please don't go, it's a waste of a reservation!

Japanese: great fun, chef cooks in front of you. The food was tasty and there will several courses which included soup and sushi. Really enjoyed this one. Had fried ice cream for dessert and still don't know what to make of it!

Entertainment: there was a good selection of things to do, from mini-golf, aerobics, merengue and water polo in the day, to the band, show and karaoke at night. The Pueblo Principe has a variety of shops, and the disco and casino are here. The vendors on the stalls will try to rip you off, go for 10-20% of what they ask! Drinks are free everywhere apart from the casino. We only made it to the disco once and weren't overly impressed, but then it was early. Most nights we went to bed at about 11, so we didn't see much of the 'nightlife'!

Language barrier: we didn't find this an issue. We made an effort where possible and this was always appreciated and met with a smile. Most of the staff had a basic grasp of English, so ordering drinks and food was never a problem, and reception staff and guest relations all spoke very good English. Please remember you are not only in another country, but in a very poor country where few people have access to education. Many of the staff try, and are practicing their English all the time, so be patient!

Overall the holiday was brilliant, and I would definitely recommend this hotel. We're already thinking about visiting this chain again next year, but in a different resort.

I think I've covered just about everything, but if anyone has any questions, feel free to send me a personal message.