As a single mother of two teenagers, I decided to treat the family to a family vacation. I have travelled previously with my late husband to many destinations and know when a hotel deserves to be considered a 5 star hotel. Everything went smooth with the flight and the check-in. If you love huge resorts than this is the one for you. The resort has a trolley which runs from 7am to 3 am. Personnally I would have liked a smaller, more intimate resort.

If you were at either end of the trolley's route than you should consider yourself lucky since it fills up quickly and anyone at other stops in between will have to wait to get a seat. I must say they come quickly.

The staff are not friendly. Actually they act as if you are disturbiing them. Not to many smiling faces. I found this a bit unpleasant as it creates a very ackward bad ambiance. What I found very agitating is the fact that the staff didn't speak any English, which makes it hard to ask for things. Only some knew basic words of English.

I knew the resort was family oriented but didn't know up to what point. There were babies everywhere. I couldn't move without stumbling on a carriage. The crying and tantrums were very agitating considering I was looking to unwind. So for those of you who are looking for peace and quiet....stay away!

The food was edible and there was variety. What I didn't like was that the main dining area was too dark and extremely hot since there was no air condition. As you enter, there is a woman who looks as if she would rather be having her teeth pulled than to take you to your table. When she does show you to the table you are guaranteed the tour of the dining area before she seats you in a dark corner. I always wondered what determined my seating area since I was early and the place was empty. The one time I asked to be seated in a more open area she got upset. I was surprised one morning to find that the hotel ran out of jam and when I asked if there was any they had 5 men running around not knowing what I wanted. Needless to say I finally was told by someone that they ran out and to make do with other stuff. This is not a 5 star resort!!!!!

The first couple of days of my stay I got good room service. After that it was all downhill. I had to call to get my room cleaned. One of the days I called I got this big knock on the door. I opened the door to get greeted by this very furious woman who shouted at me " Servicio?" She then went on to ask if I spoke spanish which I replied No abla espangnol. She stormed in the room ( I am not exagerating) tossed the bed forward to rip the sheets off the bed. Threw them violently on the floor and proceeded to kick my luggage since I imagine must have been in her way and all the while giving me looks that would kill. She then continued in the bathroom as I got on the balcony so not to get in her way. I saw her several times going in and out and I am sure she was swearing in spanish to her coworker who was doing my sons room. At one point she enters the room with a mop and starts going at it like a mad woman, hitting anything in her way instead of lifting or tossing things aside. As she finished by going towards the door she glanced over and slammed the door. At that point I lost it and ran to the door and told her to calm herself. She just stood there with 3 other women laughing and speaking spanish.

I am saving the best for last!!!!!!! When I arrived at the hotel, as everyone does, I started putting my combination into the vault. After several tries I informed the front desk that it didnt work only to be told that I had to pay 36.00$ US per week for the safe. I was shocked that a 5 star hotel didnt include it with the package. Since I never before had to pay for it I refused to do so and reasoned that the staff wouldnt take anything since if they did they would lose their jobs. WRONG! They stole 50.00$ from my wallet thinking I wouldnt notice. When I saw that I immediately asked my sons friend, who came along with us to check his wallet. He too was missing money, 20.00$. I reported it to the guest services only to have a night manager come to the room to investigate the area , jot down some notes and tell me that it took 48 hrs before they get back to me. No one ever came back to me!

As I was supposedly at a 5 star hotel, I inquired 2 days before if I can get a hospitality room for the day of departure since I had to check out for noon and I was only leaving the compound at 5PM, They told me that their hotel doesnt provide that service?????

I have been to many 4 and 5 star hotels and would definitely not consider this one among them. I am disappointed that I had to pay good money to take my 2 teenage sons on vacation as a single parent. I dont want to sound mushy but this was a way to reconnect with my boys after their dad passed away in 2005 and instead ended up constantly agitated and sad that it was the worst week EVER! The thing that gets me is that I cannot afford to go on another family vacation to make up for the one that past.

Pluses - look of the resort, pool areas. The rest is very questionable. Service is very bad, even rude at times (restaurant La Gourmet was the worst experience in all categories - never go there). Our check-in lasted almost 2 hours, full of mistakes and strange talks. Exhausting! It is true - rooms are musty and our clothes smelled bad even after few washes. Room service was weird - they never got how many towels should be left in the room for 3 people. Sometimes we would have 1, sometimes none, sometimes only bath and none hand, but never all. Even worse - towels were sometimes old, dirty, torn! It was an everyday chase after cleaning person. If you need something (any kind of service) be patient! '5 minutas' means an hour or two. In the restaurants service was almost non - existent. They wouldn't bring drinks, they would grab your plate before you had a chance to eat, there were no tea or coffee during lunch and dinner. At the bar we noticed some interesting rule - they ignore women and respond much faster to men. And don't even attempt to use their tennis courts -they look 20 years old and very slippery, not to mention cracks and holes. Gym is small but has most of what you might need. Spa is OK but message was mediocre and the whole lay-out is not very relaxing. My friend and I booked separate treatments in advance but then to our surprise discovered that they put us in one room because they didn't have empty ones! After I refused to share and waited for 10 min. the second room was found but they didn't act happy and the treatment was cut short. Honestly, that was not at all what I expected from a 5 star place (and I travel a lot). Food was better in quality and selection in a lobby restaurant only. People who ate meat complained it was hard to chew. Fish I ate was good only on a few occasions. But that could be forgiven if the service was at least somewhat present. Overall impression was that they really were not happy to see us there, didn't bother to make things more pleasant and sometimes just ignored English. Will never go back and advised my friends against going there too. We had 9 people in our group and all had similar feelings.

My husband and I stayed at the Punta Cana section from July 4-10. We got married here last year and wanted to spend our anniversary HERE again :)

Upon our arrival, we were upgraded to the Ambar Section (which is brand new) adults only. We were able to use everything in the Punta Cana and Bavaro section, however, no one else was able to use our section unless you were part of the ambar sections. The resort is HUGE! but we dont care, we're young and we could use the walk. Just ignore all of the bad reviews you hear out there. You are the one who make your vacation worth while. If you are picky and have it in mind to complaint, then everything will go WRONG. Go with an open mind and remember this is not the US. The service is great if your great to them, if you have a nasty attitude, they're going to give you a nasty attitude lol so just be nice :)

The Ambar section had a private pool and three private a la carte restaurants (which you must make reservations upon your arrival) and one buffet restaurant plus many pool bars and pool/beach restaurants. You can also go to the buffets and some of the a la carte restaurants on the Puntacana and Bavaro Section.

We got married last year in the Punta Cana section and had NO complaints, we returned this year and still NO complaints. We are already planning our third trip for next year :)

After reading the previous two reviews, I felt compelled to write my own review of the Bahia. I stayed at the Bahia from July 6th to July 13th in the Diamond section.
Check In: We arrived in the early afternoon and were directed to the Diamond check in. There were no line ups and we were given a welcome drink with alcohol. Surprisingly, our room was ready and our requests had been followed. Our 4 ala carte dinner reservations had been booked with the times we requested. I had e-mailed the Diamond club with our requests a few days prior to arriving.

Room: Our room was clean and comfortable. The only bugs that we saw for the whole week were very tiny, harmless little bugs much smaller than ants.

Service: We found everyone who worked at the resort to be friendly and very polite. We had one problem on the second day. Our room had not been serviced until the late afternoon (5:30 pm). I don't know why this happened and it certainly didn't happen again. A concierge came up to us at the Diamond pool and asked us if we had any complaints and we told him about the room not being serviced. After that, we had our room serviced twice a day (morning and evening). New towels were delivered twice a day and chocolates were left on the night table. We received two phone calls during the week from reception asking how we were enjoying our holiday and if we had any complaints. We had towel art and flowers in the room every day.
The waiters at the bars and the restaurants were excellent and attentive. Water glasses and wine glasses were refilled without having to ask.

Food: We actually found that the food was much better than we
were expecting it to be. We ate most breakfasts in the Italian restaurant where there was probably 10 people there at the most. It was very quiet. We ate lunch at the beach but not at the main snack bar. We found another restaurant overlooking the beach that served better food. Half of it was under construction so I don't think that many people knew that if they kept walking a little bit further they would find that the other side was open. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the main buffet was open before 7 in the morning so that we were able to have some breakfast before going on an outing and before going to the airport. Fruit was plentiful and delicious at each meal. There was a wide variety of choices.
We enjoyed the restaurants. We ate at the Gourmet, Steak House, Italian and Japanese.
We also had the option of eating lunch at the Italian restaurant which we did on one occasion.
I did not ever have to ask the bartender to put alcohol in my drinks. I saw the rum being put in each time.
The lobby bar was lovely to sit at and enjoy an after dinner cocktail or a cup of tea.

Beach and Pools:
The beach is beautiful. We went for a walk and a swim before breakfast when the beach was empty. We spent most days on chairs under the shade of the beautiful palm trees. The ocean was much more refreshing than the pools which seemed to be too hot. The Diamond club also has their own pool which was very quiet. I did notice people who were not from the Diamond section were also using the pool but it was never crowded.

Internet
We took advantage of the free 20 minutes per day of internet use in the Diamond Room.

I would definitely recommend staying in the Diamond section but I should mention that there is presently construction going on close by and you can hear hammering if you are sitting by the Diamond pool.