Barcelo Dominican Beach Hotel Punta Cana

The amenities were great along with the location of the hotel. My room was clean everyday and the room was comfortable but they do have a light smell. But i was only in my room to shower and sleep so that didn't bother me that much. The cleaning staff and the bartenders were good and the hotel was a great value.

What you need to know! A must read!! REMEMBER to bring your own goggles for swimming, they have them at the hotel but require you to deposit $20 for one hour of use, same for snorkeling gear. We ended up purchasing our own because we would lose track of time, but they were about $10, so pack your own :) They will give you a little card when you check in which is your towel card, don't lose it. Also pack some eye drops, the water does tend to hurt the eyes! Necessities like aloe vera, sunscreen, tanning oil, eye drops and allergy medicine are very overpriced, so pack smart. Pack a foot scrub, the pools are painted blue and will stain your feet at the end of the day, but washes off in shower. Everything is a bargain, don't buy from the first vendor you see, despite how much they say you won't find the stuff anywhere else (there is a local shop market like 15 minutes walking from the resort, best part you can just walk down the beach, no need to exit the resort and go on the main streets). **The room does include a mini fridge which is restocked each day with beverages. The room also has a safe, I was able to put my MacBook Pro, iPod, cell phones, passports, etc. in the safe when we would leave the room. We didn't opt to have our clothes washed by the hotel and had plenty of towels. ***If you are an adventurous family and would like to do fun stuff. My father and I went scuba diving at Cuevitas, it was $150 for us both, but we had a great time and the folks at Global Divers are extremely professional and fun, I highly recommend. Parents, my sister and I all went parasailing and tough very fun once you are in the air, the process is very disorganized and feels very rushed. **The BEST thing you can do is go on the Country Adventure tour! You will get the most for your money. You can get all the information for it at the tourist center by the pool. It is about $99 per person, but so worth it. It is the best way to see the true Punta Cana, inside the resorts its very beautiful, but outside it is very poor and there are many things to see. It is a whole day adventure, including: going to a museum and a basilica, seeing how cigars are made and how the locals make figurines. Also: you get to go to the country side and see the sugar plantations and taste sugar cane, you see how the local farmers live and how they make cocoa, coffee and molasses, coconut oil, etc. (purchase the coffee and coconut oil $5 a piece, worth it, don't get the cocoa it ended up hardening by the time we got home and we ended up tossing it). You get to taste all sort of different fruits like cocoa beans, mangos and star fruit. You go visit an elementary school which is good because you get to see the local children and they are so happy to see everyone, buy candy :) If you don't use all of it, you can toss it out the bus to local children while driving through the town.The adventure doesn't stop there! You get to go HORSEBACK RIDING and on a ZIP LINE, you get lunch (if you have little ones pack some snacks, because by the time lunch comes you get really drained and hungry), after lunch you can hang out and go swing in the hammocks. At the end of the day they take you to Macao public beach, which is super beautiful (if you don't go on the adventure, find a way to get to the public beach, its a great place to mingle with locals and enjoy great views). We ended up meeting great people on the bus we were on, found each other on Facebook after the trip. The bus is super fun, the tour guide we had was hilarious and they serve drinks the whole time (alcoholic and beverages). Its the best deal, it includes so much, whereas some of the adventures that are offered like zip lines or horseback riding are around $80 per person and thats all you get, so pick this one :) ***The hotel is nice and the staff is friendly. The food is good and plentiful (eat the passion fruit, best fruit ever!). THE BEACH IS BEAUTIFUL! One day there was a lot of seaweed that washed up due to the wind

I have choosen this hotel because of the brand name and relatively good reviews. It is true that on weekend there are a lot of locals that could be more respectful and behave better. Overal it was a good stay, with a free upgrade to jr.suite which was really nice.

It needs a better service at the front desk (more personal and better trained). This hotel really needs to put throughout a new and up to date communication system(phone ,Internet,WiFi)It is embarrassingly low tec what they have now in place. The rest is a very nice ressort. Have fun there.

Hotel has a good potential...Needs lots of updates, rooms conditions are below average, service has to improve, food preparation at the grill is below any standards, cook handles raw meat (burgers), and same time is making pizza and hot dogs without gloves....