my husband and I visited DR for the first time last year and we stayed at Barcelo (which was known as Occidental Gran Flamenco) in Puerto Plata. We loved everything about the resort, from the food to the staff. It felt very safe all the time and the maids were esp trustworthy. If we left them tips they would not touch them until we told them to take it! The beach was beautiful and clean, and the buffets were great and we a large variety of food choices to choose from each day. my favorite place to eat was La Fontana which served the most delicious pizza ever and ice cream. When we went to La Fontana at night we were on a balcony and could watch the shows while we ate.
I would definitly reccomend the excursions. we saw that a lot of vendors were selling the same excursions for a fraction of the cost we were getting them from our Air Canada rep....but we felt it was a bit risky and unsecure so we went with the Air Canada rep instead. we went to Paradise Island which was the most amazing trip ever! It was an all-day trip to a gorgeous white-sand island with coral reef, we snorkeled with beautiful tropical fish it was really something and worth every penny! we also went horseback riding in the mountains and it was a great opportunity to get to know the culture and the country, not just what we saw in the resort. the tour guide was really nice and gave us so much information. we also went on the city tour which was also really nice and a lot of fun.
the room was pretty good, the maids did a great job of keeping it really clean, the bathroom was big and clean. overall, the service, the food, the room, and the excursions were all great and it was undoubtedly the best trip ive taken! i would reccomend this resort to everyone.

We stayed at the Barcelo June 7 – 20th. I would have to say that the highlight for us was the excellent support that the resort gave us during the time of a medical emergency. The day before we were to leave, my son was experiencing abdominal pain and ultimately had his appendix removed. The hotel provided us with a driver and a guest services representative (Thanks Raphaelina!) to take us to the hospital and the rep stayed with us at the hospital for several hours translating for us with the doctors. It made things much less complicated for us in a stressful time. The hotel then phoned us every day at the hospital to check on my son’s progress and to offer whatever help they could provide. Finally, they arranged to get us a room for our extended stay for my son’s recovery. When we returned to the hotel, the manager of Guest Services greeted us with a “Welcome home”! All in all, they went above the call of duty to help us out. I’d also like to say that our Air Canada Vacations rep, Isabelle was also very helpful to us during this time.

Getting back to the review, the rooms are very nice with nice bathrooms although the hot water wasn’t always consistent. The Italian and Oriental restaurant are beautifully decorated and the Brazilian is a more rustic style. We tried all the restaurants and I would say we preferred the Oriental, Brazilian and the buffet. The buffet was very good, having a different roast meat every night and variety in the main dishes every day. My son said it was the best food he has every had at an all-inclusive and I thought it was pretty good.

Some of the shows were quite elaborate with exotic costumes and choreography and other nights were the typical audience involvement things. Generally, the staff were very friendly and helpful. The bartenders at the lobby bar quickly learned my favourite drink and would prepare it for me when they saw me arrive.

The beach is very nice. There are plenty of chairs and lots of shady spots if that is what you want. You can walk for many miles in either direction along the beach.

Overall, we really enjoyed the resort and the staff and were really impressed with the support they provided to us in a time of need.

It was our first time in Dominican and we loved it! Beautiful convenient location. Awesome beach. Clean rooms. Good food. Staff was friendly and helpful. Nice entertainment. We would highly recommend it and would definitely stay there again.

This hotel isn`t a 4 star but more like a 5 star. The atmosphere, food, drinks, entertainment and staff treat you like your a king or queen. I stayed there with my wife for 1 week and for sure we will go next time (possibly in Jan 2009 for 2 weeks) i recommend it to everybody. We booked our trio with itravel2000 last minute got the Club Premium package for 748$ tax inc. p/person; wow. We flew with Air transat and that was the worse flight possible. They gave us expired food (bagle, cream cheese orange juice) and when i asked the flight attendant why i was getting expires food she tols me its ok its been frozen ?? I`ve never had frozen yogourt but i didn`t feel sick after eating it i guess it was good. At the hotel we arrived at noon and our room wasn`t ready until 2:30pm so we had the buffet lucnch and walked around the premises. We arrived the same day the Dominican`s Mother`s day bash. We had access to all 5 restaurants a-la-carte (mexican, bresilian, italian, chinese and seafood) the best ones were italian,seafood and bresilian. The nightly shows are fantastic. The beach is clean but it could get a bit cleaner better than the ones in Canada. The pool well if u tip the bartender (henry 5$ US) FOR THE HOLE WEEK he will give the best service i mean the best service, the house special drink a mxture of pineapple juice with pina colada, dark rhum and wiskey with a touch of grenadine wow!!. We went also to the Ocean World night for 45$ per person we enjoyed a fantastic lobster meal, includes all drinks, national, international all you can eat seafood soup, seafood salads and 6 choices of main course we chose the lobster dinner and the buffet desserts table + tropiccana show + they gave us 30$ US to play at the casino on the 3rd floor. We also did the Catamaran snorkelling advenure what a blast and the Safari with Puerto Plata Runners our tour guide (Amaurio) was the bomb he is soo funny we loved the hotel, the staff, our room was always clean, with fresh flowers, towels, the mini bar always had at least 4 beers, 3 cokes, 3 sprites and 4 bottles of water per day they came at night even around 830pm to change the sheets when we were enjoying ourseleves at the nightly show. I recommend it to everybody, families, kids teenagers, singles and couples. What a blast, you never get disappointed with Barcelo Club premium !!