this hotel / island (yes, u almost get the whole island for yourself) is a perfect gateway – service is superb, great accommodations – would highly recommend getting a mid size villa, food (surprisingly) was quite decent and the whole resort setting was superb - we got all the privacy we wanted and enjoyed the quietness and the nature. I would highly recommend the place as I would be back sometimes during the holiday craziness

I have to agree with all the amazing things previously written - this place is really special. The island setting is unique to anything I have visited previously (this was our 3rd trip to the Dom Rep) and kept in immaculate condition. We stayed in beach villa 5 just above the private beach area and close to the lovely jacuzzi pools which are seriously under used. I don't think many people are aware of them so check them out - there's a bar/ towels/ beds and toilets all there.

You will not need to take any beach towels as the resort does not use towel cards which is fantastic and means that you can get as many as you require and swap them any number of times during the day.

The most important thing to know is that men will not be able to eat at any of the restaurants in the evening unless they are wearing long trousers - my husband, along with many other men that we met, had packed a number of tailored shorts but they are a complete no-no. You will be turned away so please don't waste your valuable luggage allowance on something that you will not be able to wear - they are really strict about this so beware!!

Another great thing about this place - you will NOT be up at dawn reserving your beach/pool lounger. As one of the palest people ever I always require shade but here I could always find somewhere even if it was after lunch so this was a real plus for us.

This place is on the quieter side - most of the people here are 50 plus and are not looking for lots of night life - my husband and I found it a bit too quiet for us in our late 30's - the main lobby bar closed at 11 pm exactly and you could find yourself sat there whilst they turned off the lights!! The action moves down to the public beach area after that which is a bit more isolated and keeps the noise away from the main hotel area. Only downside is people are less eager to make the walk down so you end up going to bed fairly early. Our last night there was a really good crowd on the beach and we had a blast!

Daytime activities were non existent our first week but picked up and were great fun week 2 with the arrival of Eric - a true entertainment hero!! Look out for the mini golf - so funny the way they move people off their sunbeds for it to take place...

There are little buggy carts that circle the island to take people around and they leave from outside the main lobby. You can go there at any time to ask for a lift around so make the most of it - we only discovered this after week 1 and became much lazier.

The weather was perfect while we were there - watch out for the pelicans off the beach - they swoop in really close to the beach feeding off the fish and are wonderful to watch.

The food at this resort is good - not quite as good as I have had at other hotels but the setting for the restaurants is lovely - even the buffet feels like a proper restaurant and is not like a canteen as I have seen elsewhere.

Go and enjoy this fabulous place - you will have a really relaxing time. Hello to all the fantastic people we met here - what a great group of brits!! Particular shout outs to Bill and Cathy, Paul (our great fisherman) and Jan, Graham and Simone x

My partner and i had been so looking forward to this holiday for months. When it was finally time to go, oh my god, we couldn't wait. Im going to put this into sections so its easier to read so sorry if you get bored!

FLIGHT
We upgraded our seats to Star Class Premier with First Choice. It is so relaxing sitting in the air filled leather seats with our complimentary drink as we boarded the plane. The cabin crew were so curteous and polite and did a very good job of dealing with your every need.

ARRIVAL TO SAMANA
Try and get into the airport as soon as possible. Before you land in Samana, the cabin crew give you an immigration form to fill out. When you get into the airport, if you are not at the front of the queue you could be queueing for quite a while as this is the point where you must pay your entry tax. The girl on the desk (only one person to deal with around 350ish people) gives you a ticket as you pay. You then get given another form to fill out to do with immigration. Then, with that ticket you paid $10 for, you hand it to someone after you have filled your form out. You then queue up to have your passport checked and stamped. When you upgrade your seats on First Choice Airways, you become eligible for Priority Luggage. This was not the case at Samana airport. People from Star Class had their luggage before us. Finally when we got our luggage, we then went to have all our our bags scanned and x-rayed. Outside we were greated by Pat who the passed us on to his wife Juicey Lucie. We were given our welcome pack and shown to our bus. Jimmy, the receptionist from Cayo Levantado, gave us our bands and room keys and greated us to his island.

ARRIVAL AT CAYO LEVANTADO
When we arrived at the island landing, we were escorted to the boat that would take us to the island, at this point i didnt have a clue where my suitcase was. While we were making our way across, we finally saw what we had been waiting for, Cayo Levantado. It looked so much better than in the brochure. After the 10-15min boat ride to the island, we were greated by a waiter with cold flannels for us to wipe our hands and faces. We then made our way up the hill to reception. Two members of the Animation Team were there to great us, dancing to Bahia Principe Song. As we made our way up the steps into the main building, Senior members of staff were there to great us such as the Head Chef and Maximo the Animations Manager. We then got greated by the Hotel Manager in the Main Foyer and were served with cool refreshing cocktails. After the welcome, we were escorted to our rooms, still no idea where our suitcase was.

OUR ROOM
Our room was in the main building and was room number 219. It was beautiful. Spacious bathroom with Jacuzzi, Shower, Sink, Hair Dryer Toilet, Bidet, Huge Mirror and an even bigger window into the main living area. In the living area ther was two double beds, TV, Phone, Alarm Clock, two dressing gowns, Slippers, Ironing Board, Iron, Fully stocked mini bar with soft drinks, shorts of whiskey and rum and your daily allowance of pringles, Seating Area, Dressing Table and more importantly, Air Conditioning. On our balcony was two Sun Loungers, Dining Table and another Jacuzzi. The beds are made daily and the maid would always come round at night time to say Good Night and give you some chocolates. After a week in our room we unfortunatley moved beacause there was a horrific banging noise everytime the toilet was used inanother room. When we were shown the new room, it was perfect and cosy. But when we went back to our first room, we realised it smelt really damp, i was glad to move. We moved to room 2104 in Villa 2. I loved this room it had everything the First room had apart from it had a HUGE queen size bed, two sinks and no Second Jacuzzi.

POOLS
There are three pools on the island, the Main Pool, Beach Pool and Jacuzzi Pool. The Main Pool is in the middle of the island and is divided into the sections, all varying in depth. It is very queit by this pool but there isnt much of a cooling breeze. The Beach Pool is by the beach (obviously) and can be reached by either walking down the hill or by using the lift. This pool seemed a bit busier and had music playing from the Beach Bar. The pool water was full one moment and a little lower the next and there seem to be an oily film on the far side of the pool by the lift. The jacuzzi pool is so relaxing and not very busy at all so it is idilic for those lazy days.

FOOD
There are 4 main restaurants. Orquidea (Buffet), Mediteranean, Pescador (Fish) and Don Pablo (Gourmet). There is also a snack bar by the pool. We only ate in the Snack Bar and Buffet, which had a different theme every night. GENTS! TAKE TROUSERS. We were only told on arrival that we would have to wear trousers to dinner. The only trousers we had were the ones we arrived in but there were plenty of men that were wearing shorts to dinner. I wouldn't really say that the hotel is 24hr all inclusive, unless you count the limited room service menu. All of the restaurants were closed apart from breakfast, lunch and dinner for the buffet, lunch for the snack bar and dinner for the speciality restaurants. Also in your welcome pack you are given the opening times for all restaurants. It states that the Buffet is open between 10pm and 6am for snacks, its not so dont get too excited.

FIRST CHOICE EXCURSIONS
Unfortunatley the excursions were not all the were made out to be. We went on 3 excursions Catamaran, Jeep Safari and Playa Rincon. On the catamaran trip we were told we would go to three deserted beaches. We went to TWO beaches, one deserted, one not. We were also taken into a storm, a heavy storm and kept there for atleast an hour. A word of worning, take two towels and DO NOT EAT THE RICE THEY GIVE. They gave us a buffet on the boat which got wet from the rain and the rice made most people ill. we were ill for two days. one day was spent in the hotel room. The rep told us she will keep in touch to see how we are but we never heard from here while we were confined to our room.Playa Rincon is a beatiful beach, rated in the top 10 in the world but we were there too long. Lucie and Pat see it as a good excuse to get paid to do nothing i think. They work on a tuesday which is playa rincon day and they have weds and thurs off so if you are at the resort, you wont see you rep for 3 days. Jeep Safari was nothing like the description. We were told we would visit a dominican school and a dominican home. All through the excursion we kept asking when we would see these and the reply was the same, we are going there now but we never saw them!

THE REP
The rep was so helpful for the first few days but after a while i felt asif she lost interest. On the second week she said she would not be at the hotel as we dont need her but instead she would be at Cayacoa. Why do Cayacoa need the rep but we dont? Im a bit baffled by that.

THE STAFF
All of the staff were so helpful at the hotel. Nothing was too much trouble. Staff that stood out to us were:
JOSEPHINA - She works on the bar and she always called us her babies.
ERIK - He works on the animation team and he was quite funny. Likes to say "Lovely Jubley" and "I love my job. I hate my boss"
YOJHIRA - I think thats how you spell it. Works on animation too.
MARINO - Works on the bar too. Likes to be called Super Marino.
ROBERO - Also works on the bar. Would test us on spanish words.

FRIENDS
We made some amazing friends on holiday. one friend we made stands out from all the rest and we really appreciated her company. There wasnt a moment where we wouldnt be keeled over either laughing at her or her jokes.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS THE JUST ASK!

We flew into samana airport on May 1st from London Gatwick to start our two week holiday.We were met by our first choice rep and Jimmy the hotel receptionist who gave us our welcome pack and bracelets,check-in was done on the bus on route to the landing which took about an hour then boarded the boat for our 15 minute transfer to the island.

On arrival at the island we were met by a waiter who gave us a cold flannel,we then made our way up to reception where we were met by two of the animation team who dancing and then the management/guest relations/chefs and waiters with a cocktail.

ROOMS
Our first room in the main building had two double beds,with tv,phone,table,chairs,and a mini bar which was stocked everyday the room was very spacious.The bathroom was massive with a jacuzzi,wash bowl big wall mirror,shower,toilet and a bidet.The balcony had a beautiful view of the ocean.On the balcony we had table/chairs/sun loungers and another jacuzzi which we did not expect.The maid came in every day to make beds and change towels and would leave chocolates and flowers on the bed.Our second room was a villa because of the noise coming from up above us in the main buliding,it was more or less the same apart from we only had the one jacuzzi in the bathroom and the room was slightly smaller. The rooms can get very hot and stuffy we had our air conditioning on all the time worked a treat.

FOOD
The food was good lots to choose from at the buffet and every night would have a different theme,only problem was it wouldn't be piping hot.The waiterscouldn't do enough for you,as soon as you had finished they were there to take your plates away and bring you another drink if you had finished your last.There are also three other restaurants Seafood/Mediterranean/Gourmet.Or you have the snack bar which does a buffet down by the main pool.

POOLS
They were very well cared for few leaves but that was about it.There were three pools,the main one which is down by the beach and has a nice breeze some days,the lazy pool as we called it further up on top of the island which has a bar,and the jacuzzi pool which is by the lazy pool which is nice and peaceful and also has a very small bar.

BEACH
The beach well is was true paradise the sand was soft and the water was crystal clear and warm,was very good for snorkeling and there were water sports you could do free of charge for an hour a day.There were two private beaches for the hotel which were never overcrowded.The beach on the east side of the island got very windy and had strong currents.

THE GROUNDS
You could get around the island on the buggy from reception which was a lot of fun,the whole island and it's gardens was beautiful.I really miss it.

THE PUBLIC BEACH
Didn't go there much as it gets busy and the vendors pester you to buy stuff.Best to down there early morning or in the evening when every one has gone as it is also nice to walk along the beach down there and llook over to Samana peninsula.

FIRST CHOICE EXCURSIONS
First excursion we went on was the catamaran which started off ok,we sailed for hours to a beach where it was raining heavy and we had to stay there for a couple of hours and eat a buffet dinner (most of us became ill the day after)we then sailed to another beach for an hour but most peolple just wanted to go back to the hotels.Was not worth the money $90
Second excursion was to Playa Rincon which was a beautiful paradise beach north-east on Samana peninsula a totally deserted beach (very nice) we sun bathed and did a lot of snorkeling very clear waters.We had a lobster or chicken for dinner was your choice with salad included in the price $85 was a very nice relaxing day.
Third excursion was a jeep safari we were taken to a beautiful waterfall were we saw dominican kids jumping about 10 metre or more off trees in to the pool at the bottom of the falls,we then were taken to a seating area where the tour guide spoke about the fruits and stuff that are grown there did't really listen i got bored.Next stop was a where they made cigars and there you get hassled to smoke one (not very nice if you don't smoke).We drove for miles then through the country passing dominicans little hut,the roads are full of pot holes so was a very bumpy ride.Next stop was a cave which was full of rats.Think that was it that cost $79 and was a waste of money the rep lucie told us on the trip we would visit a school and go in a dominicans house and see how they live but we didn't to be honest i wouldn't waste any money on the trips,I really wanted to go to el limon but she said it was to dangerous but its not dangerous for your tours drivers to drink alcohol.If anybody ants to go to el limon you can buy a ticket off soltours at the resort for $90.

WEATHER
Was really worried bout the weather as may is the wettest month but that was not true,the day we arrived (thurs) was very cloudy with the friday being very wet to about mid-day then it was just sun sun sun till the day we came home,it just rained one evening other than the first couple of days.Be warned it does get very very hot mid-day.

We had such an amazing time at cayo levantado it was the best holiday i have ever been on and we meet some great people on the island who we had lots of fun with,really really miss it and would go back tommorrow.