I will start by saying: don't listen to the bad reviews!!!!!
I read all the reviews before we left in our vacation (May 1-8) and to be honest I was a little stressed out with all the bad reviews i read. But.....I did not see any of the bad things that people wrote here. So I guess they would have to look for 5,6 stars hotels from now on...in Europe not in Dominican and they will probably sill not be happy.
Anyways.....
1. We booked our vacation with sunquest and we were in the sunquest select section.
2. FLIGHT - absolutely wonderful (both ways)....
3. we were picked up from the airport in a really nice bus and the trip was around 30 min. to the resort
4. ROOMS - we were in the sunquest select section and the rooms are great: new, clean, no bugs or spiders, no leackings, we had hot water every day (we were in building s7 and 8), we had new sheets every day and clean towels.
6. THE RESORT there are 3 parts of the resort
a. the main resort - right on the beach, with pools, restaurants but the rooms are older
b. the select section - the rooms are great, and it has its own pools,jacuzzi, bufet, bar, tenis court, kids club, minigolf and others, The staff here is great and I liked the food here better than in the main resort (more variety) also it was not that crowded as in the main resort.
c. the club section - has the building from 1-6 which also has its own pool. I cannot say more about this section as we did not go there at all.
7. FOOD - there was plenty of food, really good, something for everybody and the fruits were great.
8. BEACH - we had to walk aprox.5 min from the select section to the beach but we really enjoyed it....it was a nice, short walk but if yu didn't feel like walking you could take the troley that would go every 10 min.
The beach is AMAZING - the best I saw so far
I hope this will help people relax when they go there.....f you have any problem at all, the staff was ready to fix it right away. We were 4 families and none of us had anything to complain.
EXCELENT TRIP and i would return here any time.

I'll list for you the good, the bad, and the ugly, and you can make your own decisions based on that. I read some horrible reviews on here that were unfounded, but i read some great reviews which made me wonder if people stayed at the same resort i did.

The Resort:
There are two of them, Grand Paradise Bavaro is the one located on the beach, and where all the action is. The Club is the new squeaky clean section. The rooms at the club are better, they have nicer beds, nicer washrooms, and the buffet there was better, but you cant beat being 5 steps from the beach. Really, how much time do you spend in your room? My friend and i stayed in Building 6 at the main resort on the main floor. The only downside to this was we had a view of the pool and all night long we could hear people screaming "jump in the pool!" i'm a heavy sleeper, and i could hear thing.

Food:
5 a la carte restaurants, Asian, Italian, Dominican, Seafood and International. The asian was AWESOME, but its closed as of right now for 3 months for renovations. the seafood was really amazing as well. i would have gone to the italian, but the sunwing rep who booked the a la carte restaurants for me and my friend was a bonehead, and got the dates wrong. The main buffet at the main resort is currently closed for lunch and dinner, so you have to take the trolley to go to the club to eat. The lunch buffet by the beach is good, roast chicken, pizza, fries, burgers, you wont find anything gourmet there for lunch, which was fine for my friend and I, as we wanted to go back to the beach asap. dont be surprised if you have to use your arm as your napkin, as there never seemed to be a napkin in sight at the lunch buffet. The lunch buffet also turns into the midnight buffet, where they serve a ton of food for all the drunks rolling out of the disco.

Beach:
The most beautiful beach i had ever seen. turquoise blue water, and white sand. very few rocks in the ocean. the water was choppy, but fine to swim in. i wouldnt recommend the ocean for little kids to be in unsupervised. i'm not a strong swimmer, but i was fine.

Pools:
Kind of sandy. The pools at the club were very nice and had a swim up bar, the ones at the main resort did not have a swim up bar. but fear not, the bar was about 5 steps out of the pool. They could have been a bit cleaner.

The Crowd:
I would say the crowd was mostly 25 and younger, but there was a good mix of families, couples, and elderly people, as well as people who wanted to party. the French and French Canadian clientelle were DISGUSTING, you could pick them out anywhere, because they were always shouting, pushing people out of the way, spitting in the pools, leaving cigarette butts in the sand on the beach. Shame on you people, stay where you came from.

The Staff:
For the most part, very friendly. you'll find a few people who dont care everywhere, but i found that mostly everyone spoke english. Front desk was helpful when needed. Our maid was so sweet, we tipped her well every day, and she was very greatful for everything.

Entertainment:
The animation team is interesting. Its mostly perverted guys, who will hit on you, and treat you like gold while you're there. If you say hello to any of them, that's open season for them to hit on you or assume you are going to hook up with them. They all speak english, and they work long hours. They come to the disco every ngiht, and dance with the guests. If any of them ask to take you for a walk while you are at the disco, be prepared that they want more from you than conversation.

Gift Shop and Shopping:
To give you examples of how expensive Punta Cana is, a bottle of pantene shampoo in the gift shop goes for $18 American. A carton of marlboro's goes for $65 (where at duty free in the airport you can pick it up for $40). Haggle with the vendors on the beach, if they tell you something costs $50, offer them $5 (start at 10% and work up from there). They will rip you off. you cant haggle in the gift shop. The interact machine or even credit cards barely work half of the time. The canadian exchange rate is awful at the hotel, they will accept canadian money, but if you ask for it back in pesos or american money, you lose money. Take american money if you can, its just easier.

I flew through sunwing, and it was a great flight, the food was even ok for airplane food. The sunwing rep at the hotel was a bumbling idiot, so be warned. My friend and i didnt do any excusions, but we heard the booze cruise on the catamaran was amazing, and the ATV was a rip off.

The Weather:
Gorgeous! It was over 30 degrees every day! i am olive skinned and i never burn, but i had to wear SPF 30 everyday and sit in the shade, and i was a bit pink on some days. It is never a problem to get a chair at the pool or the beach, if you want shade, you have to get up early to reserve a palapa.

I'm on the fence about this resort, it was JUST OK. i've stayed at Riu hotels before, and this is no way comes close to the Riu. I would recommend this hotel only if you have low standards, otherwise go to a Riu. Avoid Bahia Principe and Dreams Punta Cana, as people who were on our flight back (numerous people) all had food poisoning.

I just returned from grand paradise a week ago, at first i was kinda scared with all the bad reviews, but i was so impressed!
we stayed in the club section, which was amazing! they are still building bars, restaurants etc when we were there so they should be ready in no time! while we were there tey rebuilt a whole new spa!
ROOMS-when we first got up to our room our air conditioning was making fun noisies so we called front desk and they came up and fixed it right away and offered us a new room. Also there was no clock in the rooms so in a way that kinda sucked. Other than that the rooms were very nice and clean!
STAFF-the staff there is amazingg and so friendly, ALWAYS smiling, singing and offering anything you may need
FOOD-the food was good... we only ended up doing on a la carte which was good (asia). I have a very weak and sensitve stomach so i was kinda sick but that would of been a number of things. i sitll enjoyed the food and the buffets were good!
BEACH- most amazing beach ive ever seen... constantly cleaning it...we walked down the beach and i found ours to be the best beach it was awesomee
POOLS- there is 4 pools, 2 in club and 2 in the other section all of them are very clean and nice
ENTERTAINMENT- we went to the shows every nigh and they were a lot of fun and entertaining, they sometimes get the audience involved which is fun
after the shows we would go to the disco (which is good) or down to the beach bar!
overall i loved this resort it was very big so you meet a lot of people and its a great time!

Toronto, canada
Date:April 24, 2008
Grand Paradise Bavaro

I've been in punta cana and purto plata several time and had never such a bad experience of a resort like this, (Grand paradise bavaro ) The service was terrible, not usually a complainer, but this one pushed me to the edge.The staff at the front desk ahhh, heediess, slow and bitter.
The mini bar fridge is not included in your all inclusive package and you'll be charge for everything you touch in there.
Satelite TV. didn't work in our room and till the last day of our vacation we were waiting for someone to come and fix it, never happened!!!!!
The Hotel has a cash bar which, we did not realize at first and had to pay for domestic beer ( presidente) $5 USD each, which is free every where eles, our room was changed 4 times cuz , it wasn't the right one, entertainment awful, no music anywhere, The piano bar was only a bar no piano, and no music anywhere at the bars and pools, I believe, sunquest made a bad choise of calling this hotel one of their own selected resort and rated it for 4 star.
I will never go back to this hotel again and never recommend it to anyone. The funny part is that before this trip I read the reviews about this hotel and most of them was bad, but I thought sometimes people are not fair and they expect to much, but now I am one them and agree with all !!!