Absolute Best Vacation ever. Booked our vacation online. Never spoke to an actual person. Hotel employees were courteous and attentive. Some language barrier, but with only limited spanish on our part, we did fine. Tips are appreciated and remembered. These employees are working 12 hour days sometimes 6-7 days a week. They might have an off day, but a smile and a tip makes their work days better. Check in was a breeze. I recommend arriving on an "off day" (not a Saturday) as there were only us (girls trip - 2 moms, 2 daughters) and one other couple checking in on the day we arrived. We arrived at the hotel at 11:15 AM and even though they say check in is at 3:00 PM, we had our room and was settled by 12:15. Rooms were clean. Beach is a short but beautiful walk. Wasn't sure what to expect with all the reviews prior, but was very pleasantly surprised. Caution on the open air markets. Vendors are very pushy. I would return to this hotel in a heartbeat. Only drawback is the shopping center they have on site. Lots of empty stores, must still be under construction. For us, this was not a problem as we weren't there for shopping. The pizzeria was the best. Give Addison & Frankie a smile, they are the best.

Finally we landed, got our baggage and 20 minutes later (and $25 lighter) we arrived to the hotel. Initial taxi service was offered as $40, but after being strong on price amount we were able to bring it down.
The check-in was just HORRIBLE. The counter space is so narrow, and there were lot of people, trying to get to the worker faster than others... Keep in mind that majority of Europeans are heavy-smokers, and we had to try to protect our 6yo. kid from the cigarette smoke. No "welcome-drink", it was not a big deal, but still....

After 40 minutes talking to the cleark we finally got electronic keys for our room, and went straight to our room. It was building 46XX, which located just perfectly for us - not too far from restaurants, and not too close to the main swimming pool area. All buildings have No balconies or terrace. It was not expecting and was very disappointing...

Room, shower and bathroom were nice and clean. During all 7 nights stay we did not discover any non-welcomed "non-human-being" life in our room. AC worked fine, but I hear that other people complain to the front-desk clerks that they AC did not work. I guess we were lucky.
We really did not like the time of the room service - they usually come between 2 - 3 pm, and that was the time for our kid's daily nap. I had to ask maids to come back later, and few times they did not show up again.

There was ABSOLUTELY nothing in the fridge, besides 2 bottles of water, so if you like an idea of having local drinks in your room, then you need to bring it from the bar or restaurants.

If you are being paranoid as myself, then you would love the idea of having safe in the room. It costs $3/day, and you had to pay in advance. Few times i had to bang the safe itself just to remove the key from the base. Not a big deal. Good reason for stress-relief.

Majority of people, staying in hotel were from Italy and Spain. There was some language barrier between hotel workers and english-speakers, but "good smile brings peace". People in Dominican are very friendly, and they really try to understand you.

We did not go to any specialized restaurant, and always eat in the buffet-style main place. It is more than ok. I have one advice for people, who complain that food selection is poor, and there is nothing to eat, - PAY EXTRA and STAY in the 5 star hotel.

Before I end my blog - the beach is pretty FAR from the hotel, so our kid was yelling that he does not want to go there, because it is too far, and he is tired..... and swimming pool is right there, and he wants to swim.... (some parents probably recognizes the pattern). Well, it means that if you have infants and/or little "mini-me", and you love being on the beach, then you might want to consider staying in other hotel.

There are lot of topless activities on the beach. You'll decide if you like it or not. The beach BBQ restaurant is good. Not Great, but not bad at all.

I would not come back to this hotel, because life is too short and i don't want to be in this very "plain" hotel twice, but for the amount of money we paid it was very well economical place to stay in Dominican.

Oh, and one more thing - don't forget to tip servants, because small tips will bring you lot of "VIP" feelings. :)
Couple dollars to room maid, couple dollars to the restaurant servant, and next time they'll pay much more attention to your needs and wishes. :)

Thank you,

First let me start off by saying I am not sure where all these other people stay but we vacationed from the 27 of March to 3 April. Our stay was fantastic right from the start, while it is true the hotel staff don't speak fluent english they do understand enough to make check in a breeze.........why not learn a little spanish the effort goes a long way.

Our room was spotless.....no bugs at all........we had one king bed.......you do need the key to run the electricity but you only need it on when your in the room right??????? The bathroom don't offer much privacy but I don't think this should ruin your vacation.........

The food on the buffet was fine but does get repetive after a while so we booked our a la carte reservations and the food at theses restaurant was excellent........

We walked the beach and found that this hotel has one of the largest beach fronts and less seaweed, the staff do a great job in keeping everything clean.......

The pools are amazing and there are three of them so you can always find charirs to sit .........or put your towels on them to reserve your favorite spot in the morning......

We went to the doctor before we left to catch up on the shots needed to travel as well as purchased over the counter medicines for food upsets and such..........but we never needed them.......remember you are in another country so they don't cook the same as us and things may taset a little different......

Go, relax and enjoy...........this hotel was great and we have travelled to other countries that don't compare........be prepared for anything and I am sure you will enjoy yourself I really don't see how you couldn't............

I went to the IFA bavaro beach villas and spa resort for spring breakWith 8 other people. It was an amazing experience. Before I went I looked at the other reviews and was a little skeptical, and was pretty much expecting a dirty place with a dirty room, nasty food and a nice beach. NOT TRUE!! This place is beautiful for the price you are paying! Less than $50 a night, all-inclusive, that’s less then staying and at crappy Red Roof Inn!! I stayed in a room closest to the main pool with swim up bar and daily activities. The room was beautiful, tile floor, large stand up tile shower with glass blocks, flat screen TV, and AC. They give you two large bottle waters a day in your fridge. Id recommend getting the safe for the extra $20, even though I didn’t feel like any of my things were in danger of being taken. The pools were great, there are 3 of them, and they all have a different atmosphere about them. The food at the buffets wasn’t amazing, but it was defiantly edible. Breakfast omelets were great, coffee and orange juice are amazing!! Get lots of cappuccinos and coffee. The service for an all inclusive is great. They’ll come up and light you cigarettes for you, take away you plates and bring you drinks all for nothing. We did tip, however it didn’t look like anyone else was. A few $ goes a long way. The restaurants that need reservations are well worth it. The caribe was my favorite, but don’t order fish order the meat. The Mexican is really good too, and same with the Japanese. The drinks are great! If you want them stronger just ask. Be polite, it gets you far. The beach is amazing. I’ve never seen water this beautiful before, there are plenty of chairs but getting to the beach early defiantly helps if you have a big group. There’s food and drinks on the beach so you don’t have to walk back to the resort. At night there is a “club” that’s open till 3 am and serves drinks and food. And the other bars are open till 12 or 1. There’s a snack place that serves pizza, drinks, fries and ice cream all day, so there is always food around. Knowing a little Spanish is helpful, but there are some workers who speak English.
Lots of Europeans, not many Americans or college kids, which was nice!!! Great times, great people, overall an amazing experience.