Paradisus Palma Real Resort reviews
23740 TripAdvisor reviews
Some little niggles but overall pretty fabulous!
SweTee (London, United Kingdom) on Mar 24, 2024
I’ve stayed at other Melia hotels before so Paradisus was next on the list. It’s another quite a big hotel so the check in / lobby was large but not much of a queue luckily. A few hiccups along the way of my stay, hence 4 stars. The room I had was in building 20 and was a basic garden view. I was pleasantly surprised, it was certainly spacious enough and near the many pools and beach, big bonus for me. The slight disappointment was you could hear the neighbours talking next door as it was an adjoining room (door separating). I also had two cockroaches visiting in the evening of my first night but housekeeping came with spray and sorted it out. No site of the roaches since, thankfully. My bracelet key card didn’t work either when I first arrived so I had to return to the lobby but as it was 2 mins walk it wasn’t a big deal. It’s a stunning looking property and you can take some amazing pictures around the grounds. No one really explained how the beach towels worked etc so other than the ones in the room it took me a while to figure out that staff place some out on chairs but I’m still not sure where to ask for them! The map provided of the hotel grounds has super small text so not easy to read so I took a picture of it to be able to make things bigger and I don’t even have bad eyesight! I’ve seen a lot of complaints about the food from others. The only absolutely horrific food I had was at the Mediterranean a la carte. It looked like prison food, uncleaned prawns and rice with no seasoning. I actually left to go to the buffet. Buffet is hit and miss as they undercook the potatoes so they were hard to get time I tried and the bacon in the morning wasn’t crispy cooked on all occasions. Other than that, I always found something to eat and I liked the teppanyaki and Mexican. Sometimes the hardworking waiting staff struggle for keep up on cleaning tables at busy lunch hour and evening hour at the buffet but there’s a lot of people here! Quite a few areas to sit around and have a drink, nice rocking chairs, sports bar, wine shop, upstairs by the lobby, main courtyard area etc. Didn’t catch much of the entertainment or activities as I did my own thing off the resort a few nights and day trips. There’s always free beach and pool loungers and it doesn’t fill up with towels laid out by 7.30am as at other hotels I’ve been (at least when I stayed). The pools are plentiful and both adult only or kids / families so if your avoiding kids then choose wisely. I also went to the spa - super stunning with little huts and obligatory Buddhas placed around. Massage was amazing (thank you Yeimi). A tad bit pricy compared to London where I’m from, but DR is not cheap for anything, really. Worth it though! I also went to the gym several times and it has some decent machines and free weights (I’m not a cardio bunny!). It was always quite hot so the aircon could be turned up in my view. Not busy around 6.30-8am when I went, mostly the same 3-4 faces. The final niggle was that I extended my room check out time, of course the key card bracelet didn’t work to get in to the room when I tried. I had to queue up at reception with 20 mins to spare of my extended time. Again, not a biggie to deal with but not 5 star. I would come back here again, i enjoyed my experience. As a European with a healthy dose of realistic expectations of service (we are way behind Americans in that space) it was pretty fabulous all things considered. Maybe I will go for a room with pool next time though!
Rough Start but Decent Stay
x0xoo (Montreal, Quebec) on Mar 23, 2024
Nice hotel, great size. Walkable but not small. We were there for a conference in March 2024. Food was good and rooms were very clean and new. We were in the Reserve section and loved Santé, as well as enjoyed the beds around the pool and on the beach. Beach was sometimes wavy and had some seaweed, but it is swimmable. Couple of notes: - Checkin was a disaster. We were not told we have a special section and thus waited in the regular lobby for 40 mins, only to be told to go wait on the other side. Then, we were told they need to see the credit card we booked with, which we did not have, since we were not advised we need it. Apparently, when booking on the Melia website, you get that notification. We booked through the conference and did not know this, which created a huge issue. - We were not advised we have a concierge until 48 hours after arrival. We were on business and only had a certain amount of free time -- this meant we did not get to experience the included half-day trip nor some of the perks from the beginning. We were only there for 4 days, so that really sucked, given how expensive the hotel is. However, once assigned, our concierge was great. - Didn't see any sort of entertainment during the day. At night, we only saw live bands. While they were actually very good, a variety/change would be great. Would most likely return. Not for a week, since I think we'd be bored, very fast, given the lack of activities. However, it was one of the smaller, cleaner, and nicer resorts I've been to in Punta Cana. If I had to go back to Punta Cana, I would consider Melia for a short stay.
Not the service you would expect for The Reserve booking category
Ulysses M on Mar 23, 2024
Stayed at this facility for 5 nights in March 2024. We are a family of 7 and reserved three ocean front rooms at the Reserve more than six months before check in. While the facility is luxurius and the staff were friendly, there were several issues with our stay: 1. During check in, we were not told beforehand that one of our three rooms was not ocean front and only found out when we physically got to our rooms. They did change this to an ocean front room, but not until the following evening, Obviously, this was disruptive to our vacation schedule as we were not provided a specific time for the change in rooms. Importantly, we requested a rate adjustment for the differences in room rate on Day 1. Twelve days later, no rate adjustment has been done despite repeated promises from the front desk manager that it is being taken cared of. Still waiting up to now. 2. At the time of reservation, we were promised that there will be two queen beds in one of the 3 rooms since we are a family of 7. During check in, we were told that only a king bed will be available for all rooms; we eventually got a cot, but only after repeated phone calls to the front office. 3. The concierge was less than helpful in getting dinner reservations. We got so frustrated that decided to make the reservations ourselves for dinner during our son's birthday. Overall, not the service we would have expected at the Reserve, supposedly their highest level of service.
Awesome vacation
Maracerv (Toronto, Canada) on Mar 23, 2024
This resort exceeded expectations. Our 2 bedroom swim out was beautiful. Resort was so clean and staff were friendly. our minibar was stocked up at least once if not twice a day. Evening entertainment was good. Our concierge Adriel was amazing. Checked in regularly, helped us settle in, got all our reservations, made sure our trip was enjoyable down to replacing our hairdryer for us. Highly recommend.
Paradise in Punta Cana
Charierk324 on Mar 23, 2024
The name speaks for itself, the resort really felt like paradise! My husband and I are so happy we chose to stay at Paradisus Palma Real for my birthday week vacation, specifically in the Reserve, adults only area. Booking this gave us the pleasure of working with our personal concierge, Zenovia — she guaranteed we had dinner reservations every night at different restaurants (which is a must), readily answered any of our questions, helped us with all our transportation needs, and made my birthday extra special with all the surprises she had up her sleeve. We can’t thank her enough for the amazing and most stress-free stay! ?? Additionally, the room we booked was beautiful and cleaned everyday. Most of the restaurants were exceptional especially considering that this is an all-inclusive resort, our favorites being Sante (only for Reserve), Mina, Flora, and the Winery. All the staff we had a pleasure of meeting were all great. The services we got at Blue Agave on 03/20 (I believe our server’s name was Jorge) and at the Winery on 03/22 were amazing — shoutout to our servers! Shoutout also to Adrian in the swim up bar for making my delicious drinks and giving great service. All in all, the stay was super worth it and we’re hoping to come back again in the future. In the meantime, we highly recommend this place 1000%.