TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Good times at the bavaro. Let me start with my gratitude for the staff. They are all wonderful. From Wanda at the Wasabi, Francis (everywhere), Juan at the PBG to Claudio, Matteo and Tony at the platinum beach bar, just amazing folks. I will say that platinum is the way to go if you are doing a solo trip. The food was "meh" for me but I am from Chicago so my bar is very high. Overall, it was a good 4 day trip. The beach was very clean. I could've done without the beach merchants but you know what, they were nice as well!

Great place, front reception staff were helpful and grounds are clean; the rooms were basic but very comfortable and the balcony faced south, so, good sunlight. People were good but, as expected, very few had any English skills; not a hardship of any sort but as it is a service bonus, it would likely be a benefit on the tip side, if some basic skills were available. It was a great week but the real let down was the food. The speciality restaurant were very average and not because the menus weren't listing some well known dishes for the cuisine. At the mexican place, my fajitas were ground chicken with cheese (somewhat seasoned but quite bland) but there were only 2 small wraps, and the menu-listed ingredients, onions and peppers, were few and poor, 2 thin slices of onion and a sorry looking pepper. My wife sent hers back to be warmed up as it was stone cold. The seafood restaurant listed a blackened whitefish that came wrapped in tinfoil; it really was a boiled fish with some onions and eggplant thrown in. Nothing panseared, much less blackened about it. When i queried the waitress, she sent over the mgr and he confirmed that was how they prepared it. Again, some language skills would have helped the moment as it appeared my blackened observation was news to them, or merely accepted as their way! The real disappointment was the Japanese sushi restaurant. Again, the menu listed some traditional favorites and some obvious regional interpretations. I noticed in the menu that almost all items had cream cheese as the last item on the ingredients list; I would have said as cream cheese was last of the listed ingredients that it was likely a minimal item, but as it turned out, it was frequently the dominant item in the sushi. That changed all the flavours of a traditional fish to the cream cheese and well, bland, if off is perhaps too strong a term! The one bright spot was the buffet. Lots of choice, variety, salad galore, a variety of well prepared meat items and always, hot! So, I would say the specialty restaurants are.... Cuisine-ish, if not out and out bland, or off the mark! You won't run out of options at the buffet and while the dishes at the steak and Italian restaurants were not bad, the wait time between the entree and main at the Italian place was 40mins.... apparently, a known aspect of that place. The beach was great but you'll have to stake out cots/umbrella before 8am to get a spot; main pool is good but loud! Beach is better to read. Grand Bavaria Princess experience rating....6.7/10....I would have given it 7.5 had I just stuck to the buffet!

Just finishing week 1 of 2, will give a detailed review at the end of week 2. Here are some of the great employees so far.....Elias at PBG breakfast and El Gaucho steakhouse Orlando at PBG breakfast and SOHO (great restaurant). Freelance Garciea at PBG rooftop bar. Mixes great drinks. Tony at the Platinum beach bar, he's happy, friendly, great service. These are great people, the resort is lucky to have them. Tip them well.

This was our 8th Trip to the Grand Bavaro Princess. The Beach is one of the World's Best. The rooms were cleaned daily with a professional staff, and the rooms were always well stocked. The rooms were very quiet at night which was good for a good night's sleep. The value at this locations was well worth the upgrade to the Platinum Club, to which we have done every year. The Highlight of the Trip was once again the Service of "Ramon Estefani" who was located at the Platinum Bar Grill. We have had the pleasure of chatting with him over the years after first meeting him when he worked in El Gaucho, then at McPrincess, then at the Food Truck set up and now at PBG. We look forward to seeing Ramon again in 2027.

Video Review: https://youtu.be/jiioVQvxhOA THE RESORT OVERVIEW The resort has: - 3 pools (one is Platinum guests only) - A beach with soft, walkable sand - Several specialty restaurants - A buffet - A cappuccino café - Nightly entertainment - A walking path around the property - And even a casino outside the gates My wife and I mostly hung out at the **main pool**, which sits right next to the beach. That’s where they do water aerobics and afternoon games. On our last day, they had a foam party and even a canoe race across the pool for a bottle of liquor. The beach was beautiful — swimmable water, soft sand. Vendors walk by occasionally, but if you politely say no, they move on. We also loved stopping at the cappuccino café before dinner every night. One downside? Mosquitos at night. Some evenings staff were spraying trees to reduce them. --- FOOD REVIEW Let’s talk about the restaurants. Hacienda (Spanish Restaurant) This was one of the best meals we had. They’re known for Spanish food. We ordered tacos made tableside, soup, salad, and rice dishes. Everything was delicious. Drinks were mostly limited to house liquor and Presidente — the local beer. Imported beer costs extra. The tequila shots had a weird minty aftertaste, so I stopped after two. My wife had white wine and champagne. Overall: great food and service. --- Il Tartufo Trattoria (Italian) This one surprised us. Nice atmosphere, dress code requires men to wear collared shirts. They start you with bread, cheese, and olive oil. I had Caesar salad and risotto with sausage. My wife loved the nutty bread so much she asked for seconds. This was also the only place in the resort where we could get limoncello — so we had two shots each. It was good enough that we booked a second night. Definitely one of the top spots. --- Tanuki Teppanyaki This is your typical hibachi-style setup where you sit around a metal grill and the chef puts on a show. Food was fine — chicken, beef, fried rice, vegetables. But I’ll be honest… it tasted like what someone thinks teppanyaki should taste like. I might be biased since I’m Asian and have eaten at a lot of teppanyaki restaurants. It wasn’t bad — just average. Also, this is when we officially gave up on tequila shots for the rest of the trip. --- El Gaucho (Steakhouse) I had high expectations because we were told reservations were hard to get. Unfortunately… this was disappointing. Our main courses came out cold. And cold steak just doesn’t hit the same. The appetizer didn’t match the menu description. My wife barely touched her steak. Definitely the weakest dining experience of the trip. --- THE BUFFET If you don’t have reservations your first night, you’ll likely eat at the buffet. It had a decent variety, but nothing memorable. --- NIGHTLIFE This was a mixed bag. There was entertainment every night — technically. But it was mostly the same format: - Same DJ - Same Latin music - Same line dances - Same performers After night one, it felt repetitive. However — we did discover karaoke in the sports bar near the lobby, and that ended up being one of our favorite nighttime activities. Some guests were incredibly talented. --- THE CASINO There’s a casino just outside the resort gates. It was… rough. It smelled like old cigarettes and regret. We didn’t lose money gambling — we lost money converting U.S. dollars to Dominican currency and back. Would not recommend. --- THE WALKING PATH (THE ANNOYANCE FACTOR) One thing that really stood out — and not in a good way — was the main walking path around the resort. On paper, it sounds great. There’s a paved walkway that loops around the property. It’s scenic, lined with trees, and you’ll see ducks, flamingos, and other birds roaming freely. It _could_ be a peaceful place to stroll after dinner. But here’s the issue. Every few minutes, you have to move out of the way for something. Golf carts. Supply trucks. Mopeds. Bikes. Staff vehicles. It never really felt like a pedestrian walkway — it felt like a shared service road. My wife was especially annoyed by this. Every time we tried to just enjoy a quiet walk, we’d hear a vehicle coming up behind us and have to step aside. It kind of kills the relaxing resort vibe when you’re constantly looking over your shoulder. It’s not a deal breaker — but it’s one of those small things that adds up over a week. --- FINAL VERDICT Overall? This resort was just okay. Two restaurants were above average. The others were average or disappointing. Entertainment got repetitive. Drinks were limited unless you paid extra. And surprisingly — this was the first resort we’ve stayed at where staff didn’t consistently greet guests. For $235 per person per day, I expected a bit more. Would we go back to Punta Cana? Absolutely. Would we stay at this specific resort again? Probably not. But the beach, the warm weather in February, and the time away together? Still worth it.