TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We were at the Catalonia Bavaro for two weeks, from Feb. 20 to March 6, 2026. We've been back a few weeks now and I wanted to sit with this before I wrote my review. This was our second visit to this resort. That last visit was about 15 years ago, and really, not much has changed. On our first trip, we upgraded to the "Preferred" status and we did the same for this trip. "Preferred" gets you rooms closer to the beach, and the rooms are supposed to be stocked with beach towels and you are supposed to get upgraded liquor, but we aren't really drinkers, so I can't even confirm that was the case. I believe you also get four a la carte instead of three. I have limited mobility, which is why we wanted rooms closer to the beach. I can walk short distances, but I have difficulty with stairs. I also travelled with my sister, so I wrote to the hotel and asked for three things: 1. A room close to the beach (as allowed with Preferred Status.) 2. A room on the ground floor 3. A room with two beds. I even provided them with a copy of my "handicap" placcard. issued by the government. They came back with the typical template reply "we'll try but we can't guarantee anything." To be honest, they didn't try. We gave them three weeks notice and I'm sure they could have accommodated us with a little planning, but they didnt. The resort is in two parts. There is a pool and some "Preferred" buildings near the beach, and then it's about a 7-10 minute walk to the main reception where the main buffet, all the a la cartes and shops, lobby bar, coffee place, etc. are, and all the other rooms. It's a bit of a walk, but if you need it, there are carts that will take you back and forth. CHECK-IN: Was RIDICULOUSLY Slow. It took at least ten minutes for each party, and longer if there were more than two adults. We were lucky and were the third or fouth in line and it still took us 40 minutues to check in and get our room keys. I can only imagine how long it took for the people at the back of the line. When we arrived, they offered a room that wasn't in the "Preferred" rooming blocks. When I disputed it, they moved us to building 20, but apparently, the only room with two beds was on the second floor. We took it on the promise that we would be moved as soon as possible. I struggled with the stairs for three days before we were moved to another building. I almost wish we weren't. Building 20 was newer and renovated very nicely. When we arrived, the room was fully stocked, umbrella, beach towels, and it even had a scale! The room was nice, the chairs were comfortable (higher, which was good for my knees) and we had no complaints. We made it a point to be out most of the day and avoid going up and down the stairs. Our room was refreshed daily with water and diet pop (our request), the maid service was great and we got bath towels, face towels and wash cloths every day. To be honest, I was impressed. If the room had been on the ground floor, I would have been happy there. On day three, I approached the front desk and asked about being move downstairs. People were moving in and out and it would have been a simple thing to move us downstairs. However, they elected to move us to building number 6, which was across the pool from building 20, slightly further from the beach. Building 6 was NOT good. When we arrived, we immediately noticed the differences. The bathroom was poorly planned. The chairs in the seating area were so low we couldn't use them without piling them with pillows and blankets to make them higher, but the main problems were yet to come. We had to ask for the following: 1. Blow Dryer 2. Beach Towels (this matters because they assume you got them and are responsible for returning them.) 3. Blankets. Yes, blankets. The beds were made up only with sheets. We called several times for blankets and didn't get them the first day. We turned off the AC and basically had to wear our sweats to bed, as it was so cold. The next day, more calls resulted in receiving blankets for both the beds. We also finally got a blow dryer and the required beach towels. Additionally, the maid service in Building 6 was.. shall we say.. lax. I think the maid swept the floor where visible, and made the beds. That was it. I dropped something on the floor near the bed and it rolled under. When I bent to retrieve it, there were used tissues and huge dust bunnies under the bed.. Gross. (*Side note: Spoke to someone from concierge about the problems and was told that they have major issues with maintenance and housekeeping and that supposedly, there would be changes after the next pay cycle and that people would be let go and other put on notice. I don't know if that was true or whether he was telling me what he thought I wanted to hear so that I'd considering going back.) Also of note, there are basically three people who service each room - the maid, the person who refills the fridge, and the person who restocks the bath towels. We spent the next 11 days asking for things that should have been automatically supplied. Drinking water was not restocked on several occasions. We had to go without water one day, and when I bitterly complained about it, they next day, they deliverd six bottles (opposed to stocking three per room, per day.) We were constantly fighting with them about towels. Let's be clear. I was not asking for EXTRA towels. I was asking for bath towels and face towels. We'd sometimes get bath towels, but no face towels. You get back from the beach, take a shower, dry off, then have nothing but a soggy towel to dry your hands after using the bathroom. Or we would get a couple of face towels and no bath towels, so then you have to use your beach towels to dry off. It was ridiculous. The thing that bugged me was that when we'd complain, they'd bring what we needed. Why couldn't they just bring them when they were supposed to, so that we didn't have to complain?? We DID NOT have this problem in Building 20. We also had some problems with general maintenance in the rooms. Every single door was a problem and would stick or screech when you moved it. We struggled to open the door to the patio. Someone came to try to fix it and his solution was to spray WD40, which didn't really help. The safe in the room was also a problem. The door was hanging unevenly, and if you wanted to lock it, you'd have to lift the door, push it into place and hold it while you keyed in your combination. It was just stupid little things like that which are an annoyance, but not enough to ruin your trip. But why not just fix them for your guests and not let them get to the state where the room is in disrepair? I get that Building 6 was an order building and there would be issues, but some general maintenance would have been good, and it still doesn't excuse the maid/fridge/towel issues. If stuff like this is going to bother you, don't come here. Or at least, insist on Building 20. THE OTHER STUFF YOU WANT TO KNOW: THE BEACH: The beach is nice. It spreads across the front of the resort and it's not croded. There are lots of chairs. I believe there were only four rows of palapas and LOTS of palm trees. We never had a problem finding chairs at 7:30, often at the front closest to the water. The POOL: There were always chairs at the pool too. Nice pool, and the animation people came and did excercises, which was fun. There's always the jerks that plant a few towels in a prime spot then spend the day at the beach and come back at 3pm. A few were doing it on a regular basis until someone complained and all their towels were removed by security. Don't be that jerk. There are lots of chairs and lots of shade. THE RESTAURANTS: There are two buffet restaurants. The one near the beach is smaller, and the food was okay, but repetitive. It was open for Breakfast and Lunch. It was the same thing served every day. Not really a problem for us, as we aren't picky eaters, but I've been to resorts with a much better selection and variety. Typical stuff you see at all resorts. I can't speak to the Main buffet for breakfast and lunch. We were only there for dinner, but at dinner, they had a much larger selection of food, nicely presented, and it wasn't long lines of people. The food was spread out and well presented and you didn't feel like you were in a cafeteria. The pork was surprisingly good. There is also a pizza place and a crepe place next to the pool. The pizza was good and a nice alternative to the beach buffet which got repetitive. The crepes were good too. There are four a la carte restaurants. We went to the Steakhouse three times, I had something different each time and it was decent. Had the hamburger one night and it was really good. Steaks were okay, but not great. Went to the Italian once. It was okay. The apetizers are buffet style, then you order your main. Wasn't impressed with the main offerings and we didn't go there a second time (chose Steak a third time instead.) Spanish restaurant was different. We went there twice and I enjoyed the offerings, but I heard from others that they didn't. It's probably worth trying once, but if you only have three a la carte reservations, that's probably the one to avoid. (I think if you are "Preferred" status, you get four, but if you are regular, you get only three. Asian Restaurant: I love Japanese food and the Teppenake tables are always fun. Our first experience was great. We enjoyed the food and the chef and have no complaints. Wednesday March 4, would have been the second time we went to the Asian, but we were turned away. We arrived, and there were a lot of families with small children, which isn't normally a problem. Tables seat 14. In this particular case, they seated two families with small children under the age of 6. They were all fussing and being loud. There were four adults and six children in total, leaving four seats and they asked us to sit with the screaming kids. I respectfully asked to be placed at another table. There was another family with two small children and they could easily have moved to the table with all the other kids, but the hostess. CAROLAIN, (who by the way looked miserable and didn't smile once. Also for identification in case anyone from the resort reads this, she had a knee brace) made a point, PURPOSELY, to seat EVERY other person before us, at other tables, filling them up first, and leaving ONLY the seats at the table with screaming kids and when we asked to wait for the next seating, she told us, "YOU CAN LEAVE. YOUR RESERVATION IS CANCELLED." There was absolutely no reason for her behaviour. It was nothing more than a power play and she did it because she didn't want to be inconvenienced by making a small change to the seating chart and because "she was the boss". So we left. We went to the main buffet which happend to have a nice display of Japanese food that night anyway. But I wanted to mention CAROLAIN as a perfect example of VERY POOR customer service. Thanks for ruining our dinner CAROLAIN. You definitely need more training in customer service. Would I go back to this resort? Yes The beach is nice, the food is decent, and if you don't mind an older resort with small maintenance issues, and if you can look past having to repeatedly ask for bath and face towels, this is a decent resort for a cheaper price point than our preferred brand, Bahia Priciple. We chose this resort because prices had skyrocketed and we wanted someting cheaper, and you get what you pay for. The good points are: BEACH, which is well maintained. There isn't much seaweed in the water, and workers clean up the seaweed on the beach at least twice a day. The sand is soft. CHAIRS are plentiful at the beach and the pool, and you don't have to get up at 5am to find a decent place to sit. RESTAURANTS are decent and so are the buffets, although not very imaginative. All in all, we enjoyed our vacation, we had lovely weather, relaxed and left the cold behind for a couple of weeks. Not gonna complain. :) PS: Shout out to the beach vendors that sell jewellery. They have some really nice things and very decent prices, but please haggle with them. I got everything at about 60% of what they originally asked for. The guy who goes on to the property at reception, with a booth on Fridays is pretty expensive, relatively speaking. And if you are looking for some nice jewellery -- real stuff at a reasonable price, look up Chez Nicole. It's an actual jewellery store/variety/cigar store. Call them on Whatsapp and they will send a car FOR FREE. You get off the resort for a couple of hours, see some nice things, and go back to the resort. Purchases are optional. :)

Spent one week at this hotel at the end of March. Unfortunately, my experience wasn't positive at all. Music is played insanely loud till 23pm, making it impossible to rest properly until then. The rooms are quite outdated with terrible/non-existent sound proofing. Room cleaning is ok. The buffet quality is quite poor, probably amongst the worst I have ever experienced. The quality of the ingredients is noticeably low, the cooking isn't proper, food is not promptly refilled and the buffet area is quite dirty. Personnel is quite rude and not properly trained. Halfway through the vacation, a leak developed from the ceiling, making the whole toilet floor constantly wet. After speaking with the reception, I was told a technician would come and fix the issue. This never happened, so I had to come back and ask for a room change, which was granted the next day. The beach and the gardens are very pretty and well maintained. Definetly the only plus of this hotel. Unfortunately, one of my worst vacations due to the low quality food, no relaxation (no soundproofing of rooms) and outdated structures. Would not recommend.

Until now everything was going well! Nice beach very spacious! A lot if variety for food and a big thank you to Juliana our maid the room very clean nothing missing! We keep going!!!

We have been going to all-inclusive Caribbean resorts twice per year for the last 3 years and this was the worst place we have been to. Waited an hour to check in. Assigned to Room 311 and it was unclean. Stains on the pillow cases. Gray sheets. Dirty room. Stains on mattress pads. Moved to "Privileged" Room 1017 and this was much better but had some problems. Soap was terrible and did not really clean anything. AC not strong. Water did not get hot on several occasions. Bidet did not drain properly. Housekeeping did not come by on two of the 4 nights. One time they came 4 hours after I called. The other time I called at about 2pm and no one ever showed up. Wife loved the food. Tasty and good selection. LONG lines to get in the buffet. Never seen a place that did not have enough seating and made people wait. Unstable dinner tables. Beach and water was dirty with seaweed. No one tried to clean it up except on Day 4 and they botched it. Other resorts clean the beach every day. No waves. Rocks on ocean bottom. VERY little English spoken. Language always an issue. Had problem with a vendor and had to wait 20 mins before a partially speaking security person showed up. Feral cats running the property. Could have been a problem if bitten. Dead trees on property took away from the property appearance. Loud talking by housekeeping staff at 7am. Cutting branches with power saws at 7:30am. That is enough.

Great location, but Northstar of the adventure was the service. Big shout out to DARYS who worked in the buffet doing cooked to order fajitas. My friends at the front desk, Jose and Javel were incredibly kind and helpful. We were in room 917 for seven nights and in room 3643 for two nights both ladies assigned to housekeeping were outstanding and very helpful. The folks at reception in both Catalonia locations were very responsive to our questions and needs. What a wonderful experience.