TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Overall very pleasant experience. Beautiful grounds, beaches, pools--we couldn't get enough. We upgraded to a ground room with a swim out pool and couldn't have had a more beautiful view. Had an issue the last day with the Barcelo transportation company demanding we leave 7 hours before our flight and when we refused and requested a later time they marked us as a no show and didn't refund our money. Also after the 9:30PM show there wasn't anything for families to do. Would have loved music and dancing near the beach bars, that would have made the trip extra special.

Great pools, amazing pools for kids, stunning gym, polite service in the buffet and restaurants. Rooms are old, poor variety of food, quality of food could be better too considering the price. I have been in large all inclusive that offer better rooms, better food variety and quality, for half of what I paid here (and it was a discounter price).

We stayed from Dec, 27 to Jan 6, 2023. I took notes of my comments. - bring facecloths, they don't have any. - there are rocks, some beaches have more than others, water shoes work great. - Grills have fantastic hamburgers, pick those with the most grill marks, burnt marks. - water park by Colonial and Tropical is great for kids. - Drinks are delivered daily to your bar fridge, I tipped by leaving 20 pesos in fridge. - Mall only takes credit card or credit on your room if prepaid (possibly if Premium also). This is for Strikers, bowling, mini golf etc and certain gift shops in the mall area. We stayed at Caribe, paid $10 US per person for evening buffet at Adults Only and Palace, lunch is $ 5 US. - Yum, Sunday has candy bar. - House wine in white is decent. - Very hard to get in a la carte during peak season. -Rooms have coffee maker, housecoats and slippers -It is humid in the rooms, my clothes that were hanging in the closet lost their wrinkles and sheets felt damp. The humidity didn't bother me. -No fan in the washrooms. -No straws, bring from home. -Lots of pools to choose from within the 4 hotels. -Beach wise, if you want sandy beach stay at Caribe, you want to see fish and turtles go to the Palace for swimming. - Evening shows are ok. -You can walk all four hotels, from Beach, Caribe, Tropical and Colonial all under a shelter. - Buffet food was ok, lukewarm. - If you want to book the hobie cat you have to go around 8:30 same day and wait in line in front of the pier where the boats are. - Couldn't get any NHL games in sports bar, only NFL games. - No vendors on the beaches or pool area harassing you, the only ones are the ones from the actual hotel that make bracelets or tattoos. You say no thank you and they leave you alone.

Overall, if you have already booked here don't be alarmed by the 3 stars. The resort is beautifully laid out and you should have fun. However, there are a number of things you should be aware of (in no particular order): 1. Bring your own reading material as you won't find anything here. 2. Don't bring expensive clothing. The only 2 expensive pieces of clothing we brought for evening wear were stolen from our room. We reported it and the hotel treated us like our concern was a very low priority. Not surprisingly the investigation turned up nothing. 3. The buffet is quite varied but almost all of the dishes are served room temperature or tepid at best. We ate a lot of pasta and burgers as those were served fresh. 4. They play very repetitive muzak everywhere. They also played Christmas music until January 8th! 5. All inclusive liquor is not totally true. I was surprised I was only allowed to order very cheap scotch. 6. If you drink wine we found the resort white wine to be terrible while the red was undrinkable. 7.If you smoke buy them before you get here. The resort charges roughly double the local rate.

The place was beautiful, clean and well cared for. The staff are amazingly friendly and helpful. The beach was so awesome with the sea breeze, the sun and the sea. But God gets the credit for that! Although the staff did an amazing job of keeping it free of weeds and debris. A great experience!