Our good friend JP gets the credit for doing the legwork and finding this place. He didn't have much of a choice but to find the perfect place since him and Dawn were having a beach wedding down there in the Dominican Republic! We stayed at the Iberostar Bavaro Suites in Punta Cana. The place was paradise. I'm always a little sceptical about 'all-inclusives' because I usually get stuck with some kind of bill somewhere, but this place was really all inclusive. I could have showed up with nothing except my travel package and been fine. Room service at 3AM? No problem. Stock that mini-bar full every two hours? No problem (not that we did that.......).
Iberostar has a few properties in Punta Cana, but the Bavaro Suites are exclusive. With the wrist band you wear from the Bavaro, you have access to all the facilities of the main hotel (Casino, Dance Club, Gym, more pools and beach, etc.), but poeple staying at the main hotel must pay a significant fee to use the Bavaro's properties.
The suites were fantastic. They had a sitting area with two couches, two beds, a nice bathroom, a patio, and a fridge to keep the booze, I mean food, chilled. There was TV with sports and some English speaking channels and cartoons for the kids, but who cares about the TV? You don't need TV on vacation.
The food surpassed my expectations. As you'll notice by VFC's belly in the pictures, I enjoy good food, and good food the Bavaro had. During the course of a full day, there is always someplace open in the Bavaro to eat or drink. The buffets were amazing, and since we lived so long in Spain, I loved their selection of Spanish cheeses and especially the Manzanilla (Spanish Sherry). My only complaint was when they served me the Manzanilla, they served it in that tiny little glass that the Spanish serve it in, so I had to ask them to put it in a pint glass for me.
There are five restaraunts at the resort. I tried the Japanese place, which I thought was great, the buffets and steak joint. Everything I ate was terrific, but mostly I ate anything my wife brought to the side of the pool for me, in her futile attempt to lure me away from the pool bar.
Some other highlights were the fresh fruit mango bar (no booze, but you can take your fruit slushy from there and bring it to the real bar and add booze), the ice cream stand, the huge pool, the water aerobics, the dinner time performances and the child care. The Bavaro offered top-notch activities for the kids all day, and offered babysitting services (for a fee) at night. The girls who looked after the kids were fantastic. The only problem the kids had was thinking that the vacation was free since they could get anything they wanted anytime they wanted, not understanding the wristband they wore cost me a bomb.
The Iberostar also offered water activities, which were included with the stay. We tried the kayaking until we all realized how much work that kayaking against the current entailed, so the kayaks got put away pretty quick. It turned out ok since there were about five beach bars in between the kayak stand and our spot at the pool. The wives still think we were kayaking all that time....hahaha.
All in all, this was a great vacation. The resort makes you feel welcome and the staff went out of their way to keep the guests happy. We left tips, but no one made us feel we had to. If you're a good tipper, stick with a regular waiter or waitress the whole time and give them a nice lump sum at the end, that seemed to work for people.
VFC likes to stay with places that he knows are good, so I think we'll be going back to Iberostar Punta Cana Bavaro Suites.
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