just came back from iberostar costa dorada, again a great trip. the hotel as usual was fantastic. after speaking to vacationers in nearby hotel I would say we did well, they asked to see our hotel. something to definately see is BRAVISSIMO, one of the tours you can take. I originally did not like to go, not into cabarette, however it was so different than I imagined. Unbelievable, they take your picture when you go in and tell you no charge, however when they bring the picture at the end of the show and video its 12.00, well worth it. took the dvd home and just watched it glad I bought it, it cost 4.00. be careful on the outback I asked who made the food they were serving us in the shelter and was told hotel, when I got back it turned out the locals made it, thank God I did not eat much. they are very very clean, however we are not used to their cooking and water is not filtered, other than that the trip was great. this hotel is unbelievable, always helpful and anything wrong immediately fixed. If anyone gives to the maids remember she has about 30 rooms to clean, however those poor people who clean the grounds get nothing, this time I gave more to them, they were so thankful. thank you Rita

Stayed here for 2 weeks, returning 10th Feb 2012. Good hotel, wonderful food with very good service. The bar is well stocked with top brands. Very clean in the hotel and they keep the private beach clear. Some of the other beach areas could do with a clean up as its not good seeing plastic rubbish about. Went with 1st Coice, flight were very good and on time. Recommend the VIP lounge for your return.

This was my first time going to the Dominican Republic and the experience was very enjoyable not the least of which was the hotel where we stayed.
I found the island itself to be quite beautiful particularily all the mountains which were quite spectacular to see.
The Iberostar in Puerto Plata is a large property and everything from the rooms to the pool area to the beach area was very well designed and maintained.
While we were there I noticed for example they were replacing a roof at the front entrance to the property. Looking at the condition of the property I am sure they have an ongoing maintenace program for the property.
I suppose this is the advantage of a property being owned and managed by a large corporation such as Iberostar which has well over 100 hotels around the Carribean and Europe, they appear to do things in a very professional manner.
When we checked in to the property, we were told that we could upgrade our room to an Ocean view for an additional $20.00 per night which we agreed and found to be well worth the additional cost, the view from our balcony was great.
The food overall was very good, the buffet for dinner always had a good selection of salads, meats , seafood and vegetarian dishes to choose from.We found the cappucino's they made particularily at the bar in the front lobby area to be very good.
One little negative for me was the 3 restaurants they had(Brazilian,Mexican and Seafood) did not seem to offer anything much different than the Buffet restaurant so for the time we were there we chose to go the buffet which had a wider selection of foods to choose from.
Another little negative was the town of Puerto Plata, I thought it would be fun to walk into town and waunder around looking at shops and stopping at Cafe's etc. The town is not touristy at all and besides gettting some exercise to walk into town from the hotel which takes about 40 minutes or so there is not much to see there.
On the other hand we rented a motor scooter one day and rode to Sosua which took about 40 minutes and I thought that was a great town to visit particularily for tourists. In the town which was buzzing with people they had all kinds of restaurants, cafes and shops to waunder around and look at .
As well in Sosua another great place to visit was the beach which was really nice and running along behind the beach covered by trees was a whole row of more little restarants etc.
I think if I would go to DR again, I would certainly think about going back to the Iberostar again or might think about staying in Sosua however the main hotel in Sosua which we were told was the Sosua Bay Resort , did not look great or not nearly to the same level as the Iberostar.

4 of us stayed at Iberostar in Puerto Plata in early Feb, 2012. First off, the staff was incredible. All were incredibly friendly, warm and personable. Most spoke very good english so there wasn't any language issues. The buffets were nothing short of fantastic, great fish, leg of lamb, veal, all kinds of fresh local fruit etc., right down to the homemade donuts. They even had fresh popcorn form 4-5 in the afternoon. The gym had some very nice equipment. They had 3 speciality restaurants. One was Mexican, a toskaria (sp?), and a seafood. The first two were excellent but the seafood fell a little short of our expections. It was a easy taxi ride to Sosua which is great little town with fantastic beaches. Plenty of attractions nearby if you want to go off the property. Our favorites were the 27 waterfalls, in which you climb up with a guide, and either jump off some (up to 45 feet high or so), or slide down the natural rock formations. The other was a great go-kart place called Fun City. For $25 US, you can ride all day on any of the 3 different tracks and includes snacks, drinks, clean bathrooms ect. If you tip the guys that run each track, they will make your cart go faster. These were faster than any I ridden in the states. It's only 5 minutes from the resort. The price includes transportation. The beach at the resort was like a postcard. They had activities all day long including tennis, pingpong, archery, basketball, dancing, a massive beautiful pool plus much more. The only bad part that we ran into is that the rooms on the first floor were "musty" but within 10 minutes we got rooms on the second floor which was much better. All in all, a 5 star resort.