Fantastic stay!
Stayed at iberostar costa dorada from jan 12-26. We have no complaints about the resort. We are from alberta, Canada and there were 4 of us who went. My boyfriend and I, as well as my parents. We have been to Jamaica and Cuba prior, but this was our first trip to Dominican.
1. Value - by far the nicest resort we have stayed at for the price we paid.
2. Front desk - great friendly service. Very much want to please you! Also great for exchanging currency. The Dominicans will take any currency though, Canadian, American, or pesos.
3. Staff - all very friendly and hard workers! From the gardeners, to security guards, to chefs, to servers, to entertainment, to bartenders, to housekeeping! Not one person was unpleasant! They all work so hard as well. We even had the pleasure of listening to the beach security guard sing in the evening during his watch! It was neat.
4. Cleanliness - superb! Again, we have no complaints here. Our room was spotless, and we even watched the housekeeper scrub things like the lamp shades! The pool was amazingly maintained as well. I am from the recreation industry and know too much about how a pool should be properly maintained. I have never swam in the pools at resorts before until this resort. The staff close the pool down at 7pm, and chemically treat, vacuum, and scrub the entire Pool every night. The water quality was excellent.
5. Entertainment - lots to do, if you want . The entertainment staff were very fun and full of energy, but not pushy. They would stop and chat, and try to get you to join in. However, they didn't overstay their welcome. I found them very funny throughout the day she they would dress up in costumes during the day. One guy dressed up as Superman and creeped around the pool and beach area sneaking up on people and pretending to save people! It was so funny. The nightly entertainment was typical for an all inclusive. It was cheesy but still fun to watch. The costumes and cultural shows were very neat to see.
6. Drinks - lots of them! You can get brand name alcohol if you ask for it, but mostly at the lobby bar. My dad asked for Canadian club whiskey and the took care of him. If you tip well, and are friendly, the bartenders will remember you and go out of their way for you. There are drink menus at every bar, but don't think you have to order those drinks. My boyfriend was asking them for crantini's and other things, and they would have no problem making them ... Although they needed some direction!
7. Food - Great! There was lots of variety for all meals. Also, the buffet by the pool was great and we ate most lunches and breakfasts there. There is a chef at both buffets tha will cook your eggs in the morning exactly how you want them! All meals have very "American" food options. There is always fries, burgers, nachos ... Things like that. Suppers always had several choices, beef, pork, turkey, and chicken .. Not to mention a large variety of fish. The breads and desserts are also plentiful! We had no issues with the phone and nobody from out group got sick. Just make sure you don't drink the tap water. The a la carts were also great! We didn't do the seafood one, but the menu looked good. We all really enjoyed the brazilian and Mexican.
8. Area Outside resort - felt really safe. There is a casino, an ATM machine, and some little shops just outside the front of the resort. They are a 5 minute walk and it's very safe. You can buy rum, cigars, and other souvenirs here. On the beach side of the resort, you can a little ways and There is another market area to shop full of lots of little shops. Prepared to be Ambushed here! Everyone is very keen to take you to their shop! Don't feel pressured, you can politely say no and joke with everyone. T
Hess markets are the best to get great deals. They love to barter. You can choose to be annoyed at how pushy they are, but we had a lot of fun with it! You can get cigars and rum here as well as larimar (national stone) and amber. But be careful! A lot of it is not genuine. It's usually easy to tell and if you know your stuff you can get good prices. The shop owners will also trade .. My dad was out of money, so he traded his cheap watch for a t shirt! The resort is very close to puerto plata, so most excursions are close and can all be booked from the hotel. I would recommend buying cigars and larimar or amber from certified shops in the city
9. Beach - the sand was quite nice. You have to remember you are on the Atlantic ocean, and that is obvious with the beach and water. There was lots of seaweed and some garbage, so we didn't swim in the ocean much. You could walk further up and down the beach for less seaweed. The resort staff were amazing at maintaining the beach as much as possible though! They were out there every morning raking all the seaweed and leaves, the trucking it out! The beach was still very nice because of them!
10. Room -we stayed in a junior suite. I believe most of these were in block 5. So they are closest to the beach and have an ocean view, and a sitting area. This Room was well worth the extra money! Absolutely gorgeous. We were on the 3 rd floor and my parents were on the 2nd. The 2nd floor was better because you could see more ocean ... We were just a little higher so most of or view was palm tree leaves, but it was still great! Both of or rooms had king size beds, flat screen tv, air conditioning, iron and ironing board, and hair dryer. It also came with shampoo and shower gel, lotion etc.The shower was fantastic with a removable shower head and great pressure. There were no issues with hot water either. The bed mattress was comfortable and the balcony was superb! The room was always spotless as well! I would strongly suggest spending the extra for a junior suiewt if they are available. Also, I emailed the hotel a week before to ask for king bed and upper floor. They told me they couldn't guarantee anything, but would try. We got everything we asked for. Oh .. Also we had a bar fridge that was stocked every day with water, beer, coca cola, and fanta. There was a coffee machine as well in the room. The coffee, tea, sugar,and coffeemate were restocked daily. The safe in the room was easy to work and worth the money.
11. Amenities - resort has a great spa and feistiness centre. Also, there are pool tables, table tennis, Chess, and several other activities. The non motorized water sports are also great, although we didn't use these.
12. Medical service- the resort has a 24/7 medical doctor on site. There is a little clinic there with a doctor on site. They are available and very knowledgeable about travel health insurance. There was also an ambulance parked on site the entire time we were there. We didn't need to use these services, but it was peace of mind knowing it was there. The doctor we did speak to was very nice.
I think that's all. We read reports before we left saying the hotel was run down, but we didn't seethe at all! They were doing work on things while we were there, like painting, and cleaning the flamingo ponds... But everything seems very well maintained. The turtles and flamingos in lobby were great entertainment and looked after well. The grounds were emmaculate with flowers and ponds. The courtyard was also beautiful!
We would strongly recommend this resort to anyone. We didn't have kids with us, but there seemed to be lots for the as well and there were several families there!
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
