The surroundings are beautiful, the hotel clean, the staff friendly. If comfortable leave the resort and walk into town.
Perhaps Candido will meet you on the road to the village. We've met him on two trips now. He'll show you around the village and invite you to his home. We give him $10 each time he escorts us. If possible bring items for the school - paper, pens, markers. The students and teachers were very grateful. On the holiday weekend many Dominicans stayed at the resort. It was good to see all the children having so much fun but the resort really couldn't accommodate the numbers - long lines for buffet, running short of food and not being able to keep up with beach towels. If you are offended by occasionally seeing a prostitute with an 'old white guy' then this is not the place for you.

staff graet entertainment 1st class got to see african night food wide choice but lunch not so good only problem no tes/coffee making facility in room ,the rooms cleaned daily the weekend for us was spoilt when the director lets in locals who seemed to take over

First time stay at a Riu Resort. I believe this resort is not as elaborate as many of it's other locations but it is very quaint. Great location, private beach/cove, great lay out, cute villa's, clean, good food and variety, energetic and enthusiastic entertainment team, lot's of bars,(no overdrunk people!) nice pools, lots of beach and pool chairs,( I really loved all the trees and vegetation everywhere) easy and fast check in and out, etc.......etc,,,,,,all those things I read before selecting a great deal for a week vacation were true. More than 90% positive reviews cannot be wrong. Good value, Great service. All you really need.

Some of the extra touches we liked....hand sanitizer service at the resturant entrance done to everybody! Also at washroom during weekend busy period. Also hand sanitizer for cooking staff convienetly located at their cooking station and they used it often! We tried all the resturants and the food was about the same at each place. Just different decor.
Every resturant has plenty of beach and ocean views. We had a super waiter Raphael and he took great care of us every time we ate the buffet. The room patios and balcanies were ideal.
The pool area had plenty of quiet time during the week. Noon to Three. The music was very controlled, There were lots of activities for all interests. I especially liked the five pm step class with Kiko and the pool aerobics with Choopra. The grounds keepers were constantly racking and cleaning. The buffets were good with lots of variety. (One reviewer could only find fried food and pasta? C'mon! everyday fresh fruit/salads/veggies/soups and much much more)

Some of the opportunities we saw....Please new toasters! It takes forever to make and usually have to run the bread through twice to crisp and brown it nice. Al-la-carte resturants...not worth it. Steak house rib steak was thin and grissly. I heard the lamb was nice. Italian had a nice pork tenderloin but the fish was tasteless. Just like everyone says,you buffet your cold and hot appetiizers and only get served your entree and dessert . The red wine is like Welches grape drink and the white is like flavoured water. I would reccommend that they at least offer a bottled wine at the a la carte to make the experience a little more upscaled.
The Beds are really hard! and the inside of the dressing drawers and night tables are dusty. Would reccommend taking drawer liners if you like to use them. Never ran out of hot water! Would really like to see some sort of guide service to the various buildings. When you arrive you get a map and wonder around trying fiqure out which way to go. Especially hard at night.

We loved the Dominicana show, the Africa show was very elaborate ( very smokey), the Forklore show was also very good. We never got to see the Michael Jackson show but we did manage to get to a beach party at the Mumbo since ours was cancelled. Kids show nightly and I think it burns them out for bedtime.

We did not go into the ocean but dit use the paddle boats.No big waiting time. Would have liked to see little catamaram rides like other resorts have. Yes Mumbo beach is best. Bachata has a nicer looking pool, but the one with the swim up bar is unusually warm?! LOL! Really liked the Merengue one but it is harder to get in and out of via ladders only.
I did get some kind of bug bites around by ankles but I have no idea what was doing it. I did see them spraying the area so they do their best to control it. After a lot of rain the grounds get saturated. (Never rains in Dominican! LOL) Sometimes it can affect the plumbing and septic systems.

Yes on the weekend the resort really fills up with locals. But the resort seems to give priority to the foreign guests. And for the most part makes certain that everyone is respectful to each other. If it is too much for you, plan your excursions on the weekends or spend more time on the beach.

Amaryilis who works for water excurions is so wonderful you really should
book with her. Also Valentino in the lobby can hook you up with a great taxi trip to the city and he is a very good guide. We also used James to book a horse back riding trip for a good price with Lorilar. Very nice horses and guides Angel and Alex were helpful.

Lastly the vendors at each end of the beach are friendly and really appreciate small gifts ie: some small tolietries, pop (7-up!) really anything for their families is terrific. Melissa by the Mumbo huts gave me a fair price to braid my hair. Much cheaper then the resort prices. Everything almost free...what do you want to pay. HEE HEE HEE!

The vendors they bring into the lobby have a higher quality of items, but don't let them go under their tables to bag it because they switch it out with one that has flaws that the ones on the table did not have!

I enjoyed the Dominican very much and will return again,,,maybe to Punta Cana because I like to travel to different locations every year. The world is big and life is short, One thing for certain, I will definately not hesitate to stay at a Riu Resort!

My only mistake was we only booked 7 days should of booked 2 weeks. upon arrival envelops where ready for us, but quickly noticed that our rooms where on ground floor talk to manager who was standing with us he quickly fixed the problem an we got second floor like we asked.. Rooms where kept clean daily by Leonarda she did an exceptional job at keeping it clean an supplying every thing we She also decorated our ooms with ballons , flowers, towel animals on the day of my husband Birthday.BEach not bad considering big rocks but who cares move on the the mambo beach is better.A la cartes did the steakhouse not bad if u want a good steak stay home..Resorts was constantly kept clean , employees alwasy there to help you. Buffet restaurant was ok you could always find some thing to eat so no complaints..Animation teams was great, I can still hear HE HE HE.Tina Turner, Chicken legs,,chicky monkey, especially Crazy Tequilla you never know what he was up to..Made us laugh everytime we seen him. To all the team keep up the good work.
Bars where exceptional anything you wanted they made it.Did 3 excursion while there..
Booked deep sea fishing with scubadiving company situated in hallway, caugth 5 dorado even if the waves where 20 ft high. City tour with Puerto plata taxi cost us 60.00 for 8 days for 5 hour tour which sandy did a marvellous job, Book the mud boogies with Sunwing now thats mud enjoyed every minute of it even if it rained all day what the hell your gona get dirty an wet anyways.lol defenitly bring old clothes an old runners for this I had to leave my runners back at resort cause they were full of mud an wet. Not good when u return to northern ontario with crocks walking in snow..The only delay was at Puerto plata airport they are defenitly in need of better cordination..Held back 2 hours cause of security issue so wasnt to be blamed on Sunwing..Otehr wise go with an open mind We did again we were a group of 8 adults an enjoyed the 3 Rius very much.And for all the complaint about the local comming in I dunno where u guys stayed but didnt see any problems from them at all..or any noise for that fact..