Upon arrival, was told that we never booked the top floor King bed room..so they sent us to the end of the resort to a bottom floor room, 2 double beds, in the smoking area. After fighting with the manager for 1/2 an hour, our room was "magically" available...even with paperwork they still tried to tell me I didn't book a King room on the top floor. We had a corner room, ocean/club view, not too bad. Bathrooms were clean and basic..at least we had full cable in the evening and on rainy mornings.

The restaurants were okay, nothing special...but the baileys coffee was amazing.

The beach was awesome, never any seaweed and always turquoise. After making a sand castle I had all of these crazy bites on my legs and other visitors complained of the same thing. This made the rest of the trip uncomfortable but manageable.
For the last 3 days, there were these super tiny black bugs that took over the resort all over the beach and pool area and they bite like crazy. Nonetheless, the stretch of beach is great for romantic evening walks, always clear.
Almost forgot to mention...the beach beds are the best! There are lots of beds and you don't need to wake up at 6am to grab one or pay extra.

The para sailing, on site sailing, and offsite activities (I did horseback) were totally awesome. It's great to have all of these activities right off the beach/a short drive away.

I definitely wouldn't recommend the resort or return, just because the food was okay and those black bugs turned me off. I would recommend a resort that's 5 star or more along the same stretch if looking for an almost perfect beach.

We are very grateful we were able to escape the cold weather and get some R and R.

We travelled with sunquest through west jet. The plane was 2 and a half hours late due to motor problems. No food served while waiting and none left even to purchase. That made for over 9 hours before we had a meal.

This is our second time in Punta Cana and first time at the Bahia principe. The resort is huge and split by unequal value of sections. Some with limited access and lower class service. Before they serve you, they look for your bracelet to identify your social level = meaning in a regular or luxury section. You don't get the same food, quality of service or beach and pool area.

Our room was ok even though the bed sheets were stained and our bathtub leaked on the downstairs room...PS safe is not included. You have to pay extra per day.

We were 25 minutes walk from beach... Better than taking diesel smelling tram cars.

Restaurant was ok even if pretty much same food morning, noon and night. But that bothered us much less than the service. Hostess never smiled. Waiters took forever to serve us. We had to always ask at least twice for coffee or wine. On a couple of night, the Waiters were having champagne while working.

If you arrived at the beach at 9am good luck to find a place in the shade. Beach was not that clean. Lots of trash, algue both on beach and in water.

We will never go back to a Bahia principe ever again anywhere in the world. RIU is by far much better. For the same price, you can get A real 5 star resort, nicer beach and way way better service.

Also beware of SCAM. There's reps all over trying to sell you a sort of time share deal by promising you a short presentation to show you how you can travel better for cheaper. It almost cost us $ 15 000. The guy wouldn't take NO for an answer.

In conclusion: no more West jet, Sunquest nor Bahia Principe ever again.

This resort may at times scare you by its vastness, but after just one day, keeping in mind that at one end is the beach and the other is the main lobby its impossible to get lost. this resort is exception in its cleanliness and the staff no matter where you went were more than accomodating and made you feel at home. the only reason I gave this a 4* is the time maybe right to do some upgrading on the rooms because they are starting to get well worn in some parts. I agree with the public washrooms near the beach they could easily add anther one some where. we stayed in bldg #4 2nd floor, this is the Golden section through Transat holidays and I think that is as close to the main pool and beach as we wanted to be. note in regards to the beach, this is a bit of a problem because the area is one of the smallest for a resort this size, and trying to get from point a to b can be a challenge and I think that if there were sort of paths developed it would help, we never once had a problem in the 2 weeks we were there always got a place pretty well where we wanted it and never once had to run down and put a towel on to keep it reserved.If I was to give a tip in regards to the Ala carte restruants, it would be to look at the buffet theme nights and book your ala cartes according to your taste, that way you wont end up with a mexican one night and find out the buffet next nigh is the same.Just another personal notethe staff work very hard to please you and just because you have a mind set that it is all inclusve don't PLEASE tip for good service even the trolley driver and the maids and the guys at the buffet deserve you thanks with a buck or 2, i watched a table of 8 people get service far beyond what they would have received back home get up and not leave a tip , if they were to buy that meal I'm sure they would have left a huge tip to the wait staff.

Got off to a bad start... The lady at the front desk offered me an upgrade for 50$ a night. i declined. She then said...howabout you give me 20 bucks, and i'll give you the upgrade anyway. I wanted to make it special for my gf for her first tropical trip so i agreed and slipped her a 20. She said it was overlooking the beach and on the top floor. So when i got to the room, it was on the ground floor and overlooking nothing. The room was nothing out of the ordinary. I called the front desk and spoke to somebody who said there was nothing they could do about that and they would have my air canada rep contact me about it. I complained on a comment card in the restaurant and filled out that the food was crap, but the restaurant manager saw my card before i put it in the box and changed all my answers about the restaurant to excellent...however i had written about my shady front desk experience and got a call from a front dest manager. i gave her the front desk clerks name who ripped me off, and i was told by the front desk manager that there was no upgrades as all the rooms were the same. She also told me not to tell anyone about this conversation, adding to the whole shadyness of it. i got a fruit basket out of the deal with overripe fruit in it. i didnt even unwrap it...thanks but no thanks.

the food was pretty awful. most everything in the buffet was cold. the ice cream and fruit was awesome tho... the steaks were great if you could get them when they took them off the grill. the japanes restaurant was the WORST MEAL I HAVE EVER EATEN! sushi was absolutly terrible, the tempura was cold, the shrimp tasted super fishy, the salmon was bland, the beef was awful, the chicken was edible... the rice was alright. the fried ice cream for dessert was super good...

the lobby bar was decent, all of the restaurant staff was friendly and the bartenders were all really great.

poolside entertaiment was pretty bad. they had bingo one day so here i am swimming around listening to numbers being called...really annoying. i yelled bingo a couple times, that was fun. played the same 5 top 40 dance hits multiple times during the day, got really old really fast. beach was decent. sand was really nice and clean.

resort was kept very clean, shuttles were always available to take you down to the beach and to the lobby which was great when you didnt feel like walking. saw the nighttime entertaiment a couple times, didnt stay long but it looked pretty neat. didnt get a chance to check out the disco or the casino, but the friends who did said it was cheesy and the casino wasnt anything special. the pools were nice, you could usually find a good spot, especially if you got up a little earlier and saved a seat.

some things were decent, but it was really the food that was a huge let down. everytime you go to eat you get a plateful and eat only a little bit. i admit i had a bad experience right from the start, so that probably didnt help. feeling robbed by the first person i ran into who worked there. but everytime we went to eat it was a huge let down.

so that being said, i wouldnt recomment and will never set foot in this place again.