My husband and I just got back from the most wonderful vacation at Zoetry Punta Cana. From the moment we stepped out of the car onto this property through the day we left I was blown away by the beauty and peacefulness of this perfect resort, and I loved every minute of our stay here. It has a wonderful South Pacific feel and is very quiet and relaxing – which was exactly what we were looking for. The reviews really helped us to choose Zoetry Punta Cana, and I hope this will help others as well!

Staff: Everyone is so warm and friendly and eager to please - it’s hard for me to choose one thing I liked best about this resort but if I had to choose it would be the people working here. They are sweet and speak English well. Some are more advanced than others but we never had a communication issue and everyone is charming, friendly, and gracious. If you are interested in speaking a little Spanish they are delighted to help and even have a Spanish class you can take taught by Orlando, who’s a lot of fun and speaks fluent Spanish, French, and English. The manager Alain was very gracious and professional, Kenny is the perfect bartender, Giordany was always making sure you were perfectly happy at breakfast and lunch, and just wait until you see Juan Antonio’s smile. These are just a few of the names that I can remember, but every employee here left a great impression on us. Someone said some of their phrases got old, which is a terrible thing to say – I can only assume this person is very cynical.

Grounds: Maintained beautifully! They even have a full time crew that keeps the sand clean and the beach nice! The pictures do not lie and we were so impressed. The pools, beach, and grounds sparkled in the day, and at night the lighting everywhere is glowing and romantic. It can be a little dim when trying to read a menu, but I wouldn’t change the lighting at all. Finding a chair by the pool or beach is not a big deal, but if you have a preferred spot I would suggest getting to it by about 10:30 am. If there is not a chair, I would bet that you could ask for one, and someone would bring magically bring one to you. Beach & Poolside service is great and you can get anything you want brought to you at no additional cost.

Restaurants/Food: All three are very nice and have their own personality, and when you arrive for a meal the staff greets you warmly as if you are family. We loved all of the restaurants and the presentation blew me away every time - I couldn't help but say “it’s beautiful!” at every course of every meal. The taste was always good, sometimes excellent, never bad! Also, If you are looking for the perfect casual restaurant on a beach, Indigo is it. All open air with great views of the sea and great food. I loved walking from the beach (about 25 steps from my chair to a seat in the restaurant) and enjoying a great lunch and never having to take my eyes off of the gorgeous ocean. Amaya is open for dinner on some nights (and is wonderful), and the daily breakfast there was something we looked forward to each day. If you sit outside for breakfast, they give you toast to feed the fish in the pond right next to your table. The food presentation is great and I loved the fresh pineapple juice. The servers were lovely at all of the restaurants, and the pace was leisurely and relaxing. We are so used to a fast East Coast pace, but here we relaxed and ate a little slower, lingered a little longer, and never felt rushed or pressured. I think all of the rooms were booked, but we never waited for a table (sometimes we were the only couple in the restaurant) and there was no rush or pressure to go so you can free up a table because there was never a line of people waiting. When you were finished enjoying the meal and surroundings you can just get up and move on to whatever you want to do next. It’s funny because we kept forgetting that we didn’t have to wait for a check. Also the coffee shop and room service were great! Loved it all.

Rooms: We loved our room! We stayed in 14 which had a ladder into the pool right of of our patio. The decor was beautiful and looked just like the picture. The room was very clean, the bed was extremely comfortable, and I never saw a bug or lizard. The cleaning service came in at least twice and again at night for a turn down service, which always involved them doing something very sweet and creative with flowers or rose petals. If you wanted another cleaning, more bottled water, more towels, or anything you can think of, simply call (we never needed to though, since they seemed to think of it before we did). If you want champagne, room service, more snacks, your laundry done (and done better than you would do it) – just call! It’s all complimentary and wonderful. Hot water only an issue twice, once in the morning and once at night, and the issue with the water in the shower not draining and creating a bit of a puddle is true, but I was so happy here I didn’t care.

Mosquitoes: First let’s address some common sense on this. Whether you are outside in your yard at home or at a beautiful beach resort in the Caribbean, it’s very likely if you are outside at night you are going to encounter some mosquitoes. I would assume that no matter where you go in the world, nighttime, plus warm weather, plus outdoors, equals mosquitoes. Simply bring some bug spray and some bug bite relief spray and take some preventative measures. We brought a ton of things, including stuff to plug into outlets, and never had to pull anything out until next to our last night there. That night, my husband got a few bites while we were eating dinner outside under some romantic lighting, next to a koi pond, with beautiful plants and flowers, which is another perfect equation for mosquitoes. At this time I reached into my bag, handed him some bug spray, and the ordeal was over. The next night we got a few bites too and sprayed them with an itch reliever and we were fine, but in the mosquitoe’s defense, we forgot to do anything preventative to encourage them to leave us alone in the first place. Another trick I heard was good is to rub a dryer sheet on your skin and then put it in your pocket. Also a few common sense things – don’t leave your doors open, and turn the lights off when you leave the room, same goes for when you are home and not at a beautiful beach resort.

Getting orders wrong – This happened exactly twice over a 5 day period, once with my soup and once with my husband’s salad but it was not a big deal at all and I’m only mentioning it to address the reviewers complaining about it. I think both times it was our fault for mumbling and not looking at the waiter when we ordered. Remember you are in a foreign country with some wonderful people eager to make you happy, and they are trying their best to understand you, so try your best to be a polite and helpful guest, look at your server, smile, say your order clearly, and point to the item on the menu. If for some reason they get your order wrong, instead of being an obnoxious tourist and assuming your server is an idiot, try being impressed that they are attempting to speak two or three languages when you probably only speak one. Then smile and tell them what you wanted. They will apologize sincerely and bring you what you wanted right away while you enjoy your drink and surroundings for a few more minutes. Or if you really don’t care and it looks good just eat what they brought you. My husband did this with his salad and loved it. These people are very kind and warm and deserve to be treated that way as well, so just relax, enjoy the pace of life here, and try not to get offended and make a huge deal about this if it does happen. If this sounds like something you can’t deal with, this might not be the resort for you because it’s possible that it might.

Here are a few final tips.
1. I would NOT suggest going on the Dine Around at the Dreams resort unless you are sure that this is your thing (an enormous, loud, cheesy, casino atmosphere with pushy vendors). In our opinion this was not a good experience and the 16 other people that made the mistake with us to go to the dinner/show here all agreed it was more of a nightmare than a dream, and we all could not wait to get back. Our dinner was ok, but not served with the love and care that went into every single dish that we were used to being spoiled by. I would suggest the management look for some feedback on this over the next few months when people return from the outing. My husband and I mainly went out of curiosity to see the resort but were really disappointed that we lost an evening at Zoetry, and unfortunately were stuck there for a few hours waiting for the scheduled return trip. Although the staff of hundreds at Dreams were nice and I’m sure it’s a good fit for some people, it was not the same feel as the dreamy Zoetry we fell in love with. I disliked it so much that even if I won a trip to this Dreams resort I would not go.

2. A few reviewers complained about losing some items, so just use the safe. Problem solved. At this resort it’s so relaxed and friendly that it’s easy to forget that it’s possible to have something stolen, and although it’s very unlikely to happen, just don’t forget to use your safe for anything valuable you want to leave in your room and you will be fine. This goes for everywhere in the world that you travel.

3. Try to learn a little Spanish phrases that you might use on vacation before you go (More water please, How are you today? I’m fine how are you? What is your name? My name is) It’s fun to try and converse with the staff and they seem to like helping you practice. If you don't want to do this it's not necessary - only if it sounds like something you would want to do.

4. The Dominican beer Presidente is great! Make sure to order it not only because it tastes great but also because you are in their country and it’s nice to support them in any way you can.

5. Please bring some ones, fives, and tens for tips. If you don’t tip, the staff will still be just as nice, kind, and warm to you, but you should still tip if you can. The people in this country work long hours and you’ll most likely see some of the same servers for dinner that you did for breakfast, and after working 16 hours a day, they probably come away with much less than you would do the same job for, and you would probably not be willing to do it with the smile and sincere hospitality that they do. So if you are impressed with the service and can spare just another 15-30 dollars a day, you are doing a good thing and helping to support some really great people.

6. As for some of the negative reviews, there are some truths, but perfection is tough to find anywhere. Take the advice people have given to address some of the issues and have fun! It really it all depends on your attitude, expectations, and respect for other cultures.