If you are looking for a great holiday with alot of excurstions that will astound you, this is the place to go. A group of us went last week (Feb 6/2012- Feb 13/2012) and had the time of our lives. The outdoor activities were a blast. We had so much fun. Alvin from the beach bar and jose from the sports bar made us laugh everytime we saw them, which was alot. lol. And all the other staff were polite and professional. Although the language barrier was at times difficult, we had a blast trying to translate to them. It is there country and we are the travellers, so we had to try to fit in. The maids had our rooms clean every day and were very helpful. These ppl are always smiling and it wore off on us. I listened to some of the ppl b*t*h and whine about their room, beach, food and weather. if you go up ranting about something the way they did i would have ignored them. Some ppl cannot be pleased. Be polite and ask nicely and they would bend over backwards to help you. And once they get to know you they came running up to shake your hand and say ola amigo. Our Sunwing Rep, Anis, was a sweet yound lady who made our stay as special as it was. At times i felt sorry for her having to listen to some of the spoiled ppl who would rather b*t*h about something rather than enjoying what they cant see in front of them. Resorts cannot control the weather, we had a couple of rainy mornings but about 9 am, after breakfast, it turned out to be a beautiful day and into a gorgeous evening. Yes some rooms could use an uplift, but we were in them to sleep and as long as it was clean, which it was, We were very happy with the variety of food, the beach, activities, and staff, Would recomend this resort to anyone

Let me start this review by mentioning that we are veteran travellers. We have travelled in Canada, the US, Mexico, Costa Rica (3 times), Panama, Jamaica, Europe, Africa, and now the Dominican Republic.Please do yourself a favour and read this in it's entirety. I know it's long, but if you are considering this hotel, you should be informed before putting your hard earned money down on this hotel. We had read the reviews on TripAdvisor and decided that this hotel would be a good value for the money we had to spend.How terribly wrong we were. We were two families travelling together with our children, 4 adults and 4 children. For children, this is a long day of travelling before getting to the resort and the winding, swaying 1 1/2 hr bus ride made some of the people queasy. Check in was on the bus and was appreciated so that we didn't have to wait at the front desk. There is only one room key provided because the electricity in the room will not operate unless your room key is inserted in the box. This means no charging cameras, phones etc. and no cooling your room down unless you are in in it. For us this was not a big deal, but it is a pain unless you always are always together to share the key.The bungalow was nice, spacious and clean.After some inspection though, some of the faults become apparent. The front door was in the frame for the bottom half, but warped out at the top leaving a gap of over a inch - excellent access point for mosquitoes and intruders with crowbars. The back patio doors were the same thing, and the outside of the door where the lock is was picked out and broken away to reveal the lock mechanism inside the door. Needless to say, this didn't fill me with confidence. The bathroom window was left unlocked and was difficult to get locked. The first morning we were there, it poured down rain, and when I got up to to use the washroom, there was a puddle on the floor at the end of the bed and the sheets were all wet. We reported it to reception later in the day and they took care of it, it didn't happen again.Towels are hard to come by, we had to ask daily to get enough towels, and there are no facecloths.The phone didn't work, and after reporting it twice, we got a different phone.The problem was somewhere in the wiring and we spent the whole vacation without a phone. It made it difficult to coordinate with our travelling partners. The rooms seem to have paper thin walls, and you will hear every sound outside or next door (and they will hear you). We didn't find any, but our travelling partners found roaches in their room. The people what we sat with on the plane and their room broken into and money stolen. They said that people in the next building also had their room burglarized and I'm sure there were more. This brings me to my MOST IMPORTANT POINT - ILLNESS. The second day there,I began to feel ill, and the night following it, I was violently ill with vomiting and diarreah. I was so bad that the doctor on site wanted to get me to the clinic. He originally said 12 hours at the clinic and 12 hours treatment at the hotel, but this turned into 24 hours at the clinic. I found out later that he gets paid more from the insurance the longer that he keeps me at the clinic, so they did everything possible to keep me there. I asked to leave 5 times but they wouldn't take my IV out. I ended up getting almost enraged and pulling out my own IV and walking out.While I was gone, I had to leave my wife and children alone in the room overnight with knowledge of people breaking in. She was terrified to have to do it, but she had no choice. I was still not better - I had orinally asked the doctor for Cipro (an antibacterial) which he would only provide me with after I had gone to the clinic. The combination of Cipro and Immodium helped me, although I still didn't feel good for the entire duration of my trip. Ask your doctor for Cipro and bring your own Immodium - they charge $ 1.50 per pill at the pharmacy in Las Gallerias. Then, like clockwork my wife got sick, my daughters got sick - all in all, 7 of the 8 of our group were sick to varying degrees. All of the groups of people that were on our flight had at least one person who got sick. Just by talking to people around the resort, there was a constant stream of people going to the clinic. I believe that it is a hygene problem with their glasses. We watched a staff member "wash" the glasses at the bar which consisted of a dip in soapy water, a dip in clear water and then on the tray to dry. Keep in mind that the water in the D.R. is not safe to drink anyway!! My wife went to the bar to get drinks - the first glass had sand in it. She rejected it and the new drink had white gunk aroud the rim (the last persons' pina colada). The third one had chunks floating and stuck on the side of the glass. He made a fourth one, but she couldn't bring herself to drink it This incident was reported to our sunwing rep and the food services manager. Some of the people brought their own insulated mugs and washed them themselves - smart idea. Most of the bartenders are clueless and had to look at the drink list to find out what to put in the drinks that are on their own list! If you drink anything other than rum - be prepared to be dissapointed. I like Tom Collins which happen to be on the drink list. The first couple of days they couldn't make it because there was no lemon juice.The rest of our vacation i couldn't have any because there was no gin. They tried making it with rum, but it wasn't the same. Couldn't have screwdrivers either - no vodka.I'm not a picky person by any definition but the food was pathetic, always the same. It was hard to find something decent to eat. As the other reviews state, there is no bacon. This is the only resort we have been to that does not have natchos or french fries for the kids. Steer clear of their hamburgers - they are laying in a bin of grease and water and are pink inside. The pools were nice and there were usually chairs for lounging. The beach was OK, there was a lot of sea grass in the water and on the beach. Further out there was lots of coral on the bottom, but close to the shore, it was nice white sand and shallow for the kids. The beach towels are a different story though - good luck getting one unless you go first thing in the morning. One of the towels we got had some gross stuff crusted onto it (vomit?) and the rest stink. We believe that they don't wash them - they just put them in the dryer and fold them. This was brought to the managers attention. The grounds were well kept and neat. One thing I found odd was there were no animals and very few birds on the grounds. There is nothing to see if you snorkel but there is a area off the resort that is a netted off part of the ocean that someone has stocked with fish. To swim here will cost you $15 though. The sports bar amenities are run down and the pool tables are missing balls. Lots of the public washrooms have urinals that don't flush, and no soap in the dispensers The whale watching tour and Los Hatises national park tour were good and interesting but a bit pricy. This hotel should be rated a 3 star. I believe that there are many other places that would provide a better experience for the same money. A vacation at any price is not worth it if you feel sick and can't enjoy yourself. Also, what does all inclusive really mean if you are scared to eat and drink the food? I feel ripped off and this is a experience I would rather forget.Out of good concience, I could not recommend this hotel to anyone, and will not be returning.

I had a 7 day trip here feb4th to the 11th wit 1 of my very best girlfriends n we had a blast the hotel was very clean n the people that worked there where also very friendly n very helpful n tried there best to get us what we wanted or needed if anything they where always nice n friendly even when other people where not being the nicest to them they always tried to keep a nice big smile on n be polite .

We stayed at Grand Paradise Samana for 2 weeks at the end of November and early December. We were with a group of 22 people.
Check in was pretty simple as you recieved your room and info package on the bus trip to the resort. You only had to go to reception if a change was required.
Reception, I found not overly helpful or interested.
You only get one key per room, which was an issue for us as we aren't always together. The cost for a second one is $5.00 per day and for us staying 2 weeks was going to be costly. The reson for this fee we were told was so the A/C would not be running all day as you have to put the key into the slot for it to run. We opted to not pay for a second key, and any type of card works just as well in the slot.
We did not get a safe as again there is a fee for that, we did not have any items go missing from our room at all. However, a couple in our group had their luggage guy "hook them up" with a safe, only to relize after that he had gone back into the room and re opened the safe and took the money.
We upgraded our room, it was large and fairly nice, however the matresses were horrible!! and the sheets would not stay on the bed because they don't use fitted sheets. The rest of our group had rooms in the newer rooms, they were nice, clean and again had lots of towels. A couple of the rooms had pillow top matresses.
The room was clean, and we always had enough clean towels.
If we wanted our fridge re stocked with pop, tipping was required!
The food was ok, always lots to eat and a pretty good variety, the omlette station was excellent. The alacarte restaurants are ok, as we had a large group, there was alot of confusion in regard to our orders. They were very accomadating in regard to seating in the restaurants, and researved tables for our group of 22.
The resort is very clean, and well maintained.
There are 2 pools, one shallow kids pool, and then a deeper adult pool. Actually there are 3 pools but the 3rd one is designated for French people, who incidently have a entire section of the resort just for them!!
The entertainment was not great at all, we did not attend the shows after the first couple, certainly far below average in this area.
The beach is nice, always enough seating, people do not put towels on the chairs and leave all day, lots for everyone.
There are activities at the beach to get involved in, but nothing around the pool. The entertainment crew were not really interested in getting people involved in activities.
There is insuffecient area for gathering to have a drink before dinner except for the reception area, which is pretty small.
We did 3 excursions, but not through the resort which was very costly. We walked into the little town and found a man named Agusto, who has a business doing excursion privately. We paid $110.00 per person for adults and $50.00 for children for 3 trips, which were zip line, catamaran and jeep excursion. WE DID NOT pay him up front and paid him in 3 installments, each time he arrived to pick up our group, he was paid 1/3. These excursions were SIMPLY AMAZING!!!!!!!! He went over and above in every detail, food was excellent, lots of rum and the guide "Peter" was the best. I would not normally book outside the resort, but I felt comfortable with Agusto, and our payment arrangement with him. I would strongly suggest excursions through him, it was well worth every penny and we got more for our money then those who booked through the reosrt. We got 3 for the price of one. Zip line was outstanding, as was the catamaran and the jeep tour.
The price for this resort was great, we paid $988.00 taxes in for 2 weeks, well worth the money.
Overall I would return to this resort for the price we paid, I would not pay any more than that.