Bahia Principe Grand La Romana

“Excellent long weekend”

Except for the jellyfish at the beach and the lack of sufficient warnings, the entire experience at the hotel was excellent. From the arrival and welcome to the rooms, the attentiveness of all the staff, the food, the pool, the daytime and nighttime entertainment—everything was outstanding. Above a… more

Except for the jellyfish at the beach and the lack of sufficient warnings, the entire experience at the hotel was excellent. From the arrival and welcome to the rooms, the attentiveness of all the staff, the food, the pool, the daytime and nighttime entertainment—everything was outstanding. Above all, the staff is highly skilled at making guests feel comfortable at all times. It was an excellent experience, and I will definitely return.

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“If you want to snorkel off the beach where you stay, I do NOT recommend this resort.”

If you want to snorkel off the beach at the place you stay, this resort is not for you. We could not see our hand in front of our face. We have lakes at home where the water is clearer. If you want a relaxing, low key vacation this would be great. The pool is made for lounging. And is shallow all… more

If you want to snorkel off the beach at the place you stay, this resort is not for you. We could not see our hand in front of our face. We have lakes at home where the water is clearer. If you want a relaxing, low key vacation this would be great. The pool is made for lounging. And is shallow all around. The food at the specialty restaurants is wonderful. The entertainment is okay. Overall I will never stay at this resort again. Because of how murky the ocean is.

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“Needs improvement, disappointing experience.”

I stayed at the resort for 2 weeks with my wife and my daughter aged 17. Reception- check in was efficient, staff spoke good English, they were very helpful and polite throughout our stay. The bell boys can help with everything from delivering your luggage to the room to helping you find a working… more

I stayed at the resort for 2 weeks with my wife and my daughter aged 17. Reception- check in was efficient, staff spoke good English, they were very helpful and polite throughout our stay. The bell boys can help with everything from delivering your luggage to the room to helping you find a working ATM. Room- the room was spacious, clean and we had a ground floor garden view room with a lovely terrace. The rooms were looking a bit tired and needed a revamp, but we're ok, we've certainly had worse. The maid was lovely and did a great job every day. TUI rep - was very helpful, but as he worked alone was constantly having to juggle his time between families, and you'd have to wait quite a while to see him. He worked very hard, but could do with some help. Restaurant - we tried the Gourmet and Italian restaurants in addition to the main restaurant. The food was always good and kept hot. There was plenty of variety in the main restaurant for all nationalities. General - this is predominantly a Latin American hotel, I'd say 75% of guests are Hispanic, there were a few north Americans, very few British and Europeans mainly consisting of French. The service at the main restaurant and lobby bar was very "hit and miss". Sometimes the table would be set properly and you were offered drinks, other times you weren't. One night I had to ask a chef for a bread knife, he asked me to wait 2 minutes, I gave up after 10 mins. There doesn't seem to be any system to it, no consistency, no one appears to be in charge. Whilst there are some lovely hard working staff, others couldn't care less, and lack initiative for even basic tasks e.g instead of waiting to be instructed to serve someone, if you can see someone needing service why not just serve them? There was another incident when a waitress asked my wife something and she replied "yes please" , then the waitress, thinking she was out of earshot kept repeating this in a mocking tone. Having said this they really made a big effort with themed food displays at Halloween. One night at the bar there were only 2 staff working, and as it got really busy once the entertainment finished, they were totally overwhelmed. They worked very hard, but quickly lost track of who was to be served next, this led to tension and people demanding service believing they were next. We quickly worked out that if you speak Spanish you receive a totally different experience to those that don't. I question did the people who left reviews praising the service, how many tipped in advance and how many spoke Spanish? It was blatant what was going on. We're always polite, friendly and respectful, and it cost a lot of money to get there, therefore it's not unreasonable to expect decent service. We do tip to thank staff for good service received, but I fail to see why I should tip to be assured to efficient service I've already paid for. We also try to speak Spanish when we can. Please "read between the lines" when reading the positive reviews as the tipping and speaking Spanish can really influence your experience, however it also depends on your previous experience and mine is a subjective one. We've been to other Spanish speaking countries i.e Cuba and Mexico, and never experienced discrimination like this. Although the holiday was the relaxing break we needed, we won't be returning, due to the issues mentioned.

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