Iberostar Selection Hacienda Dominicus

“Christmas vacation family of 5 with teens”

Our family of 5 with teens/young adults stayed for 6 days over Christmas in a connected family room (2 rooms with a connecting door, 1 room with a king bed, 1 with two double beds). We got a private DAT transfer from the airport to avoid the Air Transat shuttle bus, our plane was late and luggag… more

Our family of 5 with teens/young adults stayed for 6 days over Christmas in a connected family room (2 rooms with a connecting door, 1 room with a king bed, 1 with two double beds). We got a private DAT transfer from the airport to avoid the Air Transat shuttle bus, our plane was late and luggage took a long time, but DAT was ready and waiting for us when we got through. Check-in was quite quick, though I don't think checking in online ahead of time did anything to speed up the process. I think I would not bother to do the online next time. We were assigned a concierge to help us book restaurant reservations. The concierge's job is also to tell about the membership, and we had a few high pressure conversations in that regard, which were not appreciated. We had help and a golf cart to take bags to our room, which was 2 floors up with no elevators, not a problem for us. The rooms were regular hotel rooms, quite spacious, with a balcony on each, and a pullout drying rack on each balcony. A fully closed bathroom in each room with sink, toilet, shower. A huge bonus was that they included a 3rd (single) bed in the double bed room as we had 3 old teens/young adults staying in that room, and sharing a double would've been pretty cozy! I was so pleased, as we hadn't asked for it at all. It fit very easily in the room and made everybody's sleep much more pleasant. The refillable glass water bottles in the room is such a great idea, I like how much waste that cuts out compared to the ubiquitous plastic bottles elsewhere. I also appreciated the canned soda water in the room fridge after a long day on the beach. Kids liked the glass bottles of coke and sprite. I do wish there were chips/snacks in the room, but that's a small detail. We had no trouble finding somewhere to sit on the beach any day, some days we were there just before noon, others we were down before 9. It was full, but each day we managed to find seats under a palapa. I really liked the activities happening on the beach, games and water aerobics etc. The ocean was beautiful for swimming, floating and playing in the waves. We did take our snorkel masks out one day and saw some schools of fish near the buoy line which was fun. We borrowed kayaks from the resort one day for a short paddle along the beaches. It's not really a walking beach - the sand it much too soft, and the incline of the beach at the water too steep to make it enjoyable. But we stayed in the ocean for hours, as did so many others. It was beautiful. Volleyball every day was a favourite of our kids. Buffet food was average - could always find something to eat. The a la carte restaurants were all quite good. We ate at Hacienda (Mexican), Sombrita (Greek/Mediterranean) and Spiaggia (Italian/Steakhouse). There were rarely lineups at the bars, maybe one person in front anytime we went for drinks. They serve all drinks in real plastic cups - way better than the paper cups and straws we had at another resort. At the lobby bar and coffee shop, drinks are served in glasses/glass mugs. No straws, which was fine for us, but others might want to bring an insulated cup with straw. Christmas eve there were drinks and appetizers in the lobby before dinner, "gala" dinner in the buffet, and then a party in the garden near the lobby. On Christmas day Santa visited the beach and handed out presents, we weren't sure, but it seemed like families signed up for this? There is a free book library in the garden area with 2 bookcases full of books. We had a great time, I really enjoyed the careful touches that the resort had clearly thought about, the coffee shop, reducing waste, the decor. We don't go to the same resort twice, but this is one I could see getting a repeat visit.

less