Cofresi Palm Beach & Spa Resort All Inclusive

“Beatiful location with some problems”

Getting there: First and foremost, there are multiple airports in the DR. If you are going to Cofresi, you want to book travel through the POP airport. We booked through Santiago (STI) airport, which incurred an extra shuttle, confusion, and hassle. Note: Cofresi will only pick up from the POP ai... more

Getting there: First and foremost, there are multiple airports in the DR. If you are going to Cofresi, you want to book travel through the POP airport. We booked through Santiago (STI) airport, which incurred an extra shuttle, confusion, and hassle. Note: Cofresi will only pick up from the POP airport, not other airports. The room: It is hard to know what you are getting until you get there. Accommodations for 4 adults is a large room with 2 Queen size beds. IMPORTANT: The bathroom is a large room and the shower has a see-through door! This was a problem for our family and our son's 13-year old friend. The toilet room has a door but that is it. We were told that this is the design for all of the rooms and no, they didn't have a sheet for us to drape over the door. We made use of the two bed panels to create privacy. A little rudimentary, but it worked. Our room was on the ground level of Bldg. 43. A section of grass led out to a pool, which was very convenient. Toward the end of our visit, we heard of flooding on the 2nd or 3rd floor. Good thing we moved our stuff off the floor because by 2 pm there was standing water in our room. The stewards swept it out. The safe: When we asked check-in staff if the safe was big enough for a small laptop, they sort of laughed us off. Funny enough, the safe IS big enough for a small laptop if you angle it in the right way, plus there was room for two tablets, five cell phones, and our passports. The sun: Don't underestimate the power of the sun! It may not come through on your skin but it can make you sick. Our son lost two days due to heat stroke. Internet: We found the best way to accommodate our gang was to buy a hot spot "box" at the pharmacy for $50, rather than outfit everyone's phone with Wifi. You can use the box in other countries if you get a SIM card. Cash: Only a few places take credit card. Bring pesos. This became a problem in our visit. Thank goodness for Uber to take us to our next hotel. The property: Cofresi and Tropicale are adjacent to each other, to the point where you can't always tell where one begins and the other ends. The natural beauty is the property's greatest asset. It is not in the main tourist area of DR - which from what I can tell is more like Cancun. Cofresi/Tropicale are more akin to the North Shore of Oahu than say Waikiki. It is more "country" than touristy - which may explain why there is not much comprehension/use of English and why cash is preferred. The Lifestyle Tour: I actually didn't mind the sales tour. It started with a golf cart ride to the VIP restaurant. Since we'd just arrived the night before, it was helpful to have a tour of the property and some cold drinks along the way. Our assistant Jose also made 2 nights restaurant reservations for us. Our tour guide Ramon was funny and down to earth. We had no problem saying "no" to their pitch since we didn't need it. What was more annoying were the spa reps who constantly asked if we wanted to book something. The amenities: With our blue VIP bracelets, we could access the VIP beach. Snorkeling is not really available due to the waves at the beach. There is free access to pickleball and basketball (must have basketball shoes). The archery and mini golf were $10 and didn't look that exciting. The foosball and billiards are free. The poolside drinks seemed weak. The Animation Center needs a bit of a facelift. Other parts of the 600 acres were more updated/cute. The food: We found the food to be consistently good. Our favorite restaurants were Rodizio (Brazilian grill) and Indochine (Asian fusion) - perhaps because of the crunchy texture of the spring rolls and other entrees. We found a lot of the regional foods to be soft. They make plantains many ways! The fried fish at El Pilon is an entire fish - with head and tail - for some a delicacy and for us a photo moment. No empanadas but I found one at the airport! While the natural beauty of this property made it a nice vacation, the distance from home (Pacific NW) and the smells of sewage in certain areas of the resort will keep us from returning. I think this property should invest their dollars into treating the sewage problem instead of expanding as they seem so inclined to do.

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