This was our third visit to the Dominican Republic, and this was our favourite hotel!

The hotel was spotlessly clean with fantastic grounds, complete with a flamingo, terrapins, a wide rage of ducks and birds (including the occasional visiting stork), lizards etc. There was a bit of maintainence work going on here and there, but nothing too obtrusive.

The rooms were lovely, bright and airy with air conditioning that work well and was quiet! The maids did a great job every day, lots of different towel arrangments with flowers, etc.

The food is actually the best we've had in our Domincan experience - the buffet is smaller than previous places, but the food itself was a lot nicer, and was always hot, regardless of what time you visited.

The location is great. The beach is a little different from the Punta Cana ones - not as powdery white, but still beautiful and clean. The hotel is right next to Dominicus, which is a lovely and welcoming town to visit, and is also ideally located for boat based excursions, particularly Catalina and Sanoa Island trips.

The staff were fantastic, friendly, and all seemingly incredibly multi-lingual - they would effortlessly talk in French to one set of visitors and switch to English for the next, then German after that. The maids and gardeners worked tirelessly to keep the hotel looking pristine, whilst the resturant and waiting staff made sure everyone had what they needed. The front desk staff were also very efficient and friendly.

The animation crew were great - friendly, approachable, and always letting people know what activities were on. At the same time, they never pressure people into taking part, so if you want to just lounge on the beach, they'll just high five you or shake your hand and say, "No problem". The walks in the morning are a great idea - one of them takes you into neighbouring Dominicus."

Just returned from a two week holiday, complete bliss.

Hotel is spotless,food excellent,drinks galore.

A very large swimming pool with swim up bar, water nice and warm. Entertainment around the pool from first thing in the morning till early evening. The beach is large with some nice big waves, not too rough so children are ok to go in. The beach bar is also popular you could get whatever drink you wanted. There were always plenty of sunbeds available with sunshades whatever time of day both pool and beach.

The bedroom was large with ample wardrobe space,fully stocked mini bar.The bathroom again plenty of room with a stock of toiletries provided.

The night life was a little restricted with a lobby bar,theatre and a small disco, we thought an outside area where you could get drinks etc on an evening would have been more beneficial as it is very humid at night.

The staff are wonderful always polite,smiling and interacting with all the guests.

The gardens are very well kept, lots of wildlife to see including flamingos,swans,ducks,terrapins and of cause lizards.

All in all we had an excellent holiday.

we are just back about 2 weeks ago, what a fab holiday very relaxing much quieter than the north side of the dominican rebublic, we were a party of 10 travelling from scotland the only complaint we all have is that they should really fix the tiles in the pool apart from that we could not find fault with anything else!
The staff are all friendly and very helpful and very happy all the resturants were very good and the hotel was at only 50% capacity so we were in heaven, we would reccomend this hotel to familys or couples.

We enjoyed our stay so much that we have now booked to go again at the end of November 08.

I had emailed the hotel with a few requests(low floor shower etc) all these were met. The staff in all areas of the hotel were very polite and helpful.The food in all restaurants was to a very high standard.

The entertainment was great( especially Lenny), our room was cleaned and our towels changed every day. The weather was good only one day where it rained heavy all day.

The only downside to this holiday is if you want a sunbed with shade on the beach you would have to get up at the crack of dawn. as by 8-30am most beds had towels on them, but no worries because there was always plenty of room round the pools.

All in all we had a great time and can't wait to return.

what a fantastic hotel,when you walk through the door you get a wow factor such a grand luxury hotel.rooms are excellent your get either two double beds or one super kingsize.rooms were clean very well daily.minibar was restock offen.air conditioning was a god send when you have a hot day on the beach to walk in a cool room at the end of the day was lovely.food was excellent ate better in 2 weeks than i would normally in main buffet restaurant.Service in steakhouse was a bit hit and miss went twice to this restaurant first time good second time bad, Japanese al a carte was very good,seafood never tried but was always busy.The only thing that loosed this hotel down was the state of the pool their was tiles missing they tried to repair these while i was there but they just made a bigger mess than before all the loose tiles they remove was at the bottom of the pool so you step on them when in the pool some were sharp.

We have just returned from best holiday of our lives.

We stayed at the Hacienda Dominicus for 14 days, we always book 4+ or 5 star holidays and for once the description lived up to the classification.

The food in the A La Carte Restaurants, of which there are four and we ate in them on 13 of our 14 nights, was the best we have had before and for a change no stomach upsets throughout our stay, most unusual for the wife! We only ate in the buffet restaurant on the first night but found the food average and it was nowhere near the standard of the others.

The lobby bar is staffed with waitresses who attend to your drinks before you

We have stayed in Iberostar hotels before and have been to the DR before, but unfortunately were disappointed with the IHD. I'll try to justify my comments why.

Cleanliness: The rooms were spotless and the maid service was excellent. The main parts of the hotel were also kept very clean but the pool area was lacking attention somewhat. We had the tropical storm hit and the next day the sunbeds and the pools were still very dirty from all of the sand and dirt which had been whipped up. There were no more staff apparent to clean up the area and the games pool stayed dirty for another 2 days before the leaves were cleaned up from the bottom.

Food: We are vegetarians and are quite use to having a limited diet when on holiday but I did get very sick of eating pizza and pasta every day. The Mexican was very good and they made us a lovely veggie taco! Everyone else I spoke to thought the food was good so for meat eaters I think it was above average

Location: Having stayed in the North, I think the facilites there are better than the south. The transfer from Punta Cana airport is in between one and a half and two hours which isn't the most comfortable journey as you can imagine. The choice of trips was also better in the north.

Staff: Just ok - what more can I say?

Entertainment: There is a daily planner of daytime activites but it wasn't adhered to and so often we would go to the games pool or onto the beach at a set time and there would be no-one there. None of the star friends could explain why the activities weren't happening.

We went on three trips of which 2 were diabolical but I'm not sure if I can go into much more detail about them? Just be warned that the travel company located at the hotel are not part of the hotel. They are independant and so are not accountable to anyone....

We haevn't been put off Iberostar hotels by this stay but if we go back to the DR we will go to the North for definite.

Lovely hotel, excellent choices at meal times and great quality of food.

Similar to Riu standards.

The hotel was spotless and located on the beach.

The hotel staff were very helpful and always smiling. there was always daytime activities for the children and adults but you were left alone if you did not want to take part. The evening entertainment was just ok.

My only complaint would be that too many children were given adult bands, this caused some fiction between guests.

The passports should be checked for ages as that would ensure a fairer system for all.

Just returned from a great holiday. We found the IHD as follows. Excellant value for money with superb service. Beautiful grounds and interiors with loos that were kept spotless at all times.

Rooms had a nice layout with the courtyards at the back and had great showers. Staff were very friendly and certainly helped make our holiday.

Buffet was excellant, one of the best I have had anywhere although I still have some reservations about buffet food. Theme restaurants were good but just not quite to our particular liking as they were all indoors except for the steak house and had repetative menus.

The location is excellant a beautiful beach with a real caribbean feel, turquoise warm clear water. Pool very good and great for children.Our daughter and son in law enjoyed the diving at this resort.Our grandchildren loved everything about the hotel and the staff made a great fuss over them. Entertainment staff did a good job and worked really hard.

Would we go back, yes but with slight reservations as most people had tummy problems as did I and I still have 3 weeks on.Still cannot figure it out though and can only conclude it was "Buffet food" All my family had it including my 2 year old grandaughter who was actually sick once as well. This did not spoil our holiday as we had plenty of Imodium, but we did have to keep taking it. My only other minor grumbles was the drinks.

the cocktails were very average and the rum punches were the worst I have ever had, but I suppose just a minor thing. Oh yes and the groups of "English" that could not stop themselves swearing at the swim up bar even though there were lots of young children around.

I would reccomend this resort but mainly for families and possibly small groups/ weddings. I would not recomend it for a honeymoon as there are more romantic intimate resorts than this one.