The journey from the airport took about 1 1/2 hours, which is nice as you get to see a bit of the country. We actually checked into the hotel on the coach, given our bands and our room key so we didn't have the hassle of checking in once we arrived.
We were greeted with a welcome drink which was much appreciated and our luggage was taken to our room quite quickly. The rooms are ok. Clean but need updating (which they are actually doing now). Your mini bar is stocked daily (hide your drinks if you don't use them as they won't restock if you have them in your mini bar) You only get a couple of beers, a bottle of water, a coke and a 7up.

The pools were nice but I actually only ever saw them cleaned a few times (two people in our group had ear infection) weather this was due to the pools or not I don't know.

The grounds are beautifully kept and very clean. The staff are the friendliest people that I have ever met, they actually humbled me. They have so little and yet they are so happy.

Food in the hotel was ok, a bit repetitive but I managed to find something that I enjoyed most nights. The themed restaurants are nice as well.

We did a few excursions, The Dune Buggies were brilliant! Not for the faint hearted though and you do get very muddy. We stopped at a little village and gave the children (and adults) some lollipops which they were extremely happy with. Mega Truck excursion is another must, you get to see villages and a stop at a local school (take pencils etc with you) The school is always very grateful for these items. Swimming with the dolphins/sharks/stingrays was a dream come true, to see the look on my children’s faces was absolutely priceless!

The only downside to the holiday (and yes, there is always a downside) are the sand fleas/mosquitoes. I got bitten by the blighters and no amount of insect repellent deterred them. It actually put a downer on my holiday as I was itching for two weeks and they don't look very pleasant.

Also the beach vendors who have shops along the beach are a bit persistent. If you don't want them bothering you just say "No". Don't say ""Later" as they will come back and hunt you down.

All in all we had a fab holiday. Our rep was a great guy and gave us any help that we needed. For the price that we paid for the holiday we couldn't complain at all although I wouldn't go back.

My self and my girlfriend strongly recommend Bahia Principe, its a fantastic all inclusive hotel in the middle of beautiful palm trees and vegetation, but what we liked most was the buggy tour, i think it was called "Caribbean buggy tour" or something like that. it was just excellent , we went from the hotel to the nearest pueblo (small farmland city(Spanish)), then we went to visit a typical Dominican school and gave them candy and learned how they were educated, then we did some extreme riding in sand and water, ohh yeah and we even crossed a river witch was insane because the water reached above the buggy

We flew out to this hotel on 5 April - 19 April 2008 with First choice Airways.

The flight ~ It left Gatiwck on time, was a smooth flight on the way there. We flew Star Class Preminum which is good for the money, but i thought the best bit was the priority boarding.
The food on the plane wasnt that good. Ok, i'm a fussy eater, but i really didnt think it was that good. The cabin crew were nice, friendly, came round with free drinks, we got a pampering pack, OK! magazine and a newspaper.

Peurto Plata/Coach transfer ~ As soon as you walk out the airport, you can really feel the heat! We were all like woah! Getting to the coach was not a problem, we were coach number 6, and it took about 1 and a half hours to get to the hotel, whcih is ok because you can have a look at the country a bit. It went quite quickly i thought.

Check in ~ It was really nice! That's all i can say! The check in once we got there was quick and smooth cos we got our wristbands and room keys while on the coach whci is a good idea! You get your suitcases sent to your room so you dont need to carry them around.
They come about half an hour later.

The rooms ~ They were basic, but nice. There was a mini-bar which got stocked up daily with beer, water, sprite, coke. We never saw the maid come in but she alwayd done something with the towl, like putting it into a swan or something like that.

The grounds/Pool ~ Really nice! Everything was really spotless and clean. The pools were well maintained. You could always get a sunbed around the main pool, which is where we mainly stayed so i cant comment on the other pools. But as far as i saw they were really good aswell!
As the complex was soo big, there were like taix's going around so you can just hop on them and it would take you to wherever you wanted to go, we got on one to go to the golf.

The Restaurants ~ The main buffet i thought was actually better than the al a cart restaurants! Breakfast wasnt packed, but we did have it about half 7, which is a good time to haev breakfast. They had bacon, beans, toast, stuff like that etc, for lunch, they had sandwhiches, salads and for dinner it was basically the same but there was a lot to choose from, and, can i just say teh chips were fantastic! I throughly enjoyed the chips! Now, onto the al a cart. We went to all of them and to be honest they werent nothing special. There was Italian, Mexican, seafood and mediterrean.

Activities ~ There were daily acitvities by the Animation Team all day. At around half 12 there would be areabics in the pool followed by the Bahia Principe song, which you will be singing as it is quite catchy! There were other activites as well, like golf, basketball, spanish lessons, volleyball, board games.

Shows ~ At about half 8 they would have the childrens disco with the same songs, like the birdie song in a different language, agadoo and some others. That went on for about half an hour, then at 9pm the animation team would come out and ask you to dance. At about half 9 they would have some funny competitons going on, which we actually thought was a bit boring!
Then at 10pm they had the main show, again we thought were pretty rubbish! They were mainly dancing shows, but one night there was 'crazy show' that was the best show i thought! That is worth a watch! Was really funny!
After that at 11, the animation team went down the street which had a casino, shops, disco etc, where they would just dance with you until 12. Don't know waht happened after that as we went back to the room then.

The Animation Team ~ The first week, we thought were rubbish! They just didnt want to know you! They just completley ignored us! So, the second week, we made the effort to go and talk to them, which it actually worked! After that, they kept on talking to us everytime they saw us. I'd like to say hello to Martin(Amazing dancer!), Alex(Miss you!), Spagetti(Miss you loads!) And some others which i can't remember their names! But i miss them loads! Was actually really sad to leave!

Flight home ~ On the way back, the TV''s werent working, but they did try to fix them but over there they didnt have the right equipment, which to be honest didnt really botherus, cos all we done was sleep, went pretty quickly.

Overall ~ Everything about the place was amazing! Only complaint which had nothing to do with hotel, was the mosquitos! Their everywhere! Take loads of spray with you cos although you dont see them, they are there!

Don't listen to the bad reviews, just go with an open mind like we did and you will love it!!!

We're actually thinking of going back next year! Which will be amazing!!

So, enjoy your holiday! =)

When we arrived at Bahia Principe our 1st thoughts were: Beautiful, classsy, it was huge and had high hopes of a great holiday and would be well worth the money.... Were we ever so wrong....

We got given out wristbands and roomkeys and were taken on a golf buggy directly to our room with our bags, which was nice. After unpacking (we would have gone straight to the pool but it was torrential rain) we noticed that our AC wasnt working. So we made a call to reception - "someone will be right out" - after dinner it still hadn't been fixed so we made another call, same reply. No-one came all night and after a morning sunbathing by the next after noon it still wasnt fixed. So after ANOTHER complaint someone finally came. We were happy with that, made getting ready for dinner easier. After dinner, we returned to a flooded bathroom. The AC had caused a leak. We made a complaint and no-one came till the next day. The maintenance person came while we were out sunbathing and when we returned in the afternoon we had a note saying to contact reception asap where we got told we had to move rooms. We packed up our things, moved to a lovely room - only 1 bed but we made do - after we unpacked we noticed the toilet was blocked. We called reception someone was out right away (shockingly), half ano hour later it was blocked again, someone came out, unblocked it and we thought it was fine. Until the next morning. It was blocked AGAIN then someone came out to fix it. We heard him footering about then next thing a big BANG! SPLASH! He'd ripped the toilet off the wall, water aalllllll over the floor and was standing with 2 shampoo bottles in his hand. He'd found them down the pipes and was standing looking at them as if it was us! We then had to wait for a cleaner to come and mop it up.

Having been to all inclusive hotels in Cuba and Jamaica I thought I knew what to expect - Variety of bars, Buffets and snack bars etc. and thought they were of decent standards. In Bahia the drinks were severely watered down - luckily we had stocked up on duty free before leaving Glasgow - the mixers they were using were not draught, bottles of coke, fanta, sprite etc. were left lying out in the warm air, no sign of any fridges or anything so when you got your drink it was warm, flat and lets face it that is pretty disgusting (especially when all you want on a hot day is a nice refreshing cold drink!)
The Buffet was the same thing just about every day - I was only there for 1 week and think I would have been sick if I had to put up with the same for another. The 'Kids Corner' area was rediculous - hotdog & chips every night. We tried to go for the a la carte meals but every restraunt was booked up for every night apart from the mexican which was pretty pathetic. The snack bar near the beach served cold, hard pizza and once again flat drinks. Oh and more hotdogs & chips.

The evening entertainment was poor so we spent most nights in the room with our duty free, watching tv. I will admit that the Dominican flavours night is good although be warned it is NOT all inclusive. When you go for a meal you have to pay for that and drinks which we thought was included in the price we paid and had to borrow money.

By the end of the week we were hearing from other guests who had valuables and money stolen from their safe ($50 NON-returnable for the safe - I felt I had the right to take it home with me after paying for that) and when they questioned hotel staff they were asked for proof that they actually had belongings in their safe! When they didnt have that they were just told to go away and nothing was done. But this was things like jewellery, money, passports, travellers cheques etc. and they were all stolen from the same block - suspicious!? - I think so!

.... We were miserable the whole holiday and were more than happy to get out of there!!!

just returned from this hotel,it is rated 4*sup which is pretty close,the location was pretty isolated,so be warned its a hotel based holiday,nowhere to go at night.
we were all inclusive,as are most of the hotels in the caribbean,and the food was quite good,varied choices,and always hot.We were upgraded to the hacienda diamond part of the complex,which means there was no restriction where we ate,and had an exclusive restaurant for diamond users only.
hotel was spotless always cleaning behind your every move,rooms are basic,but cleaned daily+towels changed daily too.flowers on pillows and towels shaped like swans,hearts,laid out every day on bed.
hotel staff were always smiling and saying hello,cannot fault the staff atall,and they are not all tip orientated its upto you if you tip,best to tip at the end i found.did not really see any of the entertainment,as its pretty much the same in these all inc resorts,so cannot comment.all in all i loved the hotel,but too isolated for me,but would recommend if you just wanted a sun,sea,sand hol.

i read a few reviews and didn't know what to expect. its a really nice setting for the hotel, lots of trees and flowers around the grounds.
food was ok but im a fussy eater anyway so wasn't too experimental.
the rooms were basic but ok, cleaners in everyday... watch out...!
our room along with anothers on our party had money, credit cards taken out of our rooms!
dont leave valuables where sneaky hotel staff can find them!
entertainment was ok, better down the street after 11pm

Stayed 31- July

stayed in this hotel for 2 weeks it was very nice, but would proberly only stay for a week as its very remote hotel lovely,rooms basic but everywhere very clean. food good if not a bit repetitive.could do with a lifegaurd around main pool as very deep and several kids slipped from running round and banged their heads also on night main entertaiment was round this pool and we saw 2yr old fall in and nearly drown {parents fault giving them fishing nets to play with and not watching them.}all in all a very pretty place but to say how big it is the entertainment is dire we had to buy playing cards to keep amused and the bingo is not a cash prize 5 euros each to play to win a t shirt & rubbishy champagne its also very spanish & french orientated and they hardly spoke english which is surprising considering the amount of english there if they sorted this out it would be perfect.

We heard mixed reviews and was not totally convinced but, we were going for 2 weddings.

Now for the truth.

Food - after 2 wks I was sick to my back teeth of pasta, and veg. Meat never looked too good, but we don't eat in anyway.

Staff - were friendly enough but were always moreso if you gave them a tip. They were not nice though when friands of our were burgled! By the way, 45 burglaries from room safes and cases occured within 1 wk and victims were treated like criminals.

Entertainment - All I can say is that it reminded me of Butlins and was a little to promiscutive for young children.
High crime rate, Food Poisoning and a rep that was drunk alot and a total waste of time.

Nothing to write home about and the rep inspired no confidence with us whatsoever.

We couldn't fault this hotel.

The rooms were always immaculate and the staff were always willing to help out with any problems. All it took was a quick call to reception.
The staff were pleasant and friendly.

The food was pretty good, wide selection to choose from. The meat was quite often cooked in front of you so you could ask for it to be cooked longer to suit your taste.
We only tried the mexican and mediterranean restaurants but enjoyed them both thoroughly.
Book as soon as you can though as they are very very popular.

Before 10pm the entertainment was a bit cheesy, but it was aimed at the kids. (magic shows, party games etc)
After 10pm the professional dance team performed different shows that had us in awe some nights and in fits of laughter other nights.
They also perform around the pool and on the beach during the day. It seemed that everyone paid attention and enjoyed these shows, look out for "Madonna on holiday."

Our reps were really approachable and helpful. My boyfriend was badly burnt and had to go to hospital and they did everything they could to be of assistance.

We would love to go back to this hotel in the future.