Bahia Principe Luxury Esmeralda

“Resort is great, Bars are great, food - not so much.”

The grounds are beautiful as are the lobbies of all the resorts on property. The staff was all wonderful and the accommodations couldn't be better. The amenities of the resorts are great, lovely beach, always a chair available. The pools were always clean and the bars were plentiful. Again, the … more

The grounds are beautiful as are the lobbies of all the resorts on property. The staff was all wonderful and the accommodations couldn't be better. The amenities of the resorts are great, lovely beach, always a chair available. The pools were always clean and the bars were plentiful. Again, the staff was great. Shout-out to Manuel at Guest Services and Kelvin the bartender ! The only issue we had was with the food in the buffet and specialty dining. Honestly, it was sub par. If you are from the US, think Golden Corral but not as good. I do not know how almost everything was served cold to luke warm. Excellent selection but nothing I would want seconds on. The specialty dining at MEAT was terrible and other than the guy that keeps the drinks filled, the staff was rude and off putting. We ate there the second night and skipped the rest of the "specialty" venues until the last night. Many other people also commented on the food and said, Meh,it used to be better. No more theme nights, can only go to your resorts buffet. The staff at the buffets were very good. The last night we went to the Japanese Hibachi and it was excellent but we felt rushed. The food was excellent and the performance by the chef was pretty good. This was the best meal we had on this island. They did a great job for the Super Bowl and Valentines Day.

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“Management sadly blind to its problems ”

Every year we tend to go back to the Caribbean as it's a good bet with the temperate climate and reasonably priced 5* hotels that are available. We've stayed in the Bahia Principe brand before in Cancun and we're impressed. Not so much though in the DR. On arrival we were rapidly driven by an el… more

Every year we tend to go back to the Caribbean as it's a good bet with the temperate climate and reasonably priced 5* hotels that are available. We've stayed in the Bahia Principe brand before in Cancun and we're impressed. Not so much though in the DR. On arrival we were rapidly driven by an electric trolley bus from the roadside central main Fantasia hotel to the Esmerelda. Booking in was a swift affair with us escorted to our room 94210. First impressions were the good sized room and spacious bathroom and two king sized double beds. Large TV multiple room furniture and medium sized fridge leading to patio sliding doors and balcony, so far so good. My wife commented on a curious musty smell overall but nothing else stood out , oh how things can change! After a good night's sleep on a very comfortable mattress we awoke refreshed but alas not so our rooms atmosphere. Amenities in Esmerelda are typical 4/5* well laid out and very pleasant on the eyes. Swimming pools x2 biggish ones dominate the patio Romanesqe layout, bars and towel huts two per pool and it's all.nice and clean But there's that toilety smell again 🤔 . Our lunch time buffet is also here and it's lovely at Lunchtime, not too crowded and very good food in large quantities, l ate a New York steak almost every lunchtime and even though l did encounter a couple of tough ones mostly they were delicious. We stayed every day on the gorgeous Bavarro beach, we know this beach of old and it doesn't disappoint, what does disappoint is the shortage of available sunbeds, there's loads of unavailable beds with towels on them minus human beings though. This was to be our experience throughout our stay at the Esmerelda, large amounts of empty sunbeds with towels claming them. But also there's plenty of Management wandering around here too, but these fellows seem not to spot these redundant sunbeds, that brings me on to my biggest gripe about this hotel, it's has large amounts of wandering middle to senior managers not managing very much at all, perhaps they can't smell the sewage around the edge of a fair few of the bars, restaurants and all of these empty sunbeds go unnoticed too. After 14 days we contacted Managers four times by phone, and spoke to other customer managers on numerous occasions about these things and many other things. Our room sometimes smelt like a municipal sewer works and we were left to try and reduce this stench by covering the shower room floor with damp towels. Where were the managers. Overall the ordinary workers seemed happy enough and seemingly coping well. This is a potentially great 5* establishment. If it keeps ignoring the hygiene warnings and not managing the sunbed situation it might just fail.

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“Decent stay but didn't feel the luxury?”

Went to the luxury Esmeralda for the last week in February and had a decent stay at the resort there was definitely some good but had a fair share of complaints. Great: Swim up bars in rooms: This was an offer for at least this resort and found it pretty cool. Had a friend of our group who booked … more

Went to the luxury Esmeralda for the last week in February and had a decent stay at the resort there was definitely some good but had a fair share of complaints. Great: Swim up bars in rooms: This was an offer for at least this resort and found it pretty cool. Had a friend of our group who booked a room with one and enjoyed a swim. Was certainly a nice thing to offer since the pool area gets pretty busy sometimes and chairs are hard to find. Drinks: the drink service around the resort was exceptional had very little issues when ordering drinks. Found it odd that there was no coke or at least regular coke being served (at least from what I tasted and in the hotel room) the soft drinks were zero sugar. Hotel room: Room was great and had all amenities we needed aside from some water heating issue with the tub and shower the 2nd last day everything ran great. Staff: Staff were usually pretty pleasant and were greeted with hello I would say the majority were great but noticed most had trouble understanding anything other than simple English once you stray from the lobby. Spa: Spa service was great and had a very relaxing time. Would recommend but it's a little pricey. Casino: Casino was a lot better than I expected had to take a 10 minute trolley from Esmeralda to punta Cana. My wife and I had a very fun time. Unfortunately while I was there had a a slot machine break on me and 3 others were out of order. Okay: Food: Food was alright but the buffets served the same food EVERY SINGLE DAY. I would definitely recommend use up as many a LA carte restaurants bookings as possible. I really wish they had some variety in between the days of the week or something. Also I found it left me with a stomach ache the more buffets I ate (I found this with a lot of buffets in places like Cuba, Dominican and Jamaica) could be just me would recommend Dukoral just in case. Trolley/Train system: So since all the Bahia principe locations are tied together they have a trolley system to get you from any of the resorts to wherever around the resorts. Problem we found it was very inconsistent and you had to physically go ask each time "you going to so and so" a good portion of time when I asked the said no and just drove off. Bad: Communication: Had some Netflix show film most of the time we were at the resort. Problem was they really didn't say or do anything to accommodate guests just setup there shoots and expected people to comply. Like one morning we were getting chairs on 2 guys just started randomly tying off chairs when asked they just said don't know and continued on. Mosquitos: my wife, son and I got bite A LOT it was to the point my legs were very red. Would highly recommend big spray. Overall it was a nice stay. Might try and go to Bahia principe Fantasia next time as it looked way more impressive over Esmeralda.

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