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HELPFUL
INFORMATION IF YOU ARE TRAVELING
TO PUNTA CANA, Dominican
Republic
(Specifically if
you are staying at the Paradisus)
The package we went on was all inclusive.
It was well worth it. They not only had the local beer and such, but imported such as Heinekin and Absolute. Most all inclusives give you the cheapest available.
Most restaurants were ala carte, so we got menus
and ordered just as you would at a regular restaurant.
We ordered drinks, appetizers, meal, dessert,
etc. but received no bill!
All activities within the resort were included
(see the list below), but there were many excursions outside that were
worth the extra expenditure (more details below).
I have to
say that this resort was PARADISE!
As you can see from the photos, all that was
missing was Mr. Rourke!
We have never had a more enjoyable vacation.
We are planning to go again this year.
1. FOOD:
As far as the food, it was FANTASTIC!
There are seven restaurants on site (5
ala carte and 2 buffet style) and several more at the Melia Bavaro next
door that are also included in the "all inclusive"
"La Albufera"....Specializing in risotto, paella
and the Spanish kitchen (The paella was out of this world!)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
"El Romantico" was very good...I had a very good
steak, my wife had seafood. Very nice atmosphere too.
"Restaurante Chopin" is a must...it is at the
Melia Bavaro (The sister resort next door) It is included in the all inclusive
package and is very enjoyable. The food is buffet style here, but at 9:00pm,
they dim the lights, and on the little river that surrounds
the restaraunt, a boat comes out with 4 musicians who play classical music on violins.
NOTE: I have heard that the Melia Bavaro is closed and not available to Paradisus guests. You can contact the resort directly (numbers below) or have your travel agent check.
"Dolce Vita" is the Italian restaurant. We had lunch there and it was very good. I was told the dinners were just as good.
I heard the Chinese Pavillion was very good, but
we never got to that one.
Stay away from "Antojulus"...the mexican restaurant....Not
very mexican and not very good.
"The Hybiscus" is the buffet that is open for
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner...no reservations are necessary. This is a
good place to eat for dinner if you are out all day on excursions and don't
want to be bothered with an elaborates sit down dinner.
Make reservations for dinner the week BEFORE you
travel. I had our travel agent call and make the reservations. The first
morning an envelope was under our door with all of our reservations for
the week. Others we met had to wait in line for hours the first morning
to make reservations. Our travel agent called the Guest Relations at the resort and made the reservatons.CHECK BELOW FOR PHONE and FAX NUMBERS.
2. LANGUAGE:
The native people were VERY nice. Most do not speak english...Spanish is their native language. I had purchased an english to spanish transation book that was VERY good. It was broken down into catagories of phrases...food, hotel, sightseeing, etc. It gives basic phrases in english, then the spanish translations along with the phoenetic pronounciation. This helped alot.
The ENGLISH to SPANISH TRANSLATION BOOK CAN BE
PURCHASED AT
BARNES & NOBLE BOOK STORE
The name is "PASSPORT
TO SPANISH" by Charles
Berlitz.
Order the book by clicking here >>
 BERLITZ PASSPORT TO SPANISH
After a day or two, we figured out the words/phrases that were most helpful and used them.
Even without this, the menus were in 4 different languages (spanish, english, french, german) and each page was laid out the same for each language.
You can pick what you want on the english pages, then flip to the spanish pages and either attempt to speak the language, or point to the item.
The staff was very understanding. They really tried to understand what you were trying to communicate. Even when they didn't understand, they went out of their way to be accomodating. One woman we met even walked a bartender through making a Long Island Iced Tea even though she did not speak a word of spanish. The people at reception spoke english well and there was an Apple Tour rep at a desk during the day that
spoke perfect english. That helped as well.
3. DRINKING WATER:j
As far as the water,you should not drink from the tap. They have bottled water in the room and at the bars and restaurants. The bars have filtered water
on tap for mixed drinks that is also safe and use filtered water for ice. There is a refrigerator in each room with water,
soda and beer.
We got lots of bottled water at the bars and took it back to our room. Also, when you see the truck that fills up the refrigerators, ask them for a few bottles. We used the bottled water to brush our teeth as well, just to make sure that we did not get any illness.
The food was fantastic and we had no problems with illness.
4. ACTIVITIES:
The included activities include the following
(looking at the guide I have from the resort):
Aerobics
Beach football
Bow and Arrow Practive
Darts
Horse Back Riding
Merengue classes (and there was some dancing
contests)
Pistol and Gun practive
Table football
Volleyball
Banana Boats
Water bikes
body surging
catamarans
snorkeling
scuba diving
excursions to coral reef
kayaks
pedal boats
wind suffing
sunfish sailing boats
There are outside excursions as well (These are
not included in the "all inclusive")
I HIGHLY recommend
the Monster Truck Safari. They took us out in large 8 X 8 trucks and we
saw the real countryside, met real Dominicans, and got a taste of their
culture.
We even stopped off and did some shopping at
real Mom and Pop stores and got some GREAT buys. It was an all day trip
and exausting, but very enjoyable. The cost for this was $85.00 US, but
it was worth it!
There are a lot of other excursions you can go
on as well.
There is a Manatee park (a minature Seaworld)
where you can swim with the dolphins
(I didn't go on this, but heard it was fun)
5. CLEANLINESS/SAFETY:
As you can see from the photos, the resort
is VERY clean....the grounds are kept immaculate...There is always people
out pruning the trees and cleaning up to make it look like paradise.
The rooms were very clean as well. We even saw
a cleaning woman cleaning the bathroom grout with a toothbrush!
The resort itself was VERY safe. We felt completely
comfortable there. We did walk up the street to the local "mall" during
the day. It was safe, but there were children begging for money outside
the mall. Inside, the merchants see the Americans coming! All their prices
are about twice the price of what it should be.
Offer about 1/2 the price (or whatever you think
it is worth), then bargain from there.
A few people we met went up the street to the
disco one night. There are cabs that will take you from the resort. They
had a good time and said they felt safe (I wouldn't recommend going it
alone). They did say that the prices were about average for an American
bar (about $3.00 to $4.00 a drink).
6. SERVICE:
The service is not the fastest. They are very
nice and very friendly, butnot very fast. We sometimes waited for a drink
at the bar for 15-20 minutes....dinner took 1 to 1 1/2 hours...but we were
on vacation to relax and this was perfect. I've seen some complaints posted
about the slow service, but
in the states and especially in the larger cities,
people are used to "eat andrun" type restaurants and immediate attention.
We were in no hurry for anything and enjoyed the week VERY much.
7. ELECTRIC/AMENETIES:
The electric is 120V 60Hz, so no adapter is needed
if you are traveling from the US. They do have
a blowdryer in the bathroom. There is not a cofeemaker
in the room, but that can be ordered through room service (althought this
does take a long time). We found it easier to walk up to the buffett,
get coffee and go back to our room.
There is a refigerator in the room with 2 waters,
2 beers, 4 sodas. It is supposted to be stocked every day although
we found it easier to go to the bar and take back a few things for the
room.
8. WEATHER:
We went in April, although they say that the
weather is about the same year round.
During the day it was 90-95 degrees. At
night it was 80-85 degrees. It is a bit humid.
There is air conditioning in the room and a ceiling
fan over the bed.
One note: They have a strange setup...When
you go into the room, you have no electricity until you put the key fob
into a slot by the door. This turns on the lights and the air conditioner.
The room was getting very hot during the first day. We figured out
that putting a piece of cardboard into the slot kept the air running and
the room comfortable.
There was very little wind. The waves were
very small as well. The beach water was about 70 degrees, the pool
water about 75 degrees.
9. ROOM LOCATION/TYPE:
Our room was closer to the pool. This actually
worked out better since I had just blown out my knee the week before our
trip and had a bit of a hard time walking on the sand. We were also
close to all of the restaurants which are near the pool. The entire
complex is walkable (even with a bad knee using a cane!) and I don't
think there a bad view from any room. Each of the rooms looks out
onto a nice view and there is no window facing directly at another building.
If you think that you will spend more time at the beach, then request a
room by the beach... If you prefer to hang around the pool, then request
one by the pool. (have your travel agent call before you leave,
then mention it at the front desk at check in). All rooms are
the same...all are considered suites.
10. CLOTHING:
As far as clothing, I wore bathing suit or shorts
and tank tops during the day, and khaki's (dockers) and polo shirt to dinner.
At the time, they did require men to wear long pants for dinner, but I
have heard that they are more relaxed now. It is probably a good
idea to bring a few pairs of slacks and if you need them you have them.
Also bring sandals...they are especially helpful if you go on the Monster
Truck Safari and walking along the beach.
11. RESORT CONTACT INFORMATION:
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