We landed safely in Punta Cana on British Airways World Traveller Plus! It was my first time in the Dominican Republic, and the choice of hotels was overwhelming. In the end I went with one night at the Westin and two nights at Paradisus Palma Real. The latter was also my first real experience at a true all-inclusive resort.
Let me briefly cover the Westin Punta Cana Resort first. One reason for choosing it was its proximity to the airport – it’s less than a ten-minute drive, and the hotel provides a free shuttle to and from the airport and nearby locations. Compared with other high-end hotels in Punta Cana, the Westin is actually quite small. The main building is a U-shaped structure surrounding a pool, with the east side facing the beach.
My suite upgrade request didn’t clear, yet somehow I still got upgraded to the best ocean front view one-bedroom suite, which I greatly appreciated.
The suite itself wasn’t particularly special, but the direct ocean view was fantastic.
The (white) sand beach is of excellent quality. The sea is relatively calm, and the seaweed is well managed, so swimming is possible. That said, the water is still somewhat murky, not quite as clear as the Mediterranean or Cancun.
However, as mentioned earlier, the hotel is quite small. Apart from the pool and the beach, there aren’t many facilities, so it can get a bit boring. The hotel offers a complimentary bike rental service, which lets you explore nearby areas. We cycled to the wealthy neighbourhood of Tortuga Bay; there wasn’t much to see, and the beach there was clearly worse than the one at the Westin.
There’s also the Ojos Indígenas nature reserve, but visits are only possible with guided tours. Even with the 50% discount for Westin guests, it still costs $40 per person.
This isn’t an all-inclusive property, so all dining is charged separately, though as a Titanium member I still received complimentary breakfast. The selection wasn’t huge, but the quality was quite high.
So it was time to try a real all-inclusive resort! I’ve stayed in plenty of hotels in my life and have booked half-board or full-board packages before, but this was my first time actually staying at a true all-inclusive hotel (though I’ve been on an all-inclusive cruise). Considering value for money, I eventually chose Paradisus Palma Real from the Meliá group, and also took the opportunity to earn some Iberia Tier Points to work toward Sapphire status.
Paradisus Palma Real is located in the Bavaro area of Punta Cana, where resort hotels are most densely concentrated. In fact, this is essentially a Meliá resort complex containing five hotels within the same grounds. Paths connect the properties, making it easy to wander between them, but facilities are not shared. Each hotel has its own restaurants, and even the beach areas are separated. Let me briefly mention the other properties first.
Paradisus Grand Cana All Suites is also part of the Paradisus luxury brand under Meliá. The entry-level rooms are already 80-square-metre suites with living room and kitchen, and right outside runs a long wrap-around pool. The downside is that the property itself is quite small and the farthest from the beach.
Zel is a very new hotel, marketed with promotional collaboration from Rafael Nadal and focused on health and wellness. It is also an all-suite property.
Meliá Caribe Beach and Meliá Punta Cana Beach sit next to each other. The difference is that the former is more family-oriented while the latter focuses more on adults. In terms of environment, they are actually the nicest: lush tropical landscaping with a rainforest vibe. They are also significantly cheaper because of the brand positioning. The downsides are older rooms and the need to rely heavily on golf carts to get around.
There’s also a Rafa Nadal tennis centre in the complex.
Back to Palma Real. Its main advantage is being the closest to the beach. In terms of positioning it caters to both families and adults, but large areas of the hotel are adults-only, so it’s actually not the most suitable option if you’re travelling with children.
Since Meliá Gold benefits are fairly limited, I decided to pay extra and book a The Reserve room category. You can think of it as including executive- or club-style privileges such as:
- The Reserve lounge
- Dedicated butlet service
- Exclusive accommodation area and pool
- Private restaurant
- Priority reservations at other restaurants
- One complimentary visit to the AUA Spa at the Zel hotel
I’ll mention these throughout the review. After arriving and presenting my The Reserve booking, a Meliá staff member personally escorted us to the Reserve lounge to complete the check-in.
It was very quiet and certainly much faster than queueing in the lobby. That said, the Reserve lounge itself wasn’t particularly impressive: just some snacks and (alcoholic) drinks, and no real view. After checking in I never returned.
During the stay you have to wear a wristband at all times: it acts as the room key, and the colour indicates your booking category.
In terms of room layout, the hotel really only has three types: junior suites, one-bedroom suites and two-bedroom suites (rare). Other differences mainly come down to view, location and whether The Reserve privileges are included.
I booked the cheapest The Reserve garden-view junior suite. A week before arrival I emailed to ask whether I could use my birthday upgrade voucher (it can no longer be applied automatically after recent Melia changes). On the day of arrival I checked the app, and wow, they had upgraded me to a swim-up junior suite, effectively a seven-category upgrade based on pricing.
Let’s take a quick walk around the property first. Guest rooms are located on both sides of the main building connected to the lobby, which tends to be noisier due to the higher density. As soon as you leave the main building you enter the adults-only area, meaning children’s activity space is actually quite limited.
The adults-only area consists of rows of smaller buildings, which feel more upscale than the main building. Garden-view rooms typically look like this.
At the centre is a large swimming pool, complete with a swim-up bar. Many guests probably spend the entire day soaking in the water, drinking cocktails and chatting.
The Reserve is also located within the adults-only area, and the layout and rooms themselves are basically the same. Here’s my two-bed junior suite.
Although it’s called a junior suite, there’s no partition, so it’s essentially just a larger studio. The website describes the beds as singles, but they’re closer to small double size and fairly comfortable.
The minibar contains snacks, soft drinks, beer and a bottle of spirits. Everything is complimentary, though it isn’t automatically replenished – you have to call and request refills. The welcome gift included a fruit platter and a bottle of red wine.
Opening the balcony door was quite a pleasant surprise: direct access to a private pool.
It’s only “small” compared with the main pool, and in reality it’s perfectly large enough for swimming. Since it’s exclusive to The Reserve guests, there are usually very few people around. If you don’t want to swim, you can simply grab a piña colada from the bar and lie in the sun nearby.
At first I thought it was just a room closer to the pool, nothing special. But after seeing it in person it changed my mind for sure. No wonder swim-up suites at these resorts are so expensive, sometimes even more expensive than ocean-view rooms.
Walking further out, past the adults-only area there’s a huge public pool stretching across the property. There are water features for children, while adults have various water activities scheduled during the day.
The beach is very close by. Conditions are decent, and the seaweed is well cleaned. Tou can walk a very long distance along the shore. However, overall it doesn’t feel as nice as the Westin, especially since the waves are slightly stronger and not ideal for swimming.
There seemed to be plenty of beach seating, especially in The Reserve’s dedicated area, which has many cabanas. There’s no need to compete for space.
Other entertainment options are limited. There are nightly music and dance performances in the central plaza, and you can also take the shuttle to Fun Republic elsewhere in the complex for evening shows.
The Reserve guests get one complimentary visit to the AUA Spa at the Zel hotel. Just ask your butler to book it. and the spa’s only a few minutes away by golf cart.
The facilities include standard saunas, hot / cold pools and massage water jets. Nothing particularly unique, but since there isn’t that much to do in the resort, it’s a nice way to pass the time.
Now let’s talk about the food. The main buffet restaurant is called The Lunch Box, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, no reservation needed.
Since most of our meals were at Sante and other restaurants, we only had one breakfast here.
The selection was reasonably extensive, though I didn’t see any Asian dishes. However, the quality wasn’t particularly impressive (you could almost tell just by looking at it), clearly inferior to Sante. I didn’t try lunch but took some photos: it actually looked quite decent and probably better than breakfast.
Another restaurant that doesn’t require reservations is Kanna, located by the beach and pool, open from 11 am to 5 pm. It mainly serves grilled food and sushi. The barbecue was surprisingly delicious: the Iberian pork chop was one of the best dishes I had during the entire three days.
The other restaurants are all à la carte and require reservations. If you’re not a The Reserve guest you probably need to book early. Options include Italian, Asian, steakhouse restaurants and others. I tried the Mexican restaurant Blue Agave, which turned out to be fairly average.
On another evening I wanted steak, but our butler strongly recommended the The Reserve restaurant Sante instead, which turned out to be a big disappointment.
The steak was worse than what you’d get from a random restaurant in the UK, and the entire dinner was forgettable. That said, Sante’s breakfast and lunch are quite good, and the daytime setting – surrounded by the pool – is very pleasant.
Let’s start with breakfast. The space is relatively small, so the buffet selection isn’t huge, but the quality is excellent and there is also an extensive à la carte menu.
Sante is officially “Mediterranean-themed”, and on the first day lunch was a seafood buffet, king crabs included!
At least I managed to get some value back there. Overall, as a VIP restaurant Sante’s breakfast and lunch are excellent, but dinner isn’t worth it.
By the way, I never fully figured out how alcoholic drinks were charged. It seems beer, spirits and cocktails are free, while wine costs extra. However, when I ordered rose at Sante there was no charge, so perhaps house wine is included.
Besides the restaurants, there are bars everywhere in the hotel, plus a café and ice cream shop.
So that concludes my first all-inclusive resort experience. If your goal is simply to relax and do nothing, it’s actually a pretty good option, though you probably shouldn’t expect too much from the food. As for Punta Cana itself, compared with Cancun and the Mediterranean it has very clear pros and cons: the sea quality is noticeably worse, and there’s little to do outside the resorts, but prices are much cheaper. In the end, you get what you pay for.
Recent Comments