About Us : We are a couple in our mid fifties who enjoy traveling to the DR. This is our fifth trip here, second time to the north coast, the other three times to Punta Cana. First time at an Iberostar resort. Have stayed at Hacienda Andreas (now Lifestyle Crown Suites), H10 (now Ocean Bavaro), Riu Palace Macao and Bahia Principe Punta Cana. Easy going and adaptable when on vacation. We got this vacation on a last minute deal. Flight : Flew Skyservice. Put in hollow aluminum tube, go over 500 mph while your knees are up around your chin. Nuff said. Arrival : Twenty minute drive from the airport. Went to check in, told to come back at 3pm. No problem as we expected this. Had a change of clothes in the carry on luggage. Went for lunch and checked out the lobby bar and beach. Came back at three, everything was ready. Had e mailed the Iberostar four days earlier requesting a room near the ocean and a king size bed. Room : Got room 1008 villa #1 with a king size bed and ground floor. The room faced the ocean and being on the ground floor there were no palm trees to block your view. Was the best location we’ve ever had. The safe used a four number password that you chose. Had to enter it to both open and lock the safe. Ample closet storage and hangers. Bathroom was fine, bathtub/shower combo and lots of soap, shampoo etc. TV had some English channels, HBO was one, can’t remember what else. Fan over the bed and air conditioned. Leave the sliding patio door open and the air shuts off. Had a drying rack on the terrace like the Riu’s have. Food : Quality and selection both very good. The open air buffet restaurant El Mercado serves breakfast 7 to 10 am. Large variety of food, omelettes made to order, was our favorite meal. Also had lunch and dinner here. Both lunch (1 to 3pm) and dinner (6:30 to 9:30) had at least one carving station. Looked forward to the buffet meals here. Menu for the dinners was posted at the entrance on the right side. Continental breakfast (10 to 12 am) was at the pool side snack bar El Bohio. El Bohio also had lunch (12 to 4pm) and then snacks up tp 6 pm. There are three ala carte restaurants. El Rodizio (Brazilian), La Hacienda (Mexican) and El Bohio (Tropical and is the snack bar during the day). Both the Brazilian and Mexican are air conditioned. Took photos of the ala carte menus for the three restaurants, click on photo link at the bottom of the page. Drinks : Have a beach bar (10am to 5 pm), lobby bar (11am to 2 am), bar at El Bohio by the pool, and the bar at the entertainment area (5pm to midnight). Found the best drinks at the lobby bar. Photos of bar menus on the photo link. Entertainment : During the day had the Star Friends who did volleyball, dance lessons etc. If you didn’t want to join in no problem. Worked very hard. At night they had the stage entertainment, Lion King, Chicago, Latin Night, Mr Iberostar etc. Ran on a two week cycle. It was alright, they try hard. Some nights the band would play in the courtyard before the shows started, really enjoyed listening to them. Entertainment is never one of the deciding factors on which resort we choose, but it was one of the best we’ve seen. Beach / Pool : We’re beach people, only went in the pool twice. The beach now is very wide and the small areas of coral in the water are roped off and visible. Take bread out to the coral, lots of yellow and black striped fish will start to feed on it. Water was warmer than the pool, nice sandy bottom and the beach is raked every morning. Palapas are on the east side of the beach (by building #5). We never used them as trees go across the entire width of the property and there’s lots of shade. The loungers are the canvas type and there are lots of them. Never got to the beach before 10 am and always got a spot in the shade. You can go for nice walks in each direction. Right beside the Iberostar on the west side is the Coral Marien. After the its open beach for quite a while. Was told there are vendors up that way but never saw any. To the east you can see the point of the Playa Dorada complex, would guess a 35 to 45 minute walk. On the way they have vendors in their stalls with the usual stuff for sale. No shade so take water if your going for a while. Lots of people using the sea kayaks and hobie cats, was a yellow flag day the week we were there. Also have vendors walking the beach selling tours, hair braiding, etc. Just say no and they went away. Very relaxing area. The pool was large, around 4.5 feet deep with shallow areas. Also had a kids pool. The loungers were plastic, get pads at the towel hut for them, made a difference. Lots of palapas for shade, and never too far from the bar. The white columns with the jacuzzi in the middle does really look great, view it with Mount Isabella in the background for the best effect. Never ran out of towels and if you’re a pool person will love this one. Staff : Excellent. It was the friendly attitude plus the way they did there jobs which stood out the most. As I said at the start we are easy going and we never had one problem the whole week with anyone. Believe that it was more to do with the way this resort is run than anything on our part. They were that good. Went through a lot of money for tips, not because we had to but because we wanted to. Tour : Rented a cab for four hours one day, at a cost of $45 US total. Went to the cable car ride at Mount Isabella ($7 US each) and then to a supermacado. There were three of us so the bill per person was $22 US. Thought that was reasonable. At the supermacado we got rum, vanilla, coffee and coco. Plus you get to see a bit more of the town. Enjoyed the cable car very much. They have tours available at the resort, by people selling them on the beach or just rent a cab and do your own tour. Just get a set price from the driver before leaving. Conclusion : Relaxing, enjoyable vacation because of the people working here. Have stayed at other Spanish chains of resorts and this is right up there with them. Every so often you see new resorts open up with a very affordable price at the start. It can be tempting to book them. Then you get a last minute deal to an established resort that long ago worked out all the “bumps in the road” and you just know that you made the right choice. Would recommend this place to anyone.