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Republic of the Dominican Republic. Punta Cana airport. Bavaro. Tropical Clubs Bavaro Reso Hotel

02 May 2012 • Travel time: with 28 March 2012 on 08 April 2012
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Republic of the Dominican Republic. Punta Cana airport. Bavaro. Hotel Tropical Clubs Bavaro Resort 3 *.

Start over. For a long time we have been nurturing plans to visit the Caribbean region of the Atlantic. In the autumn we did not fly a little .

Two adults and two children - 4 and 7 years old. Unexpectedly, both time and money appeared for the implementation of these wishes of ours. Only specials fit into the time-monetary framework. the offer for this hotel, there was not much to choose from, after reading the information from our and bourgeois tourists, they did not see any special contraindications and decided - we were going.


The Aeroflot charter flight left the most positive impressions. We fly quite often, to a variety of regions. And everything, like that, "Transaero" from Domodedovo. This time, having arrived at Sheremetyevo, from the very beginning we were pleasantly surprised by the general organization of the terminal's work. There is a lot of free space, there is no hustle and bustle, everything is calm and measured.

Check-in and baggage check-in went through quickly and without nerves, passport and customs control was also somehow imperceptible, there are a lot of empty seats in the departure waiting area, not busy cafes, and, in principle, it is an order of magnitude more pleasant to be than in Domodedovo. Further, the surprises continued on the plane. We flew with an Airbus 300. Having some experience in long-distance flights and remembering that in Transaero all entertainment in flight costs a lot of money (everything is multiplied by at least 2 or even 4), I carry a bunch of different devices for myself and for children + additional Batteries for them, all the same, 12 hours in one chair are obligated to something. Right there, in the back of the seat in front, there was a monitor, a control panel, and free access to all content: a cinema with a great selection of films of various genres. Games. Cartoons. Audiobooks. Music.

Not only that, right there, USB and a socket for a network cable - if you want to connect a laptop, if you want to charge your phone or tablet. In general, everything is for your convenience. In the previous flight, also quite long, Transaero asked for 1.000 rubles for a multimedia entertainment center. If you don't want to pay, you stare at the flight pattern on the monitor. Further food on the plane - "Transaero", on long-haul flights nervously smokes on the sidelines. Just a striking difference. We ordered a special children's menu. And the children were fed according to a separate program. The quality and quantity of food left the most positive impressions. Juices and water were unlimited. Blankets and pillows were included by default. It seems that Aeroflot, in our person, has acquired regular customers. In general, the flight was easier than expected, largely thanks to Aeroflot.

On the plane, they give immigration cards to fill out, they are filled out for everyone, including children. We flew in, went out to the runway, and walked with our legs into the airport building. The airport is organized on the principle of a bungalow, covered with palm leaves, no windows or doors, everything is blown. By the way? There are already 7 international airports in the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana is a private airport, and is focused mainly on Europe and Russia. Quite quickly passed the passport control and baggage claim, plunged into the bus and after 20 minutes were at the hotel. According to local rules, check-in is from 15:00. And after 10 am we were already there. At the reception, seeing our younger generation, they kindly met us, and after 20 minutes we were already pulling out bathing suits from the suitcase and changing clothes in the room. We had paid Superior, not standard. The room is quite large, two double beds, really big, and one single bed.


The room has a completely bad big closet, no shelves, just a space with doors. A table falling apart at any touch, a bedside table between the beds is also not an example of furniture art. There is a plastic table and three chairs on the balcony. The cost of changing the room on the spot for a better one is $ 5 per day per person. The hotel itself is located 200 meters from the ocean, and consists, as it were, of two territories, one - the main one has its own restaurant, a small pool, and is filled with two-story houses, passing through this territory of 70 meters you get to two three-story buildings, where they actually settle in different ways kind of special offers. There are two pools, something like a jacuzzi, and a restaurant. Yes! There is a separate reception. Due to the fact that the hotel has two receptions, there is a constant confusion with the fence of tourists on excursions. The guides themselves confuse and name the wrong meeting place.

The second reception is called "Hotel Alision" for some reason. No one is waiting or looking for anyone. You are not there when the bus arrived, it is their own fault - they leave without even trying to find you at least somehow. To put it mildly, this approach was somewhat shocking. The territory of the hotel is small, everything is crowded and without frills. Food in restaurants is more than modest, breakfasts are very simple, even scrambled eggs are not always fried, there are completely inedible soy sausages and the same ham. Various types of fried, steamed, boiled and so on. Vegetable bananas and pineapples. About the fact that there are vegetable bananas, I somehow had no idea before. It is impossible to eat them raw. Rare crap. But you can make a lot of different dishes from them. Cheap and cheerful. I won't say it's delicious, it's unusual. Vegetable banana puree is somewhat similar to potato puree.

In principle, you won’t stay hungry, but only Papaya and Pineapples bring pleasure at breakfast. Very tasty. Lunches are also no frills, some kind of soup. Fish-meat-chicken. Often seafood - clams, squid and others like them. Rice, pasta, steamed vegetables, sometimes potatoes. Dinners are almost the same as lunch, with the difference that they give out portions of something fried on the grill.

In principle, both we and the children always found something tasty and left the restaurant satisfied.

We consumed seafood with great pleasure, they were always fresh and tasted different from those frozen 20 times that are sold in our stores. Water, drinks, tea and coffee are almost always available. Very tasty cocoa. In the all-inclusive mode, from 10 am to 11 pm, alcoholic drinks and cocktails, locally produced, are poured without restrictions. Beer. Everything is of very acceptable quality.


Some of our compatriots start pouring beer in the morning, then smoothly switch to rum, and by lunchtime they either sleep on sunbeds in the most unnatural positions, or with glassy eyes, quietly swaying, sit in the bar, looking around at the people around them. Sometimes it was not pleasant to be around. In general, the hotel makes a good impression. The staff is very friendly and not intrusive. There is information on the Internet about theft in hotels, even from safes and locked suitcases. The administration of hotels does not respond properly to the statements of tourists about the loss of money and valuables on their territory. Having this information from various sources, and being pretty concerned about it, I took a plastic Pelican case with me, in addition, hanging additional locks on it. My wife joked that it would be more convenient to carry everything at once. Not so simple. However, not once did I even catch attempts to penetrate the suitcases.

Sometimes expensive phones and photographic equipment remained freely available, nothing was lost. Money was taken only from the bed, which was left as a tip to the maid. You can pay for the safe for $ 2 per day, turn on the electronic lock, and use it. But as practice shows, a safe in a room is not a protection against hotel thieves. It seemed to me that the idea with the special. case is more successful.

At the very least, it takes time and special tools to open it;

Almost on the beach there is another building - where there are rooms overlooking the ocean. Surcharge for moving there is $ 20 per person per day. There is no special meaning in this, everyone constantly walks back and forth through this building, you have to go to eat, anyway, to the main territory, plus at times it smells like sewage.

The beach, which is considered a hotel, to put it mildly, leaves an ambiguous impression - soft white sand, palm trees, BUT there is a construction site nearby, a banal landfill, pretty BU sunbeds, plastic cups are everywhere, into which all drinks are poured at the bar. Algae are periodically present in the sea, they can also lie like a big fat sausage on the surf strip, they are removed, but somehow sluggishly and slowly. For several days there were so many algae in the water that the ocean looked like Chinese soup. Swimming there was simply not possible. Yes, and in principle, being on the beach is not pleasant. This, however, is not always the case, sometimes there are no algae at all and the water is crystal clear. Apparently it depends on the unrest in the ocean. There is a reef about 300 meters in the ocean, water is constantly foaming on it, it fences off the coast from strong waves and various uninvited marine inhabitants - sharks in the first place.


In general, it is stupid to be on the hotel beach, just because of the presence of free drinks nearby. If you walk 500 meters to the left (facing the ocean), then expensive hotels begin with very clean and beautiful beaches, and the ocean itself is cleaner and warmer there, according to local laws, 40 meters from the surf are common, if you do not take hotel sunbeds, no one has the right to do anything to present to you. One zealous guard tried to send us further, they say the hotel beach was sent, and before lunch propped up a palm tree in the immediate vicinity of the guard, no matter how we went inside the hotel and, God forbid, would not sit down on a hotel sunbed  . There is also something like a market, they sell basically all sorts of rubbish for big money, T-shirts and shorts of very low quality, ugly and expensive. Something relatively decent and not expensive (it's 12-15 dollars for a T-shirt) can be found already after leaving the beach in the village, in shops.

In some places there are Russian-speaking beauties, mostly with independent ones. Souvenirs are miserable, silver costs absolutely terrible money. In general, I didn’t get the feeling that the Dominican Republic is a poor country, and the Dominicans vegetate in poverty, the prices in ordinary food stores, for example, in Juan Dolio or La Romano, are quite Moscow’s, in roadside cafes, too, can’t be said to be cheap. But the prices for fresh fish and seafood are much less than ours. Clothing and shoes are also somewhat cheaper. Although gasoline costs $ 2 per liter - but everything is in cars or mopeds. The traffic is not regulated in any way, no one pays attention to the signs. In settlements, you can easily get stuck in a traffic jam, Taxi is expensive. More expensive than Moscow, even official. Interestingly, the traffic police work until 6 pm, then complete freedom! You can rent a car from $40 per day. Yes!

Don't trust homemade maps that say Caribbean Sea, near Punta Cana, and don't listen to the citizens from the tourist industry broadcasting about the Caribbean. The resort of Bavaro is the Atlantic, the most real and unambiguous. Moreover, this is a reservation for tourists, it is quite long and expensive to get from there to the same Caribbean Sea. There is no public transport there. If on your own, then either a taxi or a car for rent. All sorts of excursions from the host side cost absolutely not normal money, and most of the time you will spend on the road in a cramped bus, while you will be taken to terribly expensive souvenir shops, having previously been thoroughly brainwashed that it is there that only real rum, cigars, etc. . You may spend a few dollars more, but you can be sure ...blah. . blah. . blah.

It would be more accurate to say that in such shops you will pay exactly twice as much as compared to a regular supermarket, for absolutely the same product. In general, the methods and style of work of the host side are worth dwelling on them separately. From the first minutes upon arrival, you begin, to put it mildly, misinformed. To a simple question about what is the exchange rate of the Peso to the dollar, without blinking an eye, they will say “Nuuuu, like in Moscow, 29-30 pesos per dollar. ” ..


Further, immediately after boarding the bus, after voicing the most minimal mandatory information about the country, you will be consistently and purposefully intimidated, promising that if you dare to leave the hotel territory, something will happen to you right there, something not good, at least you will be left without money ...The psychological pressure does not stop, you will be hammered into your head that you need to stay in a hotel, well, in extreme cases, go to the beach, and then carefully! Be constantly on the alert, do not talk to anyone, if someone turns to you in their native language - run without looking back. This is certainly a Russian criminal who is hiding in the Dominican Republic from justice. After all, there is no extradition agreement between Russia and the Dominican Republic! All Russian crime here warms the belly and only looks out for someone to fool. The topic is constantly being discussed that it is allowed to carry weapons on the island, locals walk around with shotguns, machetes, etc.

d ...they say, I remember a million cases when ... ! Do not buy any excursions on the beach, do not buy ANYWHERE - at least the excursion simply will not take place, and if it does, then you will certainly be forgotten somewhere, not brought back, robbed on the way, and so on. other To directly posed questions; how to get there? Where to rent a car? Where is it interesting to go? What can you see for yourself? Either they do not react at all, or they begin to carry nonsense that is completely beyond the bounds of decency, both about the cost of renting, and that if you take a car, then the rental office will certainly organize an accident for you, a boy on a moped will fall under your wheels, with you will be ripped off a lot of money, and they, of course, will not be able to help in such a situation. They will tell about the evil Haitians, who, with the onset of twilight, block roads in crowds, stop cars, hit everyone on the head, take everything they can.

(at the same time, it is forgotten that all ears themselves buzzed about the free carrying of weapons by the Dominicans, and the evil Haitians have quite noticeable chances of running into buckshot, or even a magnum bullet from a car stopped in this way) What are you! No cars! It looked especially nice; when the guide, a young pretty woman who recently told all these horrors in the style of Hitchcock, after 9 pm, almost in complete darkness, got off the bus of the village and drove in a brand new Japanese car, apparently evil Haitians know her by sight and do not touch her! You have to find the necessary information yourself. Moreover, the receptionists behave not quite clearly. You ask in normal English: We need to get into the dolphin explorer, how best to do this? They start unfolding brochures for you, and explaining how to get to Dolphin Land, this is not the same thing.

In general, fly to hell on Easter cakes, spend quite tangible money on a trip and sit tied up in a hotel, or walk like a goat on a string, where they will lead you, and understand that they are trying in every possible way to deprive you of freedom of choice, and limit what only you can not the most correct and adequate pastime. Currently, the Dominican Republic, for some reason, is positioned as a counterweight to Egypt. And the prices for decent hotels in Egypt were raised to the level of budgets in the Dominican Republic (exactly Tropical Clubs Bavaro Resort 3 * from among them), and now, who could afford to fly to Egypt for two weeks, drink their heart's content there, as it were, free alcohol, adding quite a bit of money, they got the opportunity to get to the Caribbean region of the Atlantic, if not for two, but for one week. It is approximately clear what kind of audience is often found in hotels of this level?


Actually, because of what we stopped going to Egypt many years ago, here it appeared before us in full growth. As a rule, we try not to overpay for hotels, because we always use them exclusively as a launching pad. Right there, if you want to feel all the charm of the tropics without spending very noticeable money on the spot, after spending most of your time at the hotel, you need to go to 5 *, it's terribly expensive, but it cuts off all that "Egyptian" public, which you can look at at home absolutely free.

Next, on excursions and trips.

Usually we buy one tour from the host. The rest, at our discretion, we organize ourselves. This time it was an excursion to the island of Saona, with a stop at the city of millionaires, a stop at the junction of the Atlantic and the Caribbean, mangroves, starfish and all sorts of other joys.

It’s a boat where you can at least sit normally, without a crush, and if necessary get on your feet, stretch, do something, there is a normal roof over your head, a toilet, and at least some kind of internal space. Water and some drinks are present, only on the boat, but extremely limited, no food is offered to the island. Remembering the organization and conduct of excursions in the Andaman Sea, moreover, by local, not a travel agency, and mindful of the cost of the process, there was some misunderstanding of what was happening ...The Caribbean Sea is completely different, the place where it and the Atlantic borders is very beautiful, it is clear that the water is both in structure and in color is different, like the junction of two worlds, simply bewitching. There is a shoal there, which a hurricane made several years ago, the depth is shallow, the water is warm. Mangroves with a colony of frigatebirds are also very spectacular and unusual.


Live starfish, you can pick them up, take pictures with them, unusual shells with marine life. It is a pity that with such exploitation all this will wither and die, and eventually, sooner or later, it will cease to be found there at all. Remembering how spoiled and modest, the underwater world of Sharm El Sheikh, what is left of the coral reserves of Ras Mohammed and Ras Um Sid, from the end of the last century, analogies are involuntarily drawn, and it becomes sad. The island of Saona itself, beautiful with white clean sand on the beach, warm calm Caribbean Sea. Palm trees, tropical trees, dense shrubs. The island offers a pretty tasty lunch, including lobsters of these very ones. There is some kind of souvenir, T-shirts and shorts. We had lunch. We didn’t have time to swim and lie on the sand - running, running to the ship and on the way back. At the port of destination, they scratch along the coast at top speed. There is again a cramped bus and the way back.

In total, you will spend at least 6 hours on the bus. Moreover, on the way back you will be forcibly brought to a souvenir shop, the similarities of which can be found near each hotel if you wish, and you will lose at least an hour there. In general, the features of Bavaro are such that it makes sense to go there only if you are focused specifically on a beach holiday, or you are driving light and feel the ability to move around the island by car, staying in hotels. The room costs about 1000 rubles for our money. Taking it off is not a problem. We talked with people who did just that - informative, and the very meaning of such a long trip increases significantly. This time we did not rent a car, the children are making some adjustments to their lifestyle.

Further, in the same place, on the spot, we met our compatriots who have been living in Bavaro for more than 10 years, have families there, and are professionally engaged in diving, they also receive tourists, organize excursions, and take them around the islands. They can travel with you according to a separate program, take you somewhere, show you interesting places, or help you in every possible way to ensure that you fulfill your plans. We sailed with them to Catalina Island. Here the price is quite normal and corresponds. From an adult for $ 70, a child under 5 years old is free, over $ 35. Swimming was on a normal ship, the so-called. catamaran, a lot of space, free, a roof over your head, there is a toilet. With stops for diving, in the sea, who wants to swim with masks, watch the underwater world from above. Who does not want - remains on the boat. Drinks are offered on the ship, after diving they are fed with soup, which is very useful.

Upon arrival in Catalina Bay, they are taken to the shore on motor boats, where you settle down on the beach, swim, there are more living creatures in the sea than on Saona. Water is clearer. And if you step aside from the organized beach, you find yourself practically on a wild, uninhabited territory, palm trees, tropical plants, an emerald mirror of the sea, a tropical sun, and you are waiting for the appearance of a pirate brig ...very picturesque. But anyway, after 15 sailing on the way back, on the way back the crew turned on the music and arranged a master class on “Flomengo? ”, the female and children's part of the tourists danced with pleasure.


In Bavaro itself, we went to Manati Park, agreed with taxi drivers for $ 15 there, and he was waiting for us to take us back (this is another 20). The park is a small private zoo that a rich dad built for his daughter. Many beautiful parrots, you can cuddle iguanas.

Thomas Cook's guidebook separately writes about Manati Park - dolphins are kept there in extremely bad conditions, the pools are small, the conditions of detention do not meet any standards, animals die without counting, new ones are caught in the sea instead. Seeing all this live, the veracity of the guide became obvious. Money is tritely earned on animals, without taking them into account as such. Human greed knows no pity.

Further, we went under our own power to the dolphin explorer - large colored parrots fly on the territory, make scandals, fight, in general, live their own lives. There are groves with tropical plants, as if wild, not cultivated. The beach has white clean sand and palm trees. The performance with dolphins takes place in a natural pool - a rather large area of ​ ​ the sea is fenced with a net, and divided into sectors, the largest sector with dolphins, next to it are sharks - nannies, rays and sea lions.

At the exit, ready-made photos are $ 10 a little thing. Regardless of quantity. From 10 pieces for 9.90. Not traded. Dull faces. I don’t remember such, to put it mildly, not a smart approach, literally everywhere from 5 pieces there is a good drop in price, and from 10 and even more so by half. No, we'd rather throw out most of it, but we won't lower the price. Not otherwise than they learned trade from Azerbaijanis. Dolphin Explorer is definitely worth a trip. Terribly expensive - but there is absolutely everything, somehow it does not really fit with the cost.

On the territory of Bavaro there are several large shopping centers, such as our Auchans in miniature, and a supermarket and shops with all sorts of things. For example Rum, 0.5. a liter costs 150 pesetas there, while in shops near the hotel it costs 280-300. Well, there are many different points for which it makes sense to get to San Juan (Hypermarket). Shops with branded rags do not deserve attention at all.


Unless you have torn your jeans, which you don’t understand why you dressed up, and you have nothing to fly home with. I don't see any other reason to buy there. Somehow there is no feeling on the island that you are in the tropics, there are few fruits, and their quality is not quite what you expect. Nature again, not quite Tropical. To the west of the island, where there are real rainforests and jungles, you can get from Bavaro only if you spit on the hotel and devote several days to this. We did not go to the capital, having decided to give the children more time to spend on the ocean.

On the beach, you can arrange and swim personally on a boat to snorkel over the reef, for 3 hours it costs $ 100. First, bargaining, of course, starts much more expensive. In general, there is nothing to see there. As an introductory trip, tick the box. There is nothing close in beauty to the underwater world of the atolls of the Indian Ocean, and even more so to the Red Sea.

And there it was interesting to swim in a mask and fins!

Some useful information in my opinion:

1. The hotel has Wi-Fi, although the grid is password-protected, but the key is given at the reception, and it is a hotel phone number (from a business card). This happened in two hotels. You can go further by analogy. There are many open chains, especially in communities, restaurants and cafes. Skype and any SIP dialers work with a bang! The video is broadcast without brakes in both directions.

2. If you decide to travel by car, be sure to take a communicator with you, a tablet with a SIM card, preferably with a large screen, buy a local SIM card on the spot. (Again, if you believe the guides, this is practically impossible, for this and that, and terribly expensive for tourists) In fact, they are sold in almost any large store and are comparable to ours. Add $10 to your account. Enough stock.

Meaning - through the GPRS, Yandex or Google detailed maps of the island are quite quickly pumped up. Navigation works. The map of the Dominican Republic that I downloaded for Navitel was a terrible misery. The variant with GPRS is without losing.


3. Sockets everywhere according to the American standard, two flat plugs, just the kind on which we often put on adapters for household appliances. Mains voltage 110 Volt 60 Hz. Look at power supplies and chargers. Theoretically, all modern switching power supplies work in these networks. However, laptops sometimes have exceptions for 200-240 volts. With sockets in the rooms is not rich. (as well as everywhere else) If you are carrying equipment with you, it is better to grab a pilot extension for five sockets with such a plug. One less problem. Yes, it costs 4-5 dollars there. And + get to the store, often 10-15!

4. There is practically no street lighting.

At night, cars and motorcycles can move without light at all. You have to be very careful. The traffic police reacts mainly to not wearing a seat belt and talking on a mobile phone on the move.

5. Mobile phones must support the EGSM 850/1900 MHz standard. There is no such thing in Russia.

6. Calls to your homeland and anywhere through local SIM cards are incomparably cheaper than roaming. I generally keep quiet about IP dialers.

7. When swimming in the ocean, remember about high-speed boats with drunken tourists.

In general, it can be summarized as follows. A very interesting, beautiful country, with friendly and open people. Terribly expensive for visitors. America oriented. It is much cheaper for Pindos and Canadians to rest there than in Florida, this is their kind of Crimea. The Caribbean resort of Boca Chica is filled mostly with aging Pindos workers in company with young Dominicans and Haitians.

In Bavaro, they are also in a lot of sunbathing on the beaches of expensive hotels, and young people rage in budgets. Russian alcoholics, yesterday's regulars in Egypt, are simply examples of culture in comparison with them. I can’t say that the feeling is straight “AH!! ! I want more and more! ! . Although maybe we just snickered, I don’t know, after Turkey and North Africa, the Dominican Republic will seem like Paradise on earth. But after Southeast Asia, the islands in the Andaman Sea, India, its islands, the Maldives archipelago and much more, Hispaniola is modestly looking for a place in his soul. Children, being there, all remembered Thailand and India, at times even Tenerife with a cool ocean. And you can’t deceive them with anything and in any way, this is the surest indicator. If there is a choice, and hesitations in the soul - the Thai Islands in the Andaman or the Gulf of Thailand, or Hispaniola, we are now definitely leaning towards the first.

Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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