Отдых в Доминикане Holidays in the Dominican Republic

We first visited Punta Cana in January 2013 (January 7-14). I wanted to spend the Christmas holidays “like in the Bounty ad”. Friends advised the Dominican Republic and the Gran Bahia Principe hotel. We read the reviews, looked at the photos, calculated our financial capabilities and decided to take a chance. And… we really enjoyed it. Photos and descriptions are available on the website of the Gran Bahia Principe hotel ( http://www.bahia-principe.com/ru/). In fact, these are 4 Gran Bahia Principe hotels. They differ in distance from the beach and the level of service. Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda (the newest hotel) and Luxury Bahia Principe Ambar (only from 18 years old, no children). The Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana and Grand Bahia Principe Bavaro are a bit more modest. All 5-star hotels have their own pools and their own beaches. The area of ​ ​.4 hotels is total and huge. There are 3 routes for electric vehicles. The beaches are great. On our first visit to Gran Bahia Principe, we met an employee of the Bahia Principe club, Eloy Pineda (Russian speaking). He invited us to the presentation of the Bahia Principe club. The presentation ended with our entry into the Bahia Principe club (signing of the contract). In addition to the contracted weeks of rest, we received a free certificate for one week of rest at any hotel of the Club in our “own” season. The certificate was valid until June 2014, so we went to May, adding a contract week to a certificate week. We were offered when booking the hotel Bahia Principe Ambar. We agreed, but at the presentation we were shown the rooms of the Esmeralda Hotel (a new hotel) and we wanted to live in it. Tip: When visiting the presentation of the club, they give gifts (compensation for the time spent on vacation). If there is a choice of a present, take an Internet card for 7 days, you will be with the Internet everywhere on the territory of the hotel, even on the beach (so it seems to cost $ 40). We settled in the Luxury Bahia Principe Ambar (Ambar) hotel in accordance with our booking. On the first day in the barn room, it turned out that the TV was not tuned (it was not possible to find our channels). We turned to the reception, it was difficult to explain what we want, but as a result the TV was replaced for us the next day. There were complaints about the untimely restoration of the “resource” of the minibar and the establishment of the cleaning time in the room, these issues were settled in two days. After 3 days, we decided to try to move to the Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda hotel (Esmeralda) (at a similar cost), but these are new buildings and closer to the ocean (building 90.91). We turned to the service of the Bahia Principe club, they did not refuse us, but as soon as a suitable room became available. They turned (for old times' sake) to Eloy (Eloy Pineda - an employee of the Bahia Principe club). He carefully listened to our “wishes”, wrote it down, and after dinner on the same day we were offered to move to the Esmeralda Hotel. We were surprised at the efficiency and cautiously decided to first look at the room. Eloy himself took us to see the new room (he completely satisfied us) and after 15 minutes we were already in Esmeralda. It was very nice to have such an attitude towards us! We did not have a language barrier, because if we had any questions, we turned to Eloi, and he helped us. Esmeralda's pros: All rooms are new (beds do not creak, all room decoration is in "white" style). There are rooms for accommodation with children (two-room suites). Closer to the ocean. Cons: In the Esmeralda buildings, unlike the Ambar, there are more rooms (more people), there are children and there are many of them (this is good, but not always). Cana is friendly (this is important! ). Individual employees seek to learn Russian on their own. I want to highlight the attitude of Eloy Pineda, an employee of the Bahia Principe club, to the case. He was a real help with our hotel accommodations and departures, even at the airport. He knows Russian very well, he solved all our problems in accordance with our wishes. We recommend tourists from Russia to contact him in case of problems in Bahia Principe hotels (Eloy helped us DONATELY). Suggestions for improving the service (if they are of interest to anyone): 1. At the airport of Punta Cana, at the counter of the Bahia Principe hotel, it is advisable to install a telephone to contact the hotel reception so that there are no problems when meeting if you do not meet a transfer or a plane delay. 2. It is advisable to increase the staff of Bahia Principe hotels with knowledge of the Russian language. 3. Determine, together with vacationers, the time of daily cleaning in the rooms and require staff to strictly adhere to this cleaning time. We will be glad if our opinion helps someone to make the right choice.