Caribe Deluxe Princess

This hotel is lovely, very pretty buildings and has a tropical feel. The staff are very nice, but i’d like to specifically point out Carolina, she cleans our rooms to an amazing standard every day without fail, I haven’t had a single complaint about how clean the rooms are because of her . Another staff member i’d like to mention is one of the servers working in the dining room of the buffet, Luis. He always greets me and my family with a smile, and he is amazing with his service. Not only did I notice how he is with us, but also with other people. He spoke to everyone, and smiles at everyone.

We have recently returned from a 10 day family trip, including our sons aged 18 and 14. This is an honest review from a seasoned traveller. I generally don't like all-inclusives as I find them boring, but as our kids are now older I thought I would chance it again with the idea of leaving them at the hotel and exploring the country on our own. The grounds of this hotel are beautiful as is the beach (minus the seaweed). If you just want a relaxing break in the sun and don't wish to explore - this hotel might be ideal and the rest of my review will probably not resonate for you. We had two interconnecting rooms, which were generous in size, well designed with lots of storage space and were kept very well cleaned by the maids. There was no problem with the air con and the temperature was cold enough. I'm not sure why others are moaning about this. The buffet is inadequate for the number of guests staying at the hotel and there are simply not enough staff to cater for drinks requests. If the hotel invested in self-serve soft-drinks, this would really help to solve the problem. The food at the buffet is very samey every day and is adequate at best, most of the deserts don't actually have any taste! As we had two rooms we were able to try most of the al-la cartes, with the exception of the Italian. Honestly, we enjoyed them all. We never had any problem booking them, so again I'm not sure why some people moan about this. The beach is very beautiful but the seaweed was a huge problem whilst we were there, the sewage smell that other guests complain about, is in fact the decomposition of the seaweed which smells quite strongly of sulphur and is quite unpleasant. The hotel were trying to clear this, but it is a natural phenomena and the scale of the problem was just too big. On our last day they finally managed to clean part of the beach and this made a big difference. The train around the hotel - it takes 4 minutes to walk at a leisurely pace from the pools to the reception area. SO again I don't understand why people complain about this, just walk! The major issues for us were the currency, the cost of things on site and the lack of options to travel (outside of expensive excursions). They operate on two currencies, Dollars and Dominican Peso's, great for American tourists but not so much for us Europeans!! I was advised to take both currencies with me and some Sterling. I tried to change some Stirling for Dollars and the hotel offered me $90 for £100!!!! Obviously i rejected this and changed to Pesos instead but when I went to spend them in the on-site shop, they apparently could only give me Dollars as change?? This seriously makes no sense. As a tourist you will get better value if you pay in Pesos as they round everything up in Dollars. Furthermore the on-site shop which stocks things like sunscreen, snacks, souvenirs is absolutely ridiculous in terms of pricing. We ran out of sunscreen and the cheapest bottle was $28, a bar of chocolate $15!! Absolute rip-off, no wonder the shop is empty for most of the day. Punta Cana has no town centre, it is a series of gated hotels, gated communities and American-style shopping malls. We did leave the site every other day on excursions. ATV tour - good enough activity, but there are several companies all doing the same thing to the same place, so every where you go on the tour is jammed with hundreds of people all doing the same thins. There is no cenote, it is a little cave. The 'farm visit' where you get the chance to apparently buy direct from the farmer costs $15 for a jar of any one thing! Saona Island - looks beautiful, but again there are hundreds of people and loads of boats all doing the same thing and there are NO fish here at all. so if you plan to go snorkelling - don't bother. Snorkelling tour on coral reef - this trip is worth doing if you want to see fish. Scape Park - absolutely fabulous, the highlight of our holiday. There were no options for us to get public transport and explore on our own. Overall i left feeling that the DR had no soul and was very Americanised. I will not return and not recommend it as a location for my friends to visit. I found this trip extremely frustrating as I like to visit places to learn about them. And I will never go all-inclusive again!

We recently stayed at this resort and while there were some lovely aspects, overall, it didn’t quite meet expectations – especially for a family holiday. The room itself was modern, clean, and very comfortable, with housekeeping visiting daily. However, the layout wasn't family-friendly. It was very open-plan with a see-through shower door, which made privacy difficult – especially with teens. Our phone didn’t work throughout the stay, which made communication with reception a challenge. The hotel grounds are the true highlight. Beautifully kept and full of wildlife – we saw turtles, iguanas, and even flamingos. The beach was stunning and always felt safe thanks to visible security across the resort. Many of the staff were friendly, hardworking, and clearly take pride in keeping the place clean. Sadly, this wasn’t the case everywhere – we had particularly poor experiences with a few staff, especially in the sports bar, where we felt unwelcome and uncomfortable. Food-wise, it was very hit and miss. Some meals were lovely, but many weren’t labelled properly and some options were very poor quality. As someone with dietary needs, this made dining frustrating. Booking restaurants was also unnecessarily difficult – the app didn’t work, so we had to queue at reception each day to secure a slot. Entertainment was another area that didn’t meet expectations. Evening shows were often too late and not suitable for children, and daytime entertainment around the pools was very adult-focused. The so-called “mini disco” was just YouTube videos – really disappointing for families with young children. The ice cream shop was a big hit, but it didn’t open until 4pm, and there were no ice lollies available during the day, which seems like a missed opportunity. There were also some practical concerns. Some pools didn’t have lifeguards present, and several people (ourselves included) noticed hair and swimwear turning green, despite the pools being cleaned daily. The excessive use of single-use plastic was also hard to ignore – drinks served in tiny plastic cups, with no visible recycling efforts. Sadly, many of these ended up littering the beach, which really took away from its natural beauty. Finally, the smell of cannabis was noticeable around the resort on more than one occasion, which isn’t what you want when travelling with children. This hotel is often marketed as a five-star resort, but I wouldn’t agree. The beautiful grounds and wildlife are worthy of four stars, but everything else – especially from a family perspective – felt more like three. I’d rate it a 3.5 overall. Not terrible by any means, but I wouldn’t recommend it for families looking for fun, ease, and age-appropriate activities. With a few key changes, it could be so much better.

We had a wonderful experience at Caribe. We had some memorable staff members that treated us so well and were very kind (Luis the bartender and Benito who greeted us daily, spent time chatting with us and served us at the Cabana). The female bartenders in the lobby were so sweet, everyone who cleaned our room and at guest service. We found some really good food at the buffets (omelettes, fruit, bacon, chicken, fajitas, French fries, pizza and more). Thank you for making our girls trip so special and memorable!

YENCY at TAO was amazing! We loved his hospitality. Great hibachi out last night. The hotel overall was clean, Affordable and staff were amazing! From Christian at the buffet, Francesca at the beach house , Wasker at the bar to Ingrid our house keeper! Thank you for making our family feeling Welcome. Just need music at the pools Aside from the main pool And more elderly accessible amenities. Randy, Sebastian, Leonardo,Jeffery, Yolanda , Yuliana (sp?) were great entertainers !! The daily activities were fantastic with the crew!!! Getting All involved! Micheal Jackson show was by far amazing!!!