My family, including 2 teenagers, just returned from the Bahia Principe last week. Here are my thoughts.

Hotel Grounds - 5 Star! Beautifully landscaped and impecably maintained.

Ocean - 5 Star! The water was really warm and a beautiful light blue. My only complaint would be that the snorkeling is very poor in front of the resort. Decent snorkeling can be found within a 15 minute walk north of the resort.

Staff - 5 Star! Very friendly and always available. It was occasionally difficult not knowing Spanish but we got around ok. Most of the visitors are Canadian or European. I liked that as I was looking for a international location, not Hawaii.

Rooms - 5 Star! Very nicely appointed rooms that were always clean and are very roomy. Satellite TV was nice. We found at least 8 channels in English.

Location - 5 Star! Great place to get away from it all. Don't expect any easy access to outside places as this hotel is on its own. We liked that part of it. I do think the snorkeling would be better in the hotels south of the eastern tip. They would also be closer to the airport. It took an hour taxi from the airport to the Bahia.

Activities - The activities at the resort are good. They always have things going on by the pools and have activity service right on the beach. They will literally pick you up off of the sand for scuba, parasailing, snorkeling, etc.

The Bahia is very nice and met all of our expectations. Our kids had a lot of fun because there is a lot of teenagers and night things for them to do. The only turn off was the market in front of the hotel. The people are EXTREMELY pushy and annoying when trying to sell junk. They were very expensive. A typical $3 bracelet in the states would cost $10 in the market. My wife and I went once and never went back!

We just got back from the Gran Bahia Principe Punta Can & had a great time! Everything that I read about the resort before we left said it was a 4 star property and I think that is right on.

The grounds & beach a beautiful! A little wavy at the shore but not so much that you cannot get in the water and hang out. There are a lot of chairs & palapas on the beach we never had a problem getting something in the shade heading out there late morning.

The pools are nice and well kept as well but warm like bath water as it was pretty hot there right now so we preferred the beach & the ocean by about mid morning. Also it was hard to get chairs with shade at the pool unless you got up early and got out there to reserve them.

The bars and bartenders were all great too and pretty entertaining. We tried the sugary drinks which were all good but they were always willing to make whatever drinks we came up with. We brought our own insulated cups and used them all day everyday it was so nice to have our drinks stay cold! The bars didn't open until 10 am - we are early risers & early to bed so would have liked to have had bloody's for breakfast but not a huge deal.

The food was 4 star quality. I am a picky eater and have a rather sensitive stomach but had no problems. The buffets had a really big variety of food and always something that they would whip up for you like omlets or pasta. They evern had sushi most days which my boyfriend (who is half japanese) said was actually pretty good. We hit them near the closing time a couple of times & they were still stocking it with fresh food. The seafood restaurant was good not great but good. The steakhouse and the japanese restaurants we really liked a lot great food & fun.

We drank the water, brushed our teeth & washed our dishes with the water and I never got sick. My boyfriend had a day where he had to take some tums to settle his stomach but then laid off the sugary fruit drinks and fruit at the buffet and was fine. We don't eat a ton of fruit at home or drink much fruit juice and he was having fruit at every meal as well as fruity drinks all day so I'm sure that's all it was.

The square with the shops, vendors, casino & stuff was nice to go meander around at night. You can banter with the guys with the carts but not in the stores. Start by offering about 1/3 of what they tell you. Also the vendors that walk the beach were really cheap and easier to bargain with. They don't bother you unless you call them over. We also caught a glimpse of a few shows & they seemed pretty entertaining.

We tried to play tennis a few days one day it was just too hot so we scheduled the first court time the next morning & the guy never showed up to open the courts. Not great courts but fine to get some exercise on vacation.

There was definetely a language barrier but it is a foreign country and as long as you are patient they usually figure it out or will call someone over who speaks better english to help. They love it if you at least try a few phrases and also enjoy answering questions about how to say certain things in spanish. We didn't really have anyone who was rude to us at the resort but there were people who didn't go out of thier way to be nice or attentive but we are pretty low maintenance so this did not bother us at all.

If you have any specific questions pm me & I will answer them instead of rambling on here.....

We loved it & will go back!

My husband and I stayed at the Punta Cana section from July 4-10. We got married here last year and wanted to spend our anniversary HERE again :)

Upon our arrival, we were upgraded to the Ambar Section (which is brand new) adults only. We were able to use everything in the Punta Cana and Bavaro section, however, no one else was able to use our section unless you were part of the ambar sections. The resort is HUGE! but we dont care, we're young and we could use the walk. Just ignore all of the bad reviews you hear out there. You are the one who make your vacation worth while. If you are picky and have it in mind to complaint, then everything will go WRONG. Go with an open mind and remember this is not the US. The service is great if your great to them, if you have a nasty attitude, they're going to give you a nasty attitude lol so just be nice :)

The Ambar section had a private pool and three private a la carte restaurants (which you must make reservations upon your arrival) and one buffet restaurant plus many pool bars and pool/beach restaurants. You can also go to the buffets and some of the a la carte restaurants on the Puntacana and Bavaro Section.

We got married last year in the Punta Cana section and had NO complaints, we returned this year and still NO complaints. We are already planning our third trip for next year :)

This was my 5th time to Punta Cana in the last five years in 5 different hotels and I can honestly say that this was the best so far. We were upgraded from the Bavaro to the Amber upon arrival.

Rooms were definitely a 5 star jaccuzzi full shower Canopy King size bed with amazing mattress brand new bedding, screen tv bathrobes, slippers a huge room couldn't ask for better.

Pool area beach and restaurants were clean beautiful and quiet no cigarette butts on the beach or smell of booze in the pool plenty of shade and pallapas you could actually sleep on the beach and if you wanted to and if you wanted more action you could go to the Larger pool area.

The Amber buffet and lobby were beautiful and the food presentation was really nice we did eat the other larger buffet but we preferred the Amber

People were friendly don't forget to tip the gardners the grounds were immaculate

Overalll a very relaxing holiday