Barcelo Puerto Plata - All Inclusive

Hotel is not bad for the price, food was good, not too many choices but overall good. Beach was beautiful. Not enough beach chairs or towels. Had to get up at 6:30am every day to "reserve" beach chairs, and one time another guest removed my items from chair, throw it in sand and took chair, so that when I arrived at 8:30 I only had one chair! Hotel allows "vendors" to stay on beach all day (example: women who braid hair, sit under shade all day, taking up shade space and talking all day, every day) They have security standing by entrance to beach all day which makes no sense - as vendors are allowed on beach. Hotel staff treats European/Canadians much better. Security guards treat you as if you are sneaking into hotel, when you are paying to stay there! shows were not very good, not much to do. If you want to stay with an older crowd and just sit by the beach it's fine. Bottom line - you get what you pay for.

Overall, the resort was a great value for the price. The seafood and Mexican restaurants are outdoors so I wouldn't necessarily call them restaurants. The best food was the pizza from the upstairs pizza grill, but they should have made this available during lunch as well as dinner.

I mainly was sun-tanning. The bed was too small and the atmosphere was very noisy. The staff is friendly although not very attentive. I was lucky because I speak spanish, otherwise, I would have had a difficult time being serviced. The location, Puerto Plata is not as nice as Punta Cana.

The hotel was clean, beach and pool were well maintained. Most of the staff was very friendly but a couple were pretty rude... Tennis rackets were bent and broke(my handle was snapped in half and duct taped together), snorkel items were icky.. The biggest draw back to the Barcelo is making reservations for dinner. They only take reservations during certain hours, hours when all the sight seeing trips are taking place, so you would have to stick around the hotel in order to make a reservation... So eating at the buffet was the norm, and its not the greatest sevice or food...

We arrived at the hotel earlier than the check-in time. They were very accomodating and our luggage was secured for us while we used the facilities before our room was ready. Check-in was a breeze. When we got to our room it was what we thought it would be with 2 double beds in the room. Without asking, they supplied us with a third bed, which was a nice thing. We found the staff to be very professional and friendly. The food at the buffet was better than expected and the ala carte restraunts were also acceptable. Now for the bad. We had no hot water in the room for 2 days of the 8 day stay. Making reservations for the ala carte restraunts is quite difficult if you are not a Club member. (pay for the upgrade) The nightly show is not a show at all. It afforded very little entertainment. It did rain a few days and there is absolutely nothing to do in the rain. No game room for the kids and no activities scheduled during the day. We have visited other all inclusive hotels and have thoroughly enjoyed the shows and activities set up by the resort. Not at all like Barcelo.

ovarall a fantastic stay, and would stay again any time, hotel staff were very friendly and service was great

Very poor hotel. No hot water at numerous times, difficult to get a pool towel, very unhelpful employees, didn't even have electricity the last day, staff stole from room. Vomit in lobby bathroom for hours before cleaning. Room was across from adjoining mall with a disco which blasted music until at least 4 AM. Power surge strip in room with fire marks on it and still in use (we disconnected for fear of a fire).

Enjoyed the pool and beach. Liked the nightly shows. and the food was pretty good considering it was all inclusive.

Stayed here for our honeymoon. The food was great, the staff was friendly, and there were very few children around. Absolutely wonderful place to go and relax on the beach or by the pool with lots of tropical drinks. While a few of the staff (like the towel girl) seemed apathetic, most were very friendly and helpful. They were fixing things that were damaged or needed improving while we were there, but did it mostly in ways that didn't bother us: we came back from the beach one evening to find a row of palms planted behind our room blocking the view of an ugly shed, and saw them replacing the roofs of the tiki huts by the pool at night. The worst part was the old fat women who decided they needed to bathe topless and the old men in speedoes. No one needs to see that, but at the same time it's a phenomenon hardly limited to this resort. In one week, we got around to doing many, but not all, of the included activities. We wish we'd been able to stay longer than a single week.

We traveled around the country having been to Punta Cana and Puerto Plato among other places in a single trip. There is no conceivable reason, other than a huge price difference, to going to Puerto Plato instead of Punta Cana. Puerto Plato is where the all inclusive business started in that country, but by now the whole Puerto Plato area just seems obsolete. The sea water is brown due to geography, the beach near hotel is filled with garbage. The hotel is nice but nothing fancy - cookie cutter resort about 15 years old. The shows are better than in other places we've been to. The hotel does not have catamarans unlike all hotels in Punta Cana. Beach vendors are uncontrolled and bether every couple of minutes.