Decide between two DomRep hotels Gran Bahia Principe Cayacoa or VH Gran Ventana Beach

MrsE_2

Trying to decide between two Dom Rep hotels (after a cheapie).

The Gran Bahia Principe Cayacoa in Samana
Pros
Better beach (paler sand than outside the VH).
No childrens club - so maybe less kids
Slightly better rooms (maybe), they have whirlpool baths & minibars.
Prettier quiter resort.
Cons
Lower food score than the VH, only 81% positive.

VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort in Playa Dorado
Pros
Has an 86% positive score for food & as the Dom Rep can be dodgy, thats important.
Maybe being near a larger resort will be better for trips? A little shopping? Etc?
Cons
Or maybe Saman is nicer?
Beach is more golden?
Rooms less frills, no whirlpool or minibar

Any advice
Do they both have tea/coffee making in the rooms
They both have 3 a la carte restaurants (in addition to the buffet) where you are limited to 3 visits per week.

The Gran Bahia Principe Cayacoa is about £100 more for both of us, so not much in them.

MrsE_2

Also up for concideration could be:

Puerto Plata
ClubHotel Riu Bachata
Be Live Grand Marien
ClubHotel Riu Mambo
Blue Bay Villas Doradas

Punta Cana
Caribe Club Princess
ClubHotel Riu Bambu

La Romana
Gran Bahia Principe La Romana

Any of them great?
Any better than my two (Gran Bahia Principe Cayacoa or VH Gran Ventana Beach Resort)?

Dave_6

I booked the Gran Ventana last night, from what I've read rooms do have minibars there aswell

Almost went for one of the Rius, Mambo, but opted for the Gran Ventana due to probably having more places to walk about and explore. Thought we might maybe be a little too restricted at the Rius.


Punta Cana apparently has the best beaches? so if you can go on a slightly higher budget then maybe thats worth thinking about, we were limited on budget so thats why we only had the Gran Ventana really as an option or the Riu Mambo

MrsE_2

Dave_6 wrote: »

Punta Cana apparently has the best beaches? so if you can go on a slightly higher budget then maybe thats worth thinking about, we were limited on budget so thats why we only had the Gran Ventana really as an option or the Riu Mambo

If I put another £300-£400 in the budget I could stretch it to Punta Cana, but I think my budget now will get me a fairly decent place in the North, but would get me (even with another few hundred) a poorer place in Punta Cana or La Romana?

Would you agree that these

Caribe Club Princess
ClubHotel Riu Bambu

Are not as good as the two I'm thinking of? Despite costing more:(

Dave_6

Prices seem all over the place, on thomson anyway

I've booked for June at the Grand Ventana which ended up costing £650 each including seating together, that week has now shot up by over £100. BUT another hotel I liked the look of has come down alot, the Grand Bahia Principle (which is now the cheapest for that week)

It's such an awkward one because you can keep on upping your budget over and over and then lose track of where you started... or what else you could have done for the higher budget

Try and set a budget and stick to it. We were looking at going to Feurteventura, good 4* hotel we liked came out at £550 so we opted to do something different and chose the Dominican


Beaches in the North apparently aren't as good but we'll be doing the Paradise Island trip which is £35 each person + paradise island looks pretty special

stephb34

We went to the Ventana last year on the reccomendation of one of my customers, he goes several times a year for the last 30 years so it must be ok. It was nice but we had been to Cuba the year before and that was far better so its hard to reccomend. There are 3 a la carte restaurants that are very good but you need to be booking them as soon as you get there if its busy or you wont get in, the buffet restaurant is ok. The location is good right next to the shopping centre so theres somewhere to walk to and buy a few things. I was disappointed with the beach but then i knew it was the atlantic and not the caribbean so my fault. You do get hassled a lot on the beach to buy things, there was none of that in cuba. I didn't rate the hotel evening entertainment very much it was a bit cheesy, but again in cuba the entertainers were like professionals and won an award whist we were there for the best entertainment in cuba. The kids club in the ventana was better it was open from 10am till about 5 and the kids could come and go as they pleased. But at the weekend the hotel filled with locals who were very noisy in the pool and every where, one boy banged into me n i had a huge black bruise on my arm for 10 days and he didn't even say sorry and they borrowed your lilos, beach balls and toys etc without even asking i dont know if they'd haven given them back if we hadn't fetched them and they were very greedy with food and drink.