Christina

Hello!

We are planning to take a vacation to the Dominican Republic in March. We have been to other Caribbean destinations, but have yet to visit the Dominican. We have heard great things about the area, but are not sure which hotel to stay at...the Occidental Grand Flamenco Punta Cana or the LTI Beach Resort Punta Cana. If you have any information about these resorts or a preference of which resort we should stay at please let me know. Thanks!

karen

Hi: We just got back on Sat.Oct 26/02 from Punta Cana. We stayed at the Occidental FLAMENCO on Bavaro Beach. It was a wonderful vacation great value for the money. We tossed a coin for either the Flamenco or the Riu Jalisco in Puerto Vallarta for the vacation last week, low and behold cat. 5 hurricane in Puerto Vallarta great weather in Punta Cana , we lucked out.
Right from entering the lobby we knew we had made a great choice, it is beautiful. The resort is very big and was at only 70% occupancy given this is low season (hurricanes). The buffet offers lots of choice but we preferred to dine in the restaurants. The grill, and Mexican were very good and the Italian was good. The outdoor pizzeria had a wonderful view of the resort and the pizza was fine alittle different but good. We walked the beautiful beach and can say that the Flamenco was on the nicest stretch and from what we could see from the beach a nicer resort than the LTI. Not sure what the price difference would be. From the Flamenco you could walk to the Bavaro shopping area and to the area with the Captain Cook Seafood restaurant and grocery store. We also were able to walk to the Paridisus Casino which is small but a nice diversion.
One big surprise to us was the shows at the Flamenco they were very good . At about 10pm the would stage a show, the Latin showtime and the Broadway showtime where very very good. We were always able to get watersport equipment and lounge chairs on the beach. The lobby bar and the beach bar had excellent service and the pool swim up bar had less available but a great staff. There was always something going on if you wanted to join in but it was a great beach just to sit back and enjoy. Have a great trip. Karen

Christina Waters

Thank you very much for the feedback Karen!

Jennifer

Karen
We are booked to go to the Grand Flamenco on Thursday Jan.2nd. I have a couple of questions if you don't mind. Were there hairdryers in the rooms? Did you have any trouble making reservations for the restaurants? If you could answer these and any other advice you could give me I would appreciate.
Thanks Jennifer

Karen

Hi Jennifer : Yes there are hairdryers. Make reservations early in the week, you can always cancel. You do not need reservations for the pizzeria which is quite good. We enjoyed the Mexican and the steak house better than the Italian but mostly because there was too much food on our plates!! If you are seafood nuts go down the beach to the Captain Cooks it is 15 in walk and the platters looked unbelievable. From the beach it looks alittle iffy but as you walk through it seems nicer. We did the Saona Island tour and also the Bavaro Runners. We had room 26 close to the beach, very quiet. Have a great time, it was 10 times better than I expected. Karen

Jennifer

Thanks Karen for taking the time.
Jennifer