Luxury Bahia Principe resorts work closely with Vision Travel and in mid-November 2017 they were kind enough to host us for 1 week at their Luxury Bahia Principe Fantasia Don Pablo Collection Resort in Punta Cana. This was our first trip to the Dominican Republic and the resorts we saw were fully operational after the recent devastating hurricane.

Our hotel, the Fantasia Don Pablo Collection is one 1 of 7 hotels set within the same hotel grounds giving easy access to all the resort facilities. In order to give you a sense of the size of the resorts we ran up and down all the pedestrian and access roads within the hotels and covered 6k without backtracking or leaving the resort so these are sizeable properties with wonderful facilities.

The 7 properties are:
Luxury Bahia Principe Fantasia
Luxury Bahia Principe Ambar Blue
Luxury Bahia Principe Ambar Green
Luxury Bahia Principe Esmeralda
Grand Bahia Principe Bavaro                                                                                 Grand Bahia Principe Turquesa                                                                            Grand Bahia Principe Punta Cana

The lead property and our base for the week was the Fantasia which is part of their Don Pablo Collection offering 5 star accommodation and service and yet to our suprise this was a very family friendly resort while Ambar Blue and Green are the adult orientated hotels. The big attraction of staying at the Fantasia is that you can use all the facilities at the 6 other properties including their pools, gyms, and beachfront (buffets excluded).

The Beach – Literally hundreds of beach chairs were available with room for everyone and Fantasia guests enjoy their own exclusive area. The hotel staff work hard to keep the beach clean from seaweed and were continually sweeping sand away from the walkway, something that was lacking at other properties we saw as we walked along the beach one morning – this is a big benefit of staying at any of these Bahia properties. There is a roped area in the sea for swimming roughly 500m long which we used for our own swim training early in the morning – the sea was warm even without a wetsuit in November.

Accommodation – our Junior Suite featured a King bed, pull out sofa bed, desk, chairs, and a luxury bathroom with walk in shower, bath and luxury amenities. The TV had literally hundreds of channels, many in English with movies and news channels aplenty. We were located on the opposite side from the hotel pools and enjoyed a noise free sleep every night but I would recommend requesting the top floor to avoid the irritating sound of chairs and tables from rooms above being dragged across tiled floors. We had a couple of rainy afternoons and some time when I was ill and I was very happy to relax and chill out in the beautiful room. The minibar was refreshed every day with a selection of soda’s, water, local beer and 1 small bottle of whiskey and brandy as well as chips.

Dining – our hotel Buffet – the Larimar, was themed for many evenings featuring Mexican, American and Asian food with a BBQ evening during the week so the food never got tired. It was always fresh, replenished regularly and delicious, especially the warm fresh bread each day at lunch and breakfast. The staff in the restaurant were great with the kids and service was excellent. Dress code is casual with shorts and t-shirt being allowed for evening meal. Each resort close to reception had its own tea, coffee station where you could help yourself all day to Twinings tea or local coffee, water, juice and snacks. This was great for us as we enjoyed wandering between hotels and stopping for tea or coffee. One of my minor grumbles about the stay was that I didn’t enjoy the coffee, just a little too strong and bitter for me.

Additionally there are a whole range and variety of A la carte restaurants as well as an individual buffet for each hotel. These speciality restaurants included Mexican, Dominican, Asian, Italian, French and Gourmet cuisine and are included within your all-inclusive rate. The only minor niggle I had was having to plan the restaurant reservations in advance as often you could not get the restaurant you wanted at the time you wanted so I would recommend taking 30 minutes at the start of your trip and booking restaurants for your duration, although I have to say that the buffet meals were excellent if you could not get a reservation in the a la carte restaurant. You must make a reservation at these restaurants or they will not let you in even though the restaurant may be nearly empty as we found to our cost 1 evening so we just wandered back up to our hotel buffet.

Kids – there were kids everywhere around the Fantasia, all in good spirits and why not, the pools were huge with space for everyone, awesome entertainment, kid friendly staff and lots of healthy & naughty food at dinner. The Fantasia also boasts a great kids Water Park all within a short walk of the hotel rooms. All in all this would be a fabulous resort for families yet as a couple on vacation we did not feel that the kids or families intruded on our own stay in any way.

Transport – as the resorts are big and sprawling the hotels provide an extensive network of electric vehicles between the beach and all the hotels although we found it just as easy to walk.

Entertainment – our hotel had quite a sizeable theatre featuring a show each night with a theme, there was Michael Jackson night, Broadway and a Rock Show as well as kids entertainment in the same theatre. In addition there were singers each night in the hotel bar or a saxophonist one evening. The shows were top quality and the kids shows at 8.00pm each night were full. We had a Circus School for kids on Saturday afternoon by the main pool.

Gym – open from 7.00am – 7.00pm the gym featured 3 spins bikes, Technogym treadmills, Elipticals, free weights and space for Yoga or stretching.

Conclusion – Top quality all-inclusive property with stay at the Fantasia and play at the other 6 hotels. Although not directly on the beach you could walk or jump on the regular hotel transport to get you to the beach in no time at all. Great variety of dining options at no extra fee with excellent entertainment and if you are like me and a relaxing hotel room is important to you then the Luxury Bahia Principe Fantasia Don Pablo Collection will check all your boxes.

Please contact Helena Millar on 506 214 1085 or e-mail helena.millar@visiontravel.ca for more info.