my husband and 3 kids (14,12,8) recently vacationed at the magnificent iberostar punta cana! I do not even know where to start--everything was incredible
Arrival: we arrived at the hotel at approximately 2:20ish. First Impressions? amazing--the reception is gorgeous with a beautiful large pond in the center with a fountain. Theres a bar and a bunch of tables for simply relaxing a a drink. We found the reception staff to be very kind. A little issue though: we had requested connecting rooms due to the largness of our family. When we asked to make sure we had them-they claimed there were none available. My husband got quite upset and "somehow" they found availability. No biggie. Our rooms were not ready quite yet--fine, we ate lunch returned to the lobby and they were done.
Rooms: having connecting rooms was soo convenient and wonderful. One room was for my husband and i, and connecting to that was another room for the kids. Both rooms had a large king bed and a pull out sofa bed. They were very nicely decorated and had everything you needed to get by. Nothing over the top fancy, of course. The maids were great and left a new towel formation each day. Along with that, they left nice red flowers, which were great and all but they had tons of tiny little ants on them--which led to what seemed like a colony in the bathroom and wherever else the maids left the flowers. But no complaints there--they were easily killed with some tissues and water.
Food: WE found the food to be very delicious each day. My personal favorite was breakfast--a variety of things such as made to order omlettes, chocolate/plain/strawberry pancakes DELICIOUS!!, eggs, bacon, etc... Each day for lunch we dined at the buffet by the pool and beach. They had a bit more limited variety but still good. the fries are very yummy:) And for dinner we would eat at the Restaurante Buffet Higuey which was also very good serving a variety of meats, carbs, vergetables etc. The cakes are soooooo good!! For a week, you get 3 ala carte reservations. We ate at the Mexican, seafood, and steak restaurants. The mexican was very very very good and the steak house was incredible(on the sand). We didn't find the seafood one that good.
Staff: There are legitamently no words i could use to describe the staff at Iberostar. Amazing is understatement! Every single worker is soo incredibly friendly and go out of their way to make you enjoy your vacation that much more. From the bartenders, to the restaurant staff, to EVERYTHING!!
Grounds: Every single area of iberostar is so beautiful. The grounds are amazing with beautiful garden work and everything is ALWAYS clean.
Pools: There was a variety of pools you could choose to swim in each day. They are all lovely and in close proximity to the beach which is great. The temperature is PERFECT!! they are all ong and curvy pools which is also good.
Beach: Stunning. The powdery white sands, crystal clear blue ocean. ohh myy i wish i was there. WE never really reserved beach palapas, as our main "camp, per say, was by the pools. When we did go to the beach, i could always find something. As for the pool, my husband went down every morning at around 7:45 to get spots and they were always available but don't go too late or you won't get anything.
Kids Club: my 8 year old daughter has rave reviews for the absolutely amazing kids club. Each day, there are countless activities for the kids to take part in such as archery, pool games, etc. And at night there are mini discoes which are soo cute to see all the kids do!! and other than that there are fashion shows for all the kids, and a cute nutcracker type of show where all the kids dress up and play the characters--SO adorable. I wanna give a very special shout out to ROSA, the wonderful lady that runs it!! She treats each child with unmeasurable love and she has a passion for what she does. my daughter missed her dearly!!
Other Stuff: There are tons of bars/ drink areas around the premises. I loved the smoothie hut where i could get a delicious pina colada, strawberry banana daquiri!! There is a great ice cream bar almost on the beach that was a dream come true. MY girls got their hair braided on the "caribbean street" which was very beautiful. Many girls at the resort had their hair braided--it looks great. During our stay, the New England Patriots Cheerleaders were doing their 2011 calender photoshoot! There was a night when all the guest were invited to go meet the girls and get autographs. that was fun! and on their last day, they perfomed their routines on the beach for everyone and made it really fun. We also went on the Dolphin Explorer excursion whuch was AMAZING!! the kids got to interact and swim with the dolphins and they enjoyed it so much. The dolphins were treated very well and had very large areas in which they could be normal dolphins which is very timportant to me.
Overall: THis was one of the best vacations ever and i would recomend it to anyone! We had an awesome time and wish to return very very soon! I started sobbing as we left the hotel..it was that painful to leave:( Anyone who has bad reviews for this place is downright CRAZY!!