Bahia Principe San Juan, Puerto Plata

...basically we went with the Bahia Principe Hotel in San Juan (on the North of the island) because the travel agent offered us the best rate for this one at the time. I am most definitely pleased she did though as I can't really fault the resort beyond a couple (and I do only mean a couple) of minor niggles. More on those later though. Firstly, let me get back to my holiday memories and review the hotel and the island....

Firstly, San ...
...sized town at that. Bahia Principe is actually just before the town anyway so chances are you'll not even see the town itself unless you go out on any excursions or go off wandering on your own.

The resort itself is situated out and out of all other resorts (which appeared to be the norm for all resorts on the North of the island from what I saw on the excursions we went on).

You'll be flying into Puerto Plata more than ... more

Back in January when I was getting pig-sick of the cold, miserable weather, I took it upon myself to set myself a mission. As I'd never been abroad and I've always wanted to go somewhere outside of the British Isles, I gently started to persuade my (then*) boyfriend to go down to the First Choice Holiday Hypermarket at the Team Valley Trading Estate. This didn't take TOO much persuasion. After flicking through some brochures, I got my heart set on the Dominican Republic as the temperatures suited me for March (our chosen time for our holiday). Average temperatures on the island are between 27'C-31'C for March. Perfect! Not too hot and most definitely not too cold!

[* = some good news.... my boyfriend became my fiance as of February 14th!]

So after handing my debit card over (gulp) to folk out just over £1,300 for the two of us for one week all inclusive in March, that was it, I'd booked my first holiday abroad!! I couldn't wait!

We didn't do too much research into the island or indeed our resort beforehand, basically we went with the Bahia Principe Hotel in San Juan (on the North of the island) because the travel agent offered us the best rate for this one at the time. I am most definitely pleased she did though as I can't really fault the resort beyond a couple (and I do only mean a couple) of minor niggles. More on those later though. Firstly, let me get back to my holiday memories and review the hotel and the island....

Firstly, San Juan is classed as a city on the island of Republica Dominicana (to call it by its official name!), but their 'cities' are nowt like ours. To us, San Juan looks more like a town I suppose. And a medium sized town at that. Bahia Principe is actually just before the town anyway so chances are you'll not even see the town itself unless you go out on any excursions or go off wandering on your own.

The resort itself is situated out and out of all other resorts (which appeared to be the norm for all resorts on the North of the island from what I saw on the excursions we went on).

You'll be flying into Puerto Plata more than likely which is the main city on the island (albeit not the capital). The resort is about an hour and 15 minute bus drive from the airport in Puerto Plata. The staff at the airport and on the bus depots are all friendly and helpful though so no worries on that one.

Now the first thing I was pleased with was the fact that our coach to the resort was lovely and cool. I have heard someone who visited the island a few years back (to which resort, I don't know), had to endure over an hour in the back of essentially a white van with no air conditioning!! How true this was though I can't validate! All I know is that our journey was perfectly comfortable. It may be a longer drive than to some closer resorts but it gives you a good chance to admire the scenery. One thing you'll notice if its your first trip to the Dominican Republic (and/or maybe other countries from around the world) is the style of driving is very different to what we get away with legally here in the UK. For a start, those in the bigger vehicle are in charge so as you'll more than likely be in a coach of some sort, you'll usually get to the resort in the shortest time possible!! Lots of people drive mopeds on the island, these are basically beeped out of the way! I found it very amusing! I do wonder what the road accident rate is out there, I dare say it is either exceptionally high OR because everyone sort of knows where they stand on the roads, maybe the accident rate is lower than our own? Anyway, back onto the topic in hand....

So when you finally reach the resort I'm sure you'll be extremely pleased with your chosen resort. You're greeted by the Hacienda (essentially a 'street' with shops such as a hairdressers, a jewellers, a few touristy souvenir type shops, an Internet cafe and some bars). There are a couple of barriers and some ferocious speed bumps down this road which also features armed guards (slightly daunting I must admit as you do wonder what you're in for!!) The street is laced with palm tree's though and looks absolutely lovely. When you reach the end you basically go straight to the Reception in the main reception area. Hotel workers deal with your luggage, all you have to do is tell them your room number once you've been to the Reception to attain this. The reception area is lovely and cool, marbled floor, lots of wicker furniture and lots of gorgeous planted pots with various palms and other plants. Hote workers then deliver your cases to you in your room. This was our first real 'experience' of Dominicans on our own (i.e. outside of being in a coach with other tourists, etc.) Sure enough, 15 mins or so after we got to our room, the porters delivered our cases. They lingered around for a few seconds (which felt more like a minutes!) It was only during these agonising few seconds that I realised they'd be after a tip! To be completely honest, it just hadn't entered into my head! Oops! Oh well, you live and learn as they say! They were very polite though and soon left empty handed. So after quickly unpacking, we went for a wander to discover more about the resort.

The first thing that struck me about the resort is the beautifully kept grounds. The resort is structured into what are essentially apartment blocks which feature 10 rooms each (5 on the ground floor, 5 on the first floor) (we were on the first floor - each first floor is accessed by a flight of steps outside) - not suitable for disabled users. However, the ground floor apartments are naturally perfectly accessible and the entire resort seemed to cater for disabled access with handily placed ramps where required.

Rooms are spacious, each one with air conditioning and a fridge (re-stocked including a mini bar which is free for all inclusive users) and either a balcony or veranda depending on whether you're ground or second floor - our balcony was lovely. We had booked a double room, our room comprised of two single beds which were up against one another. The bathroom is also spacious with a bath and shower in addition to the essential sink and toilet of course! You also get a hairdryer in the bathroom too which is remarkably powerful. This is more than can be said for the general electricity supply though - my GHD hair straighteners appeared to be draining the entire place of electricity as they kept dipping on and off so after my first attempt of using them for 15 minutes without getting anywhere, I abandoned the plan and went for curly hair for the rest of the week! (Don't forget your plug adapters of course though if you are going to be using any UK appliances). The rooms also have a phone and a ceiling fan in addition to the air con unit. You'll also have a small table and two chairs in your room and two small plastic chairs and another small table out on the balcony.

Now within about an hour of us getting there the phone in the room rang twice, on each occasion there was no one there so we unplugged it (we always go for the easiest option!) On going to unplug it we noticed the shabby state of the wall socket - essentially it was open so you could potentially have got a shock from it. I'm sure this was probably just our room though as the resort appeared in tip-top condition. As we only visited our own room, we have nothing to compare it to. The room apart from the shabby phone socket and electricity socket was in excellent condition. I must confess, we never even turned the TV on (which should've been cable TV but as we never watched it I can't confirm the picture quality!) Well why fly for 9.5 hours to watch the telly?? Especially when you've paid for all inclusive food and booze!!

Your room is serviced once a day with your bed(s) being made, towels washed/changed, etc. The fridge is meant to be re-stocked daily but on one occasion ours wasn't meaning we were short of safe drinking water. This is easy to get around - either phone reception or just go and ask at one of the bars to have it re-filled. The other days, our fridge was re-stocked without problem. When I say it has a mini-bar, I must admit, it wasn't great.... it basically consists of:

1 x 1 litre bottle of water
1 x 0.5 litre bottle of pop (usually Coke or Sprite)
1 x bottle of beer

This didn't matter to us though as of course, drinks (alcoholic or otherwise) were on tap at the bars anyway. Apparently though you can ask to have a better selection put in your fridge should you desire.

So moving out of the room itself, walking through the pathways between the apartments and the main area of the resort itself is an absolute pleasure due to the gorgeous plants and pathways. Watch out for the porters on their mopeds or small vans though! I found it highly amusing to see one particular porter zipping up and down the pathways on quite a few days with what appeared to be a large fridge of some description stuck onto the back of his moped!!

The beach is only a short walk from ALL apartments. The beach is absolutely gorgeous and lined with palm trees and lots of palm tree 'seating areas' (i.e. essentially an umbrella made out of palm leaves with some chairs under them - you'll know what I mean I'm sure, I just can't think of a technical name for such things!!)

The beach is a white sand beach backed onto by palm trees either side of the resort complex itself. The sea is indeed turquiose but alas the water is quite deep so its not that really light coloured turquoise sea. Absolutely gorgeous nonetheless though. There are large concrete blocks some distance out to sea dotted around along the stretch of the beach though which we saw many people swimming out to to either play on or sunbathe. We're not sure whether these were to break up the waves or to act as some kind of shark barrier or what. We did see what appeared to be essentially shark nets spanning between them though on a couple of occasions but equally, there were always lots of people in the sea and there were no shark posts on our beach (unlike some others which I'll mention later!) The beach is cleaned daily to remove seaweed, etc (although there really wasn't a lot when we were there anyway).

Sun loungers are available for free for anyone in the resort and you'll be issued with a towel voucher each when you check in on the first day which you can use to essentially hire a beach towel for the day. Be warned though, you'll be charged $20 each if you do not return the towels by 7pm.

You can participate in water sports like snorkelling, sailing, jet skiing, banana boat rides, etc. should you desire.

If you're not into swimming in the sea though (can sympathise with you there - I hate seaweed of any kind!!), there are quite a few pools (we counted 4 - albeit only one really big one, the other 3 looked more like kids pools with basketball nets, etc. for games). The main one though is situated in the heart of the resort with the usual sun loungers around the side. It is a swim up bar (superb idea!) It has the usual ladders down into the water or a "beach" effect so you can enter gradually. It also features a childrens section which is fenced off from the main pool. Looked spotlessly clean and was apparantly cleaned every night after about 6pm when it was kick-out time for cleaning (although we did see the occasional people in after that time).

There are a number of restaurants at the resort. The main one which is used for breakfast, lunch and dinner is a buffet style restaurant where you basically tend to get your own plate and pick and choose what you want to eat. You can eat as many platefuls as your stomach will allow.

Breakfast was generally between 7am and 10:30am. This included the usual cereals, croissants, pancakes, crepes, breads, etc. to sausages, bacon (including bacon filled croissants - something I'd never come across before!), omlette, etc. Fruit juice is on tap, as is water and fruit smoothies/milkshakes. (Of which I can highly recommend the banana one - mmmm). The smoothies are being made constantly in front of you with fresh fruit. The milk out there tastes somewhat different to our own milk. I don't know whether it was perhaps just because it wouldn't be pasturised or what but it most definitely tastes a little different if you have it plain on your cereal for instance. Otherwise you can't taste anything different. I recommend trying the hot chocolate if there's any there. It has a hint of coconut. Lush!

Lunch was generally served between 1pm-3:30pm. Expect to find an eclectic selection of a bit of everything (and I do mean everything!!) Including vegetables, lots of meats, some traditional Carribean foods, fresh fruit, breads, etc.

Dinner was generally between 6:45pm-10:30pm and was on the whole "themed" e.g. Mediterranean, Mexican, Carribean, Italian or indeed just International. On the whole though it was pretty much always similar with just slight differences. There was always the usual vegetables in various sauces, rices, meats (including freshly roasted turkey, pork, etc. which is roasted in front of you), lots of fishes (generally salmon mostly), then the usual choice of salads, fresh fruit, etc.

Desserts were on offer at breakfast, lunch and dinner and were gorgeous. A large selection of cakes, jellies/custards, and more unusual things just as shredded coconut in milky coconut sauce stuff. All very nice indeed!

I will also add at this point that this restaurant also had a "Children's section" which always had something like chips, burgers, beans and the likes on offer.

There are a total of 3 other A La Carte restaurants in the resort though, these being the Mexican, the Italian and the Seafood restaurant (found down the Hacienda where the shops are). You have to book into these the morning before you wish to eat in one (they serve dinner only). I must admit though, although we went with full intentions of trying them all, we never bothered as the buffet style restaurant catered perfectly for us. On entering the restaurant for dinner you were handed the "cocktail of the night" if you wanted one and often also had the choice of trying something like sushi (which we were brave enough to try for the first time ever!) Within a short time of sitting down someone would come and fill a glass of water each for you followed by someone asking if you wanted anything else to drink, be it wine, pop, fruit juice or whatever.

I was very keen to try the Seafood restaurant (being somewhat of a seafood fan), however, we were told in our morning meeting with our Rep on our first full day that if you wanted to try anything like lobster (something I wanted to try) then you'd still have to pay extra for it anyway.

Afternoon tea of cakes, tea, coffee, hot choccie, etc. is also served mid-afternoon at the Piano bar which is situated near the pool.

There were also a number of other bars dotted around, including one of my favourites being the Beach Bar. It is basically found on the beach front itself, surrounding by yet more beautiful flora and fauna. (They have lovely sleek black birds out there which make a lovely sound when calling to one another). If you're lucky you may also occasionally see parrots and parakeets. The Beach Bar served food all day long and of course drinks. You could eat healthily with salads and fruits or you could have chicken and chips, hotdog and chips, burger and chips or pizza and chips. I only tried the hotdog and burger, both of which were absolutely gorgeous. The chips were gorgeous too.

It is along this stretch of beach that you will find the massage and general pampering section (which you do have to pay extra for). They offer a bog-standard massage right through to such things as "chocolate therapy" and other obscure things that are becoming all the rage these days. You could also get your hair braided here whilst sitting on the beach. You could have a fake tattoo done too (not henna but something similar by the looks of things) back near the pool but again you had to pay extra for these.

Now onto the booze. I can highly recommend some cocktails that we tried on our trip. I particularly liked something called the "Mama #1" which basically from what I could gather consisted of lots of rum (much nicer than the UK rum might I add), lots of tequila and lots of some kind of lime cordial so it essentially just looks green but tastes absolutely gorgeous to my taste buds!! Tequila Sunrises were very nice as were a whole host of others! We were warned against having too many Pina Coladas and suchlike at anyone time though as banana and coconut are both laxatives!

Entertainment at Bahia Principe starts at about 10am and finishes at about 11pm. This ranges from pool games to plays and singing to things like beach and aqua aerobics.

Excursions as ever are available from your Rep. We personally went on two. I had my heart set on swimming with dolphins in the wild but alas there were no such excursions on offer. You could hve gone swimming with dolphins at "Ocean World" in Puerto Plata for $155 each which included about an hour in a pool swimming with dolphins but as this was the most pricey excursion and it still wouldn't have fulfilled my ambition to swim with wild dolphins, we didn't go on this one. Although Ocean World did look superb from the photos. You could also have sea lion experiences and "swim with tigers" there too. Yes, you read that right.... I hasten to add the tigers are behind glass at all times though. Mores the pity. Had they not been I might well have forked out the $155!!

So instead we opted to go whale watching and to go on the Safari Jeep trip (one of them), both of which were all-dayers. Whale watching was $100 each and the jeep safari was about $79 each. However, a friend of mine had been out there a few years ago and went horse riding so instead of those mentioned on our lists at the "welcome meeting" we went to see the Rep later to ask about horse riding. Sure enough, they did have such a trip so we went for half a day for $49 each. This was on the Thursday and involved us being picked up in a mini bus from the resort at about 9am for a short (10 min or so) journey out of the resort up to a dirt track where we got on our respective horses. We then rode up into the mountains passing through some small villages en-route and met some locals and their farm animal! There are some absolutely stunning scenes from up there (see photos at the end of this review). The horses are all well trained and basically ignore the rider and just do what they're trained to do - i.e. follow the route they know. I'm a keen horse rider and have been a horse rider for over 10 years now but I had difficulty getting them to do what I asked them to. So I'm guessing they just don't speak English!! (The main language on the Island is Spanish by the way). Tony (boyfriend) had never been on a horse before, bless him. So he was brave! He really enjoyed it though on the way to the stop off point. After about an hour and a half in the saddle we stopped at a river for a break where we were offered pop and got pestered by some jewellery sellers. (Although they are polite and do take no for an answer if you really do mean "no"!) This was where some people were to head off onto the second part of one of the jeep safari's and those of us who were on the half day horse riding trip were to head back to the resort. We were given the choice of whether to go back by truck or by horse so Tony and I and the other two who were on the half-day decided to go back by horse. We were all asked if we wanted the same horse or not so we all said we didn't mind. On the way back, Tony got a much nicer horse, more suited to his size. However, it was a tiny bit more 'flighty' than the one he'd had and the person who was riding back with us honestly did not understand a word of English. He hadn't put his stirrups right (something I didn't know otherwise I'd have done something at the time!!) So one of Tonys legs was near on straight while the other was bent at the knee (as they should be of course!) so this didn't help matters. You could clearly tell they were in a rush to get back themselves (the guides that is - not the horses!) so they were trying to get us to go faster than walk. That is fine by me but they didn't ask if I minded. They didn't know I was a regular rider. So it ended up with me and two Canadians fast trotting (although the horses don't "trot" like all horses I've ridden before) and cantering at times all the way back. This actually got uncomfortable as the stirrip was rubbing on my leg as of course I didn't exactly go wearing my jodphurs and riding boots! I only learnt later that the two Canadians weren't regular riders, they were basically just clinging on!! Tony was quite a way back and I lost sight of him on a number of occasions but luckily he was asked if he wanted to "gallopee?" to which he shook his head violently so they let him just walk on his horse back.

This has luckily not put him off though and he admits to really enjoying the ride up the mountain so now I just have to save up some more pennies to get us both horse riding here in the UK!

The second excursion we went on (whale watching) was on the Friday and we had to be at the lobby for 6:55am(!) We were then piled onto another air conditioned coach to be taken for breakfast at a road-side café en route to picking other people up from other resorts. We then headed to the south East of the island to the boat pick-up point at Samana. Whilst on the boat, it took about 15 mins to head out into deeper waters where we'd be able to see the whales if they were around that day. Luckily, the Friday we went on (21st March) was the last day they were running this excursion as the Humpback whales are now heading up to Newfoundland and surrounding areas now they've finished giving birth so we were bloomin' lucky there! Each boat (of which there were 4) are allowed 30 minutes within something like 90 feet of where the whales are spotted, then they have to move on and allow another boat into that range. This seemed fair to me. We saw a couple of fins and the odd tail while we were waiting for our 30 minutes but nothing too spectacular so I presumed that'd be all we'd see too but how wrong were we?? The whales were jumping out the water to say hello to our boat! We got some superb photos and video footage. I haven't posted the best whale photo I took in case someone nabs it as I'm going to be sending my photo to various wildlife magazines but the photo I have posted here gives you an idea! After our 30 minutes we then headed to Bacardi island for our lunch. You had to pay for your own drinks on this island but lunch came free. It was here that we tried a "coco-loco" which translates to "crazy coconut" which is basically a coconut picked freshly off a palm tree, the top chopped off, a straw stuck in with a load of rum poured in so its basically rum mixed with the fresh coconut milk. Absolutely spankingly gorgeous it must be said!! After which, we had an hour or two to amble around the island (trying to avoid salesmen as they tried to persuade us to buy daft looking hats and a whole host of other things!) The island of Bacardi is your archetypical "paradise island" as I'd put it. White sandy beaches, not a touch of seaweed and a very gentle slope into the sea so it looks turquoise blue and crystal clear. I would've quite happily actually gone into swim (something I've never done in the sea for fear of seaweed!) but alas I'd got a bit sunburnt two days previous on the beach, despite wearing factor 30 sun cream! There were, I hasten to add, shark posts dotted throughout the beach though so be warned should you decide to take a dip off Bacardi Island! After a couple of hours on the island mainly just sitting admiring the gorgeous scenery, we met back up with our guide by our boat for our boat journey back. On getting back to the shore we then boarded the bus again and were told that we'd be stopping off at a local gift shop on the way back that had toilets. So I was quite relieved as I was starting to need the loo by this point. On arriving at the gift shop about 40 mins into our journey we had a quick look around, then I decided to visit the toilets. I started queuing and when I got through the door into the ladies I noticed the two sinks were constantly re-filling jugs of water. I didn't think anything of it until I got nearer and nearer to the toilet cubicles themselves when it dawned on me what they were for. They were for flushing the toilets with... ok, nothing too gross there so I still didn't think too much of it. On getting to the end of the queue, I went into a cubicle. The first issue I had was that the door barely did anything at all as it started above knee height and finished about chest height (and I'm only 5'3.5" (very important is that 0.5"!!)). Then I realised the door didn't lock and it opened outwards so I had to hold onto the tiny bolt for dear life. As it happened, I really needn't have bothered for moments later I lost all my dignity anyway....

Imagine the scene.

You're squatting above the toilet (as us ladies tend to do when they're grim conditions!), it'd not been flushed by the maid before I went in so there was the persons wee who'd been in before me still in the toilet bowl (God forbid it'd been anything worse!!) You're holding your shorts off the floor to avoid them getting soaked with wee, whilst clinging onto this tiny bolt that served no purpose but for holding onto purposes, THEN, the maid comes into the toilets, blatantly opens MY cubicle door and flushes the toilet with one of the jugs from the sinks BETWEEN my legs in front of everyone else in the queue!!!!! I seriously could've died with embarrassment but as if that wasn't enough, because there was already wee in the bowl, when she "flushed" it between my legs whilst I was still weeing (cringe), the water and previous persons wee basically back-flowed and splashed onto my legs, etc.... gross!!!!!

So moving swiftly on, that's enough about the excursions, back to the resort, I will add at this point that the public toilets at the resort are spotless and all lock and flush normally. These are situated by the Reception area so they are easily accessed from the pool and a few of the bars, the main buffet restaurant, etc. Very handy to save you having to go back to your room or hike a long distance to them. You'll be surprised how quickly the cocktails flow through you when they're on tap out there when you're all inclusive! I think I managed to go to the loo (and really need it!) 3 times in about an hour on one occasion, definitely a record for me! I will however just raise another issue with toilets at this point though... apparently the gents are a tad different to in the UK in that you gentlemen have to get used to the idea of a maid pottering around whilst you're in there. Apparently more often than not there was a line of men queuing up to use one of just two cubicles because they clearly weren't comfortable with the idea of the maid mopping the floors whilst they were using the urinals. The regulars didn't bother though so I guess its just a different way of living out there!

Getting back of the toilets again, I'll start to sum up as I've rambled on long enough I think.

Overall, I really cannot fault Bahia Principe. If I were to go to the north of the Isle of Republica Dominicana again I would definitely without any hesitation book to stay in that resort again. What I didn't realise before getting out there was that Bahia Principe is actually a "chain" of resorts it seems. Apparently there is a couple on the island, a couple in Mexico and equally, a couple on the island of Tenerife and one or two on Jamaica. There is also a new one opening on the south of the island of the Dominican, in Punta Cana. That is due to be a 5 star resort but I can honestly say I do not see how they are going to improve on the 4 star accommodation we stayed in. I would most definitely give ours 5 stars and equally I will quite happily rate this as 5 out of 5 Ciao stars.

I can honestly say that this was most definitely one of the best holidays I've ever been on and one that will most definitely will take some beating. So, for my first ever trip abroad, I'm super impressed. Loved every minute of it. Now I just have to save up another £1,500 to get us both out there again!

Links:

http://www.bahia-principe.com/en/sanjuan_descripcion.html
(give it a few moments for the pictures to load)

http://www.bahia-principe.com/bp/

P.S. I do realise that the title doesn't specifically fit with this review but as it was the holiday "tagline", I felt it was appropriate afterall. Tony felt the need to say this at least once a day whilst we were out there, despite us not being in Jamaica (as seen on the Malibu adverts on telly), it still most definitely seemed appropriate!
 

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