Gran Ventana Beach Resort, Puerto Plata

...finally settled for the 4* Gran Ventana beach resort in Playa Dorada (if you wondered why I keep using the term I it is because my boyfriend doesn't have any part in anything like this as it is my job and he is just lazy!) Neither of us have ever been to the Dominican Republic so it was really like pin the tail on the donkey we had no idea. After reading a few reviews (only moose's on ciao!) I had no clue if I had made the right choice or not as ...
...a 20minute transfer to the Gran Ventana Hotel.
The Gran Ventana hotel is situated in the northern region of the Dominican Republic and is well known for it's windy climate.

PLAYA DORADA
Playa Dorada is the resort the Gran Ventana is situated in. Playa Dorada which is the largest all inclusive complex because it is made up of 20 all inclusive hotels and is surrounded by a huge golf course excellent for golfers and great ... more

Last September I was planning mine and my boyfriends first holiday and we wanted it to be good as it was our first holiday away together and we had a whole year to pay for it so we didn't mind what we spent.
After browsing the net for a good couple of hours and a lot of good reports from friends and relatives we decided on the Dominican Republic. I had a look at all the usual websites you check to get the most competitive price and I decided on booking with Portland direct who are a direct sell agent (that are part of the big Tui group including Thomson etc) After having a look through all the hotels and prices I finally settled for the 4* Gran Ventana beach resort in Playa Dorada (if you wondered why I keep using the term I it is because my boyfriend doesn't have any part in anything like this as it is my job and he is just lazy!) Neither of us have ever been to the Dominican Republic so it was really like pin the tail on the donkey we had no idea. After reading a few reviews (only moose's on ciao!) I had no clue if I had made the right choice or not as there where so many good reviews and so many bad ones, but I suppose everyone has different expectations.
Ok so I confirmed the booking and it came to about £900 for two weeks in the middle of July Tues 5Th July till Wed 13TH July 2005 to be exact. We also paid for the premium upgrade on the flight seats which was a complete waste of money (see Thomson Premium economy review)
Once we had paid in full our tickets arrived a month before we where due to travel which wasn't a good idea as my boyfriend hid the tickets from me to annoy me and then forgot where he had hidden them. Not a good idea!

The start of the holiday
So on the 5th July 08:55am we set off (on time) from Birmingham airport on a Britannia airbus. After a nine-hour flight we arrived into Puerto Plata (POP) airport, which is the capital of the Dominican Republic, and just a 20minute transfer to the Gran Ventana Hotel.
The Gran Ventana hotel is situated in the northern region of the Dominican Republic and is well known for it's windy climate.

PLAYA DORADA
Playa Dorada is the resort the Gran Ventana is situated in. Playa Dorada which is the largest all inclusive complex because it is made up of 20 all inclusive hotels and is surrounded by a huge golf course excellent for golfers and great for people who like to stay in their own hotel as well as venture out because if you have ever been to the Dominican you will know the towns where people live are horrendous they are very poor and people are lucky if they live in a hut and you just wouldn't want to go to these areas and you wouldn't feel safe as these people have nothing and have nothing to lose, don't get me wrong these people aren't bad but they don't live in civilisation. Playa Dorada is all tourists except for the workers who are all from the Dominican Republic. There is a small shopping arcade with a few shops in all selling similar sort of things sun tan lotion, souvenirs, amber (as this area is known as the amber coast because this is where it is all made.) snacks, cheap fashion jewellery you can buy in the UK and you can also get alcohol and cigarettes from most shops. The cheapest cigarettes you can get is Marlborough all the other brands are expensive and all labelled alcohol is a lot higher probably double the price in the UK the only cheap alcohol you can get there is probably the traditional rum. Everything is imported so it means most things are too pricey I brought some sun tan lotion that would usually cost about £8 in the UK for £20 and a bag of haribo for £4 usually about 99p in England. We also purchased a few little souvenirs like a nice photo album, which was in the sale at £15. In the area there is also a couple of bars and a Chinese restaurant. The bar is about on average the same prices as in the UK and so is the Chinese restaurant but when you have already paid for an all-inclusive package you don't tend to use these places.
There is also the chance to go on a horse and carriage ride but beware these are run by locals and they are quite persuasive.
The entrance is guarded by security and is all very safe and you can visit other hotels at night. But be careful all the roads look the same and it's so easy to get lost as the area is quite big and you end up just walking round in circles feeling very hot.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
When me and my boyfriend got on to our transfer coach I was annoyed to say the least it was chucking it down with rain, we where given no help to find our coach which was over 2 road from the airport, we got stung by the luggage handlers as we didn't have any change and ended up giving one porter $5 for putting our case in the hold of the coach which I wasn't happy about (as most people where not paying) and then I banged my head when I sat down so you can imagine how upset I was. My boyfriend on the other hand was trying to keep positive but was quite quiet and I could tell he wasn't impressed and it was all my fault L
When we arrived at the hotel after our 30 minute transfer must admit I had cheered up quite a lot there was a big entrance leading up to the Gran Ventana and it had stopped raining.
As we pulled up our luggage was left outside the hotel as we went in to check in. The reception was lovely there a long reception desk with 4 workers checking everyone in, the floor was all nicely tiles, there was a big fountain in the middle of the reception area and then a desk where the reps where and a bar. The Gran Venatana was not looking so bad after all!
The only thing I didn't like was that the reception was all open and from the entrance you looked out on to the pool area and as it was about 3 o clock in the afternoon everyone looked out of place as we where all looking half dead from the flight with all our jeans on and then there was everyone running round in swim suits staring.

CHECKING IN
Once we got to the front of the queue we realised the receptionist spoke very good Spanish but not very good English so we managed to get our all-inclusive wristbands, room key and restaurant passes. We also got given a sticker with our room number on but as she spoke so fast in broken English we had no idea what this was for so we made our way to our room and waited for about 20 minutes and I just knew some thing wasn't right I kept telling my boyfriend that I didn't think we'd get our cases and then I said how would they know where to bring them? Then it all clicked that we where supposed to hand this sticker over to the porter!
I tried to get my boyfriend to go down and get them but being the wimp that he is we both had to go and thankfully the porters speak good English and we realised only us and another couple had been the thick ones (so at least we were not on our own) the porter couldn't understand why we didn't get it but there was no point explaining so he just said he would get our bags sent to our room. PHEW!
After about 30 minutes a nice porter brought our cases up to our room and checked everything over the lights, air conditioning and television, which I thought was really nice he also showed us how to work the air conditioning and electricity. We also asked him about the different restaurant vouchers as he was being so helpful and he even explained to us all about them. He was very polite and well worth the $5 dollar tip unlike the disastrous porters at the airport.

THE ROOMS
The hotel has a total of 510 rooms spread over 3 buildings the separate building that is situated across the road from the main part of the hotel is called the Beata block. The main block of rooms closest to the pool is called the La Saona where they also have the gym and kids club and the block that we stayed in closest to the beach was called the Catalina block.
The rooms are really nice and surprised me when I first walked in all the building are 3 storey so which ever floor you are in you never have many flights of stairs to climb. If you did have walking difficulties or anything though you must request a low floor room, as there are no lifts. Our room was on the 1st floor, which was great as we had a balcony and no bugs what so ever, which was quite a surprise. We did see the odd ones out and about but never in our room.
The rooms all have very high ceilings making them feel very spacious and airy although they all feel dark at the first impression even though all the décor is neutral colours and bead spreads are bright blue and red and very flowery, it is because the curtains are permanently closed as the bed is next to the big balcony and most peoples balconies look out on to the pool so if you have your curtains open and your trying to get changed the good chance is someone is going to cop a very good look either from the pool area or from the rooms opposite because although they are quite far away it is the bright in the day you can see right through your room. So we always kept our curtain closed. The curtains are quite thick as well so in the morning you think it's still about 6am but in fact it's about 9 and the sun is shinning brightly outside.
The room has two double beds that are very comfy and very soft pillows. There is a big dressing table with large mirror and chair so there is plenty of room to store your cosmetics and a nice space to get ready. There is a television at the end of the dressing table that is quite large and has a whole host of channels a lot in Spanish but about 5 or 6 in English we watched NBC a lot which had some really good documentaries on and the new channel which was really interesting as we could watch the weather and we watched all the bits about the London bombing and hurricane Katrina. (Sounds sad but at night there wasn't much to do and when your tired its nice to get in bed and watch some telly! how sad) The dressing table also had 3 large draws in great for keeping all your undies in just like back home.
There is a bed side cabinet between the two beds which has the phone on and a map and guide to the hotel which is very useful as it gives you all the hotel extension numbers and tells you when all the restaurants are open.
The phone is free to call reception and all areas in the hotel and also any other room in the hotel, but if you call out to another country from the phone you pay 30 pesos (which is about 50p) to connect and then however long you spend on the phone I think it costs about £2 a minute which is very expensive, you can buy a phone card from the local supermarket for $15 (about £11) which last 30 minutes. You can also get them from your rep but they don't give you minutes they give you so much money and if you call at the peak time you end up paying $15 for about 15 minutes.
There is a safe in the large 3 doored wardrobe which we hired for $13 dollars a week not bad but probably not worth it as the rooms where very safe but my boyfriend gets really paranoid as we took quite a lot of money and a portable TV DVD so it was good for peace of mind.
There is also a mini bar in the room, which is made up of, a large fridge filled with bottled water, 7up, coke, fanta and beer it was great and always cold. The fridge was restocked daily and was big enough to keep all our sun tan lotions and after suns in.
The bathroom in the room is spacious with a standard size bath and showerhead over the top there is a nice clean toilet and a medium sized sink under a large mirror. You are provided with a clear box full of small bottles of shampoo, soap, bubble bath, moisturiser, shower gel and a shower camp. All replenished after use. You also get two face towels, small towels and 2 big bath towels (all white) that are all changed everyday. The floor in the bathroom is quite slippy as it is tiled but they also provide you with a bath mat, which is good as not many hotels abroad do this. There is also a high-powered hairdryer in the bathroom, which is great as your own hairdryer is not strong enough in the low voltage plugs.
The balcony in the room is great a nice large size with a table and 2 chairs great to sit on to keep cool and nice to sit on at night just to watch the world go by you can also read a book on there at night as there is a light on there which you switch on from inside.
The room is powered by a fob on your room key. The air conditioning and electricity did not work unless your key fob was in the power pack behind the door. One day when we came back from the pool we found a pen stuck in the power box so obviously the maids had shoved it in and forgot to take it out so if we had something in the fridge and needed to keep it on we would shove the pen in the power box while we where out. The room was always cool if you kept the curtains shut so it was always pleasant.
When booking the holiday I also noticed that you could upgrade your room for £165 each and you get a similar room as a normal twin but you also get a living area, a coffee making machine and a bowl of fresh fruit when you arrive. We didn't take this up as we knew we wouldn't spend all our time in the room so it didn't really seem worth it.

FACILITES
There where lots of things to do in the hotel and when you come home you realise that you should have taken advantage of these things after all they are what you pay for. There was a large games room, which was rarely used that had a soccer table in, a full sized table tennis game and a pool table. There was a small but well equipped gym that overlooked the pool. You could hire bikes to explore the resort these where all quite old mountain bikes with no gears but they went and a lot of people where riding round on them I think they where for the more adventurous, I mean its probably been about 10 years since I last rode a bike and probably wouldn't know how to anymore. At the beach you could also hire out snorkels and kayaks for an hour these sound great fun but they aren't believe me! My boyfriend hired a snorkel out and ended up snorkelling into a rock (DUH!) and cutting his finger open and going in a big girls blouse strop! We also hired out the Kayaks ok this was my idea but they looked easy and so much fun. We got the life jackets on and then I realised how heavy the dam thing actually was. Once it was in the water I begged my boyfriend not to take us out to far and then he told me off for rowing to slow and not in time so I gave up and we let the sea bring us into shore about a mile away from the shed where you to take them back to (DOH!) So my boyfriend had to drag it all the way back so as you can imagine that wasn't as much fun as it looked!
All theses things where free and all worth using only if you do it once. All the staff are on hand happy to help with anything.

WHAT IS THERE TO DO?
There is a reception desk especially for excursions which is manned by all the different holiday reps and also a local rep who you are advised not to book with as the trips are not covered like they are with you rep, so they could run off with your money or they could take you on a really bad trip without any safety aspects and there would be nothing you could do about it. You can book swim with dolphins which we did for about £90 which includes transfers to Ocean world a swim with the dolphins, a couple of animal shows, snorkelling and a buffet lunch. You can also go on a monster truck safari which includes going on a large truck (equipped with a bar) on a safari, you can go on a bus transfer to other areas of the Dominican to see the beaches and shops for about £20 you can go scuba diving for about £70, horse ridding for about £50 and on a catamaran for about £65 which we also choose and went on the worse day ever there where thunder storms and very high waves which left me feeling poorly to say the least. This is a good excursion to take though because you do get a lot for your money you go on a catamaran with 4 crewmembers on board you can drink as much as you like, eat as much as you like at lunchtime and they then take you out to the best part of the sea for snorkelling.
If you really fancy an adventure they also offer a trip which entails a speed boat, helicopter and catamaran to Saona a popular part of the Caribbean we didn't take this up as it was about £120 and it is quite a lot of money if you want to take a few other trips.
On site there is a small shop selling essentials such as newspaper which where a day late and £6 needless to say we didn't bother, crisps about £1 a packet, sweets about £4 for a bag of sweets and drinks which where about £1 a can. They also stocked a small amount of toiletries which where about £1 more than in the UK. They also sold a selection of magazines again all very expensive. They had cigarettes as well which where about £2 for a pack of 20.
You could also go to the beauty salon for a haircut or to get your nails done or even a massage. This was also very pricey I overheard a lady being quoted £50 for a trim!
There was another shop, which sold swimming costumes and sun tan lotion again all very expensive so we didn't even bother going in.

A tip if you plan to buy anything from the shops in the hotel and outside of the hotel it is best to change your money into Pesos which are the local currency you can use American dollars which the travel agents advise you to take but they give you back change in dollars and you don't know if you are being ripped off or not.

THE POOLS
There are 3 pools at the Gran Ventana two at the main building the big pool and the small babies pool and then the quiet pool over at the other building. The big pool was great it had the swim up bar, a volleyball net and had 3 different depths a shallow part which looked like the sea washing on to the sand which you could lie and sunbathe in and then there was a medium part where you could stand easily where the volley ball net was and there was the deep part which your tip toes can just reach good bit for swimming in. the baby pool was in the shade and was just like a big paddling pool it was very shallow and looked like great fun for the kiddies. The quiet pool was nice because it was all adults and was good for a swim it is smaller than the big pool and is about half the size of an Olympic sized swimming pool. All the pools where kept very clean and of a nice temperature. They all have sun beds surrounding them. There were not fights as such for these but you had to be there for about 8:30 to get a nice position by 10:00 you could possibly get a bed but it would probably be in the shade. The sun bed's where just the standard plastic frames with blue covering not the most comfortable but adequate.

THE BEACH
At the back of the hotel you will find the beach you walk down to it along a path through the wonderful landscape of flowers and trees and freshly cut grass for about 2 minutes and you are faced with a small gap in a fence, which you walk through to the beach. You walk past a couple of women braiding people's hair and a couple of men trying to sell excursions. You can then pick up a sun bed usually fine to get one until about 11am and find your perfect spot. The beach is never too crowded it is a private part but is not cordoned off and it just joins with all the other hotels private parts you are free to walk up and down the beach but you obviously you cant use the sun beds from other hotels. The sand is not quite white but is quite clean and very hot!
The sea is blue and when the sea and beach have been cleaned properly the sea is clear and you can see lots of little fishes and jelly fish swimming around.
The beach was great the only thing I would have preferred was to not have the lucky sellers hassling you all the time. This really put us off just lying around we kept going in the sea to avoid them.

THE TOWELS
Oh this was a funny story everyone is entitled to free towels and there is a small hut next to the kid's pool with a man replenishing everyone's towels. On about the third day we wanted ours but wasn't sure how to go about it, so one morning we went over and asked for two towels well the man looked at us and asked where the ones from our room where we said we didn't get any so in the end he let us have some (don't think he believed us) and told us not to lose them and that at the end of every day you should bring them back and swap them for fresh which is great, but where were our towels?
On the last day would you believe when I lifted my case off a stool in the bedroom what would be hiding under it !!! Only our pool towels lol.

THE BARS and RESTAURANTS
At the Gran Ventana there where 5 bars and 5 restaurants, there where two restaurants where you could have lunch, 4 where you could have your dinner and one where you had to go for breakfast.
The bars all sold the same things your usual hot and cold beverages, cocktails and all the beer and spirits you could drink.
There was the main bar in the reception area, which was used throughout the day, and in the evenings.
The swim up bar in the pool which was open from 10am till 6pm.
The pool bar in the main part of the hotel, which had a very nice seating area in the sun and in the shade, which was open when everyone was at the pool and closed when everyone left.
There was a normal bar over at the quiet pool, which is the same as in the main building.
You could also go to the bar, which was on the beachfront, which opened at about 11am and closed when everyone left the beach. There wasn't a seating area there but you could take your drinks back to your sun lounger and you could also use the pumps to fill up your own soft drinks.

The main buffet restaurant was open for breakfast from 7:30am till 10:30am where you could get anything to eat from a full English, toast or Danishes, fresh omelette, fresh fruit, fresh fruit smoothies, cereal, yoghurt, muffins or just a basic cup of teas or coffee.
At lunchtime you could return to the buffet restaurant to grab a bite or you could go to the beachfront restaurant. The buffet restaurant provided pretty much the same as the beach restaurant soup, hot dogs, burgers, salad, fruit and cakes but the buffet restaurant provided things like lasagne and pasta more filling things where the beach restaurant concentrated on chips and burgers.
Lunchtime is generally 12:30 till 2:30 and then after the beach restaurant remains open until about 4:30 we tried not to go here because otherwise you just end up eating far to much as all the food is so nice.
For your evening meal you really are spoilt for choice you can go to the usual buffet restaurant for a whole host of things salad, chips, soup, fresh fish, pizza to how you like it and fresh meat from the mixed grill the steak was gorgeous the only problem being that the chef wouldn't let you have your meat rare it all had to be cooked thoroughly. The buffet restaurant is open from 6:30pm till 10:00pm so great if you have been out all day and not looking for an early dinner, it was always quieter around 8:30pm when we usually got down there.
If you fancied something a bit special you could use your voucher and book in for a restaurant. You always have to book a day in advance at the actual restaurant for a sitting of either 6:30pm, 7:30pm, 8:30pm or 9:30pm and you can go to them all twice in the two weeks but we only went once to them all as we couldn't be bother to make reservations.
The beach restaurant (known as the Ocean grill) was the most popular because everyone loved to sit by the sea at night. There they serve from a menu and it is all waitered service and you choose from a started, main and pudding they all come out very posh and the main choices there where steak, fresh salmon and a fresh salad.
The restaurant above the buffet restaurant was called the octopus, which was gourmet Caribbean and was very posh. The atmosphere was very romantic and the waiters where all very professional we had never heard of anything on the menu which was great because we love to try new things but we where on a late sitting and couldn't really be bothered to eat as I had been poorly that day but it was still really nice to be wined and dinned even though I did only eat about half of every serving. The best meal I had was the cheese rolls with a really nice seafood sauce uuummm.
The third gourmet restaurant was over at the other building and that was Italian and called Sapore di Mare we visited this restaurant on the last night and it was great half was inside which just looked like an Italian restaurant and the other part was outside in the usual rounded restaurant with style with no windows all outdoors. Here we both had soup to start, which was the most popular and then had a lasagne (there where plenty of other things to choose from but mainly pasta based) and a nice piece of strawberry cake to finish. I must admit the waiters at this restaurant are more than generous with the wine, which ended up with me being a little tipsy (ok quite a lot tipsy) on some lovely white wine.
All the restaurants where outside but had roofs on the top in case of rain and all had table for two, four or six and the waiters didn't mind fixing the tables up for big groups. You could drink any drink when having your meal and the waiters gave everyone water continuously throughout your meal.
In the evenings if you where still hungry or wanted a cup of tea to take up to your room no problem. As soon as the last restaurant closes the small kiosk opens that provides hot dogs, burgers and hot drinks until 00:00. There is a man that serves all these through the evening but the kiosk is also open in the tea for teas and coffee but this is self-service.

ENTERTAINMENT
Throughout the day from about lunchtime there are four lads that form the animation team they are good fun and get all the activities started they do aerobics in the pool, set up various games throughout the day like volley ball, water polo, quizzes and darts.
These are for the older guests as the children all go to the kids club, which is provided, by the hotel. The animation team are good and annoying they have a laugh with everyone come round tickling people with a price of bamboo until the notice and make fun of people (obviously not in an offensive way) and they have their own little dance routine they do every afternoon, they are quite some movers within them. They are very nice, polite and funny and never force you to join in the games, which I think is great.
The kids have a room under the gym, which looks out, on to the kid's pool where they all gather, play games and be entertained by trained adults. When we where there a lot of kids where joining in on this so it must have been good they always seemed to be having lots of fun.
When it came to the evening from 8pm till 9:30pm the kids had their entertainment which meant them all up on stage dancing and doing the routines to all the cheesy songs like the birdie song and cha cha slide which got very annoying to say the least. They also had a kiddie's fashion show and a few party games. This is great for the kids but by the time half nine comes you are really tired because of the drink, all the food, all the sunshine and the boredom of watching the kids have a dancing competition. So we never used to bother with the evening entertainment we used to go back to the room. We occasionally caught some or watched from our balcony but it was all a bit amateur not in a bad way you just get bored quite easily and there are that many people there you have to sit about a mile away from the stage so it was never really worth hanging around for.
The main things that went off where a Miss Gran Ventana competition, Mr Gran Ventana contest, around the world dancers which where good they had nice costumes and their routines where very good and pleasant to watch. The animation team also did a Michael Jackson show which was bearable but all the shows where quite repetitive and not really worth the wait.

THE STAFF
I cannot praise the staff at the Gran Ventana enough they cannot do enough for you the chefs are so polite and always speak to you when they are dishing the fresh food out, the waiters are also very friendly and attentive they always have a smile for you and in no way pervy like in Europe and in England. They know their job and are very good at it.
The maids are amazing they clean your room everyday and you always see them washing the floors and stairs down. They leave fresh flowers in your room and check everything is working we didn't realise this until one of the maintenance men came to fix our light at the door that we meant to report but never got round to and the maid beat us to it how good is that. They where always polite and said Hola whenever they saw you. Instead of tipping them everyday we left a $20 tip at the end of the holiday as we where not sure what the system was probably was wrong to do that but at least we left them a little something.
The barmen are all great fun they are always laughing and serve everyone very quickly one minute there will be ten people at the bar next there will be just you they are very fast and always give you a big measurement of alcohol. The cocktails where the nest my favourite sex in the beach they only used to serve them in a small cup but they where deadly.
The reception staff where helpful when they could be some more than others as some just where not very fluent in English but they tried there best. You could find out everything from the reception area.

OVERALL
We had an excellent holiday and would definitely go the Gran Ventana again. The Dominican Republic is such a beautiful place and the Gran Ventana is a perfect place to spend your holiday. The staff are great and the facilities are excellent. You get real value for money at this hotel. July, August and September are the hottest time to travel but it is also the rainy season. This wasn't really an issue as it did rain everyday but only for about 30 minutes and the only time anything at the hotel was affected when hurricane Katrina hit Haiti which is close to the Northern part of the Dominican Republic so the weather was quite windy and wet which flooded part of the buffest restaurant but the waiters soon fixed this up and cleared it in half a day which we thought was amazing.
If we where going to the Dominican Republic again we would definitely consider the Gran Ventana.

I would recommend this hotel for

• Family's great things for the kids to do and you don't have to worry about them.
• People who have disabilities as there are no boundaries for them you can have a ground level room and there is a ramp into the hotel reception and flat entrance to most bars and restaurants. Unfortunately no adapted rooms though.
• Anyone that is looking for a good value holiday and doesn't mind that there isn't much to do at night.
• Couples that don't mind spending all their time together not good for couples just starting out who need a bit of entertaining,

I wouldn't recommend this hotel for

• A honeymoon the hotel is excellent but just not luxurious enough for a honeymoon they do have honeymoon packages and there where people having their honeymoon but I think for a honeymoon there should be less kids and a bit more romantic settings.
• A wedding I have considered this myself but after visiting the Gran Ventana it did put me off it all seemed very rushed and very public. The bride had to walk past the pool to get to the holiday gazebo, which looked like it had seen better days, and the beach would have been far too busy. I could think of better places to hold your wedding.
• People who don't like sun bathing and chilling out, as all you do all day is sun bathe, eat and drink. There are trees to shade under and straw umbrellas around the pool and on the beach but on the whole it is quite difficult to shade yourself.
   

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