Barcelo Villas Bavaro Resort

we have been back from ifa villas for a week and wanna go back already, 10 of us travelled from the uk ranging from 14 to 60 years of age and every one loved it.

We arrived in the evening and wanted to sleep of our jet lag but when we set of for breakfast we couldent belive our eyes it was so pretty and every one was friendly.

The food was good not verry varried but you can always find something, in the mornings they cooked fresh omlets and eggs infrount of you, they also had a smothy bar which was nice. lunch times and diners there was a buffet, a grill section, pasta bar and salad bar which was nice much more varied in the evenings.

You could also use 3 specialality reastrunts which was the mexican. japenese and l a carte we tried the mexican and japenesse and they were verry nice if you want to be waited on that is. you need to book these meals a day in advance but if they have space they will alway fit you in.

The rooms were verry clean the bedding and towels were changed every day and the maid cleaned them well. the air con was lovely especaily as it was high 40s when we arrived!!!

Entertainment was good be aware you might get pulled up to dance the maranga as i found out !!!! The beach disco was fun. There was also activitys going on during the day. every thursday at 4.30 they have a cocktail party you drink cocktails out of real coconuts there is a band there and every one gets up to dance. The animation team were great and verry friendly.

There was a free bus down to the beech and if you are staying at the villas there was a shuttle bus that would take you to and from your rooms we named this the LAZY BUS it always seemed we was the only ones on it !!

The beech is out of this worls just imagine clear blue sea and fine white sand scatered with tall palm trees trust me you have to see it to belive it.

as you might of guessed we had a wonderfull time sooo dont all rush too book leave space for us!!!

The Dominican republic is a lovely place to go if you want to RELAX by the beach.

It stuns me to read about the 'boring' experiences people have had when visiting the island is it clear that it is a place to chill out .

The IFA is a relitively large complex, with many pools to explore if your a pool person, but the beach offers more activities such as free hiring of the sea kayaks ect. which i thought was a bonus!!!

There are a few restraunts with different types of food like japanese and chinese. The food in the buffet restraunt is spanish and americanised so dont expect your usual food. However it has lots of variety with different fruit and vegetables, meats and fish!!!

There is a bbq everyday on the beach!! burgers, fish, chicken, ect. lots of variety!

The staff are very friendly !!!!

Your rep will tell you about tours and trips you can take that arent that expensive.

My boyfriend and I went swimming with stingrays and baby sharks for $70 each that included a boat trip out to the place and back with free drinks, snacks , snorkel and flipper hire and tranfers(they pick you up from your hotal in a open top buss covered in palm leaves!!!)

The entertainment on the boat is great and they have all of you dancing and playing games!!

Our room was gorgeous! it looked like it had just been renovated with flat screen tv , large double bed and HUGE shower!!!! all decorated to taste!!

We had a wonderful time and thought that we should put our experience on here because we read some bad reviews before we went that we think are not a true reflection of the IFA!!!

definatley go here!

Charlie and Gary

x

The hotel was fantastic, everyone was very friendly and we couldnt have asked for a better time. We stayed in the bungalow appartments which were full of character and very nice. We were a little worried when it rained and thought it was going to flood! There are lots of chickens, peacocks and turkeys that walk around the grounds and live outside the rooms! Yes they did wake me up but this made it for me!! The food was excellent, especially breakfast. There was an omelette chef, a buffet and a smoothie stand. We never made it to lunch as we were always so full up! The pizza bar was great, constantly replacing with fresh pizza and the restaurants were brilliant! The Caribbean one was a bit posh for us! But the mexican was spot on and the oriental one was also very good. Cocktails were great! The beach was beautiful, very clean with white sand and loads of palm trees. The sea was clear and mostly calm. Snorkelling was good, there was a bit we found after a few days with all sorts of fish around. The watersports was good (windsurfing was very basic kit though!)and free, but then they charged you 25 dollars to teach you how to use the catamaran and windsurf if you dont know how to. There are a few trips you can do from the hotl... go to Saona Island it is incredible!! Snorkelling was amazing, massive starfish and we even saw a sea snake! Overall, we had a magnificent time and would most definiately go back. The only dislike was the entertainment, it was really loud and awful! But then we dont like that sort of thing anyway, so bound to not like it! Book it!

Where do I start... From the moment you arrive the people couldn't be more helpful or happy. The staff from the Managers right down to the cleaners are very friendly and nothing is too much trouble. The accomodation we found to be of a very high standard and cleaned daily to a high standard with some very nice touches. The food was impecable with a huge variety that changed everyday. The complex is very well maintained even down to gardeners spraying the perimeter to prevent to many mossies !! The swimming pools, grounds and even the beach is cleaned constantly. The shops are well stocked with gifts from magnets to printed t-shirts. They also provide a full chemists with supplies for most ailments. In short we're saving to back already. !!

CHECK IN =easy straight forward no hassle,paid for a room safe at same time .staff helpful and freindly.

ROOMS=very surprised ,clean modern and massive ,walkin shower room with a very powerfull shower,maids cleaned every day,new towels etc .our rooom 3511.near the main pool looked out onto the lake at the back,so duck and chicks are hoping for you to feed them breead doughnuts etc.

TOILETS= immac always being cleaned like every where else

RESTRAUNTS/BARS=buffet ,always something to eat ,you would have to be more fussy than us not to find something to eat.

MEXICAN=not our likeing.

CHINESE=very good

COLONIAL=fish was very good .only eating place with airconditioning

STEAK HOUSE =on the beach recently burnt down ,

MAiIN POOLBAR=the pizza bar was great excellent pizza,s fries,burgers,chicken nuggets.oh and drinks!!,very good and freindly staff, the swim up bar very good also

OPEN AIRBAR = near reception=lovely seating area,and very nice staff,they will bring your drinks over to where you are sitting ,some very strong drinks here!!

CIRCLE BARNEAR QIUETPOOL=nice staff and good drinks.main bar when night shows are on

BEACH BAR=again good drinks nice staff

BEACH BAR DINNER TIME=loads of burgers/chips salads/sweets etc .oh and drinks too

MAIN POOL=very clean and spotless,loads of beds ,these are bolted down ,so they cannot be moved around ,a good idea.also no reserving of sunbeds .NO PUTTING TOWELS DOWN ,not much shade apart from overhead palm trees.

QUIETPOOL=very qiuet no music at all ,unless animation team was rehearsing for show,nice place to chill out ,also with a circle bar for drinks

OPEN AIR JACCUZZI=further on than qiuet pool ,through the villas ,just follow the walk way ,4 jaccuzzi in total ,with a bar there also ,very clean and tidy

SMALL POOL = this is on way to the beach again qiuet,with a small bar,clean and tidy area

THE BEACH =Wow words cannot express this area ,powder white sand ,lovely clear blue sea (paradise)lots of beds ,but not much shade near the front ,small palm trees for shade ,these go very quickly.lots of things going on ,boats /peddalo/snorkeling/paragliding .not much hassle from locals mithering you.also an outside market to the right side on the beach ,expect to get hassled if you go in .but just be assertive and they are okay,pay about athird of what they are asking .they wanted $15 for a big bottle of beer .i gave $5 and they seemed happy ,i think they think they get a bargian at that .but hey they got to make a living !!plenty of excursions to go on ,we had done them on a previous holiday so didnt bother ,safari tripwell worth doing.

HOTEL GROUNDS=immaculate well kept and tended daily.ask for a coconut and a fresh one will be given to you of one of the many trees around the grounds,they always taste better?there is a lake with heron ducks and birds ,which is very nice and tranquil to walk round and take pics of, always some staff somewhere cleaning around etc ,very on the ball with things.

STAFF=faultless always smiling helpful,and some nice lady staff oh la la !!well you get what i am saying .all reception/bar staff resuraunt staff /maids /gardeners,bell boys all very polite ,and a simple hola goe,s a long way.

FOOD=a very good selection in main buffets,loads of everything too .sweets especially vanilla buns ,great,after two weeks does get repetative ,but we went out to thee Hard Rock Cafe,to eat and drink ,taxi right outside reception ,pay about $ 7/8dollars about £5 tops for taxi ride.this is to the shopping mall where hard rock is ,but there are others bars resuraunts there also .and banks /atm machines,

ACTIVITIES= allsorts going on water polo /darts /beach volley ball etc.

TOURS= book in main reception area plenty to choose from ,also book resturaunts here.

OVERVIEW=only downside to this resort.

1= music too loud,always salsa dom rep music ,

2=onsite shop very poor ,we wanted some crisps and cola etc ,but they dont stock it

Overall ,the resort is excellent and i would tell anyone thinking of booking a holiday here . YES YES YES get it booked and enjoy ,sure you may find some niggles,but remember this is not a five star resort ,but to us it very very nearly was , a massive resort and a trek from the bottom villas to most of the places but a train takes you where you want to go anyway ,but well worth it when you get to where you are going.feel free to mail me at shaunconnolly@btinternet.com for any more info

We traveled to the Dominican Republic from July 15 - 21. Well, actually the 16 - 21 because Tropical Storm Fay caused us to have to fly back to the US from Puerto Rico and then back the following morning, but that is another story.

Once we got to the resort and walked in, it was fabulous. We were a group of four in our mid-twenties without children, and it was awesome!

We asked to stay by the middle pool which was the most popular place, and it worked out really well. We ate the breakfast buffet, which was loaded with fresh pineapple, very thick bacon and eggs made to order. Oh, and the fresh Dominican coffee was perfect.

The afternoon was spent at the swim-up bar with Domingo, who was very generous with the Brahma beer, which I must say beats Anheuser-Busch anyday. And if you do not want beer, grab a Cuba Libre (rum and coke). They are good too.

You see staff bring parrots and monkeys by the pool daily for photo opportunities. Be careful of how far you go down the beach to the bar. There is one bar at IFA that is close to the beach, and that is it. We found a bar that we thought was IFA, and we accidentally spent about two hours there and had a tab when we left. It was still reasonable though, and we laughed at our mistake.

If you like cigars and souvenirs, the market on the beach is great. You can save some money there. I was warned about fake dry cigars from the market, but I thought they all looked to be high quality, and I always keep cigars around; plus, there is rum, necklaces, t-shirts, coffee, etc. here to buy. The more you buy from one vendor, the bigger the discount. Everything is negotiable, and you do get haggled. Prepare your "No, thank you" before you go in. Some vendors are very nice though and allow you to browse haggle-free. Of course, we usually bought from these guys.

This is a wonderful place if you do not demand five stars and the greatest of luxuries. And there were many children there, so it is definitely family-friendly. I feel like we got more than we paid for. It was a great place to relax and enjoy some of the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.

They do not have much of a snack bar at night; this is a problem. Also, dinner reservations were a problem. All we could get reserved for four were two ten o'clock dinners. You can try to get in without reservations, but this is not guaranteed. There are of course two buffets, but they close at nine. So, plan your dinners, or you may find yourself starving at midnight if you miss the buffet. I believe you can actually still get pizza and burgers from the open-air pizzeria close to the main pool, but this is what I usually had for lunch everyday because you could go there in swim attire. Plus, the pizza is about the best I have ever had, and the burgers too.

Use sunscreen! Lots of it! I actually did not get burned, even in August, just a little red. But, it was because I was smart about the sunscreen. We came prepared with bug spray too, but we actually did not see one mosquito, not sure what all the hype is about.

This is a very European place. I found it an interesting challenge to try to meet and make friends with many people from other places and met some of the coolest people. There were a couple of other groups from the states, but Americans are the minority. I just tried to soak it all in and enjoy it. And I did.

The nightly entertainment on the beach is good here too. We did not pay to go out to the nightclubs because there was free booze and good nightlife at the resort. If I could have changed anything, it would have been to stay at least 10 days. I was so jealous of the Europeans there on their month-long holiday when we were there six days.

Definitely bring singles for tipping. It really helps out. We brought $130 for 6 days, but we spent a lot of time at the bar. My wife brought toys and good makeup to leave for our maids and their children. They were very appreciative and gave our room special attention.

As far as excursions, we were told we had to meet with someone from who we booked our vacation through (USAirways) about excursions. I felt we could trust this guy and what he was selling. We were told by him not to book through others but I am sure they are fine too. We went on the snorkeling/stingray shark swim/booze cruise. Yes, it was one excursion of about five hours. It was well worth it for our group. We had a blast getting to swim with nerf sharks and stingray and then to snorkel in the reef. What a beautiful place!!

I would love to go back here. We loved it. It is not a five-star resort, but it had some wonderful staff, food and fun.

Me, hubby and teenager were at the IFA Villas Bavaro two weeks ago (end of July). We flew American and were treated very nice. We then quickly made it thru the airport to our Turintor Tour Bus. So far so good.

(We were armed w. our CVS pharmaceuticals)

The Lobby was very pretty. The Lobby and walkway throughout the entire resort paved w. stone. We exit lobby on the opposite side past the main pool to get to our room (3104). This room was not in the villa section (we booked 6 mos ago) it was centrally located next to everything. It was a very pretty room. (We visited the villas section via trolly several times - it is the furthest section from beach but trolly goes back every 7 minutes and it is also quieter there. You'll also get to see some turkeys and peacocks there.

It took us about a week to get over our depression of being back into our nice Long Island environment. Everyone at the resort was very nice, polite and warm towards us. I wanted my daughter to experience the countryside so were took a truck safari w. Jonathan (tour guy spoke several languages) . We soared up the mountain, ate sugarcane, swam in the river, went to the beach, rode horses, etc.. This is a must do in D. R.

The buffets at the resort were very nice, good food everywhere.

I really hope the spirit of the dominicans continue to be a happy and loving one. When we were at the breakfast buffet we would be seated, waited calmly for our coffee, then ran to get our goodies. I noticed a few tourist that felt the waiters should hop faster - please pray for these empty people.

One of us had too many pina coladas (they have mixed drinks all over this resort). Please remember, too many pina coladas can cause you to sound like an orchestra in the bathroom!

When we were at the pool for lunch we ate at the Pizza place (they also have chicken nuggets & french fries). When we were at the beach they had burgers, hot dog, chicken, rice and beans, salad, fruits galore, wonderful. We also went to the three ala cartes - just book two mornings before you want to go. Caribe restaurant was the best.. The dominican coffee place was a nice place to sit in the evenings. There's also a place to internet and call back home w. reasonable rates (next to coffee place and small shops)

There are buses to casino and Palma Real Mall. Mall is small and a little high end. If you want a bargain go towards the beach on the right and the flea market there has alot of fun jewelry, coffee and beachwear. This was fun.

Only made it to the show at night once. We were alway too tired.

We had a great time and want to go back! Never got to use my pharmaceutical products. If you have any questions feel free to email me alquinones@optonline.net

What are all these complainers yapping about? Armed with some deep TripAdvisor reading about this place, two of us jetted off to Punta Cana. Checked in on a Sunday, checked out on a Wednesday.

BOOKING: I researched places based on our budget and found IFA VB among those listed on Expedia/Travelocity/Hotels/etc. I *almost* booked through one of those, until, on a whim, I checked the resort's website to see about availablity. Turned out, the dates we wanted fell inside a promotional window, so we got a 30% discount by booking directly through the website. Yes, 30%. Hooray.

Check-in & Checkout were unremarkable. Hello, we're here...here's your key, slap on the wrist band, off you go. Checkout was similar. OK, we're leaving, snip off the wrist band, here's your taxi. Ciao! (Taxi to/from the airport is 28 dollars each way & takes 20 minutes.)

Property in general: Spotless...and by 'spotless', I mean, without a spot. New-looking stones & tiles. Manicured landscaping. Fountains. Flowers. Chickens & baby ducks strut around. Zero trash, zero dirt, zero stains, zero cigarette butts or gum wrappers. Cleaning & maintenence staff swarm all over the place and it shows. White-glove inspection ready. Nice.

Room: We stayed in 4226. Room showed every indication of a very recent renovation. Smelled of fresh paint, new floor tile, fixtures were smart and modern. Other reviewers who pointed out the frosted-glass WC door were correct. It is what it is. 2 double beds, sheets and pillows were adequate, but then again I have no trouble sleeping anywhere, so I'm no help there. My main nit-picky pet peeve when I travel, though, is hotel showers. I usually just quietly tolerate the weak, lukewarm hotel granny stream, but not here. The shower is a heavy-duty blaster with no shortage of hot water. The shower is also newly renovated, with natural stone and glass bricks and gel/shampoo dispensers. Nice. TV/fridge/safe/towels...zero issues. Yes, your room key is needed for electricity & air conditioning, and all of that is shut off when you leave the room. Other reviewers who found that hard to comprehend need to pause for a moment and consider how smart a system that is. And the room cools off nicely again in minutes, not hours, after returning.

The beach is three minutes by foot, down a coconut tree-lined path. Plenty of beach chairs. Plenty of elbow room. The sand is powdery sugar and the water is clear with some grass that neither smells nor sticks. Swimming area is roped-off, smartly so, since there's a near-constant parade of waverunners, small motorboats, and Caribbean Festival party catamarans buzzing to and fro. Non-motorized water sports are provided by a commercial agency on the IFA beach. I got a snorkel/mask/flippers by plunking down a deposit which was returned when I brought the gear back. You can also sign out their kayaks, sailboats, windsurfboards, and bodyboards, all for free. Uniformed security officers patrol the beach, to keep aggressive vendors away. We were approached by a couple of the "My friend, my friend" types, but I've always been pretty good at making those people go away. Not dangerous, just annoying. The bazaar next to the beach has all the requisite t-shirts and painted gourds and souvenir bric-a-brac. Grill on the beach deals up burgers and hot dogs, bar has pina coladas and cold beer on tap. I'm getting nostalgic just picturing it.

Back to the resort: the pools are all unique and lovely. Main pool in sight of the reception is a kid's playground...if your kid likes a swim-up bar! Shooting fountains and water-soccer nets. And did I mention the swim-up bar? (I truly hope people were leaving the pool to take care of certain drinking-related personal functions.) Another pool, outside the reception, in the villas area, is quieter, more sedate. And at the tip of the resort property, furthest from the beach, is a jacuzzi bar, with four separate jacuzzis. There's a couple little shops on the property, a beachwear & art store, a pharmacy, souvenirs, and an internet center that charges 3 bucks for a half-hour online. The cafe/bar just outside reception is a perfect place to have one of a myriad mixed cocktails (with or without alcohol) and relax under fans on enormous comfortable chairs. That was our favorite spot. We did not take any outside excursions, and we did not attend the evening shows/performances.

Food: here's where I depart from many reviewers of this place: there is NOTHING WRONG with the buffets/restaurants here. The offerings at the buffet, especially at breakfast, were astounding. I usually don't pound a huge breakfast, but I went nuts on the breads and cheeses and yoghurt and fresh fruit. Lunch & dinner featured varieties of pasta, a chef manning the grill with steaks, calimari, pork chops, veal, chicken, local dishes like goat and unusual fish, salads and breads and juices and desserts and soups and excellent coffee. The water is purified and perfectly fine to drink, the buffet seating is uncrowded, the hours are generous, and the staff is cheerful and helpful. Seriously, if you're accustomed to finer dining than this, you should vacation at a far, far more posh place than this resort, Your Highness. You can reserve a table at one of two specialty restaurants, one Mexican, and one Asian themed. We ate at the Mexican place one night, it's a buffet as well. Excellent food, and an unhurried, pleasant change of scenery from the buffet.

Other guests: Vast majority of guests were Spanish-speaking. The rest were Europeans, mosty Eastern, according to my ear for languages. Polish & Russian. Much French, German, Dutch also spoken. We encountered almost zero native English speakers. However, language barrier with staff is non-existent.

Wrapping it up here, we left IFA VB stunned that we got such a value. A deep discount, a gorgeous and impressively clean resort, a beautiful and comfortable room, ample and excellent meals, helpful staff (but not pushy or disagreeable), postcard beach, sparkling pools, plenty to do if so inclined, plenty to NOT do if so inclined. We chose the latter. We sat on the sand, we walked miles of beach, we got comically sunburned, and now we're back home with awesome memories.

my sister and i went to ifa villas to lay on the beach and swim. it was the best place i could of picked. dont listen to the other reviews of this place. they are all wrong. its been totally renovated and perfect. beautiful white sand beaches w/ reddish pink flecks, 100 ft tall palm trees, clear turquoise water. the food was pretty good. loved their breakfast buffet. you can get by there knowing a little spanish. toppless beach. shopping on beach, can barter w/ them. disco that goes til 3 am. their rum is so good there. i suggest the pina coladas. food and drinks whenever u want them. they have an awesome japanese and seafood restaurant that u need reservations for. the japanese was the best. the sun is hot so bring sunblock. i give this place 5 stars! will go back.

We stayed at IFA Villas Bavaro from May 9 to May 17 with a couple of our friends. It was by far the best vacation we ever had. The only thing that was not perfect - the A/C in our room didn’t really work – and we just never thought about asking them to put us in a different room. Everything else was great. Food was fantastic and there was a lot to choose from. Previous review says that the main buffet was closed that week – but there was a huge buffet open so maybe we are not talking about the same place.

We loved the atmosphere in the pizza bar, Pikalo – and we especially loved Adison, one of the waiters. He was very nice and friendly. Most of the employees were very friendly, and always with a smile on their face. Those people work 12 + hours a day, for 12 days straight, and we were amazed with their happy attitude at all times.

Pool was perfectly clean – all of them, and there was always something going on there.

Bernardo is a host for all the fun events at the pool, and also for the evening show at the beach – he speaks at least 5 languages! He was quite amazing.

Isabella is your fun coordinator at the beach – she has the prettiest smile.

Signor Papo and his dancers were fantastic! We watched the show 4 times – every time it was different, and every time it was great!

Shopping at the open market at the beach was FUN! Whatever we wanted to buy – they would start with outrages sums – over $200 – and we would offer $20, and after few minutes of going back and forth – we would get a reasonable price. Be prepared for a lot of friendly hugs over there.

Since we came back all we talk about is our vacation. We really had a great time and next year – we will be going for two weeks.

I just got back from my honeymoon, and we loved this resort! It was worth every penny! The pools are huge, and not over crowded, the loud music was great, but they also had a smaller pool that was quiet and very shaded if you just want to chill. I did water aerobics with "Alex" everyday at noon. The room was absolutely beautiful! We also paid for a couples full body massage on the beach only 80 dollars for both that lasted a hour! The beach looks just like the pictures, white sand beaches and blue green transparent water. It was gorgeous! We hung out alot at the Gri-Gri (which is the swimup bar) Miguel the bartender was spectacular! Great personality! Everyone working for this resort were some of the nicest people i have ever met. Our travel agent told us not to tip, that it was included in our price. But you fall in love with these employees, so we tipped everyone, and I think it made such a difference. not alot, just a dollar here or a dollar there. The shops on the resort are great, we came back with lots of souvinirs. Do not pay full price for anything, they are willing to come off the price some.

I do not speak any spanish, and had it not been for my husband, I would have not understood anyone. This is the only downfall, is that everyone there speaks spanish. So atleast know some if you are going. They try to communicate in english, but it is very difficult. So just refresh yourself on your spanish before going.

Also, I have a verizon phone, and it didnt work there at all. The operators kept asking for our credit card number when we would try to make collect call. I had been told not to trust anyone outside of the resort, so we never gave it to them. So make sure and take a calling card. Or there is a internet room on the resort that is 3 dollars for 30 minutes (which is ample amount of time to send a email).

Our only complaint (which was not the resorts fault in anyway) was that our travel agent hooked us up with coco tours to transport us from the airport to resort, and resort to airport. They were AWFUL! Not reliable at all. At first, we couldnt find them when we got off the plane, it took like 45 minutes of dragging our bags around before locating them. Then our representative at the resort didnt show up to meet with us to schedule our ride home. We called, and called, and she wouldnt return our phone calls. Then finally on the last day she answered and scheduled our ride for 1pm. a hour after checkout.....so we sat outside and waited, and then when they finally pulled up at 1:45 said there was only room for 2 people, so there was a argument between everyone waiting on their ride.

When I go back, the only thing different is I will tell my travel agent not to book me with coco tours. I will go with someone like expedia instead. It was for sure the nicest trip and nicest price trip I have ever been on. Most beautiful resort i have ever seen.

Oh and I took bug spray and never had to use it! I kept hearing, the mosquitos were so bad. I never saw the first one. Hope this helps!

Exellent!!! I want to go back!!! Everything is very good - hotel, room, service, restaurants, food, drinks, animation... Oh... I'm crying... Hope to return

I went there for 1 week 5 to 13 april 2008 !! All was perfect and i have nothing to say about this hotel !! I did LOT of trip but this one at this price ... just amazing

First let me start off by saying I am not sure where all these other people stay but we vacationed from the 27 of March to 3 April. Our stay was fantastic right from the start, while it is true the hotel staff don't speak fluent english they do understand enough to make check in a breeze.........why not learn a little spanish the effort goes a long way.

Our room was spotless.....no bugs at all........we had one king bed.......you do need the key to run the electricity but you only need it on when your in the room right??????? The bathroom don't offer much privacy but I don't think this should ruin your vacation.........

The food on the buffet was fine but does get repetive after a while so we booked our a la carte reservations and the food at theses restaurant was excellent........

We walked the beach and found that this hotel has one of the largest beach fronts and less seaweed, the staff do a great job in keeping everything clean.......

The pools are amazing and there are three of them so you can always find charirs to sit .........or put your towels on them to reserve your favorite spot in the morning......

We went to the doctor before we left to catch up on the shots needed to travel as well as purchased over the counter medicines for food upsets and such..........but we never needed them.......remember you are in another country so they don't cook the same as us and things may taset a little different......

Go, relax and enjoy...........this hotel was great and we have travelled to other countries that don't compare........be prepared for anything and I am sure you will enjoy yourself I really don't see how you couldn't............

I went to the IFA bavaro beach villas and spa resort for spring breakWith 8 other people. It was an amazing experience. Before I went I looked at the other reviews and was a little skeptical, and was pretty much expecting a dirty place with a dirty room, nasty food and a nice beach. NOT TRUE!! This place is beautiful for the price you are paying! Less than $50 a night, all-inclusive, that’s less then staying and at crappy Red Roof Inn!! I stayed in a room closest to the main pool with swim up bar and daily activities. The room was beautiful, tile floor, large stand up tile shower with glass blocks, flat screen TV, and AC. They give you two large bottle waters a day in your fridge. Id recommend getting the safe for the extra $20, even though I didn’t feel like any of my things were in danger of being taken. The pools were great, there are 3 of them, and they all have a different atmosphere about them. The food at the buffets wasn’t amazing, but it was defiantly edible. Breakfast omelets were great, coffee and orange juice are amazing!! Get lots of cappuccinos and coffee. The service for an all inclusive is great. They’ll come up and light you cigarettes for you, take away you plates and bring you drinks all for nothing. We did tip, however it didn’t look like anyone else was. A few $ goes a long way. The restaurants that need reservations are well worth it. The caribe was my favorite, but don’t order fish order the meat. The Mexican is really good too, and same with the Japanese. The drinks are great! If you want them stronger just ask. Be polite, it gets you far. The beach is amazing. I’ve never seen water this beautiful before, there are plenty of chairs but getting to the beach early defiantly helps if you have a big group. There’s food and drinks on the beach so you don’t have to walk back to the resort. At night there is a “club” that’s open till 3 am and serves drinks and food. And the other bars are open till 12 or 1. There’s a snack place that serves pizza, drinks, fries and ice cream all day, so there is always food around. Knowing a little Spanish is helpful, but there are some workers who speak English.

Lots of Europeans, not many Americans or college kids, which was nice!!! Great times, great people, overall an amazing experience.

Ifa Villas Bavaro was a wonderfull week in paradise ! The Hotel was beautifull and the staff were all very pleasent and friendly. This was my family's first vacation to Punta Cana and we plan to return to Ifa Villas next year but will go for two weeks insted of one. Ifa's beach area was beautiful and located on either side of our beach were flea markets where bartering for treasures to bring home was fun and an experience that we won't soon forget.

Anna who works at the pizza bar located at the central pool , was a very lovley women who took a shinning to my 6 yr. old son and blew kisses to him every day and made sure that he had all the ice cream (with unbrella's) that he could eat.

We enjoyed the kids show with all the children up on stage dancing, and singing.

The buffets were good but didn't offer to much variety, when in doubt have the made to order pasta, my children's favorite!

Over all we didn't want to leave when the week was up, we miss the sun and sand already and can't wait to return next year!

this hotel is underrated. The service was excellent, the staff friendly and accommodating. The largest beach area by far!!!! the rooms were clean, large and totally updated. My daughter and I (27 & 54) were treated like royalty. Definetly have the photografers (Riccot was amazing) do a portfolio for you. The food was good and they had everything you could possible ask for. We had no problems and no complaints whatsoever! We felt so save we slept on the beach one night.........the beach was cleaned every day, definetly the cleanest beach around. We are already planning our next trip and it will be to this same hotel.

We have just returned from a week at the IFA Bavaro villas. The resort is terrific and we have never experienced such an efficient, friendly & excellent service before. It was so lovely that this "get-back-in shape" trip turned into a quality stay, full of learnings about the Dominican Republic. The climate was fantastic, the staff always welcomed us with a smile, and it was 100% possible to retreat away from the crowd if we wanted to. Excellent restaurants, high variery of food, rich & local decoration, respect of nature, cleanlyness of the whole resort, possibility to access to various activities (excursions, diving, spa, fitness, etc).

We stayed in a villa close to a 4-baths open air jacuzzi, a lounge bar & enjoyed uncredible choice at breakfast served by smily & efficient people. International, local & diet food are all available there.The pools & clean white sandy beach are lovely. Our friends appreciated the kinder-garden for their children . 1 towels per person and per day.

The Spa is very peaceful with hammam, sauna, fitness center & beauty/massage treatments upon request.

Restaurants are all great (Buffet, Japanese, Caraibbean, Mexican, Beach grill). We paid 1000€ for an all inclusive week including intercontinental flight & airport transfer.. There were 2 double beds for the 2 of us. Decoration of rooms, lobbies & restaurants is simple, rich & made with beautiful local wood, ropes, stones & plants.

Overall I would say this is one of top 10 hotels we have ever stayed in on holiday and I am extremely high maintenance!

IFA VILLAS BAVARO was by far the best place I have been and the best week of life. I don't even know where to begin... the staff, the food, the entertainment, the beach, the rooms, everything was AWESOME!!! There was not one dull moment spent which made my departure very hard and emotional.

The staff at IFA are full of joy, energy, love and they never get TIRED of having fun with everyone... as they would say " I LOVE MY JOB"

Food was always available when needed with a wide selection of many different delicious things. Great selection of wonderful tropical drinks- recommend the Pina Bavaro and Tequilla Sunrise!!!!

The Disco was the spot to be everynight, dancing to all types of music and having fun until 5, 6 o'clock in the morning.

This Resort is the ultimate place to spend your vacation and TRUST me when I say its PARADISE HOTEL!!!!!!

IFA 2008 WOOOaaahhh!!!!!

well.. I was there from 11 to 22 of February 2008, with my parents. I would say that this was my best holiday ever.

Rooms are very clean, food is great and you can eat in 7 different restaurants, but for mexican, japan and carribean you need a reservation. People are very nice, cheerful, they always say hello to you and ask you how is going. The beach is wonderful. And the animation staff...they're great. They have special games and always music on the beach.If you'll go there you must meet Henry. He always make a special atmosphere with his dances and comments. Every night they prepare show for children, then usually have some games and then a real show. If you like dancing you can also go to the disco with them. The only problem is that they speak english very bad. And sometimes is problem with communicate.

I was really sad when I have to go home :(

I was in Punta Cana in Ifa in October and had wonderful holiday.

The hotel is clean and the staff is very nice. Mainly the staff of animation and dancers (good times spent with them).

The food is very good too.

the rooms are reasonable but you got what you paid.

In short: nice hotel, nice staff, good beaches and great animation.

Very good value resort – just turn the music down!

Stayed for 2 weeks end of July. A lovely stress free and relaxing holiday

Accommodation

We were in a main apartment block close to centre of resort. Pleasant short stroll to all facilities including beach. Guests in villas at top end of resort would have a fair walk and perhaps feel a little out of the action. However there is a hotel courtesy bus. Room spacious and comfortable. Excellent shower. Air conditioning faulty in our room (didn’t cool enough). Complained but wasn’t fixed while we were there. Frosted glass around shower and toilet offers limited privacy but not a major problem for close family and good friends! Only one room key activated at a time so don’t bother asking for a second. Be aware the room towels are all taken away from you about 9am and not returned until 6pm. This is an irritating nuisance but we simply hid one towel from the maid so we could use it during the day.

Watch out if you have young children using the TV. There is explicit porn freely broadcast all day.

Reception

We checked in at night so didn’t have a queue. The reception staff I met spoke English OK. A tiny bit of Spanish is helpful. Easiest way to change large dollar bills is to ask a porter. Book the a la carte restaurants at the Information desk at the right of reception.

Pools

Three very nice pools plus a Jacuzzi pool area. Very high standard of cleanliness. The main pool near reception has a swim up bar. Reasonable number of loungers. Only thing that really grated was the loud music that blared out most of the day. Mainly Salsa but sometimes heavy drum beat Garage/House dance music. Not suitable for an afternoon sunbathe snooze. Music at the smaller pool was slightly less intrusive. Tthe upper pool was quiet.

Food

I thought the all-inclusive buffet was perfectly adequate. There was a wide choice of food at each meal and it also included a choice of freshly prepared dishes cooked at the grill. The service was generally excellent. Waiters attentive and constantly clearing used glasses and plates. The food needs to be covered and protected from birds flying in. Also there was no escape from salsa music played constantly even during breakfast.

In addition to the buffets there are three a la carte restaurants for evening meals. You need to reserve tables for these and they book up fast. Also you are supposed to dress up a little and men should wear long trousers. There is a Caribbean theme restaurant “Caribe”. Food and service excellent. Wine list available at supplementary charge.

The Japanese theme restaurant “Bambu” is particularly pleasant. The Mexican theme restaurant “Jalisco” has a la carte deserts but a buffet for main courses.

Entertainment

There is surprisingly little publicity advertising for the in-house entertainment . On the beach in the morning there is a Salsa/Merengue class and aerobics in the sea. At 9pm there is a nightly show on the beach stage. The dancing show is colourful and energetic but the comedy show night has laborious, predictable sketches in Spanish.

We didn’t go on any excursions because the weather was very hot and we didn’t want to be stuck on a bus or boat for hours. Also the party boats seemed a bit rowdy for my taste but would probably be great fun for the 18-30 gang.

We went to the nearby shopping centre and had a pleasant Tapas lunch but overall the shopping centre is largely deserted and dull.

Beach

Absolutely stunning beautiful beach. Swept clear of sea grass every morning. Easy snorkling with fair number fish close to shore (in left side roped off swimming area). Plenty of loungers and limited shade from palm trees. Guests have I hour free use of some sea sport equipment each day. Eg snorkel, windsurfer and pedalo. Pleasant to stroll along the beach to take a look at neighbouring resorts. However the security guards are on the lookout if you try to sneak in without the correct coloured wristband.

Bars

Generally the bar staff were friendly and efficient. There was a fair range of cocktails made with local spirits. Branded spirits could be ordered at extra charge but I never really thought it necessary. The nicest bar is the “Café Dominicano” close to restaurants. The drinks are served nicely in real glasses while sitting in a very comfortable open lounge.

Overall impression

This was our first Caribbean all-inclusive holiday so I admit I have limited experience to compare. I realise other resorts may be better and more luxurious, however in my opinion I thought the Villas Bavaro was an excellent choice. The weather while we were there was superb. The staff were generally excellent. The standard of cleanliness around the resort was extremely high. Take plenty of small US Dollar bills for tips. I needn’t have bothered getting Dom. Rep. Pesos because everything is priced in Dollars. Many people don’t bother with anti malarials here because mosquitos are few in this resort. I only got bitten when I lay on the grass in the shade.

There were a few niggles that could be improved with little effort if the management wanted. eg. Reduce the music to a less intrusive level, replace clean towels immediately, protect the buffet from birds and don’t soak the pathways in the evening. However overall this was a thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable holiday. I would certainly recommend this resort

There is nothing like this in the U.S.A-

The price that we paid for 3 people CANNOT BE BEAT!.It included air. round trip transfers to hotel from airport, all you can eat and drink, free entertainment, beautiful beach with turqouise blue water,and white sand without debris, only seed weed, which is a natural occurence, free paddle boat, snorkling equipment,.You will need a deposit for snorkel equipment, but you get it back. You will have to pay for fishing trips, scuba diving, para sailing, and other excursions.Maid service is provided only if you place the tag on your door requesting cleaning, They will not enter your room

unexpectantly.This service is provided up to 5pm.

They have apartments, villas, and regular hotels rooms that can

accommodate a king size bed or two queen size bed and a nice size comfortable chair.Ample closet space for your clothes.

A large travatine bathroom with a water closet, and huge shower., and a vessel sink and hair dryer. There are three large pool areas. If you like peace and quiet ,there is a pool for you.If you like fun and excitement and music and little people, there is a pool area for you. if you like a small pool they have one for you. Midday you will be served pizza, hamburger, french fries,chicken nuggets, but for breakfast you have buffet style with all kinds of cheeses, fruits, breakfast meats, made to order omelettes,pancakes, french toast, breads. cereal or if you just like coffee , they have another section that is relaxed and peaceful where you can order gourmet style coffees.in the evening you have a choice to go buffet or make reservation for the restaurants. MAKE reservation early in a.m. or day before.

My family and I had a ball.- and will recomend others.

My best friend and I went to the IFA Bavaro Villas from 6/12-6/16 and we loved it. I read all the reviews before going, and I can't really say that any of the complaints were a problem with us. The rooms were better than we expected, the resort was beautiful, and the beach was within walking distance...must closer than we expected. I think the people who are disappointed must have had different expections, but for $113 a night for two people all inclusive...that is a fantastic deal for what we received. The food wasn't amazing, but I enjoyed it. The people were very nice to us. It definitely helped that I knew a little Spanish...I think many people who were rating this resort negatively must forget that they are in another country...their native language is Spanish and their culture is not to be necessarily speedy at getting things done :-). That is just one of those things you have to be sensitive to when staying at an especially inexpensive resort in another country.

We didn't do any of the optional excursions because we were more focused on being lazy, but other people indicated that they had fun.

If you are looking for a luxury resort with everything catered to, then I wouldn't recommend this resort...but if you are like me and on limited funds and want a great value....I definitely would stay at the IFA!

Went down by myself, (as a single female) to relax and visit friends who moved there. Just remember a Dominican minute can take a 1/2 hour....

The front desk registration went well enough, one person (Maximo) needs to be nicer to the guests, I found him rude and demeaning. .Dinner reservations can be made starting in the morning, opposite the reception desk, you must make them in person - we ate at the Japanese and the Caribe, both were nice. The buffet food was good, the wait staff works hard, just remember you are in an island situation, the buffet is open so you can admire the scenery, birds will make every attempt to steal food to enjoy...(remember,you are in a island setting...)

Make sure you get an extra card for the room, the electricity runs only when the card is in the holder - no electricity means the air conditioning goes off...The only negative I have is the housekeeping staff - I always tip at the beginning and each day..even tho it's an all inclusve. Used towels will be collected early - 9am the days I was there, fresh towels were returned late 6pm one day! - also, they will leave the doors/windows open while mopping the floor, inviting all the mosquitos in to feast. They don't have wash cloths, so bring your own if it's important to you - they do have dispensers for gel/shampoo/conditioner in the shower area in the section I was in Rm 4414-- bottled water was supplied and they happily gave me extra's.Internet cafe was good 30 minutes/3.00 American. The tv in the room did not have any shows in englist except for the China business news.. Tehy will charge you to get shows that you and the kids can watch...

I felt very safe in the area, lots of security were visable. always checking to make sure only guests were using the facilities.

Marketplace on the beach you need to haggle, they expect it and no one pays the first offer... I did well by finding out what prices was offered and walking away, the next guy would beat the offer....

Just because it's an all inclusive PLEASE...remember...you don't have to start drinking as soon as you wake up - I did see some people who thought is was appropriate to take over one pool and make it uncomfortable for others. Thankfully there are 3 pools and a jacuzzi area - wish I realised that from the beginning I would have gone to the jacuzzi area earlier. The spa was totally relaxing

Three of us stayed at IFA Villas Bavaro May 8-15, 2008. We were in our early twenties and booked the trip through a travel agent several months in advance. The resort overall was very well-maintained, most buildings looked new, pools were nice, and a few construction projects were ongoing.

Our room was located near the main lobby and main pool area, so the pool and buffet was a short walk from the room. I would suggest asking to stay in this area of the resort, as the villas area is pretty far from the actual beach and the shuttle service to the beach would have to be used. I think if our room had been located elsewhere, we may have left with an unfavorable impression of the resort. The beach was a short walk through the resort, along tiled pathways. The beach was awesome, however, my only complaint would be that the resort is located in a central area that involves a number of water sport activities... so alot of boats are hovering a few yards away from the beach and a small "roped" off buoyed area is designated as the swimming area for guests.

The room was very well kept and clean. However, there is little privacy with the bathroom and shower. The toilet is located behind a thin, almost see-through glass door as soon as you enter the room. The shower has one wall that is made of square bubble glass blocks that are somewhat see-through, if only silhouette. This isn't a huge deal, just a heads up. The only drawback with the room is that the air conditioning is operated by using the room keycard. Only one key is provided per room. When you remove the key and leave the room, the electricity and air conditioning to the room stops. It took several hours for our room to recool after it had been closed most of the day.

The biggest complaint of our stay would be the food at the buffet. The food is hardly seasoned, very bland, and has little taste one might expect of certain dishes. We found eating at the pizza bar (which also serves chicken tenders and fries) to be our safeguard. The reservation-based restaurants are nice and serve better food..however..the mexican themed restaurant is basically a glorified buffet.

There is a market located near the beach where prices are very negotiable. If they ask 35 dollars for something, chances are..if you stick around long enough and give a counter offer you can leave with the goods for five or ten dollars. However, I would recommend only buying cigars or jewelery, and buy the small souvenirs and paintings at the airport because the prices are the same or less at the airport on your way out.

We would go back to this resort for the price we paid. Security was great at the resort. If a basic dominican vacation is what you are looking for, and have a strong stomach that can handle the food... this resort may be for you.

**One disclaimer: Americans should know ahead of time that there is an obvious anti-american slant among hotel employees and vendors at the market. Be prepared at the nightly shows for chinese people to be made fun of, and jabs made at americans...of course only in spanish. When we asked a vendor about not liking americans, the issue seemed to be the war in Iraq.

My husband and I, our son and his friend stayed at the IFA Villas Bavaro in April 2008. Our room was large, had an adequate bathroom area, and the TV had a few English speaking channels. I was impressed by the committment to cleanliness that the maid service showed.

We had all the food we wanted, with a buffet open 3 times a day,

a great pizza/drink bar close to our room, and a convenient lunch/bar at the beach that we used on a regular basis.

We also ate at the Jalisco restaurant 2 times, and the Caribbean restaurant 1 time. Each of these was delightful and had their own special ambiance.

One of the down sides of our stay was that there was not enough chairs and shade at the beach. They could provide some cabanas or palapas to help keep you cool.

Another tip for this resort would be to provide pure fruit juice at their buffets; the fruit juices tasted like they were watered down with syrup.

They did have wonderful tropical fresh fruit for each meal. The pinapple was especially tasty.

Absolute Best Vacation ever. Booked our vacation online. Never spoke to an actual person. Hotel employees were courteous and attentive. Some language barrier, but with only limited spanish on our part, we did fine. Tips are appreciated and remembered. These employees are working 12 hour days sometimes 6-7 days a week. They might have an off day, but a smile and a tip makes their work days better. Check in was a breeze. I recommend arriving on an "off day" (not a Saturday) as there were only us (girls trip - 2 moms, 2 daughters) and one other couple checking in on the day we arrived. We arrived at the hotel at 11:15 AM and even though they say check in is at 3:00 PM, we had our room and was settled by 12:15. Rooms were clean. Beach is a short but beautiful walk. Wasn't sure what to expect with all the reviews prior, but was very pleasantly surprised. Caution on the open air markets. Vendors are very pushy. I would return to this hotel in a heartbeat. Only drawback is the shopping center they have on site. Lots of empty stores, must still be under construction. For us, this was not a problem as we weren't there for shopping. The pizzeria was the best. Give Addison & Frankie a smile, they are the best.

Finally we landed, got our baggage and 20 minutes later (and $25 lighter) we arrived to the hotel. Initial taxi service was offered as $40, but after being strong on price amount we were able to bring it down.

The check-in was just HORRIBLE. The counter space is so narrow, and there were lot of people, trying to get to the worker faster than others... Keep in mind that majority of Europeans are heavy-smokers, and we had to try to protect our 6yo. kid from the cigarette smoke. No "welcome-drink", it was not a big deal, but still....

After 40 minutes talking to the cleark we finally got electronic keys for our room, and went straight to our room. It was building 46XX, which located just perfectly for us - not too far from restaurants, and not too close to the main swimming pool area. All buildings have No balconies or terrace. It was not expecting and was very disappointing...

Room, shower and bathroom were nice and clean. During all 7 nights stay we did not discover any non-welcomed "non-human-being" life in our room. AC worked fine, but I hear that other people complain to the front-desk clerks that they AC did not work. I guess we were lucky.

We really did not like the time of the room service - they usually come between 2 - 3 pm, and that was the time for our kid's daily nap. I had to ask maids to come back later, and few times they did not show up again.

There was ABSOLUTELY nothing in the fridge, besides 2 bottles of water, so if you like an idea of having local drinks in your room, then you need to bring it from the bar or restaurants.

If you are being paranoid as myself, then you would love the idea of having safe in the room. It costs $3/day, and you had to pay in advance. Few times i had to bang the safe itself just to remove the key from the base. Not a big deal. Good reason for stress-relief.

Majority of people, staying in hotel were from Italy and Spain. There was some language barrier between hotel workers and english-speakers, but "good smile brings peace". People in Dominican are very friendly, and they really try to understand you.

We did not go to any specialized restaurant, and always eat in the buffet-style main place. It is more than ok. I have one advice for people, who complain that food selection is poor, and there is nothing to eat, - PAY EXTRA and STAY in the 5 star hotel.

Before I end my blog - the beach is pretty FAR from the hotel, so our kid was yelling that he does not want to go there, because it is too far, and he is tired..... and swimming pool is right there, and he wants to swim.... (some parents probably recognizes the pattern). Well, it means that if you have infants and/or little "mini-me", and you love being on the beach, then you might want to consider staying in other hotel.

There are lot of topless activities on the beach. You'll decide if you like it or not. The beach BBQ restaurant is good. Not Great, but not bad at all.

I would not come back to this hotel, because life is too short and i don't want to be in this very "plain" hotel twice, but for the amount of money we paid it was very well economical place to stay in Dominican.

Oh, and one more thing - don't forget to tip servants, because small tips will bring you lot of "VIP" feelings. :)

Couple dollars to room maid, couple dollars to the restaurant servant, and next time they'll pay much more attention to your needs and wishes. :)

Thank you,

Having read many reviews before this trip and several others since I returned, I thought I should add my input. I always find it odd that people can have such different experiences-many at complete ends of the spectrum from "paradise" to "never again." My explanation is simply that it will be what you make of it - for us, it was great.

There are no doubt a few areas to improve and I will start with these. First, it is true that some of that staff may not be the most friendly. We found this to be the case more so with the entertainment staff. We also found in fact, that the entertainment was a little boring - rather than be cultural, or domincan in nature it was "Western" and with the exception of a few, not all that talented.

Second, some of the food can get a little tiresome. There is not a huge variety at all times. The food is good but again, you may start to feel like you are eating the same thing over and over, particularly at breakfast.

Third, the pools do not have much shade. While the beach is great and covered by many big palm trees, the pools have little if any shade as the trees are small or non existant. Finally, we found the rooms in the villas to be a bit stuffy. The bathrooms have no windows and the windows in the main area either did not or could not be opened as anyone walking by would see in.

In the end however, these problems are fairly minor. From the beginning, we found the experience very good, even great. The resort is absolutely beautiful and the people very warm. The staff at the front desk may have been a little too business like at first, but given that we arrived at the end of a long day with an entire bus load of others guests, that suited us fine. A tip for those who complain about not being "told" about this or that - ASK! We knew about check out, safes, breakfast the next day, got a ride to our room and we did some research before leaving.

When we got our room, there was an error - we booked village but got villas. This was a good thing actually. If you are on a true vacation and dont mind walking through pools, cafes, nice landscaped areas and just enjoy the scenery, the the villas are great (it was about a 15 min walk to the beach for us - room in the high 1000's)

We also noticed right away there was no air conditioning in our room. I have read complaints about this already but I dont understand how - we asked for it to be fixed and a technician showed up that same day. In fact, it would have been fixed earlier but when he showed up the first time, we misunderstood each other and we somehow told him it was ok . This brings us to the next issue people talk about - that the staff do not speak English. We found many workers that did speak English and when we ran into difficulty, we sought out our English speakers for help. Plus, its amazing how far a few hours of Spanish can take you - after all, we are visiting a Spanish speaking country, maybe we should work harder to communicate with them.

As for the food, I have already said how some of it may get a little bland after a while, but Im sure the same can be said of any resort (as has been my experience). The food was fresh, there was certainly sufficient quantity and always some good juices and fruits. We tried 2 of the 3 "reservation" style restaurants and found these quite good. It is true that you need to reserve ahead but not the 3 days ahead we were first told about. We reserved the same day - again, you just have to be flexible.

As for the other guests, I have to say the resort was fairly quiet. Even if it was not, I dont see how anyone could fault the resort for loud and drunken guests (there are security guards around and so I don't believe any of this activity would last long anyways). When you do encounter a loud drunk, I suggest you do what we did - shrug it off, laugh at him and consider free entertainment - it is, after all, March break at an all inclusive, and therefore somewhat expected. This is just luck of the draw and having been at the resort during peak March break time, I give them credit for keeping things "quiet."

All in all, I think the resort was well worth visiting. It is a great place to relax and is beautiful. There are a number of different areas on the resort, all of which offer something a little different. From Jacuzzis to pools to the beach and from cafes and restaurants to nice shadded areas in the trees away from everyone, you are surely able to relax. If you want to venture off the resort, there are a number of excursions to choose from and Higuey is not far and Santo Domingo, the capital, is about 4 hours away.

Get to know the people. Take the time to talk to the staff and you will see, they are friendly, like talking to you and will treat you right. If you invest a little in meeting people and discovering new things, you will surely be rewarded.

Hi all,

I Just got back from a one week vacation at IFA......I loved it !!!! I don't want to sound like I know it all, but I have been to DR 4 times and IFA is such a nice resort...Its very nice and clean...obviouslly if you stay in the villas they have not yet been renovatated so its a 3* but if you stay in the section by the beach it has been renovated and is more like a 4*.

The food is what you can expect in DR not better but very far from worst !!! the 3 super nice and very good rest. à la carte.

6 bar servicing you all day and all night t'il 1 am. Great service and nice too I may add.

3 pools very nice clean a very big....a beautifull beach... store to shop but if you want to wheel and deal go too the flea market on the beach. I f what they have is not enough you can take a shuttel a go to another market close by just check at the reception.

The resort is big so if your room is in the villas section you can take a little golf bus to there and if you want there is also the little bus to beach and if your not lazy you can walk for 10 min a go directlly.

The café domicano is geat to relax...the café internet is 1$ for 30 minutes witch is very cheap.

the also have at far end of the villas 4 jacuzzi with a bar it awsome too. The show at night are fun and enternaning.

The only bad comment I may have is the disco it's more of a meat market then a place to actually lear how to do any type of dance.

if you go you will enjoy it !!! I sure did :)

the food was good not great but good . The room was clean everyday very late .I am talking about 5:00 and later

We stayed there for 2 weeks at the beginning of august in the Villas(cabins) and enjoyed it very much. We chose this resort due to buget reasons, and it has a good price/quality relation.

We have been already 3 times to the DR and the resort is one of the most beautiful we've been in (see videos / fotos).

But it also has some downfalls you should consider before choosing it.

First of all, service in general is somewhat chaotic, especially concerning the room.For example, somedays they forgot to put waterbottles, on other days they forgot to put the blankets of our pillows, another one toiletpaper ran out, one day we were suddenly locked out of our room ( reception computer only booked 7 instead of 14 days). So,nothing really terrible, and everything was fixed when we mentioned it to the personal, but

it's annoying.

In the buffet restaurants the food selection is quite good, but not so rich as in "Luxury" resorts, which is understandable because you pay much less. What's not so nice is, that, in the restaurants ,different to other resorts were you normally self cater drinks,

all drinks are brought to you by a waiter, even water. The problem is that there are too few of them (or they are to slow), so when your drink comes, sometimes you've nearly finished your meal. Tea spoons also seem to be a rare commodity, as at breakfasts we had to ask them to bring one nearly everyday.

The tematic restaurants are nice, and are available on reservation.

Another thing to consider is that if your at the villas(cabins) you have a pretty long walk to the restuarant(10min) and from there to the beach(another 10min), total 20 min. The walk is nice because you pass throught the beautiful gardens,

but on hot times of the day you may get cooked by the sun.

The beach is nice, but there is also a handicap. During the day there is a constant boat traffic so close to the swimming area that it is live threatening if you swim beyond the designated area.

It really seamed a boat highway, and they pass as close as 1 meter to the limit of the swimming area. Also there is not much to see when snorkeling and the most interesting zone is just

outside the swimming area, so go there at your own risk.

Also the bar and restaurant at the beach are really shabby, and getting our food there seemed to us a health risk as food is uncovered out in the heat with beas and wasps also trying to get their share.

Well, as a summary, you get what you paided for but it would be a much better experience if they would improve certain things.

My wife and I stayed for five nights. The actual cost of the stay worked out to be about a third of our costs, with airfare being about two-thirds. I will give the plusses and minuses of our stay:

Plusses:

• We felt it was fairly inexpensive

• The staff there was friendly, as were the Dominican people as a whole

• If you spoke a little Spanish, they really appreciated it

• There are three restaurants besides the buffets – the Mexican was not bad; the Japanese was pretty good, and the Colonial was very good

• When we had problems, the staff worked to resolve them in polite fashion

• There were several vendors trying to sell excursions, but they were not pushy

• Neither were the merchants at the nearby shops (but, of course, they were assertive)

• Several nice pools to choose from – One was an adult pool

• Several free water sports to choose from

• Beach was very nice

• Rooms were fairly roomy and clean

• The grounds were pretty and clean

• The pizza and hamburgers near the main pool were pretty good

• If you drink, there was no problem getting them throughout the complex

• For a small fee, you can go to an internet room

• You can buy prescription drugs over the counter at their pharmacy for low prices

• You can go to a local casino using a free shuttle

• You have the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people from all over the world

• If you like rum, this is the place to be

• The hotel provides security throughout the compound

• Beach is partially lit at night

Minuses:

• The walk to the beach was about ¼ mile (350m)

• The language barrier made things somewhat difficult for native English speakers; I know quite a few Spanish phrases and could get along, but about 80% of the staff spoke little or no English; If you speak English you are by far in the minority in Punta Cana

• The food at the beach buffet was not very good – most everything, including the burgers, tasted fishy.

• The drinks were served in very small and flimsy plastic cups

• The choices of alcohol were limited and they only served one type of beer; if you desired premium drinks, such as Jack Daniel’s, etc. you were charged; (regarding certain drinks such as bourbon, scotch, etc., they were unavailable unless you paid for them); you also must pay extra for wine at the restaurants

• Again, if you drink, there is no mini-bar or alcohol in your rooms

• None of the rooms have close access to the beach

• If you need a safe you must obtain a mechanism to lock it for 3 USD/day

• The compound is expansive, so you will do a lot of walking

• Pools all closed at 7:00 PM, but you can swim at the beach all night

Some things to note: The buffets were a little better at breakfast, average at dinner. Also, my wife lost an earring in the bed that was a fake diamond, but later in the day one of the maids left it on the nightstand for us to find. Also, at the concierge desk, a guy named Jesus was very helpful at resolving a problem we had with our air conditioning – he spoke very good English.

Every morning a rooster would crow (this was kind of cute) – if you need a wakeup, this is good – We were able to sleep through it though.

Overall, this is a very nice place. If you are looking for a five star place, this is not it, but you will enjoy yourself.

We booked our stay thru USAir Vacations, which gave us the best pkg price. I searched enough ahead of time and was happy with the price we paid for four of us. We brought our son 37 and grandson 14, so we needed two rooms. Normally we pay for two close to what we paid for four, so when my husband would comment that something wasn't par, I would remind him that you get what you pay for. Overall rooms were very adequate. We stayed in the center of the resort, the closest building to the reception desk. Which put us near or central to everything, the pool with the swimup bar was in front of our building, the pizza bar a little further up, the main buffet building for breakfast was to the left of our bldg. We were close enough to the beach that it was a nice walk through another section with a small pool and a second buffet bldg. used for breakfast and lunch. the spa and exercise bldg. is directly across from that bldg. then a little further down the path to the beach. All the activity was at the beach including all night entertainment. We walked down two nights in a row, but most of the shows are in spanish and we know very little.

I was really glad that I had read reviews before going because I read that they take your towels early and don't bring them back til late...true, also no washcloths ever. So I brought washcloths and hand towels. Also no clocks in the rooms, I brought clocks.

Take lots nof sunscreen, we used spf 30 and only my husband got burned, but it wasn't bad, we just kept loading it on. Casme home with tans.

Food wasn't wonderful, the same pretty much everyday. Japanese restaurant was very good but not air conditioned. The Caribe restaurant was good and it was air conditioned. We didn't go to the Mexican restaurant since my husband doesn't care for spicy food and I had read a review that it wasn't so good.

One thing that I do want to mention is that most of the reviews complained about the reception desk being slow, not nice etc., so we were prepared to encounter the worst. We were so pleasantly surprised and caught off guard by our check-in . A young gentleman by the name of Julio was so friendly and jovial and spoke very good English (which was a big concern from reviews).

One other thing that I thought might be helpful to know is that there are 3 sections to the resort. I'm not sure which was built first, but we stayed in the middle and we were very happy with the accomodations from that section. The section furtherest from the

beach, seems like it's another resort on it's own. It appeared quiter and was really pretty lit up at night. That side is where the ala carte restaurants are.

Liquor is bottom shelf and if you want a name brand it will cost you around 7 or 8 US dollars.

Hopefully this helps,just remember you get what you pay for.

One more note, there's not much else to do besides lay by the pool and eat. Activities at the beach are okay but not much as far as night unless you go into Punta Cana.

The hotel was beautiful. There are 3 pools and so many bars. We stayed right outside the main pool area with the pool bar. The room was great except for issues with ants in the toilet and sink area. We complained about it several times, however nothing was done about it. Another issue was that the cleaning maids came to pick up every single towel in the hotel room at 8am. No towels were given back to us until 5pm. The presented a problem if we woke up late or needed to go to the bathroom. The toilet and shower areas are a little see through..however it wasn't a big deal. There are no channels in English, so if you are looking to watch some tv since there is nothing else to do in the evening, then good luck with that.

The food was the biggest issue. We went to the Mexican restaurant the first night, and the food smelled spoiled. It must have been sitting out for hours. I ordered a drink and that was warm. Never went there again! We did go to the oriental place, and loved their food..and continued to go there every single night of our trip since the other food in the hotel was horrible. At the buffets, there was flies in the dressings, and at one point we saw a bird just sitting there and snacking on the food, and no one did anything about it. The water was good, since no one got sick from it. We ended up having the same meal every day: bread for breakfast (with water), pizza and fries (with soda), and oriental food (with other drinks).

The service of the hotel was overall pretty good. People barely spoke English but we were able to get around pretty easily.

The beaches were gorgeous, but get ready for ScubaCaribe to hassle you for money. They come up to you at every possible moment for you to sign up with them to do activities. If you are interested in that, that's great, but we were there just to lay on the beach and relax and when people are constantly hassling you, it's annoying. We did venture out to the other beaches during the day, and guys hassled us there, as well. We were 3 young women, but still be careful when venturing off your resort. Never do it at night, and stay in groups.

There is a market and also internet cafe where you can go on the internet for a reasonable price and also make calls to America if needed.

The hotel also had buses that allowed you to go to the casino and shopping center. We didn't want to venture on that since we weren't interested in either, but both a good option if getting bored on the resort.

Some things to always bring: lots of sunscreen, bug spray (my friend got 35 bug bites within the first couple days we were there), something to do in the evening to keep yourself entertained. They do provide bottled water in the refrigerators in the room. There is a downside about that because electricity only works when your room key is inserted in a slot when you are in your room. You only get one room key so when you leave the room with that key, everything turns off - all lights, air conditioning, and refrigerator. We did get a safe key for a reasonable price, as well.

Overall, I wouldn't come back to this hotel, because of the food. The only things to do at this resort was eat/drink and lay on the beach...and if you are left with only one option, you are gonna end up baking in the sun starving to death. I would def try another resort after talking to other people at the airport and hearing about their food options.

My friend and I stayed at this resort from 5/3/08 to 5/8/08, I would return to Punta Cana but try a different resort. Apparently it was a long weekend in the countries so it was mobbed around this time, check your calendars or do some research before you book!

We were pleased with our stay but it does get a little boring at night because there really is no entertainment- it's more of a relaxing get some drinks and walk around type of resort! Our check in was a disaster, the front desk was very unorganized and rude. There is no "check in" line or anything so it's basically bombard the front desk until someone sees you. Our room wasn't ready for about an hour b/c housekeeping was a little slow. I would recommend checking in on a Thursday or Friday b/c the weekend was mobbed..... Check out wasn't a problem. Get an extra key to your room, they only give you one at check in! We didn't use the safe in the room we were both a little uneasy with leaving money while we were out.

The resort and the grounds were gorgeous, very clean! Our room was average nothing special which was fine for us girls! The only problem was the shower ceiling was leaking when someone upstairs was taking a shower... The tv only gets 2 american channels if you want to nap or just hang out in your room, bring an ipod or a portable DVD with some movies if you get tired of being outside! The beach was amazing the water is crystal blue and the sand was so fine and white- loved that part! Bring SPF 50 or higher b/c you will burn it's a strong kind of sun out that way!!! The workers offer Aerobics and yoga which was very entertaining! All of the workers were nice on the resort always saying hi!

The restaurants were very hard to find, we ended up finding them b/c we walked around one day. There is Japanese, Carribean and Mexican located in the Cafe Domenico they are small restaurants so make reservations quick it gets filled up fast! The buffet was alright you get sick of the same foods everyday but it was fine for us! Pikalo Pizzeria was the best they served pizza and burgers up until 10p if you were hungry or in the mood to snack! The waiters try their hardest to entertain you which was pretty funny but they were really nice! We had great massages, those women worked hard to please us which was very nice! I totally recommend taking a morning or afternoon to go- that was well worth it!

There is no shopping unless you take a bus off the resort, we didn't do that seeing that this was our first time in that country. The local stores on the resort were fine for us! The resort offers different things to do at night by taking a bus off the resort for Casino, swimming with the dolphins, excursions and snorkeling however we just went there to relax....

It was a good, relaxing time we definitely needed a break from everyday life but I would try a different resort next time. Oh and bring bug spray and spray those legs I got chewed alive at night! Pack very light your in your bathing suit all day and at night it's a little muggy so sundresses and tanks are the way to go!!! Hope this helped a little....

We went to this hotel with high expectations but come away very dissatisfide.The check in desk staff where unpleasant to say the least,the room was at the back of the kitchen no view at all,the chamber maids did not clean our room till after 6 oclock,the meals had no variety at all, catered for dominicans and south americans too much,theres at lot of building work going on at the moment,but looking on the bright side that should be finished in few years time,noise on the beach from building work,helicopters,speed boats,water taxis etc etc.There was a couple of good things to say about the hotel, the rooms are a good size and well thought out ,the grounds are nice 3 nice pools,{the sun beds are bolted down so you cannot move into the shade},and one really nice barman called Kelvin, apart from that they need to retrain there staff in hospitality

This was our second time at the IFA Bavaro. May 9-16. 2 Yrs ago my husband and I stayed and we had the best time. Had NO complaints about the resort. We brought a family of 4 w/ us this time. It was there first time in the Dominican and picked IFA for there first trip. WOW! The resort has changed so much (for the good and the bad). I'm not one to complain about resorts. We have been to the D.R. 4 times and never once have I complained. This trip I had a few issues. Did not let it ruin my vacation.

The check in was a breeze. Our travel agent booked us an ocean view room but we didn't get them. It was okay because I really don't hang out in my room much. We requested to be close to the beach. We did get rooms close to the beach. When we got to our room, it was so hot in the room. Well, the A/C was not working. I went to the front desk. They sent someone up to look at the a/c. Nothing was done. They ended up by coming 2 times and nothing was done. I know they like money. With my little Spanish, asked him to fix the a/c and gave him 10.00us. Let me tell you the A/C worked PERFECT the whole week. He was very happy and so were my husband and I. The family we traveled w/ had no problems w/ there room. I noticed if you take your room key w/ you lights and a/c turn off. I brought an old credit card but it didn't work. I spotted a maid w/ my little Spanish she set me up w/ an extra key again few bucks helps and everyone is happy.

I thought the food was horrible. They closed the main buffet the week we arrived. I booked the Mexican and Oriental a la carte. My husband was so sick from the Mexican. It was our 2nd day and he was sick the rest of the trip. He didn't let it ruin his trip. Just had to be real close to a bathroom and drank tons of H2O. WE loved the Caribe and Oriental. Tried to avoid the buffet. Was very disappointed w/ the selection of food.

Breakfast was okay. I really liked the Pizza bar. We ate lots of pizza and fries. We did enjoy the beach grill.

The beach was wonderful. Plenty of chairs and shade. The staff was on the beach at 10:00am w/ plenty of music. My husband drove the little speed boats w/ the locals. Was going to book w/ Scubacaribe but gave my husband the run around.

My husband and I booked massages on the beach through the Spa. WOW! They did a great job.

The family that came w/ us had 2 young ladies whom wanted there hair braided. There were 2 locals whom walk the beach giving prices to have hair braided. On one of the last days the 2 young ladies went and had there hair braided w/ Mona. They walked down the beach to a little hut. Once they were done and paid the amount they requested. Mona was hassling them to pay her. Telling them they had paid her boss and they needed to pay her. Mona would not let up following them to the resort. Finally Mona stopped and returned to her hut. Be careful if you have your hair braided. Go to the Spa to have it done. Safer..

We spent a couple of days by the main pool. With my husband not feeling all that great we stayed close to our room and the bathroom. The pool has changed and looks beautiful. It was very clean. The swim up bar was great and Miguel was fantastic. He has GREAT customer service skill. He enjoys his job. We brought him a nice bag full of gifts for him and his family.

I do have to share w/ you that the locals check in for the weekend and are very rude. My husband and I were going back to our room after being by the pool all day. I noticed a local w/ his small child hanging out at the pool. I looked again and the child had his bathing suit pulled down and he was peeing in the pool. I made a comment and the local (dad) said "it's okay"

My husband and I noticed that there was a change in staff. We thought the staff was great. Amazing how many hours they work per day.

Our room was always clean and fridge was stock w/ plenty of soda, water and beer. We put out gifts and money every day for our maid. The rooms have changed from 2 yrs ago. I thought the rooms were very nice and bigger. The only complaint was when I did want to watch a little T.V. there were no English channels. My husband did catch a Red Sox game one night in Spanish. He was too sick to join us for dinner, he was very happy to be able to catch a baseball game.

Would not return to the IFA but would return to the Dominican and stay at a different resort..

Unless you speak fluent spanish dont stay here. We experienced

problems with our air conditioner and no one could fix it because

they couldn't understant what we were saying at the front desk!

We finally got our room changed to another one finally after freaking out. where we found the T.V. didnt work and the furniture

had no cusions. The rooms were disasterous and infested with cockroaches, crickets, and little centipede creatures but after what we went through with front desk we gave up complaining as it gets you no where there. There was a gigantic spider the size of a Trantula in the hallway out side our room not a nice experience seeing that.

The drinks there are terrible one type of beer, no bottled beer or any type of hard liqure I have ever heard of. Bacardi or anything like that $7 a drink considered Premium!

Food was good and service there was pretty good. Thank God

because with out that this Hotel is a true expensive Joke!

We decided we were desperately in need of some time in the sun so we booked a trip on Tuesday afternoon to leave on Wednesday morning. This was the ONLY place we could find. I made the reservation without looking at this site first and then panicked because the reviews were pretty mixed. I actually canceled with the agent before deciding to go ahead and risk it.

My review is mixed, as well.

The resort is very nice. The pools are pretty, the landscaping is nice, the buffets are nice (we didn't go to any of the restaurants because we have a 13 month old). The beach is great. The sand is soft and powdery and our daughter loved it. Something about the composition of the sand makes it cool all day long - no burning the bottoms of your feet.

Our room was nice to look at but, as mentioned in most reviews, the a/c did not work. The fan blew, but no cold air came out. This made is really, really hard to sleep. We tried opening the window, but between the disco, the restaurant, and the drunk people yelling and vomiting, the noise made it difficult to sleep. It's too bad, because the evening temps and the breeze were really lovely.

The food was okay. Breakfast was pretty dismal. Exactly the same every day - and nothing very good. If you wanted eggs (or omelet), they cooked them until they became something nowhere near approximating an egg. Thank goodness for yogurt (and they had some excellent chocolate croissants).

People really didn’t seem to care about what you did or did not want. No one asked if you wanted a drink. When you finally flagged someone down and asked, you may or may not have gotten it a half hour later. English is not spoken, but that’s really not a big deal. My husband and I think this is because there were probably only about 10-15% of us there that spoke English. At least half the people there were French.

The processing in and out at the airport is very efficient but in the airport there was nowhere to sit, lines for food were really, really long and there was only one board to look at to check your flight status. Of course, when you did check it, the information was wrong… Poor (no) communication regarding flight status. I think the airport just isn’t keeping up with the amount of traffic.

Bottom line:

ROOMS; nice, but a/c did not work in ours or any of the people we talked to.

FOOD; mediocre.

BEACH; wonderful – but there’s only one bathroom for a long, long shoreline.

POOLS; very nice. Also nice that there are three to choose from, depending on the noise/activity level you want

SERVICE; not great.

PUNTA CANA AIRPORT; - madness

Although the weather was gorgeous, the beach was really nice, and the pools were lovely we will not return because we felt the service was not good, the food was mediocre and the airport was madness. We’ll stick with Mexico and family-centered resorts.

We stayed at this resort from Feb. 17 until the 24. There was a group of 7 of us. We requested a building closest to the beach which they graciously accommodated for us! One major problem - our room had no air conditioning!!! They said they fixed it but it wasn't fixed (this was on our 4th day there). They moved us to the "Villas" which couldn't be farther from the rest of our group. The room was filthy - I guess I shouldn't complain, though, at least we weren't melting at night! We went from 2 double beds (very comfortable by the way) and nice pillows to 1 hard bed with pillows that seemed to be filled with popcorn! We rented the safe and kept our valuables (and a traveling companion's) in there. Someone actually found our safe key and stole $100! There was nothing the resort could do (of course they went through the motions and basically wasted my husband's time!). The beach - was awesome! Lots of lounge chairs and activities to do! Para-sailing was fun!! Food and drinks were close. We loved the pizza place. We loved the bars and the people working there were very pleasant. I liked the variety of entertainment on the main stage. We just wished there were other things to do at night (ie. karaokee). The food was so-so but there was a nice variety. We took the safari trip (all day) and had a blast! Be careful though, they will tell you that you get to make your own cigars (but you don't - they stop so you can buy some) and that you get to visit a school (which you don't - you drive by a couple, but you don't stop). All in all it was a lot of fun!

I have very mixed feelings about our stay at this resort. Some things were excellent - others not so. I think it's absolutely true - you get what you pay for so if you didn't pay for a 5 star resort you shouldn't expect a 5 star resort.

We were originally booked to stay at the Allegro (now Sunscape) First Club resort. Due to "overbooking" - which seemed suspicious in of itself - we were moved to the IFA Villas Bavaro. Reviews on Tripadvisor seemed fairly similar before we left.

We were a group of 5 staying in 2 rooms. On arrival, check-in was a bit disorganized - no lineups just a bunch of people crowded around a desk. So it can be a bit frustrating if a large group is ahead of you.

I told the reservations that our reservation was 2 rooms. We were not given adjacent rooms - in fact they were not even close to each other. My initial room was 1224 - so far away that they have a golf cart tram to take you there. I would say walking it was 500m away from the main reception and another 300m or more to the beach. (They do have another shuttle to the beach although it's a nice walk there).

On checking in to the room - no towels, no toilet paper. A phone call was made - it came 2 hours later. Luckily I had brought my own.

The rooms I would say are 3* in quality. They have a nice 27" plasma TV with lots of channels (satellite) - including multilingual. Unfortunately some of the hotel channels kept showing graphic porn so if you are channel surfing it can be a bit annoying.

There is no wi-fi in the rooms - they said there was DSL cable on the TV for Internet but when you call the front desk they say no. The only Internet is this small hut where you have to book time in advance ($1US for 30minutes) - 2 computers. I booked time everyday. But slots were always full. I usually booked the day before.

There are no toiletries. No kleenex or tissue. There is a dispenser on the wall with 3 slots but only one of the slots is filled with a white liquid. Shampoo? Soap? The other room (my sister's) the dispenser was broken.

The beds were fine - and I thought the shower was very nice. No bathtub.

Housekeeping was variable. Sometimes they came in the morning, sometimes not until the evening. Towels are taken out separately in the morning and new ones are provided in the afternoon or early evening. So there are no towels in the room mid-day.

On the second day we insisted on being moved to a closer room and were moved to room 1089 - much closer and this improved our enjoyment more.

Air conditioning was hard to control but we were glad to have it - it could either be too cold if left on (even though there was a thermostat) or too hot if left on. Ceiling fan as well but rather noisy.

No clockradio in the room so bring your own.

Small fridge which is replenished with 2 medium sized bottles of bottled water daily.

Ice bucket but never saw an ice machine while we were there.

Small clothesline outside is a nice touch for your wet stuff - 2 patio chairs and a small table as well. Many people left stuff overnight. But my sister had a towel stolen and I actually had a towel taken (which was later returned) as well so leave out at your own risk.

We tipped our housekeeper every day and at the end and it was much appreciated.

The beach is very very nice and we walked to it. Lots of lounge chairs never a problem but we are morning people. Around the pool (3 gorgeous pools), the "towel reservation system" is working. Never bothered by people selling stuff I don't think they are allowed. Spa people gently approach you at times on walkways but not an issue at all. At the beach - lots of topless sunbathing.

This resort is almost exclusively European. English is hardly spoken here and I would say it was primarily people from France, Italy, Germany, and Spain who were there our week. Some staff speak basic English but I would not try anything conversational. Some reception staff do not speak English.

Drinks were super sweet and not premium alcohol. Pina colada comes out of a machine and was highly variable depending on where I got it. Sometimes it was like an ice drink, other times it was a warm drink, I thought the coffee bar/cafe served the best drinks and coffee.

The food to me was the worst part of this resort and I like everything. Breakfast was fine. Entertaining omelette guy. It's hard to mess up breakfast. At the main restaurant they have a pasta bar and a grill area. We enjoyed that. But the food was just adequate. I would say at the level of a high school cafeteria. Or so.

The most disappointing restaurant experiences were the a la carte restaurants. You must make reservations in advance. The Oriental restaurant is a beautiful room but portions were small and we could have eaten more afterwards. Some of the meat was tough. The Mexican restaurant is buffet style and reasonable in quality but a confusing layout creates two way buffet traffic and the grill seemed overwhelmed. The Caribe restaurant served beautiful looking food that tasted fine but our food was cold when it arrived. Another group went to the buffet after Caribe and said their meat was tough.

I got a bit of travellers diarrhea towards the end of the week and my mother a mild case when she returned home.

The gym is quite good - I was surprised. Weight machines - 2 treadmills, 2 ellipticals, 2 bikes, free weights, mats. Air conditioned. I didn't go into the spa but the entrance is the same as the gym and was very nice.

I did water aerobics and stretching on the beach with the "animation" crew. The first couple days the stretching on the beach was excellent. The second day he handed over his duties to this girl who basically made things up as she went along (stretching each finger?) and quit after 20 minutes.

Evening entertainment was hit and miss. My parents enjoyed the musical shows (which start at 10pm). There is one night where they do a Miss IFA Villas Bavaro contest with people from the audience that some might consider offensive - it includes having the women simulate lap dancing on a man from the crowd who is tied up. And although I had left by then, later on there was a racially insensitive skit involving asking one of the contestants to "act like a Chinese person" and given some props - being of Asian descent I am glad I was not there but my brother-in-law did speak to the manager the next day (nothing happened). I believe another review on tripadvisor alluded to this skit.

Local calls are not free - we made four rather quick local calls and ended up paying $13US. We were told the rate before we made the calls but they have a very suspicious exchange rate and really you don't have much say unless you take out pesos which I would not recommend.

Checkout was straightforward for us. Our pre-arranged airport transfer was no problem at all. However, a nice couple I met actually missed their flight because checkout took so long at the hotel. I didn't get the exact details - we had a brief conversation at the airport - but he was furious - and it seems like a large group was either checking out in front of them.

The grounds of this resort are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. In layout, In maintenance and in cleanliness. Just wonderful. This resort has the potential to make itself into a 4* or 5* resort if it upgrades the food and the rooms. I thought all the staff were wonderful, hard working and polite. (We tipped everywhere though - every meal, every drink , housekeeping - and we certainly didn't see much tipping going on)

I would stay at this resort again if I knew that the rooms were upgraded and if I knew that the food had improved. If I were to return I wouldn't bother with the a la carte restaurants. (Note that they do have nicer rooms but we were told we would have to pay extra and that Sunscape/Allegro did not pay for us to be in those rooms.)

We stayed at the IFA Villas Bavaro in punta cana. Don't stay there ever! They had no activities for you to do. Most of the hotels in Punta Cana they have dance lessons, games at the pool, Spanish lessons, things like that. This hotel had none of that. The only thing they offered was water polo and water arobics and that was only once a day. Not to mention that the food was more for the for the European Countries. You could find something you liked that usually was the pasta. I just don't fell this hotel wants any americans to stay at this place. I did write the company it's self but I have yet to hear anything from them. PLEASE WE HAVE STAYED AT ALOT OF RESORTS IN PUNTA CANA, STAY SOMEWHERE ELSE NOT HEAR!!!!!

Very, Very disappointed with this resort. This was our fourth trip to the Dominican and we have loved it everytime.....except this time. This resort was a 2-star at best. First the good: the rooms were very nice. The a la carte restaurants were nice. That's about it. Now the bad: With the exception of the "Cafe Dominicana" bar, the drinks at the resort were horrible. Oh, they have top shelf liquor, but it's not all inclusive. You must pay $7.00 per SHOT (not per drink) for any top shelf liquor. So, for a Long Island Ice Tea, you're looking at over $30 for the drink! The bars were very ill-equipped. You have to repeatedly ask for ice in your drinks, and one bartender told me the reason there were never any limes at the bar was because they were too expensive. Also, unless you ask for alcohol in your drink, you don't get any!! Unless the drink is on their menu, they don't know how to make it. For example, I ordered a martini (which I had to pay $7.00 for), and they didn't know how to make it. How much more basic than a martini can you get??

My daughter's air conditioner in her room did not work, so she was finally moved after 2 days...to another room with an inoperable air conditioner! After 4 days and much complaining, the air conditioner was finally fixed.

I speak a fair amount of spanish, but I was surprised at how little English staff members speak. I can't even imagine someone going there who speaks no spanish....they'd be lost.

There is a large local contingent always present at the resort. The resort is located right next to a "suburban" residential area of private apartments/townhouses. ALL the residents have access to the resort, so it gets very crowded.

As mentioned earlier, the a la carte restaurants were ok. The central buffet was not.....the same food every single day...no variety. Same with the pizza snack bar, and the same with the beach snack bar. Whatever you do, don't order a hamburger...it doesn't taste like any beef I've ever had before.

The animation team was a joke. They too were very predictable....same thing every day....stretching and volleyball. That, coupled with EXTREMELY LOUD music blaring on the beach (and I might add, many of the same songs over and over and over again....enough already). And speaking of the beach, there are NO umbrellas of ANY KIND on the beach. Every other resort in the Dominican has thatch-roofed umbrellas for those not wanting to stay in the sun all day.......not this place.

If one had never been to the Dominican before, or to an all-inclusive before, one might think this is a nice place. But believe me, spend a few more dollars and go elsewhere. We have previously stayed the the Grand Oasis Resort, and the Sunscape Resort (coincidentally, located right next to each other). We had a wonderful time at both resorts and would highly recommend them over this place. DO NOT STAY HERE!!!

Stayed here for one week and couldnt wait to get back to England, it was a Caribbean version of Pontins, infact i have had better holidays at pontins than here. They seem to put all the english customers at the back end of the resort which is a good 15 minutes from the main eating areas and 20 mins from the beach, pathways not lit up very well at night and only one security man for the whole complex. The rooms in the brochure and on the net looked nothing like our little chalet room that was beyond basic. The restaurants had birds pecking at the food and we saw several cockroaches helping themselves to the buffet. We have been to the dominican lots of times and this as to be the worst complex ever. The beach was amazing and plenty of sun loungers but that was the only thing nice about this holiday. I wouldnt def never go back.

We had originally reserved two rooms due to the fact that we had 5 travelers. A day later the 5th traveler dropped out and we no longer needed the 2nd room. We called hotels.com and requested that we change our reservation to one room with four people in it. They said we shouldn’t cancel our reservation but they would call the hotel and tell them we would have a fourth member attending and told us it would be an extra $74 a night. We called the hotel looking for a shuttle service from the airport but they didn’t provide one, thus made it confusing when departing the airport.

Once we finally arrived to the hotel we embarked a mayhem of people standing around the entire hotel counter trying to do a series of requests all at the same time with the same receptionist. Once the receptionist attended my family she did not understand that we had a fourth member with us. She kept telling me no problem and handing me three of the hotel wristbands and three towel cards and two door openers. I kept explaining to her no we have a fourth person in both English and in Spanish. FINALLY she understood that the fourth person was with us and then sent me to yet another person. I waited in that line again to then be told that the rate is $88 a night per extra person. I told them that hotels.com had spoken to a Jon Carlos Tieba and that he told us that it would be $74. The receptionist then proceeded to tell me that person didn’t even work there. She then told me to move over to the next guy who does the billing and charging. He then was about to ring up all four people and told me the charge would be $770. He thought we were paying for all four people. That made me furious to realize that we had paid SO MUCH more than we should have but we didn’t really have a choice because we were already charged on my American Express Gold Card form Hotels.com. We had paid over $904.75 OVER what we should have paid. So I said we have already paid for the three people which we were already charged $1,234.75 and just need the fourth person. We took the $88 a night coming up to an additional $70 for the week than it should have been. It came to a grand total of $1,674.75 It took over an hour and a forty-five minutes to check in and another fifteen minutes to get to our room. This pricing became outrageous because we could have had two rooms for a difference of $22 a night. Instead we were crammed into tight corridors in one room.

Upon getting to our room we only had two room keys. One room key was needed to keep in a holder to keep the electricity on and the air conditioner running. Two keys for the four people in the room because a tremendous hassle. It became an even more hassle when fellow room neighbors began kicking on doors for 5 minutes at a time to be let into their hotel room between the hours of 2AM and 5:30AM. We never were able to sleep well during our stay due to the banging on the doors to be let in. We were never able to go out of the hotel room comfortably without being worried who would keep the hotel key.

The size of our rooms were crammed. The beds were extremely small for two people, the shower and bathrooms were open and visible to anyone walking around in the room leaving absolutely no privacy to any of us. The bathroom was extremely small for the average person to fit into. There were never shower towels available because the cleaning service would take our dirty towels and wouldn’t leave clean towels. This then required us to call over and over again until