After going to Sandals in St. Lucia for my honeymoon in 2008, this vacation package @ approximately 1/3rd of the price seemed like a great deal, and i figured it would be about 1/3rd as nice. However, after arriving at the resort i realized that this was not true and that resort is a GREAT deal!!! It seems like this resort has the best location in the playa dorada complex. All of the staff at the resort are AWESOME and VERY entertaining (i still can remember what one of their laughs sounded like, hilarious!). The nightly entertainment was great, they had gambling, a beach party, fire entertainers, local dancers, local musicians, and it was all AWESOME! Our room was right on the beach (make sure you pay the extra for the oceanfront room, it is WELL worth it, and make sure that you demand upon arrival that you get an ocean front room in section 14 or 16). The only thing that bothered some people (although i'm not easily annoyed) were all the locals on saturday and sunday, made the pool very busy and the eating situation very busy, but other than this everything was GREAT!!! We did a katamaran excursion and the city tour with the cable car and our guide was AWESOME for both of them, so i would def. recommend these! Overall, this is not sandals mainly because the food wasn't as good, but it was SO much cheaper and almost as good, i would def. recommend going here! Hope this helps!

A very nice small resort with some of the ammenities of a larger resort. A quiet place,nice pool area,right on a small beach and next to a larger beach which Casa Marina/Reef hotel is on-great waves! We just had the buffet breakfast which was good. They changed it up a little each day.The staff were very friendly and helpful. It's an easy,fun walk into town to the many bars,restaurants and shops. The only negatives I came up with was the lack of dressers in the rooms, the need for some type of drying racks for wet clothes/swim suits and the rooms weren't very soundproof-tough sleeping in late!

Barcelo Puerto Plata is the perfect place to go an relax, specially when you are in your honeymoon. This resorts is very clean, the staff really do an excellent job in keeping this resorts clean. The food in any of its restaurants was excellent. The pool, the beach also is well clean. Barcelo Puert Plata is a well secure resorts, my wife and I have a beautiful and relaxing time at the resorts. I am ready to go back to that piece of heaven in Puerto Plata called BARCELO ALL INCLUSIVE. I have highly recommended this resorts to all my co-workers at the hospital when I went back to work. Thanks a million to you and the staff at Barcelo Puerto Plata for such high class service during my honeymoon. In an scale 1 thru 10 Barcelo is rated 10+++++++ This resorts have a very talented staff that give shows every night to the tourists.

this resort was so much more than i expected.we really had a great time.all of the staff was very friendly and aways smiling.the food was always good. the rooms were very clean and well stocked with drinks.i really don't have anything bad to say about this place.i would go back again we have a great time. P.S. the beach was nothing to write home about.( not to nice.)its to bad because the resort was great...

After a Groupon deal on another Puerto Plata resort fell through (Viva Wyndham Tangerine unexpectedly wanted to charge double for a stay during Christmas week), we settled upon Riu Merengue for our Christmas on the Beach. Everything happens for a reason -- Riu Merengue was one of the most beautiful resorts we've ever seen, set in an undisturbed tropical paradise. The best part is that it is the only resort around, about a half hour in the opposite direction from the airport as all the other resorts in Puerto Plata (Riu is set west of the city, whereas the others are in the east in crowded Cabarete and Sosua). Venture out into the water on a boat or kayak and the resort disappears amongst the palm trees: The tallest buildings are the two-floor villas in which the rooms are set, eight rooms to a building, which gives it a more intimate, village-style feel than other resorts. The rooms were adequate, but we didn't spend much time in them (the full-bottle mini bar was an added plus though). I highly recommend an upgrade to an ocean-view room, which was a negligible extra fee. Our room had its own private patio just steps from the beach -- sizable enough for ten people, although we were three -- where we often sat to watch the ocean, the birds and the people go by (we even had our own banana tree). As for amenities: The food was fairly average resort fare, although there were more choices than in other resorts we've stayed in. I was disappointed at the "restaurants," which were merely smaller buffets in different parts of the resort offering somewhat different food than the main, giant buffet. Actual restaurants would have been nice. The bars were great, and the drinks were not weak if you knew what to ask for, plus the bar staff were full of energy and kept the nights moving. The entertainment was really first-class, with nightly shows on a full-size stage featuring upwards of two-dozen talented dancers -- everyone loved it, and the shows were packed every night. The pool seemed small for such a large resort, but because Merengue is connected to the two other Riu resorts, you had access to others (Merengue was clearly the best of the three resorts however). We did the four-wheeler rental/tour, which was the highlight of the trip: We went up through the surrounding mountains, past tiny local villages until reaching the top of a mountain overlooking the beautiful ocean to the front and the sprawling jungle to the rear. It was the most picturesque view I've ever seen, and the whole thing was well worth the extra price. The SCUBA diving, however, was a huge disappointment. The instruction for first-timers consisted of a 20-minute DVD, 10 minutes of practice in one of the pools (with resort guests swimming around) and, although we were promised 45 minutes underwater, we ended up being under for only 18 minutes. But all this took about 4-5 hours, due to waiting around for instructors (a German instructor made us wait 30 minutes in full wetsuit gear plus tanks and weight belts before going to the boat while he smoked cigarettes) and travel time to the dive spot, which is 30 minutes away. We saw just three fish and the water was not very pretty in this location. As for the beach and ocean itself, in low tide the ocean floor was very rocky, and it hurt to walk any further out than 10 feet or so. But in high tide it mysteriously became sandy and was a much more pleasant experience. It's not the prettiest beach or water ever (Cancun has Puerto Plata beat in this regard), but it was nicer, cleaner and warmer than any beach in the US. It is worth nothing that we were told by locals that jellyfish are rare in these waters but common in Punta Cana, and we didn't see any sea "creatures" while swimming/wading off the beach, which was a big plus for squeamish people like me. Check in and check out was fast and efficient, and not a single complaint overall. I would definitely recommend this resort to everyone and would stay here again if I return to

I just returned from visiting Puerta Plata. My mom and I needed a vacation and decided to stay at the Iberostar Costa Dorado resort. It's a great place to stay especially for families. We left the resort only once to go on a day trip, the City Tour. It was a great way to see the surrounding area, go on the cable car, and visit some cool sites like the Rum factory ;-). I would definitely stay at this resort again with my family.

This was an amazing experience staying at the Casa Marina Resort. The ambiance at this resort is just beyond what was expected from me. There were only a couple of downfalls. One was the condition and comfort of the room. The beds could have been a little more comfortable and the furniture in general could have been a little more up to date, but for the price we paid and the fact that we barely stayed in our room, I am not at all complaining. The buffet meals were not that great, but the restaurant meals made up for it. The seafood restaurant was absolutely amazing. Everything tasted fresh! The Italian restaurant was also great. The people that work at this resort were absolutely great! They were upbeat, helpful, excited, and just full of energy! At any given moment they found something to do to have fun with the resort guests. The bartenders were always dancing and smiling, especially our friend Leonardo! He had a smile on 24/7, as did all the employees of this resort. The Casa Marina employees really made the whole experience at the resort a memorable one! We definitely plan on returning to this resort. The resort is just beautiful and very big! There were a lot of activities that were available on the resort. The nightclub was a great experience on Friday and Saturday night. So many people showed up and danced and had fun, including Dominican locals! Yes, there were Dominican locals that stayed at the resort for the weekend! Overall, an awesome time and very recommended!

This resort is beautiful and well maintained. I was very disappointed with the food. I have never been to a resort before where you would actually have to search for something to eat that would taste good. Usually is the other way around, you're supposed to be overwhelmed with good choices when you're in a resort. At least, that's been my experience so far. But the food in this resort is just bad all around. The juices are watery and taste like plain tap water with a bit of color and and some sugar - real nasty!. We were unable to make reservations for any of the restaurant for dinner. They were always overbooked (all of them - it was insane!) so we were stuck with the bad food at the buffet :( - I would not recommend this place unless they do something about the food....The worst food I have tasted in a resort and I have been to many prior to this one....Thumbs down for me.

The resort was great! Food was great! Staff was very friendly and courtious. Activities were low. You couldn't enjoy time at the beach without beach peddlers trying to sell you something every 5 min. You couldn't take a morning jog without a horse driven taxi/wagon disturbing you every 5 min. You couldn't go to the local plaza without street peddlers disturbing you every 2 min. As a matter of fact, you couldn't leave the resort and not expect to be harassed by a peddler. aside from that, everything Inside the resort was great! I would return, but not venture out of the resort.