Bahia Principe Escape Ambar

I had the pleasure of meeting with Adriel Sánchez Dorville, Guest Experience Manager, and I can say that his commitment to exceptional hospitality is outstanding.

I do not understand the great reviews on this place,first off we arrived about 3pm which is checkin time, our room was finally ready at 4:30pm, not a good start. The staff spend more time talking with each other than the guests, this was everywhere, even when you were waiting to ask anything, only a handful of staff speak English. The food is diabolical, breakfast is the only edible food, we did go to the Brazillian, all the meats were extremely overcooked, you couldn't chew it. We also ate at the Naan restaurant, this was amazing and I highly recommend it. There is so much weed, it stinks of it, we were asked by staff if we wanted to purchase some. There are wild cats everywhere, in the restaurants, in the buildings where the rooms are. The beach has so much seaweed, they do clear it everyday. Worst of all is the mosquitos, they are awful, they charge $23 for bugspray that does not work at all. All the restaurants are like saunas, no AC, it is insane hot there. The room service is very limited, food is okay. the APP needs a major overhaul, it lets you know whats going on BUT does not tell you where, very frustrating. All menus including bar menus you have to scan a QR code, you will not find a paper menu anywhere. We preordered a golfcart on the last day to collect our luggage, we triple checked it was coming, it was 15 mins late which caused stress trying to meet our transfer and say goodbye to friends. Our experience overall was not good, we would not recommend and will not return.

We went with 4 other friends, (a return trip with this group of 6 we there last Ma and trip #7 for my husband and I at this complex (2 times Ámbar ,4 aquamarine and 1 turquesa ) Resort is clean, very well maintained beautiful. Staff are fantastic, food at à la Carte (especially meat and Flame steak houses) were Delish. Buffets were ok, wide selections didn’t partake only breakfasts. Coffee shop at the Ambar is nice, great selection on coffee and snacks. Sports bar at the ambar has great pub style food, and a good pina colada 😛 highly recommend you check out the sports bar. We found the Entertainment at pool was slightly better at the aquamarine pool his trip, a more active pool/atmosphere Beach had a lot of sargassum but it’s unavoidable you could see it coming in in mass amounts. Staff were continuously going up and down the beach with tractors, removing what they could. Continuously making the effort to keep it as clean as possible…

Great time, lovely resort. Not to far from the airport, about 20 minutes. The beach was fine definitely not walkable this time of year with all the seaweed. The food was good, Yurta and Limbo were my favorites. The rooms were great, huge and one of the best hotel showers, however the ac is not cold but the ceiling fan helps. The resort is not huge so don't worry where your room is, you can get anywhere pretty quick. I would definitely go back again

I recently returned from Bahia Principe Ambar – this was my 18th trip to the Bahia Principe resort in Punta Cana; 16th stays at Ambar, one stay at Esmeralda & one at Aquamarine. I’ve been asked many times why I don’t go to another resort – the truth is, I enjoy knowing what to expect, where everything is – it makes me feel more “on vacation” when I don’t have to spend the first couple of days figuring out the layout and getting lost (which I tend to do). Moreover, Ambar is still one of the best priced adults-only resort in Punta Cana, IMO – and some of its amenities (such as the large choice of ala carte restaurants and walk-friendly grounds) are high up on my list for a good vacation. We travelled with Air Transat from Montreal – our flight going to Punta Cana was delayed several hours on Friday, and we ended up arriving at the resort around 5pm. We *did* book VIP service on arrival at the Punta Cana airport (highly recommend!!) and private transportation as well. Check-in was quick and easy – we were the only ones checking in at the time! We had booked a corner swimout suite and were placed in building #68 – room 68101. We loved the location! Building 68 is closer to the pool and beach, but still quiet. The only thing that bothered me was that our swimout pool would be completely in the shade by 3pm – I tend to be always cold and I just couldn’t use it later in the day. We did bring a floatie but I ended up barely using it – I was worried about floating away to the neighbor’s pool. Not sure I will bring one again next time (we gave it away to other guests before leaving). In the morning though, I really enjoyed having my coffee on the swimout’s terrace – unlike the higher floors, they have sun loungers which is awesome. Overall, our room was fine. The corner suites are larger and have a bath near the patio door. Our TV broke down mid-week and maintenance came within an hour of us calling them, and just took the flat screen off the wall and installed a new one instead. We told our maid on the first day that we would like a lot of water, and she started to leave whole 12-packs of bottled water! Very nice. The only thing that really bothers me – really – is the stupid open-concept layout with the whole bathroom exposed. Boyfriend and I are used to it now and give each other privacy when required, but seriously. Why was that ever a good idea?? I know many resorts are remodeling that way. What are you saving – the cost of a half-wall and a door?? If I want company in the shower trust me, it will be known. Otherwise, I don’t need my man seeing me taking off my makeup or brushing my teeth – and I know there’s a “frosted glass” in front of the toilet area, but you can still “see”. Anyway… Boyfriend is not bothered by the open bathroom at all, thinks the shower is “great” (*eyeroll*) but – HAHA – he was the one who was half undressed in the bathroom area when a male staff entered our room to refill the fridge. I think he saw my point after that incident. And on that note – we noticed that (at least in our building) there were no more “do not disturb” signs for the doors – but we asked the maid for one (“la carta de no molestar”) and she brought it right away. Other than the layout – no issues with our room. We didn’t get any bug visitors, AC worked well, coffee and water refilled every morning and our room was cleaned every day before noon. They don’t have the fancier turn-down service they used to have at Ambar many years ago, with the chocolates on the pillow etc – but a maid came knocking on our door every evening asking if we needed more towels. So that’s an improvement. We went to Palmyra buffet for breakfast every morning. Love that they updated the tables and chairs – no more tablecloths! Cleaner and more comfortable. Breakfast buffet has *tons* of choices and is super clean. I also loved that they added panini presses for sandwiches and croissants! The main door to the buffet has also been changed to an automatic sliding door (as were many others throughout the resort). Great for hygiene so we don’t have to touch door handles. We did ala carte restaurants every night of our stay – we went to Limbo three times (we love it!), MEAT, Yurta, Casa Bella and El Olivo. Our least favorite was Casa Bella on the Esmeralda side – food was nothing special, and *so many* crying kids… Yurta is also a family restaurant at Esmeralda, but the delicious dumpling apps and the stir fry are worth it. Limbo – we love the lamb and the tenderloin. All appetizers are amazing. MEAT – not sure why but service is always very stern there. But great churrasco steak! El Olivo – if you like duck foie gras, they have a great app. Boyfriend loves the salmon gravlax. And the banana flambee cart is fun too. They have a beach bbq around lunch time – we went once, great paella and burgers. The coffee shop off Ambar lobby was great for little sandwiches and a morning cappuccino for my beach walk. Really this resort has so many food options that we just can’t try everything in one week. We didn’t go to any of the Sports Bar… any of the beach buffets… next time! Overall, we had amazing weather all week. It rained a couple times at night, including once very heavily after our dinner at Yurta at Esmeralda, when a Privilege Club (time share) golf cart driver graciously offered to drive us back to our room at Ambar. Seaweed on the beach, unfortunately, got progressively worse as the week went by. There was barely anything when we arrived but by days 5 & 6, it was pretty intense. I was still able to walk miles on the beach every day, and swim as well, except the last couple days. We didn’t do any activities while there – we like to just relax, and enjoy the beach & swimout pool. We did notice the crowd seemed a bit older this time around. The Ambar lobby had some entertainment in the evenings, but it was pretty chill – live singers, live music etc. Service from the lobby bar was *very good* this time around – no issue being served very quickly. Overall, we didn’t notice any negative changes with the Hyatt takeover as far as service and overall atmosphere at the resort – if anything, I think things have improved since our last stay at Ambar. Checkout was quick – however watch out when taking the included hotel airport shuttle… the bus from Air Transat picked us up a 11:30am for our 3:00pm flight – normally, that should be plenty of time, right? Except that we were stuck in traffic for 1-1/2 hours, and once we cleared customs and etc, we only had 30 minutes left to spare at the airport. I just feel that since the traffic was caused by construction and road work – not an unexpected accident, for example – whomever schedules these things should be aware, and the shuttle pick up time should be adjusted accordingly to make sure people get to the airport on time. Whatever. Boyfriend swears up and down we are *never* taking the shuttle bus again, and doing VIP service for the return too from now on. So that’s that. Overall – this was a great trip. Corner swimout room was totally worth it, weather was amazing and food was a 9/10 for us. We liked it so much – we booked trip # 19 while we were still at the resort 😊 See you soon Ambar!!