Bahia Principe Escape Bouganville

I’m here currently and coming towards the end of a two week break. The Bouganville is the adult only part of the Bahia principe explore La Romana complex. When dropped off by our minibus transfer, we were taken to the la Romana side, then told by reception that we needed to check in next door. There are large multi person golf buggies operating between the two sides, so transfer was easy and literally a 2 minute ride. I would note just how disabled friendly this resort is. All restaurants, shops and lobbies in the complex are ground floor and have multiple safe ramps , where there are steps. Ground floor rooms are accessible. Upper floor rooms do not have a lift. Reception areas in both hotels are open air and nice and have lobby bars and snacks, cakes etc. . The adults only Bouganville is smaller and nicer in my opinion. If staying at the Bouganville, you can use the facilities of both hotels. We only went across to the other hotel for larger evening entertainment shows. The entertainment in the Bouganville is lower scale, although always something on. There is a large selection of speciality restaurants that require pre booking. We enjoyed Takara, which is the Asian restaurant. The Brazilian restaurant by the beach is also great. This particular open air restaurant also serves as the pool lunch restaurant during the day time. I would suggest booking the restaurants early into your trip, as they get booked up quickly. Many only seem to operate on certain days. We tried don pablo gourmet restaurant, but the wait between courses was quite lengthy. During lunchtimes the main pool has pool side food, consisting of paella, burgers, etc. Pools are really lovely. There is a quiet pool with swim up bar. The main pool is larger and also has a swim up bar, but the front of this fell into the pool during our first week, so is now cordoned off and awaiting repair. There is waitress service to the sun loungers and the hotel did open the bar in the jacuzzi area to help with walk up drinks orders. The grounds of this hotel are really lovely and well maintained. We did have a few issues with our room, which was large and clean and has a free mini bar, with local rum, vodka, beer, cola, fanta and plenty of water and peanuts . This is replenished daily. Although our room had issues, guest services and the maintenance team were quick to resolve these. Negatives about this resort. It is fairly isolated. The resort shops are roughly 3 to 4 times the price of the same goods outside of the hotel. A good tip if you have forgotten bug spray or other essentials, is to walk the 8 minutes to the Aire complex, which is signposted out of the main gate, it has a Zagulu mini market inside, which is what the residents in the complex area use for essentials. It is a fraction of the cost of goods in the resort and is an easy walk. The la romana hotel did tell me it wasn’t walkable and I would need a taxi. This is absolute rubbish, as it is an easy walk and not far at all. At the weekend, locals seem to flock to the resort on day passes, so it gets very busy at the pool. This was the only time that loungers were pretty full. Privilege club constantly wait outside the hotel room blocks and try to get you to attend a meeting for time share. It’s quite annoying and a daily occurrence. Although all inclusive, tips are expected and part of the culture. There is a cash machine in the lobby and also at Zagulu up the road. This dispenses peso. The beach is beautiful, but not safe for swimming due to jelly fish. Signs and flags warn of the danger. The water is not clear as it is near a river. If you are a pool person, or don’t mind walking from the beach to the pool then it is not an issue. Just don’t expect crystal clear water.

Be careful when you book, we are just back and did not get told it was off season until we arrived and discovered half the bars were closed and not all restaurants were open either. The only bar at night was turned into a show bar, for which it was not designed, meaning there was no quite bar where you could sit and talk. There was a small bar nearby which could have been manned by one barman but the management refused to open it, we ended up some nights going from the adults only hotel to the family hotel as they had quieter seating areas with more bar service. rooms and 95% of staff were great, buffet food incredibly repetitive, evening bar / lounge like, herded in like cattle just so they only needed to open one bar. Entertainment was not as good as Hi De Hi.

I visited another Bahia Principe location had an amazing time and was excited and looking forward to this desperately needed vacation. My best friend and I arrived at the hotel, processed to check in and Joan B confirmed the room ocean front, but with one king bed. I advised that I chose and booked double beds and he said there were no other ocean front with double beds available. He also said even tho I chose double beds I was still supposed to request double beds. He then brings out manager Tania ( was unhelpful and rude) who says the same and I ask her do they have the date that I booked and instead of her answering my question she proceeded to talk over me and said, we have people make reservations a year ago. That wasn't my question...I just wanted the date so I could look at my reservation confirmation in my email. I stated online there was an option to choose double beds and/ or a king bed and I chose a double, there was no resolution but to bring a twin fold out bed for one of us to use. I was also told I could downgrade to a pool view room, but I wouldn't get any refund in the difference in price. After being repeatedly told the same thing and no other solution we decide to do the king bed since we would not get a refund or difference in a downgrade. Overall disappointed with the website, and the service received from management and btw my email confirmation only stated it was a ocean front room, but no instructions to again choose a double or king bed even though I chose double beds so why would I have to also request a double beds? This is a website issue and I know management and Bahia Principe nor World of Hyatt ( Bahia Principe is now part of World of Hyatt ) will do anything, but I just wanna make others aware so they don’t have this issue. What a way to start my vacation.

Overall this was a nice hotel, was going to give 5 stars but we reported the toilet broken and it took a whole night and half a day for someone to come and fix it. Staff also seemed to lack off at lunch time and not serve drinks quickly, two days I had no drink until I’d dished my lunch. You can also use the hotel next door but it always smelled of dope outside the front door so never returned. 🤢🤢🤢 Overall it should have been 5 stars but ended up being 4

The hotel is very clean and staff are always polite and friendly. Some of the food was lovely but can get a little bit same stuff everyday in the buffets. The Brazilian was lovely food but I felt service was slow on my table. Privilege club was a massive downer for me, they hound you everytime you walk into or around the reception area. They basically want you to go to a presentation regarding buying holiday time and using it over an amount of weeks. The people in reception although friendly use the ploy that they have families to feed and it would really help if you can go to the meeting, just to help them get their points so they get paid. You are also told that after half an hour you can say its not for you and leave ( they do recompense you with a voucher for going to the presentation). This brings me on to Mr Charles, this gentleman got very aggressive when we turned around and said it wasnt for us, he then got up and stormed off and didnt say another word to us after that. This put a bit of a downer on our experience. I would personally say avoid the privilege club at all costs, the figures really dont add up. Other than that really enjoyed our stay.