Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda

I am leaving this hotel extremely disappointed and angry. What should have been a relaxing vacation ended with one problem after another, and the final experience today was completely unacceptable. When we arrived, I was told that the section where we were originally supposed to stay was extremely busy because of an event/concert. I ended up paying approximately US$350 extra to be moved to the Esmeralda section. Paying hundreds of dollars more at the beginning of the trip was frustrating enough, but what happened afterward made it even worse. During my stay, I also injured my big toe beside the pool, with the skin badly scraped off. A resort of this size and price should take the safety and maintenance of its pool areas seriously. Another thing that really bothered me was that they took about an hour of our vacation trying to convince us to sign up for a membership/vacation program, explaining how we could pay regularly and receive VIP benefits and discounted future stays. After everything that happened during this trip, I am honestly glad I did not sign any contract. Why would I trust a company with future vacations when they cannot properly manage the basic arrangements for the trip I already paid for? The worst part happened on the day of departure. I personally spoke with them yesterday and was told to be in the lobby at 11:20 AM for our airport transfer. I arrived in the lobby EARLIER than the scheduled time. Nobody came to pick us up. After waiting and trying to figure out what was happening, instead of solving the problem, I was simply told to take a taxi so that we would not be late for our flight. Now I have to pay approximately $45 for a taxi to the airport because the arranged transfer failed to show up. This is absolutely unacceptable. I followed the instructions. I confirmed the time the day before. I was in the lobby before 11:20. Yet somehow I am the one who has to pay extra and deal with the stress of possibly missing my flight. After already paying around US$350 extra at check-in, dealing with an injury by the pool, being pressured to sit through a long membership sales presentation, having disappointing restaurant experiences — including an absolutely terrible dinner on our last night — and then being abandoned without our scheduled airport transfer, I am leaving this resort feeling completely let down. A hotel can have beautiful grounds, pools and facilities, but those things mean very little when the organization and guest service fail at the moments that actually matter. This was not the ending I expected after paying so much for this vacation. Instead of leaving relaxed, I am leaving angry, stressed, injured, and paying even more money just to get to the airport. Based on my experience, I would not trust this resort with another vacation, and I certainly would not commit to any membership program with them.

Our fourth visit to the Esmeralda Hotel in the Dominican Republic — and sadly, probably our last. We have visited the Esmeralda four times now, so we have a good idea of the standards we have come to expect from this hotel. Unfortunately, this time we felt that standards had slipped, and not for the better. First of all, the positives. The hotel itself is beautiful and very clean, and the rooms are fantastic. Most of the staff are also very courteous, friendly and helpful. However, there were a number of things that made this holiday feel very different from our previous visits. The mini-bars in the rooms used to be well stocked with beers, spirits such as vodka, gin, whisky and rum, as well as soft drinks. This time, they contained just two bottles of soft drink, two cans of beer and numerous bottles of water. Even when we asked for them to be replenished, it often took several requests and, on occasions, several days before this happened. The entertainment was another disappointment. It seemed to be almost entirely geared towards Spanish-speaking guests, particularly those from Costa Rica and other South American countries. There were quite a few English-speaking guests staying at the hotel, but we often felt that we were largely overlooked. The same applied to the music around the pool. It was almost exclusively Spanish-language music, despite numerous requests from English-speaking guests for some English music to be played occasionally. It wasn’t until the final two days of our 18-night stay that some English music was finally played — and the difference was incredible. Everyone joined in, singing and dancing, and the atmosphere around the pool was fantastic. It was such a shame that it took until the end of our holiday for this to happen. One person who deserves a special mention is Alexis, our waiter around the pool. He was absolutely amazing and, quite frankly, helped make our holiday. He was attentive, prompt, friendly and always greeted us with a smile. Nothing seemed too much trouble for him, and he genuinely made us feel welcome every day. When we were leaving, he even brought us all a little gift, which was such a lovely and unexpected gesture. He is a real credit to the company and clearly works incredibly hard. The breakfast and lunch buffets were also disappointing compared with previous visits. Items such as bread, butter, bacon and other basics seemed to run out regularly, and we found ourselves having to wait for things to be replenished. On the positive side, Luis from Guest Relations was extremely helpful. He arranged a very special birthday meal for us in a beautiful location close to the beach. We had specifically requested not to sit directly on the beach because, after just one walk along it earlier in our holiday, the ladies in our group were absolutely covered in bites. We took photographs of the bites and used AI to help identify what had caused them, and the results suggested they were likely sand-flea bites. Needless to say, after that experience, we were reluctant to spend any more time sitting directly on the sand. Unfortunately, mosquitoes were also a significant problem during our stay. Despite using mosquito repellent liberally, we were still being bitten regularly. On previous visits, we had seen the hotel fumigating the grounds at night, but during our 18-night stay this time, we didn’t see this happening at all. Whether this contributed to the number of mosquitoes is difficult to say, but they certainly seemed much more prevalent than we remembered from our previous visits. To be clear, we still had a great holiday. The Dominican Republic is a fantastic place, the hotel is beautiful, our rooms were excellent, and many of the staff were lovely. But when you have stayed somewhere four times, you naturally compare the experience with previous visits — and unfortunately, this time it simply didn’t live up to the standards we had experienced before. We genuinely hope the hotel takes some of these comments on board, because we have always loved the Esmeralda and would like to see it return to the standard that made us want to come back time and time again. Sadly, though, unless things change, this will probably be our last visit.

We recently returned from a wonderful 11 night stay at the Esmeralda. The hotel is in a great location right on the beach. Unfortunately during our stay the sargassum was pretty bad but the hotel was doing everything it could to keep it at a minimum. We spent most of our time by the pool which, happily was just a stone's throw from our ground floor room. The room itself was beautiful and spacious and housekeeping came every day to keep the room spotless for us. The bed was huge and very comfortable and the fridge was restocked daily also. Occasionally there was a little noise from other guests in the hallways coming home from a night out, as can be expected in a hotel, but nothing that ever disturbed us for too long, and we slept very well. On the first day we realised there was an issue with the bathroom door where if you closed it, you couldn't get back out from the inside and needed the other person outside the room to open it to free you! Of course we kept forgetting to report it until about 48 hours in when I was alone in the room and absent-mindedly closed the door behind me. Luckily I had my phone and was able to call my partner to come rescue me! We reported it then and there at 10pm and by the time we returned from the evening's entertainment an hour later the door had been fixed. Very impressed. The hotel has several options for evening entertainment, with a musical act or performance on most nights and sometimes karaoke or a disco for the little ones earlier in the evenings. We mostly enjoyed the sports bar and taking the shuttle train over to the Ambar for the excellent cocktails at the Limbo restaurant bar. Food was decent, with the buffet serving your standard all inclusive fayre, but I liked the excellent range of seafood and meats on offer at the grilling station that you could get cooked to order. The a la carte restaurants were good, some better than others, but we enjoyed the opportunity to try a range of dishes we wouldn't ordinarily see at home. Most of the staff were really friendly and helpful - huge thanks to Johanna and Yenny at the pool bar, Edward at the buffet, Roberto and Yakaris at the sports bar and the incredibly helpful Miguel Gex at the desk for making our stay fun and for being patient and helpful with my attempts at español! All in all we had a wonderful stay at the Esmeralda and miss it terribly! We hope to return again soon. Cat and Chris, UK.

We stayed here a few years ago and when we returned this time we were amazed at the refurbishment, the new sports bar was really good, sitting watching England with people from Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and many more, it was a great atmosphere in there. The beach is really good and the staff work very hard to keep it clean, there is a problem with the seaweed from time to ime but again, the staff work very hard to clear it all away, three great pools, a swim up bar too. We went to all the specialised restaurants too, the Murta, was our favourite, we went twice! This hotel gets quite a few negative reviews but take no notice just book it and go, it is fantastic.

We are disappointed with their restaurant reservation, we upgraded to Esmeralda to get more access to restaurants, however we could not book to the restaurants we would like to go. They were all full, concierge gave us options of other restaurants, however, my husband would not eat those kind of food, he said we could ask the restaurant how we want the meat cook, when we got to the restaurant, it didn’t work that way, they have a menu to follow. We are here for 5 days, and could not get to the restaurants we want to go. There buffet is a long line, you will be in a line for a while if you want your food freshly cooked. It’s not worth the money I paid for upgrade!!! Very disappointed!!! I would not recommend this place!!!