Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda

The hotel did meet the expectations of a 5 star All Inclusive resort in Dominican Republic. I have been to the DR at least 10 times and this is by far the worst resort where I have stayed. I will start with the positive: the hotel has been recently renovated, the rooms are very nice and spacious and the it has nice facilities like the 2 large pools. You also have access to the other hotels in the complex. I also had one of the best massages of in the spa. However, the food situation was a disaster: the buffets were just ok, nothing exciting. Like many resorts you have to reserve the restaurants where you want to have dinner but it is impossible because you are told that they are all fully booked. When you arrive at the restaurants they are all empty and there is plenty of availability. The only restaurants where food was decent were the Mongol and the Dominican. In all the other restaurants the food was not good at all, many nights we left without being able to finish the meal, that’s how bad they were. The brazilian rodizio and japanese were particularly bad. Also, there is no place to grab a snack between meals when the restaurants are closed. It would be nice to be able to grab a snack specially when you are drinking. In addition, the service was really bad. It is clear that the management does nothing to train their staff. They are not attentive to helping clients, they are often seen just talking amongst themselves instead of working but then they interrupt you constantly to try to sell you some random activity. In the pool and the beach, the chairs are so close together that you cant even access them and at the beach they allow street vendors to bother you constantly so you cant even have a peaceful afternoon. In conclusion, I would not stay at this hotel again, there are much better hotels in the DR.

We spent a week with our five year old. Beautiful resort! Food was very good!! Taino al la carte restaurant was EXCELLENTE! Delicious. As were both the buffets, and the other al la cartes. Gorgeous interiors. Yummy fresh fruit in abundance. Huge selection with something for everyone. No one got sick. Service lovely. Very nice and helpful. Check in and out smooth. Room GORGEOUS. Clean and up to date and comfortable. No issues with hot water. Loved that the resort wasn’t massive. Very walkable. Beautiful clean beach with plenty of shade. Warm turquoise ocean. Pretty easy to find loungers. We just borrowed an occupied one if needed :) Great stuff for kids - kid pool with slides and a kids club with some good activities which we used a few times. Highly recommend Monkey Land excursion. Amazing scenery and wonderful experience. Pools are warm and clean (maybe not the shallow bubbling one but the rest were clear!). We would return.

We booked this last minute as a much needed escape and in a nutshell- go elsewhere. Hyatt seems to be taking this over in a week or two and current service is lackluster, there’s just little incentive to impress or go the extra inch. A simple example- kids need to have a different bracelet than adults understandably- but it was a comedy of not having any bracelets for kids available at check in, then getting them took multiple tries, then they didn’t work, once they worked the adults bracelets were instantly made unusable etc etc. Don’t get me started on the lack of any available reservations for a family of 4 with kids to actually -gasp! have dinner together earlier than 10pm (and hard pass on the buffet, a lite lunch at one should have been simple, it was nothing short of sad—and we’re with kids- we’re not expecting over the top). None of this seems to phase anyone. Have a question? Go on the app. Have a question about the app- go on the app. App not really intuitive or behaving? Try the app. Can you book something for us, we can’t get it straightened out on the app-sorry, system down. Rooms are so tired. No one really picks up after themselves at the pool and no one on staff really does a clean sweep during the day either. If you wanted to go someplace and escape picking up towels and cups after your kids- this isn’t it. There isn’t a soft surface to absorb noise so you hear everything from the halls. If you’re a college kid on spring break, maybe this place is for you. Love boozing in the pool to thumping music alllllllll afternoon- sure, who cares about a moment of peace. For the rest, let someone else take it over and re-consider it in a few years after a make over. The beach is lovely though and about the only plus so far. We’re kicking ourselves for taking the non-refundable rate. We desperately needed 4 days of sun and fun together and we’re stuck. If we could, we’d get out of here.

As many people have stated, this resort was not good. Save your money and go somewhere else. Apparently they are being taken over by Hiatt March 23rd. Maybe because of that, the employees are not helpful, rude and ignore you. Here are some of the issues we encountered: 1. There are no elevators. I sent four requests before we left to make sure they would put my 93 year old mother on the ground floor. When we checked in, we were told she was on the ground floor. When we got to the rooms, she was on the third floor. Our bellboy told us to ask the next day as many people were checking out. When I asked they stated they didn't have any rooms on the first floor unless we wanted to pay an additional $650 and get a swim up room. Unconscionable and somehow she managed to go up two flights of stairs multiple times a day. 2. Uncleanly. Stairwells dirty, tubs in room disgusting and bugs in the restaurants. 3. Employees rude and provided poor service. Bartenders ignored us, even if we had tip money out. We would tip a pool waiter and they never returned. 4. Buffet had lots of food but often cold. Mediocre at best. Specialty restaurants did some things right but there was always something not good at each meal. 5. Cheap liquor. The best vodka they had was Sky or Smirnoff and you only got that if you asked for it. Paid way too much for that. Overall, I couldn't wait to leave which is very sad given the amount we paid to stay there.

We stayed at the Esmeralda from Feb 16 to 22nd. We had a great family vacation with some wonderful 5 star service but a few disappointments as well. We were a family of two grandparents and 2 parents and 2 children First the Five Star: Wonderful staff, all were pleasant and helpful and happy to be working there, even the front desk was excellent and that is not always the case. The shuttle drivers, they would take you anywhere anytime, this was an issue at the Aquamarine last year told us we needed a booked appointment so they said. Our beautifully swim up room. Newly renovated 5 star for sure.Good maid service and beverage service we were well looked after. The room was expensive though. Wi fi was great everywhere could mostly pick it up on the beach. The beach restaurant was quite good for type of venue through out the day. The Bella Casa Italian restaurant at this resort was very good. Kids enjoyed the small water park not to crowded Overall nice small resort inside a very large one no issues to walk anywhere Needs improvement if they want to include Luxury in their name: App didn’t work until it was fixed by front desk staff. Couldn’t add the 2 of us to our family’s restaurant reservations. I did Email them and they did add us but changed some of the times to later not suitable with a 4 year old. Esmeralda doesn’t have its own Steak house. Only options were at the Amber (kids couldn’t go) or the Flame (garden Grill) beautifully renovated but only one choice of Steak and it was just OK No coffee shop, just a machine in the sports bar. Talked to some that used to walk to the Amber coffee shop in the morning. This is a Grand Bahia Luxury resort it should have its own coffee shop. Buffet in the evening was sub par. The breakfast was good and lunch was ok but the two nights we did eat there for the evening meal was very underwhelming. Deserts were as you would see at a beach bar at noon just 6 or 8 small plain desserts repeated over again. Small selection of food for a luxury 5 star. Also if seated away from the middle of the buffet service could be poor. At breakfast we sometimes didn’t get coffee or water until the meal was over. I don’t blame the workers for this they were always short staffed. After they take you to Fantasia to meet your bus back to the airport don’t be in a hurry as your bracelet from the Esmeralda will not work at the Fantasia even though the Esmeralda is supposed to to be an upgrade. Overall we did have a good vacation with beautiful pools and of course you can’t beat that stretch of beach as we have been along here to multiple resorts for the last 24 years. We booked this thinking it was similar to the Amber as it was a Grand Bahia Luxury resort but was similar to the Grand Bahia Aquamarine so not sure we would pay the upgraded price again. .