Bahia Principe Explore Esmeralda

We stayed at the Esmeralda for 1 week. We didn’t realise all rooms face the pools or have garden views. None of the rooms are ocean facing but we could still see a partial view of the ocean from our balcony. Our toilet got blocked on the first night but the problem was resolved first thing by 9am the next day! Staff were constantly checking if all was ok with our stay and they were very attentive and happy to get any issues quickly resolved. Food at the buffet was a little bit of a hit and miss. Some nights were better than others but I guess it would be very difficult to cater for everyone’s taste. Staff at the pool bar were great! They made the best pina coladas! A shout out to Alex who kept checking if we needed any drinks by the pool! Alex was great! Another special shout out to Ramon in guest services. Despite us telling staff we were at the hotel to celebrate our silver wedding anniversary of 25 years, Ramon was the only person who acknowledged this. He arranged for champagne to be sent to us and he very kindly helped us get reservations in the à la carte restaurants which the staff at the front desk failed to do. Ramon really made our stay a special one and he also deserves some form of recognition for his efforts. He displayed excellent customer service skills and customer satisfaction was at the core of everything he did for us. Ramon is a great asset to your team so please give him the recognition he so deserves. Although Ramon helped us book reservations at the à la carte restaurants we did notice a lot of empty tables so maybe this is something that can be looked at for future customers. It shouldn’t be so hard to get a reservation on the app. There was clearly empty tables so why not let your customers enjoy the great food on offer. It doesn’t make sense to say the restaurants are fully booked when they are not. Other than this, we had a great time and look forward to re-booking.

The hotel grounds are well kept, the 2023 renovation is awesome and the rooms are modern and chique. The only problem is the à la carte restaurants reservation system, which allows guests to book 10 days prior, even before checkin, which makes it impossible to book popular ones. Very frustrating. The hotel is the closest to the beach, and you have access to the neighboring Bahia Punta Cana, but nothing to see as it is inferior. Ambar and Aquamarine are adults only, and Legend is prohibited(the one with a castle). Would come back and would recommend, and been to DR 7 times now so I wouldn’t underrate or overrate this resort

This is a truly beautiful hotel! The whole staff is incredibly friendly, helpful and always smiling. The food is absolutely delicious, and there is such a great variety that everyone can find something they like, no matter what they are craving. The rooms are beautiful, spacious and very clean. You can really see that cleanliness is a top priority here — not only in the rooms, but also outside, in the restaurants and on the beach. Everything is well maintained, clean and beautifully looked after. There is always something happening at the hotel, with lots of activities and entertainment, so there is never a dull moment. The atmosphere is amazing and we have had a wonderful stay. I highly recommend this hotel! I will definitely recommend it to everyone and will be happy to praise it to others. I would love to come back again! ❤️

Fabulous break we loved our time here and hope to return soon! Amazing pool bar staff, we loved the little trams and the drivers were excellent, very fun!! We visited most of the other hotels during our 2 weeks stay. We liked the Starbucks at Punta Cana lobby and the shops in the village, although pricey were nice to browse and buy souvenirs. We liked the ice cream and snacks at The Truck. The sports bar was always cool and refreshing and great to grab a coffee and snacks. I liked venturing to the coffee shop at Ambar, didn’t find this until week 2 but was amazing. I travelled with 15, 12 and 6 year old and something for all ages. We didn’t use the kids club so cannot comment on that. Our favourite restaurant was the Mongolian followed closely by the Greek. We didn’t use the beach due to the seaweed and we did get bites so make sure to pack your sprays and deterrents. I think we would love to return in the future for a shorter break. The overall shout out goes to the entertainment and cleaning teams, the rooms were kept superb and I cannot fault the overall staff service everywhere we went it was great. Thank you for a lovely holiday

Having just returned from 11 nights in the Bahia Principe Esmeralda I wanted to take 2 minutes to write a quick review. We are a family of four, travelling from the UK. Before leaving we had read some of the reviews and, as is sometimes the case, we were a little worried, but we didn't need to be. The staff were friendly and helpful. Our room was bright, clean and relatively recently renovated. There air conditioning was not freezing cold but was cold enough to cool the room to 20 degrees. The blackout blind was effective and the rooms were very quiet at night once the entertainment finished. The pool area was really nice and the facilities there were always very clean. Sometimes it was busier than others, but never too busy. It would have been helpful to have had more parasols as otherwise in the midday sun it was a little exposed, but we normally managed to get one. We had good food in our time there. We visited a couple of the a al carte restaurants which were as nice as these normally tend to be. My children prefer to choose their own food at the buffet anyway and Miguel in the buffet was helpful with the coeliac in our group. There was entertainment every night and it took us a couple of days to realise that if you weren't keen the entertainment at the Esmeralda one night, you could catch the free shuttles to the other hotel areas. The beach is public so you will be approached but you can avoid that by staying in the hotel area. And the seaweed makes bathing less appealing, although some others braved it. A special mention goes to Ada in the reception who went the extra mile to help us with a missing mobile phone. People's experiences will differ but we had a great time!