Catalonia Royal Bavaro

The hotel rooms are very dated unless you upgrade to a higher class of room. The food was very good except when ordering steak. On three separate occasions, in different restaurants, the steaks were ordered medium well, but they came out very rare as in raw! Once you sent the steak back, they came out at the perfect doneness. Clearly, the chefs were rushing the order to match when the other people at the table did not order steak. This is not acceptable. Vaping, smoking of cigars, and cigarettes is allowed everywhere except in your room and the restaurants. The smoke got overwhelming in the public areas. Catalonia needs to revisit this policy and ban this outright or limit the vaping and smoking to certain areas. It got very bad at all of the pools on the Bavaro side and the Royal side. Drinks were good. They were not watered down. We did not have any maintenance issues but other people has major AC problems. Usually they were taken care of the next day. The biggest problem at the Royal and Bavaro side was the dogs. They would roam on the beach and throughout the property including in the restaurants. Staff would do nothing to chase them out. There are also cats on both properties. They were no problem at all. But one night we came across two dogs that was ready to tear apart one of the cats. We stepped in and chased the dogs away. One of the cats had a severe chuck of skin showing where it had been attacked by the dogs. This is not acceptable and the dogs need to go. The best part of the Royal and Bavaro is that the employees were all very nice and pleasant to deal with. Yes, there was some communication issues since I do not speak Spanish but nothing major. The best team member was Kenia, the hostess, at the main buffet. She was so welcoming all the time no matter who was getting mad. Jessica, bartender at the main pool Bavaro side, always went out of her way to make us feel welcome. Then you have Ashly, drink server, at the adults quiet pool. Another outstanding team member that was smiling and enjoying her job! Would I stay here again? Yes I would. Many people staying here have been coming back for 20 years. I highly recommend this resort as well as the Bavaro side.

Ana from reception was very sweet with big personality. Her smile was first upon arrival and last when we left. She was very helpful and patient with us using the restaurant app. She spoke slowly so we could understand her

Well looked after premises with beautiful vegetation. Food was quite good overall except the à la cartes were a bit hit and miss. The rooms are acceptable but starting to show their age. Lots of shady spots at the beach and while they do their best managing seaweed it is still present.

We had issues with this resort from booking, tried to add an extra night, it was far more complicated than it should have been. We stayed in the privileged and room ac was not working properly very warm in the room, hot water temp was lukewarm, most grilled food was burnt, casino was old many slots were not working properly and had to be refunded, roulette table was rigged we were actually winning they changed dealers 3 times in 8 spins and balls kept getting lighter, to the point it bounced out 4 out of 10 spins. If the light skinned, short, female pit boss with fake blonde hair is dealing BEWARE! She will change the ball and rate of spin! Just stay away! First resort I was being sold something every five minutes by vendors and staff. Sad we had such a good experience at the Catalonia in Spain it’s what prompted us to stay at this resort. The drinks were very good best we had at an all inclusive.

Elizabeth and Flor at the Piano Bar are FANTASTIC! They made our trip so much fun and we were always so kind and wonderful- not to mention make the BEST espresso martinis! Staff like Flor and Elizabeth are the reason we keep coming back. 10/10!